The Devil’s Cage

”Get the door!” Kieran told Elli as he rushed to the rusty door that led to the backyard.

The door could not be opened by regular means, but Kieran did not care.

Bang!

A hard kick landed beside the door’s handle, and the whole door flew out along with its frame.

Kieran’s Strength was already C- after the upgrades, and when he kicked, his Strength and Agility granted him a temporary +3 Rank, which meant that his kick was B- rank.

With such a powerful kick, a steel door would have easily been kicked down, let alone a wooden one.

Both the wooden door and its frame flew out in an arc and landed on the parterre.

Kieran’s attention was on Raul, who had fallen on the garden.

Raul, who was wrapped in a trench coat and bandages, was lying down against the ground, moaning in pain.

A dagger had been stabbed near his abdomen, and Raul was barely conscious from the attack and the fall. There was a dazed expression on his face as Kieran called his name.

”Raul, can you hear me? Raul!”

Kieran was calling his name as he checked his wound.

Thanks to his [Medical Treatment] knowledge, Kieran could tell that the wound was not too deep, but if it was left untreated, it would still cause him a big problem.

Suddenly, Kieran heard a series of footsteps behind him as he was checking on Raul.

It was Elli. There was also a gentle-faced young man with her.

”I’m Cidney. I was also invited here for the test, just like everyone else. I’m a doctor, leave this to me!” Cidney quickly stated who he was as he arrived at the scene.

Then he picked up the wounded Raul and headed back inside the house.

Kieran frowned as he watched Cidney carry a grown man easily in his arms.

After all, Cidney was not the buff type, nor did he seem to be well-trained in martial arts.

When they went inside, Cidney pulled out all sorts of medical supplies from his backpack, which made Kieran frown even harder.

”A coincidence?”

Kieran was puzzled by the scene, but he eventually shook his head. He didn’t believe that it was a coincidence.

He didn’t express his doubts immediately though.

He was polite enough to wait for Cidney to finish his treatment.

In the meantime, he was not planning on standing there and waiting for answers. There was one more person who was missing after all.

”Where’s Debosky? Did he attack Raul?” Elli asked.

When she saw the dagger sticking out of Raul’s abdomen, the naughty little girl shrank back behind Kieran and looked around anxiously, afraid that Debosky might jump out and assault them.

”We can’t know that for sure yet!” Kieran shook his head before heading upstairs.

Judging by the earlier commotion, the first floor had to be where the incident had taken place.

Elli paused a little when she saw Kieran heading up, but when she turned and saw the dagger in Raul’s abdomen and the blood oozing out from the wound, she quickly screamed at Kieran, ”Wait for me!”

”Wait here!” Kieran told Elli from the stairway.

Then he activated his [Tracking] and headed upstairs without waiting for Elli’s reply.

He could see four sets of footprints, Elli’s, Debosky’s, Raul’s and his.

Elli was not on the suspect list, because she had been with Kieran when the incident had occurred.

Excluding Elli’s and his footprints, Kieran focused on Debosky’s and Raul’s.

Their footprints were following each other closely all along the first floor, intertwining from time to time.

From what Kieran could see, the two of them had been searching the place carefully.

When he reached the balcony, Kieran found fresh blood. It was not a few drops of blood either, but a huge splash of it. It was obviously from a slashed main artery. The whole balcony was covered in it. Under the dark sky, the small terrace looked scarlet red.

The handrail was also covered in dripping red blood, the sticky liquid flowing slowly across it. Kieran’s eyes followed the flow of the blood as he stared at the handrail for quite a while. Until…

”Aaaaa!”

It was Elli who had screamed. Even though she had tried to covered her mouth as soon as she’d realized it, her voice had already echoed around the whole house.

Obviously, the little girl had not taken Kieran’s advice to stay behind. Kieran took a glance at her and went straight down without caring about the little girl.

When he reached the ground floor, he went out of the house and scanned his surroundings.

Blood was extremely eye-catching with his [Tracking].

Following the trail, Kieran rushed out to the gate of 13th Lanconbelle Street and found a body hanging from the top of the big gate.

It was Debosky.

His body looked like a butchered pig’s, his neck half-torn from his body. He was hanging stiffly on top of the gate, his eyes bulging out with a twisted expression.

The body emitted a strong stench of alcohol.

”Ah!”

As Kieran caught the smell, he laughed lightly. He didn’t mean to mock the dead, it was just an instinctive laugh.

Elli, who had arrived right after Kieran, was in shock. Unlike Kieran’s light reaction, the girl looked pale. Suddenly, she fell on her knees against the ground, her teeth chattering.

”It’s the ghost! The killer ghost!” she stuttered before shouting out hysterically. Her sharp voice hurt Kieran’s eardrums.

”Shut it!” he shouted at her sternly.

Kieran, who had cleared a couple of dungeons and been through some hard battles, had not lost control like her.

Elli shrank back in panic like a cowering deer.

”Oh my god, what happened? What’s going on?” Cidney, who claimed to be a doctor, cried out in alarm as he came out and saw Debosky’s body hanging from the top of the gate.

”What happened? Well, let’s get back inside first and we’ll discuss it,” Kieran said before making his way back to the living room.

Raul, who was resting there, was breathing steadily. He was more conscious than when Kieran had found him. He even nodded at Kieran when he entered the room.

”Raul, could you please remove your bandages and show us your face?” Kieran requested as he sat down on the sofa.

As soon as the words escaped his mouth, Elli and Cidney turned towards him.

”2567! How could you request such a horrible thing?”

Elli, who had just calmed down thanks to Kieran’s stern manner, had mustered up enough energy to shout at him.

”Don’t you want to know how Debosky died?” Kieran replied with a question as he looked at the naive little girl.

”Yes! But that was the ghost! It’s not something that us neophytes can handle! We should get Nikorei to solve this!”

Elli’s face had turned pale as she mentioned the ghost, but she was still able to suggest how to solve the problem.

”That’s right! We should be contacting Nikorei and asking her to take care of the ghost, not checking Raul’s bandages!” Cidney nodded in agreement.

He looked very serious about it too.

”You think the ghost killed him? What if I tell you there’s no such thing as a ghost here?” Kieran said slowly as he turned his gaze to the two of them.

Elli and Cidney froze instantly.