Shadow Slave

The Mirage City Police Department was boiling. By the time Sunny arrived, the Homicide Division Captain wasn’t screaming at his subordinates anymore—instead, he was being screamed at by someone higher up the chain. The same was probably happening in other Divisions, even if there was no real point. People just wanted to be seen being indignant to prove their loyalty. It seemed that an attempt on Mordret’s life was at least a hundred times more important than the Nihilist and his seven victims. As if the whole Mirage City revolved around one person.

Looking around with a frown, Sunny ignored the carnage and found Effie. She was leaning on the wall in the staff kitchen of the Homicide Division, munching on a flamboyant circle-shaped pastry with pink frosting and rainbow-colored sprinkles. There was a large, empty box in front of her, as well.

“Oh, partner! Listen... I discovered these things called donuts. They are simply to die for!”

He gave her a long stare, then gritted his teeth.

“Yeah? Well, if they are so delicious... did you not think to leave one for me, huh?”

She blinked a couple of times, then hurriedly swallowed the rest of her donut and grinned.

“Oops. Sorry. There’s none left!”

Sunny shook his head.

“Anyway, is that important right now? What exactly happened to Mordret?”

Effie wiped her hands on a paper towel, then tossed it into the trash bin and shrugged.

”Someone tried to kill him, that’s what. Even worse... it happened during my press conference, so all the journalists just whipped out their communicators and ignored me completely. My very own debut! It was completely ruined...”

She gave him a sorrowful look.

“Apparently, Mordret’s PTV was crossing a bridge when a truck swerved from the oncoming lane and rammed it at full speed. Both vehicles fell into the river... the collision seemed premeditated, too. The driver died on the spot, Mordret’s chauffeur is in critical condition. The man himself escaped with only minor injuries, though.”

She shook her head and sighed.

“His PTV was built like a tank, apparently, with an entire arsenal of airbags—I am guessing that is why it was pushed into the water. He managed to swim to shore, though. Not only that, he even stayed behind at first to rescue his driver from the wreckage and dragged the unconscious guy to shore with him. Real heroic stuff... I’m sure the news articles will be colorful tomorrow.”

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

Mordret? Doing something selfless?

“What’s the truck driver’s identity?”

Effie shrugged.

“Just a random nobody with no apparent connection to Mordret. No score to settle with the Valor Group, either. Lots of gambling debts, though.”

Sunny lingered for a few moments, then asked:

”I am guessing we won’t be able to see Mordret in the hospital, will we?”

Effie scoffed.

“Not a chance. In any case, sorry that I did not show up. As soon as the news broke, it was all hands on deck here—I couldn’t leave without drawing suspicion. How did the date with your therapist go?”

Sunny gave her a wistful look.

“It went terribly... wait, no! It wasn’t a date. Don’t you dare start that crap again!”

He paused for a moment, and then added somberly:

”She threatened to break my arm and end my career if I ever showed up in front of her again. So... not what you’d call a success.”

Effie looked at the empty box of donuts with regret, sighed, and looked at him with an uncertain expression.

”Anyway... I don’t like it. There is a lot going on, but things aren’t clicking into place. Mordret, the Nihilist, and the victims—there is nothing that really connects them. And who would want to kill Mordret here? Apart from Morgan, who has been locked up in a mental asylum this whole time.” ɽа𝐍Ȱ₿Εʂ

She shook her head.

“Either we are missing something, or there is a third party involved. Someone we are not aware of.”

Sunny remained silent for a while, contemplating her words.

‘Who would want to kill Mordret?’

A hint of a sudden suspicion ignited in his mind.

He lingered for a moment, then said quietly:

“Any number of people would want to kill the CEO of the Valor Group. Who would want to kill Mordret, though? That is a far better question.”

Effie raised an eyebrow.

“Have you figured out something?”

Sunny remembered the makeshift investigation board hidden at the back of the Devil Detective’s closet. The map of the city, the details of the case, the photos of the victims...

The ghastly, bloated face of the young man they had found on the river shore flashed in his mind.

“Maybe. But... let’s discuss it somewhere else. I don’t think the Captain will notice if we slip away in the chaos.”

The two of them left the police building and drove to Sunny’s shabby apartment in silence. On the way, he kept thinking, his frown growing deeper and deeper.

Effie must have sensed his strange mood, because she did not even joke about being invited into a strange man’s home when they arrived.

Entering the apartment, Sunny went directly to the closet and opened it, revealing the investigation board. He took out the case file of the recent murder and pinned the photo of the latest victim alongside the others, then took a step back and studied them all once again.

A handsome young man in an unassuming black suit, the tip of a black tattoo barely visible above his collar. A woman with a weathered face wearing cheap clothes. A hunched old man with a neatly trimmed beard. A broad-shouldered man with a chiseled face and muscular figure. A young woman wearing hospital scrubs... and a couple of others.

‘I’ve seen them before.’

There seemed to be nothing common between them. Their age, gender, professions, social status, and physical profile were all different—as if the Nihilist did not care who he killed at all.

There was no apparent pattern in the places where the bodies were found, either. It was all maddeningly random.

“What do you see?”

Effie studied the investigation board, then shrugged.

”A lot of red strings? Most of the bodies were found near water, but that is probably just a coincidence. Mirage City is full of rivers, not to mention the two lakes. Plus, this damn rain has not stopped for weeks.”

Sunny winced.

“The victims. Don’t they remind you of something?”

Effie frowned.

“Well... come to think of it, they do look familiar. But that is probably because my counterpart saw the news reports when they were killed.”

Sunny shook his head.

“No. They look familiar to you, not to your counterpart. It took me a while to remember, but when you asked who would want to kill Mordret, I finally did.”

He pursed his lips.

”I guess my thinking has been tainted by the lingering feelings of the Devil Detective, who was convinced that Mordret was the killer. That is why it took me so long to connect the dots.”

Effie blinked a few times.

”So, you don’t think that Mordret is the killer anymore?”

Sunny slowly shook his head, then pointed at one of the photos—the one of the broad-shouldered, athletic man.

“This guy. He was a lawyer here in Mirage City, but in the real world, his name was Awakened Warren. He was a retainer of Clan Valor... before Mordret took him as a vessel.”

Effie frowned, then looked at the photos once again. Then, her eyes widened slightly.

She recognized them.

The two of them had seen these people before. It had happened in the Third Nightmare... when Mordret had taken them into his nascent Mirror Realm.

Where his morbid wardrobe of stolen bodies was stored.

”These are... Mordret’s vessels.”

Sunny nodded.

“They are. Nothing connects these people in Mirage City, but actually, they all shared the same fate in the real world. They became Mordret’s vessels. So, you see... Mordret is not the killer.”

He sighed, then closed his eyes for a moment.

”He is the victim.”

The Nihilist... was hunting Mordret down.