CHAPTER 12: A STORMY NIGHT AT THE CASTLE

“It was about fifty years ago. The Nelson family held a grand banquet. Besides family members returning from out of town, they also invited the important local figures, such as the priest, the mayor, the council members...”

The innkeeper recalled what he knew. “Halfway through the banquet, the Nelson family suddenly turned on their guests. They locked the estate gates and attacked everyone present, killing, setting fires, and shedding blood before hanging the victims’ bodies on flagpoles.”

“The priest and several council members escaped from the estate, but the crazed Nelson family did not let them go. They pursued them on horseback to the town and continued the massacre. That night, fire engulfed the town amid the victims’ cries for help...”

“I was a child then, a terrified child. My parents took me to the church in the middle of the night. All the children in the town were sheltered there.”

“To fight the inhuman cruelty and protect their homes and their young, the townspeople organized a counterattack. At the crack of dawn, they managed to drive the insane Nelsons back to their estate.”

“By then, the estate was engulfed in roaring flames. The fire consumed those vicious people. It’s said that even while they were burning in flames, they sang and laughed, dancing with their hands linked, as if death was the homeland they had been yearning to go to...”

“Afterward, investigators came from Londan to look into the tragedy. The priests and council members who had survived the night are never the same. And many of the townspeople left, never looking back.”

The night of pure madness fifty years ago was a horrific taboo that was avoided in Klofron. It directly led to the decline of the town, from which it had never recovered.

Due to the years that had passed and the innkeeper’s young age when it happened, the information he could provide was limited. He couldn’t answer when Veronica asked whether any of the Nelson family survived that night.

But the answer had to be ‘yes’, or where else could Mike Nelson hail from?

***

Outside, the heavy rain continued, showing signs of evolving into an even greater downpour.

Wayne had an ominous feeling. The clear, sunny morning had suddenly taken a turn. It felt too much like the prelude of a closed circle mystery with storm trapping potential victims and perpetrators indoors[1].

The innkeeper and the two ladies had left. They would have a good night’s sleep with the mushrooms in their system, and when they woke up tomorrow, they wouldn’t remember a thing about the interrogation. Just to be safe, Wayne tucked money under the ladies’ collars to keep up the pretense.

It was Veronica’s money, of course.

Veronica stood by the window with Monica in her arms, deep in thought. Based on the limited information, she could deduce that the Nelson family had been loyal followers of the Goddess of Death. They committed murders to please Her, and Her favor was passed down to Mike, which would explain how he suddenly became the Deathwalker and mastered powerful magic.

Now, the question was whether Mike had returned to Klofron only to get married.

“Rather than marriage, it’s more likely that he came back to finish what his family had started,” Wayne said with a frown. “To sacrifice the entire town in exchange for great power.”

To finish the unfinished business of his ancestors and slaughter the surviving sacrifices who had escaped his family. That was certainly the trope playing out in this situation.

William nodded and put away his chocolate, indicating that his conclusion aligned with Wayne’s. That was why they made a great team.

Wayne didn’t want to be a great team with William; he would prefer to be in sync with a beautiful girl.

After a brief contemplation, Veronica decided to head to the Nelson estate at once. Time was of the essence. Who knew how far Mike had gotten with his sacrificial ritual? To prevent innocent townspeople and themselves from falling victim, they had to deal with the Deathwalker tonight. She set aside her desire to lift the curse and prioritized the prevention of casualties.

The rain poured as the blue sedan weaved through the oak forest. To avoid alerting their target, Wayne drove in the dark without turning on the headlights.

This path was the only one between the town and the Nelson estate. After the estate burned down and became taboo, the townspeople gave this area a wide berth. Years of neglect led to weeds growing rampant on the road, and the accumulation of rotting leaves made it even more slippery.

It took Wayne ten minutes to drive the two-mile-long road.

Seeing the ruined building in the distance, he parked the car at the end of the road. The three humans plus one cat proceeded with umbrellas shielding them from the rain.

Rumble—

Pale lightning streaked across the night sky, illuminating the estate shrouded in darkness. In fact, the impressive architecture resembled a castle more than a mere estate, with towering walls and a number of watchtowers as vantage points. The gate was gone. The empty hole looked like an open maw in the dark.

Entering through the missing gate, they found a garden that had turned into a desolate ground of unruly, withered weeds and wilted shrubs, along with numerous crosses marking the graves. The townspeople wouldn’t have chosen this place as a burial site, eager to keep their distance as they were. The graves were most likely for the remains of the Nelson family members.

Monica’s keen eyes picked up on a bouquet laid on one of the graves. The flowers were fresh, which meant that someone had recently visited the grave.

Then Monica made another observation: the bases of many of the gravestones were covered in candle wax. Some candles had burned out, while some small stumps remained. And there were quite a few, indicating frequent visits.

Were it Mike, it would mean that he returned to Klofron regularly, perhaps every year. If not...

It would mean that there were other living members of the Nelson family.

Veronica took a deep breath. With a much more solemn expression, she told William to protect Wayne. She walked at the front of the group with a glass jar in her grip. William followed her closely with Wayne by his side, who was tasked with the cat-carrying duty.

Monica seemed unsatisfied with the arrangement, but found the mud and wastewater on the ground even more unbearable. It resigned itself to an undesirable porter.

They both followed the Goddess of Moonlight. There’s nothing wrong with them getting a little closer!

The fire had burned down all the wooden structures of the estate, leaving only ruins covered by weeds. The stone structures alone remained standing. Worried that there would be traps, Wayne stuck so close to Veronica that he might as well be plastered to her back.

The reasoning was simple: given the curses sealing everyone’s magic, Veronica was the strongest combatant with the dragon blood she inherited, and William... well, William was a nice guy!

The position made Veronica uncomfortable. She turned around and shot Wayne a glare, but it was so dark that he didn’t see it. Instead, he bumped into her backside when she suddenly stopped.

The group moved through the corridor of the battlement in the dark. There were several observation ports on the outer wall, each the size of a fist. The lightning spilling in occasionally allowed Monica to point them in the right direction, preventing them from going in circles.

After some time, when Monica began to wonder if it had gotten lost, Wayne stopped and called out to Veronica, pointing at the brick wall beside him. “I can smell a stranger’s scent. It doesn’t belong to any of us. And since we have never been here before, there must be a hidden mechanism nearby for a secret passage.”

He stroked Monica’s little head. “A cat has a keener sense of smell than a dog. You must have smelled it too.”

Monica moved away from his touch and stayed silent. Veronica rolled her eyes and questioned bluntly, “What? Do you have a dog’s nose?”

Well, yeah!

While she didn’t believe in Wayne’s sense of smell, she agreed with his conclusion that there must be a hidden passage somewhere, leading to Deathwalker’s hiding place.

They looked around for the mechanism. William ended up triggering it by accident. The floor beneath him gave way, and he instinctively grabbed Wayne’s arm, pulling him down the chute with him.

Wayne tried to bring more friends on the trip, but Veronica was too far for him to reach, and Monica dodged his hand.

It was common knowledge that a cat was seven times faster than a human. The moment Wayne fell, Monica leaped off his shoulder and landed safely on the ground. Veronica hurried forward, peering into the dark chute. There was light below, and Wayne could be heard cursing up a storm. She sighed in relief.

A fall wasn’t a big deal. As long as they were alive.

The pouring rain suddenly stopped. As if a switch had been flipped, an unusually large moon emerged in the previously dark, gloomy sky, shining its silver light on the land below.

Monica jumped onto Veronica’s shoulder, looking through an observation port and sensing the strange quality of the moonlight. Its eyes widened to the limit.

“The town... is on fire!”

1. This is a common trope in detective novels where a group of people get trapped in a manor, ship, or other enclosed space, and a murder takes place. ☜