## Chapter 507 – Quasi-Priest Kim Kat

The residents felt relieved, assuming the murderer had fled to another village. I was relieved too. Moving with this guy would increase the chances of catching the bastard.

Maybe the murderer was still hunting for prey.

If so, following that path might lead us to encounter the prowling culprit.

“Hehehe, don’t worry. I’ll compensate you handsomely once this is resolved. It’s for the public good, so please cooperate. Besides, you need to avenge your comrades, don’t you?”
“Y-Yes… I understand.”

I coaxed and persuaded the terrified man.

Apparently, he had been attacked yesterday and barely made it to the village after a desperate escape. He had fled to the nearest village.

He probably wanted to return to his own village, but since he was a key witness and might be a target, I had no choice but to take him along. I could compensate him later.

With the help of the villagers, we treated him well and gave him some time to rest before setting off immediately.

“P-Priest… he was really strong. My comrades were killed in the blink of an eye…”
“Don’t worry, I’m a quasi-priest of the Brass Celestial Angels. I’m used to catching and killing guys like that.”
“Still…”
“Hey now, don’t fret. You have a warrior and a mage with you.”
“…”

As we moved, I asked about the murderer’s appearance.

The killer was like a madman, exuding an ominous aura. A serial killer wielding a black sword charged at them while roaring.

Judging by the description alone, he sounded like a complete lunatic, but a black sword… At least he was still human, I guess.

“We need to retrace the path you took yesterday and today. We need to go back slowly. That’s the best way to find the culprit.”
“…Understood.”

And so, we crossed the forest. He was a bit disoriented at first, but since he had been attacked on a familiar road, he quickly got his bearings. Being a local, he probably knew the way better than I did.

That’s how he managed to escape to the village.

But the pace was slow. The man was exhausted. Mental shock and physical fatigue slowed his steps.

“Hey, take a break. You’re falling behind.”
“Okay.”

When I suggested a break, he leaned against a tree and slumped down.
I handed him some jerky and said,

“When did you first hear about the murderer?”
“Everyone around here knows about it… I thought it would be okay if we traveled together, but this happened…”
“You must be devastated. I’ll make sure to catch him and kill him.”

He had lost his comrades, the goods on the cart, and even the quites pulling it. He must be heartbroken.

He should have refrained from long-distance travel until things calmed down.

Well, these people probably had their livelihoods at stake.

Anyway, time was of the essence.

I promised him compensation again and we resumed our journey. Whenever he lagged behind, I just carried him on my back. He insisted that he couldn’t be carried by a priest, but having a navigator was essential, so I dismissed his protests.

By the afternoon, we arrived at the scene of the incident. Carrying him actually made us faster. It wasn’t particularly difficult, so it was fine.

“Hmm… How gruesome.”

The scene was as gruesome as Cloudi had described.
The bodies of dead quites and people were scattered around.

Fortunately, the cart was intact. The goods inside, whether fruits or crops, seemed to have been devoured by monsters.

“Oh, oh…!”

The man burst into tears and knelt down upon seeing the scene. I comforted him while examining the bodies. As he said, there were two of them.

They had been hacked to pieces.

What was the motive? Why was he only committing crimes in the forests and roads without entering the villages? And it was strange that he left them so visibly mutilated.

“Ughhh!!!”

I allowed him to wail to his heart’s content, then pulled Cloudi and Winia away to a slightly more distant spot.

“Hey, shouldn’t you tell him to be quiet?”
“Leave him be for now. He needs to cry when he’s sad.”

The murderer might come to us if he heard the crying.

We watched him intently from behind a tree a short distance away. He was just sitting there, crying like a child.

I couldn’t forgive the existence that drove such sorrow into people’s hearts like a nail. I was going to kill him immediately and take that black sword. Those bastards shouldn’t be allowed to accumulate private property.

Not even their lives.

“Hic, hic… P-Priest?”

After crying for a while, he seemed to have calmed down a bit and stopped weeping. Then, he called out to me and suddenly jumped up like a mammal that had lost its mother, looking around.

Look behind you.

“I’m over here.”
“Ah…! I thought you had disappeared for a moment… But why are you over there—”

—It was then that he tried to approach us.

“Get down!!!”
“Huh?”

—Whoosh!

I immediately kicked off the ground and leaped forward.

“Kroooooooo!”
“Priest? Wh-What? What!!”

There was no time to think. The culprit emerged from the bushes with a black sword raised high. The bait had been swallowed! All that was left was to fight!

“You finally showed your face, you bastard!!!”

—Swoosh!

I swung my sword as I charged forward.

—Clang!

“Kuooot…!”

My sword clashed with the murderer’s, sending sparks flying. If I had been a beat late, the murderer’s sword would have smashed the man’s head. Of course, I had anticipated that situation and prepared for it, so there was no room for such a mistake!

“Ughaaaack!!”

The terrified man stumbled backward, falling on his butt. Good, that’s enough!

But just as I was about to finish him off—

“What the hell?!”

—A heavy force was transmitted through the blade!

“Kroooooooo!!”

The murderer seemed completely insane. His eyes were bloodshot, and his tattered clothes were covered in blood. Above all, he was screaming.

Even the sword was unusual. The black sword reminded me of the black iron longsword I had received from Karin long ago, but it felt different somehow… Shit!

This guy was better with a sword than I thought!

“Cloudi! Winia! Take care of that man and the surroundings! Watch for a chance to assist!”

—Clang!

I immediately twisted my blade upwards and unleashed a barrage of attacks. I unleashed the extreme swordsmanship that I had thoroughly trained and honed in real combat.

The force transmitted from the sword proved that he was a formidable opponent.

But was he more skilled than Karin? I immediately stepped forward and pressured him.

“What the hell are you, you son of a bitch!!”
“Krrrk…!”

Despite my question, he only spewed foam and didn’t try to communicate at all. I knew I couldn’t reason with a guy like this. Still, I judged that he was skilled enough to cut down a D-rank adventurer.

“Are you mute, you bastard! Why aren’t you talking!”
“Kroooooooo!!”

But that was it.

He was good with a sword, but not better than me. He attacked me with a fierce and powerful momentum, but I was able to handle him without any difficulty.

His sword didn’t reach me. I had briefly hoped for something more when I felt the heavy force during the first clash, but it still couldn’t reach Kim Kat.

“Kgh…”

Of course, being a swordsman, he was quite skilled at blocking my attacks. But compared to his swordsmanship, he showed strangely obvious openings. It was as if he was moving as if his consciousness had been taken over by the sword.

Whatever it meant, an opening revealed during combat immediately led to defeat.

“You bastard!”

—Thwack!

So I closed in and struck his abdomen with my knee.

“Cough!”

The blow landed well, and he spat out blood, losing his balance. Did that really work in one hit? It was an attack that wouldn’t work on Karin even if I died and came back to life, but it ended him in one blow.

“Celestial Demon Restraining Hand!”

I spread my fingers and used the Celestial Demon Restraining Hand to grab the back of his neck as he bent over, and slammed him into the ground. My strength, honed through murderous training and amplified by mana, overwhelmed even an average orc.

—Crack!

“Kieeeeeee…!”

I could have broken his neck using only my grip strength, but there was no need to kill him now that I had subdued him. Anyway, he thrashed his arms and legs while stuck to the ground. The fact that he didn’t let go of the sword in the midst of all that showed that he was definitely a madman.

“You bastard… You’re just a pathetic fool who thinks he’s so great. You thought you were something just because you hunted weak residents? Huh?”
“Krooooooo!! Krooooooo!”

I tried to interrogate him, but he was completely consumed by madness, just like the impression I had gotten from the beginning, and only roared like a monster.

Was he unable to speak normally?

“Speak like a human, you son of a bitch! Cloudi!”
“Yes?”

It seemed like I had to make him come to his senses with physical methods before he could talk. I didn’t really care if he died right away, but interrogation was essential to uncover additional damages.

“Cut off his limbs! Winia, cauterize the stumps!”
“Hehe, that’s a quick decision.”

Cloudi smiled and lightly swung her sword, instantly severing the murderer’s limbs, sending them flying into the air.

“Uooooooo!!!”

It was a pain that would have caused a normal person to go into shock, but the madman was immune to such things. He screamed as if he had lost all his limbs at once.

“Fire Bolt!”

—Whoosh!

Winia’s magic followed, burning his severed limbs. There was no need to keep him alive anyway. It didn’t matter if he died right away. Doing this would increase the chances of him dying, but if he lived, good, and if not, oh well. I had to take action before he died from excessive bleeding.

“Jieeeeeeeet!!!”

Anyway, the only way to properly subdue such a crazy serial killer was to sever his limbs. I couldn’t control him otherwise. And it was common sense to execute such guys immediately.

“Bureeeeeeeeeeek!!!”
“You bastard! Stay still! I’m trying to heal you! Do you want to die!”

Anyway, I subdued him more easily than I thought.

His swordsmanship was decent, but that was it. He was capable of taking on several D-rank adventurers at once, but not me. If I hadn’t come, the damage would have been greater.

“Geheuk!”

After receiving the special treatment and losing all his limbs, the murderer transformed into something like a larva, rolling his eyes back and spewing foam while wriggling. Butterfly and moth larvae often spew foam from their mouths.

The great pain had caused his intelligence to regress to the level of an insect.

However, through that process, he survived without going into shock. Human life was truly amazing. This guy had recklessly destroyed and slaughtered that amazing life while consumed by madness. Now it was his turn.

Of course, he had no right to complain even if he became an insect.

“We solved the case. Hehe, Cloudi, you should have helped me sooner.”
“I was going to help, but Kat was overwhelming him? Your skills are definitely improving. Mama is happy.”
“I’m happy too!”

Cloudi praised me.

“Anyway, this… I don’t know if we can interrogate him. And he’ll die soon if we leave him like this. If you’re going to interrogate him, you have to wake him up and do it right away.”
“Okay, let’s do that.”

Winia poked the murderer’s face with the tip of her staff. I immediately kicked his side.

—Thwack!

“Quehek!”
“It’s time to wake up! Get up! And you there! Your revenge is complete!”
“Th-Thank you! Thank you! Thank you thank you! Ugh!”

Things were going very well.

The man who had been sitting and pissing himself jumped up on all fours and expressed his deep gratitude to us, crying and sniveling. A great joy permeated my heart as I did good deeds. This must be the spirit of service that religious people have.

Maybe the serial killer had appeared to show me this gratitude. The thought filled my chest with emotion.

Well then, shall we begin the interrogation?

“You bastard! Tell me everything you know! Unless you want your remaining arm sliced up like salmon sashimi, hehehe!”

Just as I was about to stomp on his arm.

—Vibration.

Suddenly, a strange thing happened.

—Vibration.
—Vibration vibration vibration.
—Vibration vibration vibration…!

“W-What the hell? What is this?”

Suddenly, the black sword that had been dropped next to him began to vibrate like a vibrator. The vibrating sword then shook off the hand of the murderer who had been holding the hilt and stood up.

—Thump!

“It stood up?!”

The sword, it stood up on its own!

In an instant, our attention was focused.

We watched the surreal and inhuman scene with wide eyes.

—Whoosh.

Not only did it stand up, but the sword floated into the air. At the same time, a black aura began to seep out of the blade.

“Khehehe… Contract failed, human. I will take your soul and the price you have paid.”
“Oh my god! What the hell is going on!”

I was shocked by the cold voice that suddenly rang out. Contract? Soul? And as soon as those words were spoken, the serial killer who had been wriggling on the ground screamed in a clear voice while convulsing violently.

“N-No! Noooooooo!!! Nooooooooooooooo!!!!”

This bastard! Was the inability to speak an act!