The God of Jesters

Chapter 31: 2.06.3 Stuck in the mind.

"Little Hunter, a child is dead. And not just a child, but a child of a hero. This is not something you can take lightly or be distracted from. What if the clues that you chose to ignore had been cleaned by the criminals already?"

These words might sound like a warning, but to Remira, these were nothing more than words that mocked her foolishness.

It was as if the thief was teaching on why he had stolen her belongings, condescendingly. Which made Remira's frustration show up on her forehead.

It's so easy to rile up humans sometimes.

"If the headmaster was so worried about it, he should have given me entry to your college early on and not delayed so much," Remira complained. "Though it's not too late, the signs might be erased, but witness testimony remains. I would just ask the faculty and the students about him."

There is never a perfect crime and even if the clue is destroyed, the criminal would still make some mistakes or overlook things that they might not be aware of.

Which was what Remira was basing her investigation on.

Let her enemies be confident and laugh because, in the end, she never intended to look for physical clues like the engraved piece of Farhad's bed.

Instead, she was just here for some witness testimony. And nothing more.

And besides, if she was not wrong. This would be a dead end.

On the other hand, Kairut who heard those scathing words did not act embarrassed or flustered. In a calm tone, he just said. "Of course, I regret it too, my mood that day was not good. It's not every day you hear an earful from the Mayor."

"It's why the next day I asked my chief of security to conduct a thorough investigation around my late student. And during this investigation, I found something interesting."

Headmaster Kairut explained in a calm tone the events after their meeting in the past.

And during those events, his chief of security truly found something pretty interesting.

Something that was planted by me using Kairut as a proxy.

For a man that feared death so much, he was pretty courageous and prideful while lying straight in the face of Remira and our little pig that sent her to this room.

But we shouldn't blame that man, for he was just doing his job, unaware of the consequences.

The true culprit of everything was this old walking corpse called Kairut.

"What is this?" Remira, under the push of the headmaster, got up and approached the table.

To her surprise, there was an entire report on the life of Farhad on a single file.

From the day he came to the academy to the times he went to the bathroom and the people he fought with as well as teachers that detested him for his weakness.

Even though she read this file only on a surface level, she can somewhat understand the life of misery the boy might have lived.

But sadly, there were stories like this all around the world happening all the time, so while she held some pity toward the boy, it didn't last long as she went straight to the end of the file and saw some lines marked with red.

"Daydreaming?" She wondered, confused a bit.

She wondered why it would be marked down on the file.

"Curious?"

Kairut asked, getting up from his chair. "It's nothing special, I just asked my people to mark down any suspicious activity and daydreaming was one of them."

"Because you see, by the time he started doing this, he was already suffering from a failed ritual and was wracked with rot. It's harder for one to maintain focus under that pain and even sleep properly."

"But while Farhad showed all the other signs. He had no trouble sleeping and at times, he would be lost in his thoughts during classes, which stood out among the class of 10."

The old man explained as he too got up and moved closer to Remira, much to her shame.

She had failed one of the most basic jobs as an investigator and now someone else has beaten her to it.

But this was not a race and nor would someone of Kairut's nature would just give this file so simply.

There ought to be a reason for him to do this. A certain price she has to pay for it.

Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense to her.

"I need to thank you for all of this."

This report was not alone, there were some belongings of the late child among other things.

But nothing on the level of the writings that she found in Farhad's apartment. Everything was simple and crystal clear.

"There is no need to thank me for this," Kairut said with a somewhat ashamed face. "All I wish for you is to keep the name of the academy away from your reports, and I can give you full reign to roam the unrestricted premises of this academy as we have full reign to question any teaching faculty along with students."

"Of course, you will meet them under a false pretense and identity, they would not know you or the true reason why you are here."

"I don't wish to spread further panic among my students than they already are feeling these days."

The old man explained, each of his words carefully curated and structured in a way that seemed reasonable.

He was doing a wonderful job, speaking as I have instructed him like a good dog.

Unlike some others that had started to move on their own, this little dog remained tightly in my grasp.

"But you should understand how hard it is to deal with the way things are and the identity of the dead."

To most of the world, it was known that the academy was not to blame, but probably the apartment. It was why the old man didn't wish for the group of Radiance to dig deeper.

Which would have succeeded if Farhad's father had played along with my expectation. Sadly it was not the case, which forced me to make some slight changes to my plans. Which included a complete overhaul of the misdirection scenario that I had built.

"With Marshall present here, it will be harder for me to hide it. He already has expectations from us and we can't afford to make him angry by giving any false reports."

Remira explained, finally understanding what the old man feared and why he did this.

With the little clues she found, it would seem that the headmaster had a change of heart after Maxim's meeting with Maisel was over. Which would explain the drastic change in treatment.

"But I would sure to put in the word on how you helped us, I would make sure that your academy is not implicated."

In truth, she didn't care about it. But was just saying small talk to give the old man some hope.

As for what Marshall does with the academy after the killer has been apprehended, it would be up to him. The most she can do as of now was to lie and let the old man think that he would probably help her.

Due to this, she started to feel confident and held some leverage over the old man.

She was probably feeling drunk on power and overconfidence when she suppressed her blood once again.

For someone as smart as she was, the childlike actions didn't suit her much. Though I shouldn't look down on her much, she still remained the strongest in the group that was sent by Radiance.

Almost as strong as a young man I met in the past. He was also as overconfident as Remira was and had the strength to back that confidence.

Which in some sense would put him a level above Remira.

But with the new friends I made at that time, I made this young man pay a heavy price. A similar price I have intended for Remira.

I hate people like her, their overconfidence makes things predictable.

It's no wonder she is no leader of this team.

"Then that's all I can hope for." After some small talk, the old man let Remira leave the premises with all the things he had collected.

And Remira also didn't say much after it. She already had an ID card in her hand which would give her entry to the academy premises and she had also seen the room where Farhad used to sleep. And found nothing.

But this was to be expected.

*****

Let's go back to the same house as before.

It was night again and the mother was keeping watch on her child so that he doesn't drop the milk again.

"But.. but... but.. B... it. Hot" the boy tried to word out his sentence while blowing at the glass of milk.

"If it's hot, you will drink slowly. " His mother replied. The anger from before was totally absent in her mood, instead, she just laughed at her struggling son.

To her, it was somewhat cute.

While to her son, it was total torture.

One might even say that the mother was somewhat like me, enjoying life forms lower than her struggle with some of the most basic things imaginable. Because to her, it looked like the struggle of the ignorant and innocent, just the way I thought of her.

There might be people that think the same about me, people like you, who currently read my thoughts.

But that is the way of life.

And I was going to teach this woman what it feels like to be a helpless insect.

So with a twist of my finger, the surroundings changed.

With another twist of my finger, the child of hers grows by another year.

With the third twirl of my finger, her loving husband had turned into a corpse in front of her eyes.

As for his killer, it was none other than her 6-year-old child.

"Noo.... noo.. Not again." She cried, her mind going blank and memories of the past came flooding in.

The past she had done her best to forget.

But this dream was too strong. The burst of self-awareness that came to her, disappeared instantly, as she had fallen deeper and deeper into that dream.

"Why did you do this?" She held her child, crying as she asked this question.

But her child was completely listless and unmoving, it neither spoke nor moved, just looked at his mother's face before lunging toward her like a beast.

This was when Remira came to ruin the fun.

"Wake up." She cried out, causing the dream world to become weaker.

And with another jolt, she woke up Pierta.

"What happened?" Remira asked. But got no answer in return, for her friend was in a shack.

In response, feeling something smelly afoot, she roused her blood and felt my presence that had dug deeper into Pierta's mind.

She found a trace of me.

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