Nothing happened as they approached the gates of Nachtville. It was as if the fear that had assailed them minutes ago had never existed, but Dia didn't dare to let her guard down. If that skill strengthened with distance, a point-blank activation could directly drive them insane.
Which, now that she thought about it, was actually a really good reason to stay really far from the city. After examining why she thought approaching was a good idea, Dia came to the realisation that she was basically assuming that the skill used on them earlier strengthened over time, rather than range.
It was probably too late to back off now. If the enemy had a skillstrip with that ability, and decided to use it on them…
"Risti," Dia muttered quietly, "do you have any artefacts or skills that can ward off abnormal states of mind?"
"If I had, I wouldn't have frozen up earlier," Risti replied bitterly. "In the first place, skills that have adverse effects on the mind are very rare."
"So we got unlucky?"
"Really unlucky," Risti replied, stressing the latter half of her two-word sentence. "And I don't know how this skill works either. At first glance, it seems that this skill could be an area-of-effect skill, but in that case, the city shouldn't be this quiet. Mass hysteria should have broken out long ago."
"That's a risky assumption to make," Dia replied.
"Yes."
Their short conversation came to an end as they drew up to the city gates. The squad of guards milling around the gates were looking around every few seconds, but they weren't hysterical or anything. Furthermore, no signs of being affected by a debilitating, abject fear could be seen on their face — the guards' expressions were one of slight apprehension and nothing else.
"Halt," said one of the guards. "State your purpose."
Dia took out a letter and handed it to the guard silently, who eyed her in return. Those eyes widened three seconds later, and after taking a few steps back, he whispered something to his colleague and ran off into whereabouts unknown. At the same time, the squad protecting the gates straightened up, their weapons at the ready.
Were they guarding against something? Dia didn't know, but the silent exchange had left her and Risti on edge too.
After a painfully slow minute, the guard returned and bowed, before saying, "Follow me."
Dia didn't see much choice in that particular manner, so the two of them followed in silence. The guard led the two of them into the small guardhouse built by the city walls, where a stern-looking officer was busy leafing through documents.
The officer looked up at the two of them as they entered. Adjusting her uniform's top button, she said, "Your Excellencies, I apologise if I'm being rude, but the situation has changed in the past three days. What Count Nightfall has briefed you no longer holds."
"What do you mean?" Dia asked.
In response, the officer took out a small stack of files. "Each file documents every case that has happened in the past three days."
Risti breathed in sharply, and Dia couldn't blame her for that. There were at least thirty such files, which could only mean that thirty people had died in the past three days. On average, ten died every day, but the fact that the officer hadn't said anything about the killer could only mean that there weren't any leads.
"Who's the administrator of this town?" Dia asked. "What opinion does he have on this?"
"Baronet Nacht went out of town last week, when news of the Julan main house came in," the officer replied. "Right now, most of the major decisions are being made by the captain of the city guards, but…"
"But you guys aren't experts," Risti completed. "What of the team dispatched by the Folders' Association? Have they not done anything?"
"As stated previously, the leader of the Dusk Daggers is currently incapacitated. The rest of his party has cut off all forms of contact, even food, and are currently maintaining a strict perimeter around their current premises," the officer replied. "We have received no instructions from them either."
"That's…" Dia rubbed her head. "Never mind. Can you give me a summary of your findings so far? With the number of murders per day increasing, there has to be some findings or commonalities that you guys have spotted, right?"
"Yes, Your Excellency." The officer took out a file and gave it to them. "We've compiled all of our observations here."
"Thank you."
Moments after flipping the file open, Dia and Risti's face changed. The first observation that was listed there was the fact that the eyewitnesses for every single victim in the past few days stated that those victims broke down hysterically and exhibited other fear-induced actions, before being stabbed by a flying spear.
Dia couldn't help but think about their own experience earlier on.
Most disturbing, however, was the fact that these murders had occurred in the public eye. She could see the scene in her mind; a person abruptly screamed and breaking down into a terrified mess, scaring anyone around him or her, before a spear flew in and nailed them to the ground.
If she hadn't set up defences earlier…
Dia gulped. She didn't want to think too hard about it, but it would seem that her decision to use her defensive artefacts was a good one. That said, there was nothing about mana traces being left on those spears, which probably meant that the murderer either didn't use mana, or wasn't a mana-user to begin with.
"Just to check, since your reports didn't mention it," said Dia, "but were there no traces of mana left behind on those spears?"
"None, Your Excellency." The officer shook her head. "We inspected those spears and checked for mana, but nothing. We even tried to find any hint of skills being used, but there was no proof in that department too. Either the killer threw those spears by hand, or the skill used to throw such a spear wasn't based around the spear itself."
"I see." Dia tapped the table for a moment. There really wasn't much she could work with, but the same couldn't be said for Risti. "Thank you, officer. Can you leave us for a moment? I need to discuss certain aspects of this case with my partner."
"Yes, Your Excellency." Bowing crisply, she turned on the heel and left the room, closing the door behind them. Risti glanced at Dia, an eyebrow raised, but Dia didn't elaborate on why she wanted the officer to leave.
"Do you have any ideas?" Dia asked.
"Me?"
"You're the professional at information-gathering, not me," Dia replied. "I'm just muscle here."
"You are indeed rather useless in this particular department, but why do you seem experienced with investigations like this?" Risti paused. "Oh, right. You must have seen your fair share of cases as Princess Dia's double. Figures."
The way Risti answered her own question was convenient, so Dia decided not to comment any further on it. "Anyway, what ideas do you have?"
"From the looks of it, the last moments of the dead aren't going to be helpful, since those murders don't seem to have any commonalities between the victims. I can't use Last Words here," said Risti. "However, I do have other skills that might work, but to be very safe…"
She muttered to herself, and then looked up at Dia. "I have a foolproof plan, but I'm not sure if you would like it."
"Say it," Dia replied. "No harm hearing it, at least."
"Well, the best way to nab the target would be to acquire proof right when he or she strikes, right? I have a skill that allows me to sp— ahem, survey — pretty much an entire dukedom's capital If I were to use it here, I should be able to find the murderer." Risti frowned. "It's just that this plan gives the murderer a lot of initiative; if we use it, people are bound to die. I can dedicate the whole day to looking down on Nachtville, but that means I cannot investigate with my other skills."
Dia took a deep breath. This plan would probably be a very successful one, but the price…
Effectively, they were using lives as bait. Were the murderer's next targets probably going to die?
Yes, they would. Whether or not Risti's plan was put in motion or not, whoever the murderer targeted would probably be killed. It was possible that the two of them could actually find out who the murderer was before he next struck, since Risti had chosen such a plan to bring up first, she was probably not confident in hunting down the murderer through the scant traces left behind.
In reality, there wasn't a choice, but for her…
Stifling her superfluous considerations, she took a deep breath. "We'll go with that monitoring plan of yours."