"Is everyone present?" - ???
A group of five people walked at the middle of a night time, while following a dirt road, they are surrounded with the countless amount of trees that slightly covers the moonlight, clearly they are inside of a forest, with only a small torch that lit up the road infront of them, they walked in a line, with their leader at the forefront and the porter that carried all of their stuffs in the back, it seems like they're in the way of coming back home from hunting or gathering materials, though they might have spent a little too much time inside the forest.
When their leader asked if everyone is still present, each one of them said "Here" while stating their name, making sure that none of them is missing or left behind.
"Alright, keep going and stay vigilant, especially the ones at the back, stay close or else you might get snatched." - Leader
"Y- Yes!" - The Porter and One other guy
They make their way through the cramped forest, cutting every leaves or branches that hinders their movement, in the middle of their way, they came across a wild group of wolves that aggresively growls at them, there are four of them, the group quiickly prepares to engage in a battle, the leader that is holding a torch moved back and is replaced by the attacker in their group, there are three of them, two sword wielders and one mage, not waiting anymore time, all of the wolves ran and leaped into the air, fortunately the attack was stopped by the sword wielders, they swung their sword at the wolves, all while evading their bite and claws, the mage on the other hand, keeps a safe distance and is actively supporting those two by launching magic attacks that knocks back all the wolves that tried to do a sneak attack.
It didn't take long for them to eliminate all four wolves, when they are done with the battle, the leader that is watching from the start, orders them to quickly come and stay close to him.
"You two! Hurry up and come here before a ghoul appears!" - Leader
The mage is already close by so he didn't really need to tell her.
"Are you both hurt anywhere?" - Leader
"Huff, No.. Ruf and i is fine, we didn't receive any hit" - Ian
"That's good then, and you Maya, drink some mana potion, we don't know if there will be another monsters that'll appear.." - Leader
"Okay" - Maya
With all of the group staying close together again, they continued their journey back home, Maya went to the porter and asked for a mana potion, to which the porter then gave her.
Minutes go by and so far they haven't encountered any more wild animals or monsters, this could be a sign that they might be close to the edge of the forest.
"Porter! Are you tired? we can rest for a minute if you'd like.." - Leader
The leader took a glance at the porter and saw his tired expression, he didn't need his answer, because he already know.
The group then decided to take a small break on a small mound at the side of the road, with Maya casting a small barrier spell that temporarily block all sounds inside.
"Will you be okay?" - Ruf
"Im Fine, this much is nothing, i can hold out for 30 minutes!" - Maya
"Yo, Alman, you okay? Drink some water" - Leader
The leader asked Alman, the porter, and gave him a water from the backpack that he was carrying, seems like they pushed him a little bit too far.
"I didn't realize how long we've been walking, it must be hard for you to carry all that weight, as the leader, im sorry.."
Alman nodded and he shrugged it off as if it were nothing and just continue to rest.
The break was longer than they initially thought, a few minutes passed and just then they were gonna continue walking, but when Maya deactivates the barrier, they suddenly heard a leaf scratching sound that is most definitely not quite, there's something nearby.
"Sshh!.." - Leader
The leader quickly told everyone to stay quite.
The scratching sound kept going for a while, its as if whatever that is nearby is moving from one place to another in a circle, and at the middle of that circle is them, the target.
'Shit! Its already noticed us!' - Leader Thought
Just when the leader was about to tell everyone that they need to run, out of nowhere, a shadowy figure flashes infront of his eyes, its movement is extremely quick, he didn't get a chance to react, and yet when he does, all he sees is Ian's head falling from his body, blood spurting everywhere and everyone screamed as they saw their friend headless body fall.
"RUN! WE CAN'T-" - Leader
The leader screamed, telling everyone to quickly get away, he flaunt his hand, signaling that this is an extremely dangerous situation, and yet, before he event completes his sentence, he could feel his voice stopped and that there is a sharp tingling pain around his neck, the next thing he knew is that he saw his vision getting blurry as he falls to the ground, only his head.
His eyes is still working, he's still concious, but he couldn't feel his body, as he is now just a head on the ground, covered in blood, unfortunately his head was facing at the opposite direction of his group friends, he couldn't see them, but he can hear each one of them screams and their voice getting cut off, first it was Maya, then Ruf, and finally, Alman. It goes on for a while until its all just silent, everyone is practically dead, and now they are waiting for their brain to shut down, ejecting their soul into the higher realm.
.
.
[ 3 Days Later ]
Inside of a large conspicuously building in the middle of a city, two middle aged person can be seen talking to each other, discussing various topic around crimes around the area.
"This guy is still not captured? Are you sure you're doing your job? At this point you might aswell-" - Kyne
"Calm down Kyne, i know that, but the palace knights is already launching an official search for this guy, we should just let them do it!" - ???
The other guy shrugged his shoulder.
"Beside, its less work for us too, you know how they do their work, they have multiple tier six mages that is capable of decimating an entire military platoon, just trust them." - ???
Kyne sighed and decided to not think about it, seeing this, his friend then tapped his shoulder and smiled.
"If you want to, i have some work that i can give to you" - ???
Kyne was intrigued after hearing that.
"What is it?" - Kyne
"Truth to be told, i couldn't really find a clue about this case at all, there seems to be something that is missing here.." - ???
He then showed Kyne a picture.
Kyne was showed a brutal scene where apparently five people were beheaded in the Rockwood Forest, there are four male and one female victim, to which they assume is a full adventurer party since theres a large backpack and weapons at the location.
"Oh my god.." - Kyne
"Crazy, i know right.." - ???
"From the location and the supposed time of accident, isn't this just another monster attack?"
"At first i want to say that too, since death is an expected occurrence when being an Adventurer, but me and other people have come to the location, and i've done a thorough analysis." - ???
He then point his finger at the cut that is done on the neck of all the victims.
"You see, this cut is a little bit, TOO straight for it to be a monster, and also, let's say they died from monsters that wields a sword like goblin or something, they wouldn't just leave the corpse like that, for a monster that lack intelligence, they didn't understand the meaning of murder, all they do is just searching for food, and the only way to do it, is to kill." - ???
"Hmm, thats true.." - Kyne
Kyne crossed his arms.
"You see what im trying to say here?" - ???
"Yeah." - Kyne
"Exactly, the victims body is all intact, there's no traces of bite or other abnormalities, it was pure only beheading, and that sounds too illogical for a monster to do this don't you think so?" - ???
"Mhmm." - Kyne
"So, with this, why don't you try to solve this case? You're better than me afterall, it's also a great way to getting rid of that boredom!" - ???
Kyne looks at his friend, his face is eagerly waiting for Kyne's answer, Kyne then thought to himself, that this case might not be so bad, after some consideration, he accept it and willingly took this case in his hand.