"Thank you, sister."
Blaine used the "Listener" ability for the first time, placing his ear against the corpse's chest to hear the voice of the deceased.
Sister?
Was it his sister, or some woman he'd recently met?
Blaine wondered, tilting his head to listen more carefully. He heard a childish voice suddenly turn terrified.
"What is this, sister!" Immediately after came a long, agonizing wail, the sound of breaking bones, and the relentless pop and crackle of blood being squeezed from lungs.
Before long, the childish voice turned cold and venomous.
"Sister, why did you hurt me? It's so dark here, so cold..."
The voice was icy and twisted.
Blaine's head swam with a stabbing pain, forcing him to quickly shut off "Listener" and stand up.
As he rose, dizziness overwhelmed him, and he nearly lost his balance.
"What happened? Did you find something?"
Leonard noticed his pale face, steadied him with one hand, and asked.
"Yeah... I vaguely saw a woman's face."
Blaine lied, not telling Leonard that he'd actually heard it. "I'll try a ritual and see if I can draw her accurately."
So Blaine arranged candles on the ground, used ritual magic to pray to the goddess for power, and produced a portrait of the woman who had contact with the child before his death.
After casually glancing at the portrait, he suddenly froze.
Because he'd seen the woman in the drawing before.
That distinctive round face, those beautiful features... it was the same woman who had appeared in Viscount Dorset's bedroom!
"I've seen this woman before. She also appeared at that viscount's death scene. The captain later had the police investigate, but they couldn't find any trace of her."
Blaine showed the portrait to Leonard and Frye. At the same time, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
When they were investigating that case, he didn't yet have that crazy woman, Miss M, living in his house.
Leonard stared at the drawing, lost in thought.
Suddenly, Blaine noticed him tilt his head slightly, as if listening to something.
Then his eyes took on a strange quality. Leonard's listening motion was very subtle.
If Blaine hadn't been using "Listener" himself and become sensitive to similar movements, he might not have noticed.
No way, is he also a "Listener"?
Isn't he a "Midnight Poet"?
Leonard noticed Blaine watching him. His expression quickly returned to normal, and he smiled.
"My neck hurts a bit. I think I strained it in the car."
What the hell, I thought you might be with the Aurora Order too.
Blaine laughed despite himself.
"That's what you get for sitting with your legs crossed even in the car. Lazy posture is bad for your body."
"Thanks for the reminder."
Leonard said indifferently, then opened the door and called in the police sergeant and foreman. He showed the paper to the foreman.
"Have you seen this woman?"
"What a pretty dame, I'd love to get on top of her... uh, never seen her."
The foreman stared at the portrait in fascination until the sergeant jabbed him, then he answered honestly.
Leonard frowned thoughtfully, then pointed at the corpse and asked, "Do they get rest time?"
"Yeah, they work two shifts, do a full week, then get one day off and their wages."
"What about the people on his shift? Bring them to me."
"That'll delay the work..."
The foreman said reluctantly. Only after the sergeant's threats did he go outside and bring in three or four children.
These raggedly dressed kids stood nervously, their eyes full of fear as they looked at Blaine and the others.
To them, these people in their crisp police uniforms were all frightening.
"Have any of you seen this person?"
Leonard crouched down halfway, showed them the drawing, and asked in a gentle tone.
His handsome face and friendly manner put the children somewhat at ease.
After looking at the drawing, quite a few of them nodded.
As Leonard questioned them further, he gathered more information. The dead child was named Oliver.
He was very young and couldn't adapt to the factory environment after arriving. He often dozed off and had already had accidents several times before.
As for the woman in the drawing, she had mysteriously appeared at the factory one night. Because she was beautiful, the children all liked her.
She played with them for a while and seemed especially fond of Oliver, giving him a piece of candy.
"Candy? Is the wrapper from that candy still around?"
Leonard discovered a lead and asked excitedly.
So the children took him to Oliver's bed, which was actually just a filthy bedroll under a loom.
There, they found a colorful candy wrapper that he had treasured and hidden beneath his bedding.
"There are traces of a curse."
Blaine only needed one glance before reaching his conclusion without hesitation.
That's it. The culprit behind this series of deaths was this woman!
"These kids really have it rough. Work for a week, rest for one day, and their pay is only half or a third of an adult's."
After leaving the cotton mill, Leonard remarked, clearly still affected by what they'd witnessed.
"A place like this actually has pretty decent conditions." Frye shook his head coldly.
"In some coal mines in South Wales County, because the mine shafts are so low that adults can't get in, they have children drag small carts, crawling in and out to haul coal."
Blaine also shook his head.
"After the Corn Laws were repealed, masses of farmers went bankrupt and flooded into the cities.
Factories everywhere are taking advantage, driving wages lower and lower.
These people work with everything they've got, but what they earn barely keeps them fed.
They can only struggle through each day, growing weaker bit by bit."
He'd walked through the slums of both Tingen City and Enmat Harbor several times, and had seen with his own eyes the extreme emotions concentrated there.
From his perspective as a Secrets Suppliant, all of this was perfect material for evil rituals.
You could say the land of the slums and the workshops of industrial districts were ideal breeding grounds for nurturing evil gods.
How ironic. Factory owners exploited their bodies while evil gods fed on their souls. Both sides ate their fill while these people disappeared without a sound.
"By the way, you said earlier you had an idea. What specifically did you mean?"
Blaine suddenly remembered what Leonard had said in the car.
Leonard organized his thoughts before asking, "Do you think, even without that woman's curse, how much longer would this child, or that viscount, have lived?"
Blaine thought about it.
The child's body couldn't withstand the intensity of the work, and he kept falling asleep.
And Viscount Dorset pursued thrills, enjoyed all kinds of extreme activities, and kept pushing further.
Sooner or later, he would have gotten himself killed.
"Probably not much longer."
"But that woman's appearance accelerated their deaths."
"...You're saying she stole part of their lifespans?"
Blaine knew many evil rituals and immediately understood Leonard's meaning.
But what was she collecting so much life force for?