Yuri had been complacent, she forgot her duty and left it to the Knights. She felt like a dumbass.
Heading to the slums where the massive explosion happened, her and the Town knights arrived at the scene. What greeted them was the burn down old factory building....countless bodies laid outside as the town knights apprehended the bodies, which were the guards of this facility.
Yuri and the other authorities also headed inside the burning building, and as they entered the building, they were shocked at what they witnessed. A large crater that is half the size of this massive building could be seen at the center.
Biting her teeth in tension, Yuri looked at the crater below and saw countless bodies in there. There are the burnt mutated bodies of a human and animals in there, as in the center of all that....a charred remain of a normal human without a left hand could be seen. It wore a burnt, tattered black robe from the Astrea Continent.
Seeing that the robe was familiar, Yuri recalled the masked guy from earlier this afternoon as she knelt down beside it and grimaced.
'May you rest in peace'
She thought that she would find a worthy opponent because that mysterious masked guy exuded so much aura despite him being red ranked, but it turns out she will just be disappointed.
It was just like before...When 'that' person disappeared. She always chased after his back, wanting to be acknowledged as someone worthy to stand with him. But he looked so far....so out of reach, she did not even know if he was looking at her way because he always looked at something far...like his goal was not her, is it because he was a prodigy? But her goal has always been him. She wanted to be with that Prodigy.
She wondered where he is now, ever since he disappeared, She did not recognize anyone else. Everyone might think that she surpassed him because unlike her, He was not chosen...but she thinks so otherwise. She refused to acknowledge that he is a Cursed.
Not letting disappointment eat her, Yuri stood up from the pile of corpses and inspected the area with the knights. As she was doing so, one knight named—Kral, approached her and informed her of their discoveries.
"Milady, we discovered someone else in this place. He seems to be alive still"
Kral informed Yuri as the lady just dismissed him telling him to act normally when she is on duty. In this time, she is not a young Duchess, but a Knight just like him. She did not have the Captain title as it was her older brother who held it.
Hearing that, Kral just nodded as he led her towards the room where they discovered another survivor, as they entered....Yuri saw a familiar face, and she was indeed certain about her suspicion of the corpse being the masked guy from earlier.
After all, she found the green haired guy called Jenner.
Wincing from pain from his bloodied hand, Jenner struggled to walk despite the knights preventing him. He just shook them away as he ran outside...to the crater.
When he reached the massive crater, he looked around for the body of Ludwig but he did not find anyone notable...aside from a headless charred corpse and the human charred corpse which had the burnt tattered robe. The two bodies actually stayed close to each other.
Staring at that, Jenner swallowed his despair as he cried. He clutched onto his chest and screamed.
"I'm sorry...I'm sorry....."
He cried and cried while the knights just watched him. Yuri also just watched him with a stoic gaze, she thought that he was mourning for the Astrea guy who she deduced to have been caught up in his issues in which resulted to this outcome.
"I must...have been punished. You were right. I was punished. This is punishment."
Jenner cried with a desperate laugh, he just laughed his despair out as he stared at the charred remain of the Astrea Guy or the one with a clown mask.
————
Somewhere in an inn of the Town Ruben, Li Sheng smiled at the pouch in his hand. He looked at the grotesque dark ball inside the pouch as he tossed it in the air and catch it, playing with it.
"Phantom Skins sure are fun to use"
Li Sheng muttered as he glanced at the figure of Roanoke who can finally move his body stared him back while stretching his shoulder in the bed.
"What do you mean by that, Master? And what was that stunt earlier?"
Roanoke asked his master as he stood up from the bed and also stretched his legs too, when he felt a slight pain, he sat back down to the bed.
"Ah, phantom skins? Yeah these things can change an appearance of something if you just smash it and use it as a dye. You can change something to whatever you desired. Effect will only last for 3 days tho kekekekeke"
Li Sheng chuckled as he earned a dubious look from Roanoke who then rolled his eyes and laid down on the soft bed.
"And? Why did you do that to Count Baifel's body? Changing it into a robe similar to mine? Are you trying to stage my death?"
Deducing his Master's way of thinking, Roanoke asked his master about the reasons for his actions and also guess the answer. Right after Count Baifel's death, Li Sheng dyed some sort of black mass on the body of Count Baifel as it shifted to a physique similar to Roanoke and as well as clothes.
Roanoke deduced that his identity has been revealed because of going around way too much and someone who knew him perfectly spotted him. Like Yuri for example, and she or they went to report him. But his master....probably seeing it from miles away decided to think of a countermeasures to prevent trouble from breaking out. So he thought of staging his own death, that phantom skins might have been the item that he went for when he disappeared for a while.
'This guy really thinks far ahead'
Roanoke thought as he saw his master in a different light, despite his master being someone who messes around...he could not help but see him as a great schemer worthy to be called The Symbol of Terror.
Chuckling, Li Sheng just snapped his finger to affirm that Roanoke guessed right.
"Bingo! Faking your death is the only answer now for you to be freed. Though starting from now we should have a shift on your appearance, right?"
Li Sheng chuckled as he was amused at his own disciple going into deep thought. He also listened to his disciple's deductions when he gave Roanoke the affirmation that he was on the right path.
Roanoke's deductions were indeed right, but only half right. It was incomplete.
Right from the start, Li Sheng had already planned everything....from the guards to everyone in town and to Montresor.
There is just no way for others to forget Roanoke in just a span of 1 month. They might have a hard time recognizing him, yes, because of the dirty appearance of Roanoke. But he was still recognizable. He was famous for being a prodigy and the next chosen one so everyone should have engraved his face onto their heads..
So what he did was, He brought Roanoke to the town and made him wear The Clown mask to make the guards suspect him. He manipulated the guards into thinking that Roanoke had a secret that he was hiding and also manipulated Roanoke to act nervous, which strongly convinced the Guards. When the Guards did not recognize Roanoke, Li Sheng's plan finally came into play. The guards will surely investigate the appearance of Roanoke as he was walking around with a literal symbol of terror like himself, and it will not take them a day to discover that Roanoke was [ Rauke Enidryll ]. By doing so, Li Sheng already advertised that Rauke Enidryll was in the town, by making a lot of people spot him as more as possible...Li Sheng then left him alone as he went to the Church to intimidate them about thinking that he did not have Rauke with him and he cared for Rauke because Rauke is also [ Cursed ] like him.
As much as possible, he wanted them to keep him alive when they capture him....because he will soon fake his death and change his appearance with the phantom skins and free him. What he did not expect though, was his disciple actually giving him more pieces to play.
He did not expect Roanoke to get into trouble, so when he discovered who gave his disciple a trouble, Li Sheng was delighted. So, he remade his plan.....
He thought of taking down a nobility legally and at the same time free his disciple. Since Count Baifel was famous for his blazing spear, he made a ruckus in the Factory as much as possible. He made Count Baifel leave traces of himself in there as he decide to kill off Count Baifel and use him as the Rauke Enidryll Scapegoat. Since the guards of the facility had seen Roanoke's face because of his lone attack, Li Sheng thought that the pieces had really been set out to play and more people will vouch for Roanoke's appearance in that place and also convince others that it was his body that got charred and killed.
He will also frame Count Baifel as the one who killed Roanoke, and since the church feared offending Li Sheng more than the Count, they will surely hunt down Count Baifel who by the way is already dead, then the guards will also finally come into the game once again. Since they saw Li Sheng walking around with Rauke, the guards will report to the Bishop that Li Sheng and Rauke already knew each other and the Bishop will then deduce the master and disciple relationship and think that Li Sheng was trying to keep his disciple alive. When that happens, Li Sheng will pretend to be angry at the death of 'Rauke' and have a reason to destroy the Baifel County, the church will provide no help towards the Baifel County because it was them who offended Li Sheng and they want to minimize the damage as much as possible.
Ah, about Roel, Li Sheng trusts that guy. They have been good friends for over a decade already so he will never sell out Li Sheng like that. He was just a drunk old guy.
Tossing the Phantom Skin to Roanoke, Li Sheng smiled at his disciple.
"Change your appearance and go back home without me tomorrow after you recover, I need to deal with matters here. By the day after tomorrow, I will be back home"