As expected, the man inside the room was in his 60s, with a thin frame and a wide white moustache. He sat behind a wide mahogany desk. Combined with the yellowish decor of the room, it looked like an old aristocratic study rather than a modern-day principal's office. The name plate on the desk didn't have a name on it, but only the designation, which made it redundant in his eyes.
The man looked at shirou, who looked about 16 years old and was mildly surprised. Well, the boy was currently 13 and about to be 14, but due to the use of the drugs and supplements, he looked older Still the principal smiled at him and assumed this was a student until shirou put down an envelope with the oficial seal of the faculty of law and his pupils constricted to needle pricks.
"Mr. Gerald?" said shirou
The man let out a sigh and nodded as he opened the letter. There was a pin drop silence as he read the letter until he finally neatly folded it, pulled out a silver lighter, and set the paper on fire. Locking eyes with the boy sitting across him said
"What are the aids you request from me in taking care of this blight on my land?"
"My task is to handle the leak of mysteries in this region, cleaning the blight for you by extinguishing all sources of the leak is acceptable."
"So I would prefer you not playing politics with me, Mr. Second owner."
Gerald's face flushed in an instant as soon as he heard the brat`s word, and for an instant, he considered pulling out the gun strapped under the desk, but reason prevailed over emotion. The one sitting before him might look like a child, but is one of the same demons who shredded up his parents and sealed them in polyethylene bags right before his eyes. Understanding his situation, he dropped most of the plans he had made and honestly provided whatever information he had.
"So, you are saying someone made 2 men cut off each other's genitals and choke on the severed organ in a public square."
"You found traces of mana on their bodies and a familiar spell carved onto their backs."
Concluded shirou with his face showing a mix of horror and concern while his eyes held contempt as well as a pinch of malice as he processed the situation.
Gerald had ceased his subtle political moves and efforts to undermine shirou to control him, after the clear threat. He had assumed Shirou`s young age to be a sign of inexperience and tried to use him to solve his problems, but was put back in his place just as quickly. So under Shirou`s calm and concise instructions, he quickly made arrangements and enrolled shirou as a student. This also allowed shirou to learn that even after the previous incident, there had been 3 murders that left behind emaciated corpses on the scene.
The common link apparent behind these cases was that 3 of the victims were either students of this school or had passed out from this institute. After learning that another latest incident after the previous 3 had happened just 16 hours ago, he firmly expressed his desire to examine the corpse, leaving behind a troubled Gerald.
Gerald was no magus, so he maintained his grip over this town by connections to people, the good old-fashioned way, i.e via corruption. Most of the officials of this town are either in his pocket or related to the political group he is part of. Hence, his communication with the police chief went smoothly, showcasing practised ease. This led to Gerald personally driving shirou to the police station in his black Rolls-Royce Corniche V.
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….
Adopting a no-nonsense attitude, shirou let the conversation go to the shrewd old man while he focused on the important parts. The police chief was a burly black haired man with green eyes. he appeared to be quite the lady killer from the conversation that was going between them, but shirou promptly stopped listening when Geralt talked about passing a message to Mrs Martins and bringing along her daughters and some specific drugs.
He focused on the state of the body, which had begun decomposing, which made it harder for him to find anything. He found the state of the body to be unnatural, as no 17-year-old girl should have wrinkled and patchy skin, and there was a lack of medical conditions explaining it. After further appraisal, he motioned for Gerald to move out of the room and take the chief with him, too.
Stiffly nodding, he pulled out the chief while saying stuff about showing him some interesting profiles and targets after pulling out a small folder. As the two men left him behind, he opened the guitar case on his back with a pop as it hissed as it depressurised. Borrowing a page from his Irish senior, he had modified a guitar case to hold his supplies, which also had disguised compartments for holding daggers and swords.
He pulled out a small knife, the size of a pocket knife, with a groove carved on it from tip to tang. Dipping the knife in a colourless solution and stabbing it into the corpse. After a minute, he pulled back the knife in a smooth motion from the body and closely examined it. Except for coagulated blood and some skin tissue, the blade lacked anything else, which made him shake his head, and the circuits on his hand glowed as he channelled mana into his hand. As soon as the knife`s blade was touched by the mana, it released a fluorescent blue glow like an aquamarine.
After confirming that the potion was correctly working, Shirou`s doubts were confirmed; this woman was drained of her prana, which led to her death and based on the injuries on her groin area, he was also nearly certain that some form of ritual was used to drain her prana via sex.
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....
Gerald breathed a sigh of relief as she separated from shirou and then looked at his friend, Albus, who looked at him quizically. Cursing his current situation in his mind, he said
"This girl`s mother's side has some influence in Italy, so they sent an expert to verify the cause of her death."
Albus, being an old hand in this line, read between the lines to confirm that whatever this "influence" was, it was not legal and was likely a branch of organised crime, so he wisely stopped asking. The diversion of their conversation back to the topic they were talking about, he said
"I found out that the woman Marie Martines has a 25-year-old sister. So shall I threaten her again, along with passing on your message to her."
Gerald`s family is the second owner of this city with one decent ley line and one mediocre ley line. When his parents found out that he didn't have any magic circuits, they tried to have another child, but his mother, the heir to the family, had become infertile due to the side effects of some magecraft experiment, and his father was a carrier with a minor sorcery trait.
His mother went deranged as time passed, and his father broke down in worry, but where normally he would have been discarded, they began spoiling him as a way to get rid of him and spend less time with him. So he grew up to be an over-the-top, petty and vile young master. For him, this small city was his, and he was its god. When finally drugs and women caught up to him, his parents put a curse on him that triggers extreme pain whenever he tried to take drugs, but encouraged him to indulge in the pleasure of the flesh. They pointed out to him that rather than waste time and energy on prostitutes, they would get him married. His wife, a shy, cute little thing, was the 1st woman in his life with whom he fell in love.
Dreams were real for him at that time: a loving wife, a rich family and a business for him to take over after he was done enjoying his life.