Chapter: 361
A series of murders, and as of today, the victim count reaches 12?!
Another corpse, presumed to have been murdered last night, was found. Recently, there have been 12 similar cases, and the guard forces still have no idea who the culprit is. Citizens are urged to refrain from wandering the streets at night for their safety…
“…Huh, how could this happen?”
The man reading the newspaper sighed, murmuring over the article.
A series of murders? What a horrific thing in this peaceful city.
Letting out a sigh, he looked at his daughter, who was having dinner with him, and said with a worried expression.
“Make sure you understand? It’s dangerous, so don’t wander around alone at night, okay?”
“Hehe, don’t worry. You know I haven’t been going out of my room much at night lately.”
“…Right, I suppose. I’m just so worried that I can’t help myself.”
His daughter had become engrossed in her recent hobby of scriptwriting, spending most of her time alone in her room aside from work.
Feeling a bit shy, she never showed him what scripts she was writing.
“Well, now that we’ve finished dinner, I’ll head back to my room.”
“Sure, just don’t stay up too late working on your scripts.”
Is scriptwriting that enjoyable?
As he watched his daughter dash off to her room after dinner with a chuckle, he glanced back at the newspaper he had just been reading, then wiped the smile off his face, muttering to himself.
“…By the way, what kind of lunatic is committing these heinous acts? Whoever they are, they need to be caught as soon as possible.”
He couldn’t even imagine that the culprit could be his daughter, whom he had just spoken with.
*
“Hehehe~”
Sitting at her desk, Auria hummed a tune.
Next to her were stacks of thick manuscript papers.
All of them were scripts detailing her tragedies.
At first, it was just one every month.
A carefully selected protagonist, a tragedy crafted with great care.
The sweetness of the ending, which took much effort to achieve, was like culinary bliss, and Auria thought that would be enough satisfaction for her.
At first, that is.
Auria, humming to herself, took a piece of candy from the large jar on her desk and popped it into her mouth.
The candy slowly melted in her mouth, sweetness spreading.
With a smile of delight, Auria murmured.
“To endure something like this, truly remarkable.”
Spending a long time and a lot of effort for the sweet taste of ‘the end’ was indeed delightful.
But Auria realized something.
She didn’t have to try so hard; the ‘end’ was already sweet enough on its own.
It wasn’t that candy wouldn’t be sweet if she didn’t wait long to eat it.
Besides, the ‘end’ was not a sweetness that got dull no matter how much you consumed it.
Yet Auria had endured this, not entirely by her own will.
Tasting a person’s ‘end’ was an extremely dangerous act, requiring careful preparations to avoid getting caught.
Thus, it could only be done about once a month.
In other words, if she could ensure not getting caught, there would be no need to hold back.
So, if she gained the ability to not get caught during her criminal acts, obviously, the frequency would increase.
From a month to a fortnight.
From a fortnight to a week.
And from a week to four days, four days to two, and finally, two to one.
Auria set her pen down and locked her door with a click.
Then she pulled out a dark hooded cloak from her closet, donned it, and smiled while murmuring.
“Shall we go again today?”
In the next moment, she was out on the night streets.
“Hey, bartender, another drink here!”
“Give me the booze, now!!”
Most shops had been closing early due to the string of murders, yet some businesses were taking advantage of the situation to stay open.
A woman wandered around such a shop, spotting a drunken patron exiting and approaching him.
“Ughh, getting drunk… Huh? Who are you?”
The drunkard showed signs of caution at the woman in the hood.
Even a reckless person drinking at this hour was wary of someone in suspicious attire due to the recent murders.
“Um, if you don’t mind, would you like to play with me for a bit?”
“Huh?!”
But the drunkard’s alarm faded instantly when the woman pulled back her hood, revealing her face.
Her beauty and voice were irresistible to a drunken man.
“Play? Sounds good!”
“Then follow me. It’s too crowded here for a man and woman to play at night, don’t you think?”
“Uh, hehehe…”
The drunkard was completely captivated by her tempting words, following her eagerly.
Finally, they arrived in a dark alley, far from the gaze of the patrolling guards scattered throughout the streets.
“Gulp… Now that we’re here, let’s…”
“Right. Now that we’re here, we should start. But did you not learn when you were young?”
The woman, having led the drunkard deep into the alley, smiled brightly.
“Never follow a stranger without caution.”
At that moment,
-■■■■■■!!!
A shadow of something winged suddenly loomed over the dark alley.
“…Ugh, uhh?!”
The drunkard let out a scream as he beheld the sudden bat-like monster, but the sound echoed through the alley a beat too late.
With sharp teeth and gleaming claws, the frightful sight of the monster reminded him of the morning newspaper article he had read.
Among the victims of the city’s murders, some had died in horrific states, as if attacked by a monster.
Panicking, the drunkard heard the woman say behind him, with the monster looming over him.
“Let’s start a game of tag~ If you get caught, you’ll die, so you’d better run!”
“Y-yeahh!!”
The drunkard turned and ran as fast as he could to escape her.
If he could just get a little further, there’d be a main road where the patrol guards would be.
If he got there, he would surely survive.
“Ugh, ugh… Just a bit more…!”
As he madly dashed, he noticed he was nearing the end of the alley.
Thinking that he was just one step away from escaping, a feeling of relief washed over him.
“W-what the…?!”
Suddenly, a black wall appeared before him, blocking his path.
“Uhh… uhhhhh…!!!”
The panicked drunkard began banging on the wall with all his might.
He was hitting the wall so hard that his bones could shatter, shouting to survive.
But as he pounded the wall, he realized something too late.
“Ah… ahh…”
Tap-tap.
He heard footsteps right behind him.
“Did you think you were safe? How does it feel to see hope disappear right in front of you?”
Turning slowly to look back at the woman’s voice, he saw her smiling brightly at his despair.
“Aha, that expression is my favorite.”
*
“Hm, is this sufficient?”
Auria finished her manuscript with a period and smiled charmingly.
At her feet lay the lifeless body of the nameless drunkard, her latest tragic protagonist.
What gave Auria the courage to commit such bold acts was a newfound ability she had acquired one day.
From some point onward, she found she could freely move to her desired locations or create barriers that trapped whatever was nearby.
Having awakened this ability, she felt it was uniquely suited to her.
Not just useful for committing flawless crimes, but it mirrored her desire to see and hoard the ‘end’ of everything—she was reluctant to share it with others.
-■■■■■■■■!
Except for the bat monster born from the energy flowing from her body.
Regardless, it was clear that neither was a power any ordinary human would possess.
Yet, Auria did not find it odd that such powers had arisen within her.
After all, hadn’t she always been far from normal?
Furthermore, the more differences she gained from others, the more she could accept that her uniqueness was simply tied to that fact.
“Thirteen stories of similar content already, and I’m not getting tired of it.”
In any case, utilizing her abilities, Auria was tasting the ‘end’ of people every day.
It was her thirteenth one; a series of similar crimes considered a string of murders by the public, yet Auria didn’t find it tiresome.
It was always fresh and enjoyable, to the point where she wanted to experience it every day if she could.
“Still, I definitely crave a bigger thrill.”
However, that didn’t mean she was fully satisfied.
Every day, Auria felt the yearning within her grow.
She had tasted the ‘end’ of objects.
She had tasted the ‘end’ of humans.
So what would be next…
As she closed her eyes and opened them again, she was standing atop the highest building in the city.
From that vantage point, Auria looked down at the artistic city sprawling before her and murmured.
“I wonder what the ‘end’ of this city would taste like…”
With a glint in her eye, Auria licked her lips.
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