The Demon Prince goes to the Academy - Chapter 600

Chapter 600:

Dawn of December 3rd.

The site of the theft of the tombs of the Saints of the Templars has been discovered.

On the evening of the same day, December 3rd.

In the cemetery of the National Cemetery, circumstances that seemed to have been attempted robbery were also found. Since then, the National Cemetery has strengthened access control to guard against grave robbers.

It can be said that there is absolutely no possibility that the two incidents are unrelated, but it is too suspicious that the dates overlap.

If it was the same crime, did the work at the national cemetery fail?

“That’s where you just went.”

“yes.”

The four left the prison camp and were heading to the cemetery again.

But this time, we’re not heading to Ashur’s Tomb.

After confirming the location of the tomb where the robbery attempt had taken place, he was on his way to the site.

The manager offered to guide them personally, but Ellen refused.

Anything can only be known by seeing it for yourself.

Of course, it’s snowing like this and it’s been a long time since the incident happened, so I don’t know what I’ll know if I go.

Just like what we found out in the basement of the Knights Templar, if you check it yourself this time, you might learn something.

“What the hell is going on… … . What happened?”

Ludwig’s head was more than complicated because of the incident and the direction of the pursuit, which had changed so much from when he first started.

“No matter what happened, one thing is certain.”

Heinrich chewed his lips and said.

“The fact that I thought it was a crazy thing from a crazy guy probably wasn’t crazy.”

It was Heinrich’s self-deprecating murmur, wanting to beat himself up just now for ignoring Dettomorian’s words.

“There was not one thing in common, but two.”

Louise says as she looks around the snowy National Cemetery.

“Two?”

Louise gives a short answer to Ellen’s question.

“It’s a graveyard.”

They had already left the kwanliso and walked a long way to the graves of the dead.

“It’s a place where people with extraordinary powers are buried.”

A common feature of the cemetery.

Beyond that, there was one more thing in common: the place where even those who were buried were buried.

When there was only one incident site, all problems arising from that site had to be considered.

However, if the number of sites is increased by one more, the intersection between sites must be considered.

We need to consider the parts that are in common with each other as more powerful clues.

Louise let out a white breath and spoke quietly.

“If you tried to create undead here and the same thing happened in both places… … . This probably did not happen out of vengeance or hatred for the Five Great Main Churches.”

When the Templar Catacombs were the scene of a crime, it had to be considered that this might have been caused by anger at the Templars or the Five Great Cults. Because the insult itself of turning the ashes of saints into undead could already be revenge.

However, the site was added to the Imperial National Cemetery, which has nothing to do with the Knights Templar.

The purpose, then, is not vengeance.

and the intersection.

The tombs of the saints, where those who had great power were buried.

Hwangdo National Cemetery, where those who made contributions during the Great War or after the Gate Incident are buried.

The common point is that it is a place where the strong are buried.

“If, for all other reasons, the same thing was attempted here, the culprits’ aims would be rather simple rather than complicated.”

“… … okay.”

Ellen nodded her head as if she knew what Louise was going to say even if she didn’t say anything, and Louise muttered quietly.

If there are too many clues, the case becomes chaotic.

But when you find commonalities between the clues, the reasoning gets easier.

Through the commonalities between incidents and clues that have become increasingly obscure, they gradually approach the truth.

“Did you just need a powerful undead?”

All emotional words, such as anger, revenge, and hatred, have now lost their power as clues.

In a situation where complicated interests or numerous forces are intertwined, the direction of reasoning got lost for a while.

If it’s clear that the perpetrators came to this scene, and their intentions match what they’re doing underground, the truth becomes clear.

The undead were not a means but an end.

The undead were needed.

strong undead.

That’s why the culprits must have had a very simple intention that they only found the tomb where the strong were buried.

Louise von Schwarz judged.

* * *

Ellen stopped in front of graveyards that looked no different than any other graveyard.

“Here.”

There are a total of five tombs in the vicinity where robbery attempts are believed to have taken place. The conclusion at the time was that the grass covering the graveside was overturned, so it was assumed that it was not actually dug up.

The kwanliso had no choice but to reinforce access control, presuming that there had been such an attempt whether or not it was stolen.

It is literally a national cemetery where war heroes are buried.

Even if there are countless numbers, each one is a graveyard for heroes. So, if even one of the graves was robbed, the head of the management as well as the people involved would surely be robbed, so of course it was inevitable.

Of course, it is impossible to tell with the naked eye whether or not there was a robbery attempt. In the first place, both the tombstone and the ground were buried in the snow.

Ellen looks around.

Because the weather is like this, there are very few mourners.

“This is an inconspicuous place.”

“Surely so.”

Since it is a corner and slightly entered into the forest, this place was not well visible from the center of the graveyard as it was hidden by the trees of the forest.

It is a place where you can do anything strange, even at night, without being noticed by anyone, even if you want to dig a robbery or perform a suspicious ceremony.

Ellen brushed her eyes off the tombstone, checked the names of the tombstones where the robbery attempt had taken place, and then turned to Heinrich.

“Melt Heinrich’s eyes.”

“okay.”

So far, I have refrained from using my abilities to avoid attracting attention, but this is an inconspicuous place and there are no mourners around.

It doesn’t even matter who is watching now.

– Ugh!

The flame summoned by Heinrich emits heat and begins to melt the thick snow in an instant.

Ellen, Louise, and Ludwig all felt the heat of the flame burning their faces in real time.

how long has it been

Even when the accumulated snow melted, the ground in the cemetery was bare.

The grass, brown withered by the winter, hung limply, wet with melted snow.

five cemeteries.

The flat ground behind the tombstone.

The fact that there was a robbery attempt means that they tried to dig up the ground.

Ellen touched the flat grass of the graveyards where the robbery had been attempted, and soon pulled the ground a few times and pulled a handful of grass from the ground.

“Eh Ellen… … !”

Ludwig was horrified to see Ellen destroying the cemetery with her own hands, but Ellen shook her head.

“It didn’t give me much strength. It was like this in the first place.”

Grass basically has intertwined roots. Even now, in winter, if the roots of the grass are cut off, they do not connect again.

So, Ellen pulled up part of the grass that had been cut off in the first place along with the pile of dirt.

“Looks like the managers did a pretty thorough job. I could have just overlooked it.”

Of course, after discovering the site, the ground would have been compacted and repaired to make it look less unnatural. At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it.

If it hadn’t been for one of the cemetery managers who had a very good eye, I would have just passed by.

Louise slowly nodded at Ellen’s words.

“Could have been discovered by the mourners, not by the administrators. If it’s the grave of a family member or friend, I’ll take a closer look.”

“okay.”

Although the warden said that it was noticed by the administrators, it is highly likely that someone among the mourners found it and reported it to the kwanliso.

The fact that the mourners did not say that it was discovered could have made the warden lie because he literally went numb. And for Ellen, it belongs to a lie that can be forgiven.

Mourners or administrators saw the unnatural filling of soil and grass on the tomb. And it was assumed that it was a robbery attempt.

And the site was filled up by the managers to make it look normal again.

Ellen examined the ground closely and could see the unnatural shape of the mounds of dirt on the graveyard.

See with your own eyes.

came to see

And Ellen didn’t come to see the grass.

“Ellen… … .”

Ludwig muttered blankly.

“It can be like this… … ?”

Heinrich also muttered blankly.

This is because I can now guess what Ellen is going to do from now on, even if I don’t have to tell her.

“It won’t work.”

Ellen’s hands have blue magic power.

There is only one thing you need to do to find out what happened here.

to check with your eyes.

-Hook!

Ellen digs the ground with her bare hands.

to check the grave.

Ellen starts digging.

* * *

The manager said he would accompany him, but Ellen refused because there was a good reason.

And although not everyone came and told each other what to do, everyone knew they had to do this.

Even if they knew that there was a robbery attempt, the management office couldn’t do crazy things like digging up the grave and checking it.

But Ellen has an entirely different possibility in mind, so she has to do it herself.

Ellen didn’t even need anyone to help her with her work.

Ludwig tried to help at least a hand, as if he couldn’t just watch, but Ellen told him to stay out of the way, saying it was rather a hindrance.

It was a bare-handed job without a shovel, but it didn’t take too long.

He is a superman who has reached the master class where his whole body is no different from a weapon. So, as soon as Ellen started digging with her whole body in the bare ground, she was soon able to dig a deep pit, digging and breaking through the frozen soil.

“There is a body.”

Beneath the pit, says Ellen, covered in dirt.

Obviously there are dead bodies. Ellen’s eyes widened when she finally found the remains of a lion under the pit.

And from the top of the pit, Ludwig, Heinrich, and Louise were looking down at the scene with firm expressions.

Everyone has experienced death, and they have seen many dead bodies.

I feel guilty, but everyone is already frightened by the corpse itself and is not horrified.

If there ever was such a thing as the Templar Catacombs, there should be no bodies.

But the body is still there.

“Wait then… … . This has nothing to do with becoming undead… … . Is that so?”

As Heinrich said, if this cemetery has nothing to do with becoming undead, then the manager’s words are correct.

Someone tried to rob the cemetery and failed.

If so, now Ellen has dug a useless grave.

He was just insulting the death of someone who was supposed to go to rest.

“No no.”

But Ellen shook her head.

Ellen picks up a piece from the dug up ground.

“Is it a coffin piece?”

Louise muttered as she watched Ellen pick it up.

“… … yes. I think so.”

The coffin buried in the ground is broken.

It’s not something that can be done outside in the first place.

“If it was undead, the undead would have broken the coffin and crawled up to the ground in the first place, and if it was a grave robbery, the grave robbers would have dug down to this point.”

If the undead came up to the ground while breaking the coffin, it makes sense that they broke the coffin.

However, the grave robbers must have originally intended to collect the burial items inside the tomb.

Then, as long as the ground was dug up to the point where the coffin could be seen, they would not have broken the coffin noisily when quietly robbing the grave goods would not have been enough.

Grave robbers couldn’t have deliberately made a fuss by breaking the coffin, so it’s fair to say that the undead broke the coffin and climbed up.

“… … What is this dead body?”

However, if the undead directly broke the coffin, it wouldn’t make sense for the body that should have become the undead to remain there in the first place.

In the basement of the Knights Templar, the perpetrators who had left the scene undisturbed, in this case, not only covered up the scene again, but also buried it back into the ground without retrieving the undead.

Given the circumstances, it is clear that the grave robbers did something they shouldn’t have done, so it’s not the grave robbers’ actions.

However, to see it as someone who aimed at the undead, he didn’t take the undead.

“It’s someone else’s body… … . Is it like that?”

Ellen frowns at Ludwig’s question.

“I do not know. But if that’s the case why… … . I really don’t know. If you make the undead and put another corpse in it, you had to do that in the basement of the Templars in the first place. But did you do here what you didn’t do there?”

It is strange to predict the possibility that a body that has already been buried is turned into an undead and then another body is put back into the grave. It’s strangely laborious, but it’s meaningless.

There can be no universal person like Ellen who digs the ground and identifies the body.

And the moment you try to dig up the corpse and directly check the body, you can’t help but think about the possibility that the buried remains have been replaced.

Therefore, reviving the undead and putting another corpse in the tomb was of no value or meaning as a camouflage technique in the first place.

It’s strange if it’s the same criminal.

There was no interest in concealment in the Templar Underground, but here it was.

Even the undead didn’t take it or swapped bodies.

“however… … . It’s a bit strange.”

Heinrich expressed his doubts.

“what?”

“He was buried this year… … . Corruption is so fast?”

“… … ?”

Ellen takes a closer look.

At Heinrich’s question, Louise finally looked at the tombstone.

“Gordon Schick Alskeen’s high-ranking knight. In October of this year… … . this… … .”

It is December now.

“It’s only been two months?”

“okay.”

At Louise’s sigh, Ellen, who was in the pit, narrowed her brows.

The corpse in front of me had eye sockets pierced.

October is when the days start to get cold.

There is no detailed knowledge about the speed of decomposition, but in Ellen’s eyes, the body buried in front of her eyes was already in a state of considerable decomposition.

It’s not that there’s no flesh and muscle at all, but it’s too much to see as a corpse buried after it started to get cold.

“It seems that another corpse has been hit.”

“okay… … .”

At Louise’s words, Ellen nodded helplessly.

I thought there was no reason to do the meaningless thing of swapping corpses, but the corpses are actually swapped.

If so, it is clear that it is not the work of grave robbers.

Ludwig muttered blankly.

“how… … . Why did you do this… … ?”

took the undead

But this time, he took the undead and put another corpse in it.

Why should I do this?

Other possibilities were still unreachable, so Ellen and others could not help but think that the perpetrators had done nothing but unpleasant things.

“I have to dig all the other graves.”

In the end, Ellen had no choice but to do a few more digging.