Durin's Diary

Sidney Union, Sulem Timberland.

Chief Detective Royce Haz of the Third Task Force.

In front of Salik Mansion, at the gates of Salik City.

The gray-haired old man in a black police uniform stood in front of the gates of the Salik family estate, after the snowstorm had subsided. He glanced at the deceased in the cabin, took out a cigarette case from his pocket, and lit a cigarette for himself.

The skinny redhead next to him greeted his colleagues at the gate, "Sorry we're late, as you know, I had other business to attend to with old Royce."

"I know, that's why Chief Detective Melissa did not blow her top when you guys weren't here when she arrived. However, a few unlucky sods from the second group are about to be chewed out to death." The officer at the gate smiled bitterly and lifted the police line, "This case has blown up big, the Salik count who was exterminated had connections to human trafficking."

Royce coughed twice and glanced at the restless reporters nearby as he crossed the police line, patting the young colleague's arm, "Standing around in the cold doing nothing is not bad. Don't go looking for trouble."

The old detective didn't like it when the young folks talked nonsense—even if he knew it was true. The issue was that the nobles didn't want the whole world to know it was true. So, why couldn't it be kept under wraps this time?

Because the killer was a follower of the God of Vengeance.

The God of Vengeance was a very powerful Alien God from another plane. He didn't need followers; anyone with a justified reason for revenge could invoke his name. This meant that someone taking up a cause for vengeance would be responsible for the matter, and thus the Alien God would cast his attention and continue to watch over the development of the event.

It meant that a victim had found the Salik family, they killed all family members, and then they released the children.

If there was still someone trying to suppress all this, they had better be prepared to die just like the Salik family did.

Moreover, slaughters carried out in the name of the God of Vengeance could not be tracked using Spell Formulas, and these shadowy and untraceable followers of the God of Vengeance were the last kind of murderer any detective wanted to deal with—because many among the populace were willing to aid them in their cause.

This made the investigation extremely difficult, and many cases ended up as cold cases.

Neither the Mage Tower nor the Church of the Good Gods liked to help the police with these matters—if I help you today, what happens if the manure cart breaks its axle at my doorstep tomorrow?

Having just entered the hall, old Royce saw the long tongue of the Salik household's elder swinging from the chandelier.

The pile of corpses beneath his feet was the very standard procedure of the Grassland Elves' Order of Extermination—if possible, the main culprits must die; if possible, all family members must bleed out and be stacked at their feet.

Regarding the three children who lay before the pile of corpses.

Old Royce frowned—this was getting interesting. This indicated that the Grassland Elves had struck a deal with the mastermind of the Salik family. The children who had not died in the first assault were given preferential treatment; they were not bled out but rather killed swiftly with a single, peaceful bullet.

Old Royce even noticed the youngest child, who had taken a bullet in the chest. He sighed at the thought—the killer was indeed merciful, knowing that a bullet in the forehead of a seven-year-old would shatter that tiny skull to bits, so he chose to place a bullet in the child's chest.

His fourteen-year-old sister and seventeen-year-old brother were not so lucky; bullets had gone through their skulls, and they were dead as could be.

He looked up, at his peer hanging from the noose, swaying in the wind.

And you, what deal did you strike with the Grassland Elves?

"Royce, stop staring," a dwarf woman in a black Sulem Forest uniform shouted from a distance.

So, old Royce could only take quick, short steps to reach her side.

"What's so interesting about an old thing sticking out its tongue so long? Take a look at this." She handed him a list while speaking.

Old Royce took the list and glanced at it, "Our killer has a fine hand in Eastern calligraphy."

The list was filled with the names of the Salik family members, each with a check mark after it.

The dwarf woman in front of him was none other than Melissa Toe, the Chief Detective of the Sulem Forest police, who could stand her ground despite her height and literally wash the faces of her subordinates with her spit.

"Beautiful handwriting, decisive actions, look at these cartridge cases, all from the Eastern Elven Territory, top-notch stuff." The lady pointed at a dozen or so cartridge cases on a side coffee table as she finished speaking.

The young redhead, Link, had already run over, picked up a cartridge case, and looked at the end of it, "Well, military ammo. The Salik family has stirred up some kind of monster."

"Nobody's come out okay after messing with the Grassland Elves, throughout these years, I've only seen the Corleon brat from the North, who managed to deceive the little daughter of the Ailish Ducal Family and still get back in one piece. If it weren't for the old ties between Corleon and Ailish families, I believe the brat would have been dead long ago," Chief Detective Melissa grumbled, then turned to Royce, "Old Royce, you lucky old dog, explain to your little sidekick what this all means."

Old Royce was unfazed. In the Sulem Forest, the largest police department of the Sidney Union, a young supervisor calling an older subordinate an old dog was not an insult—since the Sulem Forest police claimed to be the Emperor's hounds—and surviving long enough to be called an old dog in this job was certainly not easy; it signified whether an officer was indeed fortunate or not.

After all, making a living in Sulem Forest Police wasn't easy; going into early retirement was, but dying in service to His Majesty was far too common—of the three hundred classmates with whom Royce had graduated from the police academy, he was the only one left.

"Old Royce, what does this mean?" Link asked.

"Grassland Elves use a twin-bullet system; military ammo is only used within the Craftsmen's Guild, the armed police departments, and the military. Even the renowned Demon Hunters can only use civil ammo with added charges unless they buy military grade. The one who killed the Salik family used all military ammo. Combined with the Order of Extermination to massacre all Salik family members, it implies that the killer is serving the Grassland Elves' Elders' Council. Now, with hundreds of kids left, and the corpses bearing the God of Vengeance's blood emblem, I believe if any of us makes one wrong move, we'd end up dead too," Royce said, then lit up a cigarette—this situation was tricky; if he remembered correctly, just a few days ago, there was some friction between the Grassland Elves' Foreign Affairs and their own, though he wasn't sure what the matter was, only that it didn't end well.

It was said that the Grassland Elves' ambassador was very angry, and even the Original Creator's Church imposed sanctions on several families because of it. Those families' members would never receive aid from the church ever again, nor could they step safely onto the soil of the Eastern Elven Territory.

You see, after a prolonged peace, some people start to take the Grassland Elves lightly, thinking that they are just pretending at house in the plains of the Elven Territories of the East, with various races and monsters? No, they fight by the centuries against the creatures and monsters from the Dark Zone and Red Zone, and against the green-skinned orcs from the South, accustomed to blood and death!

The Grassland Elves do not fear death, nor do they shun slaughter. To them, killing a person is no more difficult than killing a chicken.

Look, in just a few days, the fact that Salik family members were traffickers has been revealed, the Grassland Elves' Elders' Council enacted a Thunderstrike, obviously killing the whole Salik family. They must have been in a rush because they didn't even take the kids with them. Now the question is, who would dare to detain these kids and demand the killer from the Grassland Elves?

Old Royce pondered and decided that no one would dare to do such a thing, at least no one in the Sulem Forest Police—what a joke, many of their guns were purchased from the Grassland Elves' Craftsmen's Guild, and with these guns, the mortal police officers of the Sulem Forest even dare to hunt down mid-to-low-level Transcendent criminals in small squads, so no one would fancy crippling themselves.

Besides, both the army and the royal family have strong ties with the Eastern Elven Territory where the Grassland Elves reside, better to let His Majesty himself ponder over this.

The hounds of Sulem Forest are loyal, but not foolish—the mess caused by the Foreign Affairs Department, if they want the killer, let them demand it themselves.

It's said that in the East there are countless patches of black soil, hopefully those portly gentlemen from the Foreign Affairs... can still shine and provide warmth when they're buried under it.