The Evolution of a Goblin to the Peak

Souta found that something strange was happening inside the duke's mansion. The people that were guarding the duke's mansion could be counted on two hands. This place should have the tightest security in this dukedom. So why? He could only think of one reason.

That was because the people guarding the duke's mansion were the most loyal subordinates of the duke, or else the duke wouldn't let them guard here, as there's a possibility that the guard will discover his secret. That's why the duke didn't let anyone guard this mansion.

"If it's like this... it's easier to sneak inside." Souta spoke in a low voice. It's not that he's complaining. Thanks to this, it made his work easier than he thought.

He suddenly stopped as he saw that the soul he had in his earring had increased. It increased by two souls. It seems that someone died just now. If he turns back now and roams around the dukedom, there's a possibility that he will find the culprit.

'Should I go back or not?' He pondered what he should do. It was then that Saya's voice sounded in his head.

'You're here, so you should finish what you have to do first. Also, the chances of you finding the culprit in this huge place are less than fifty percent.'

Souta looked over and saw the guards were gone. It's time to proceed forward.

Souta stood up and swiftly went beside the duke's mansion. He looked up and saw that the window on the second floor of the mansion was open.

He climbed up, and when he saw that there was no one inside, he entered the room through the window.

"What's with this room?" Souta muttered as he looked around the room.

The room looks normal. It has a simple bed and a table on the side, but the interior design of the room was exquisite, as expected of the duke's mansion. Different books were neatly arranged in the corner of the room.

Souta walked towards the table and placed his finger on top of it. The dust had already formed on top of the table.

"Did they forget to clean this room?" Souta muttered a question. He didn't think that anyone would forget to clean this room.

He stretched out his hand and picked up a notebook on the side of the table. Souta patted the dust off of it before he opened it.

"I'm Soraya, a maid inside the duke's mansion. The maid here has different roles, and my role is to take care of the duke's children. I like this job of mine as the children are kind and understanding."

Souta found that this was the diary of a maid that took care of the duke's children. He continued to read the rest.

"Today, I felt that something changed in this place. The duke caught an illness, as did the rest of his family. Of course, they didn't let the people know this. Only the maids and some of the guards knew the condition of the duke and his family.

"All of them are showing the same symptoms," said the doctor who checked the condition of the duke and the rest of his family."

"And the result was stunning... The doctor said that he didn't know the disease that afflicted the duke and his family. The doctor hasn't encountered this type of disease for the rest of his life. Even the healing spell didn't show any effect."

"Some of the maids like me showed an expression that they would leave the duke's mansion. They are afraid that they will catch the same disease. They don't have money, so it's natural to feel that way. Me too; I wanted to leave this place, but I'm concerned about the well-being of the children."

Disease? Souta read it once again and didn't say anything about the symptoms of the disease. In the end, she was just an ordinary maid and didn't have much knowledge of the duke's disease. That's the reason why she didn't bother herself with writing it down in her diary.

'Next page... I think I have an idea about it.' Souta heard Saya's voice in his mind. He turned to the next page and continued to read the diary along with Saya.

"Today, a miracle happened. The duke and his family recovered from their illness. It was so sudden that they could already walk and talk like a normal person. Everyone was happy for them, including me."

"Today, I've received news that some of the people in the dukedom were killed. All of their internal organs were gone. I got scared when I received this piece of news, but then I remembered that I'm in the safest place in this dukedom, so I don't have to worry about myself. I'm sure that all the guards were going to capture the perpetrator in no time."

Souta frowned when he read this passage. It seems that the killings in this dukedom weren't ordinary. The internal organs of the people who died were gone. No sane person will do this. Even Souta will not do this to the person that he killed.

He will not hesitate to kill his enemy, taking their internal organs and using them for some kind of ritual. That's insane.

'You're disgusting, you know. What you did to the people that you killed was even worse than this. You're taking all of their soul and preventing them from living another life. That's the worst for me. You're sending them into oblivion,' Saya's voice sounded in his mind.

Souta ignored her, and he continued to read the diary.

"Today, some of the maids that stayed here left the mansion. I don't know why. They just suddenly left without telling anyone. At the same time, the killings in the dukedom appeared in my mind."

"Today is the duke's first wife's birthday. The maids were preparing for a banquet. Everyone should be happy on this occasion, but I found that they all have the same plain face. They don't show any emotion, including the duke's children. It's weird."

"It's weird... Everything is weird. I don't want to stay here anymore. Right now, only five maids were working here in the duke's mansion. The rest of the maids were gone, and I didn't even hear anything about them. It's impossible for them, including my roommate, to leave without saying anything."

"I'm going to leave this place... Actually, I found the duke's wife eating my roommate in the basement of the mansion. It scared me. Even now, while writing this, I couldn't get that thing out of my mind... I'm packing up my things and will leave this place tonight."

The diary ends with that passage.

Souta closed the notebook and placed it back on top of the table.

"Soraya, thanks for the information." He muttered in a low voice and thought that the maid was dead. If she knew that, there's no way that the duke would let her leave this place. The same must be said of the rest of the maids here.

They were all dead.

But Souta gained a lot of information from this diary.

The guards hid the fact that all the people who died in the killings didn't have any internal organs at all. They were brutally killed.

"So why are they taking out all the internal organs? Also, why did the maids vanish in this mansion?" Souta muttered as he rubbed his chin. He then recalled something that he read in the diary.

The basement, the place where the maid saw the duke's wife eating her roommate.

Souta walked towards the door, and he decided to know everything now that he was here in the duke mansion. Everything will come to light as soon as he discovers the key information in these killings.

He placed his ear on the door and tried to sense if there were people in the hallway. After making sure that no one was in the hallway, Souta opened the door and exited the maid's room.

This mansion looked deserted. It feels different inside than outside the mansion. The atmosphere here was chilly.

Souta stopped on his track as he felt the ground slightly shake. If he wasn't focusing on his surroundings, Souta wouldn't be able to sense it at all.

He frowned and looked outside the window. He guessed that the tremors came from underground, and the cause of it was his party members.

"It seems that something is hiding there in the ground," Souta muttered, and he shook his head. He ignored the tremor in the ground and focused on the task in front of him.

...

Souta checked all the rooms on the second floor. He discovered that all the rooms here had been abandoned for a long time. No one was living here on the second floor of the duke's mansion.

He went downstairs and checked the first floor of the mansion. This place was the same as the second floor. There's no sign of people living here except for the two rooms.

The duke's room and the wife's room.

Also, the children that were mentioned in the diary couldn't be found at all.