They hadn"t made use of the carriage and instead, Lucas had teleported them to a faraway village which had a smoke burning up at one house that looked as if it had been burned down. Walking closer to the place, Belle noticed the house that had been charred and burnt.

"What happened here?" asked Belle looking at the smoke that hadn"t been put out from the house. 

"We are here to find out about it. Raven said there was death of a white witch, let"s see what happened," said Lucas and they walked towards the house to have the atmosphere fill up with smoke. At the same time they entered, they caught sight of the guards and one councilman who entered the scene to make a quick report of what happened by asking the people around. 

One woman who was being questioned said, "She doesn"t have a family here. Said something about living in Valeria before but I don"t think anyone ever came to visit her." 

"That"s right, she was always alone but we heard from the magistrate that her parents pa.s.sed away."

"Where is the magistrate?" asked the councilman.

"Sir!" came the word out from a middle-aged man, "She didn"t have a family. She never went anywhere except for work." 

And as the conversation went by, Belle pulled Lucas" sleeve. She was looking at the ground that had a straight line which was pa.s.sing by between her and him which went forward, "Do you think this is a witch"s works?"

"When has it never been a witch"s work?" asked Lucas in a quiet voice for only Belle to hear, "Let"s follow and see where it leads."

Belle and Lucas started to follow the lines that went past the village and out of it, "Why does it feel like it"s going to be beyond the village and go to the next one," asked Belle slightly worried, "They probably did it to throw people off who have to come to know and understand what the markings mean in a town or village. They probably continued to add more villages and nearby towns."

"It is possible. Do you think it can be erased?" he asked her to see her shake. 

"I don"t think so, but I will need to study more about witches," Belle only knew some spells but she would need to practice to make use of it. Going back to the site where the house was burned down, and people who had previously been around the place to see what was going on had slowly started to disperse away to get back to their life. 

"I will go talk to the councilman and the magistrate. Will you be alright alone to check the house?" he asked her, "Don"t get caught," and he didn"t wait for her to answer, walking past her to make his way towards the magistrate who was a few steps away from where they initially stood. 

Belle, looked at the house that was still having smoke coming off from it which went up mostly except for the wind that blew once in a while to waver the smoke. The house had no markings around it as she moved the ashes away from the ground with her shoe. 

She wondered if the body of the person had been burnt down along with the house but why would one do it? Maybe she was a witch and someone thought it was the easiest to kill her in this manner than kill the witch in the middle of the village where people would call names. 

She stared at the ashes, wondering when was a good time to bend down and check the contents inside it. 

"Is it your first time seeing a burnt house?" came a voice behind her and Belle turned around to find a man who came forward to look at the house along with her, "I am Dutan," he brought his hand forward, "I work in the council."

Belle looked at the hand before placing her hand in his to see a flash of death that was fresh in the memory. Why did it look like he had killed Greed? 

"You look like you saw a ghost. Is everything alright?" he asked her. 

"I am not used to seeing things like these," she glanced at the burnt house and then looked at him. 

"It is understandable. Many women cannot stand the sight of death and the vile things that go in this world. It is hard to look at things like this. You must have been pa.s.sing by from here to stop and see what the smoke was about?" he was checking why she was here and this man, it didn"t seem like he was who he claimed to be. When her eyes fell on Lucas who stood behind this councilman who was talking to her, she saw him stare at the man. 

"Yes, you are right. Curiosity brought me here," she gave him a bright yet innocent-looking smile that would look harmless, "Do you know what happened here, councilman?" she asked him. Wanting to know his version of what was going on before she would dip her own hands.

The councilman named Dutan gave her a look that was blank for a second before he said, "They are saying a woman was put to the fire in her house, early in the morning possibly by her lover. There are some of her remains that have been collected and placed in the carriage, we will need to show the body before it goes through to close the case." 

"Will the murderer be caught?" asked Belle, her red eyes looking into his red ones. 

"Of course, they will be caught," he gave her a polite smile. 

Belle returned the smile before she bowed her head, "I should probably go. Thank you for your time and work, councilman," and he bowed back.