RAW:  TL: MayonaizeShrimp
ED: -none-

Heya, No Fatigue 84 will be posted tomorrow.  Also, I"m trying to remove any j.a.panese honorifics from my translations from now on. The keyword here is *try* as English doesn"t have that much honorifics that I can use as a replacement.

Year 1299 Month of Vulture (12th month) Day 7, Early morning.

A woman"s mangled corpse was found.
The woman was killed by a cut through her throat. After death, her abdomen was cut open and parts of her internal organs were damaged.

It was a terrifying incident, but at this point, it hadn"t caught the eye of the busy Monokans citizens.

Although ill.u.s.trated newspaper had recently picked up and published the incident, there were only a handful of people who could read, so the incident only ended up as another gossip in a random tea ceremony.
But even then, most of the sensible n.o.bles would only raise their eyebrow and skip through it entirely. It was normal for them to avert their attention from the topic and avoid any comment if possible.

Although the security around the royal capital was relatively better than the other capital city of other countries and kingdoms, murder cases were still frequent.
But none of them was as grotesque as this one.

Also, the fact that the incident occurred in the 「New Town」 dulled the reaction of the rich n.o.bles and merchants living in the 「Old Town」.
For the rich people who lived in the 「Old Town」, the 「New Town」 looked more like another world that had nothing to do with them.
Just one slightly unusual incident wasn"t enough for them to change their indifferent att.i.tude.

However, the situation changed when another murder case was discovered on the 7th day of the month of Nightingale (1st month) in the year 1300.

The second victim was a woman who owned a tailor shop and lived in the New Town.
The victim was the Old Town Royal Theatre"s exclusive supplier. Her shop singlehandedly tailored every costume that the theatre needed for any kind of plays. Although she couldn"t be considered as wealthy and her shop was set up in the New Town, as an exclusive supplier for the royal theatre, she still had a considerable number of n.o.ble acquaintances.

The woman was also killed by a cut to her throat. After death, she was also gutted and her internal organs were scooped out.

As a result of the tragedy that struck a well-known tailor, some n.o.bles felt a tinge of pain on their chest. Meanwhile, the other more-mean-hearted n.o.bles felt a great thrill from such an incident. After all, these kinds of incidents made a great material for conversation.

「Good grief… You know about that social gathering that I couldn"t refuse? Every single people there were talking about the ripper all the time.
What the h.e.l.l did they mean by 『Who do you think will be the next victim』? I know they"re indifferent, but this has gone too far!」

Father, who was rarely called to the high-cla.s.s society gathering, came back complaining.

By the way, 「The Ripper」 was the name given to this indiscriminate serial killer.

「The people of the New Town are making a huge uproar like they tend to always do.
When facing an indiscriminate serial murderer, of course they will wonder if they"re going to be the next target」

Since Adventurer Guild was located in the New Town, mother was the most knowledgeable regarding things that happened in the New Town.

It was clear that the incident that happened during the 12th month wasn"t just a single disaster, but a series of even bigger incidents.
Also, because the incident occurred in the new town, the residents of the new town imagined that they or a close person might become the next victim, and some people fall into the state of depression.

「People are also rushing the Patrol Knights Order to quickly find the murderer. (TL: 巡査騎士団) Poor Corzei had to handle the complaints from the n.o.bles and the regular citizens. He was pitted from the top and bottom」

Corzei was the captain of the Patrol Knights Order. As the captain of the Royal Guards, father had some encounters with him.

Although the Patrol Knights had investigated thoroughly for ten days after the second incident, they still couldn"t even see the shadow or the form of the criminal.

Eyewitness testimonies came from both old and new town citizens, but since most of them were just a.s.sumptions and prank testimonies, the knights eventually gave up on verifying them.

So instead, they went to the poorer residential area in the New Town and detained anyone who showed any sign of bad behavior. Those who went out alone and those who stayed alone at home during the night of the incident were dragged to the Patrol Knights Order"s office and subjected to violent and harsh interrogations.

But even after all those efforts, the Knights couldn"t find any trace of the Ripper. Furthermore, after their forceful investigation method, they received extreme criticisms from the citizens.

To add salt to injury, the ill.u.s.trated newspaper published caricature of the Captain"s incompetence every single day. The n.o.bles of the Old Town also voiced their request for the captain"s dismissal. But for the citizens of the New Town who lived directly under the threat of the Ripper, their situation won"t improve even if the captain of the Patrol Knights was fired.

Even in case of the oh-so-great n.o.bles of the Old Town ordered an investigation, it certainly wasn"t because they put the safety of the lower-caste citizens of the New Town in mind.

So as the minimal defensive countermeasure for the incident, the citizens of the New Town decided to not go out at night and barred their doors and windows shut. Sadly, some poor citizens had no choice to work on the night shifts. Those people were not only live in fear of the Ripper, but also being suspected by the other citizens and the patrol knights.

「I heard that the economy is getting worse in the Old Town, but the New Town is even worse. People are too scared to go out at night.
Meanwhile, I heard that self-defense weapons and protective gears were selling like hot cakes」

Steph said after she went back from her shopping errand.

According to Steph, the atmosphere in the NewTown wasn"t only bad during nighttime, but also during the day. It seemed that the quarrel among the citizens won"t cease any time soon.

Of course, the Patrol Knights Order tried to break the fights, but then the citizens turned against them and said 「You are just as bad for leaving that murderer at large」. They then surrounded the knights and stoned them.

「So Ed, what did you see from this incident?」

Father asked for my opinion.

「Un…… For now? Nothing」

Of course the Ripper case reminded me of the slasher who also reincarnated to this world, Kizaki Tooru.

I was also worried that the whole situation was similar to the case of 「Jack the Ripper」 from my world.

「But something feels out of place. Though even to say, I knew it because David-niisan told me」

The Ripper didn"t even try to hide its work.

When Kizaki killed more than a hundred people in his previous life, he probably used his own bas.e.m.e.nt to prevent the incident from being exposed. But then, there was also a possibility after coming to another world, there was no one that could restrain him so he no longer needs to hide his crime.

But in that case, another question popped into one"s mind. 『What had he been doing during the first 6 years after reincarnation?』.

「For an apostle of the evil G.o.d, what was being done was way too small-scaled」

Mother said the same thing that I was thinking.

She said it right.
Compared to what the other evil G.o.d"s apostles did, what the Ripper had done was nothing more than small scale incidents.

Goleth was leading the 〈Black Wolf Fang〉 and spearheaded an attack to invade the kingdom. Gazaine also took over the a.s.sa.s.sination cult 〈Yatagarasu〉 and tried to take over the country.
Thinking about Kizaki Tooru, as someone who was personally chosen by the Evil G.o.d from a different world, I didn"t think he would only do something this small-scale.

「That"s why, there"s nothing we could do now besides wait and see how it goes. There was also a chance that the Patrol Knights Order might be able to capture the Ripper」

Either way, I wasn"t the only one who could catch the slashing demon.
I was confident in my ability to catch the slashing demon if I ever met one, but it was impossible for me to find the Ripper in such a huge town.

Besides, that kind of work should be left with the Patrol Knight Orders.
Although they were receiving harsh criticism from the ill.u.s.trated newspaper, as far from what I got from father, the Patrol Knights Order wasn"t incompetent in the slightest.
As the one who popularized the press printing typography, I did feel responsible for how quickly the irresponsible gossip articles spread. Since His Majesty maintained a calm judgment on this murder case, we had no choice but to wait for the situation to subside.

ーIn short, if it was only up to this point, this murder case had nothing to do with me.