Deal with The Devil! Chapter 27: Officer Chen

On the day of Torus Moon’s murder, Jinn—Cloaked in the mysterious aspect of his illusionary abilities—stood in front of an open window, looking down.

Down on the stone pavent in front of the school building, several teachers were gathered around his body.

"Guess this is it. My journey starts here," Jinn whispered to himself before turning around to leave the room. He was standing in the attic, where all the unneeded items from the school were stored.

He noticed several tables, chairs, wooden cupboards, and chests. Most of the things were covered under white sheets, but dust and spiderwebs were everywhere.

As Jinn walked around from behind the huge object covered in sheets blocking the view, he heard a sound.

Clank!

Snapping his head in the direction of the sound, Jinn saw a candle stand lying on the ground and a shadowy figure dashing out of the room.

Jinn’s body froze and his stomach sank when he realized that there was another person in the room with him.

"Why didn’t you tell there was soone else in the room?" Jinn gritted his teeth and rushed after the figure, still cloaked under the power of illusion. ’I wonder how much that person has seen.’

"You never asked." The voice responded in a twisted and gloating manner.

Jinn wanted to curse aloud, but instead of wasting ti, he rushed down the stairs, where he heard another sound of sothing falling on the ground in the distance.

By the ti he reached the fourth floor, the individual had vanished.

Jinn did not panic, nor did he fanatically search for the person.

Instead he ordered the voice coldly, "Look for that person."

Without waiting, he himself dismissed his power and slowly made his way down to the third floor. ’Why would he run if he had no idea there was soone else in the room? Just how much did he see?’

By the ti he arrived, the voice had returned. "He is now on the first floor, hiding in one of the classes."

The voice spoke with a mysterious tone, intentionally trying to hide the person’s identity.

But Jinn already knew who it was: "It’s the janitor."

"How?!!!"

The boy did not reply; his eyes moved to the edge of the stairs on the third floor.

There, lying in the corner, was a wooden box chipped at the corners. The lid of the box was open, and a dirty clown peeked his head out of it, staring at Jinn with his void-like eyes.

***

Back inside the classroom where the body of the janitor was still hanging, Captain Hunt was analyzing the dead man with the help of a young man who also helped him with the death of Torus Moon.

"Nothing?"

"This man has been dead for more than a day, sir." There are signs of strangulation on the neck, but it seems they were ford by the rope itself."

The captain humd, his heavy gaze fixed on the body like it was trying to dig holes inside of it to see what had happened.

"Shall we take it down? It won’t be long before the body starts decaying." The Young Officer asked his captain, but the man surprisingly shook his head. "No one will touch it until that person arrives and inspects the body."

"Will he be able to tell us sothing different about the body, sothing we cannot see?"

"Indeed, the eyes of an awakened one are a most special power. Especially the spiritualists; they can see far more than any other category of awakened humans."

’Is the Captain jealous of Officer Chen?’ the younger soldier sensed that his superior’s tone made those words sound inappropriate.

Knock! Knock!

Hearing the sound, the two officers turned their heads to see two people entering the room. It was Mrs. Walker; along with her was another young man with a baby face and soft features.

His curly orange hair bounced as he walked while his small eyes darted around, curious about the world around him.

"This is it, officer Chen. If you need anything else, please let the staff know, and they will help you with it." Mrs. Walker’s tone was colder than usual; she did not even enter the room and bid her farewell from her place.

Officer Chen suddenly froze; he ignored the body and turned to look at the woman with a pitiful look on his face. "So soon? Will you reconsider having dinner?

But Mrs. Walker had already started walking away; she did not even pause upon hearing his request.

"Well, your loss." As he watched her disappear, Officer Chen finally turned his attention to two of his colleagues.

"Greetings, Captain Hunt, Officer Perkins. What do we have here today?"

While the young officer greeted him properly, Captain Hunt grunted in response, "Nice of you to finally show up. The body has already started to sll."

"Relax, Captain; now that I am here, there is nothing to worry about." Officer Chen Waved his hand nonchalantly before weaving a hand seal in front of his now closed eyes.

Words ca out of his mouth like a string of divine whispers: "Eye of Truth."

A green serpentine fla flickered at the base of his spine, rushing towards his eyes, enveloping them. Officer Chen slowly opened his eyes to reveal a pair of turquoise eyes.

The eyes pulsed with an otherworldly hue, leaving a trace in the air as the officer moved around.

The flas on his stomach faded away, but his eyes still shimred with the bright chilling glow. He circled the changing corpse, taking in all details.

Once finished, Officer Chen turned to the fellow Enforcent squad mbers and asked, "Where did this body co from?"

"What do you an, ’where’? This body has always been here. We assud that since the school was closed yesterday, soone killed him and left him hanging here for others to find." Officer Perkins asked in confusion, while the older officer seed to have understood what the man wanted to say.

"You an, this guy was murdered sowhere else and then brought here to be hung on display?" The old man’s thick mustache twitched.

"That would only make things riskier for the killer," he added, his lips pursed.

"I don’t know all of that for now..." The spiritualist shook his head before declaring, "He had been dead for a long ti and even buried sowhere close by. I can take you there."

His words resembled a shocking turn in a complicated investigation, which discarded all of their previous theories. Captain Hunt imdiately asked the man to take them to where the janitor was worried.

Under the lead of Officer Chen, the three of them left the building. The spiritualist saw the world with dull colors. The brightest color he was seeing was a trail of brown sparkles that he followed behind the school.

Behind the center building there was a huge garden filled with tall trees, bushes, and flowerbeds. It spanned from one corner to the other, leaving a small area to walk around.

Following the small path, they arrived at a deserted corner. Officer Chen suddenly paused, prompting the other two to do the sa.

"The body was buried here before it was taken out to hang in that classroom." Officer Chen pointed at a specific piece of land that looked no different from the rest. After lting under the heat of the sun, the snow had turned and made the soil wet.

"But there is sothing wrong about this place." Officer Chen’s voice suddenly turned odd before the glow in his eyes intensified.

"What is it?" Asked the impatient captain. Officer Chen’s breath was caught in his lung. Soon he exhaled loudly before turning around. With a heavy voice he said...

"There is another body."