Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 362 Marty's Paintings

Milo led Enid through all the existing routes.

The families of the five missing children are all relatively well-off, after all, the tuition at Jodingham College is not something that low-income families can afford.

The families of the missing children could not provide many clues. The parents only knew that their children had not returned home all night. They usually went to the college the next day to find their children and question them about why they hadn't come home for the weekend, only to find out that their children were missing.

As someone who witnessed those unfortunate children with bruised and swollen faces fleeing the academy, Milo visited the parents of each of the five families. Throughout the visit, he was patient and calm, reassuring the families while assuring them that the enforcement team would definitely bring the children back.

In short, there was absolutely nothing abnormal about his demeanor and actions, and he felt no remorse whatsoever.

My inner monologue—I'm going to beat up those ill-mannered brats in your family...

Lines spoken: "Mrs. Smith, please rest assured, the law enforcement team is doing everything they can to find the child. We will inform you as soon as we have any news."

……

Of course, it wasn't entirely without any gains.

When Milo asked the parents if they knew where their children usually gathered to play, they all shook their heads blankly. In their eyes, their children might not be academically outstanding, but they were certainly good kids who obeyed the school rules and wouldn't dare to run around outside the school.

In short, the parents and children are not actually very familiar with each other.

Milo's haul came from the home of "Marty," the youngest of the five children.

Marty's parents said that their son had been mentioning his insomnia and frequent dreams for the past six months. However, they did not take it seriously. Especially after they noticed that Marty's personality was becoming increasingly irritable and his behavior was becoming abnormal, they firmly attributed it all to adolescent rebellion and resolutely sent their son to boarding school.

When Milo asked Marty about specific unusual behaviors he had exhibited, his parents answered almost in unison:

"Destructive urges".

They showed Milo the wallpaper and carpet that Marty had slashed with a utility knife during the time he lived in the house, as well as the irreparable burn marks on his room's floor.

Marty's mother covered her mouth and nose, tears streaming down her face:

“We felt like he had become a different person, a complete stranger. Sometimes Xiao Ma would knock on our door in the middle of the night, crying, saying he had a nightmare. But after we put him to sleep, we would wake up the next day to find that he had cut our pet cat in half and put it in a pot in the kitchen…”

"Uh-huh."

Milo seemed thoughtful and gestured to Enid behind him to write all of this down.

He then wandered around the room that had been vacant for almost half a year.

The wallpaper on the walls was covered with dense knife marks, and there were many burn marks in the corners and on the floor, the effect of pouring a little kerosene on the ground and setting it on fire. Under the bed were many withered corpses of dead small animals, such as squirrels and frogs.

Milo wandered around on his own, listening to Marty's parents' description, and began to feel that perhaps he shouldn't have brought Enid to investigate this case.

The disappearance of the five mischievous children may be far more complicated than initially thought.

Based on what we know about Marty so far, it's clear that something is wrong with the child.

Nightmares, destructive tendencies, and mood swings.

These elements combined, along with their bullying of Kai at the academy, create a powerful synergy.

Milo had already constructed a mental outline of Marty's image, including his mental model.

The desire for violence, destruction, or killing has a growth process. From cutting wallpaper to burning floors to torturing frogs and squirrels, to cutting a pet cat in two, and later pointing a utility knife at a weaker classmate, all these behaviors are to satisfy the ever-growing destructive desire in one's heart.

But the question is, are all five children like this, or is it just Marty?
The source of these evil desires that sprouted in Marty's heart can certainly not be simply summarized by the three words "rebellious period".

Because he mentioned nightmares.

Frequent nightmares.

His knocking on his parents' bedroom door late at night was actually a process of struggling and pleading for help.

But as the situation worsened, he was abandoned and left to stay at the academy, which amplified certain things that should have been contained.

In Milo's view, the truth may be different from what Marty's mother said. When Marty cried and knocked on their bedroom door late at night six months ago, the couple probably did not manage to lull Marty to sleep as they claimed, which further led to the death of their cat and the current situation.

Otherwise, she wouldn't be crying so heartbrokenly right now.

Milo glanced at Marty's parents without making a sound, then calmly shrugged and turned his gaze back to Marty's room.

New discoveries were made soon.

On the blackened wooden floor in the corner, Milo saw a strange pattern painted on the wall with black ash.

At first, Milo didn't notice the patterns because they were so scribbled that they looked like they had been smeared on with dirty hands.

Milo noticed the black and gray pattern because he was bending over and lowering his head to take another look at the "horrific scene" under the bed. From his upside-down perspective, he saw that the black and gray pattern in the corner of the wall looked like a pair of outstretched black wings...

"I see..."

Milo got up and approached the corner of the wall.

The hastily drawn marks on the wall may seem insignificant at first glance, but each stroke perfectly outlines the interplay of light and shadow. By simply rotating it 180 degrees, the outline of a pair of wings becomes clearly visible, filled with thick black feathers and black smoke...

Then, new details came into Milo's view.

He saw three small cut marks, smaller than a fingernail, hanging in the center of the pair of black wings in the shape of equilateral triangular petals.

Milo is very familiar with these elements.

What's even more eerie is that when Marty painted this picture in the corner, he wasn't standing or crouching on the floor like the people in the room now. In the dark of night, Marty was hanging upside down on the wall at some unusual angle, painting those black wings.

……

Milo crouched beneath the wings, his eyes gradually becoming clearer.

He recalled the description of the Ripper that the vampire Klaus had given him, which he believed to be true—

"Black wings, burning eyes split into three pieces."

This almost perfectly matches the pattern on the wallpaper in front of Milo.

...

Milo has always viewed the Ripper as nothing more than an attention-seeking clown; he could be considered a potential criminal, but he was still a long way from committing murder.

This is why Milo thought Klaus was talking nonsense when he claimed he was attacked by the Ripper.

In Milo's view, the Ripper's past "achievements" did not demonstrate extraordinary combat power, and it was impossible for him to take down an adult direct descendant vampire so easily.

Moreover, the thing Klaus described didn't look human at all.

But now, Milo has to re-examine Klaus's testimony.

Regardless of whether those black wings were actually the Ripper, the fact that they appeared in the missing child's artwork was enough for Milo to follow the trail.

For more than half a year, no trace of the Great Old Ones or the Ancient Gods has appeared in Nanwei City.

According to the Scarlet Witch, the death of Yog-Sothoth's avatar had a deterrent effect to some extent. Although it was only a projection of a will, it was, after all, a supreme Outer God who had fought a war with the Old Gods in ancient times.

This city has proven it can avert a catastrophe unleashed by an Outer God, so those other so-called eyes peering through the cracks into this world must think twice about their own worth.

So far, although more and more mysterious creatures have emerged in the real world, including groups such as vampires and ghouls, there has never been any trace of other Great Old Ones.

If you think about it, the Scarlet Witch must have been hungry for quite a while now.

……

In Marty's room, Henry the Exiled Shadow copied the painting Marty had left on the wall, and the others also gathered their own clues. Afterwards, Milo took Enid and left.

"There's something strange about this child."

On the street, Enid walked while organizing the notes she had taken down.

"Is it just strange?"

Milo glanced at Enid.

“Is it possible that he has already done that to the other children—” Enid said, making a throat-slitting gesture with her hand and sticking out half of her tongue.

“I don’t know.” Milo shrugged. “But according to the information, Marty is the smallest of these kids. How could he possibly kill the other four, who are much stronger than him, all at once?”

“There are many ways to do this,” Enid said thoughtfully.

"for example?"

Enid blurted out:

"For example, if everyone else is injured, giving him an opportunity to take advantage of the situation, and given that his destructive and murderous desires have always been directed at objects he can't fight back against, like furniture or small animals, it means he still has the ability to judge whether his opponent is stronger than him. So if he sees an opportunity to kill his classmates, he might not be able to suppress that impulse."

Milo scratched his head.

Damn, you were right!

Killing four peers at once was indeed beyond Marty's capabilities, but coincidentally, they all got a good beating from Finn.

Milo remembered clearly that those who dared to fight back last night were beaten the worst by Finn. Only one kid, who squatted on the ground with his head in his hands the whole time, didn't get beaten much. That kid was very timid and fearful at the time because he keenly sensed that Finn was a more powerful being than all of them.

The child who didn't get much of a beating was Marty.

Enid was right; his control over his destructive urges stemmed from a clear understanding of strength and weakness.

In other words, he was smarter than the other children, and that was what made him so formidable.

“So we should follow this line of thought and use Marty as a starting point to investigate, right?” Enid waited expectantly for Milo’s orders.

However, Milo muttered, "We'll see. You take what you just wrote back and give it to Rebecca, then go with them on their daily patrols. I'll handle this case."

"Ah~~?" Enid's face immediately fell.

"You're not taking me? Is it because I just analyzed it wrong?"

“That’s right, your analysis is quite good, much more professional than mine.” Milo waved his hand: “Go on, go on, this is to create an opportunity for you to be alone with Rebecca, make the most of it.”

He showed no consideration for Enid's disheartened reaction and dismissed her with a few words.

If it's just a simple missing person case, taking her along to investigate will definitely not be a problem.

But the painting on the wall reminded Milo that this matter needed to be handled carefully, and at least by someone with a strong enough sanity bar, or someone who wasn't afraid of death.

Milo knew that Enid's days at the law enforcement office were quite boring. The other law enforcement officers had tacitly isolated this newcomer from a noble family. She had originally regarded Milo as her only support, but who knew that Milo was even more unreliable than the others.

(End of this chapter)