She is not an investigator.

"so…"

"Oh, sorry, I didn't explain."

Igris raised her arm and waved it in front of everyone, causing the color on it to sway slightly. She barely managed to stay on it, almost falling off.

"These little guys are called Bloodvines, but they don't actually have much to do with blood or vines. They are parasitic organisms that usually choose to parasitize living things. As for the harm... they probably just make people malnourished."

Malnutrition?

Looking at the man who had lost half his body, the train conductor found it hard to believe that this condition was caused by malnutrition.

"Don't worry... Remember what I said? They are parasites that live on living organisms. Perhaps the real culprit that caused this thing to look like this isn't them? At least as far as I know, even though they do live on non-living things in some extreme cases, they can't cause any damage."

The most likely scenario is that the blood vine will wither and die completely, turning into powder, the day after it parasitizes a non-living organism, due to the loss of nutrients.

"But if it wasn't it that caused all this, then what was it?"

When asked about the train conductor's question, Igris shrugged and looked at the others.

"You should probably ask them; I just helped you eliminate a wrong answer."

In fact, Igris didn't recognize these little things as blood vines at first, since their parasitic characteristic is that the parasitized area will turn red.

And the extra flesh on that person's body happened to be red, so it was difficult for Igris to notice them at first glance.

Moreover, and more importantly, the parasitic growth of the blood vine can only remain on the surface. Even if it may spread deeper over time, it will at most appear under the skin's surface.

As for the flesh and blood bursting from that person's body, the blood vines were parasitic on it, meaning they should have existed inside his body.

Aside from someone deliberately cutting him in half, stuffing the blood vine inside, and then sewing his body back together, she could hardly imagine any other possibility that would allow the blood vine to appear in that location.

These guys don't seem as honest as I thought.

The Gods' Fool - The Northern Train: Chapter Nineteen, What's Next?

The train soon came to a stop, and the train conductor appeared in the first carriage.

She glanced at everything that was happening, then at Igris, who was standing to the side acting cute, and finally at the train conductor who was pretending to be dead.

"...So, you're not going to explain to me what exactly happened?"

The train conductor looked at Igris, seemingly waiting for her to explain, but Igris just kept her head down, playing with the blood vines on her arm, showing no intention of explaining at all.

After all, she was just a passenger, and this kind of job was definitely not her responsibility.

"In short... there might be something wrong with these people. I can't be sure if everyone is safe, since there are just too many of them."

The train conductor sighed, expressing his predicament and helplessness.

It's not his fault, after all, there are too many people on the train, and there's only one train attendant. If this happened in three passenger carriages at the same time, he simply wouldn't have enough time to handle it.

In this situation, the train conductor needs to help resolve the predicament.

"So you still haven't told me what that thing is, and why there's suddenly half a corpse on my train?"

Cecilia looked at the corpse still lying in the seat, its upper body completely gone, with a troubled expression, and frowned.

Iglesias guessed that she was probably cleaning up after a period of distress.

"The truth is that while the train was moving normally, the man suddenly covered his mouth, looking extremely painful, and the next moment, his body was torn to shreds by the flesh that suddenly grew out, and he died on the spot."

It was Anfer who answered, whether because he happened to have witnessed the whole thing or because he noticed the man immediately after he started behaving strangely, it was still a great help.

And the greatest help lies in...

"Before this, the man was no different from others. He could still think and communicate normally, and it was hard to see anything unusual about him."

As soon as he finished speaking, the man who had been sitting next to that person also stood up.

"Although I don't know him... he did greet me and we chatted for a while, and he didn't seem like there was anything special about him."

In matters like this, even if someone lies, it won't make much difference, since Igris could also see that this situation was something no one had expected.

Have you encountered this situation while on the road?

When Cecilia asked them questions, everyone shook their heads, and their expressions were not good.

After all, this kind of death is indeed terrifying enough and visually shocking enough that everyone is starting to worry that someone next to them might suddenly explode.

"Train conductor, what do we do now?"

The train conductor, holding a shotgun, questioned Cecilia while glancing at the other passengers.

Even though his face was almost expressionless, Igris still understood what he meant.

Cecilia shook her head and turned to look at the wilderness outside the window.

"The bus is too crowded. Let's get off and talk. Gather everyone together so I can check on each one."

"Okay—another troublesome matter..."

While complaining, the train conductor opened the door and walked towards the back carriage with a shotgun.

Cecilia was the first to get off the bus, and she continued to maintain order despite the somewhat flustered and uneasy passengers.

This was probably the first time she had done something that resembled that of a train conductor.

Igris naturally followed suit and got out of the car, along with Felina, who was clinging tightly to the corner of Igris's cloak, the priest behind them, and old Anfer, who got out of the car last.

He still held the short rifle, and when faced with Igris's gaze, he only gave a vague smile.

Igris didn't need to consider the meaning of that smile; she only needed to know why he had specifically gotten out of the car with a weapon.

At least those bullets wouldn't hit her forehead.

"Quiet down for a moment. I know you may not know what's going on, but I must inform you that there are some unsafe situations among you. If you still want to reach your destination safely, please cooperate with me."

Cecilia's voice wasn't loud, but it was loud enough for everyone present to hear clearly.

There's not much to do in terms of specific inspection procedures. After all, with that level of anomaly, if there were any particularly obvious characteristics, almost all passengers would have noticed it.

Her reason for doing this was actually quite simple: she just needed to make everyone on the bus understand that some trouble had infiltrated their group, so it was best to be wary of everyone to avoid becoming the next victim.

If suspicion is planted in everyone's heart, they will likely no longer feel safe just by boarding a train, and will instead pay close attention to the behavior of everyone around them at all times.

This is far more efficient than having a train conductor wander around aimlessly.

Of course, overt inspections will still be conducted, such as checking weapons.

Although Cecilia still did not intend to confiscate all of everyone's weapons, she had no choice but to do so when faced with these special people.

If they lose their weapons, they are transformed from people capable of resistance into lambs to the slaughter, which is a good thing for every passenger who was originally on the train.

After all, this group of people did indeed have an unknown origin.

When it comes to confiscating weapons, there will definitely be some who are unwilling... but who cares?

If someone really starts to rebel, or even acts violently, for this reason...

Igris's gaze fell on the short rifle in Anfer's hand.

The result is self-evident, isn't it?

However, if a firefight were to break out, Igris wasn't entirely sure if Cecilia was truly confident she could resolve everything without injuring anyone.

Even though they didn't have many weapons and weren't particularly united, their numbers were still considerable.

However, this doesn't seem to be something she should worry about, since the probability of someone actually choosing to shoot Cecilia is quite small.

After all, the likely outcome of doing so would be being trapped on this track forever.

……

Just as Igris had predicted, apart from some minor troubles when confiscating weapons, nothing unexpected happened, and no one suddenly exploded or turned into a monster during the inspection.

This may also mean that those who may have hidden dangers are most likely unaware of their own special circumstances.

"It's your turn."

"...?"

Cecilia's voice rang in Igris's ears, causing her to stop thinking and look up at the train conductor in front of her.

For some reason, Igris always felt that her eyes were smiling.

The Gods' Fool - The Northern Train: Chapter Twenty, A New Plan?

"My turn... what?"

"You don't feel like you're not part of it, do you? Mysterious and dangerous beautiful lady."

Cecilia reached out her hand to Igris and waved it in front of her.

Igris didn't understand what she meant, so she took her hand with some confusion and shook it in the same way she did.

"You don't think you can get away with this, do you? Hand over your weapon."

So he was asking her for a weapon.

Igris shook off Cecilia's hand with some disdain and turned to look at the others.

“If you intend to treat everyone equally, I probably won’t have any objections, but it’s clear that among your passengers who boarded through proper channels, you only asked me to confiscate my weapons.”

After saying that, Igris crossed her arms in dissatisfaction, and the blood vines on her arms swayed unhappily with her movement.

"So, Ms. Cecilia, you'd better give me an explanation that satisfies me, or I'll feel like you're targeting me."

"Ah, indeed, I'm targeting you."

Cecilia's frankness surprised even Igris, who never expected her to be so shameless as to admit it.

"Although I could find many excuses to confiscate your weapons, there's no need for that, since you probably wouldn't be willing to hand them over anyway."

"...?"

So, since she knows Igris won't hand over her weapons, what is she doing now?

Are you just bored and want to chat with her?

"So, why do you think I would ask you for the weapon when I know you're not going to hand it over?"

"Because you have a lot of free time."

Although Cecilia felt that Igris was right in her answer, it wasn't the answer she actually wanted.

She moved closer to Igris, speaking in a very low voice, so low that only the two of them could hear her.

“You’re a bit too conspicuous. Many people on this vehicle have noticed your unusual nature and your excessive knowledge of those strange things. I know you’re capable of protecting yourself, but I think… you wouldn’t mind doing me a small favor.”