Old days, dice and investigator's manual

"In short, this matter is difficult to explain. You are under house arrest here, yet people can approach you at will. Either they are stupid enough to allow you to contact others, or they want you to have contact with outsiders."

"Therefore, I hope you can understand that, based on the information I currently have, it is impossible for me to simply agree to your... strange request."

As Isaac voiced his speculation, Helpulin remained silent for a long time without reacting.

Isaac wrapped the severed hand back into the cloth: "Even if you really want me to kill you, I have no idea what will happen after I kill you, or whether I can leave here safely. I can hardly not doubt the weight of a promise made by an elder who can't even control his own situation."

Halprin's eyes closed briefly, then opened again. He opened his mouth and spoke again in a breathy, broken voice, "I can... come back to life..."

A resurrection? Isaac frowned.

This gave him an answer and two questions.

The answer is that if Halprin could be resurrected, then it makes perfect sense that he had Isaac kill him at this moment. Perhaps if Halprin were killed here, he could be resurrected in a better state elsewhere.

The questions, of course, are how they did it, and whether Glenn and his team were aware of and concerned about it.

Leaving aside how they did it, if Glenn and the others knew that Halprin could be resurrected, they should have been even more careful to prevent outsiders from contacting Halprin, especially given the "internal strife." What if someone actually killed Halprin with a single blow, and Halprin returned to settle scores with them?

"You said you could come back to life, how did you do that?"

Halprin's lips moved again, and a word was squeezed out between his teeth.

"Lich".

Isaacton lived there.

It is said that through a certain ritual, one can transform into a special being. By anchoring the soul to an object, even if the physical body is destroyed, the soul can be preserved, seeking a new vessel or reconstructing itself in some way. Such beings are called liches.

Isaac heard the word from his adoptive father, Edward, who said he had initially thought it was just a folk belief about the afterlife, like those stories of mummies crawling out of cellars... until he actually met a lich.

Edward didn't explain the details of their encounter, but simply remarked with self-deprecation that it was quite clever of someone who studied folklore to personally verify the authenticity of a folklore.

Now, Halprin responds to the possibility of "resurrection" with the term "lich," implying that Halprin himself is a lich.

Isaac scrutinized Halprin. If this was true, then Halprin might indeed have the possibility of "seeking death" on his own initiative. After all, his current body was already difficult to move, and if he were killed, he could indeed be resurrected in a better form elsewhere.

But this brings us back to Isaac's earlier concern: why aren't Glenn and the others worried about this?

"Are you a lich?"

【Yes. 】

"Then it makes no sense that they let me get close to you, especially if they knew you could come back from the dead..."

Halprin tapped his fingers twice on the armrest.

"No?" Isaac paused to understand. "They don't know you can come back from the dead?"

【Yes. 】

“However, even if Glenn didn’t know you were a lich, his actions still don’t make sense, unless…” Isaac paused, “he wasn’t worried about you being killed.”

Helprien's hand rested on the handrail.

"He even said he wanted you killed, but didn't want them to do it themselves."

The room was quiet for a while.

"If he wants you dead but doesn't act on it, then killing you might have both benefits and costs. The benefits go to him, and the costs go to the one who does it." Isaac continued, not waiting for a response to the knocking, "If I were in Glenn's position, his situation might be like this."

"He and his accomplices could not kill you with their own hands because they dared not bear the consequences of your death. So they needed an outsider to do it, and you happened to need an outsider to kill you, so they sent that outsider to your next-door neighbor."

"From your perspective, your situation is equally delicate. You want to leave this body, but you can't do it yourself. You need someone else to do it, and Glenn just happens to deliver one to you."

Having said all that, Isaac concluded: "In short, it seems that killing you might be good for both you and him, but for me it's only risky."

"Therefore, I will not kill you until you provide a more convincing explanation."

Upon hearing this, Halprin's withered face showed no change in excitement or disappointment, like a living, breathing mummified specimen.

Isaac took two steps back and picked up the candle: "If you have anything else to say, perhaps you could have your men... send another hand over?"

After he finished speaking, he turned and walked towards the door.

Isaac stopped and turned his head. Halprin's face was half in shadow, his cloudy eyes staring at him.

"Is there anything else you'd like to say?"

Halprin didn't tap the armrest or make a sound; he just stared at him for a long time. Finally, seemingly judging that he didn't have enough negotiating terms to persuade Isaac, he lowered his eyelids and resumed his still posture, deeply slumped in the recliner.

Once Isaac confirmed that the other party was no longer responding, he took the candle, pushed open the door, and walked into the hallway.

The candle had burned down to almost nothing, the flame flickering. He looked up and saw a figure standing in the shadows at the top of the stairs.

Glenn leaned against the wall, as if he had been there all along, watching Isaac walk out of Halprin's room.

His gaze lingered on his face for a moment, then he turned his head and glanced towards the door.

Isaac also stopped walking, without rushing to speak.

Glenn spoke first: "Is Mr. Halprin alright?"

"He can still breathe."

"It seems you didn't lay a hand on Mr. Halprin."

Why would I lay a hand on him?

Glenn took two steps closer to Isaac: "What did you talk about with him?"

"Are you worried that I might harm Mr. Halprin?" Isaac asked, avoiding a specific explanation of the conversation that had just taken place.

"Did he ask you to kill him?"

He did mention it.

"You didn't agree?"

"no."

Upon hearing this, Glenn slowly exhaled and tilted his head towards Isaac, gesturing for him to come over and talk.

As the two reached the top of the stairs, Glenn asked, "What else did he say to you?"

He said he could come back to life.

Glenn sneered, "You believe that?"

"I don't believe it," Isaac said, glancing at Glenn. It's understandable that most people wouldn't believe in the dead coming back to life, but it felt a bit strange coming from the mouth of a ghoul cult.

"Of course you can't trust him."

Isaac looked at him, and Glenn seemed to be considering how to say it as well, remaining silent for a moment before saying, "I did have the intention of using you when I let you stay here."