A carriage was found burnt by the road this morning. A marquis also has yet to be found, and his wife came forward to the authorities that her husband has yet to come back. It couldn’t have been a coincidence.

Concerned, the crown sent its own forces to investigate until eventually, it was confirmed that the missing Marquis was the corpse found in the carriage. However, the crown made no public announcement as of yet and kept the identity of the one murdered. Furthermore, that marquis was not the only one that was killed at that place.

A luxurious carriage arrived at the scene of the crime, and an aristocrat stepped out. He had crimson hair and bluish eyes. The knights guarding the perimeter stopped and greeted the man.

“We have been expecting you, Marquis Teristro.”

The knight in charge said to the Marquis, the brother of the current queen.

“I will be taking a look.”

“Of course, please feel free to look around.”

Teristro approached the burnt carriage with watchful eyes. Good thing the crime scene was untouched for the most part. First, he gazed at the horses, stricken down.

To prevent the carriage from running.

Then he shifted his gaze to another person burned to the point that he was unrecognizable. Teristro walked over to it and took a closer look. Pierced through the throat, must be a stealthy approach. Whoever the culprit was, they were skilled in their craft.

Teristro stepped back and walked over to the side of the wreckage and crouched down to see the corpse of Marquis Vekenas inside. He furrowed his brow.

To think this kind of thing would happen to you.

Teristro was the Head of Intelligence. He was the one to send and receive crucial information from all around, but most of his attention, for now, was focused on outside the nation, from the reports of their spies. He was also the one who supervises everything when it comes to gathering intelligence, this also includes handling and assigning spies. But as far as everyone was aware, the king was the one handling it.

It was so that other nobles wouldn’t be so on guard with Teristro.

As the Head of Intelligence, he knew Vekenas was not exactly a bad noble. They were not particularly close, but it was a shame to lose a decent aristocrat.

What are you doing here anyway, Marquis?

Even so, it was suspicious that the Marquis was out here at night. Likely he was meeting someone, and that someone could have killed him. Or it was some third party.

“Cause of death?” he asked the knight.

“Stab in the heart, a cut to the throat.”

“For a thorough kill, I presume.”

The culprit wanted to make sure he was dead, and for healing magic to fail. A stab in the heart, a healing spell might save him if he survived in time, which would be unlikely, but a small chance. It depends if it’s a clean cut. However, Vekenas was no warrior, so he would not survive. A warrior would have a longer time of surviving and perhaps can cast healing spells to themselves.

But the culprit cut his throat. With two fatal wounds, healing spells would not be able to save him. However, not only that, the culprit burned the entire carriage, ensuring the marquis’s fate further. But that may not be the only reason for setting this afire.

They might have wanted to burn any evidence.

His eyes shifted to a lantern inside the carriage. Must be used to start a fire. But that might not be enough and would take some time to spread.

Teristro stood up and faced the knight.

“Identity of the driver?”

“A servant of the marquis.”

“Does he have a family?”

“Yes.”

“Send a knight to make sure they spread no word of who is the murdered. We can’t let the public know a noble was killed while the festival is still taking place.”

The knight left to send an order to his knights.

The marquis returned his gaze to the wreckage. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Magic… the fire is caused by magic.

He could not tell what spell it was specifically, but he could tell what element it was. The magic residue was still thicker than he had expected despite hours having passed.

Teristro possessed a gift unique to him, he had the power of “Intuition.” With that Intuition, he can sense the strangest presence in an area. He could sense sadness, anger, grief, even bloodlust, even the use of magic, and so on. Not only that, he gets a strange feeling when looking at a person and observing their actions, which in turn, results in him having to look deeply into a person.

To put his power into a single word, the word was “Intuition.”

That was why he was given the position of the Head of Intelligence. The king and his sister only knew this strange ability of his.

Anyhow, now he knew the culprit can use fire magic.

He followed his intuition and turned his back.

The dust scattered, the grass slapped and waved.

He saw some of the grass was bent down.

A force, pushing it down. Wind… the wind.

It was then that particular element piqued his attention.

Wind…

He recalled there was a situation the king was working on, that he even prevented Teristro from personally being involved. But he did share some information, they were looking for enemies in the kingdom. But that was in the domain of the church and Teristro was prevented from prying for information as he was allocated to foreign matters. So all he knew was the power of the enemies they were searching for.

Can manipulate wind was one of their abilities.

Could those people be involved?

However, the wind used here, is coming down from above as if pushing something upward.

It was a familiar spell. Yes, he did get a familiar feeling, one from the past. The king, his brother-in-law, used a spell to fly using the wind.

But if the culprits are not from here, it wouldn’t be strange if they can use something similar.

He followed the direction the wind was going towards. It was going into the forest.

He followed the tracks.

“Marquis! Where are you going?” the knight rushed behind him.

“Follow me.”

“As you wish.” he pointed at a few men. “You come with us!”

Teristro traversed the forest with a group of knights following behind him. The forest was normal as ever.

“Marquis, may I ask what we are doing here?”

“The culprit seemed to have traversed here to escape the scene.”

Upon hearing that, the knights followed quietly, their guards raised. True, there wouldn’t be any monsters here as this was in the middle of the city and this was unlike the Elgion forest, but they still need to be alert.

They kept walking for several minutes until they stopped and arrived in a clearing. No, it was not precisely a plain clearing.

“What happened here?”

The trees were cut down, broken apart, branches and wood scattered all around.

“Did someone have a fight here?” one of the knights asked.

“Let us follow the chaos.”

They followed the trails of the damaged and cut-down trees. The battle seemed to be intense, there were even trees that were neatly cleaved through. One reminiscent of the knights if they used their armament magic.

Teristro sensed the massive expense of mana, residue of magic being cast over and over.

Magic similar to the knights, one they used on their swords. Then… fire, the same one. But now, there is ice… ice magic. The air… it’s salty. The wind magic, the same one. The air shaking. The flap of wings, countless flaps, scattering the soil.

He couldn’t make complete sense of the last one, but it was what he felt.

Then he stopped when he saw something laying on the ground.

The knights quickly stood in front of him to protect him from danger. But that thing was no longer moving. It was a beast, perhaps a monster? It was reminiscent of a wolf, but something that felt different.

A knight slowly approached and poked it with a stick he picked up.

“It’s… It’s dead?”

“What is that? Doesn’t look like any monster I’ve seen.”

Teristro stepped forward and approached the beast.

I sense lightning.

“It is burned from the inside,” Teristro said as he looked at the mouth of the beast.

“Who could have faced this thing? Do you think it’s what killed Marquis Vekenas?”

Teristro shook his head. “If it did, I don’t think it would kill Vekenas that way. Look at his hands. Claws. I feel it wouldn’t end up the same if it killed the marquis.”

“Then something else killed him…? What happened to this thing?”

Teristro stood up and looked around. When he focused, he was assaulted by the emotion of frustration… and anger. It was so strong it almost made him nauseous. This occasionally happens whenever he went to a place with an emotion this strong.

He followed his intuition and thought back before entering the forest, taking into consideration the direction the culprit was heading towards. He couldn’t sense where they were going, but all he had was a rough direction before entering the forest.

He looked in that direction.