The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

108 The history of the Scylla race

The Scylla guards, who could see in the dark, guided Vandalieu to the marsh that they used as a graveyard, where he dug up Orbia's corpse.

"O wandering spirits," Vandalieu said, reciting a fake incantation.

But it was actually Mud Golems created from the mud of the marsh with his Golem Transmutation skill that was digging up the corpse.

"It's as if the mud of the marsh is alive!"

"So, Spiritualists can do these kinds of things as well."

The Scylla guards held their breaths as the mud crawled and a mud-stained corpse surfaced. When they had been asked, they had explained that Spiritualists were rare here as well; there had been a few in the past, but there hadn't been a Scylla Spiritualist in the last thousand years or so. That was why they never pointed out that this wasn't the work of a Spiritualist. And fortunately, this allowed Vandalieu to use unknown skills while fooling them.

Vandalieu began the autopsy on Orbia's corpse. But several days had passed since the Scylla funeral of burying her in the marsh had been conducted; the lingering memories had faded and Vandalieu wasn't able to learn much... even if DNA and fingerprints were present, the technology to detect and compare them wasn't there, so he hadn't been expecting evidence like this to begin with.

However, Orbia's corpse itself was in good condition. Decomposition had been suppressed; the state that it had been in when it was buried seemed to have been preserved. Vandalieu had the feeling that there had been cases on Earth where corpses buried in mud were discovered as mummies; it was possible that a similar thing was happening here.

But as Vandalieu removed the cloth wrapped around the corpse, he saw that it was in a state that could only be described as dreadful.

"This is quite terrible," he said.

There were deep cuts all over the body, and the damage to the chest and lower body was particularly severe. Both breasts were in pieces, bearing no semblance to their original shape, and all of the tentacles of the lower half of the body had been severed.

And the holy symbol of Alda had been branded onto the body.

"Apparently, she was found tied to the trunk of a tree growing near the marsh and put on display in this state," said one of the guards. "Most of the parts that were cut off were likely taken away by beasts; we couldn't find them. Fortunately, other than that, they seemed to have only nibbled at her a little, but..."

Apparently, the breasts were a symbol of life for women who believed in Vida, and the tentacles on the lower half of the body were a symbol of Merrebeveil, the Scylla who became a goddess in the age of the gods.

In other words, the criminals were deliberately destroying the bodies of the Scylla in a way that would strip them of their dignity.

The symbol of Alda that had been branded into the body and the arrows that were still protruding from the corpse were apparently those used by the Amid Empire's extermination forces.

If I was a detective on Earth, I would think it suspicious because there's too much evidence gathered here, but...

This was clearly a murder that had been carried out to set an example and to provoke the Scylla. If the criminals had no intention of concealing their identities, there was no need to worry about there being too much evidence.

"So, do you think you can figure something out?" one of the guards asked.

"Well, I'll try," said Vandalieu.