Master of Kaidan-Chapter 166: Military Intelligence Ninth Bureau in Action

"Mr. R, the results are out," said Ms. Q, her words crisp and clear. Mr. R immediately responded,

"Just tell me the conclusion."

"All the areas involved in the ’Covenant Card’ imitation cases generally have other imitation cases occurring simultaneously. According to the police’s follow-up investigation results, the perpetrators of these imitation cases are the victims who died in the ’Covenant Card’ imitation cases."

Ms. Q’s tone lacked emotion, but Mr. R frowned and said,

"How can such important intelligence be handled so carelessly by the intelligence department?"

"This was our oversight, as we only handle issues related to ghosts. Once confirmed as an imitation case, it is handed over to the police, and the police departments do not proactively contact our hidden departments for case reports after closing them," Ms. Q explained in a neutral tone, as if discussing something unrelated to her. Yet, she added at the end,

"I will request that a follow-up mechanism for imitation cases be established."

"Rather than that..." Mr. R didn’t want to waste time discussing the follow-up issue with Ms. Q and promptly changed the subject,

"So, does this mean that these notes with covenants are not likely imitators, but rather have triggered a ghost’s rule? Like... execution?"

"It’s not out of the question. According to the ’Libra Covenant,’ the Swearers execute punishment on the fallen Executioners. These imitators evidently violated the precepts, but the original text does not mention Covenant Cards, only descriptions like ’sudden peal of bells.’ These cards might have appeared due to some secondary creation or the ghosts’ own will."

Ms. Q affirmed Mr. R’s view. Mr. R paced briefly, then said,

"The number of imitation cases is far greater than the appearances of Covenant Cards, and their distribution is also more dispersed. It’s likely not due to ’this rule only recently coming into existence.’ What do you think is the reason?"

"Are you suggesting that execution itself also has certain rules and restrictions, and it’s not aimed at all imitators?" Ms. Q obviously had her suspicions as well, and seeing her response, Mr. R nodded slightly,

"Today, a lot of valuables were found on the corpse. I wonder if it was because he stole the victim’s valuables that triggered the rule?"

"I initially thought so too, but according to the files currently in hand, excluding the victims involved with the Covenant Cards, over sixty percent of the imitators took some of the victims’ valuables. However, only about thirty percent of these cases involved Covenant Cards, indicating that seventy percent of the imitators who took away the victims’ valuables did not trigger this rule."

Ms. Q countered Mr. R’s point. Mr. R was not displeased but pondered for a moment before saying,

"I was told over the phone that there was some trouble; could you help gather some of the more popular secondary creations recently? We’ll discuss the rest when I return to headquarters."

"Okay."

As the phone call abruptly ended, Mr. R, who had been wanting to say something else, had his expression stiffen slightly, but he didn’t redial. Instead, he pocketed his phone and said,

"Let’s go to the crime scene of the Covenant Card. Call the police there to secure the scene and keep unnecessary people away. Call Mr. X, I want to deploy B-44 and also send a Class D personnel over."

"Okay." His subordinate didn’t waste any words, immediately starting communication, while Mr. R got into the car and headed towards the park where the corpse had been found...

...

About an hour later, having waited for a long time in the park, Mr. R finally saw a familiar sedan parked by the roadside.

"Good day, Mr. R." A man holding a pure black briefcase waved and greeted Mr. R; behind him was a middle-aged man with handcuffs, pale-faced, unshaven, and looking quite dejected.

"Good day, Administrator," Mr. R nodded in greeting, then turned to the dejected middle-aged man,

"Are you aware of the rules?"

"Uh, do as you say, and then I can get a reduced sentence, right?" The dejected middle-aged man nodded, and Mr. R, without saying much more, gestured for the "Administrator" to open the black briefcase, which carefully contained a magnifying glass.

"Take this and search near the human outline traced in white line. Inform us immediately if you find any anomalies. Understood?" The Administrator briefly explained the usage of the magnifying glass, and although the Class D personnel found the peculiar request surprising, he still picked up the magnifying glass and started walking along the white line.

What appeared before him was undoubtedly a murder scene, yet the black magnifying glass in his hand, utterly nondescript, was so bizarre.

"It can’t possibly be a group of second-generations playing detective games, can it?" The Class D personnelcouldn’t understand the meaning of walking around the place where the body had been found with a magnifying glass, but considering the possibility of a reduced sentence, he chose to comply obediently.

But soon...

"What is this?!"

Hearing the Class D personnel exclaim in surprise, Mr. R immediately stepped forward and asked without looking at the magnifying glass,

"What did you see?"

"Blood writing! A large patch of blood writing!" The Class D personnel seemed somewhat terrified by the surreal scene in front of him. Despite seeing nothing with the naked eye, through the magnifying glass, he saw large amounts of blood writing, as if all the blood of a person had been drawn out. Among these blood stains, a row of jumbled letters formed sentences that appeared to mean something, causing his lifelong worldview to twist.

"What does it say?" Mr. R asked coldly. The Class D personnel, somewhat calmed by his icy tone, stammered as he read,

"Swearer... join Libra... breach the covenant... execution... skull mask... lapel pin..."

A substantial amount of meaningful, yet unclear text flowed from the Class D personnel’s mouth, and even the font and shapes were described one by one before Mr. R signaled to the Administrator that he could take the person and items away.

B-44, a magical item stored by Victoria’s Military Intelligence Ninth Bureau, appeared to be an ordinary magnifying glass. However, using it at the crime scene could reveal "death messages" – it was still unknown whether these death messages were the thoughts of the deceased before death or merely conjured by the magical item. But undoubtedly, these messages could realistically lead to traces of the perpetrator.

However, as an item rated Class B, it also had terrifying side effects: if the perpetrator wasn’t controlled within a day and night (whether by oneself, the police, or even irrelevant individuals), one would die the following night after the deadline, undergoing the exact same process as the last victim.

But as every Class D personnel was already "dead" in a societal sense – they were death row inmates – this side effect instead allowed a more direct visualization of the perpetrator’s method.

As the magnifying glass was returned to the black briefcase, Mr. R carefully read those "death messages." Based on these blood writings, it was almost certain that the Covenant Cards indeed originated from "Libra," and moreover, they involved the core mutants of the Swearers...