Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

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Colonel Field, who had vomited all his bile, clearly had no mood to return to the Army Headquarters; he now smelled foul all over and just wanted to rush home for a thorough wash.

He led his black horse, and while walking, he instructed Winters, "Take these two dossiers back to the Military Police, have Morlock file them, then have him make two additional copies."

Walking back from the roadside drain to the rammed earth road, the Colonel mounted his horse, took a look at Winters, who appeared just as miserable as he, and said hoarsely, "You did well today, you've not disgraced the Army. Send the dossiers to Morlock and then head straight home, have a good wash, and get some sleep—it's been a truly tough day."

With that, Colonel Field clamped his legs against the horse's flanks, cracked his whip, and sped off, seemingly straight for home.

Although as a pragmatist at heart, Winters believed that earning respect through this sort of brute toughness was meaningless, he couldn't deny a small feeling of joy from his superior's verbal praise.

The career newcomer, Warrant Officer Montaigne, whose threshold was still relatively low, checked the two dossiers in his saddlebag to make sure they were complete, then also mounted and headed directly to Army Headquarters.

After returning his horse, Winters went to the Military Police's office, handed the dossiers to the blond copier Morlock, but did not go straight home. As Morlock was buried in copying the dossiers, Winters picked up the autopsy report and began to read it carefully on the bench.

Though Winters didn't know the specific details, through the words of Customs Officer Lop, he deduced that the task of investigating this dockside assassination had apparently been handed over to Colonel Field.

If that was the case, Field hadn't asked, but Winters felt it was his duty to learn as much as possible about the incident.

Another reason why he was eager to know what Customs had discovered was that, as an eyewitness to the incident, he was essentially the first-hand witness.

The Customs autopsy report was very detailed; the three complete bodies of the passengers all died from sharp weapon injuries, with multiple vital organs punctured, ultimately leading to death from massive internal bleeding. The doctor who performed the autopsy speculated that the sharp weapon wounds were likely caused by a narrow-blade, straight-edged weapon.

This medical examiner had some skill, Winters thought, recalling the black-robed figure's single-handed sword, which was indeed narrow-bladed and straight-edged.

As for the specific weapon, the medical examiner believed the greatest possibility was a Swift Sword.

Swift Sword? Winters had heard of this type of weapon during his time at the military academy, but he had never seen one in person.

He continued reading; of the three passengers who appeared to be escorts, only one died from a frontal injury, while the fatal wounds on the other two were from the side or back.

Winters mused: The one who died from the frontal injury was likely the first to be attacked in the ambush, and the other two succumbed to side or back injuries, which suggests that these escorts were skilled in swordsmanship, and the black-robed figure couldn't quickly dispatch them one-on-one.

The rest of the autopsy report contained scattered details, such as height, hair color, etc.

Based on factors like the wear on the teeth, the medical examiner estimated that the three men were roughly between 25 and 30 years old. Their build was robust and their physiques healthy, indicating that their social class was not low. They must have had meat regularly, as muscles like theirs don't grow on a flour-only diet.

The medical examiner concluded, "All three victims had calluses on their palms, which considering these men evidently were not laboring farmers, suggest these calluses are the result of years of weapons training. Hence, it is inferred that the victims likely belonged to a class of people like mercenaries, or were craftsmen and merchants wealthy enough to afford time for weapon practice, or possibly..."

The text abruptly ended at "or possibly," with the rest of the sentence obscured by ink.

Errors are common when manually copying documents, and scratch-outs are normal. Morlock, when transcribing, would naturally ignore the scratched content, and the new copy would end at "craftsmen and merchants." However, this document was obviously the original handwritten by the medical examiner himself.

Winters could not make out what had been obscured, but he guessed that the medical examiner intended to mention—soldiers.

Even the word "soldiers" was a bit off; a more accurate term should be "officers."

The ordinary soldiers themselves had a hard life and would not have the privileged demeanor of those travelers. Officers, on the other hand, match the description of practicing with cold weapons year-round and having good dietary conditions.

The medical examiner had included the possibility of them being officers in the report, but Customs, clearly not wanting to cause extra trouble, had obscured this part of the content.

If there was solid evidence, alright, but to state that these three victims were officers without firm proof would certainly infuriate the Army, which was already upset about the unwarranted detention of the trainee officers.

Winters began to understand why this case had been handed over to the Army.

If he had not witnessed the entire incident at the first crime scene, Winters would have scoffed at Customs' speculation that the three might be officers.

But he kept thinking about the traveler who could use the Deflection Spell. Since muskets were notoriously inaccurate, Winters couldn't be sure that the missed shot was definitely the result of the Deflection Spell, but it was a suspicion he couldn't shake off.

"Should I report this information to Colonel Field?" Winters pondered with his hand on his forehead, feeling a headache coming on, "But I've already promised to discuss this matter secretly with Major Moritz."

If that person was indeed a Spellcaster officer from the Army, the nature of the matter became extremely serious.

Merely being an officer was sensitive enough, but who would dare kill an officer in broad daylight in front of a crowd? And a Spellcaster at that? The case reeked of danger, even more pungent than the stench from the Customs' morgue.

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