"May 12, 223. ”

"I'm going to sell that little bastard to an old man from a neighboring village, so that I can buy a better bow, and then I'll go hunting tomorrow." ”

At this point, the diary ends.

Xavier closed the journal with his right hand, got up from the wooden chair, and observed all traces of the surroundings.

At first glance, the inside of the wooden house is actually very ordinary, just a table, a chair, and a pile of tools piled up on the ground.

The pile of tools was a bit old, as if it had been abandoned for a long time, and they were all tools for hunting, and combined with Charles's own identity as a hunter, and the diary he wrote on the table, there was no doubt that the house clearly belonged to him.

Extending his gaze further, Xavier noticed that there seemed to be signs of replacement on the floor.

The reason is simple, there are a few floors that are different in color, and the color scheme of the whole house is different, so it is obvious that someone has changed it.

In addition to the fact that something was wrong here, Xavier noticed that there were some traces of fire on the wall next to the floors, and a large piece of the wooden planks on them had been blackened.

Is it a candle burn? It was a bit of a look, but the candle couldn't burn such a large piece, unless someone held it and moved it sideways, Xavier shook his head, denying the idea.

Is there anything other than candles? Xavier couldn't help but think of the past, and finally formed a picture.

It was Caroline and him in front of Miss Hannah, using fireballs.

If anyone can use a secondary fireball...... It's also normal to smoke such a large mark. Xavier nodded, believing that this judgment was the most reasonable.

So, it's all the result of a fight, someone has used magic here, and it's left a trace.

The same is true on the floor, someone deliberately replaced the floor to cover up the original traces, but he never expected that the wall next to him would still reveal the truth.

Of course, this has to be seen by people who know magic, and it is absolutely impossible for a normal person to think of fire magic when they see this scene, but unfortunately, the investigator this time is Xavier.

In fact, seeing this, the truth of the matter has been revealed, but one last point is needed to prove it, thinking of this, Xavier kicked the plank under his feet with his foot.

As early as when he entered the house, he felt that the floor under his feet seemed to be a little wrong, different from the touch of a normal house, so he wondered if it was hollow inside.

And as he expected, the sound from his feet clearly indicated that his guess was not wrong, so he quickly uncovered the floor with his sword blade and found a small space.

It's actually a basement-like place, which can be accessed from the entrance above, just below the pile of tools...... It's just that Xavier didn't find out, so he had to choose to open it with brute force.

It was not much different from a normal basement, the only difference was that there was an extra corpse inside.

The corpse of a man, with burnt marks on his bones, and his clothes on it had been eaten by microorganisms, presumably dead for some time.

Xavier endured the rancid stench and tried to find anything in him that would prove his identity, eventually pulling some krona out of his pocket, as well as a small portrait.

It was a painting of three people in the same frame, in which a man and a woman were respectively, looking very happy, it should be a couple, but on the face of the woman, a big cross was drawn.

Next to them was a little girl, about six or seven years old, who was also marked with a cross.

Although she had grown up a lot now, Xavier recognized her at once, and the little girl was Isabella.

Xavier's heart suddenly realized the truth.

This corpse is obviously Isabella's father, the author of the diary just now, the missing hunter in the forest - Charles Catteret!

He hadn't disappeared at all, but had been killed in the house, using fire magic, and after the killer had killed him, he had abandoned him in the basement and replaced the few planks that had left his mark, thinking that he would not be found.

Then, due to great hatred, the father's indomitable soul absorbed the power of nature here and eventually became a demon spirit, which was later killed by Xavier.

So far, there is nothing wrong with reasoning, but there are still two things to think about.

First of all, who is the murderer, what kind of hatred does he or she have with the deceased, and he or she must be a magician in order to use fire magic to kill the dead.

Secondly, if Charles, the deceased, had been killed five years earlier, then why had the villagers not heard strange noises in the vicinity until recently?

The second question can be thought about later, but in fact, the first question already has a preliminary answer in Xavier's mind, but he can't believe it.

He believes that the killer may be Isabella, or her partner, or a friend who loves her.

This would perfectly explain the motives of the murderer.

After his wife cuckolded him, Charles was angry at Isabella because of excessive anger, and the scar on her face was also left at that time.

Then, Isabella herself, or a righteous man who could not stand Charles's actions, sanctioned him here.

However, considering that Isabella was only nine years old at the time, Xavier thought the latter was more likely.

Moreover, Isabella herself should be aware of this matter, after all, when the captain asked her where her parents were, her first reaction was to answer that her father was dead, not missing!

Therefore, she obviously knew that her father was not missing, and even participated in this matter.

However, there is another possibility that Xavier has overlooked.

That's the other monsters in the forest.

It could be that they were in Charles's house, killed him with magic, and then deliberately covered up their traces.

This would explain the second question, because the strange noises were not made by the spirits at all, but by the monsters, and the spirits never made a strange sound from beginning to end.

Of course, this may sound unreasonable, such as why monsters do magic, but it's an explanation.

Moreover, there can be many kinds of monsters, such as snake spirits, or others, and they may not even be monsters at all, but humans, as long as he can meet those characteristics above, he may be the murderer of Charles.

But Xavier didn't think about it so much, he just wanted to get out of here as soon as possible at the moment, go back to the barracks and continue to think about the truth of the matter.

However, at this moment, he heard a voice from above.

It was a voice from Skyler.

"Isabella, why are you here, didn't you say the forest is dangerous?" the swordsman with two blades at his waist asked the goddess in his mind with concern.