"Well, some nobles invited us to become their retainer after we became fourth-tier warriors. But Nadine refused to change her belief, and Hooper also said it would trouble the nobles if they found out that she was Goddess Nyara's firm believer. Because of that reason, we planned to move out and settle in the Peral kingdom. But we ended up bumping into another problem." Selma said with so much frustration and glanced at Nadine.
"Don't worry, Selma. Because of this child's danger sensing ability, we are living to see this day." Smith said while shaking his head.
While talking, the group arrived in front of the large mansion building and stopped at the compound gate.
"Why are there no guards at the entrance?" Roysia asked with a frown and pushed open the metal gate to enter. Others followed her with a vigilant look but became confused after a few seconds.
"There is not a single soul in the yard. Let's get in and check out the situation." Fennelis said solemnly and walked towards the three-storied house with a grim expression.
'Why do I feel like something is wrong here? Is this a trap set by the enemy? If so, who is the enemy? What is their aim?' Countless questions whirled inside her head.
'Should I inform them? No. I want to know who the real enemy is. Moreover, I must kill the sneaky shape-shifter this time before it escapes. If I'm not careful, that creature might harm Umi.' Fennelis calmed her mind and followed after Roysia while grabbing Umi's hand tighter.
The group approached a large fountain while glancing at the ornamental plants and arrived before the covered porch.
Four bright magic lamps were attached to all the four supporting pillars and gave off a warm light. But the silent atmosphere made everyone's blood run cold. Roysia didn't hesitate at that moment and quickly entered the foyer while pushing the wooden door with a three-horned rabbit symbol.
Others soon followed after her and finally arrived inside the living hall. It was filled with bright light, and sofas were placed on their left side. On the front, they also saw a split staircase connected to the second floor. At the ceiling's center, a white crystal chandelier was attached to it, illuminating the hall with light red color. There were few rooms on both sides, but no one paid attention because they felt an abnormal atmosphere inside the mansion.
Creak!
Like they had entered a ghostly place, the wooden entrance door locked on its own, giving everyone goosebumps.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Only their walking footsteps could be heard inside that three-storied mansion.
Before they could move towards the split staircase, scarlet drops fell from the ceiling and painted the mirror-like floor red. Everyone instantly understood that those blood droplets were coming from the crystal chandelier and got alarmed inside. All of them looked up in unison and noticed a ten-year-old girl child's body was split into two and was hanged at the sides of the chandelier.
Meanwhile, the blood that dripped down from the chandelier soon formed into a circular form and shined in red. A second later, those droplets turned into some mystical letters and were wholly absorbed into the ritual circle.
"I feel like I'm in a haunted house," Selma muttered in a tense voice.
"We should go upstairs and check," Fennelis spoke warily and was about to take a step towards the split staircase but stopped. A second later, the lamps started to dim and finally died down, leaving the living room completely dark.
"What the hell? Why did the magic lamps turn off suddenly?" Smith took out his war hammer from his back and cursed out loud. Unlike the other three, he was an old veteran adventurer and had many experiences in these murder cases. But even he felt nervous inside and became extra vigilant.
Soon, the group moved towards the second floor and finally arrived at the master's bedroom. On the way, they saw a few servants' bodies and got deeply shocked by the shape-shifting creature's cruelty. As they entered the master bedroom, they saw a middle-aged man with blonde hair was also killed in the same way.
At that moment, everyone understood who he was and got restless inside.
"He must be the city lord," Roysia said with a grim expression on her face.
"We should get the hell out now before someone sees us." Hooper's expression turned grave as he noticed the seriousness of the situation and muttered in shock.
Meanwhile, Fennelis became more and more confused by this.
'Where did the guards go? Does that shape-shifter also kill them? No. That's impossible. What about that Piers guy?' She felt something was off about the whole situation and became suspicious.
"Right. Let's get out of this town. We should escape by crossing the stone walls." Selma also agreed.
After some discussion, the group returned to the living hall and soon reached the foyer.
But as they shifted their gaze towards the entrance, everyone heard multiple footsteps outside and went pale.
"It's a trap from the very beginning. That Shape-shift creature killed this city lord and made us scapegoats." Fennelis finally understood the enemy's intention and muttered in a low tone.
Meanwhile, others' eyes became wide open, and soon the door burst open by a battle ram.
"STOP RIGHT THERE! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST." A guard with black hair who investigated yesterday's case entered the mansion house and shouted coldly.
Within seconds, a hundred soldiers arrived at the entrance and blocked their path while pointing their swords at them. Although Fennelis and others were standing inside the house, they were just a few feet away from those hundred soldiers.
Without any choice, everyone raised their hands and thought surrendering was the best option.
'Is he the one who plotted this scheme? Why did he do that? Is he aiming for the noble title? Where did that shape-shifting monster go?' Fennelis still looked at the black-haired guard in a dazed expression and felt something was amiss.
'Wait a minute! This guard and his soldiers came to the Inn yesterday as if they had already known something had happened. Is he that shape-shift monster? Or is he following orders from someone?' The more she thought about that, the more she became puzzled.
"Umi, cast the second innate spell towards the entrance. Don't worry about killing others." Fennelis's expression suddenly turned ice cold.
Although she planned to wait for the enemy to show himself, she didn't expect him to be so crafty and decided to choose the violent way.
Meanwhile, Umi calmly nodded, raised her hand towards the black-haired muscular guard, and cast a strange ice spell. The next instant, a bone-piercing chilling aura came out from her body and caused the surrounding temperature to drop instantly. Everyone felt some strange ice elemental energy enter their bodies and began to freeze the organs.
Noticing the situation, Fennelis cast her defensive spell and completely shielded Roysia and the adventurers' party.
The black-haired muscular guard raised his eyebrows at first, and soon his expression turned pale. As he was about to warn others, a massive amount of ice elemental energy came out from the small beastkin girl and started invading his body. Before he could understand what was happening, the ice froze him and directly moved toward hundreds of other guards. Like a raging storm, the ice energy crept forward in all directions and started to freeze everyone within a second.
The soldiers were frozen like a statue in a blink and became ice statues. Moreover, the chilling ice elemental energy also expanded into the three-storied building, completely freezing the walls, chairs, and stairs and making it look like an ice palace.
A few seconds later, Fennelis breathed a sigh of relief and dismissed that ice shield spell while gazing at her surroundings.
On the other hand, Roysia and others noticed that the hundreds of soldiers were already frozen in ice!
They soon became horrified as they noticed that ice elemental energy completely froze the whole garden trees and nearly reached the mansion's entrance gate.
"Let's go. This guy is not the main culprit." Fennelis quickly grabbed her daughter, who seemed to be still controlling her spell, and spoke while pointing her finger at the frozen muscular guard.
"Do you have any guess?" Roysia asked as she snapped out of the shock.
"No. But we can find out the enemy later. First, we need to get out of this town." Fennelis said seriously and quickly dashed out of the house while breaking those frozen bodies. Meanwhile, others also noticed the urgency in her tone and followed after her hurriedly. Everyone had many questions inside their minds, but they chose to ask those later and chased after her.
Once Fennelis noticed they arrived at a safer distance, she said to Umi with a warm tone.
"You can let go of your control, my dear."
With a pale face, Umi nodded and quickly retracted her control of the 'frozen land' spell. A second later, she fell onto her mother's shoulder and instantly fell into a deep sleep.
Boom!
Simultaneously, a large three-stored ice mansion started cracking and breaking into countless ice stones, sending shockwaves everywhere.
All of them became stupefied at Umi's unique spell.
"She has the blessing of Lady Nyara!" Suddenly, Nadine shifted her gaze towards Umi and said with a surprised tone.
'Heh, as expected of Lady Nyara's firm believer, she appears to be noticed something odd about Umi. Is that a divine power?' This time Fennelis was a little startled but kept quiet about it.
"Let's go." Roysia quickly woke up from the shock and started walking towards the northern gate.