Chapter 62: CH. 62 | Blood on the Grandma House

They arrived at an old house near a fish pond. Lily pointed toward it and said it was her grandmother’s home.

Lily and Riley walked ahead, pushing the door open and looking inside.

Theo and the others stayed by the gate, waiting for Lily to come back with her grandmother.

"GRANDMA?!"

The girl’s scream tore through the house, loud enough to leave Theo and the others frozen in shock. He rushed inside and froze at what he saw.

Lily’s grandmother lay collapsed on the floor, a kitchen knife buried in her stomach, blood pooling and soaking into the floorboards.

She tried shaking her grandmother’s body, but got no response at all.

"GRANDMA?! WHAT HAPPENED?"

Theo moved fast. He crouched down and checked for a pulse. There was one, faint but there.

If she doesn’t get help soon, her life’s in danger.

"Moving her out of the house is way too risky, since that knife could shift and hurt her worse," Theo said.

He glanced to the side and asked Avara to fly over and fetch Miya from Myra Apothecary.

Avara listened, and the crow shot off, flying fast out of the house.

Theo stayed put and asked Lily to help stabilize her grandmother’s condition with her priest magic. That was the only thing they could do to keep her from slipping further toward death.

Lily wiped away her tears and nodded, understanding. She reached out her hands and channeled her mana to help heal her grandmother’s condition.

Theo turned around and told Aya and Thalia to run to the village chief’s house, since he needed someone to know what had happened to Lily’s grandmother.

Both of them nodded and took off running.

Before long, Theo saw Miya arrive, running alongside Myra, both of them out of breath. They reached Theo.

"What happened?" Miya asked.

"Not sure. More important that we heal her first," Theo answered.

"All right. You all can step out, Myra and I will handle it from here," Miya said.

Lily and Riley walked outside with Theo. The door closed, leaving Miya to work on stabilizing the old woman.

From another direction, Aya and Thalia arrived with a middle aged man.

Theo walked over and explained the situation to him, speaking on Lily’s behalf as the grandmother’s family.

The man looked shocked. He explained that Lily’s grandmother was known as a kind, warm, generous person.

That kind of reputation made her well liked, and it was hard to imagine anyone hating her.

"Could it... have been an accident?"

"There’s no broken items anywhere. Besides, if it was an accident, her body wouldn’t be positioned like that, and the knife wouldn’t have gone in that deep," Theo answered.

"I’ll ask the village security to investigate this, hopefully they can find some leads."

"The only person who could tell us who did this... is Lily’s grandmother herself."

Theo looked back and saw Thalia and Aya comforting Lily and Riley, holding them close.

Lily was still crying in Thalia’s arms, unwilling to accept the thought of losing her grandmother.

An hour passed, and they were still waiting on word from Miya’s treatment. Before long, the door opened and Myra stepped outside, her hands and clothes stained with blood.

"We managed to pull the knife out and stitch up the wound in her stomach."

"But her condition’s still unstable. We need to give her intensive care at the apothecary."

"What do you think?"

Lily and the others listened, but Lily couldn’t make that call herself, since she had no money, and she knew intensive care at the apothecary would come with a real cost.

The girl turned reflexively to look at Theo. Without a second thought, Theo agreed right away.

He said he’d cover the cost of her treatment for as long as she stayed at the apothecary.

Myra nodded and went to fetch the patient cart from the apothecary. Lily walked inside with Riley, while Theo stayed outside.

Miya came walking out now. She pulled off her cloth mask and gloves, walking with purpose straight toward Theo, who stood beside the middle aged man.

"I’ve had a look at her. Someone tried to kill her," Miya said, "But I can’t say who."

"Could it be Peggy?" the middle aged man asked.

"She’s quiet and mysterious, sure, but you can’t just jump to accusing her, Huston!" Miya shot back.

"So this was an attempted murder?" Theo asked, and Miya turned and nodded.

"Yes," Miya said, "An accident wouldn’t cause damage like that. The stab wound was way too deep."

Theo went quiet for a moment. He realized there was barely any evidence, barely any witnesses.

The only real testimony could come from Lily’s grandmother herself. But he worried that if they waited for her to wake up, whoever did this would already be long gone from the village.

With nothing concrete to go on, Theo decided he’d have to take matters into his own hands.

After all, he was Lily’s family in every way that mattered now, maybe the last family she had left. He remembered clearly how happy and excited Lily had been to see her grandmother again.

But now, realizing what had happened, Theo could only imagine how shattered Lily must feel.

"I’ll take care of this," Theo said firmly.

Miya turned, startled, "You? Wait! You’re going to—"

"Yeah," Theo answered, "It’s the best way I know to find out who did this."

"Are you sure you can pull it off?"

"I’m sure I can," Theo said firmly.

Theo went quiet for a moment, then walked through the door and found Lily and Riley there, kneeling beside their grandmother, who lay helpless.

When Theo walked in, both of their attention turned toward him, "Theo...?"

"I’m going to help find out who did this to your grandmother."

"B-But how?"

The patient cart arrived. Myra and a few men came to carry Lily’s grandmother onto it. Theo told Thalia and Aya to go with Lily, making sure she’d be okay there.

"So... what are you going to do?" Thalia asked.

"I’m going to do something for her," Theo answered.

Thalia didn’t respond when Aya called out to her. They finally left the scene, riding off in the cart.

Now, only Theo and Avara remained inside Lily’s grandmother’s house.

"Do the usual thing, Avara."

"I need you to keep watch over me for a bit," Theo said.

Avara immediately shifted from her black crow form into her human shape, arms crossed in front of her chest.

"Should I get a bucket ready?" Avara asked, teasing.

Theo laughed lightly, "Won’t need it. This’ll be quick, and I don’t think it’ll put me in any danger."