Chapter 45: Chasing Clues

The driver who was waiting for us wasn’t a hunter. He was pretty respectful toward me once he found out I was a C-Rank hunter.

I mean, I was just a temporary C-Rank Hunter, but he didn’t know that.

"You’re young and already this high ranking, impressive," he praised me while driving us to Estacada. "Have you ever been here before?"

"No, never," I said. "Do you know anything about the situation we’re facing?"

The file had a lot of intel, but hearing from someone who actually lived in the area was really nice.

"This started last week," the driver said. "Nothing happens in Estacada, so when someone goes missing, everyone gets on edge."

"Who was the first to vanish?"

"Someone called Maison. He’s a local guide in the region."

"So he went missing during one of his hikes?"

That was my first thought. Maybe a beast or a villain found him during one of his hikes and kidnapped him. It was the most logical thing.

But that wasn’t what happened.

"No, that’s the thing. He actually went missing from his home. Someone or something broke in and kidnapped him. We are certain it’s not a normal human who did this because Maison is an awakened. He isn’t strong, but a normal human wouldn’t be able to take him."

So that was why the academy was certain something was off with the kidnapping. The first person who went missing was actually an awakened.

The worst part was that Maison wasn’t even the first one. Someone else got kidnapped, a woman this time. According to the driver, it happened two days ago, and she wasn’t awakened like Maison. Basically an ordinary human.

I was the one doing most of the talking, since I was the one with the C-Rank badge and the assigned leader, but Ethan and Tom were listening to everything we spoke inside the car, and I could see they were already forming their opinions to share with me later on.

The drive took only about 40 minutes, so it wasn’t that long.

"I live in that house," the driver said, "and that’s Maison’s. You can go and have a look. The police will tell you where the next victim’s house is."

We thanked the driver and left the car.

"So what do you think?" Ethan asked me.

"I think we’re either dealing with an intelligent beast or a villain, obviously. It might have seen Maison during one of his hikes and decided to follow him back home. If the missing woman also did some hikes in the region recently, then this might lead somewhere."

That was my guess. No idea if it was a good one or not. Ethan and Tom liked it, though. In fact, they were thinking similar things.

"Let’s go have a look at Maison’s house first," I said.

It was just across the street from where the driver left us. There were policemen in the house, and yellow tape was around it to make sure no one went in.

The police knew someone from the academy was coming to investigate, but they didn’t know who.

When we got close to the house, one policeman came toward us.

"Back off," he said. "This is a crime scene."

I pulled out the badge from my pocket. It was so nice having that, honestly. Not long ago I was suffering at the hands of others, being useless and all, and now look at me!

"We are here on behalf of the New Order Hunter’s Academy," I said, "to investigate the kidnapping of Maison and the other woman."

"Mary, that’s her name," the policeman added. "I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were from the academy. Come with me."

Someone from the forensics was there as well. This person wasn’t great at fighting against villains or beasts, that’s why they were there, but knew how to investigate a crime scene to get clues.

However, things weren’t looking good...

The forensics specialist was a tanned woman with a ponytail. She was quite tall, being close to 6 feet. She was inside the house, sitting on the couch while watching TV.

They were basically living in Maison’s house, waiting for us. There was nothing else for them to do.

The policeman introduced us.

"They are from the academy," he said.

After that, he left, leaving only the three of us and her in the house.

"So the academy sent us rookies to get this done?" she said, staring at us.

We all looked quite young, so it made sense she thought that. And I mean, we were rookies...

I wasn’t that experienced or skilled, but my ability and bloodline passives made up for it.

"What did you find?" I asked her, cutting the crap and going straight for business.

She didn’t complain, even though she wanted to. I was a hunter, and she was not, so she had to act accordingly.

"That’s the thing, we found nothing. No footprints, no foot marks, no strand of hair, nothing. Whatever took Maison entered through the back door, destroying the door handle and getting inside. We believe Maison was watching TV when that happened."

If that was the case, then when the door handle got destroyed, Maison would have heard it, right?

Even a normal human would, and Maison was awakened, so his basic senses were slightly better than a normal human’s.

"Did Maison react?" I asked.

"No," she replied. "I think everything happened too fast, and Maison got knocked out or something."

Tom asked her something that was bugging him.

"How are you so certain something kidnapped Maison? Couldn’t he have destroyed the door handle and faked a kidnapping?"

That was a valid point. People were assuming someone took Maison, as he didn’t look like someone who would fake a kidnapping and run away.

But what if he did? What was stopping him from doing it?

"We thought about that too, but we do have a witness. A kid who was staring through a window when the kidnapping happened, and this kid said he saw someone or something with Maison on its shoulder, running away from the house."

"So it was humanoid," I said.

"Yes. But we don’t know if this is a humanoid beast or an awakened human."

"Where does this kid live?"

"Just across the street, that house over there."

She pointed at it for us. I also asked her about the other missing woman.

"Did she go on hikes where Maison worked as a guide?"

The forensics specialist frowned.

"Now that you say this, I think she did. I didn’t even think of that."

That was just her doing a shitty job, honestly... Was she just not working hard enough because the case would eventually be given to us?

It made sense. It was not like the police actually liked us hunters. For them, we just had that position because of our powers, and didn’t deserve the treatment we got.

We left the house and went to the house where the kid who had seen Maison lived.

It was a two-story house with a big window in the front, on the second floor. I saw a kid standing there, watching us from the window. It was certainly the kid who saw Maison.

After knocking on the door a few times, someone came to answer. A woman.

"Yes?" she said.

"We are hunters investigating what happened. I’ve heard your son saw something the other night? Can we go in to have a quick chat with him?"

The woman was reluctant to let us in.

"He’s just a kid. Are you sure you have to do this?"

"Yes," I said. "He’s the only one who saw something. Let us speak with him, now."

She didn’t like my tone.

"You don’t have a warrant to enter our house, so if we don’t want you talking to our son, then you won’t talk to him. Now, leave."

The woman closed the door right in our faces... I wasn’t going to take that lightly.