Chapter 139: Going Around in Circles

Zishan returned to the first corpse and pushed more of the damaged clothing aside. Since the claw marks were already proven to have been made after death, there had to be something underneath them that whoever staged the scene wanted to hide. And it actually didn’t take him long to find it.

There was a smaller wound beneath one of the claw marks, narrow enough that it could easily be missed if somebody only looked at the larger injuries. Zishan leaned closer and studied the angle.

’A stab wound... and it’s deep.’

Judging from where it entered, the blade had probably reached the heart. The broken sword near the fire was too wide to make something like this, so Zishan searched around the collapsed tent and eventually found a dagger partly hidden beneath some torn fabric.

There was dried blood on the blade. For a moment, his earlier theory still worked. The missing fourth member could have stabbed this man before staging the beast attack.

He then moved toward the woman next. Her case took longer because the fake claw marks covered most of her upper body, but after examining the wounds underneath, Zishan noticed a deep cut along her side. It looked much cleaner compared to anything the beast’s claws could have caused.

His eyes briefly went toward the broken sword. ’That could fit.’

He checked her face next and noticed a faint discoloration around the gums. That alone wasn’t enough to say anything, but one of her hands was clenched, and when Zishan opened it, several pieces of broken glass were pressed inside her palm.

There was still residue inside. ’Poison?’

He wasn’t completely sure yet, though it became harder to ignore once he returned to the first man and found a tiny puncture near his wrist.

Zishan looked back toward the woman. The broken vial was still in her hand. ’Wait... she poisoned him?’

He was already gradually gaining confidence in his theories, only to be debunked by something he did not expect would happen.

’If the fourth member killed everyone here, why would one of the supposed victims poison another person in the same group?’ he thought deeply. ’Maybe she had been working with the fourth member.’

It was possible, but Zishan didn’t want to force everything into that explanation just because it was convenient.

He went back to the dagger instead and examined the handle. There was blood around the grip that didn’t seem to have come from the blade itself. Whoever used it probably had an injured hand.

Meanwhile, the woman’s palms had no matching wound. Neither did the first man’s. But the third corpse certainly did. ’Damn...’

Zishan stared at the cut across the man’s palm before looking back at the dagger. ’You used it. It really feels like I’m going around in circles right now...’

And if that was right, then the third man had stabbed the first using the woman’s dagger.

Zishan frowned. ’This is already becoming completely different from what I initially expected.’

The broken sword became more significant after that. There was blood along the remaining blade, and the wound on the woman’s side was wide enough to match it. When Zishan checked the first man’s hands again, there were abrasions around his fingers and palm that looked like he had been gripping something during a struggle. ’So you attacked her.’

He stayed there for a moment and tried to sort out what he had discovered so far.

The woman had poisoned the first man. The first man attacked the woman with the sword. The third man used the woman’s dagger and stabbed the first man through the heart.

None of that pointed toward the missing fourth member.

At least, not directly.

Zishan looked toward the third corpse. "Then what or who killed you?"

He checked the body again. There was damage around the torso, and some of it had been hidden beneath the fake claw wounds, but it still didn’t explain enough. A scorched section of clothing suggested that Mana might have been involved somewhere during the fight, though Zishan couldn’t tell if that actually caused anything fatal.

While looking around the camp again, to hopefully find more clues, he noticed something beneath the damaged tent.

’A bow.’

There was a quiver near it with several arrows still inside. One of its slots was empty. Then, Zishan’s eyes moved toward the third corpse.

He had already checked the front several times, but not underneath him properly. When he shifted the body to look beneath the back, he found the broken end of an arrow.

Zishan stopped and looked toward the bow again. His gaze shifted to the woman, then to the empty slot in the quiver, before settling back on the third man.

’No fucking way.’

He stood up and went through everything again, this time without trying to force the missing fourth member into every death.

The woman poisoned the first man. The first man attacked her with the sword, and judging from the depth of the wound, it was bad enough to kill her. The third man stabbed the first using her dagger.

To add to those, the woman had shot the third man.

The exact order was still unclear.

Maybe she shot him before he stabbed the first. Maybe the first man attacked her after figuring out he had been poisoned. Maybe the third man tried to stop them and ended up getting involved himself. Zishan actually didn’t know.

’Every time I sort it out, it feels really repetitive, but I need to keep all things together, so I have to tell myself over and over again about what happened, lest I miss some important details.’

But there was something else that mattered most.

’That is... they were fighting each other.’

His eyes moved toward the footprints leaving the camp. The missing fourth member suddenly stopped looking like the murderer.

Zishan went back toward the beast and followed the drag marks again. At this point, there was little doubt left in his mind that the scene had been altered only after the real fight was already over.

’So whoever did all of this came after they were already dead.’ Zishan slowly looked back toward the bodies. ’And that fourth person found them like this. He came back and found his three companions dead after whatever happened between them.’

Then, instead of reporting the scene as it was, he changed it.

"Fuck." Zishan rubbed the back of his neck. He almost wanted to check everything again just to make sure he wasn’t missing something obvious, but every important part kept pointing toward the same thing.

The survivor only came after their fight and changed the scene afterward. ’But why would he do that?’

That part certainly wasn’t clear.

Maybe he wanted to protect their names. Maybe their families. Maybe whatever started the fight was something the guild couldn’t be allowed to know. There were too many possibilities, and Zishan could probably think of more if he kept trying.

But none of them were evidence.

The woman at the counter had already explained that part before he entered. If he didn’t know, then he didn’t know. Simple as that.

Zishan looked around the camp once more before finally raising his voice. "I’m ready to give my report."

The forest remained the same, so he continued, "The Beast didn’t kill them. It died before they did, and somebody dragged the body here afterward. The claw wounds were made after the three were already dead."

His eyes then moved toward the first man. "This one was poisoned and stabbed through the heart. I think the woman poisoned him because of the vial and the puncture near his wrist. Her dagger was used to stab him too, but she wasn’t the one holding it."

Zishan pointed toward the third corpse and said, "He was."

Then, he looked toward the broken sword. "The first man attacked the woman, and she shot the third one with the bow."

Zishan paused for a moment before saying, "I don’t know who started the fight, and I don’t know the exact order of everything that happened. I can guess, but that would just be a guess."

His attention moved toward the trail leaving the clearing. "The person who left this camp didn’t murder them. That, I can be certain about. Whatever he did to this place happened after those three were already dead."

Zishan looked toward the beast again. "He made it look like they were attacked by this wolf-looking beast."

He looked at the three corpses again.

"But that’s not what happened." He let out a breath. "Instead, they killed each other."

A vibration passed beneath his feet, and the forest around him slowly began losing its shape.

Zishan kept his eyes on the trail leading away from the camp. The survivor had lied about what happened here. Not to hide his own murders. But to hide theirs.

"The only person who lied about the murders was the only one who didn’t kill anyone," was Zishan’s final remark.