UCPA Chapter 16: The Eye in the Slit

Chapter 16: The Eye in the Slit

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: PlumSauce

 

More than a decade ago, Ms. Crystal of the Blackmoon family was suffering from a variety of serious illnesses, including Alzheimer’s disease.

Burton disguised himself as a caregiver to accompany her day and night. Burton was a bloodkin of ancient lineage, no one could have imagined he would do this. He wasn’t too afraid of indoor sunlight anymore, so he basically did not rest, hoping he could give Crystal the best care and minimize her suffering.

According to Liz, the Blackmoon family never knew about this caregiver. It seemed that Burton did not want to be found out. A strange thing happened thirteen years ago when Crystal accidentally fell out of her wheelchair and fractured her left arm and left knee. Burton said in his diary that he was caring for Crystal one day when a physician suddenly came into the room and locked the door behind him.

The physician was very tall with black hair and blue eyes and had features that looked like he was of Eastern European descent. He smiled and said to Burton, “You are bloodkin, right? She is your comrade and true love, but do you really know her?”

At that time, Burton was surprised; he did not know who this physician was, let alone how the other party could discover his identity. The physician said a lot of cruel words to him, and Burton began to waver.

By then, Burton and Sir Kimplin had already started raising the Clade dogs. One night, the corgi man (whose name was Pani, as seen in the diary) slipped into the ward to deliver something to Burton, only to bump into the strange physician again.

The moment the physician saw the corgi, he said, “Ah, it’s a Clade dog. Is this your dog, Mr. Bloodkin?”

Later, Burton and this physician chatted a lot. The physician said he could see the essence of each person’s life. He also said that Crystal’s soul was trapped in a decaying and broken body; in fact, she wanted to be freed.

At that time, Crystal was indeed quite miserable. Burton thought about it for many days and had the idea of helping her end her suffering, but never could make up his mind.

One evening, after taking a nap on the underground equipment floor, Burton intended to go to the ward to read to Crystal. He walked in and saw the frail old woman prostrate on the floor. She had knocked over her dinner plate, tightly clutching a fork in her hand and trying to stab her throat.

She also had an IV tube inserted in her body and was so weak that she could not even use her hands to support her body. At this moment, Burton made up his mind.

He snatched the fork from the old woman’s hand and carried her back to the hospital bed.

“You have faith. Have you forgotten?” he said to the old woman. “How can you kill yourself when you won’t even accept the First Embrace? Don’t worry. I won’t let you go to hell…”

Burton killed Crystal. In order not to get the sanatorium in trouble by leaving traces of dark creatures, he made the old woman’s death look like a suicide. Burton knew that her God could tell the difference, and that outward appearances were only used to deceive humans.

From then on, Burton became more depressed and pained with each passing day. He gradually began to question everything and began to want the same death as her.

…

“Jere and I investigated the sanatorium yesterday.” Coraci clicked the mouse to close the journal. “Setting aside Burton as an impostor caregiver, the doctor who matched the age, appearance, and shift times described in the journal, also does not exist.”

John had never seen Coraci like this before: serious, even stern. At first, he wondered why Coraci hadn’t asked him to go along on the investigation but went with Instructor Jere instead. Then he realized that Coraci and the others were active in the morning, a time when he himself could barely withstand the sun; if he stayed out too long, he would definitely pass out.

At this point Coraci stood up and said, “Now that Mr. Burton is no longer a threat, the good news is that Sir Kimplin is a dark creature with good intentions, so the follow-up isn’t difficult. What shocked me was the contents of the diary. If I understand correctly, the ‘physician’ Burton met back then also possessed Eyes of Truth.”

Eyes of Truth — the ability to see directly through the essence of all creatures — cannot be hoodwinked by any disguise. People with this special ability were very rare, and it was said to be even rarer than those who are Witch Blood Descendants. To this day, people are still not sure how it came about, and it did not follow any laws of genetics.

Deville Coraci had Eyes of Truth, so he could tell who was a vampire, who was a shapeshifter, and could even distinguish whether people were possessed by either ghosts or evil spirits.

“Although it was Burton who killed Ms. Crystal, before that, her behavior during her attempted suicide was very suspicious,” Coraci continued. “I believe that these things and that ‘physician’ cannot be unconnected, and I even suspect that the ‘physician’ deliberately led Burton to kill Crystal.”

One of the hunters asked, “It is indeed very likely, but why? Whoever that man was, he didn’t show up again for the next ten years or so and never bothered the vampire Burton again, so what was his motive and purpose?”

Coraci shook his head. “We don’t know yet. He disappeared immediately after this incident, so he should have deliberately gone into hiding or changed his identity.”

“I’ve heard that Knowers are rare,” said shapeshifter Smith. “On average, there’s not even one per country on the planet, so how did we get two here? Either he made a special trip to the sanatorium–though I find that really troublesome–or he’s not really a true ‘Knower’ and he may have just resorted to spells.”

Coraci nodded, “That’s also possible.”

Instructor Jere said, “Either way, we’ll have to pay more attention to what’s going on around us when we’re not working.”

There was some discussion about the impact on the general population, the recovery of the injured, etc. Only then did John learn that the people who had been attacked by Burton that day had all been rescued, which made him feel much better.

At the same time, he also realized that even if he had not yet killed people, Burton could not continue to move about freely. This was because the process of going mad and then turning into a blood demon was both unstoppable and irreversible.

After the meeting, Coraci called John to Instructor Jere’s office. Now, only Instructor Jere and Smith were there with them.

“That physician may have killed me,” Smith said directly.

John looked at him in surprise, not understanding where this was coming from. Instructor Jere made a gesture to keep calm toward John and took a printout from a drawer and handed it to John.

“These are some very simple notes to read when you have time,” Instructor Jere said. “John, since you are now Coraci’s partner, I asked you to stay. Regarding the ‘black-haired, blue-eyed physician’ mentioned in the diary, we suspect that this person also appeared about three years ago and had a run-in with the Association. Three years ago, Coraci rescued a bruised and battered Abyssal demon. The demon explained that he was not interested in human society, he was forcibly bound to this space by a spell, after which he was detained by many ‘mages’ and forced to undergo painful experiments. There were many creatures who were also detained with him. At that time, the Association and the Demon Hunter Society cooperated. Through a series of investigations, they discovered a hidden place where dozens of supernatural species were being held, and the one who imprisoned them, surprisingly, was the remnants of the ‘Arcane Covenant’.”

“Arcane Covenant?” John felt like this name came from a fantasy game.

“You’re a wild bloodkin, so you don’t know that many of the big bloodkin clans have actually been at war with them. They are an ancient organization that has been declining in recent times. They spend their days conducting all kinds of experiments against humanity, trying to control humans and dark creatures … You can ask Coraci to tell you the exact details in private.

“In the 1940s, spellcasters and hunters who opposed the Arcane Covenant rallied together to purge this organization with a sinister history once and for all. Of course, it was later discovered that some, who were not caught, were operating in secret. The mages that the Association came into contact with three years ago were the people of the Arcane Covenant.

“This time was the same as in the past: while the Association rescued the victims, the hunters executed the mages who refused to surrender. When we thought things were about to end, a tall man with black hair suddenly appeared and killed the mages who were willing to accept the investigation and cooperate with the Association, and also…”

At this point, Instructor Jere paused to look at Coraci and sighed deeply.

Shapeshifter Smith then finished the story, “At that time, there were six people, including me. Coraci was the head of the temporary group. We were kidnapped by the man and were bound in place, unable to move. The man slowly killed us one by one in front of Coraci… I was dying but still alive, and then I found an opportunity to escape and brought more hunters over, but the tall man escaped.”

Hearing this, John was shocked. Three years ago, Coraci’s last spouse “Smith” died in a “gas explosion”.

Continuing, Smith said, “Shortly after this incident, I thought that the Arcane Covenant’s affairs could be temporarily put to rest, and at that time Coraci was… preparing for divorce. I let my guard down and went to the bar alone to have fun. I ended up running into that tall mage who had escaped! He used magic to destroy the whole building and inspected my shattered ‘corpse’ himself.” Smith rubbed his arms, trying to calm the chills that rose up in his body at the memory of that scene. “It was the camouflage ability that helped me escape, and I purposely made myself look a little worse.”

Afterward, Smith changed his identity and Coraci received protection for a period of time. That man never appeared again, as if it all ended with this act of revenge.

Three years have passed, and neither the Association nor the Demon Hunter Society had found any signs of the Arcane Covenant mages’ activities. Today, they saw traces of that man in Burton’s diary, and it was from thirteen years ago, even earlier than the Association’s first contact with him.

“It’s not certain they’re the same person,” said Coraci after thinking about it. “Although their external features sound similar, hair color, eye color, height, and so on are rather vague descriptions.”

“I thought the same thing,” Smith said. “If these two are really the same person, that would be horrible! If he also had ‘Eyes of Truth’… My god, he knew then that I wasn’t even dead!”

Instructor Jere nodded, “Three years ago, I was one of the hunters involved in the rescue, and I saw with my own eyes the tragic deaths of my Association colleagues; Smith and Coraci were hit harder than I was in this incident. Now everything is still inconclusive, we can only wait and see what happens. Perhaps the black-haired, blue-eyed man will appear again tomorrow, or perhaps he will never appear again.”

John didn’t realize that Smith was still reading his mind at the moment.

He was nodding softly to the instructor but thinking, My god, when I posed as a reporter to talk to Coraci about his “widowed past”, it was actually these memories that were brought back!

No wonder Coraci said those things: “This job is very stressful, and almost no one can understand”, “I thought I could never face it again…”

John was right at the time. On the fictional topic of grief, Coraci was revealing real emotions.

After finishing the conversation and walking out of the office building, Smith took the opportunity to take John aside when Coraci was answering the phone.

“You’re new, so I want you to know,” Smith said, “that the Association can offer protection and stability, but at the same time, it can expose you to dangers you don’t want to take. You need to know that if you rely solely on your curiosity about the Association or on your favorable impression of Coraci himself, sooner or later, you won’t last long in this job.”

“I… Not really…” John wanted to say that he was not only here for these reasons, but unexpectedly could not deny it at the moment.

Smith patted his shoulder. “Don’t be nervous. Curiosity and hero complex are not bad things. I’m just reminding you what we people… or what we monsters face at work is not easy.”

Before leaving, Smith added softly with a smile, “I know you care about Coraci. So take good care of him.”

 

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