Chapter 659: The Hospital
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The pile of photos were taken from five victims. Some had rotted. Buck explained to Heidi,
“Three days ago, some workers took off earlier in the evening because some magic circles in Claire broke. On their way back to Sardni through Egret, they heard a bitter scream from the victim in the first picture. They checked on it. One of them was a magic apprentice. The murderer had left. They only found the body, not even any footprints. Later, we found four more bodies hidden around in the sewers. All the organs were gone, and no clues were left.”
Heidi nodded, “The body was badly rotten. The case might have happened even earlier than we think, and I’m sure there are more bodies to be found. But I wonder why the murderer did not simply destroy the bodies.”
“It’s not easy to destroy the bodies. There are no piranhas in the rivers in Rentato. The bodies had to be moved to the black forest.” said Buck. He had been assuming that the murderer was not a powerful sorcerer or knight, but maybe just an ordinary man. He saw no point in a sorcerer or a knight attacking those poor people.
Heidi shuffled the photos and asked, “Any missing people reports from the recent months?”
Buck looked a bit embarrassed, “Egret is a poor district, and is full of people who come to Rentato seeking opportunities. The population is constantly changing, so even the gang leaders can’t figure out who have gone missing…”
Heidi put down the photos, “I’ll take a look at the bodies and the scenes where the bodies were found. It’s hard to tell from the black and white pictures.”
She had a bad feeling about these cases. All the victims’ organs had gone missing. There was definitely something going on.
Heidi’s words were exactly what Buck had been expecting. He hurriedly stood up and said, “Please come this way.”
He walked to his police car and opened the door for Heidi. After Heidi got in, Buck walked around the car and got in the driver’s seat.
Turning on the engine, the steel machine monster started roaring.
“The size of a car has been greatly reduced…” Heidi made this heartfelt comment when she saw the comfortable interior of the vehicle.
Buck grinned, “That’s true. In the past, a car was too big to run on the streets. Those sorcerers simplified the magic circles for producing cars and also lowered the requirement for materials. Part of the magic steam engine has also been replaced by the new energy resource…”
An older-version vehicle would take up all the space of a street in Rentato. After the improvements, however, now at least two cars could run through the streets in opposite directions and the sidewalks could still be retained. But still, cars were very expensive and only the nobles and national departments could afford them. Although Buck was one of the leaders in the police department, if he had not been picking up Heidi, he would not have access to this car.
Heidi gave the metal door of the car a gentle stroke and felt the texture. She knew that it was because of Layria and Katrina’s contribution to materials science that the requirements of alchemical circles could finally be lowered to such a degree.
She knew how difficult the simplification was. Thanks to the guidance and development of new alchemy and element research, material synthesis had also made good progress.
Apart from Layria and Katrina, those sorcerers from Atom Institution like Lazar and Rock, as well as Larry, Ulysses, Timothy and K… Thousands of sorcerers were doing their best.
Material science required countless experiments to gather experience. Even prophecy could only do a little to help. There was no luck in this field!
Those ideas that the dwarves brought from their own steam culture also had inspired the sorcerers who tried to simplify the production of cars. They had thus extracted the energy-intensive resource: coal burning element. Also, they had started looking for new alternative energies such as solar power, which was once only used in magic towers.
The sorcerer’s knowledge was profound. Their old ally, the elves, were also a great help.
Thinking of the great changes that had been taking place in the congress and in the four countries along the strait, Heidi felt very encouraged. She was proud living in such an era.
Heidi thought to herself that although she was not as talented as Annick and Sprint in the microscopic realm, and not as patient and sensitive to the properties of materials, she believed that she would make her own achievement in artificial intelligence, and one day she would win the Holm Crown prize.
Her fists clenching, Heidi encouraged herself. She was rather thrilled thinking of the future that, once soul pieces were added in, those cold machines could also think and deal with most problems like human beings and even faster than many arcanists. Among the six students of Lucien Evans, only Heidi and Chelly had not yet won a top prize.
Very attentively Buck drove the car. He said to Heidi, “Lady, we’re first heading for the mortuary in Violet Hospital.”
“No problem.” said Heidi. She would like to take the chance to visit the hospital, which had made many followers of the Church realize that the Saint Truth was not the only power that could cure diseases. The Congress of Magic could also do the job!
Although Buck was feeling a bit nervous driving, he still did not want to leave his important guest alone, so he tried to start a conversation, “Cars are not yet fast enough. In the future, the speed should be further improved by advancing power magic circles and finding new resources. Herald of Arcana and Magic said that the Lord of Storm, Atom Controller, the Lord of Elements have finished the initial theoretical research on radioactive element decay. Does that mean that the decay energy can be used to power cars in the future?”
“Nuclear you mean…” Heidi was a bit amused. Obviously, Buck was piling up the terms that he saw in the newspaper.
Nuclear power was a major focus in Atom Institution, and the research was led by Mr. Lucien Evans in person, with his closest friends and students as supporters. This most cutting-edge energy was even too powerful and precious for most senior-ranks, not to mention using it in powering cars.
Heidi joked, “When we finish the study on the miniaturization and popularization of controllable nuclear fusion using magnetic confinement we should be able to increase the speed to the next level…”
She shot out the long sentence within only a couple of seconds.
Controllable nuclear fusion was the ultimate goal of the project, which would provide the most powerful energy ever to Allyn, the city floating in the sky. However, they were still far away from it. In fact, they were still looking for ways to control the process of nuclear decay.
“Controllable nuclear fusion using magnetic confinement…” Buck chewed the mysterious words well, trying to remember them. When he got back, he could use the words to show off. This was the most cutting-edge arcana study, not the outdated information from the newspapers – Ms. Heidi said it!
At this time, a beautiful white building appeared at the end of the road. Buck gently put on the brake and stopped in front of the hospital. Then he hurriedly got off and pulled open the door for Heidi,
“Here we are.”
Heidi got out and looked at the hospital building from outside. She slightly nodded as the building looked in fact quite clean and even sacred. She never expected that those necromancers would run a place like this.
Pushing open the glass door, Buck led Heidi to the mortuary. On their way they ran into many doctors and nurses wearing white gowns. They were apprentices, low and middle-rank sorcerers selected who studied necromancy. This place was not only a place for treating patients, but also a place for their experiments. Therefore, many of them were volunteers here.
Of course, all the experiments had to be permitted by the Congress of Magic. Any illegal experiments would lead to severe punishments.
So far, Violet Hospital had been running for a year. Because of the free magic potions and alchemical facilities provided by the sorcerers and the Congress of Magic, the treatments here were relatively cheap. People had good words about this place. Therefore, the doctors and nurses were given a strange title – Magic Angel.
On their way, they saw an excited crowd in front of them. Some nurses and doctors were surrounding a tall and thin man in black coat, all trying to ask questions.
Heidi recognized the man who always looked sick.
“It seems that Mr. Felipe is quite popular here.”
“Mr. Felipe is here today to have a lecture on human anatomy and cell memory for the doctors and nurses.” Buck explained. The way he looked at Mr. Felipe was full of reverence. He was told that he could turn a pile of flesh into a human.
Heidi and Buck kept walking to the mortuary. After they turned around, they could still hear the conversation.
“Mr. Felipe, so in anatomy…”
“Prof. Felipe, in terms of cell memory…”
At this time, Felipe said gloomily, “Don’t call me prof.”
The nurses were all very surprised. Why? Professor was a title to show great respect in Holt Magic College.
Heidi burst out laughing. Buck turned to look at her, wondering why.
“Nothing.” Heidi waved her hands.
Around the corner, the mortuary was at the end of the corridor. Buck pulled open the gate and they both walked in this cold place.
Juxtaposing the five corpses, Heidi studied them carefully. At this moment, she was no longer a lady but an arcanist.
After a long time, Heidi frowned and said, “Judging from the wound and the way that the guts were taken, it was four murderers who killed the five victims. They did not care about possible damages on the guts, either.”
“A gang crime?” Asked Buck solemnly.
Instead of giving a reply, Heidi cut five pieces of flesh from the five corpses and said, “Bring me to the crime scene.”
She vaguely had an idea.
