Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 538: Jackpot

With that, the Village Chief nodded and rose from his seat as he walked toward the door, leading Asher toward the houses of the kidnapped villagers, his steps steady and assured despite his blindness, as though the layout of the village existed vividly within his mind.

"The Adventurer Guild team that came to investigate, how many were they?" Asher asked as he walked, his tone casual yet deliberate, as though the question held more weight than it initially appeared.

The Village Chief, who was walking beside Asher as though he were not blind at all, asked calmly, "Which one?"

Asher arched an eyebrow in confusion. "What do you mean by which one?" he asked, a faint crease forming between his brows.

"Three different teams looked into the kidnapping issue, and they all vanished, so which team are you asking about?" the Village Chief replied in the same composed tone, as though stating something ordinary rather than alarming.

Asher’s eyes narrowed at the Village Chief’s reply. He had assumed only a single team had investigated the kidnapping matter, but it seemed he had been wrong all along, and gravely so.

"All of them," he finally replied after a brief moment of contemplation, his voice quieter now.

"From what I heard, the smallest team consisted of four members, and the largest had six," the Village Chief stated, recalling the discussions from their regional Village Chief meeting.

Asher fell silent. He did not respond outwardly, but his mind had already begun calculating, estimating, and theorizing the possible number and strength of the kidnappers. Within moments, they arrived at the first house, which belonged to one of the missing men. Stepping inside, Asher activated his Omni Perception, allowing his senses to sweep through the entire room in search of anything even slightly out of place.

But he found nothing, absolutely nothing. No disturbances, no foreign traces of Astra, no residual scent of struggle, no displaced objects, not even the faintest irregularity. The air itself felt ordinary.

Asher said nothing as he exited and moved to the next house, then the next, and through it all, he found the same emptiness. He exhaled quietly in frustration as he encountered yet another dead end. ’These people are a little too good,’ Asher thought to himself, mildly irritated that he had not even found a footprint or a single strand of unfamiliar energy.

Yet it made perfect sense. What resistance could these villagers possibly have offered? Kidnapping them from their homes would have been no more difficult than taking candy from a sleeping baby. Even Asher himself could abduct every single villager without leaving a trace if he so desired, for they were simply too weak to create any meaningful evidence in the first place.

’I have to get to the next village immediately,’ he concluded internally, realizing that his initial plan of using himself as perfect bait had already failed before it could even begin. However, Asher was not discouraged. If the kidnappers followed a pattern, then that pattern could be exploited. ’At least now I know they abduct everyone at once rather than over the course of several days,’ he reasoned silently.

’But now this raises another question. Which village will they target next? And if they are truly this skilled and powerful, why not simply sweep through the entire region within a few days, kidnap the people they need, and disappear before anyone can even raise an alarm?’ Asher pondered, as that approach seemed far more efficient and strategically sound.

His thoughts spiraled rapidly, connecting possibilities and discarding flawed assumptions, until suddenly a realization surfaced in his mind. ’Solving this matter is actually simple,’ he thought, and a faint smile curved along his lips.

He turned toward the Village Chief, who seemed to sense his gaze and shifted his face toward him in response. "I have a few questions," Asher said, his smile controlled yet unmistakable.

"Ask away," the Village Chief replied, ready to assist to the best of his ability. Although he could not determine whether Asher would succeed or vanish like the previous adventurer teams, he resolved to cooperate fully.

"Your village, Blackstone Village, was the last village from which people were taken, correct?" Asher asked, though the answer was already evident.

The Village Chief nodded slowly, still uncertain where Asher was leading the conversation.

"Which village did the kidnappers target immediately before yours?" Asher asked.

"Brown Village," the Village Chief answered without hesitation.

Asher could not help but sigh softly, realizing that the Village Chief had not yet recognized the pattern forming.

Looking around, Asher bent down and picked up a stick from the ground. In the sand beneath their feet, he wrote the numbers one through ten in a straight line. Then he spoke calmly, "If these numbers represent the villages within your region, and Blackstone Village is number five, which number would Brown Village be?" he asked, simplifying the concept to its most basic form.

"Brown Village would be number four since it is directly adjacent to us," the Village Chief replied.

At that answer, Asher’s smile widened noticeably. He was attempting to establish a sequence, but he needed confirmation. One instance could be coincidence, but two or three would solidify the pattern beyond doubt. He proceeded to ask the Village Chief a few more clarifying questions, verifying the order of previous disappearances, and just as he had suspected, the kidnappers had been moving systematically from one village to the next in a linear progression.

If Blackstone Village was number five, then the next logical target would be number six.

"What village is number six?" Asher asked immediately, excitement flickering subtly within his otherwise composed demeanor. He finally possessed a tangible lead, a predictable trajectory. Yet he could not help but question whether the kidnappers were careless or overconfident. Following such an obvious sequence seemed reckless; a random pattern would have been far less detectable.

"Sand Village," the Village Chief replied promptly.

"One last question," Asher said, wanting to confirm a crucial detail. "What was the time interval between the kidnapping in Brown Village and the one in Blackstone Village?" This answer would determine his next move. It would reveal whether he needed to rush immediately to village six or skip ahead entirely to village seven.

"I believe our villagers disappeared approximately two weeks after the Brown Village incident," the Village Chief answered, still unaware of the full significance of the information he had just provided.

Asher’s smile broadened further. ’Jackpot,’ he mused internally. The interval was consistent. The kidnappers were not sweeping the region rapidly, they were operating in measured cycles, allowing two weeks between each village.

That meant Sand Village was likely approaching its danger window, if it had not already arrived. For the first time since his arrival, Asher felt that the invisible thread guiding this mystery had finally become visible in his grasp.

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AUTHOR’S NOTE: Two bonus Chapters will come today. Also, where is my Valentine’s gift?