Being a young man faced with someone he perceived as a cute girl, Heldion had been more nervous than scared at this point.

  After she walked up to him, he was able to get a good look at her from up close. Apart from the colour scheme, she was dressed in a very typical manner for a clown, being one of those very ample, baggy jumpsuits.

  Although just one piece, it was separated into four pieces, like a square that went white, black, white, black, in a clockwise rotation. The neck area was somewhat frilly, but apart from this, she hadn’t had much in the way of clownish equipment.

  “I remember that she had a black clown nose, but apart from this… It wasn’t much, honestly. She was just covered in chalk-white make-up everywhere her skin was visible, and… I don’t know, I noticed, or remember it so clearly, but… I found her shoes weird”

  Jupo raised an eyebrow at the last comment.

  “Her shoes? What was wrong with them?”

  “I mean… There wasn’t anything actually wrong–I just found it strange that she had normal shoes. Clowns are supposed to have big shoes, right? But she just wore black, leather-like shoes. Those things had looked like they could fit right with a noble’s attire…”

  The mage apprentice indeed found that to be a peculiar detail to focus on. For some reason, though, he couldn’t help but agree that it was indeed odd… However, considering that she was also dressed in black and white, it wasn’t far-fetched to guess that she wasn’t supposed to be a regular clown in the first place.

  Jupo was no expert on clowns, especially since they sort of freaked him out with how they completely covered themselves in make-up. When he was a kid, he sincerely believed that they were an entirely different species altogether because of this.

  Regardless, Heldion continued to describe the supposed killer’s appearance. Apart from her clownish attributes, she had rather long, half white, half black hair that extended down to the middle of her back.

  The young man couldn’t precisely tell how tall she was, only that she was taller than him–Which didn’t say much. Heldion was rather short and had a rather bad posture that made him look even shorter. From his perspective, most people were taller than him.

  “You saw the steel monster in the past, didn’t you?”

  Binibelle suddenly spoke up, startling Jupo, who hadn’t noticed her moving to the other side of the room.

  “Ah… I really don’t know for sure…”

  “You saw two small purple dots, right?”

  “...Yes, Ma’am”

  “Would you say that they were taller than the clown lady?”

  “Mmh… Yes, I would say so! They were looking at me from above a door!”

  Binibelle motioned for Jupo to continue.

  “Aherm… Anything else about her description?”

  Heldion scratched his nose before hesitatingly going into a very detailed description of the clown’s appearance and physique. Jupo was honestly flabbergasted. The young man must have been absolutely starstruck to remember all of this in detail… Apparently, though, the clown girl was exceedingly attractive, had small hands, had apparently ‘petite’ proportions–At least that's how Heldion ended up expressing himself–And also had ‘very eye-catching lips covered in black lipstick’.

  Once again, the flowery descriptions were certainly mostly due to the young man letting his hormones speak for him. At least, Jupo hoped it was, as giving such a nice, detailed description would otherwise be very odd, considering that whatever had happened between him and this woman had ended up getting him and his family under direct protection from the guards.

  “Alright, alright… I don’t need you to give me an estimate of what her cup size could be! She was wearing ample clothing. You can’t even make a good guess about that! Just… Tell me what happened next”

  Heldion immediately paled.

  “Well… She smiled at me… I felt very at ease when she did so. It reminded me of how my mother would smile, but then she leaned forward, we were face-to-face, eye-to-eye, as she grabbed my ear”

  If he wasn’t misremembering, she had then said:

  “What are you doing out so late, Young Man? Your parents are probably worried about you… Do you need me to accompany you back home?”

  Heldion found it weird, surely, if she was going to grab his ear, it would be to chew him out, not say something so nice. She didn’t twist his ear and do anything painful, though, so although Heldion found it strange, he did not panic just yet.

  He had responded simply:

  “I-It’s alright, Ma’am… I just spent too much time with my friends, no need to bother with me!”

  Heldion swallowed his saliva.

  “After I said this, she smiled again and let go of my ear. Instead, she patted my head… It was then that I noticed her eyes”

  “You didn’t notice them before?”

  “Huh… I was… preoccupied elsewhere…”

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  “Right… What’s with her eyes?”

  “Well. They were a strange shade of purple. I don’t know why, but the shade just seemed off to me”

  Jupo stayed silent for several seconds. A shade of purple that somehow felt abnormal, almost as though it wasn’t supposed to exist–He knew just a thing very well, it was the exact sensation he had felt regarding the steel abomination’s own purple eyes.

  “Can you describe the colour in more detail?”

  “Huh…”

  Heldion wasn’t sure what there was to say about a shade of purple apart from the fact that it was a light shade of purple… Being the son of a bourgeois family that had made its fortune through several generations of making luxury clothing, though. Thus, Heldion was able to come up with a particular shade that he believed was closest to what he had seen.

  ‘Light Violet’

  That was actually quite different from the deep, dark purple of the metal monstrosity, but the common point of purple eyes, which particular shade was rather bizarre, was too big to just be a coincidence.

  “I see. Do continue”

  Heldion was visibly starting to get nervous as it got to this point. He could talk all day about how the black and white clown girl was very pretty–It distracted him from what he had seen, associating her with something more pleasant than she truly was.

  The young man spoke in a trembling voice.

  “She… She tilted her head slightly and then… It was like her skin itself became blurry… Or… Mushy, I suppose? I don’t know how to describe it, but it didn’t look normal at all. Then, her eye sockets themselves suddenly expanded, causing her eyes to fall to the ground. They weren’t attached to anything!”

  “Calm down, Heldion. Control your breathing. You are safe here”

  The witness took a few moments to gather himself.

  “Her eyes had turned into round pits of darkness, and I was just frozen in place as she continued to pat my head like nothing was wrong–Then she smiled, but her teeth were suddenly expelled out of her mouth, replaced by sharp fangs!”

  Jupo glanced back to look at his master. Binibelle was listening attentively. She hadn’t known the specifics, having only heard about a clown girl from the guards.

  It became abundantly clear that they weren’t dealing with a killer. They were dealing with a monster who took on the form of a cute clown girl for some absurd reasons.

  Heldion had clearly been shaken by the encounter, and it was likely that he wasn’t managing to bring out all the details of the encounter, but what he was describing was enough.

  For reasons unknown, she had not attacked him in any way, shape or form. The discoloured clown had merely stopped patting his head, straightened her back and then–Suddenly lunged, shouting ‘BOO!’ at the young man, causing him to take off running in terror as she laughed like a maniac, but did not give chase in the least.

  She had stayed behind and mostly returned to taking care of her victim, who had turned out to be a man living in the area. His limbs had been found all over the neighbourhood… In fact, the authorities had still not found his left leg.

  Although the clown had not made any threats to him, it had still been decided to place him and his family under protection. The intentions of a monster like this one were impossible to guess or comprehend. She didn’t just want to feast. There was a clear desire to cause suffering and pain–To spread fear by making sure that her gruesome work was discovered as quickly as possible.

  They left Heldion alone after this, the master and disciple moving away to discuss amongst themselves.

  “As you can tell, we indeed have a monster problem”

  “More importantly, that thing is clearly linked to the previous monster as well! Could it be that they are somehow related? Or maybe they share the same source? I have never heard of creatures with strange purple eyes… Could this come from a lesser-known Great Realm?”

  “That’s not bad thinking, Jupo. However, I am afraid that there is nothing about a realm bearing such creatures. Besides, if a rift were opened somewhere inside the city, it would be impossible for one to remain active without being discovered”

  “This is Sir Leton’s place of residence, and I think we both know about his contributions when it comes to detecting portals and spatial tears. I think it is more likely that those two monsters are related in a different way”

  “What would this way be, Master?”

  “It’s only a theory for now, but I looked into the steel creature’s case… You encountered it in a graveyard, right?”

  “I certainly did…”

  “And you are probably aware that ransacked graveyards had been popping up, seemingly defiled and drained of a certain type of energy, yes?”

  Jupo nodded.

  “Did you not notice? The places that the clown was, and the victim were examined, were absolutely overflowing with negative energy. Their connection has something to do with that particular type of energy, which is what I believe”

  Jupo was surprised, not by the reasoning, but by the fact that Binibelle said that negative energy was ‘overflowing’. He may be trained solely in mana, but if a large amount of another energy is present, he should definitely be able to sense it, especially since the abnormal amount would push other energies away.

  He asked about this to his master, who merely shook her head.

  “You just lack experience. The negative energy was plentiful, but it wasn’t just ambient energy. It certainly came from the clown herself, and apparently, she is naturally adept at concealing her energy signature. Not to mention that the negative energy wasn’t interacting with the ambient energies, so unless you are sensitive enough to pick up on it, you wouldn’t notice a difference… At least, until the excess amounts start to have an effect”

  Jupo’s master crossed her arms–Which wasn’t so easy considering the obstructions stuck to her chest.

  “We’re going to be doing a good old investigation, look into the past. Look into what could have caused those two creatures to manifest–As I do believe that they didn’t get into the city, they were born within it in the first place! That’s my theory, anyway”

  Binibelle wasn’t the only person to believe this. Following the escape of the metal abomination, the lord had sent the city guards to check every single nook and cranny of the walls. Seek out any weak spot that such a creature could have gotten into.

  There had been no such things anywhere.

  As much of an unlikable and greedy individual as the lord of Tolten may be, he never cheaped out when it came to maintaining and upgrading the city’s defences. The searches had been thorough, and no way for the monster to get in had been discovered.

  Thus, the only logical explanation was that it had somehow spawned into existence directly inside the city, which was another can of worms entirely.

  “If we can figure out where those two things first emerged, then I can bet that we will be able to trace back to their origin’

  “Will it help us find the clown and take her down?”

  “Who knows? It should probably give us a clue as to how to take her down, but we can only know once we have done it”

  “Alright then… Do we have any leads on where to start?”

  “Since the two monsters are linked to negative energy, then we should begin by finding either a place that has, or had a lot of it at some point, or a place where a tragedy took place”

  Jupo sighed. Inside a city as big as Tolten, this could mean a lot of work…