Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

Ministers from the Criminal, Defense, Investigation, and Cleaning Department had gathered at Kamiya's house, the site of the crime.

The guards had cast a spell around the house that prohibited anyone to walk near its radius, to keep away the citizens and neighbors.

They also requested the people at the funeral to keep quiet about the incident and not to spread a rumor like– A teen murderer is on the loose, we are not safe– and shit.

So now the neighbors were locked in their houses. Scared of the murderer without knowing anything about the murder. The Minister of Defense enchanted the area with a Protection spell.

The wizards from the Department of Investigation were talking with the neighbors privately in their houses. They talked with Kaki, her sisters, and other relatives who were present at the funeral.

Kaki's sister told them about her husband, who was an abusive husband and father. He beat them every time. Kaki showed the bruises on her forearm, back, and shoulders.

Then they asked the guild members for any information regarding his enemies. They told about a guild whose leader was Father's rival. That guild was, unlike Father's guild, well established with over fifty members.

Then the members added that the rivals recently had a fight regarding some personal matters. No one knows what exactly.

Although they suspected the rival leader would go this far to kill his rival, the Minister of Crime Investigation decided to pay him a visit with twenty of his best men and some men from the Defense Department.

Atama, the Mage Minister, arrived. He was the last one to arrive. The guards at the entrance bowed to him. They opened the gate for him to enter the crime scene.

Atama crossed the front yard and entered the porch. He glanced around and saw the men from the Cleaning department working on cleaning the house. He greeted the Minister of the Cleaning Department.

Atama scanned the funeral hall. The altar and Kamiya's portrait were as it was before. The flowers were still, the sticks had turned to ash, and the mats were disturbed.

The staircase seemed to call him. When he stepped near the staircase, he heard a voice from inside. You should have stopped him. It was your job as the Mage Minister to stop him from going on a rampage.

Atama shook that voice out of his head and climbed the staircase when he heard a familiar voice. "Finally," the voice said, it was not from his head, "the Mage Minister has arrived."

Atama stopped in front of the landing. He followed the staircase, the marks drawn by the Criminal Intelligence Department along the patch where Father's body was.

Then he found a man dressed in black looking at him with a smile. He said, "You would need to teleport upstairs, you can not step on those marks."

"Hanzai…" Atama smiled back. He lowered his eyes and looked at the marks. "Says who that I will have to step on them to cross them?"

Atama lifted his foot. He took the stair where the man killed with Father's curse was lying previously. And when he lowered his foot and air platform formed above the bodies, it was invisible, but when Atama climbed the stairs the platform could be visible.

He reached the porch and found a few more marks. "What happened here?" he asked.

"We saw two men petrified right here and one man was lying near the window, unconscious."

Atama nodded. He examined the area. But what happened to Kamiya's father? What happened to him? Did Hitori kill him?

He turned and pointed at the staircase behind him. "Uh… I see a mark there… what happened there?"

Hanzai glanced at the stairs and Atama. "We found ice in his face, his eyes are pushed into the sockets, it damaged the optical nerve. His lips are gone, like vanished. And his nose… what should I tell you, is burned."

Atama gulped. He nodded. Could Hitori do something like this… brutal? He wondered. "Is he alive?"

"He is in a coma. Healers doubt he will ever be able to see or smell again. Since he was forced to swallow his teeth, he is like a bird's chick who can not feed himself. And… he would not be able to kiss anyone it seems."

Atama frowned as he put his hands on his waist. "Who cares about that?"

"Sorry," Hanzai said. "But we do have a dead body. His guild member was killed by the forbidden curse."

That sent a chill down Atama's spine. "Oh god…"

It is not Hitori, is it? No, no, he would not use a killing curse. He knows it is illegal. But Kamiya did, so what stops Hitori?

"Did you trace the wand?" Atama asked.

"The curse was not cast by the wand's master. Someone used this wand… dinosaur's core, you see."

That is Hitori's wand. The one with a dinosaur's core. It is his wand.

"Do you… by any chance, know whose wand this is?"

"Ah? No, no, I do not." Atama took the left hallway.

"Strange enough, we have bullet marks on the stairs…"

"Bullets?"

"Do you…"

"We do not use guns. Maybe it is the scientist they are talking about on the news? The one who invaded our prefecture."

Hanzai chuckled for some reason. "You believe it?"

Atama's eyes fell on the rooms at the end of the corridor. He asked, "What is in that room?" he asked, looking at the left door.

"Oh, nothing. Just an investigation room of a late teenager."

Atama threw him a glance. "Investigation room?" Atama asked as he walked to the room. He remembered what Hitori had said– 'I got it from Kamiya's room!'

"See it for yourself." Hanzai guided Atama to the room. He wore a glove and pushed open the door for Atama. "This teen was planning the assassination of two scientists."

Atama's mouth dropped when he saw the room full of pictures and drawings and every spy thing ever. He took a breath and left the room.

"Why are you leaving, sir?" Hanzai asked. "You know or knew what has been happening, did not you?"

Atama stopped. He turned. "What are you saying?"

"You know who did this. We both know who did this." Hanzai came closer to Atama than before and looked into his eyes as he said, "For whatever reason, you are trying to cover him, I hope you are not doing the wrong thing. Because you never have… since the beginning."

Atama pursed his lips. "What are you trying to say?"

"You know. Hope you are not wrong."

Wrong? What the hell did I do to be the 'wrong' one? Before I could know what happened and why it happened, you summoned me here. Did I have a choice to choose sides?

Hanzai scoffed. "Think it over. You are the Mage Minister and you have every power in your right. But think as the headmaster, is this right?"

Atama did not reply. He kept staring at Hanzai before breaking the contact and looking at the floor. Hanzai patted Atama's shoulder.

"Think it over," he said and left Atama. He did think it over. He took a long pause, standing like a statue, and thought as Hanzai continued searching for clues around the first floor and rooms.

Then he came out of a room when Atama turned with the intention of teleporting to Hitori and talking it through. But he decided to tell Hanzai before he leaves.

"Of course not," Atama said after a long pause, "I am not doing the wrong thing. I never have… since the beginning."

Hanzai turned and left Atama with a grin.