Shad approached Captain Lades by the wall and confirmed that the Captain had simply fallen unconscious.
"Kill him? Of course not, why would I do that?"
Shad asked himself inwardly. Preparing to stand up and retrieve his Lord card before waking the Captain, he thought
"What benefit would I get from trying to resist someone else's prophecy?"
As he stood, a current of air brushed past his ear. Vaguely, Shad actually felt a lock of cold, long hair graze his ear. Just that touch of hair made him shudder involuntarily.
"What's happening?"
Looking at the fallen Henry Vall, the wraith behind him had indeed vanished; the current situation should have nothing to do with the opponent.
"Wait, the hair by my ear... it's that relic! [The Unfortunate One's Long Hair]!"
【Outlander, an unfortunate fate is descending upon you.】
"What?"
A thick white mist suddenly appeared around him, threatening to swallow Shad and the other two people in the secret room almost instantly. The familiar sensation let Shad immediately understand what this was
"Damn it! An entrance to the In-Between actually opened here! Just like when the priest fell into the In-Between, this kind of bad luck is happening now!"
The white mist surged from an invisible boundary, signaling that the line between life and death was gradually blurring. Shad keenly felt the fluctuations of the anomalous space; the temperature was dropping rapidly, and everything in the secret room was beginning to decay. He could even hear the wails of wraiths and see countless rotting hands reaching for him, turning from blurred shapes into clear forms.
Barring any accidents, with his next breath, Shad would fall into the In-Between just like the priest. And he wouldn't even be able to call for help.
Fortunately, Shad was a bit stronger than Priest Augustus
"Spatial Stability Aura!"
Invisible ripples spread outward from Shad as the center. A sound like shattering glass echoed in his ears, and all the surrounding white mist vanished instantly, along with the exit that had just opened.
The entrance to the 【In-Between of Life and Death】 was inherently extremely unstable, which was why a ritual was required to maintain its existence. While expelling such an anomalous spatial phenomenon consumed a great deal of energy for Shad, it was at least not impossible.
The sensation of the cold, long hair by his ear also vanished. The misfortune brought about by the illicit use of the relic had been successfully avoided by Shad.
"That's why, unless absolutely necessary, one must never attempt to manipulate fate."
The Outlander summarized the lesson he had learned in this world.
Aside from not attempting to manipulate fate, another important piece of experience Shad had gained was not to make deals with demons.
"However, after the priest left the Gate of Death, my Maze Lock alone could seal the gate, yet entrances to the In-Between have started appearing in Midhill Castle again. The priest said that the In-Between swallows living people to balance life and death. It seems the final time for the death outbreak is drawing closer. I hope the Church doesn't overlook critical intelligence this time like they did in Tobesk."
Before waking Captain Lades, who seemed to have been knocked out by a sedative, Shad performed a simple search of the slightly cramped secret room.
Since there was only one bookcase, he easily found the diary of Henry Vall, who had become a vegetable. Subsequently, on the bottom shelf, he discovered a horrific book titled *Human Treasures: Methods of Life Extension*.
The book used hand-drawn anatomical diagrams as illustrations, depicting methods of extending one's own life through cannibalism. Of course, these methods were fraudulent and had nothing to do with actual occultism. Thus, this was likely just the ramblings of a madman, published by an occult enthusiast among ordinary people before falling into the hands of this folklore student.
"Fake occult knowledge can make people this crazy; I can't imagine what would happen to this world if the Church didn't regulate Warlock knowledge."
The Five-God Church truly was an important force in maintaining the stability of civilization.
While flipping through the book, a slip of paper fell from the pages. It contained only one line
【Predicting death, advance appointments, no bargaining. Building A, No. 8 Pigtail Alley; three longs two shorts, three shorts two longs.】
"Why does this look like a scammer's ad? That boy couldn't have just happened to guess Henry Vall's situation, right?"
After considering it, Shad tucked the slip of paper into his pocket and returned the book to its original position.
Besides books, there were some strange small bottles containing suspicious liquids on the shelf. Additionally, the top shelf held five or six hideous enamel figurines; unfortunately, they weren't even valuable antiques, merely crafts with a unique aesthetic.
Henry Vall had no wallet on him, but there were some in the secret room. However, those women's wallets looked like relics of the victims, so Shad didn't touch them, choosing instead to wait for the police to return them to the victims' families. Of course, it was possible the money inside would be embezzled, but Shad would absolutely not take it.
"I knew it, there has to be a hidden compartment!"
After tapping the wall for a while, he indeed found a spot where the sound was off. After prying out that wall brick, he found an old single-shot pistol, several boxes of ammunition wrapped in oiled paper, manila envelopes containing papers with the victims' identities, and a long-handled makeup mirror wrapped in burlap.
The handle and frame of the mirror were silver, embellished with gemstones of unknown authenticity. However, around the frame, thick silver wires were intertwined into the shape of tentacles, and there was a small line of inconspicuous ancient text on the handle
【The safest place is—inside the mirror!】
The moment he opened the burlap and touched the object, a prompt sounded in his ear
【Outlander, you feel a whisper.】
"A whisper? This is—"
Shad's eyes widened.
【Yes, a relic.】
Having been in this world for over three months and experienced so much, in a strict sense, this relic in his hand was the first one Shad had actively encountered on his own.
The previous relics were either purchased or encountered because of others—such as the [Scale of the Drowned Merman], the [Dream Pen of Pleasure], and even the [Demon-Hunting Seal] could be considered to have fallen into Shad's hands because of Spyro Hamilton.
But this mirror in his hand was entirely due to Shad's own actions that it had fallen into his possession through such a coincidence.
"Three months! Three months! I knew it! Even if I'm not a Chosen, how could I possibly go this long without encountering a stray relic!"
His current mood was even higher than when he had discovered the truth just now. It wasn't because he had obtained something valuable, but because he had proven his own luck
"I knew my luck was still quite good."
Unfortunately, Henry Vall had not recorded the origin of this mirror, but it was likely obtained while he was collecting what he believed to be "occult items."
"Today is truly a perfect day."
After putting the mirror away, he filled the brick back into the wall. He first returned to the wall he had used to enter from the broom closet, found the press-button mechanism to open the door to prove he had entered by normal means, and then woke the groggy Captain Lades.
When the Captain opened his eyes, he saw Shad, then saw the state of Henry Vall, and his face immediately flushed red
"I was actually ambushed by a young man."
It seemed that if the floor hadn't been seamless, Captain Lades would have wished to sink straight into the ground.
The subsequent events were simple. It was inconvenient for Shad to attract too much attention in Midhill Castle, so using the excuse that a "troublesome client wouldn't let me expose myself," he let Captain Lades take sole credit for solving the serial murder case.
The Captain was naturally unwilling, but Shad waved his hand to signal him not to say more
"Captain, I'll take ninety percent of the 100-pound reward. The remaining ten pounds are yours. If you feel bad about it, you can treat me to a meal when you have time."
Aside from the vegetable Henry Vall, no one had seen Shad and Captain Lades investigating the castle together. And the only person who knew the truth of the matter now was Professor Dunn.
Shad only needed to solve the case; as for the credit, perhaps Captain Lades needed it more.