Chapter 284 - Key Point

"Why did your corpse appear here, in the middle of nowhere? Could it be that you were also murdered by Duke Kolonfer and dumped here? If it’s just dumping the body, it seems a bit too far," Gaven curiously asked.Gaven’s question struck a sensitive chord with the Coachman Ghost, who showed an expression of embarrassment and shame and said, "I am a sinner. I abandoned Estelle and Amanda, leaving them to that demon, Kolonfer, hoping to escape the manor alone. I didn’t expect to be pounced on and killed by a pack of wolves halfway."

"There’s another issue. Clearly, you are relatives. Directly clarifying your relationship with Duke Kolonfer would have sufficed, so why act so evasively and cause unnecessary misunderstandings that led to tragedy?" Gaven found this part utterly illogical.

The Coachman Ghost helplessly said, "We did wish to do so, but Kolonfer had once been betrayed by his previous wife and harbored a deep suspicion in this matter. Having been separated from my sister in the chaos of war for many years, suddenly reappearing would not only fail to convince Kolonfer, but might even lead him to question the relationship between my sister and me. He was not only paranoid but also delusional...

It seemed as if all the men around him were coveting my sister’s beauty... Despite Amanda bearing such a likeness to him, he was convinced she was a bastard, often resorting to hitting and scolding."

"Estelle and Amanda are in a terrible state now. Though they fulfilled their desire for revenge, their souls have been manipulated by evil forces, trapped in an endless cycle of vengeance with Kolonfer. If this continues, I fear their souls will no longer be their own. I need you to help me return, break this cycle, and liberate Estelle and Amanda," Gaven played the emotional card, trying to get the Coachman Ghost to cooperate willingly.

"Alright!" the Coachman Ghost agreed unexpectedly, "I have already fled once, I will not flee again. I want to help Estelle and Amanda, they are good people and should not end up like this."

With the Coachman Ghost willing to cooperate, the rest became simple.

Packing up his skeletal remains hastily, they could take him along.

As Gaven stepped out of the wilderness and back to the temporary camp before Weizemay Manor at dawn,

Regina’s beautiful face was filled with incredulity: "Weren’t you in the manor? How come you’ve come back from outside?"

"I found a new clue, and while following this lead, by the time I came to, I was already in the wilderness. Then I discovered this," Gaven lifted the Coachman’s skeletal remains in his hand, attributing everything to the domain of Undead Vengeance.

Dealing with the domain of a True God or even a demigod, it’s normal to not be able to measure it with common sense, especially when considering the Shadow Plane. You may walk in it for three to five minutes and upon returning to the Material Plane, find that you’ve traveled dozens of miles. That’s normal.

After all, the two planes aren’t truly parallel, but complexly intertwined.

Some capable mages would travel long distances by moving through the Shadow to quicken their journey.

Gaven had reasons to believe that as part of the domain of Undead Vengeance, Weizemay Manor indeed possessed a direct transit point to where his skeletal remains were located, just concealed deeply; he had yet to find it. After all, he had already guessed an essential key point, although he hadn’t dared to touch it.

It’s just that he had more methods at his disposal and didn’t simply break the situation from inside Weizemay Manor, but instead took a detour using external forces.

"That’s amazing," Regina believed without a doubt, her face portraying surprise.

"Could that skeletal remains be from the missing Coachman?" Darnell, who had heard the news, had already rushed over and looked at Gaven with a trace of suspicion in his eyes.

It wasn’t that he had spotted a loophole in Gaven’s explanation, but rather he felt an indistinct devilish aura on him.

This devilish aura had been hovering around them ever since this young man joined the team, yet he had never been able to catch the devil by its tail, indicating that the other party was very cautious and powerful.

Could it be that this young man had meddled with something he shouldn’t have and attracted the attention of a powerful devil?

Although the oddness in Darnell’s eyes was subtle, it did not escape Gaven’s acute observation and his heart immediately grew wary, knowing that he had been careless. His previous encounter with the Dog Demon, especially when riding, had left him with a scent of the devil.

Ordinary people would never detect such a scent, but Darnell was clearly no ordinary man. Holy Knights are particularly sensitive to these matters.

Yet his expression didn’t reveal anything as he smiled and said, "Mr. Darnell sees through everything. You’re right, this is Ailma, the coachman who Duke Kolonfer mistook for an adulterer. He is Lady Estelle’s half-brother with the same father.

Duke Kolonfer, heartbroken by love, filled with extreme distrust for his lover, hence lived under the guise of a coachman, making a living. Little did he expect that this would still lead to a misunderstanding and tragedy.

The entire sequence of the event has been sorted out, with only the last few pieces of the puzzle left to find. I’ve already found the direction, and it’s a matter of whether I can fit everything together.

By tonight, either the domain of Undead Vengeance at Weizemay Manor will be broken open, or it will be a complete failure. I want to find the last few puzzle pieces before it gets dark."

"Rowan tree!" Darnell uttered another name.

"That’s right." Gaven nodded.

"What kind of riddles are you two playing at?" Regina asked impatiently, her curiosity as a Bard was strong.

Especially a situation like that of Weizemay Manor involving passion killings, misunderstandings, revenge, and even a conspiracy of a True God.

That was top-notch new story material. With just a bit of reworking, it could be sung throughout Battle Valley and the entire Valley.

She naturally wanted to understand the entire story.

It wasn’t just her; the others were also confused, only David was silent and seemed to be deep in thought.

Gaven didn’t keep them in suspense any longer and coaxed them, "Why do Estelle and Amanda always move in and out of the house following the rowan tree? Why, at the beginning, did the branches of the rowan tree knock on the window, drawing Duke Kolonfer’s attention? And where are the corpses of Estelle and Amanda? Where is Duke Kolonfer’s corpse?"

Regina was not a fool, she just lacked experience in this area. She caught on immediately and said, "You mean to say, the bodies of Estelle and Amanda are buried under that rowan tree, and they have taken control of the tree, turning it into their tool."

"That’s right," Gaven nodded, "At this point in time, not only will their two corpses be there, but Duke Kolonfer’s body will also be there, and that Evil God Emblem Ring will be there as well."

Gaven had been over the plot of Weizemay Manor as much as five times.

The three of them were like marionettes controlled by a master puppeteer, with everything occurring at the precise time, down to the last detail, without any intervention.

Including the specter ghoul named Amanda attacking Duke Kolonfer first, by biting off the finger adorned with the Evil God Emblem Ring and swallowing it whole along with the ring.

This was probably an essential factor in activating the domain of Undead Vengeance - a domain that could only be opened by the avenger, not by the one being avenged.

If it weren’t for the Chiaranlisha emblem ring, it would probably have been a typical ghostly revenge plot, with Estelle and Amanda turning into revenging ghouls after killing and devouring Duke Kolonfer, and that would have been the end of it.

But Amanda’s consumption of the Evil God Emblem Ring aligned eerily well with Chiaranlisha’s divine domains of Undead and Revenge, which then triggered an unexpected twist.

Everything seemed coincidental, but in fact, it was not merely by chance.

For instance, were Duke Kolonfer’s increasing jealousy, paranoia, and delusions merely the result of a past hurt from a former love?

Rather than that explanation, Gaven was more inclined to believe that the Evil God Emblem Ring had a subtle influence, affecting his mind.

"Why do you say his body is also there at this time?" Regina caught the crux of Gaven’s statement.

"According to the laws of the Undead Vengeance domain, Duke Kolonfer has already been devoured alive by his own wife and daughter, and now lies within their stomachs, naturally buried with them; but at night, everything resets due to the domain, and Duke Kolonfer is in an undead state, obviously not there," Gaven explained. "But whether this is true or not still needs to be verified. Wait for my good news."

Before his voice had faded, he ran off, not giving Regina a chance to ask further questions. This guy, competitive as a paparazzo, wanted to dig to the bottom of everything. Many things were still speculative; how could he answer so conclusively?

During the day, Weizemay Manor was simply desolate and cold, even the fiery summer sun seemed lifeless. Follow current novels on NovᴇlFir(e).nᴇt

But at least it did not have the night’s haunting atmosphere.

Entering Weizemay Manor, Gaven moved with the ease of being in his own home.

Circling the main castle building, he headed straight for the back courtyard.

Here was a garden, with rows of Heather bushes planted amongst it, some of which had already produced small white flowers.

Gaven’s target was not hard to find.

Although there were many Heather bushes in this place, most of them were clustered heathers, the tallest of which were only three or four meters high, due to the lack of care over time allowing them to grow untamed.

Nowhere near the nearly ten-meter height of the three-story glazed windows, the Heather bush capable of reaching this was the only one in the entire back courtyard.

This Heather bush, too, was clustered, but it had swollen to more than three times its size; its darkish main stem, no taller than one and a half men, was as thick as a man’s embrace, with a canopy that resembled a large globe.

One of its branches showed a growth tendency distinctly different from the others, growing persistently towards the castle’s third-floor windows without direct sunlight or shelter from the wind.

Moreover, it was bent in an arc that resembled a bridge, bare and covered with scratches and dried bloodstains.

One of the thinner branches was clearly withered, but it was slowly growing at a pace visible to the naked eye.

He believed that before nightfall, it would grow long enough to gently tap against the glazed window.

There was no need to ask.

This was it.

From the Howard Convenient Bag, Gaven pulled out a blood-stained Crane Beak Hoe.

This hoe wasn’t something he brought himself; instead, he picked it up from the stables of Weizemay Manor, and if expectations held, it was the murder weapon used by Duke Kolonfer to kill his wife and daughter.

In most undead incidents, there often lies a principle that the bell ringer needs to be the one to undo the bell.

Duke Kolonfer originally used this Crane Beak Hoe to kill and bury his wife and daughter.

Today, Gaven would use this same hoe to dig them up.

The Crane Beak Hoe, also known as a pick mattock or crossing pick, is the most common mining tool used by the gnolls, although their version is a smaller model and usually quite rudimentary.

The Crane Beak Hoe used by Duke Kolonfer to commit the murders was not the large two-handed pickaxe used for mining, but a smaller version meant for gardening, suitable for one-handed use. As a weapon, to strike at the head, it was also quite appropriate.

Arriving at the base of the Heather.

Gaven didn’t start digging right away, but instead walked around the Heather, looking at it with gleaming eyes as if he were admiring a treasure.

Ever since he managed to enlighten the Treant Thornspike, Gaven got this way whenever he saw an ancient tree of significant size and age.

Even with ample theory, enlightening treants was no easy feat.

Especially after the commotion with the Dragon Oak Mother Tree, which prematurely enlightened all the suitable treants in the Spring Bud Forest.

Gaven had no part in that at all.