Embers of Embers

Chapter 106 Keep your sanity
The doorbell of 121A Cork Street rang again. Mrs. Van Rude opened the door, looked at the smiling man, hesitated for a moment, and then asked.
"Lorenzo?"
Joey nodded, and Mrs. Verde stepped out of the way. Looking at the man's back walking up the stairs, he couldn't help but feel that Lorenzo had finally expanded his social circle after so many years.
Yesterday's pursuit caused a certain degree of commotion, but under the control of public opinion by the cleanup agency, this was turned into a pursuit of fugitives.
The demon was forced into the steam well by Lancelot. Then the pipe burst due to Lancelot's slash, and the hot steam overflowed. Everyone judged that it should have died under the high temperature, but after the scavengers followed up, During the cleaning, they failed to find the body. They went deep into the steam well, but found nothing.
This was another case of suspicion. Judging from the Geiger index, the demon was indeed dead, but no one found its body.
After knocking on the door, Joey pushed it open and walked in. He was assigned to be responsible for contacting Lorenzo and the purification agency. Originally, this job was for Shrike, but he had to manage the interest disputes in the entire downtown area and was really busy. He had no time to deal with the troublesome Lorenzo.
The air in the room smelled faintly of tobacco, and Lorenzo was sitting on the sofa by the window. There was still a cigarette butt that had not been extinguished in the ashtray.
He didn't seem to notice Joey's arrival and just stared out the window blankly. The winter frost covered the window and blurred his vision.
"Mr. Holmes, this is the final report on this case. If you confirm that it is correct, it will be filed away."
Joey said, taking out a document and placing it on the low table in front of Lorenzo, and then sat across from Lorenzo.
Although he has only been in contact with Lorenzo for less than a few days, Joey seems to have become accustomed to Lorenzo. This detective is full of unreasonable qualities from beginning to end. Sometimes he is like a bird without purpose. Wild dogs will stick out their tongues and laugh heartily even if they are running into the wind, but sometimes the beasts will grow sharp fangs and never waver in order to kill the monster.
This is an uncontrollable man, and it's hard to guess what he will do next.
However, Joey still likes to guess and guess what he will do. In his opinion, being able to guess the trajectory of such a person's actions is like winning a jackpot.
After a while, Lorenzo seemed to wake up from a daze. He looked at Joey and then at the documents in front of him. In Joey's opinion, he should talk to himself first and then look through the documents, but Lorenzo exceeded his expectations.
Lorenzo was seen tightening the blanket around him, and then picked up a bottle of wine from next to the sofa.
"Want a sip to warm yourself up?"
"..."
"Oh, what the heck, when I came back yesterday, the heating pipe on Cork Street broke due to aging. The maintenance workers worked all night to repair it and couldn't fix it. Now the whole street is without heating. I almost froze to death in the night."
Lorenzo picked up the wine bottle and took a sip while thinking about it.
"Ah, that damn old lady won't let me sleep on the first floor, even though the fireplace is so warm..."
Joey nodded while keeping a smile as much as possible. Indeed, he came in from outside, and the temperature difference was not big and did not attract his attention. Now listening to Lorenzo's words, he felt that the temperature in the room was indeed very low.
"Then Mr. Lorenzo, please take a look at the follow-up of yesterday's case. If it is correct, we are going to file and close the case."
Lorenzo reached out and picked up the document, and asked curiously before turning two pages.
"What's the use of asking me? I'm not a member of the purification agency."
"But you are an experienced witcher, and you also participated in the hunt."
This is true. The purification agency's understanding of demon hunters is still too superficial. Even if it obtains Ed's body and conducts dissection and analysis, it will only expand the mystery.
The power of the demon hunter is too unique. With the blessing of secret blood, he has power and senses far beyond ordinary people, not to mention the mysterious power named after an angel.
Lorenzo did not continue to say anything. Arthur had always been full of curiosity about the power of demon hunters. It would be unusual if the purification agency's attitude towards him became cold.
"In other words, you attribute all those murders to it? That's right."
Lorenzo wanted to continue asking something, but before he could ask, he found the answer for himself.
It was written in that document that before yesterday’s tragedy, similar cases occurred in different places in Old Dunling. Cruel killings and blood-lettered revenge could basically be attributed to the hands of the demon yesterday, but Lorenzo There are still some things I don’t understand.
"This is not the first time this monster has taken action. The first case was half a month ago when he killed a gang member in a small city. The last time was yesterday, and the deceased was just a worker."
Lorenzo noticed something unusual. He put the bottle aside and stared at the document closely, piecing the different words together, and a complicated and confusing story slowly unfolded.
"what happened?"
Joey couldn't help but feel secretly happy when he saw Lorenzo's increasingly serious expression. Sure enough, he could find more information in this demon hunter.
"I think you also discovered it inside the purification agency. This monster's hunting target is a bit strange."
Lorenzo said.
"Strange? But... aren't demons just like wild beasts, without any rules?"
Joey was a little confused. In his opinion, monsters were a group of corrupted creatures, monsters that came from nowhere and tried to attack the existing stable rule of mankind. It was their instinct to kill living creatures when they saw them.
"No, beasts also have rules."
Lorenzo directly denied what he said, and then took out the old Dunling map from the cabinet and unfolded it in front of his eyes.
"This is the location where it first appeared, the chaotic lower city, this would be a perfect hunting ground, but it didn't stay again, it kept going deep into the old Dunling, and even said that the last hunting was on the other side fringe zone."
"If a beast is there to feed itself or to kill, it should not leave the Lower City... It has a purpose, for revenge written in blood."
Lorenzo suddenly realized the information gap between him and Joey. He looked at the severely labeled man and asked seriously.
"Joy, has your purification agency encountered any sane monsters?"
"A demon of sanity?"
Joey was shocked by Lorenzo's question. Demons are a group of disordered beasts, but why are they called rational?
He didn't answer Lorenzo's words for a while, but there was no need to answer. Lorenzo had already read the result from his shocked expression.
"Sane demon, what do you mean?"
Lorenzo thought for a moment, tried his best to sort out the knowledge in his mind, and expressed it in a way he could understand, and then he slowly explained to Joey.
"A demon with reason can maintain a certain level of reason despite being demonized... To put it another way..."
Lorenzo shook his head. Joey didn't know the story of the Demon Hunting Order, and there was no need to know so deeply.
"You can understand the so-called rational demon as one who is unstable, can be completely eroded at any time, is not controlled by any safety equipment, and uses weak reason to drive a violent body to act.
Witcher. "
(End of this chapter)