Chapter 153: Epilogue

She was the one who killed him—did she search through the dead man's belongings?

No...

If she knew there were bullets on him, why would she leave them be?

Under those circumstances, she completely had the time to deal with them.

One by one, perplexing doubts surfaced in Roth's mind.

Just as he was pondering these questions, the door to the private compartment was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

It was Sword-Rise and Yuman returning.

Sword-Rise walked straight over to Roth's side, while Yuman took charge of closing the door.

"What was that noise just now?"

Seeing the two of them return, Lucy paused her conversation with Erin and asked.

Before Sword-Rise could speak, Yuman piped up first, "The Iron-Willed Man and Emotionless had a bit of a falling out."

"And then Emotionless went and..."

Yuman roughly described the process of the two coming to blows and the details. Although it was entirely fabricated by him, thanks to the natural advantage of his journalistic profession, even a made-up story was told by him with vivid flair.

It left no room for anyone to find a single flaw.

At the end of the story, he concluded with Emotionless striking down the Iron-Willed Man, jumping from the train to escape, only to find that what goes around comes around, as he was devoured by desert venom-bugs.

"It's a pity about that gun. If it were still around, we'd have a bit more certainty in dealing with the fellow hiding inside the train."

Yuman sighed as he reached this point.

Lucy nodded slightly, "People are dwindling down more and more now. I think it would be best if we don't separate for the time being."

"In case that person in hiding seizes another opportunity, the rest of us will all become extremely dangerous."

"I think so too." A ingratiating look appeared on Yuman's face as he spoke, wanting to lean in close to Lucy, only to be glared back by a fierce look from Lucy halfway through.

Yuman could only chuckle sheepishly and retreat to the side.

Sword-Rise didn't look at the two of them.

Seeing that Roth was fine, he walked over to Erin's side.

Under Erin's puzzled gaze, he first glanced at her ears. Discovering no pierced lobes, he then asked, "Mrs. Erin, do you know a lot about religious matters?"

Hearing Sword-Rise's abrupt question, Erin's brow furrowed. She didn't understand why Sword-Rise would suddenly ask this, but she still nodded:

"My husband was a researcher of religion. Influenced by him, I do know a thing or two about the situation of most churches in the Empire."

Sword-Rise raised an eyebrow at those words. "Then do you know if, in the scriptures of these religions, there is any monster that fears silver?"

"Or perhaps only silver can harm them?"

Nearby, hearing Sword-Rise's question, Lucy sharply turned her head over.

A smile played at the corners of her mouth, and a dangerous glint seemed to flash in her eyes. "Mr. Sword-Rise, I wonder why you suddenly want to ask about this."

"I would think we should be focusing on finding that hidden murderer right now."

"Haha, I'm just curious about what that dead man was up to."

"After all, silver pistols aren't exactly common. I figured maybe we could start from that angle, and perhaps achieve some unexpected results."

Sword-Rise explained.

Hearing this explanation, the expression on Lucy's face eased slightly.

Seeing this, Sword-Rise shifted his gaze back to Erin, awaiting her reply.

Feeling Sword-Rise's gaze, Erin furrowed her brow in deep thought for a long moment before speaking:

"I remember there seems to be a creature called a vampire that fears silver ware."

"Aside from silver ware, what else are they afraid of?" Sword-Rise pressed on.

"According to legend, besides silver ware, they also fear sunlight. It seems holy water from the Holy Light Church can also inflict damage upon them."

"And aside from these things that can truly harm that kind of monster, wounds inflicted by any other weapon will instantly regenerate."

"They also fear sunlight and holy water..."

Muttering to himself, Sword-Rise pulled a small bottle out from inside his coat.

This small bottle was precisely the item from the dead man's case.

"If I'm not mistaken, this should be holy water."

"And the murderer is, in all probability, this so-called vampire."

"Furthermore, there's a high probability that they are hiding right among us."

Sword-Rise swept his gaze across the surroundings. Under the watchful eyes of everyone present, he poured some of the transparent liquid from the bottle into his own hand.

Nothing happened at all.

Seeing this, Yuman didn't hesitate and immediately stepped forward, also getting some holy water on himself.

Sword-Rise followed the same method to get a bit on Roth.

Erin, seeing this, cooperated and dabbed some on as well.

The four of them completed the verification, and none of them had any issues.

That left only Lucy sitting there with a gloomy and uncertain expression.

"That leaves just you, Miss Lucy. Or rather, Miss Vampire, I should say."

"Oh, right, this should be your earring, wouldn't it? You really were too careless. Good thing I picked it up, otherwise it would have taken you a great deal of effort to find it in the passage on the roof of the carriage."

As he spoke, Sword-Rise tossed that single earring right in front of Lucy.

"Clatter, clatter, clatter!"

The earring landed, bounced three times, and came to a complete stop.

Although Erin still didn't quite understand the situation, she gathered from the fragments of conversation that Lucy had massive issues.

She hurriedly distanced herself from her and went to stand with Sword-Rise.

Yuman crouched down and untied the quilt binding Roth.

Faced with this scene, Lucy, standing in a standoff against the four of them, didn't show the slightest trace of panic on her face.

She shook her head. "Didn't Mrs. Erin say vampires are afraid of sunlight?"

With that, she pushed open the window of the compartment, letting the desert sunlight stream in.

It struck her fair and crystal-clear skin.

It didn't cause her a shred of harm, unlike what Erin had described.

"This..." Seeing this, Erin began to waver internally, starting to doubt the veracity of what Sword-Rise had said.

After all, in her heart, Lucy had made a far better impression on her than Sword-Rise and the others.

Seeing Lucy's self-proof, the expression on Sword-Rise's face didn't change in the slightest. "The person in this photo is you, isn't it?"

He directly pulled out the blood-stained photograph.

"If I'm not mistaken, he must have come to hunt you down."

As he spoke, Sword-Rise tossed the photo to Lucy.

"The pendant on her ear is identical to the one you dropped."

Looking at the photo thrown by Sword-Rise, the smile on Lucy's face grew even brighter.

"I killed him."

She generously admitted to it.

This caught Sword-Rise somewhat by surprise.

"No, she isn't the murderer!"

Yet the moment Lucy confessed, Roth, who had been deep in thought earlier, suddenly blurted out.

Just a moment ago, he had figured everything out and connected all the clues.

"If I didn't kill him, then who else could it be?"

Lucy looked at Roth with a amused expression, seemingly curious about the answer he was about to give.

A gleam flashed in Roth's eyes—an answer he wouldn't have even dared to think of before: "The truth is... gasp!"

Amidst everyone's bewildered expressions, Roth collapsed to the floor.

Protruding from his back was a table knife.

Seeing everyone looking at him, Yuman smiled apologetically.

He crouched down, pulled the table knife out from Roth's back, and under everyone's gaze, stabbed him a few more times for good measure.

Only after making sure Roth was completely dead did he stand up and flash an OK sign to Sword-Rise.

Witnessing this, Sword-Rise's mind went completely blank.

Sure, they had their plan worked out.

But bro, if you're going to stab someone, at least let them finish talking first!

Sword-Rise clutched his chest, feeling his composure utterly shatter.

What a damn teammate from hell!