Demons Beside You

“Chen, you’ve learned professional boxing before?”

“No, I just hired a fighting coach in a fitness center. I go there everyday and train for an hour,” Chen Zhao answered casually.

“Then how did you beat Tiger up so badly?” Diana stared at Chen Zhao, rather surprised.

“You beat Tiger up? That’s impossible… Tiger’s basically a professional boxer.” Eveleigh’s face was filled with disbelief.

“Why would you go and learn how to fight?”

“I was beaten before.”

“Oh… I remember. It’s when we met on the train and your face was bruised, right?”

“I fell down that time.” Chen Zhao really did not want to tell them that he had actually been beaten by a woman.

“So can you now defeat the person who beat you up last time?”

“The person who beat me up is my coach now.”

“…”

…

McAllen Bodie received news that the Asian was in the university again.

Therefore, he contacted Tiger right away and asked Tiger to find a reason to beat the Asian up.

However, he waited for over half an hour and Tiger had still yet to return.

He was already somewhat impatient. Just then, a student hurriedly ran towards him.

“Bodie, it’s all gone wrong.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Tiger was beaten up. He’s probably going to have to stay in bed for a month. He’s supposed to have a professional competition half a month later, but now he’s surely going to miss it.”

“What? Tiger’s beaten up? How? Who can injure him?”

“It’s that Asian. Tiger asked me to inform you to compensate him ten thousand dollars, or he’ll tell everyone that you asked him to beat an outsider up.”

“This is blackmailing!” McAllen roared furiously. “Is it not embarrassing enough that he lost to an Asian? Tell him I’ll never compensate him! If he dares to leak anything, he’s going to be expelled too!”

While McAllen’s family was quite wealthy, he was just a student. There was no way he could pay ten thousand.

Moreover, if it was really exposed, he would indeed be punished, but so would Tiger.

As for the initiator of the problem, he was current enjoying lunch with two ladies.

…

Trede Pemton opened the door and saw Winry Gargamel outside.

Trede frowned. “Winry, why are you here?”

“Recently someone’s been active in town. He seems to be investigating Deppler’s death.”

“The police?”

“No. I’ve seen him enter and leave the house at the edge of the town,” Winry said.

“Is it that Asian?”

“Do you know the people living in that house?”

“Seen him once,” Trede replied. “It should be because of Bant’s son. They’re friends so Bant wanted that Asian to help in the investigation.”

“Just nice. There seem to be four or five people in that house, and our sacrificial ritual only needs three more. Sacrifice them, and our wishes shall be fulfilled.”

“No,” Trede rejected firmly, “Deppler’s death has already attracted the attention of the police. If that Asian and his friends all die, the police will certainly make a thorough investigation. We should stick to our original plan and continue to attract criminals here. If the people killed are criminals, the police will not investigate fully.”

“As long as we can summon Besta, our wishes will be fulfilled. Merely a few police are anything but threatening.”

“I’m different from you. You can give up everything, but I still have to live here,” Trede said.

“Hehe…” Winry gave out a series of peculiar laughter. “Since you don’t dare to do it, I will. Even if something goes wrong, I can still hide in the mountain. The police can’t do anything to me.”

Trede kept silent, but some gloom flashed across his eyes.

Although he had been cooperating with Winry, he was very unhappy about her unilateral decisions.

Winry was a truly lawless monster. In the past, she would only kill animals and take their blood. The police would not really interfere.

However, if there were frequent murders of commoners, the police would surely start to investigate.

Their plan was not perfect in the first place, even though perfect plans did not exist in this world anyway.

If someone really dug deeper, their secrets might be exposed.

Their original plan was to only find criminals. The police would think that it was resentment between gangs and not really investigate.

However, if it involved commoners, the police would have to go further.

“Winry, if you kill all of them, you’ll attract too much attention. Just kill the person who’s been investigating. This will warn them too.”

“Trede, do not tell me what to do.” Winry turned her head and looked coldly at Trede.

Trede stared back at Winry. None of them was willing to give in.

“If we attract a large number of police before our plan is completed, can you even kill all of them?”

Although Winry was powerful—she was indeed no longer a normal human—she would still not be able to kill everyone.

The scenes in movies where a monster could kill tens or hundreds of people would not appear in reality.

Winry had turned herself into a ghoul. She had an outstanding resistance towards physical attacks, but only those that affected a small area. For example, shooting her with a bullet would be completely ineffective, because as long as she was not disabled, she would still be able to move and attack freely.

However, what if there were a hundred bullets?

If her limbs were entirely destroyed, or her body was blasted into pieces by a grenade, she would die too.

Winry could ignore physical damage, because her body was already dead.

Standing before Trede at the moment was nothing more than a mere corpse.

Nevertheless, she still needed a vessel for her soul. If her body was shattered, her soul would have nowhere to go.

Of course, Winry would still make a formidable evil spirit with powerful toxicology spells. Notwithstanding, she would not be able to kill dozens of people.

In order to collect sacrificial souls as quickly as possible, she even needed Trede’s help to burn down the winery, helping her to obtain the souls of eight victims. Then, she still had to be extremely careful looking for other victims.

“If he’s the only one present when I find him, I’ll only kill him.”

In the end, Winry still chose to compromise slightly, but she added, “However, if there’s someone else, I’ll show no mercy!”