Gun of Ashes

The doorbell of 121A Cork Street rang once again. Mrs. Van Rudd opened the door, hesitating slightly as she looked at the smiling man before her, then asked.

”Lorenzo?”

Joey nodded, and Mrs. Van Rudd stepped aside, watching the man’s back as he walked up the stairs. She couldn’t help but think that after all these years, Lorenzo had finally expanded his social circle.

Yesterday’s pursuit caused some disturbance, but under the control of Purification Mechanism’s public opinion, it was turned into a chase for a fugitive.

The demon was driven into a steam vent by Lancelot, and then the pipes burst due to Lancelot’s strikes. Hot steam gushed out, and everyone thought it must have died from the high temperature. However, in the cleaners’ subsequent sweep, they couldn’t find the body. They delved into the interior of the steam vent but found nothing.

This was yet another mystery. Judging from the reform index, the demon was indeed dead, but no one found its body.

Knocking on the door, Joey directly pushed it open and entered. He was dispatched to handle Lorenzo’s contact with the Purification Mechanism. Originally, this job was Bola’s, but he had to manage the entire Lower City District’s conflicts of interest and was too busy to spare attention for Lorenzo, this troublemaker.

The air in the room carried a faint smell of tobacco. Lorenzo was nestled in the sofa by the window, an ashtray with still-smoking cigarette butts beside him.

He seemed unaware of Joey’s arrival, just gazing blankly out the window. Winter’s frost covered the glass, blurring his view.

”Mr. Holmes, this is the final report for this case. If you confirm that there’s no mistake, it will need to be filed and archived.”

Joey said, placing a document on the coffee table in front of Lorenzo, then sat across from him.

Although he had only been in contact with Lorenzo for a few days, Joey seemed to have already accustomed himself to Lorenzo’s quirks. This detective was filled with unreasonable traits from start to finish. Sometimes he was like a wild dog with no purpose, even joyfully sticking out his tongue while running with the wind. Yet at times, the beast would grow sharp fangs, unwavering in its goal to kill demons.

This was an unpredictable man, and it was hard to anticipate what he would do next.

However, Joey still enjoyed guessing, guessing what Lorenzo might do. In his view, being able to predict such a person’s actions was akin to winning the lottery.

After a while, Lorenzo seemed to snap out of his daze, glanced at Joey, then at the document in front of him. Joey thought he might talk to him first, then open the file, but Lorenzo was unsurprisingly beyond his expectations.

Lorenzo wrapped the blanket around himself, then picked up a bottle of liquor from beside the sofa.

”A sip to warm up?”

”...”

”Ah, truly damnable. When I returned yesterday, the heating pipes on Cork Street broke due to aging, and the repairmen worked overnight but couldn’t fix it. Now the whole street has no heating. I was almost frozen to death in the night.”

Lorenzo muttered as he took a swig from the bottle.

”Ah, that old hag wouldn’t let me sleep downstairs, even though the fireplace is so warm...”

Joey nodded as kindly as possible; indeed, he had come from outside, and the temperature difference hadn’t caught his attention. Now, listening to Lorenzo, the indoor temperature did indeed feel very low.

”Well, Mr. Lorenzo, could you please look at the aftermath of yesterday’s case? If there are no errors, we’re preparing to file and conclude it.”

Lorenzo reached for the document, and after flipping through just two pages, he curiously asked.

”Why ask me? I’m not part of the Purification Mechanism.”

”But you are an experienced Demon Hunter, and you participated in the pursuit.”

This was true—the Purification Mechanism’s understanding of Demon Hunters was still too shallow. Even if they had Ed’s body for dissection and analysis research, it only expanded the mystery.

The power of Demon Hunters was too unique, with strength and senses far exceeding ordinary people under the blessing of Secret Blood, not to mention the mysterious authority named after the Angel.

Lorenzo said nothing more. Arthur had always been curious about the Demon Hunter’s power, and if the Purification Mechanism’s attitude towards him cooled, it would seem unusual.

”So you’re blaming those murders on it? That makes sense.”

Lorenzo was about to ask more, but before he could, he found the answer himself.

The document noted that similar cases had occurred in different places of Old Dunling before yesterday’s massacre—the brutal murders and blood-letter revenge could fundamentally be attributed to that demon’s hand yesterday. Yet Lorenzo was still puzzled by some things.

”This demon hasn’t struck for the first time. The first case was half a month ago when it killed a gang member in a small district, and the last one was yesterday—the victim was just a worker.”

Lorenzo sensed some anomalies. He put the bottle aside and focused his gaze tightly on the document, piecing together the different words to weave a mysterious story.

”What’s wrong?”

Joey couldn’t hide his joy upon seeing Lorenzo’s gradually serious expression. Indeed, more information could be found within this Demon Hunter.

”I suppose your Purification Mechanism has also noticed, right? This demon’s hunting targets are a bit strange.”

Lorenzo stated.

”Strange? But... aren’t demons just like animals, without any pattern?”

Joey was puzzled. In his view, demons were just a flock of corrupt creatures, monsters from unknown origins trying to challenge humanity’s existing stable rule. Killing living beings was instinctual to them.

”No, even beasts have a pattern.”

Lorenzo directly denied him, then took out an old map of Old Dunling from the cabinet and spread it out in front of him.

”This is its first appearance location—the chaotic Lower City District. This would be a perfect hunting ground, yet it didn’t stop here again; it kept moving deeper into Old Dunling until the last hunt on the edge on the other side.”

”If a beast hunts for food or massacre, it shouldn’t leave the Lower City District... it has a purpose, for blood-letter revenge.”

Lorenzo suddenly realized the information gap between him and Joey. He looked at this heavily tagged man and asked seriously.

”Joey, has your Purification Mechanism ever encountered a rational demon?”

”A rational demon?”

Joey was shocked by Lorenzo’s question. Demons were just a chaotic group, so why would they be endowed with rationality?

He didn’t answer immediately, but it wasn’t necessary. Lorenzo had already read the result from his astonished expression.

”Rational demon, are you... referring to what?”

Lorenzo thought for a moment, trying to organize the knowledge in his mind and explain it in a way Joey could understand, then slowly explained to Joey.

”A rational demon can maintain a certain rationality under demonization... to put it another way...”

Lorenzo shook his head—Joey didn’t know the stories of the Demon Hunting Order, nor did he need to deeply understand them.

”You can understand a rational demon as unstable, subject to complete erosion at any time, with no control by any security device, driven by weak rationality to act with a furious body,

Demon Hunter.”