Reincarnated as an Energy with a System

Chapter 1931: The True Past

Larissa had been thirteen at the time and was spending the night at a friend’s home, expecting her father to collect her the following morning.

He would never make that journey.

Ning moved closer to the desk, still holding Larissa’s hand.

The journal contained a photograph of a man attached to the upper portion of the page, with several lines of handwritten text beneath it.

Ning leaned forward, attempting to read what was written.

The color and clarity of the vision were not perfect, but he could see enough to know that the page contained notes about the man in the photograph.

A name might have been among them, but part of the writing remained hidden beneath Larissa’s father’s hand.

Ning instinctively reached toward the journal, but his fingers passed through it. He pulled his hand back as he learned that he couldn’t interact with anything.

This was a vision, after all.

Larissa’s entire attention remained on her father.

A sound came from the front door just then, causing all three to turn toward it.

The Imp looked toward the sound as though trying to figure out what it was. ”Honey? Is that you?” he called out.

There was some more noise before it went silent. A little concerned, the Imp closed his journal and placed it onto the shelf.

There were hundreds of books there, many related to law, investigation, politics, and the history of New Limaro. He placed the journal between two ordinary books, hiding it so naturally that anyone who had not watched him do it would never know which one it was.

He turned to go check what the sound was. Just as he opened the door, two men rushed in, having already broken inside.

Both wore dark clothing, gloves, and cloth masks that covered most of their faces, making them appear like common burglars who had chosen the wrong house. They attacked the moment the door opened.

The first man punched Larissa’s father in the stomach, but he wasn’t strong enough to make him falter.

Larissa’s father struck out as well since they weren’t friendly. He struck across the first man’s face with his claws, tearing through the mask and cutting deeply enough that blood splattered onto the hallway floor.

Ning recognized the moment immediately.

That was the blood investigators had recovered, the sample that had never matched anyone in the police database.

The wounded burglar stumbled back, holding his face. At the same time, the Imp rushed for the other one. However, the second one was ready for him. Before he could reach him, the second man shot him in the chest.

Larissa flinched beside Ning, but her father remained standing.

An Imp was naturally stronger than most races on Hyrron, and a single bullet was not enough to kill him immediately. He felt around his chest, seeing the red blood that seeped out through the wound.

He stumbled a little, turning to look at the two men.

”Did he... send you?” Larissa’s father asked. ”So... he must know... I’m close.”

Ning remembered the image from earlier. Was that the man they were talking about?

”You should’ve stopped when you realized this was way above your pay grade,” the second man said. ”You wouldn’t have had to die this way.”

Larissa’s father looked at the two. ”What... what do you want?”

”Nothing. They just want you dead.”

The man shot him twice. Both bullets struck him in the chest, the force finally throwing him backward into the study.

His head struck the edge of the shelf as he fell backward, wounding his head. It made a sickening sound.

Larissa’s grip became painful around Ning’s hand.

The two men waited, breathing heavily as they watched the Imp bleed out.

”Find it,” the second one told the other, and they searched through the study.

They tore through drawers, emptied folders onto the floor, and toppled every shelf until they found the journal. They searched for anything that could have been hiding anything, which they found to be in the journal. They also took a couple of other books with them.

Once everything related to Larissa’s father’s investigation had been gathered, the men began staging the room.

They overturned furniture, broke drawers, and scattered ordinary belongings around the floor to make the search appear less focused.

One of them took the Imp’s wallet, while the other took anything that could be considered valuable from nearby.

Then they ran.

The injured man left drops of blood through the hallway and outside the house, but neither returned to clean them.

All that was left then was the dead Imp on the floor, with a pool of blood all around him.

Larissa stopped the vision.

The old room disappeared, replaced by the storage boxes and unfamiliar belongings of the Gnomes who lived there now.

Her father vanished with it.

Larissa remained standing where she was, her hand still locked around Ning’s as though letting go would cause her to fall.

She had spent years imagining what had happened inside this room.

She had blamed herself for not being present, hated the officers who had failed to solve the crime, and built most of her life around the belief that one day she would find enough evidence to identify the people responsible.

Now she had watched it happen.

She had seen her father alive.

She had heard his voice.

And then she had watched him die before he could speak the one name she had needed to hear.

Larissa lowered her head and let the teardrops spill over. She could not stop herself from crying.

Ning remained silent. There was nothing useful he could say.

Larissa had finally learned how her father died, but the answer had not given her the peace she had spent years hoping it would.

It had only made the loss real again.

And now, her one hope of bringing those criminals to justice was gone as well, as there was nothing else she could do at all.