Battlefield Priest's Diary

Chapter 92 Clues
2025, Gyžicko, Poland.

The weather in late autumn in Scandinavia has turned quite cold. It's raining outside, and the roads in the suburbs are full of potholes and puddles. The owner of a guesthouse has just used a marker to change the prices on his signboard.

It's the off-season now, and there aren't many guests staying at the hotel, so it's only natural to lower room rates.

Come to think of it, if it weren't for a generous tourist from the East, I might have lost money this month.

Hua Hua Hua~~~
Rainwater flowed continuously down the wooden eaves, forming a small stream at the doorway before swirling and flowing into the sewer.

A pair of muddy boots stepped on the ground, cutting off the flow of water, and splashed water up, wetting the man's pants again.

somebody is coming.

The visitor was a tall young woman dressed in a police officer's uniform.

"Excuse me, may I ask you some questions?" The girl bent down and leaned under the eaves to ask. Rainwater stuck to her hair and her clothes were covered in mud, making her look quite disheveled.

"Please come in quickly, I'll get you a cup of hot coffee." The boss let the girl in from the doorway, looking at her disheveled appearance with some confusion. Why would a police officer come here alone in this weather, especially a young girl?

"Sir, have you seen this person before?" The girl picked up a photo and handed it to the shopkeeper. The photo wasn't very clear; only the face of an Asian person could be vaguely seen. It looked like it had been taken from a security camera.

The landlord tried to make out the person, and said uncertainly, "Hmm, although it's not very clear, this person seems to be one of my tenants. After all, there are very few Asians who come here at this time of year."

"What?! He lives here!" The policewoman suddenly became agitated.

"Uh...yes, he's been here for a while now. Actually, he's the only guest I've had recently. What? Is he a criminal?" The owner became worried when he saw the police officer's strong reaction.

“No, I’m not sure yet.” The female mounted police officer shook her head, then subconsciously bit her thumbnail, turned to ask, “Sir, could you take me to his room?”

“Well… ma’am, if you are only asking in a private capacity, I have no reason to ask you to bother my guest.”

Faced with this situation, the female mounted police officer hesitated for a moment, but ultimately went against her principles.

She took a deep breath and said, "My uncle is Nico Hoffman, can you help me?"

"Mr. Hoffman?!" The boss was startled. This man was a well-known big shot in the city, with a huge influence on the streets.

After a brief weighing of the pros and cons, the boss made his choice: "Please come with me. He should be in the room upstairs, but he hasn't come out since yesterday."

The two went upstairs one after the other, and the boss clearly saw the mounted policewoman pull out a non-lethal Taser from behind her.

"Officer, is the guy over there dangerous? Should we call for help?"

The female mounted police officer shook her head. Although the traces left by the man were suspicious, she had no evidence to prove that he had done anything wrong. It was not in line with her upbringing to convict him without cause.

Perhaps I'm just overthinking things. She even told herself that if we met and chatted for a bit, the misunderstanding would be cleared up.

Concealing the Taser behind her back, the girl took a deep breath and tried knocking on the door.

No one answered.

After several attempts, there was still no sound.

After a brief internal struggle, the female mounted police officer borrowed the key from the owner, opened the door, and rushed inside!
She was greeted only by the sound of rain pouring outside the window; the house was empty.

However, when the female mounted police officer turned on the light, she was startled.

The room was cluttered with beds, tools and white powder of unknown composition were scattered on the table, and two large drawing boards were pasted on the wall. Someone had drawn a structural diagram of some kind of building on one of them with a marker, and there were also traces of repeatedly handwritten calculation formulas.

Good heavens! This looks exactly like the preparation scene for a major crime.

Vidian nervously checked her surroundings to make sure no one was there, then carefully approached the table and dabbed a little white powder on her finger.

Ok?
Unlike what I expected, it has a ceramic-like texture, as if it were fragments of some hard object broken down.

Continuing the inspection, there were some packages on the table. Although the packages indicated they were ordinary medicines, the female mounted police officer cautiously picked one up and put it away. On another board, there were more than a dozen names, presumably in Russian, written in red marker.

Felix Yusupov
Vladimir Prishkevich

Irina Alexandrovna
Stanislav Lazowelt

Anna Verubova
Grigory Vasilyevich Strogano
Dmitry Sergeyevich Vorentsov

.........

The strange map, the odd powder on the desktop, the bizarre list of Russian names, and the incomprehensible red lines connecting each name, combined with the book the female mounted police officer had seen the person reading earlier, easily lead to some unpleasant associations.

Black market transactions?

Gang feud?

Or was it a kidnapping plot?
A jumble of thoughts kept flashing through the female mounted police officer's mind.

The man vanished as if evaporated, then suddenly reappeared, then vanished again. Vidian felt her entire nervous system being on edge.

She took out her phone and made a call.

"Hey Shan, it's me. I need you to help me with some testing."

"I know the weather's bad right now, but please, this is important to me!"

An hour later, a woman in her thirties got out of the car and chatted for a while before taking the things from the female mounted police officer's hands.

That night, the female mounted police officer tossed and turned in her bed until late at night before finally falling asleep.

When the phone rang and woke her up, it was already broad daylight.

"Hey, honey, if your uncle weren't my boss, I would never work overtime on my day off," the woman on the phone complained.

"I'm sorry, Shan, I will definitely make it up to you later. How is it going?" the female mounted police officer urged anxiously.

"Okay, these things of yours, how should I put it, are very strange."

"strangeness?"

"Yes, that's strange. Listen carefully. First of all, that white powder isn't anything special; it's a mixture of broad-spectrum antibacterial drugs, and there are absolutely no prohibited substances involved."

"That fragment-like object should be a crystal of some kind of mineral rock, but I detected traces of explosive reaction on it, which means that it was recently shattered by high explosives, and the concentration of the explosive was not low."

Upon hearing this, the female mounted police officer's eyebrows gradually furrowed.

"Oh, by the way, I've already checked the list you gave me. All those people are no longer alive." A bombshell announcement suddenly came over the phone.

"Dead?!" The female mounted police officer felt an electric current rise up from her tailbone.

"No, no, no, these are all historical figures from over a hundred years ago. The last one passed away in 1970."

The woman on the phone continued, "I do have some guesses about the person you described. He may not be the kind of thug you imagine; perhaps he just has some unusual fetishes."

"Hey? Shan, do you know anything?" the female mounted police officer urged.

"The person you're staring at might be a spiritual enthusiast; what he's written is related to a famous historical story."

"Historical stories?"

"Yes, a story about [resurrection]."

(End of this chapter)