Mystery: Death Singer

A few days later, a corner of Raphael's Cemetery.

Edric stood beside several cemetery staff members, watching from afar as the night watchmen slowly lowered the coffin into the grave. The cemetery manager, Kalis, was overwhelmed with grief and needed staff support to stand; he was nearly fainting.

The middle-aged man's cries never stopped. More than ten years ago, he lost his "mother" and then his best brother and friend. From then on, he had nothing.

Seeing this scene, Edric suddenly thought of old York buried in Crescent Town and wanted to go back to see the tombstone he had erected himself and the epitaph he had carved himself.

Just then, a former colleague came over to say hello. Edric nodded slightly, using politeness as a shield to deflect any potential questions the colleague might have.

He returned to say goodbye to his friends at the cemetery, claiming he had found a new job in Backlund and was about to leave Tingen.

Perhaps it was an itch to dig, or perhaps it was some kind of wicked sense of humor, but Edric personally took charge and dug a perfectly good grave for both Klein and Dunn. Even Frye, who had recently been promoted to "gravedigger," couldn't find a single fault with it.

After Dunn's funeral, everyone gathered at Klein's tombstone. As a former neighbor who had received help from Klein, Edric easily gained the right to go forward and say goodbye.

Amid the somber atmosphere, Edric's feelings were somewhat complicated.

He wasn't actually familiar with "Klein Moretti," and had never even seen "Dunne Smith" alive. His return to Tingen was rather inexplicable, as if he had acted on a whim.

This bizarre situation gave Edric an instinctive chill, making him wonder if he had somehow ended up in the "story."

But upon closer reflection, Edric felt that something was amiss.

The blind man's utterly astonished expression in front of Charness's door was unmistakable, indicating that he had not anticipated this situation at all before launching his sneak attack.

This also means that Edric is not in the other person's "story" at all, or he is just a passerby, the kind of passerby whose entire appearance and disappearance will not exceed ten words.

More importantly, if Edric returned to Tingen because he was influenced by the "quill pen," then why did the blind man do this?

Successfully obtaining the item he had been dreaming of made him a little restless, so he actively sought a change to calm himself down and decided to refrain from arrogance and impatience from now on.

Judging from the furious expression on the other party's face before leaving, and the look in his eyes that seemed to want to devour Edric alive, it's unlikely to be this kind of scenario.

Edric shook his head, feeling that something was amiss, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He had no choice but to suppress his doubts for the time being and refocus his attention on the funeral.

During the time he was lost in thought, the pastor's eulogy had ended, as had the prayers of the important relatives. Alvin, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, stood above Klein's grave and began to sprinkle soil, gradually burying the black coffin.

Melissa, who had been silent all along, suddenly half-squatted down and threw a bronze whistle that the Night Watcher had given her into the grave pit. It was one of Klein's personal belongings when he sacrificed himself.

Melissa believed that her brother must have really liked the bronze whistle, otherwise he wouldn't have chosen to carry it with him. Rather than keeping it by his side and reliving the pain of the day day and night, it would be better to return it to its rightful owner so that her brother could still have the bronze whistle after his death.

After the grave was filled in and covered with a stone slab, Edric calmly tamped down the soil, making sure there were no gaps before silently retreating back into the crowd.

As the funeral concluded, the Blackthorn Security personnel gradually departed, and Edric and other cemetery staff followed the crowd, leaving the scene to Klein's family for their final farewell.

…………

Late at night, at Raphael's Cemetery.

Edric stood under a tree, watching Mr. Azik, holding a bouquet of white flowers, slowly approach and quietly look at the bookish black-and-white photograph on the tombstone.

After a long while, he sighed and muttered to himself:

"I'm sorry, I was too late and couldn't catch up."

"But I already know his identity and remember his scent. As long as he remains active, there will be a day when I catch up with him."

He bent down to put down the bouquet, turned around and stood in front of Edric, his voice low and deep:

"The question you raised in your letter is very interesting. In my opinion, as long as the evil spirit remains intact enough, and a physical body that can perfectly match its spirit is created, and finally some life force is added, the evil spirit can regain life and complete its 'resurrection'."

"However, such resurrection inevitably has hidden dangers, because the essence of the spirit has been transformed into an evil spirit, and its rationality is likely to gradually deteriorate over time."

"Of course, if we can obtain the extraordinary characteristics of the evil spirit in its previous life and give it a concrete embodiment, this situation will definitely be significantly curbed. Other extraordinary characteristics obtained through the same means also have this ability, but the effect is far less than the one it originally possessed."

The power of "life"? This seems to be the domain of the Church of the Earth Mother, Rune... Edric nodded thoughtfully, watching Azik's figure gradually fade away, using the spirit world to move away from Tingen.

The crimson moonlight spilled into every corner of the cemetery, and the air was filled with an indescribable quiet and desolation.

Suddenly, a series of "thump-thump" sounds came from one of the tombs. The ground, which Edric had deliberately compacted, bulged slightly, as if something underground was making a violent impact.

Looking at the bright crimson moon in the night sky, Edric suddenly had an epiphany. He pulled out a shovel, walked behind Klein's tombstone, and began shoveling soil, one shovelful at a time.

Inside the coffin, Klein, his face flushed, tried to push the lid upwards with all his might, but to no avail; it was like trying to put out a fire with a drop of water.

About half a minute later, Klein felt a sudden lightness above him, followed by the sound of a stone slab being lifted and lowered.

A faint smile of relief appeared on his face, but then he remembered that he was already dead, and "coming back to life" was definitely not something a normal person could do!

A second before the coffin lid was lifted, Klein had already lay back down, using meditation to keep himself as calm as possible, and using the "Joker's" abilities to control his muscles, thus becoming flawless.

Wow!

The coffin lid was lifted, and crimson moonlight flooded in. Just as Klein was determined to play dead and remained motionless, he suddenly heard two "hehe" laughs from above, followed by a voice he knew all too well:

"Mr. Klein, are you sure you want to play the role of a corpse in front of a 'corpse collector'?"