Chapter 009 Framing

The next morning, after a nearly sleepless night, Karen set out for the Goblin Forest at dawn.

What Karen failed to notice was that as he left the village entrance, a villager watched him for a long while, a cold glint in his gaze. Only after Karen had gone did that villager turn and head toward the home of Karen’s so-called “uncle.”

Karen was completely unaware of all this; his mind was wholly preoccupied with the two extra goblin corpses that had appeared in his graveyard. He wanted to know how those bodies came to be there. Who had buried them, and for what purpose? Was there some hidden danger nearby? Had someone set their sights on him?

Still, although Karen was anxious, he didn’t rush headlong to the graveyard. He wasn’t that reckless—if the person who buried the corpses was still around, wouldn’t he be walking right into a trap? So Karen took a circuitous route, spending considerable effort and repeatedly confirming from a distance that the graveyard was deserted and safe before finally approaching.

Once there, Karen immediately noticed a patch of earth at the edge of the graveyard that had been hastily covered and disguised—clearly the burial site of the two goblin bodies from yesterday.

“After burying them, they went to some trouble to conceal the site. That means these goblins probably weren’t buried by their own tribe, and there aren’t any obvious signs of activity nearby either. In other words, whoever did this cleaned up after themselves.”

For Karen, this was a crucial detail. To erase traces so thoroughly, either the culprit was very meticulous, or there weren’t many people involved—perhaps just one or two—otherwise it wouldn’t be so easy to cover their tracks. Judging by this attempt to conceal their presence, Karen could already deduce the nature of the incident.

“A murder and a hidden body?”

Karen mused for a moment, said nothing, and began to dig up the two goblin corpses.

Half an hour later, the bodies—each about four feet six inches tall, with greenish skin and savage features—were unearthed. Both had holes at the location of their hearts, and the hearts themselves were missing.

It was a grisly, horrifying sight. Yet, to Karen’s own surprise, he hardly felt any fear as he gazed at the corpses; instead, his mind worked logically, searching for any useful clues.

But reason alone wasn’t enough—Karen had no forensic knowledge and after a long inspection, he found nothing more than what was obvious: this was a murder and cover-up. To be thorough, Karen dug up the other five bodies as well, and sure enough, all were missing their hearts.

“The same cause of death. Clearly, this was the work of the same person, or the same group. And the ones who killed these seven goblins were likely from their own tribe; otherwise, I can’t imagine why the killer would be so careful to cover their tracks. Also, from the look of the surroundings, it seems whoever did this carried or dragged the two bodies here. Together they’d weigh around 150 pounds, and there are no signs of a goblin tribe living within two miles. That means someone lugged 150 pounds for three or four kilometers—or even farther—to get here. That’s a level of stamina far beyond my own…”

Piece by piece, Karen reasoned through the available evidence, drawing out what he considered the most important information. At the same time, he weighed how to proceed, or rather, whether he should activate the graveyard at all.

On this question, Karen hesitated for a long time, but in the end, he decided against it. After all, he was still wary—reasonably so. As a traditional man from his homeland, his first instinct was to avoid trouble, not to court it.

Even though Karen reasoned that he’d be fine if he was careful, he didn’t dare take the risk—what if something went wrong? This wasn’t a game. If he made a mistake, the consequences would be fatal.

Most importantly, Karen’s current life was still manageable. Even without activating the graveyard, he could hunt elsewhere safely, growing stronger through practice. Once he’d gained enough strength and a deeper understanding of his surroundings, he could reconsider the graveyard.

At last, Karen gave up on the idea of activating it. He spent some time removing the traps around the graveyard, setting them in a safer location farther away, and reburied the goblin corpses. It seemed he was determined not to get involved in this mess.

Whether this was the right choice or not was hard to say, but at least it was the safer one. With the matter in the Goblin Forest settled and his own appearance tidied, Karen made sure everything was in order and, as dusk fell, he returned home with two rabbits in tow.

But the moment he entered the village, Karen immediately sensed something was wrong. From the entrance onward, every villager’s gaze was strange; although he’d never felt warmth from them, today their eyes seemed especially cold.

“Did something happen?” The alarm bells rang in Karen’s mind, and almost simultaneously, the villagers surrounded him.

As Karen stood there bewildered, his so-called aunt barged through the crowd, her heavy frame swaying, and leveled a trembling finger at him, shrieking, “It was him! He killed John! This heartless devil not only broke his uncle’s limbs, but last night he stormed into my house, murdered his own uncle, and raped me!”

Karen was left utterly dumbfounded.

What in the world? I killed John? Raped that old sow? Just how depraved would I have to be to do such a thing?

But while Karen was stunned, the villagers were not.

“There must be no killing in the village—it’s our rule! We cannot tolerate a murderer among us! A demon who kills his own uncle and violates his aunt must not be allowed to stay!”

With one villager taking the lead, several burly men closed in on Karen…