Free Web NovelChapter 447: Chapter 447: Why Does This Plot Feel So Familiar_1
Several days later, Aiden, as scheduled, was met by the "appointment" with Heinz Hoffman.
"Unexpected, I really didn’t think you would come looking for me first instead of Her Highness the Princess," Aiden said, pouring tea for Heinz across the tea table in the office.
"There are matters of urgency and importance," Heinz replied seriously. "There are some things about the investigation you entrusted to us last time that I need to fill you in on."
"Is it inconvenient to be known by outsiders?" Aiden asked bluntly.
Heinz nodded, "Sending a telegram will inevitably involve other people, and sending a letter from my side carries risks, and is not efficient. It’s best for me to come in person and tell you." freewebnovёl.ƈom
"Please do," Aiden didn’t beat around the bush either.
He briefly observed Heinz’s expression—still that unsmiling demeanor, his face firm as if carved from stone, making it difficult to read any information from it.
Aiden quickly diverted his gaze; in terms of experience and quality in surveillance and counter-surveillance, the other party was definitely superior to him. It wouldn’t be good to arouse his suspicion too quickly.
Qiqimora accidentally discovered the dirty secrets inside Gistas’s military base, and their investigation soon hit a bottleneck.
The core area of the test site was evidently shrouded tightly by some authority’s power. After probing and watching for a while, Qiqimora found a pattern—the number of living people that could be in the core area was fixed, and it was always full. The personnel inside were exchanged in two situations: the work staff of the test site changing shifts, and the immediate replenishment after the death of experimental subjects.
The time gap between shifts was extremely short. Qiqimora once took advantage of that moment to enter the core area for observation, only to find other secret chambers underneath, with no opportunity for further investigation. If they dared to break into the depths directly, they would immediately startle the snake in the grass.
Both Abigail and Lamia began to take interest in what was hidden inside this base, and Qiqimora handed over the materials gathered several times for their analysis. Although they also gained some insights, it was still quite limited.
Aiden weighed in his mind whether he should directly ask Heinz about the events inside the military base to get more information. But in any case, it was better to first listen to the "secrets" Heinz had to reveal.
"You specifically asked about Professor Dodge’s family, so you must have obtained some reliable clues, right?" Heinz suddenly asked.
Aiden nodded, "I got a reliable hint, but no content. As for the source, please don’t ask any further, just tell me the answer."
"Alright," Heinz also nodded, lowering his voice, "I’ll just say it then. Actually, the key to the problem lies with the children of Professor Dodge who have passed away. According to our investigation, Dodge’s children had some kind of incurable congenital defect, but what exact illness it was I couldn’t find out, after all, it’s been ten years... The announced cause of death also seems to be complications triggered by this defect. But after listening to your reminder, I re-commissioned someone to investigate deeply and found that the child’s grave was actually empty."
"You dug up their grave?" Aiden was surprised.
"We wouldn’t make such a big move in other countries. I employed a high-ranking necromancer using my old connections in the Empire and used necromancy to examine the cemetery. It was confirmed that there were no human remains in the child’s grave," Heinz quickly waved his hand.
Aiden thought to himself, so you wouldn’t hesitate in your own country then.
But this was indeed a feasible method. According to the theory of dark magic, under normal circumstances, a human spirit would dissipate directly with the death of the body, so unless a summoning ritual was applied in advance or the deceased had an extremely strong resentment, there wouldn’t be an independent wandering spirit without the body. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
But a corpse is different; as long as it hasn’t completely vanished, it constantly remains connected to the power of death. Necromancy originates from the authority of "death," and most things related to the concept of death can resonate with necromancy. Those mummies and skeletons exhumed from tombs, let alone ten years, even after hundreds of years, could still be manipulated by necromancy if their form was intact enough.
Aiden couldn’t help but wonder, "The body was stolen?"
"It’s also possible that it never existed to begin with," Heinz added.
"What situation?" Aiden could tell the other party already had the answer.
"There is a possibly related issue that I never reported to you. First off, this matter involves some secrets that are now known only to me and three senior officers within the Royal Secret Police. Secondly, I wasn’t sure at first if this issue had anything to do with Harrison Dodge," Heinz said slowly, "It was only after your specific reminder that I pieced the two matters together."
"I’m listening," Aiden said, picking up his cup to drink tea.
"About seven years ago, our spy network discovered that the Empire’s army built a secret base in the northwest. Later we confirmed that the Empire was conducting some inhumane human experiments there..."
At this point, Aiden almost choked on his tea and hurriedly set down the cup.
"It’s quite startling," Heinz said, looking at Aiden.
"Yeah, the hint of a conspiracy is strong just from hearing it. Are you sure you’re not making up a story?" Aiden commented, trying to keep his composure, but his mind was in turmoil.
Building secret bases to conduct inhumane human experiments... why does this plot sound so familiar?
The Witches’ Congregation had no reason to lie to him about this issue; Qiqimora must have indeed found such a military base within Gistas territory.
So was Heinz mixing truth with lies, attributing the filthy deeds done by Gistas to the Empire?
No, a conclusion cannot be hastily drawn, at least not until there’s a conflict in the timeline. The incident Heinz mentioned about the Empire happened seven years ago, while the experiments in the Kingdom of Gistas, considering the main subjects were refugees from the southern wars, must not have been underway for more than a year—both incidents could be sequential and perhaps related.
With these thoughts, Aiden didn’t say much more, patiently listening to what was to come.
"Unfortunately, it’s not," Heinz explained seriously; he was clearly not the type to take a joke, "Spying on the Imperial army’s secrets goes beyond the duties and capabilities of the Royal Secret Police—our espionage work is generally aimed at the political level. This matter was handled by the military’s intelligence agency. However, the intelligence agency requested our collaboration for this mission, so I ended up learning some secrets in the end."
"Alright, I believe you," Aiden motioned with his hand for the other party to continue, "What experiments did the Empire’s military conduct at that base in the end?"
Then, Heinz revealed the answer that had already surfaced in Aiden’s mind: "Creating new demonspawn—they were studying how to merge humans with new breeds of demons."
