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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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Chapter 36
I concluded that Vanessa had killed the prostitutes to let them die as humans before they could turn into monsters.
Otherwise, she had no reason to commit murder.
However, there were still unanswered questions.
First.
According to the records, Jack the Ripper was known to have used a ‘surgical knife’ as a weapon.
But I had never once seen Vanessa use such a blade.
Second.
Jack the Ripper didn’t just kill prostitutes.
It was clear that she had a purpose: she extracted the victims' organs.
And the Vanessa I knew wasn’t the kind of person who would do such a thing.
Seeking answers, I turned to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
"Who comes to see me at this hour?"
"I have a request, Conan Doyle."
Conan eyed me warily.
"If you wished to hire me, you should have scheduled an appointment. Why have you broken into my room?"
"I apologize for the intrusion, but I had no choice. This matter is urgent, and I can't solve it alone."
"You can't solve it?"
"Yes. There's something I must uncover."
A flicker of curiosity appeared in Conan Doyle’s blue eyes.
They said he was an eccentric man so obsessed with mysteries that he lost sight of everything else when confronted with one.
True to form, he momentarily forgot I was an intruder and asked,
"What is it you wish to uncover?"
"I want to ask you about the East End gang annihilation incident."
At that, the curiosity in Conan’s face vanished.
"I'm busy. Leave. I have no interest in gangs."
He turned his back to me and resumed writing Sherlock Holmes with his fountain pen.
But my next words made his pen freeze mid-stroke.
"It was the work of a single person."
"……"
Conan Doyle stopped writing and slowly turned to face me, his blue eyes once again filled with intrigue.
"I wish to commission you, Conan Doyle."
Clink.
A pouch of money landed on the table.
"Find the suspect behind the Crime Pub massacre."
***
The Crime Pub massacre had been written off as a gang war.
In the lawless streets of the East End, gangs formed and vanished by the dozen every month.
No one batted an eye when a large gang disappeared.
But once Conan Doyle got involved, the case took a different turn.
"This was the work of one person."
Surveying the wreckage of the tavern, Conan reached his conclusion.
"The weapon used… not a knife… scissors"
Just by glancing around, he deduced exactly what Vanessa had used.
It was a level of reasoning befitting the man who created Sherlock Holmes.
"A psychic, then. A crime of vengeance?"
"They were likely trying to stop the spread of Plum Blossom Poison."
"The disease rumored to be spreading among prostitutes, you mean?"
"That's right. Crime Pub was selling it."
"I doubt Crime Pub was the only one. The gangs must all be involved."
"Most likely."
In the East End, besides Crime Pub, there were five other gangs, both large and small.
To them, Plum Blossom Poison was a lucrative business.
"Mr. Conan, here is the requested evidence."
An officer handling the case handed Conan a collection of weapons gathered from the tavern.
Among the various weapons, Conan picked up a sealed bag containing a pair of scissors.
"Cheap scissors. Judging by how they were discarded after a single use, it seems they weren’t reused."
"……."
"A seamstress wouldn’t want to sew with bloodstained scissors. That means she’d need to buy new ones."
With nothing but the clue of scissors, Conan deduced Vanessa’s next move.
He traced the origin of the scissors sold on the day of the incident, found the general store that carried them, and gathered everyone who had any connection to Vanessa.
"The culprit will remain in the East End until they’ve eradicated Plum Blossom Poison. That places them somewhere within this area."
Swish.
Conan circled a section of the map in red, marking Vanessa’s range of movement.
"There’s only one gang within this area."
He tapped a spot on the map with his fountain pen.
"Dublin Pop… An Irish gang?"
"……."
It took Conan a mere three hours to locate Vanessa.
And most of that time was spent gathering people for questioning.
Watching Conan at work, Jeanne’s eyes widened in amazement.
"Did he use an ability?"
"No."
Conan was known to be non-awakened.
Yet, through sheer deduction, he demonstrated an ability that surpassed even those with supernatural powers.
Even as I watched, I could hardly believe it.
Modern profiling techniques were nothing more than structured versions of Conan’s instinctual genius.
A god of deduction.
Yet, even Conan had failed to catch Jack the Ripper in recorded history.
Did that mean Conan would fail this time as well?
"……."
I would find out soon enough.
Together with Jeanne, I followed Conan toward the Irish gang’s hideout.
***
The gang’s den was beneath a pub.
It should have been a heavily fortified stronghold, secured with multiple layers of protection.
But now, an eerie silence filled the underground space.
Vanessa was there.
Standing amidst a pile of gang members’ corpses.
Holding bloodstained scissors.
"Don't move!"
An officer aimed his gun at her.
"Vanessa."
"Why is it that men like these never face judgment under the law?"
Vanessa stared at the cop at gunpoint.
"So, I decided to deliver the judgment myself."
Vanessa looked at me and smiled sweetly.
"Was I wrong?"
"……."
I couldn’t answer.
After all, the British government’s approach to the East End had always been neglected.
People died. Crimes happened. And yet, the government simply watched.
Vanessa had chosen to become an executioner in the place of an indifferent government.
She might not have had the power to help the victims, like Jeanne did.
But she could drag those who created the victims straight to hell.
Bang!
The officer fired his gun, but by the time the shot rang out, Vanessa had already vanished.
Like a ghost of death,
No.
Like an executioner born from neglect, she disappeared without a trace.
***
August 31st, 4:00 AM, a woman’s body was discovered in the backstreets of East End.
She lay motionless, her vacant eyes staring into the void.
Her name was Mary Ann Nichols.
A prostitute.
Officially recorded as Jack the Ripper’s first victim.
I decided to trace Mary Ann Nichols’ movements before her death.
If I followed her, I was bound to find Vanessa.
Late at night.
I waited outside the hotel where Mary was staying.
Eventually, she stumbled out into the street.
I silently followed her.
Drunk, she staggered through the alleyways of the East End.
Ten minutes passed.
A woman emerged from the corner ahead.
Even in the darkness, her golden eyes gleamed.
Vanessa.
She saw me.
Her steps halted.
For a moment, our gazes met in the empty night.
"Aaaaaahhh!"
A scream shattered the silence.
At the sound, Vanessa vanished.
"S-Someone’s dead!"
Mary, who had fallen onto the ground in shock, stared in horror at the alleyway where Vanessa had stood.
"……."
A woman’s corpse lay there, motionless.
Jack the Ripper’s first murder wasn’t Mary Ann Nichols.
***
A parallel world?
In this reality, Jack the Ripper’s first victim wasn’t Mary Ann Nichols, but another prostitute.
The police dismissed the case as a simple homicide.
In the slums of the East End, murder and robbery were everyday occurrences.
And yet….
"This is strange…"
Examining the crime scene, Conan tilted his head in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"Are you sure she is responsible for this?"
"Are you saying she isn’t?"
"The method is too different."
"What?"
"This was done by someone else. A surgical knife was used. And it was done professionally."
What was he saying?
Vanessa had been at the crime scene.
I saw her disappear.
And I saw the body appear.
Yet Conan had already dismissed her as the culprit.
—I saw it! A person with red hair…!
Meanwhile, the first witness, Mary, was giving Vanessa’s description to the officers.
[The Mastermind Behind the Dublin Pub Massacre now a Serial Killer?!]
[The Murders Are Too Brutal to Be Human…]
[Jack the Ripper Stalks East End!]
[Is Crime Pub’s Prime Suspect the Same Killer?!]
Thus, the world was introduced to Jack the Ripper.
***
A week later, another prostitute was murdered.
The killings continued, and the streets of London became suffocated by the terror of Jack the Ripper.
Newspapers fanned the flames of fear, churning out sensational stories.
Yet, Jack the Ripper always struck from the shadows.
No one had truly seen them.
Dozens of people were suspected—
Surgeons, nobles, even a prince of England.
More than a hundred individuals were falsely accused, their lives turned upside down.
And then, amid the chaos, I came across a peculiar article.
[Jack the Ripper: A Murderous Rebellion Against the Government’s Prostitution Promotion Policy?]
‘Prostitution promotion?’
That didn’t make sense.
The British government had always opposed the population growth in the East End.
‘Why would they encourage prostitution?’
"No, not prostitution Plum Blossom Poison."
Those who became addicted to Plum Blossom Poison turned into monsters.
It was an organic solution to the East End’s overpopulation problem.
But Plum Blossom Poison wasn’t just any affliction.
It was a curse, tied to none other than the Lord of Despair, Astaroth.
So why was the British government encouraging it?
‘Did they have a way to control the monsters?’
Could it be that Plum Blossom Poison wasn’t natural at all, but a man-made plague engineered by the British government to cull the population?
"……."
Everything clicked into place.
If Plum Blossom Poison was a deliberate creation, then there had to be a host.
A living source producing and spreading it.
And if that host was cooperating with the British government.
Then their encouragement of prostitution suddenly made sense.
A controlled monster was the perfect tool for population control.
And if that were the case.
It also explained why Conan Doyle had failed to find Jack the Ripper.
If the true culprit was backed by the government, then even Conan would be forced into silence.
That left me with only one conclusion.
‘Vanessa is not Jack the Ripper.’
History had branded her with the name, but that was nothing more than a stain left by the British government.
==
[Complete Jack the Ripper’s Executions]
==
Perhaps these ‘executions’ didn’t refer to prostitutes at all.
‘It is the host.’
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
Join our Discord for release updates!
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