Earth's SSS Pornstar to SSS Combat God in Another World-Chapter 24: Hearing Gossip and Inspecting Bodies

Alaric did not want to ruin any plans this fire mage might already be holding together with wire and prayer. He looked around and spotted a barn behind the house.

"Can we at least rent your barn? We just need a place to rest."

Mary Cathryn Lacrosse considered him. Her intuition kept tugging at her that these were the ones who could help, yet they acted secretive. Even traveling with humanoid beasts. That suggested a deeper current she could not see.

She sighed. She could only do so much. If she collided with whatever plan the knights were running, she might even spark a massacre by accident. So she agreed.

Alaric handed her a gold coin for five days.

At the barn, Joji and the others found it clean, dry, and orderly. It was not a bad place to hide in at all.

"I am renting my barn at a loss," Mary said, shaking her head, voice loud enough for anyone outside to hear. A few passersby scoffed at the cheapskate widow turning even her barn into an inn, but it was not the kind of thing that earned confrontation. Just a little contempt, then forgetfulness.

"My cows return two weeks from now after the harvest," Mary added. "I hope you understand how important my cows are."

Joji and his cohort nodded.

A mana lamp shone once the doors were shut, casting steady light over hay and beams. Joji was about to speak, but Kobto raised a hand.

"Let me first," the druid said.

His ears were too sharp to relax. He suspected people might snoop around. He lifted his flute and played a soft tune. Chickens in a nearby pen began to cluck and stir, noise filling the gaps, making it harder for outsiders to listen cleanly.

Joji appreciated the thoroughness.

"Here is the plan," Joji said. "Alaric, Kobto, Lilina, and Walter stay here. Kobluk and I will go to the cemetery."

"I can also call rats," Kobto said. "But it will take some time."

"I will have me and Lilina buy hot meals," Alaric offered.

Joji shook his head and pointed at Kobto and Walter. "Don’t leave them behind. You saw the claw marks. They can fight back, but they are easy targets, and we cannot afford injuries now."

He looked at Kobto again. "You said you can call rats. Call some right now and make sure they secure the barn."

"Great thinking," Alaric said, giving Joji a thumbs up.

Joji nodded once to seal it. "We will go first. Don’t wait for us. Come on, Kobluk."

They stepped out of the barn and headed away from the cemetery on purpose. Kobluk, being a hunter, frowned at the choice at first. Then he understood. Under his hood, his ears perked.

"There isn’t any tail yet," Kobluk murmured. "We haven’t made any great moves."

"Just listen and be vigilant," Joji said. "But we also need to enjoy ourselves."

They drifted toward the small stalls close to the river. Joji was not stingy. He bought meat sausages and mutton ribs. Spices were not common here. Nobles and royalty hoarded them. Still, the meat smelled good enough to make the stomach honest.

Kobluk kept smoking under his hood like he could dull hunger with smoke.

"Don’t worry," Joji said, patting the big dog’s shoulder. "We are eating good today."

With handfuls of meat, they entered a pub. They bought beer and ate with gusto.

"I wish I had read about ice magic," Joji murmured, wiping grease from his fingers. "This beer could have tasted better."

Kobluk ate slowly, but each bite was enormous. He stripped half a lamb’s leg in a minute, jaws working like shears.

Joji channeled aura toward his ears, sharpening his hearing just a little, and listened to the talk around the pub.

"Aye. There have been killings. I even need to have guards rotate while I sleep. If there isn’t gold to be earned, why would I stay here?" one well dressed man said.

"Lower your voice, Joel," a sneaky merchant murmured. "What if we wait? Maybe grain prices will plummet further because of the scare."

"Oi. You two. Are you going to buy ale or keep whispering? If not, clear out the bar," the barkeeper said with a snort.

"That monster’s no big deal, really," a drunkard slurred. "I walk these streets at night. I’m more afraid of the guards, really."

So far, not many people in the pub sounded truly concerned. A few dozen missing was ugly, sure, but ugly was normal in this age.

The town had a fire mage. They had a few hundred guards. Most locals spoke like it was only a matter of time before the monster was caught and nailed to a gate for children to throw stones at. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Joji ate, listened, and filed the voices away.

When their bellies were full, he and Kobluk did not return to the barn.

They looped around instead and made for the cemetery as the light began to thin.

The graveyard sat quiet behind a low fence. Tombs of every size crowded the ground, from small stones for children to heavy slabs meant to outlast names.

Freshly dug pits stood out like wounds, dirt piled raw beside them.

As Joji and Kobluk approached, a man with a shovel stepped from behind a marker, sudden as a rat in a pantry.

"Oi. Oi. What are you up to? Why are you looking at the dead? Do you want to be cursed?"

Joji squinted at him. Too aggressive. Too quick to chase strangers off.

"We are curious," Joji said with highhandedness.

"What does it have to do with you? Is it so bad to know? What if the monster jumps us? Do you dare offend our boss Joel?"

The name landed like a weight. The gravedigger’s posture shifted. He knew the kind of man who bought grain by the cart and sent it on to Everhart City.

He stepped aside, pretending it was his idea to be polite, though his eyes kept carving their faces into memory.

Joji dropped into the nearest fresh pit and pulled back the linen.

The stink rose at once, sweet and wrong. He forced his breathing steady.

He had seen enough bodies in another life to keep his hands calm when his stomach wanted to revolt.

Claw marks scored the torso. The skin was torn and the ribs showed through, pale under the afternoon sun.

At a glance, it screamed beast. At a second glance, it did not add up.

Joji traced the edges with his eyes. The cuts had bitten skin and left bone mostly intact.

If a creature used claws as its main weapon, and if it had any aura behind the swing, it would not stop at meat.

It would crack ribs. It would carve. This looked like someone wanted the appearance of clawing without the commitment of it.

Then he looked at the neck.

The head was gone, and the cut was too clean. Not a ragged tear. Not a messy bite. Clean enough to make his teeth press together.

’That was done by something that knows how to take it off,’ he thought.

Joji played the scene in his mind. A staged struggle. A controlled finish. If the monster was trained, then a hand held its leash.

If a hand held its leash, then this was not one hungry beast. It was a group. A group with purpose. A group that did not mind making a town afraid.

"What are their motives though?" he murmured.

Joji climbed out of the pit and dusted his hands on his coat.

"Let me see the other carcasses," he said, and flicked a gold coin toward the gravedigger. "We just tryna figure out what we’re up against. This is a job, old man, we ain’t here to disrespect you."

The old man’s eyes caught the coin midair. Greed lit him up and made him harmless. He waved them on like he was doing them a favor.

Joji checked more bodies.

Different wounds. Same stories. Yet a pattern kept showing itself in the bruising. Teeth marks that did not tear clean through flesh.

The skin was mangled, pressed and chewed like something gnawing on hard steak, worrying the meat instead of ripping it.

Not the bite of a wild predator built to kill fast. Something else. Something wrong.

When they were done, Joji and Kobluk left the cemetery without another word.

Behind them, the gravedigger stared at the gold coin in his palm, and the greed in his face drained away as if it had never been there, replaced by a quiet pondering.

Joji did not walk straight back to the barn. He and Kobluk took the long way around again, keeping to the edges, listening to the town breathe.

"What do you think?" Joji asked Kobluk as they walked.

"I don’t think it was natural," Kobluk replied.

"You mean?"

"Beasts are shaped by nature fairly," Kobluk said. "If something has claws like that, it uses them right. It shreds flesh into mince, or it cracks hard plants like coconuts, bamboo, tree trunks, to dig for worms and rot meat."

He kept moving, pipe smoke leaking under his hood.

"There are apex predators with claws and teeth, yes. But if it was already that strong, it would not keep coming into a human settlement this large. It would have awareness. Humans are social. They group up. They corner. A real beast learns that fast or it dies."

Joji nodded.

"I understand. I’m not an animal person, but I am a doctor. I also noticed the cuts were not deep. Even without expertise, I know predators go for decisive strikes."

"Correct," Kobluk said. "Predators follow that logic. So my thought is this. It might be artificial."

"Chimera?" Joji asked.

Kobluk did not reply. He stayed silent, because the clues were still uncertain.