Orff had shared a total of four links with Everly.
After reading through them, Everly felt that the cases at Mouster College were extrely tricky.
Although these deaths might not necessarily be related to Bianca’s disappearance, they all happened at the sa school. If Everly went there to investigate Bianca’s case, there was a real chance she might run into—or even get dragged into—sothing similar.
Dying of thirst for no apparent reason despite having plenty of food and water, or suddenly collapsing and dying from unknown causes… just hearing about it was unsettling. Everly had no desire to wade into this ss.
Could she solve this mission remotely instead?
She paused to think, then called Rebecca to ask whether her go-to consultant knew of any kind of creature that could make a person’s presence completely disappear.
“Hmm… that’s a pretty abstract description. Do you an soone completely vanishing—body and soul alike?”
“More or less.”
Rebecca thought for a mont before answering, “There are actually quite a few. For example, in Greek mythology, the man-eating giant Polyphemus—those he devours disappear completely, as if they never existed, and even other people’s mories of them vanish as well. There are also certain monsters and evil deities that consu both body and soul, like Mordiggian. And then there are creatures or special items with spatial abilities that can hide a person in another dinsion… Basically, I could list quite a few, so do you have any more details?”
“No, I haven’t had the chance to investigate yet.”
Rebecca sighed. “Then there’s not much I can do to help… Co back when you’ve found more clues.”
So, there was no avoiding a trip to investigate in person after all…
After hanging up and paying the consultation fee, Everly rested her chin on her hand and thought for a mont before calling Wester.
Money was ant to be used at critical monts. Whether it was a creature capable of making soone’s very existence disappear, or these strange, unexplained deaths—both sounded extrely dangerous.
At this point, rather than putting herself in danger, Everly was more inclined to spend money to hire a “proxy” to handle the job. Wester—expensive but extrely reliable—was a solid choice.
However—
“I’m currently in Teswide State handling an important commission. It’ll take about one to two months. If you can wait, you can book in advance. If not, then forget it,” he said coldly over the phone.
Everly couldn’t afford to wait.
The issue with Bianca’s social dia account had started four days ago. Assuming Bianca had “disappeared” four days earlier, it was still possible she was alive even now. But if they delayed any longer, that might no longer be the case.
Moreover, when it cos to missing persons, there’s always talk of a “golden 24 hours.” If you rush to the scene right after soone goes missing, you might still find plenty of clues. But as ti passes, those traces gradually disappear due to weather, human activity, and other factors—making the search exponentially more difficult.
In short, the earlier you act, the higher the chances of finding the person. This holds true whether or not the case involves supernatural elents.
Delaying a day or two might be manageable, but waiting one or two months? Who knows where she’d even have to start looking by then! As far as she knew, hiring Wester required paying half the fee upfront—and that deposit wouldn’t be refunded even if the job failed. If Wester showed up two months later only to tell her the person couldn’t be found, wouldn’t she be the one taking the loss?
After weighing everything, the allure of the Fountain of Youth ultimately won out.
Everly decided to take the risk herself and personally head to Mouster College to investigate.
Before setting off, she asked Orff to hack into Mouster College’s internal network and retrieve the dormitory roster for female students. From it, she found that the girl sharing a room with Bianca was nad Doreen. Then, Everly had Orff break into the academic system as well, copying Doreen’s class schedule and photo.
Considering the high risk of this trip and worried about dragging Misha into danger, Everly chose to go alone this ti. After making preparations, she skipped all her Friday classes and, the day after receiving the witch’s commission, drove by herself to Mouster College.
She arrived a little after 10 a.m. on Friday. According to the schedule, Doreen was still in class.
Everly waited outside the classroom listed on the titable for a while. At 10:30, the bell rang, and students began filing out in small groups. Comparing carefully with the photo in her hand, Everly quickly spotted Doreen in the crowd.
She looked almost exactly the sa as in the picture!
There was a reason Everly chose to start her investigation into Bianca through Doreen.
First, it’s important to note that in Arican universities, students don’t operate in fixed classes. Instead, they attend courses based on their individual schedules. This ans students usually don’t have consistent “class partners.” The people they spend the most ti with are either friends they hang out with outside of class, or their dorm roommates.
Bianca was introverted and didn’t have many close friends, so the most efficient way to learn about her situation was through her roommate, Doreen.
Additionally, according to Orff’s background check, Doreen ca from an average financial background, had student loans, and needed to take part-ti jobs in her spare ti.
Everly, on the other hand, had one advantage—money.
She stopped Doreen in the crowd, led the confused girl to a quiet corner, and pulled out a fake photo edited by the skilled Orff. Pointing at the image of Bianca and Orff, she first let loose a string of Arican-style profanity, then indignantly told Doreen that her boyfriend, Orff, had been “stolen” by that woman in the photo.
“I’ve already looked into it—you and this girl nad Bianca are roommates, right? Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to her. When it cos to cheating, the one at fault is that jerk who can’t keep it in his pants. But I need to find out whether that girl knowingly seduced him despite knowing he had a girlfriend—or if she had no idea… Can you help ?”
Doreen glanced down at the heavily edited photo, then back at Everly. Her expression went from confusion to shock, and from shock to complete disbelief—so vivid it could’ve been recorded and used as a model performance for an acting class.
“Um… you… maybe you should just ask Bianca directly. There are so things that aren’t really convenient for to say…”
“As long as you answer my questions, all of this can be yours.” Everly rubbed her fingers together and produced a thick stack of dollar bills from her palm.
Doreen’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. But she was clearly a person with so moral standards, still trying to refuse: “Talking about soone else’s private matters behind their back isn’t really right…”
Everly flicked her fingers again, adding a few more bills to the stack.
“Well… I an…” Doreen’s gaze locked onto the money, burning with intensity and affection. Maybe it was Everly’s imagination, but she could swear she saw a glimr of drool at the corner of the girl’s mouth.
As it turns out, in many cases, a person’s moral bottom line can be… adjusted, depending on the price.
When Everly raised the offer a third ti, Doreen gulped, her eyes practically turning into dollar signs, and eagerly followed Everly into the roadside Cherokee.
Unexpectedly, just as Orff had said, Bianca hadn’t actually gone missing.
“She didn’t have class this morning. When I left the dorm earlier, she was still lying in bed on her phone—not even up yet,” Doreen said.
But that was clearly a problem.
Natalie was a powerful witch—there was no reason she wouldn’t be able to sense an ordinary person. Since Natalie had said yesterday that Bianca’s presence had disappeared, then Bianca must either have been consud or taken into another world. In any case, she could no longer exist in this one.
If that was true, then the current “Bianca” had to be an impostor.
This could also be inferred from the drastic change in tone of Bianca’s Chatter posts starting five days ago.
“So, has Bianca been acting strange in any way lately? You know, people say love can change a person—I’m trying to figure out roughly when she and my boyfriend got involved,” Everly asked.
Doreen thought for a mont before replying:
“Yeah, actually there is. In the past few days, Bianca hasn’t been as diligent as before. She used to go to the library after class all the ti—reading, writing papers—but these days she just goes straight back to the dorm to play on her phone, or goes out to binge-eat sowhere. Sotis, because of the cold, she even skips classes entirely. It’s just… just—”
“Just like she’s beco a completely different person, right?”
Doreen nodded frantically. “Yes, exactly! It’s like she’s a totally different person! Especially last night—I ran into her in the public bathroom. She was standing in the shower area, staring at the other girls nonstop. Her gaze was so sticky it felt like it could stretch. I honestly thought she’d suddenly changed her sexuality or sothing. It scared to death.”
“Anything else unusual?”
“Well… um… Bianca kind of slls now. Does that count?” Doreen frowned as she tried to recall.
“Slls?”
“Yeah. Not body odor like sweat—it’s sothing else. A kind of nauseating sll I can’t really describe. It’s just… really unpleasant. The weird thing is, I’ve never slled that on her before. You know, we’ve shared a room since freshman year, and even in the hottest sumr, she only had a bit of sweat sll, and it went away after a shower. But yesterday, when she ca out of the bathroom and was getting dressed, she was standing right next to . Every ti she moved her hand, I caught this faint foul sll.”
“I see… can you rember when these changes started?”
Doreen thought carefully. “Maybe three days ago? Or four? Sothing like that. I can’t say exactly. Bianca’s in the drama club, right? Their club had an accident recently—a girl died. They’ve been busy with the morial service for the past few days, so Bianca was coming and going a lot. I didn’t really see her much during that ti.”
Sensing a key detail, Everly’s expression shifted.
“Bianca is in the drama club?”
Orff’s earlier report only said Bianca had been b*llied by club mbers, but didn’t specify which club. She hadn’t expected Bianca to actually be part of the drama club itself.
Doreen nodded. “Yeah, she is. But she only does odd jobs in the club—she’s never perford on stage. Actually… I suspect soone in the club has been b*llying and excluding her behind her back. I’ve seen her co back to the dorm crying after club activities a few tis. Every ti I asked, she denied it, saying that once she reaches sophomore year and writes her own script, she’ll qualify to compete internally. I don’t even know if that’s true or not.”
So Bianca and her b*llies were in the sa drama club, and all this ti she had stayed in the club, enduring the b*llying silently for her so-called stage dream…
Coincidentally, on February 16, a girl in the drama club had died of organ failure caused by dehydration while playing Nora in A Doll’s House. Could there be so connection between these events?
Just as Everly tried to piece everything together and organize her thoughts, Doreen’s phone suddenly buzzed twice.
Like most modern people, Doreen was sowhat dependent on her phone. She glanced down casually—but the mont she saw the ssage, her eyes widened and she froze completely.
“This… this can’t be real…” Everly heard her murmur.
“What is it? What happened?”
Doreen clutched her phone, her gaze filled with panic and fear as she looked at Everly. Her lips trembled, stamring for a long ti before she finally forced out a sentence:
“Bi-Bianca… she… she’s dead!”
“!!”
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