Chapter 87
At that moment, the four of them stood on a spacious, shaded terrace, furnished well enough to receive guests, as if the owner had prepared the place to welcome both visitors and family.
They remained silent, digesting the information; Zavi stood beside the pillar on the left, Aaron stood a few meters in front of him, while Felina and Zuhen stood right before the half-open door.
"Just like the two of them said earlier," Aaron broke the silence, "there were six people near the border of Huween and Syrp, but it seems they ran off after being spotted by someone passing by."
"The location isn't far from here," Zuhen added while smoking, a stream of white smoke escaping his lips and lingering in the air for a few seconds before being carried away by the wind.
Zavi spoke immediately, as if unwilling to miss the moment. "Did Mr. Mudelk see them himself? Or did he just hear it through word of mouth?"
Zuhen glanced at Zavi, his left brow slightly raised. He leaned forward a bit as he took a drag from his cigarette, then spoke as smoke slipped from his mouth.
"I only saw a shadow moving from the main road into a narrow alley while I was chatting about trivial things with Felina. As for the rest, I asked someone heading toward Pamlinov Station, and they said those six people weren't part of the group. Or rather, intruders."
'Moreover, those people panicked when they heard the series of explosions and the sound of a house collapsing,' Zuhen added inwardly, already knowing the reason behind the group's panic.
Zuhen paused to take another drag, exhaling the smoke behind him so it wouldn't disturb their breathing. Then he looked back at them and continued recounting what he had seen earlier at dawn while searching for Zavi and Aaron.
"There was a chase between a man with glasses and those six people. I only realized it after passing by that group and hearing a fairly large explosion. After that, I checked it myself and found the man with glasses standing still not far from the scattered ruins filling the road."
"I just found out about that," Aaron muttered, glancing at Zavi. Realizing the previous plan had failed, he quickly added, seeking their opinions.
"What about the plan? Are we still going through with it?"
Hearing that, Felina lifted her shoulders slightly, stepped forward, and spoke in her usual indifferent tone.
"I don't know." She glanced at Zuhen, who was still smoking with a grim expression. "Sir? Put out the cigarette." Her chest rose sharply, as if it might burst, each breath making her feel as though something inside her was struggling to break free.
Without a word, and with a deep exhale, Zuhen extinguished the cigarette by crushing it under his heel, grinding it against the ground with the sole of his leather boot.
Zuhen clicked his tongue.
'Tried so hard to enjoy a smoke, but she's right, I've been bothering the three of them. Damn.'
"I'll hear your opinions, and if they're ridiculous, I won't go along with them."
As the three of them focused on him, Zuhen quickly added with a grim face;
"Let's just destroy this entire place."
Felina's pupils narrowed as her heartbeat spiked upon hearing Zuhen's statement.
"Make it more exposed than before?" she asked seriously.
"Of course," he replied, the corner of his lips lifting into a confident smile.
Then he looked at the other two, gauging their reactions.
"Well? That was part of Aaron's plan before, wasn't it?"
Zavi straightened slightly and spoke in a heavy tone, "I'm not entirely convinced by the information you gave earlier."
He paused, took a deep breath, looked at the three of them, then continued, "Find the man with glasses while carrying out the act of a true criminal."
'That stalker feels different from when I first met him,' Felina thought nervously, realizing how dangerous his current mindset was.
'He's like a madman.' Zuhen gave a brief shake of his head before pulling out a cigarette pack and taking one.
'Following the plan is part of the plan. I'm already exhausted, I don't want to deal with those lackeys again,' Aaron thought, realizing just how fortunate he was to be with the three of them.
Simply put, if that group came looking for him and attacked, then they were essentially asking for trouble with the wrong people, and the three of them certainly wouldn't stay idle—they would help him wipe out the lackeys of the Order of Soas Repena.
Aaron chuckled inwardly at the thought of it happening in the days ahead.
"Same as before?" Aaron asked as he walked past the three of them who had already started moving.
"Yeah," Zuhen replied, slowing his pace. "It'd be a waste not to make use of that explosion." He stepped off the terrace, his sleeve shielding his face from the glaring sunlight.
All four of them suddenly stopped, their gazes lifting upward, watching the drifting clouds and birds in flight, letting the cool air mix with the strange feeling piercing through their bodies as faint, genuine smiles formed on their faces.
At last, they moved, leaving the place behind and continuing the plan they had agreed upon back in Niki, precisely on Suncrise Street, at the clock tower and bell.
Although both Zuhen and Aaron were fugitives, neither of them was particularly skilled at gathering information, relying instead on hired people and those chasing them, though in urgent situations they would search on their own.
But now, he truly considered changing that habit. Trying to gather information himself, even if it meant risking blood and life in the process.
Knowing how careless he had been, always acting on impulse, and realizing he had nearly lost his life twice, Zuhen had never truly cared. He believed Tell, the being that had followed him all this time, would protect him, and also... he had already learned the truth when he first met and spoke with Tell.
A moving puppet, one that would obey its master's orders.
It could be said that Zuhen was now nothing more than an empty shell that would be discarded once he was no longer useful. Nothing more.
On the other hand, he knew that truth, even though Tell had slightly twisted it and offered a mutually beneficial cooperation.
Tell wanted to surpass the other Recipestele. Meanwhile, Zuhen wanted to transform his homeland, Solaria, the city of death, into a city of life once again.
But now, he had put that desire on hold. For years, he had been forced into hiding as a secret organization hunted him down, trying to eliminate him. And now, he was no longer merely running or hiding, he was searching for the person who had made his life feel like death itself.
After walking steadily while observing their surroundings, they finally arrived at a place where the road was filled with the ruins of collapsed houses.
Not long after arriving, Zavi summoned a wolf with a dark purplish-black form, shrouded in a pale grayish-white aura, to search for clues as well as the trail of the man with glasses.
To their shock, as Zavi dug deeper into the rubble, the wolf discovered something that shook them to their core.
The corpse of a man with glasses.
"That's impossible..." Zavi said, his lips trembling, his heart wavering.
The body lying before him was still recognizable, even though his lips were destroyed and the rest of his body had been ravaged, his abdomen torn open with internal organs spilling out as if something had sliced him apart with terrifying precision.
His right arm had dried out, as though the body had been there for a week, and he still clutched his thin-framed glasses tightly, as if unwilling to lose them in his final moments.
Such a tragic end for a kind and helpful man named Karl Vairanz.
His breath caught, his hands trembling violently as he lowered his gaze, his face clouded as he stared at the corpse.
The wolf's form slowly faded, as if it could feel what Zavi was feeling at that moment, even as Zavi slightly shifted his body.
'How... how did you end up like this, Karl Vairanz?' Zavi thought, closing his eyes so his deep sorrow could dissolve into anger.
Then, from behind, a restrained yet calm voice pierced his ears.
"Who is he? Do you recognize him?" Aaron asked as he approached, placing a hand on Zavi's shoulder, who still had his gaze lowered.
"No," Zavi answered shortly, pretending to remain composed.
'Damn, what about Ren? Is he safe with his friends?' Zavi thought, his jaw tightening. Then he took a deep breath, steadied his gaze as he fully moved again and dismissed the wolf standing beside the corpse.
Aaron fell silent as he studied Zavi's expression, so different from before.
'My guess was right. That man was someone close to him.'
Meanwhile, Zuhen and Felina remained silent, realizing that what they had seen earlier with their own eyes had merely been an illusion deeply embedded in their minds, and feeling guilty for having told that lie to the two of them.
'This isn't right. Were those six people the ones who created that illusion? Or more precisely... was it the man with glasses himself?' Zuhen thought as he stared at the corpse in its horrifying state, organs spilling from its torn abdomen.
Zavi had found another trail leading toward the road ahead, buried beneath the rubble, thanks to his sense of smell linked with the wolf, and decided to move immediately before it disappeared completely.
That path led to Huween Street No. 3.
"Found something?" Zuhen asked as he approached.
"Yeah," Zavi answered hesitantly, then glanced at Aaron with a calculating look.
"Watch yourself. The enemy we're looking for seems to have an ability that could trouble both you and the three of us."
'A Receiver's from a Sorcerer, at the level of a second-tier Magician, defeated that easily? But... is he really dead? Or is he pretending like he did to me back then?'
Zavi's thoughts churned as he recalled his fight against Karl, remembering his acting and the role he played so convincingly. Especially that night, when he defeated ten robed figures with ease, leaving Zavi utterly speechless.
"What do you mean?" Aaron responded, not taking it too seriously.
"An ability that counters your Manifestation-type Exorcist," Zuhen explained calmly, trying to interpret what he understood from Zavi's statement.
'Spreader type? And what kind of ability could leave someone like this?' Zuhen briefly wondered if The Coffin was the cause of that man's gruesome death.
But he hadn't fully confirmed that suspicion.
Judging from the characteristics, wearing glasses, Zuhen concluded that the man was indeed a Receivers of a Sorcerer's ability, likely of the Architect type, which made it difficult when facing a Spreader type.
"I see. The situation's changing faster than I expected." Aaron gave a small nod while stroking his chin.
"More precisely, we'll find that person as soon as possible, because he's our target," Felina said with a confident expression, not the least bit concerned about Zavi's single-type ability.
'Ah, she's started already,' Zuhen thought as he lit another cigarette.
With a flick of his hand after taking a drag, he exhaled the smoke slowly.
Not long after, they quickly set off again, returning to a place they had once visited before; Huween.