The Elusive Sorcerer

Chapter 123

Just by observing their surroundings, the two hired men seemed to realize that the people who hired them were not ordinary individuals, because the man named Aaron was looking for people like them due to their well-built physiques, endurance, and more importantly, their slightly muscular arms.

However, without realizing it or even knowing at all, the two of them were Receivers and a Hollow, who were currently useless because their contracted creatures, Recipestele, had vanished without a trace.

The two of them assumed that they were "killers," people who murdered to satisfy their desires.

It was only a hypothesis, nothing more. But that hypothesis grew stronger when they felt a familiar sensation upon seeing Zavi's face, thinking they had seen him several months ago.

Nowel did not want his curiosity to interfere with his work because finding jobs in a place like Minehold was extremely difficult due to the complicated requirements. Meanwhile, he chose to suppress it, although Yaka paid no attention to what was on his mind as he was reluctant to speak to him.

The two walked at the very front like guides despite not knowing the true destination, leaving the four people behind them while remaining alert in case they did something unwanted. Staying silent and professional despite having absolutely no idea what the job actually was.

While passing through narrow, dark alleys rarely crossed by others for a long time, especially this late at night, the six of them were incredibly fortunate.

Continuing to walk nonstop, until they passed through the deserted streets and dark alleys of Racon, they finally left Racon and arrived at a place that felt familiar when the two hired men first saw it directly.

On a pathway covered with brown leaves hidden beneath thin snow, acacia and mahogany trees grew along the sides of the road, creating an elegant impression while the leaves rustled as though welcoming their arrival.

The two hired men did not understand why Aaron, as the one who hired them, had brought them to this place.

Because his curiosity had reached its peak and he wanted to make sure what the actual job was, Nowel immediately turned around. Then he walked steadily toward Aaron, who was slowly walking while chatting about something with Zavi behind him.

"Sorry for interrupting," Nowel said with a curious gaze. "You, are you trying to mess with us by bringing us here? And..."

"Shhh...." Aaron made a gesture, placing his index finger in front of his tightly shut lips, wearing an expression as though he wanted to show them something astonishing.

Zavi was stunned, not knowing what to say when he realized the true purpose of coming here.

Then he touched Aaron's shoulder and gestured for him to quickly look at what was ahead.

"Has it started already?" Aaron muttered while rubbing his chin, then looking Nowel up and down once again with a faint smile.

Seeing this, Nowel immediately became wary. He stepped back, glanced at Yaka standing behind him, and prepared to pull a knife from his belt, which also held a revolver and bullet casings behind his black coat.

Aaron quickly raised both hands, trying to explain this misunderstanding because he had absolutely no malicious intentions or thoughts of killing.

"Relax," Aaron said while looking away. "Even your friend doesn't mean it the way you do."

Yaka, upon hearing this, instantly reacted. Although his face remained calm, his hand froze on the pistol hidden beneath his black jacket inside its leather holster.

He did not know, he did not understand what Aaron was thinking by bringing him to this place and not even giving further explanation despite promising a large payment.

"I don't intend to do anything, and I think you'll understand once you walk a few steps to the left from where you're standing now."

He gestured to Yaka, telling him to carry out the order and head toward a pile of rocks nearly covered in snow.

'Why me? Is it because Nowel isn't close to the thing that man pointed at?' Yaka rubbed his temple while thinking.

Although the caution in his mind had not faded, he stared deeply at the four people, unsure whether he should obey or resist the order.

After thinking carefully, he finally stretched out his hand, immediately turning around as he walked uncertainly toward the left side until he stepped off the stone pathway.

He knew this small forest connected directly to Xinahiru Forest, a forest famous for the cruelty of terrifying creatures possessing destructive magic abilities, and people called those transmutation monsters; Chalog.

Leaving the stone path was the same as willingly offering his life to those monsters by entering their territory.

Even though the small forest north of Racon was not part of the dense forest area, it was still enough to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand up because he realized he was only an ordinary human and weapons were utterly useless against such creatures.

That was what Yaka felt when he wanted to refuse Aaron's instructions, but because it was already too late, he chose to continue forward and earn payment for this strange job.

Hana and Mine, who stood behind Aaron, sank into their thoughts because they did not want to interfere in their affairs unless Zavi himself ordered them to.

Meanwhile Nowel stood silently with held breath as he repeatedly glanced right and left to make sure whether this was a trap or whether searching for something strange truly was the job itself.

He did not know, and wanted to wait to see what would happen next.

Several seconds later, Yaka arrived and stood several meters away from the pile of rocks nearly covered by snow, over a meter high, and he did not know what to do next.

"Don't joke around..." he glanced toward Aaron standing in the same place. "You want to toy with the two of us?" he asked loudly, even though his chest pounded hard as the cold night air slowly blew against the back of his neck.

Not wanting to hide this for too long and afraid they would grow even more curious, Aaron immediately stepped forward and spoke in a restrained tone, "Just push or destroy those rocks and you'll find something underneath."

"Something?" Yaka and Nowel repeated almost simultaneously as they once again became curious about what lay beneath the snow-covered pile of rocks.

Yaka swallowed hard, then immediately rolled up the sleeves of his coat, trying to push the pile of rocks.

The moment the rocks fell, the snow that had covered them disappeared, followed by the sound of other stones falling in different directions.

Yaka let out a breath from the slight difficulty, wiping his sweat as he turned around and realized Aaron was already standing behind him while observing the single remaining rock at the very bottom still in its place.

'Could it still be there? I'm not too sure, and whether the money is still intact after I buried it early last year.'

Aaron was not entirely sure whether the paper money had been eaten by termites or remained intact after he buried it without any covering inside a chest the size of a watermelon.

He quickly approached, then tossed the rock aside after seeing the uneven and damp marks beneath it.

Aaron smiled as he glanced beside him and handed this task over to Yaka, who stood there with furrowed brows and twitching lips.

'Damn, so it really is treasure? I thought he was messing with me earlier. Overthinking really made me suspicious of someone who already gave me advance payment.'

After muttering to himself, he glanced backward toward Nowel, signaling with his eyes for him to quickly come closer.

Realizing there was no danger, Nowel immediately walked steadily toward him without hesitation. Zavi, wanting to see it with his own eyes, immediately headed to the place where Aaron had hidden the money from his hard work together with hired people, including what he earned while still in a group with Celina, the woman who considered him a "Traitor."

Because both Hana and Mine had not been informed at all about coming to this place, the two finally decided to follow Zavi, who had begun stepping on the snow-covered wet dry leaves on the ground, creating strange sounds beneath his shoes.

Upon arriving at the scattered rocks, Yaka and Nowel immediately tidied themselves and slung their black coats over their right shoulders, then dug into the wet soil according to Aaron's earlier instructions, which could be understood simply by looking because of the damp marks left beneath the rocks earlier.

The two of them spent a very long time digging with nothing but rocks. Even though the soil was wet from melting snow, it still did not change the fact that they had to keep removing water from the hole they were digging.

While digging and throwing away the muddy water, they complained inwardly that the person paying them was extremely strange and had not even told them to bring a shovel or another tool that would have made this excavation easier.

At first they were curious and suspicious of the person who gave them the advance payment. However, through their own slyness, they finally realized one thing: the conversation and actions at the bar earlier had all been an act to conceal themselves. They understood that the person who paid them in advance had hidden motives in this treasure hunt.

Several dozen minutes passed. Now, the pit they had dug nonstop had nearly reached a depth of two meters. Their bodies were almost swallowed by their own excavation, and Yaka, who was inside, tried feeling around whether there was something hard directly beneath where his feet pressed into the wet soil.

He did not fully understand why the water that had previously flowed so heavily and endlessly while he and Nowel kept throwing it onto the road was now no longer flowing as strongly as before. Even though some water still seeped from below, it caused Nowel's face to tighten as he continued digging through the flooded wet soil little by little.

Knock...

Just as he was thinking that, his fingernail struck a surface that was not too rough, yet made a sound he could clearly hear.

He immediately raised his left hand upward, a signal that he had found the object they were searching for.

The excavation hole was nearly two meters deep and one meter wide.

Nowel, whose body and clothes were covered in mud, immediately turned around searching for something. Then, after finding what he wanted; another sharp rock, he immediately tossed it downward, not even remotely thinking about killing his own friend.

"Yaka, just tell me if you can't lift it," Nowel shouted loudly while placing his palms together in front of his mouth as though not wanting anyone besides them to hear.

The moment Yaka dug harder than before, he finally found a glimmer of success after all his effort when the rounded handle of the box emerged from the soil.

Aaron, seeing that, still restrained the water with his ability so it would not overflow everywhere, wearing a satisfied smile as he looked at all of them.

From inside the pit, Yaka immediately lifted the soaked box with difficulty while covering his mouth and holding his breath as brown water splashed onto his face.

Seeing that from above, Nowel felt a little sorry for him and immediately pulled the box upward so the water would stop hitting his friend's face.

After Yaka successfully climbed out, his body and clothes were smeared with mud. Yet there was no unpleasant smell at all because the condition of the soil in this place was very good.

After all of them fixed their gaze on what appeared to be treasure filled with gold, money, or jewelry.

Now Yaka's task was finished. Then it was replaced by Nowel as he approached the chest with his ragged appearance and pulled a knife from his leather belt.

He raised the knife high and channeled his strength into it so he could pierce the physical wood of the chest, which already seemed fragile.

The effort succeeded. Revealing piles of crumpled and damp money, including several expensive pieces of jewelry that nobody knew where Aaron had gotten from.

Zavi, seeing the contents of the box, knew perfectly well that Aaron had committed illegal acts while gathering his wealth into chests buried underground.

He then glanced toward Aaron with furrowed brows and an expression of disbelief.

Aaron immediately understood the meaning behind that gaze. He could not say anything while watching Yaka's delighted face as he admired the elegance of the jewelry in his hands, as though all his difficult digging had finally been rewarded.

Aaron let out a short sigh and spoke with an open heart.

"Just take it if you want."

Nowel, who stood there busy watching Yaka happily admire the jewelry, was stunned because he had thought Aaron's earlier words were only a joke.

However...

"Are you sure you want to give me jewelry this expensive?" Yaka asked for confirmation, still holding the jewelry.

Aaron sighed and answered, "Yeah, you could call it payment for hiring you to dig that up."

After quickly observing the surroundings, he immediately added in a voice as though he were hiding something inside his heart;

"Your name is Nowel, right? Just take some if you want, but no more than three, alright?"

Even though this could be called stolen goods, or perhaps treasure because he had just remembered that he buried this wealth during the time he joined an underground group; the same group as Celina, only then did he begin to feel guilty and think about his current condition.

'Eh, should I apologize to her?'

Even though the serial killings among members of the same squad, except for Celina who survived; he had absolutely no intention of killing them because he realized those people had been possessed by creatures like demons and jinn that made his Exorscist ability back then seem utterly powerless.

And in the end, he was forced to kill all of them, even doing something disgusting by eating parts of the corpses raw to trigger the Extraction inside his body so it would not take control of him or even create a split consciousness.

Hearing that, with relieved hearts, Nowel answered while wearing a faint smile and feeling guilty for suspecting him earlier.

"Alright, thank you for your kindness."

Being cautious of one another, especially toward strangers, was highly encouraged among people like them or even ordinary people.

And in the end, he and Yaka immediately took the glittering jewelry despite it having been buried for a very long time and quickly said their farewells because they had been given work that was more than worthwhile.

Aaron remained somewhat apathetic as he watched the two men leave together with his three companions in a place as lonely and silent as this small forest.

Then he immediately raised his hand upward, causing the wooden chest to sink into the shadows, into the shadow world created through the veil of shadows, leaving only several items aboveground.

Knowing the job was finished, and without saying anything further especially because they had already been informed since the two hired men left. The four of them immediately departed from this place, not returning to Minehold, and instead moved toward the city of Semilir for further searching.

....

Morning passed into what was around noon. At the corner of Ladise, specifically in Seal White, a woman wearing a simple beige shirt beneath her gray jacket, accompanied by a dark blue spirit, walked with confused steps as she blended into the flow of pedestrians.

That woman was Aurora Chevalya.

Thursday. January 16th.

She looked like a madwoman as she kept walking endlessly, with no clear clues whatsoever, clinging only to the hope that the two people she had been searching for all this time were still alive.

But without realizing it, for the past several hours up until this very moment, she had been followed by two people; one woman and one man wearing glasses, both worried about her physical and mental condition.

Those two were none other than Zeta Audervin and Arvrenda Guelhram.

The two of them understood what it meant to lose someone deeply precious, especially since Aurora's childhood and school years had been completely different from those of people her age. Her face had never once reflected life, nor any understanding of interaction with her classmates. Even though neither of them had ever lost someone close to them, they knew such a thing could slowly damage Aurora's mind and body.

Especially after the supernatural incident that had happened to her, nearly dying from a horrifying event, only to survive with unstable emotions and thoughts in return, leaving her trapped on the razor's edge between madness and death.

Frequent bursts of anger, occasional harsh words toward people she knew, cold indifference, and in the worst moments, talking to herself; these were all conditions that Aurora Chevalya had been experiencing lately.

"Are you sure we're going to keep following her while she wanders around like that?" Zeta asked in confusion, unable to understand what was going through Arvrenda's mind.

Even though she knew he was a doctor, one of the finest medical graduates from Guena University in Sanerva, witnessing the supernatural circumstances surrounding Aurora made the medical degree he held feel like nothing more than decoration.

"Zeta, I think that woman is about to collapse," Arvrenda said after carefully observing Aurora's movements while avoiding bumping into other pedestrians.

"So that's how it is, huh," Zeta replied with a nod. "Should we just stop this whole strange act already?"

'Yeah, I don't think that's such a bad idea,' Arvrenda thought, and the very thing he didn't want to happen occurred the moment he heard a woman's shrill scream.

In a hurry, the two of them immediately rushed toward the source of the scream, pushing past people walking ahead of them until they saw a circle of bystanders surrounding a pale-faced woman lying weakly on the stone pavement, while another woman in a formal green dress glared sharply, baring her teeth in irritation.

"Excuse me, excuse me. Let me through, I think that woman needs help," Arvrenda said while forcing his way through the crowd, so lost in conversation and thought earlier that he had forgotten he was supposed to be watching Aurora.

Murmurs spread among the people witnessing the scene, including passing pedestrians who joined in after noticing the crowd gathering in the middle of the busy street.

"Who is he?" a mustached man carrying a cane and dressed formally asked.

"Is he her boyfriend?"

"I think he might be some expert who just happened to see this?"

Meanwhile, another man wearing a hat quickly extended his hand and helped the woman Aurora had bumped into earlier back onto her feet.

And within that crowd, there was one thing none of them could understand. Even a doctor would never know what had truly happened to a woman whose pale face had nearly turned blue after suddenly collapsing in the middle of a crowded street.