The Elusive Sorcerer

Chapter 125

Hana fell silent for a moment before finally responding in a loud voice, driven by her deep obsession.

"I don't want to!" She shot Zavi a sharp glare, as if firmly rejecting the idea that this moment together had to end now.

"I know who you really are. You're a famous assassin hunted by the highest authorities, and even great detectives are still tracking you down to this very second. But I don't care!"

The tension in the room slowly melted away, replaced by her unwavering resolve. Now, Hana and Mine no longer felt stiff when facing the two underworld brothers; the legendary assassins whose names often filled newspapers, yet whose faces remained mysteries on wanted posters.

Zavi stared at her deeply as he thought this fit perfectly with his plan.

'Hope this works,' he thought while glancing at Aaron before shifting his gaze back to Hana.

He straightened his arm and said with a sigh, "After thinking it over, bringing a woman along for vile work like this could ruin my image as a famous assassin. But I'll take back my previous statement if you're willing to answer my question..."

Hana froze, speechless after realizing the assassin Lamena was indeed as cunning as the rumors claimed. Yet instead of trembling or looking like she was about to cry, her obsession pushed her to accept the request.

"Fine then, ask whatever you want to ask."

Mine, standing behind her, wanted to say something and stop Hana from continuing all this.

However, her lips remained tightly sealed, every word she wanted to say feeling as though it had been burned away by her own hesitation.

'Damn it, am I really just going to stand here and watch them?' Mine bit her lip in frustration.

Meanwhile, Aaron watched curiously, waiting to see what kind of trick Zavi would pull next. His eyes remained fixed on Zavi, who seemed to be arranging the words he was about to say.

For quite a while, silence once again filled the room. The two lanterns Aaron held, along with the lantern deliberately placed in the corner of the empty house, seemed to merge with the tension clouding their minds.

On the other hand, Zavi himself did not know where to begin. He had far too many questions, and he never had the chance to ask them back then because of how indifferent the two women had been toward him.

'You two are seriously troublesome bastards.' His irritated complaint sparked a crazy idea in his mind.

Finally, after thinking carefully, the earlier tension faded as Zavi cleared his throat.

"Intersection Society. You both know that organization's name, right?" he asked with an eager look of curiosity.

"Yes," Mine suddenly answered, cutting Hana off before she could reply.

Hana glanced at her and clicked her tongue in annoyance. But her irritation faded when Zavi continued speaking.

"The 'Intersection Society,' one of the masterminds behind Moran's mass grave and the reason the city died after the comet strike back then. I, I mean, Sirius, managed to kill someone known as a 'Receivers,' who had strange and troublesome abilities?"

Their pupils widened and chills instantly ran down their spines, shocked by Zavi's statement, which seemed to go far beyond their own knowledge about Receivers.

'Him? He's extremely dangerous, I'm sure he's extremely dangerous!' they thought almost simultaneously, as if sharing the same mind.

"I still can't believe Sirius killed a man capable of summoning and controlling those bizarre creatures of his." Zavi smiled faintly, luring them deeper into his game.

"That man was very, very dangerous. If not for Sirius, then I definitely would've been torn apart by those horrifying creatures."

Aaron felt as though needles were stabbing inside his head, realizing Zavi's deception sounded like it was indirectly mocking him. He frowned as he sank into his thoughts.

'I was the one who almost died to those creatures, damn it,' Aaron grumbled inwardly before returning his attention to Zavi's plan.

Zavi smiled faintly as he continued:

"And... after that, we ran into the two of you before Sirius finished off that horrifying winged creature."

"That's all?" Mine said rather apathetically, aware that he was testing them.

"Yeah, that's all," Zavi answered with a friendly smile.

'Now then, say what you want to say.' Zavi waited patiently while observing the expressions on their faces as they tried to understand the meaning behind his seemingly trivial statement.

Realizing waiting for them to speak might ruin his chance to obtain the information he had been searching for all this time, Zavi quickly added in a slightly lowered voice:

"Tell me what you know about that man."

"You mean Canel?" Mine tried to confirm it while stepping back one pace, shocked that he had managed to kill one of The Coffin's Receivers so easily.

She did not know what Zavi was truly planning and did not want to fall into his game, yet her obsession made her want to stay beside him longer.

The corner of her lips curled upward, nearly forming a bitter smile as Mine finally said with certainty, "Hmmh, I knew it. You're a famous assassin standing above all other famous assassins. I already suspected the two of you weren't ordinary people after you knew so much about Receivers and Hollow when you ordered us to find my Recipestele, Munien."

'Well, that woman caught on pretty fast. Unlike her friend, who seems way too obsessed and nervous whenever she talks to the fake assassin Lamena.'

Zavi could not stop imagining the real assassin Lamena coming to reclaim his identity because he had used the name without permission.

At least for now.

He had absolutely no idea that the strange name he used as a disguise when he accidentally met Dave at the crossroads in Vica, and during his collaboration with Moreira in a corner of Vica, actually belonged to a notorious assassin wanted throughout Vinohoshi and Ninesorals.

But he had already prepared himself for the risks of his actions, consumed by his desire for revenge against the devils hiding in the shadows.

"The search for the man and woman who almost killed me, are they your companions?" Hana asked after silently observing the conversation for too long.

Meanwhile, Aaron acted like a mosquito, unwilling to get involved in the troublesome matters Zavi kept dragging himself into.

Without hesitation, Zavi answered, "Of course they are. I'm not stupid enough to search for someone useless to this plan."

"So that statement means you two want to use us?" Mine said angrily.

"And... the two of you used us too when you made Sirius fight that horrifying creature alone," Zavi shot back with a sharp, intimidating stare.

Knowing that was true, the two women froze for several seconds, their hearts pounding wildly as they witnessed Zavi's cool side.

Even though Aaron's expression remained flat while watching this, inwardly he smiled in admiration at how calmly Zavi had countered Mine's accusation, even leaving the two women instantly speechless and unable to respond.

'You're truly a strange and cunning man, Actitus,' Aaron thought while nodding as he saw the corner of Zavi's lips rise beneath the shadow of his bamboo hat.

Finally, after completely drawing the two women into his control and having no intention of throwing them away, Zavi let out a deep sigh as if he wanted to speak without hurting their feelings.

"So, I'm not using the two of you and throwing you away after testing you to find our companions and your Recipestele as well."

Zavi paused briefly and glanced at Aaron, who wore a faint smile while lifting his lantern as though urging him to continue.

Realizing the two women still had not responded, Zavi quickly added:

"You can join us and help search for the others. That would really help us carry out this mission."

"Is that true?" Hana's previously gloomy face lit up again after realizing the difficult search earlier had merely been a test to see whether she could be accepted by them.

"Thank you for kindly allowing us to join this group," Mine said seriously while bowing her head in gratitude.

"No need to be so stiff. Talking like before would help us more, right?" Zavi glanced at Aaron, wearing a satisfied smile because his plan had succeeded.

And because he no longer wanted to hold back his curiosity, Zavi finally revealed the true reason he had captured Mine and Hana and brought them to this secluded place in the village.

"You two," Zavi said seriously. "Tell me what you know about the man named Canel, the one our friend fought earlier."

Without hesitation, having truly betrayed the group sent by the 'Intersection Society,' Mine immediately answered in a calculating tone.

"He can dominate, or even control, several demonic horses, horrifying creatures that come from hell."

'Just like what Zuhen talked about back then.' Zavi was shocked, realizing Prisoners truly existed on a terrifying level.

"And he, Canel, often carried out strange actions intended to perfect his second stage...."

'Motivation?' Zavi became certain Canel was trying to perfect Motivation before advancing to the third stage, Defendant.

Mine had gathered all this information because of her bizarre obsession, constantly observing Canel's actions without his knowledge, becoming the most dangerous stalker Zavi had never even realized existed.

Then Mine continued after recalling it clearly. "If I'm not mistaken, Motivation, the second stage of a Prisoner. It's part of the Suppression type classification. Canel was talking about some kind of advancement ritual involving the search for a certain object and something else I couldn't hear."

'An object? Something else? What the hell is that?' Zavi grew curious over Mine's incomplete explanation.

Meanwhile, Aaron, who already knew the process of advancing stages through the information Aarok Kwok had given him when he first received the Exorcist ability, chose to stay silent. He truly did not want others to experience the same suffering he endured when a Receiver advanced from stage one to stage two.

"What object and what thing?" Zavi tried to confirm.

Mine shook her head and answered, "Sorry, about that. It felt like I was in another world while eavesdropping on Canel's conversation with someone whose face I still don't know even now."

Aaron was not surprised at all by that statement and suspected the person Mine referred to was someone working for the Order.

'It has to be that incredibly troublesome djinn user,' Aaron thought. Although he had never fought a Hollow using a djinn and had only frequently encountered Recipesteles, he knew about it from the information Aaron Kwok had once given him.

The contents of the message were;

Never exorcise a Hollow that possesses a contracted djinn creature before separating it from its master.

The message had never been completed, leaving Aaron determined to discover the rest himself while engraving those words deeply into his mind.

Not wanting all his efforts to end in vain, Zavi tried to recall the meaning behind the object and the something Mine had mentioned earlier.

As he returned to the moment he performed the ritual, he suddenly realized several truths he had once dismissed as trivial actually held enormous significance.

Chains, a pocket watch, and seawater at night.

The moment those facts struck his mind, he realized that his pocket watch possessed, or rather had become, the vessel storing his very own life.