The Elusive Sorcerer

Chapter 129

Eighteen-year-old young man who was still attending school to pursue knowledge for his future life, filled with excitement because graduation day was only a few months away.

However, that graduation never came, because on February 21st, 2023, the event that would change the unfortunate young man's life was about to happen.

Ring.... Ring... Ring...

At that time, the afternoon was nearing evening, and the school bell rang loudly. The students immediately rose from their seats, the lazy expressions from some of them, including the troublemakers, turning spirited again as they grabbed their bags and stepped forward first to greet their teacher before leaving the classroom, heading toward the parking area to find their bicycles and motorcycles.

That day was Saturday, the day when regular classes would end as the students discussed making a surprise for their teacher. Coincidentally, because his close friend was absent that day, Liam Tirarty walked home on foot even though the distance to his house was miles away.

Aware that he had no money and unwilling to borrow any from his friends, he ultimately decided to walk home and hoped that someone might offer him a free ride.

That hope vanished once he entered the connected alleyways near the area where his house was located, about a mile away.

The moment the intersection appeared ahead of him, his eyes filled with hope as though he wanted to quicken his pace, unconsciously realizing he had walked all the way from school without resting.

Several dozen meters from the intersection, just as he was about to cross toward the right side of the road to make it easier to reach the main road ahead, he saw two women at the end of a dead-end alley, one of them arguing with a man wearing a bandana around his head.

The argument did not last long before one of the women was taken hostage by the large man wearing the bandana.

Thuggery was the perfect word for that man.

Just from his appearance alone, Liam Tirarty knew the man was a thug. However, because he did not want to get involved, he acted indifferent toward the two women... but what shocked him was that once he crossed onto that road, it turned out the two women were his classmates, and the woman being held hostage by the man to intimidate the other woman was the girl who had stolen his heart.

A dark blue sky hung far above Liam's head, completely blocking the sunlight from reaching below, dimming his vision slightly.

Liam Tirarty had never properly seen the faces of the two women before, only assuming they were women because of their screams, but now he could see their faces clearly.

Two difficult choices crossed his mind: continue on his way home, knowing that rain would soon fall because thunder kept rumbling overhead, or help them against the thug's actions.

At that moment, he thought it through carefully and resolved to fight the man even though he knew he could never defeat him; afterward, he would confess the feelings he had hidden ever since he first saw that girl. Back in their first year.

Aware that school activities would become busy with upcoming exams, and knowing that both girls carried waist bags and a cardboard box lying not far from the woman named Lycia, who was being held hostage by the bandana-wearing man.

Whether by coincidence or not, Liam realized they were heading toward their friend's house, located on the large road to the left from the path leading to his own house, sharing the same destination to do group work together for the last time.

After considering it carefully, the unfortunate young man finally shouted loudly, harshly, cursing at the large man and demanding that he release Lycia immediately.

The man's pupils widened. He immediately turned around and charged toward the unfortunate young man with all his strength, his fist striking directly into Liam's face.

Because his school offered extracurricular activities beyond academics, the unfortunate young man knew some karate techniques, though he had quit during his second year after becoming the practice target of his seniors.

The beautiful girl named Lycia could finally breathe in relief, but that relief vanished when she saw who had shouted at the thug who nearly killed her.

"Liam...? Why is he here?"

One powerful punch struck the unfortunate young man's jaw, sending him flying several meters before crashing onto the wet ground, staining his brown uniform an even darker brown from the mud.

The two women immediately realized the large man was cracking his knuckles, moving as though he intended to kill Liam Tirarty.

Pulling a kitchen knife from her pink backpack, she immediately aimed it toward the man's back, though that action never succeeded.

And from that moment onward, the woman named Lycia was beaten mercilessly by the man. The passersby? They let the incident continue for far too long, as though mercy for the man, including toward the two unfortunate women, did not exist in their hearts at all.

And with the little strength he had left, the unfortunate young man forced himself to rise through the pain from the punches when he saw the large man grab the knife, trying to kill the woman named Lycia.

However, that attempt never fully came true. Even though the bandana-wearing man managed to stab Lycia in the stomach, causing hysterical screams to escape from her pink lips, the knife held by the large man flew several meters away after the unfortunate young man struck his arm, leaving behind a metallic clang before the suffocating tension returned.

The scent of blood and iron lingered heavily in the air, lasting far too long as the two men stared at each other under immense pressure. Meanwhile, the sky grew darker, thunder roared once again even louder than before, as though signaling that something terrible was about to happen.

The unfortunate young man immediately ran with all his strength, knowing full well he would never stand a chance against him.

At its peak, the unfortunate young man, Liam Tirarty, lay face-down on the sidewalk with a bruised face and a body turning blue.

Meanwhile, the bandana-wearing man looked pale, almost bluish, slightly hunched over while gasping for breath because his neck felt as though it were burning from the sudden chokehold Liam Tirarty had used on him.

The desperate plan to choke the man, along with the martial arts knowledge he had learned back then, became useful at a critical moment and succeeded thanks to the actions of another woman named Sylvia, who distracted the large man even if only for a second.

When each of them let their guard down, or rather collapsed from the pain ravaging their bodies, another woman named Sylvia Faiza Huwaina raised the kitchen knife high, intending to stab the man's head, but the large man suddenly turned around because he wanted to check on the condition of the two women.

Liam Tirarty, who remained conscious during those tense seconds, chose to stay silent, hoping the two women would flee immediately, completely unaware that death had already come for the thug.

The event that would change his life happened when he lost consciousness from extreme exhaustion, mere seconds before the knife plunged into the left side of the thug's stomach.

The moment when he never once considered himself a hero ended beneath the dark sky and merciless thunderclaps, as though the great incident had finally concluded when the woman named Sylvia collapsed to her knees, staring at her own hands before her gaze swept around and saw her friend lying unconscious.

And when he woke up?

Before his consciousness fully regained control over his mind and body, both of his hands had already been cuffed behind his back, leaving him in pain and unable to properly observe his surroundings.

"Captain... this is bad..."

The voice sounded calm, yet carried panic the moment he saw the horrifying state of the bandana-wearing man, his body stiff, pulse gone, dead with his mouth hanging open.

'Hey, hey, hey.... wh-what actually happened?' Liam Tirarty panicked as he saw around three police officers talking while giving him sharp looks as though they were discussing him.

The police captain drew a deep breath and spoke in a firm, hoarse voice:

"Detain him and bring him to the station!"

The two officers beside him saluted at the side of their caps and answered in unison with firm voices:

"Understood. Carrying it out..."

The two officers immediately lowered their hands before turning around. With measured steps, they walked toward Liam Tirarty and dragged him into the police car, its sirens echoing throughout the streets.

Even though Liam Tirarty resisted the arrest, his resistance was utterly useless because something inside his body thrashed violently, making it difficult for him to move, and eventually he was shoved into the police car, whose atmosphere felt completely different from the air outside.

Liam Tirarty swallowed hard before looking out the window, where he saw the thug with a knife embedded in the left side of his stomach, and more than that, Liam Tirarty could clearly see the figure surrounded by several people, a woman named Lycia in critical condition.

The ambulance sirens screamed loudly as the driver, who was also a police officer, entered and shut the door tightly before glancing coldly toward Liam Tirarty.

Once the police car started moving, the justice he had hoped for and even protested for before being shoved into the car never came, as he was interrogated inside a closed room lit only by a dim lamp resembling a study light.

However, the interrogation from the police, including the captain himself, was terrible. In the end, Liam Tirarty was thrown into the very last detention cell, measuring four by six meters and occupied by around twenty people.

The moment he entered the cell, the still-young Liam Tirarty was questioned about several things by veteran inmates who had been trapped in that place for so long that they had practically forgotten what the sun looked like.

Several days later, carrying out activities within the cell with extremely limited movement slowly eroded Liam Tirarty's mentality, leaving him curled up in the corner of the dark prison cell, surrounded by foul, suffocating air while his thoughts battled endlessly.

....

Far away from Greysia, near a small forest filled with mahogany and acacia trees known for their extremely high adaptability, allowing them to survive in regions with four seasons (subtropical) as well as two seasons (tropical), including environments dominated by high humidity like the northern and eastern parts of the Chynoria continent.

Still in Belan Village, inside the same room illuminated by only one lantern because the other lantern was inside the room where Hana and Mine were resting.

The three of them were completely unaware that Zavi felt as though his mind was no longer functioning properly as he thought about the mysterious figure known as 'Jack the Ripper,' someone just as mysterious and whose identity was deeply hidden both on Earth and in this world.

'What... Is there someone else with the same fate as me? But... but who is the person using the name "Jack the Ripper," the one Mine and Hana said is the leader?'

So that 'he' would not interfere with his thoughts and delay his goal, and believing he would deal with it once he had the time, Zavi hid his confusion by lifting his bamboo hat with his thumb.

His gaze swept across the room as he spoke in a serious tone, "We'll leave for Semilir tomorrow morning, at least after waiting to see whether the weather outside stabilizes or not. If it doesn't..."

The sentence was interrupted when Mine cut him off with a voice that showed absolutely no feminine side.

"I want to ask something," said Mine. "If possible, will you answer my question?"

"Just ask already," Zavi answered hurriedly as though he did not want to lose the momentum in his mind.

"Tomorrow morning's trip, even though technically it's already morning now, are we going to rent a place in 'Semilir' since that city is also one of the largest cities in Havanuheta?"

"Yeah, I know that." Zavi never expected Mine to ask that.

Hana immediately chimed in curiously.

"Are you going to do that again?"

Zavi glanced at Aaron in confusion before speaking after carefully choosing words specifically for him.

"Yeah, we're going hunting again. But not hunting humans..."

"Then if not humans, what?" they asked simultaneously.

Zavi frowned slightly before continuing, "Hunting money, because money isn't everything, but it can buy everything you desire."

Hana and Mine exchanged glances, and one of them, Mine, loudly voiced her thoughts.

"Why don't we just steal it?" she asked to make sure.

"Idiot. Salilfai and I don't want to attract attention, and we don't want to openly expose ourselves to the public." Aaron calmly responded to Mine's statement.

Zavi snapped his fingers.

"Sirius is right," he said with the corner of his lips lifting, almost forming a smile.

The room fell silent for a moment. Then Zavi's gaze swept around after seeing them stay quiet, and he immediately added in a restrained voice;

"It's better if we go to them, instead of them coming to us."