The Elusive Sorcerer

Chapter 135

Zavi was utterly startled when words formed entirely from thin mist appeared at his feet.

"Dammit... How dare you know what's inside my head? Stalker."

Zavi complained, the corner of his lips curling upward, almost forming a sharp smirk.

For a brief moment, Zavi shifted his gaze toward the three of them who were chatting nearby. Even though it was only for an instant, the mist faded and reformed into a new series of sentences in Talazze Lirei, the everyday language spoken by the Norn people, though some regions had different dialects.

"Don't blame me, Liam... I'm not the person you think I am, and I can only access your thoughts when you're thinking about me. Heh, you keep swallowing nervously while wondering who I really am."

The mist faded again, forming a much longer sequence of sentences. Zavi didn't even have the chance to open his mouth and voice his own opinion.

"If you want to know... that strange riddle is nothing more than a trick to deceive you. That man named Kuhan seems to be testing the four of you. Even that little scheme is enough to keep you busy trying to solve that foolish sentence.

"Neither night nor day. Darkness stretches as far as the eye can see, or silence dominates perception. There is no one there. Except yourself. Yet there is a figure who has accompanied you since the day you were born.

"Those words are true, and Kuhan seems to be trying to lead you into an era where even I wouldn't be able to speak with you this easily. One more thing, and this is the most important. The graveyard. You'll find a clue if you visit the sacred cemetery that is usually frequented by people who worship supernatural beings like me to an excessive degree."

Zavi immediately nodded with a mocking smile.

"So you're admitting it too... that you're a supernatural being yourself," he said before continuing to read the new sentence created by the Level 5 evil spirit, Mastering.

"This may be a warning. I am not a woman named Sylvia Faiza Huwaina, as you've been thinking. Nor am I a woman named Aurora Chevalya, whom you strongly suspected before.

"You're truly quite skilled at solving problems, even though I myself realize how careless I've been. One more thing, **** and don't **** if you want to obtain information related to me..."

Zavi was shocked when he realized that the words seemed censored, or rather, as if the words he considered most important existed in a different dimension from his own.

'What exactly does she mean by that?'

"Who are you really? Tell me now if you don't want me to kill you," Zavi said in a firm and confident tone.

The Level 5 evil spirit, Mastering, giggled through the mist that formed words of laughter.

The mist shifted into a new set of words, only a few this time, and naturally it made Zavi even more suspicious of her.

"..."

Zavi fell silent for a moment as he watched the words formed from the mist fade away as though carried off by the night wind.

The three of them, who had stopped discussing their work, were completely confused when they realized Zavi was talking despite there being nobody else listening. Like a madman searching for a place to reveal his true feelings.

"Sirius," Mine said, her brows furrowed. "Did your cousin perform some weird ritual before doing... whatever that is?"

"..."

Aaron seemed already accustomed to this sort of thing, and this was probably the third time he had witnessed it with his own eyes. Even so, Aaron quickly swallowed nervously when he remembered the warning from the Exorcist to stay away from this house immediately.

Aaron had ignored that warning because his body refused to obey him. Whether he liked it or not, at that moment he had no choice but to trust Zavi's reckless actions. Zavi had previously warned him that if he wanted to speak with "her," he had to keep his distance.

He felt slightly disappointed because Zavi truly did not understand what Aaron himself had been experiencing whenever those warnings appeared.

'It's as if I've forgotten how to hear. Even the sounds I'm used to hearing seem forgotten... even my own voice.'

Aaron remained lost in thought for a long while after sitting back down, brushing his hair back as he tilted his head upward toward the porch ceiling.

Mine immediately stood up, but Hana seemed to understand her intention and decided to ask Zavi directly.

"Lamena," Hana said as she stood beside Zavi. "Are... are you talking to someone? Or is this some habit of yours before taking on jobs involving killing and strange investigations?"

"..."

Zavi had no idea how to respond as he leaned there with part of his face hidden beneath the bamboo hat, occasionally letting out a sharp snort.

Knowing the two of them were overthinking Kuhan's strange statements, Hana and Mine returned to their cushioned chairs with their soft, worn backrests, waiting for certainty from the two men.

....

The night passed quickly as they became immersed in their own thoughts. They only stirred awake when the eastern sky began turning red, bathing the landscape in the warm orange glow of dawn.

Realizing this, they had to relocate somewhere safe, far from the crowds of Chavez.

After several hours of searching for food and drinks with Hana's help and Aaron's money, the four of them finally found shelter from the scorching midday sun and waited for dusk to arrive, because Zavi had discovered a clue related to the search for the 'Lantern of Fate.'

"I'll probably replace all of this once I have a lot of money," Zavi said as he swallowed the last piece of spicy salted french fries.

Aaron frowned upon hearing such an uncertain statement.

"Maybe ten years from now you'll be able to replace it."

Seeing the strange look Zavi gave him, Aaron quickly added:

"That was a joke. Don't worry about the money, and I only recently found out that the 50 Pace I gave you back then was completely burned up. You didn't even get the ashes."

Thinking about it, Zavi didn't care much about the 50 Pace Aaron had given him. However, the 5 Pace advance payment he had earned through his own efforts had also burned together with his jacket, which left him slightly annoyed at that Hunter-Type Chalog.

Letting out a sigh, Zavi took out the pocket watch that had somehow survived the fire, making him realize that preserving it had been the right decision.

He raised the pocket watch high, his eyes carefully examining every detail one by one, even feeling the rhythm of its ticking hands.

'Honestly, this is strange. The money, the jacket, and the pistol were all destroyed by that Chalog's attack. Yet this pocket watch survived. Is this really the "life" of the Prisoner ability itself? Or should I call it the "anchor" that binds all of the Prisoner's abilities from the beginning to the very end?'

Even Zavi himself didn't know how many levels the Prisoner pathway possessed. With so little information about how this world worked, being foolish could save your life, while being clever could just as easily lead you to death.

'Fortunately, I'm neither stupid nor too smart.'

Zavi tried to cover up his own mistakes with a small nod.

Despite their recklessness, their existence now felt more exposed than ever before. It was as if the vigilance that had dominated their minds recently had vanished, replaced by the opening pages of a new chapter in life.

They were now standing inside the clock tower chamber, roughly ten meters wide. The place had only minimal railings despite being dozens of meters above the ground, and people often came here to enjoy the view of Chavez from above.

For quite a long time, they simply waited there without doing much. Whenever boredom struck, they talked about trivial things.

Then evening arrived.

From atop the clock tower, whose bells rang at every passing hour, the four of them were left speechless. They watched brilliant orange and amber light burst across the world from the western horizon, casting an aesthetic glow upon the shadows of buildings that formed natural canopies over the streets.

Time was running out, and they still needed to solve the first riddle Kuhan had given them the previous night, which Zavi had managed to decipher with the help of the other three after roughly two hours of effort.

Finding the Graveyard in southeastern Chavez proved somewhat difficult, but since they could be considered people with supernatural powers, the search took far less time than it otherwise would have. Eventually, the four of them arrived at the sacred cemetery that people often visited to perform strange rituals.

Offerings had been placed before the cemetery entrance: various flowers, especially those with scents associated with the supernatural, along with ritual items such as trays bearing wide golden plates, black candles, and bowls containing a liquid known as 'Airsselean.'

Each of them searched for inscriptions that mixed symbols with the Talazze Vana language, believing they might contain the answer needed to continue this search.

"Night has fallen. It seems they've already found the clue," Zavi muttered as he realized just how vast the cemetery grounds of Chavez were.

Although this cemetery carried the additional title of "sacred," people still had no idea what the complicated symbols mixed with Talazze Lirei writing on several gravestones actually meant. Even the identities of those buried beneath the earth remained unknown to this day.

It was as though something was deliberately toying with human faith, wishing to achieve things without effort and choosing instead to conspire with supernatural beings.

Once they reached the beginning of the cemetery pathway, they regrouped. Of course, they could only read a small portion of the inscriptions mixed with those strange and complicated symbols.

"Sirius, do you know what those writings mean?" Zavi asked, cursing himself internally because he had found absolutely nothing.

Aaron shook his head and sighed.

"Unfortunately, I don't understand what those gravestones mean."

Mine immediately voiced her frustration, though she kept her tone controlled in a place like this.

"Damn you, Kuhan. Giving us a job that's nothing but one strange riddle after another."

Hana nodded as if she understood why they had come here.

"Could we perhaps follow the directional lines and read whichever messages we can decipher?"

As though they had just discovered something incredibly rare, Zavi and Aaron simultaneously smacked their foreheads, having completely overlooked something so simple.

However, Zavi was having some difficulty because, unlike the other three, he had yet to find a gravestone with any writing on it.

Whether it was luck or misfortune, Zavi suddenly remembered the strange words spoken by the Level 5 female demon spirit, Mastering, and an unusual idea crossed his mind.

"Oh, how am I supposed to do that?"

Meanwhile, Hana headed west, Aaron moved toward the eastern side of the graveyard, Mine searched the south, and Zavi went north, examining each gravestone one by one in search of inscriptions and complicated symbols.

Through his efforts, Zavi eventually found a clue and tried to interpret it according to Hana's earlier suggestion while waiting for Aaron to signal that it was time to read it aloud.

And as darkness slowly covered the clear sky, all of them were filled with hope that this plan would succeed and lead them to the first clue in the search for the Lantern of Fate.