Chapter 137 – Determination
Chapter 137
The next day, on the northern side of Chavez, along Contra Main Street, a modest apartment building stood at the corner of Alley 15. Though the building itself was simple, it occupied a strategic location with heavy traffic flowing along the main road.
Horse-drawn carriages lined both sides of the street, while the sidewalks were crowded with people looking for leisure and peace during the weekend. Among them were those moving from one alley to another in search of affordable cafés.
Sunday, 8:00 AM. The bells of a nearby church devoted to the Goddess Yarandrela rang out, their chimes seeming to linger in the air for a few moments, spreading a deep sense of tranquility throughout Chavez and serving as a reminder of the holiday.
Yet hidden beneath that tranquility was unpleasant news that had spread throughout Chavez within hours of the incident.
Inside the apartment, in Room 10, the four of them were discussing an attack carried out by a group of thieves in a corner of North Chavez, resulting in the deaths of three people: a suspected businessman, his subordinate, and his private carriage driver.
In the newspaper report, the four of them found more than just a murder connected to a robbery.
Rumors regarding the deaths of five Hunter-type Chalog had become a hot topic among the residents of southern Chavez, on Vader Street. Meanwhile, by this morning, the newspaper had reached nearly every resident in Chavez, and the name "James Moriarty" had suddenly risen to prominence overnight.
Not as the killer of the Chalog that had terrorized the residents of Chavez. Rather, as someone suspected of being the figure known as the Magician, whose presence was shrouded in mystery.
Zavi had never imagined that the name "James Moriarty" would spread so quickly in a single day, though he knew the news itself was incomplete and quickly realized it when the other three were reading the same newspaper.
'Damn it, that man is smarter than I thought. Maybe this is the beginning. Maybe this will become my turning point to search for the things hidden within this world.'
The devils hiding in the shadows.
Zavi immediately rose from the mahogany chair in the corner of the room, his gaze sweeping across the area before settling on the right side of the room, where a set of white sofas with thin golden patterns sat. The other three were sprawled across them, each carefully reading a newspaper.
"You two can actually be serious when reading a newspaper, huh?" Zavi muttered casually while holding a rolled-up paper, lightly tapping it against his thigh.
Aaron lowered the newspaper that had been covering his entire face and peeked at Zavi over the top of it. He let out a long sigh before folding the newspaper.
"This strange news has me puzzled. Doesn't it bother you?" Aaron asked to make sure.
Zavi tossed the rolled newspaper onto the long white-patterned table before sitting down on the single sofa directly across from Aaron.
"Why would I be surprised by strange news?" Zavi replied. "And how did the two of you get these newspapers?" he asked, glancing at the pair lounging on the sofa with their legs raised and newspapers covering their faces.
Hana sighed as she folded her newspaper and tossed it onto the table, her arm drooping lazily.
"Of course, while we were looking for food," Hana answered flatly. "You two were the ones who said you didn't want to go outside unless it was nighttime, right?"
Aaron nodded as he crossed one leg over the other.
"Have you found what Salilfai mentioned back then?"
Hana shook her head with a gloomy expression and answered hesitantly, "Not at all, right, Mine?" She glanced sideways, observing Mine's serious expression as she read her newspaper.
Instead of answering, Mine raised the newspaper higher and said flatly,
"You two are pretty noisy, aren't you?"
Hana's eyes widened as she snatched the newspaper away, folded it, and tossed it onto the table.
"So you're actually rude too. No wonder you don't..."
The sentence never finished as Mine interrupted, her expression hardening.
"Quiet! That's enough. Don't continue."
Hana, who had been half-rising from her seat, slowly sat back down properly with both feet on the floor.
"Ah, forgive me if I said something inappropriate," Hana said in a low voice.
Zavi immediately got to his feet, turned around, and walked toward the window as uncertainty filled his thoughts.
'Should I search for those two while also searching for money and the Lantern of Destiny?'
Thinking about the same plan he had carried ever since leaving Moran and arriving in Minehold, along with searching for a way to advance Prisoner's second level, Motivation, in order to survive in this world, left Zavi trapped between two difficult choices.
'If I don't do this, they'll definitely find me, and I won't be able to discover what true justice and freedom really are.'
He pulled the window open with more force.
The moment it opened, the gentle morning breeze swept in, caressing his face with a peace that seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see, making Zavi forget everything that had happened.
Then, after the morning breeze refreshed both his body and spirit, his gaze shifted to the right, where people dressed in formal attire, each with their own distinctive appearance, had gathered as though discussing something important.
"People heading to church, huh? Judging by the gifts they're carrying, I guess I was right. Besides, today's Sunday, the twentieth if I'm not mistaken, around 8:15 in the morning?"
Zavi murmured softly, realizing that a new month would arrive in just a few days. His thoughts quickly shifted as he walked toward the corner of the room where his dark blue jacket hung.
He picked it up and immediately put it on before running toward the door.
Just as his right hand reached for the doorknob, Zavi quickly turned his head and spoke in a slightly raised voice,
"I'm heading out for a bit and will probably be back in about twenty minutes."
Hearing that, Hana immediately rose from her seat and approached Zavi. She couldn't see him directly because a large wooden bookshelf filled with books and strange decorative objects stood behind the single sofa where Aaron was sitting.
"Do... do you want me to come with you?" Hana asked awkwardly, concern visible on her face.
Zavi smiled faintly and replied weakly, "You'd better save your energy for tonight."
"Are you planning to kill someone tonight?" Hana asked enthusiastically, her expression turning confused.
"Maybe," Zavi answered calmly as he turned the doorknob and stepped into the hallway.
As soon as Zavi exited the apartment's main entrance, he immediately put on his bowler hat before continuing on his way.
His objective was simple: keep searching for work, whether legal or illegal. While earning money, Zavi would willingly do whatever was necessary to achieve his goal of killing the devils hiding in the shadows. Even if bounty hunters and people directly sent by the Finiscya sect came after him.
For now, he didn't care and would fight them. If he were cornered, Zavi had already thought of a way to save his own life, though its effects would only truly manifest a few minutes after being used.
As he turned onto the main road and blended into the crowd, Zavi felt like a failure because his shoulders kept bumping into people taller than him.
A sense of discomfort and overthinking immediately took hold of his mind.
'This is why Zavi was mocked back at school. Yeah, mocked. Even if it came from his own friends, it felt like his heart was going to explode. Is it because I haven't fully recovered Zavi's memories yet, and while trying to understand them in situations like this, something is somehow preventing me from accessing them?'
He realized that his memories from Earth had come to dominate his current ones, unlike before he dreamed about being arrested and imprisoned, and before performing the ritual to become a Receiver of Prisoner.
Wandering aimlessly, slipping into narrow alleys, squeezing through gaps between houses, even entering crowded bars despite their remote locations, Zavi nearly lost hope after pacing around for almost twenty minutes.
Yet because of his persistence in searching for work, he eventually found a job.
Someone wanted to hire him to kill a person out of revenge.
At first, Zavi refused the offer, but since the man couldn't find anyone willing to accept it, he practically forced Zavi into taking the job.
"How much... how much are you paying me afterward?" Zavi asked clearly and firmly.
The mustached man hesitated before finally answering, "I'll pay you 250 Pace. I'm a businessman, and if you don't believe me..."
The businessman immediately opened his briefcase, revealing stacks of money with the face of King Rerise De Norn clearly displayed in the middle.
For a moment, Zavi weighed whether the payment matched the risk and whether 250 Pace was worth the effort required.
After careful consideration, a strange idea suddenly crossed his mind, prompting him to voice it immediately.
"I'll accept, if you can provide me with a weapon. Any weapon. Except a rifle. I can't use one."
The man nodded because he had no choice but to agree.
"Tonight. Come to this place, and you'll get the weapon I have in mind."
The man handed him a rough rectangular slip of paper containing the location where he would be waiting with the weapon Zavi requested.
"As for the target, I'll tell you tonight," the man said more calmly than before.
"Information received."
Zavi pressed down on the brim of his bowler hat while watching the man walk away with his back turned.
Standing in the narrow gap between a bar and the building beside it made Zavi suddenly aware of his own breathing.
'I'd better head back... tonight might be even more eventful than before.'
Zavi nodded as he walked steadily down the alley path, thinking about returning to the apartment a mile away on foot.
Exactly at noon, inside the apartment, alone in the living room, Zavi immediately woke from his nap on the sofa when he heard the church bells ring once more.
'Is this some kind of church custom here? Is there something I don't know?'
Feeling strange hearing church and cathedral bells ring in broad daylight for the first time, with the sun directly overhead, Zavi immediately went looking for the others to ask about it.
But after learning the reason directly from Mine, who was in the room on the left side where one of the bedroom sets was located, Zavi quickly understood the meaning behind the ringing bells.
'The Mother of all Mothers? The highest peak of affection, and a symbol reminding people to honor their parents, especially their mothers?'
Zavi fell silent in thought for quite a while as he sat with his head resting against the back of the sofa, thinking about his mother and his desire to see her again, even from afar, just to ease the longing he had carried for so long.