The Elusive Sorcerer

Chapter 138

Too lost in his longing, Zavi quickly turned around when the sound of footsteps echoed toward the living room.

From the left side, Zavi focused his gaze on Mine, whose sour expression accompanied her as she dropped heavily onto the long sofa.

"You look like you're angry about something," Zavi said, hanging up his bowler hat before walking toward the single sofa and sitting down with his head resting against the backrest.

"Where did those two go?" Mine asked, wanting to voice what she was really feeling.

"Well, I don't know that," Zavi replied somewhat apathetically. "Why didn't you just go with them?" he asked to make sure.

Mine wanted to answer, but Zavi interrupted her quickly.

"Are you angry with Hana?"

"I-I just didn't want to go out, that's all," Mine said, trying to divert the conversation.

'Hmm, just admit you're at odds with her because of that.'

Zavi rubbed his face with both hands and brought them up to his head.

It was a habit Zavi had picked up quite often lately.

'Work, money, finding Zuhen and Felina, more information about Prisoner's abilities, and hunting down the hidden demons?'

Zavi had been thinking about the same things ever since arriving in Minehold and Chavez.

The days passed much faster than he had expected. He wanted to take it easy and recover mentally, but his plans for survival forced him to work harder than ever.

Because he had no savings and needed work to earn money just to live, money had become one of Zavi's top priorities.

'Holding onto 8 Pace for the next few days won't be enough, and it looks like I'll have to work much harder tonight than before.'

Zavi had just remembered that tonight's job would be rough and far riskier than any of his previous work.

Watching Aaron catch demons, and hunting Chalog.

"Tonight we're leaving this apartment," Zavi said with a sigh as he straightened his posture.

"Any particular reason we're leaving Chavez tonight?" Mine asked while crossing her legs on the sofa.

"No particular reason," Zavi replied calmly, then fell silent as he manifested a fox on top of the table. It disappeared again as he resumed speaking to explain more clearly.

"Our destination remains the same; Semilir and Kuranda, if possible..."

Mine's face became extremely serious upon hearing that.

Zavi stroked his chin as if carefully considering what to say next.

"Kuranda is enormous, at least from what I know. The city may have expanded since the riots two years ago. I'm not going there just for a visit. There's something Sirius and I want from that place, beyond what you know."

Mine looked hesitant, but that hesitation faded as she spoke, her toes tensing slightly.

"Something I don't know about? Looking for the Lantern of Destiny, or the demons you mentioned?"

"Maybe that's part of it, but according to the documents we obtained last night, I found information about an auction house that's going to open on one of Kuranda's main streets. That information became more credible after I investigated it myself while I was out earlier. To be more specific, we're going to steal something from that auction."

Mine's pupils widened, and her heartbeat quickened as an odd sensation spread through her chest.

"An Artifact or a Relic, huh?" Mine murmured softly while nodding. "Are you sure you want to rob the biggest auction around, one that's probably guarded by hundreds of trained, armed guards?"

"..."

Zavi immediately stood up, allowing Mine to fully enter the flow of the conversation.

Afternoon slipped into evening, and evening passed into night before they knew it. Now the four of them had gathered in the living room of the rented apartment, each assigned a role in this job.

"You all know the plan, right?"

The idea had come from Aaron. He was already experienced at infiltrating and disguising himself within underworld groups to earn money, making it possible for this operation to succeed without failure.

'Choosing Aaron as the leader with their approval was the right decision.'

Zavi muttered to himself as he put on his bamboo hat.

When the clock finally struck 7:30 PM, they hurriedly left the apartment without bringing anything except the clothes they were wearing, since they hadn't brought much with them in the first place.

After blending into the crowd walking along the sidewalks that night, they split into two teams to avoid drawing suspicion.

Zavi with Mine.

Meanwhile, Aaron paired up with Hana. Though they shared the same destination, they maintained a distance of several dozen meters from Zavi and Mine.

On Foukes Street, north of Chavez, inside an alley near the river whose waters rushed violently that night.

7:55 PM.

The four of them had already gathered there, even though the meeting had been scheduled for eight o'clock. By coincidence, they and the man who had hired them arrived almost at the same time.

"Where's the man's house?" Zavi asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

The man wearing a top hat nodded and replied in a low voice, "His mansion was built not far from here, and it's surrounded by dead trees with branches and trunks that look ready to collapse at any moment."

They all turned around simultaneously, staring toward the area he was referring to.

"So the person you want dead is a businessman just like you?" Mine asked firmly as she walked closer to him.

"Yes," the man replied, swallowing hard.

The dim glow of the streetlamp ahead and the lantern Aaron carried created a suffocating pressure in the mind of a man named Claude Diston, a middle-class businessman from Semilir and Chavez.

"Hey, how much are you paying?" Hana asked from a distance.

"Three hundred Pace," Zavi replied, lowering his bamboo hat slightly.

"Uh, sir? That's not what we agreed on, you know?" the man in the top hat asked in confusion, clutching the suitcase full of money and trembling.

"Where's the weapon I asked for?" Zavi whispered, even though he knew Mine might hear him.

"Ah, come on," Claude Diston gestured before walking deeper into the dim alley.

"The three of you wait here," Zavi said half-heartedly before following Claude Diston.

After obtaining several revolvers, belts, and a few ammunition containers, Zavi immediately clarified that his earlier statement had only been a joke.

He also lowered the payment for the job from 250 Pace to only 200 Pace.

Upon hearing that, Claude Diston finally let out a relieved breath while wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

Once they regrouped, Zavi handed each of them a pistol and ammunition. As for himself, he kept two revolvers and two ammunition containers tucked into the pockets of his coat.

"The three of you can ask Mr. Claude Diston for more ammunition if you want, of course."

'Honestly, I'm much more comfortable using these revolvers because, well, I'm already used to them.'

Zavi muttered to himself, remembering that somehow he was able to aim accurately with a revolver despite previously claiming he had never handled a firearm.

As soon as they left the alley, Zavi stopped Claude Diston, who was walking two meters ahead of him.

"Uh..."

"Don't forget about that..."

Claude Diston struggled to swallow when he heard those words.

"Alright. I won't forget."

Claude Diston immediately continued walking, and Zavi followed behind him, creating an unpleasant feeling in his mind.

Now they moved left from the previous alley, heading toward the area where the mansion stood.

Several minutes passed as they climbed unstable terrain and pushed through thorny vines. Eventually, all four of them reached a vantage point overlooking the mansion.

Just as Claude Diston had said earlier, the mansion was heavily guarded.

"Sirius," Zavi said while examining the cylinder of his revolver. "Is the plan still the same?"

Aaron took a deep breath and replied, "I think so."

He began loading the magazine one round at a time. The enclosed magazine was soon full.

Aaron tilted the pistol slightly to the right before quickly adding:

"One more time, you two came here of your own free will, right?"

Aaron genuinely wanted to make sure they were mentally and physically prepared for what lay ahead.

As if she knew she was being underestimated and had anticipated this long ago, the corner of Mine's mouth lifted into a faint smirk as she said mockingly,

"Men always want to show off when they have women by their side."

Hana remained silent, but deep down, she couldn't wait to see the two famous Lamena killers in action.

'When does this start?'

As Aaron, Hana, and Mine entered the mansion grounds, Zavi watched them while carefully climbing onto a tree branch.

Dozens of foxes without blood, without skin, without flesh, existing only as pale gray-white auras shaped into fox forms, appeared directly beneath where Zavi stood on the sturdy branch.

Zavi directed the foxes toward the right, several meters away from the massive concrete wall surrounding the mansion.

The distance was exactly where he intended them to go.

Boom... Boom... Boom...

Zavi felt a strange sensation inside his mind the moment the explosions rang out.

The mansion guards reacted immediately.

"Hey, did you hear those explosions?" one of the guards asked in panic.

"Yeah, I heard them," another guard replied as he came running from the mansion courtyard.

"Go investigate immediately," one of the guards ordered firmly. "If the master hears about this first, we might get fired."

"Understood," several guards answered in unison before leaving through the gate at their superior's command.

The number of guards at the mansion decreased as they rushed toward the gate before it closed again.

"Who are you?"

Thud...

"Ahhh..." one of the guards screamed.

But the scream lasted only a moment before Hana covered his mouth with the guard's own clothing.

Once they had confirmed the guards were unconscious, the three of them dragged the bodies inside the walls one by one before closing the iron gate from within.

Zavi, still in the same position, created additional explosions in different directions to draw away half of the guards searching for the source of the blasts.

Furthermore, he had carefully adjusted the explosive power so that the sound could only be heard within a hundred-meter radius.

Inside the mansion, the man marked for death immediately realized he was in danger after noticing something strange within his room.

The feeling grew stronger when he heard a scream, only for it to disappear a second later as if an intruder had entered his residence.

He decided to head for the basement, whose entrance was hidden beneath a large carpet covered in soft fibers that soothed the mind.

As he pulled the carpet aside and prepared to enter the basement, his attempt was interrupted when the large door to the room slowly opened, carrying a chilling draft from outside that emptied his thoughts for a brief moment.

The three intruders arrived so quickly that the man never even had the chance to ask a question before dying first.

With the target dead and no evidence left behind, the three of them immediately left the room, leaving the corpse riddled with gunshot wounds but strangely without blood spilling everywhere.

They also made sure to take the ring the man was wearing, the proof required to claim their payment.

With each task completed, they regrouped not far from the mansion.

"Did you get the ring?" Zavi asked, his face damp with sweat.

"You caused way too many explosions, didn't you?" Aaron replied while looking toward Hana, signaling her to show the ring.

But before the matter ended there, something shocking struck all of them when Hana's hand froze in place for a long moment while holding the snake-crested ring.

"Excellent, excellent. Truly excellent. I never imagined I'd find all of you here after spending so long searching."

The voice was firm, clear, and intimidating.

Then it stopped.

Yet those few words alone rendered all four of them powerless as they watched something shining brilliantly before them, driving away the lantern light that had guided them together all this time.