The Elusive Sorcerer

Chapter 148

Early in the morning, in Racon, specifically in Wojang.

From a second-floor window, a woman with black hair tied back and faded blue eyes stared blankly at the street below, where people passed by, each occupied with their own business.

Yet her pale face did nothing to diminish her beauty now that she had found a purpose in life once again.

She was Felina Ronatte.

For nearly a month, Felina had been paying Tell and Munien with bones she found in the market to locate Aaron.

Finding Aaron was no ordinary search, because Felina was genuinely worried about Zuhen Mudelk, who had remained unconscious for an entire month.

Felina had nearly fallen into despair, but whenever she looked at Zuhen Mudelk's sleeping face, that feeling vanished instantly, replaced by a burning desire to bring him back.

She turned around, her gaze settling on the long sofa where Zuhen lay with his hands folded across his chest.

The curtain on the left side swayed as Felina walked steadily toward the sofa and sat down on the single chair near Zuhen's head, which rested on a soft white pillow.

Felina looked at him with a bitter smile for two seconds.

'I'm sorry for taking your money. You'll probably scold me when you wake up later because I figured you wouldn't be able to buy cigarettes anymore. Then again, cigarettes are bad for you. They'll ruin your internal organs over time. You might not feel anything now, but when you get old, your body will eventually reach its limit.'

Felina muttered to herself, convinced that taking the money without telling him had been the best decision.

Whoosh...

A strong gust of wind arrived in the blink of an eye, causing the newspaper on the long white-legged table to flip open, revealing an important piece of news from Minehold.

"Can't you arrive normally for once?"

Felina glared at Tell, her teeth grinding together.

"Ahahaha, that's because I'm a little annoyed that we still haven't found that man, right?"

Tell glanced at Munien, who had entered the living room through the wall of Room 25, someone else's rented room.

"What a troublesome job," Munien said, pursing his lips.

Tell flapped his tiny wings and moved closer to him.

"We did it, didn't we? It's for food, you know."

Tell tried to encourage Munien, who had spent the entire search complaining about this strange assignment.

In truth, he didn't even know what the man Felina was searching for looked like. Munien realized that expecting anything useful from Tell was the dumbest idea he had ever had up to this very moment.

Munien took a deep breath before slowly exhaling to avoid dwelling on that unpleasant memory.

"You, do you really want to find that man?" He raised a tiny finger toward Felina, who was sitting several meters away from where he hovered silently.

Felina turned around, looked at him for two seconds, and replied flatly, "Of course. I don't want you eating bones without doing a proper job for me."

"While you sit around doing nothing," Munien whispered.

He looked at Zuhen for several seconds, then shifted his gaze to Tell before returning it to Felina.

"Can you give me a complete description of that man?" he asked confidently.

Felina chuckled.

'Are the two of them really this stupid?'

"Look for a man with gray eyes and blond hair. You should also look for a man with blue eyes and black hair. Maybe he'll help the two of you find him."

Tell hesitated for a moment, then two seconds later finally spoke with curiosity.

"The man with blue eyes? I think his name is Actitus or something."

"Yes," Felina answered flatly.

"Why didn't you tell me that back then?" Tell asked, the veins in his neck tightening.

"You weren't listening to me at the time," Felina said in disbelief.

She remembered when Tell and Munien had returned to the empty house with bad news that they couldn't find Aaron, while still demanding payment.

Animal bones or human bones.

With a snort, Tell slowly flapped his wings, and several seconds later disappeared through the wall of Room 26.

Munien remained where he was, hovering motionlessly in the air.

"There's something I want to ask. Will you answer it?"

Munien looked at Felina as she picked up the opened newspaper and read its contents for several seconds.

"I'll answer if it's still within my scope of knowledge," Felina said while studying a paragraph that made her heart skip a beat.

News related to politics, the Karuoo conspiracy, and the mysterious deaths of a couple that had been spreading throughout Minehold recently.

"I'm not sure how to put it, but do you see anything strange about this physical body of mine?"

'Physical body?' Felina repeated inwardly as she slowly turned toward him, her pupils widening.

Only then did Felina notice the anomaly in both of Munien's wings. She immediately rose from her seat, placed the newspaper on the table, and examined them more closely.

As expected, Felina sensed three overlapping spiritual energies, and among those three energies was a pitch-black spiritual force weakening beneath the other dark violet-black energies.

Felina's index finger slowly touched the wing.

A faint blue glow emerged, destroying the wing within minutes. The other black wing shattered as well after Felina destroyed it.

'What is this?'

Munien felt the spiritual visualization in his physical eyes become much clearer than before as he stared at the warm and stable spirituality within Felina's body.

Only after experiencing that did Munien receive fifty expired calls, all of which had been made two days earlier.

Precisely on Saturday at eight o'clock in the morning.

'Mine Rasuha called me fifty times? That's insane. Was she really that worried about me?'

Munien fell silent for a moment, not because he was impressed by the concern, but because he had successfully detected Mine Rasuha's location faintly, and he knew exactly where she was.

"Chavez," Munien said with absolute certainty.

Felina looked at him in confusion.

"Did you say something?"

"Thank you for helping remove the burden I've been carrying all this time," Munien replied with a bitter smile.

He finally flapped his wings and began leaving the central room of Room 26.

"Goodbye. Thank you for your kindness all this time," Munien whispered with a faint smile.

Even though Munien was a supernatural being, he had no hesitation in expressing gratitude for Felina's kindness toward him, for giving him decent bones despite the hidden intentions that Munien was fully aware of.

....

Somewhere on the western side of Minehold, specifically in Kenotalle, stood a house that looked as though no one had lived there for a very long time. Yet inside the house were two women who could not leave because the situation within the house was far from normal.

A man with a calm and expressionless face sat on a single sofa, while beside him on a long sofa sat the two women he knew best.

Ren Actitus together with his mother, Mei, and his younger sister, Isabelle.

"Mother," Ren said quietly, "lately I've been treated badly by one of my coworkers."

In a gentle voice and with a worried expression, Mei finally asked, "Has Ren been physically harmed, or has it only been insults?"

Ren looked at his mother for a moment, realizing how insignificant this conversation was.

"Just insults, but he nearly picked a fight with me," Ren answered calmly.

Isabelle, sitting to the left of her mother, glanced at Ren while thinking about his words.

'Why didn't you fight back? Why are you talking about your work problems instead?'

Although Mei and Isabelle had never asked much about his job, Ren had told them that he worked as a messenger for an important figure in Minehold, acting as a spokesperson.

Even though it was merely a lie, it was a role Ren had maintained at "The Devil is Here" for almost four years, specifically by this coming July.

"As for work, Mother doesn't need to worry. And regarding Zavi, I'm still doing everything I can to find him."

Mei glanced at Isabelle before looking back at Ren. She let out a sigh and spoke weakly.

"Could it be that Zavi found a job and simply hasn't had the time to let us know because he's too busy?"

Mei tried to think positively about Zavi's disappearance without any news. Meanwhile, Isabelle remembered the times Zavi had annoyed her and the last time he made sandwiches before disappearing the following day.

'You idiot brother. How could you run off without telling your family anything about your situation?'

Ren nodded reluctantly.

"Before he disappeared without a word, Zavi spoke to me in my room while Mother was out looking for someone capable of helping him regain consciousness.

"When he woke up in the bathroom, he said he wouldn't come home until he became rich.

"At the time, I didn't believe that crybaby wanted to become a dependable man who could live without relying on others. And one more thing, Zavi said he was taking that job for Isabelle because she always cheered him up and often gave him money during his lowest moments after being rejected from jobs."

Although Isabelle wasn't completely convinced by Ren's words, she remembered how sincerely Zavi had helped her, and how he had even said something that might seem trivial to others.

Thank you.

'Zavi, did you really do all this for me?'

Isabelle stared at Ren for several seconds, her fingers clenched into fists while her breathing grew heavier.

'I mustn't cry.'

Isabelle closed her eyes so neither of them would see her sadness.

"So Mother and Isabelle will stay at home and stop worrying about Zavi's condition. It'll only make Mother's thoughts more troubled. I'll keep searching for him, at the very least to warn him to give us news about his situation from time to time."

Mei smiled with relief. It was the first time Ren had spoken this much.

"Alright," Mei said weakly. "I'll go make breakfast now, and don't leave the house until I give permission."

Ren chuckled softly.

"It sounds like Mother is joking."

Mei responded with a small laugh.

"I'm getting older, and I still treat you like a little child. Is that a joke?"

"Of course," Ren replied as he rose from his seat, letting his mother move first before heading upstairs toward his room.

Isabelle remained where she was, confused about what she should do. But in the end, she decided to read the book her friend had given her back then and sat on the furry carpet while leaning against the long sofa.

....

Hundreds of meters from the Ourse station southeast of Semilir, the four of them decided to walk towards Semilir, avoiding attracting the attention of the officers there.

They put the death of the Hunter-type Chalog in the Ardoma Valley behind them.

They focused on exploring the vast city ahead, wary of the enemies lurking within the bustling life of Semilir City.

Slowing his pace, Zavi began to tie back his hair with a dirty, nearly torn rag.

His bamboo hat, still wearing, and his ponytail, made Zavi look slightly different from before.

'A day of hope or failure awaits me afterward.'

Not long after, they had entered the outskirts of Semilir and noticed people already milling about.

Zavi immediately pulled his pocket watch from his shirt pocket.

'Crazy, it's only 6:00 a.m. and they're already this enthusiastic?'

Sunday, January 26th, 6:02 a.m.