The Elusive Sorcerer

Chapter 157

When parents realize that their negligence or actions have caused the death of their child, the brain experiences acute trauma. To protect itself from such an unbearable reality, the sufferer's mind can "break down" or enter a state of psychosis, becoming angry, delusional, hysterical, or hallucinating.

It is a defense mechanism of a collapsing ego.

When parents relive the beautiful memories they shared with their child, both their mental and emotional state become clear again.

At first, Zavi wanted to run away, but the parent would not let him.

Not knowing what to do and seeing that the man was no longer as vicious as before, Zavi asked a question about his mental and emotional condition after realizing that the man could speak normally to him.

Although he was afraid it might make him angry, there was no harm in trying.

The two of them sat where they had been lying before, leaning against the cracked, cold wall.

"..Did you see me as your child from before?"

Zavi touched his nose and wiped away his snot.

The man nodded and spoke in a calm, normal tone.

"Hallucinations and delusions. My brain processed memories of my child and made me stop hitting you earlier."

He looked at Zavi with a gloomy expression.

"I'm sorry for hitting and hurting you."

Zavi smiled bitterly, still feeling the throbbing pain in his face, chest, and legs.

"It's alright, and I'm sorry too for sleeping so close to you."

The man let out a short sigh. His gaze remained the same; gloomy and devoid of purpose.

"I should be the one apologizing."

"By the way, may I ask why you've become like this?" Zavi asked curiously, looking at the man while holding his breath.

The unfortunate man looked at him in confusion.

"Just ask," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Zavi suppressed a groan.

"What could have caused your body, mind, and spirit to fall into such a terrible condition?"

The man fell silent for a moment, as if searching for the right words.

"...Black magic. My child died because of me, and because of black magic."

"Black magic? Could you explain it in more detail?"

The man nodded.

"I don't know where that black magic came from, but what I do know is that it made..."

He could not continue as he covered his eyes and broke into sobs, trying not to remember it again.

Curious whether black magic was truly that dangerous, Zavi hurried to gather more information.

"Did you have any problems with someone before this happened, and what kind of work did you do before that tragedy occurred?"

With an empty gaze but a clear mind, the man answered somewhat apathetically, "Vice Captain of the Tenano Security Department."

'Huh? Vice Captain of the Security Department?'

Zavi raised his head and glanced to the right. His eyes turned serious as he thought about a profession connected to "black magic."

"Did you do something that made people hold a grudge against you?"

The man shook his head.

"If you're willing to hear my past, I'll tell it to you," the man said, unable to suppress a faint smile after finally finding some peace and clarity of mind and soul, even though he knew it would not last long.

Zavi felt awkward.

"You don't mind?" he asked, making sure.

The man slowly shook his head.

"It's alright."

Seeing Zavi's shoulders broadened, the man was brought back to a beautiful moment when he had just received his salary and bought his son a storybook titled "The Tale of Little Jenny and the Orphan Rabbit."

The man smiled bitterly and began his story.

"On the 31st, I received my usual salary of 110 Pace, but that time I also got an overtime bonus of 20 Pace.

"After getting paid that night, I said goodbye to the captain and headed home. He approved because we were close. Along the way, in Ource, I bought a storybook from Carvlahan Bookstore on Vunjok Street and returned home feeling something I couldn't quite describe.

"My son had been waiting for me together with my wife."

"Sorry if this is impolite. How old was your child?"

The man paused his story and stroked his chin.

"If I'm not mistaken, my son's birthday was in April, and in January of the previous year my boy was four years old."

Zavi nodded.

The man continued his story:

"That night was like any other night. Nothing strange happened. No problems. No incidents in Vunjok, in Ratastusan. If you're wondering, Vunjok is located on the western outskirts of Ource, near Penplan, but there are other areas that form the border between the two regions. Yaakan and Kankun.

'Simply put, Ratastusan is in the middle, Ource is to the southeast, Penplan is west of Ource, Yaakan is to the north, and Kankun is south of Ratastusan. If you want to travel to the major regions of Semilir, you have to pass through Ratastusan, take a train, or sail there by boat. Ah, that's terrible advice. Trust me.'

Knowing nothing about Semilir, Zavi immediately asked curiously, "Why don't you recommend taking a boat across the great Vesuvius River?"

The man chuckled softly. "You'd die before you got there."

"Chalog, right?" Zavi asked to make sure.

"Yes, that's right," the man answered calmly. "Three people saw that creature and nearly became its prey; a fisherman, an office worker, and an angler who saw a Hunter-type Chalog as large as a train carriage head near the riverbank." The man tried to explain the incident thoroughly and in detail.

Only a few seconds later, he realized why he was talking about something unrelated.

The man groaned and continued:

"February 1st. I lived my life as usual. There was nothing strange or unusual about my family.

"February 2nd. The same thing, nothing unusual, although I worked harder than usual that day.

"February ended peacefully. There was nothing strange related to the 'black magic' I mentioned earlier.

"We entered March. My son's birthday in early April was approaching, and an event that would change our lives happened right before our eyes without us realizing it at the time.

"As for the black magic, I don't remember how my son and wife came under its influence, but..."

Zavi noticed the hesitation on the man's face.

'...He's hiding something, isn't he?'

He chose to wait for the man to continue.

"...I can't remember what I actually did from the beginning of March until the middle of March."

Zavi's pupils widened. The answer was not what he had expected.

'Death from discussing that entity, or something else?'

Zavi had no real experience in this world. Yes, in Minehold that night, he had nearly died because he talked about the mythical figure "Rhythm Mystical," but not every mysterious death in Norn happened because of discussing the same thing.

Like the deaths in Moran; six people were affected by a ritual of the Finiscya cult. On October 20th of the previous year, horrifying news struck the people of Moran with a series of deaths, including Zavi Actitus, whose case received no attention because he was unemployed, while Aurora Chevalya's life was endangered. Yet, "she" survived the incident.

Although Zavi himself knew that "she" had brought the real Zavi to Eaurealis Castle before its destruction, he neither remembered nor knew the truth. Did Zavi Actitus die because he was discussing "that figure" with the ten people who died on the same date, or was it something else?

'...I'm pretty sure Zavi died because he was talking about R... uh, better not mention it... with ten men who somehow knew that figure's name...'

Recalling the sensation of that night, which matched his body's own memories, Zavi found himself overwhelmed by mysteries related to the occult.

'But I'm sure Zavi died together with those ten people at around eight in the morning. Thinking back to that horrifying incident, why do Ren's words warning him not to enter the supernatural world keep coming to mind? Was Ren actually a Receiver at the time?'

Zavi tried to determine whether his hypothesis was correct.

'Wait a second, if I'm not mistaken...'

"Excuse me, sir. Could you repeat that?"

Lost in thought, Zavi realized the man was still talking about his past.

"Oh, alright. That's my fault too for talking about unnecessary things like the vague details of my daily life."

Zavi nodded hesitantly after hearing those words.

Realizing his sanity was fading with time, the man immediately continued with the important point regarding black magic.

"I was framed, or rather, the slander was directed at me on March 15th. I myself don't know what I did from March 1st to March 14th. When I arrived at the department office, several people I didn't even know mocked me.

"The captain tried to mediate the situation and insisted that 'Timbler' was not the person the four of them imagined him to be.

"The four of them didn't believe it and claimed that I had committed acts of mass terrorism in the slums of Ratastusan.

"At first I was shocked, and naturally the captain didn't know what I had actually been doing. But because I was his deputy, he believed I couldn't have done something that insane.

"Those four people disappeared somehow, and the next day they came back and accused me of being a murderer who had killed a prostitute in the alleys of Ratastusan. The day after that, the same four people returned, and I faced the same problem again, except this time they claimed I had kidnapped children to force them into begging.

"Those four people kept coming until the end of March. The people who defended me were the captain, my friends, and my seniors in the Tenano Security Department. On the night before the month changed, the captain and I, together with his subordinates, discussed the case. Well, at that time the captain told me that from March 16th until March 31st, he had ordered his men to monitor all my actions without my knowledge. They were covert intelligence agents who could only be deployed by him, so it was no wonder I never noticed them. Ha ha ha ha.

"That night, I was shocked to learn from the captain that I had done nothing except work and spend time with my family. A few hours later, a fact that sent chills down all our spines emerged. The four people who always came to the Tenano Department office were declared dead that very night.

"Evidence after evidence was gathered, and I nearly got framed for killing those four people to destroy the evidence.

"Once again, the captain mediated the situation when junior officers accused their senior, the vice captain, of murdering the four people who always came and made those illogical accusations.

"March 1st. Nine days before my son's birthday. I was investigated to determine whether I was responsible for those deaths, but they found nothing.

"Now here's the crucial part. I was suspected of being with someone during the period when I had no memory, from March 1st to March 14th. However, that person was unknown to them, and they continued monitoring me until April 10th.

"April 10th. I didn't go to work, and my wife was worried and uneasy because someone kept watching our house from across the street. I told her it was the captain's order. My wife knew the captain well because he was her older brother."

Zavi nearly made a sound when he realized why the captain had protected his brother-in-law from beginning to end.

"That night, he came to our house to celebrate his nephew's birthday together with my older brother and my wife's younger sibling and their children. The party went well until they all returned home at exactly 9:30 PM.

"My brother, uh, the captain, came to see me and talked about a strange problem he had recently experienced involving hallucinations of a beautiful woman whom he believed was his wife. The problem was that he wasn't married, yet he insisted she was his wife. The captain was the last person to leave, and I immediately went inside and locked the front door.

"9:50 PM. My son and wife were smiling as they looked at all the gifts they had received, and my son's cousin, who was over ten years old, had also given him a present.

"10:00 PM. The captain, who had already left and said goodbye to me earlier, knocked on the door and rang the bell. However, my wife became suspicious and whispered something that shocked me. She said that he had never knocked on our door before."

The man immediately explained how he knew it was the captain who had arrived.

"...The black magic began here, because I didn't suspect anything. At the time, I assumed he had forgotten something at our house. As soon as I opened the door, I clearly saw the captain with dark circles under his eyes and the same apathetic look he usually had.

"I welcomed the captain warmly and invited him inside."

The man let out a long sigh.

"I was such a fool. That was what activated the black magic. Yes, I only learned later that the black magic took effect when the figure disguised as the captain entered our home and tore everything apart and..."

The man's lips and face trembled violently. He did not want to continue, yet at the same time he seemed to hope that someone could understand his pain.

"My wife killed my son right before my eyes the moment the figure disguised as the captain disappeared. I grabbed the knife aimed directly at my throat, and for some reason my wife's strength suddenly became overwhelming. Without me realizing it, my son died from blood loss on the very day he had been looking forward to for so long.

"On the morning of the 11th, one of the captain's men who always came at dawn was shocked when he saw blood splattered across the window. He rushed inside, saw what had happened, and reported it to the captain.

"When the captain arrived, he was so shocked he couldn't say a word as he saw his younger sister kill her own son and nearly kill her husband. An expert known as a shaman was brought in and concluded that my wife was under the influence of black magic.

"I lost my sanity, but before that happened, I revealed the truth: that a mysterious figure disguised as the captain had come to my house several hours after the real captain left.

"From that day onward, I became insane after my wife was declared dead and I learned that black magic had caused all of this..."

The man could no longer hold back the tears welling in his eyes. He smiled, but behind that smile was a wound that had never healed.

Zavi looked at the man with tear-filled eyes and thought about finding whoever had sent that black magic. From the beginning to the end of the story, Zavi had reached a conclusion that he might be able to find that figure. Of course, with Aaron's help.

The man sniffed and said with burning eyes and a firm tone, "If you want to find the figure or the black magic that attacked us, I would gladly welcome your efforts."

He hurriedly stood up, then lay back down facing the wall and said, "Go... before this awareness is taken away by madness once again..."

Zavi quickly stood up, retrieved his bamboo hat from the narrow gap between the buildings, and his expression changed as he slipped back into the role of James Moriarty.

'I will find that figure. This might reveal the truth behind Zavi's death and my transmigration into this world.'

Zavi put on his bamboo hat, rubbed his nose, then walked towards where the three of them were waiting.