The Elusive Sorcerer

Chapter 165

At Makoli City, Verce, a man wearing a bowler hat and his two companions walked along Dahsu Street. Amid the bustling streets, their gazes were sharp, as if something bad was about to happen.

Through the foggy streets and suffocating steam, the man in the bowler hat and his two companions entered a building by the roadside.

Plop!

One of them, a woman, bumped into a menu banner beside the door, causing it to fall.

The other man quickly cleaned up the mess before following the man in the bowler hat.

Knock... Knock...

The man in the bowler hat tapped the edge of the table.

A guard of the Sowiersteir Club immediately turned around and looked at the three familiar figures.

"...What is it?" asked a man wearing framed glasses, narrowing his eyes.

The man in the bowler hat stared at him with his brown eyes for two seconds before asking, "Has that person returned yet?"

The man with the glasses necklace smiled faintly.

"As it happens, he left just a few minutes ago," said the man with the glasses necklace.

"Really?" The man in the bowler hat reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a 100-pence coin, and rolled it across.

The man with the glasses necklace watched indifferently. Meanwhile, the man in the bowler hat and his two companions hurried off to chase the man in question.

Ring... Ring... Ring... Ring... Ring...

At least three times, the bell above the door rang, signaling that three people had passed through.

The man with the glasses necklace hurried outside when he noticed movement in the room to his right, behind the decorated curtain.

Another man with a face speckled like a circus clown emerged from the room behind the curtain and asked,

"...Who were you talking to?"

The man with the glasses necklace stepped away from the side doorway near the table and answered calmly, "That man and his two companions."

The two fell silent for a moment before the dirty-faced clown-like man said, "Yeah, to meet Sodet?"

The man with the glasses necklace shrugged.

"...Maybe, yes," he replied indifferently.

Seeing the dirty-faced man turn around, intending to go back inside, the man with the glasses necklace added,

"There's something important he's looking for."

The dirty-faced man paid him no attention at all, at least for now.

....

Amid the bustling streets and sidewalks, a man in a bowler hat and his two companions pushed through the crowd.

The silhouette of a clown hat briefly appeared among the crowd, causing the bowler-hatted man's pupils to widen.

"There!"

The moment the voice rang out, as if realizing he had been spotted, he removed the clown hat from his head and made use of the crowd around him.

However, already familiar with this trick, the man in the bowler hat said without looking back,

"You two split up and catch him at the roundabout!"

"Okay," the two replied almost simultaneously.

His companions, a woman and a man, hurried off in opposite directions. Meanwhile, he focused on his footing and the people blocking his path.

Recalling their amateurish movements, Sodet, the man they were looking for, smiled faintly, convinced that he would escape today.

"Idiots, they never learn from their mistakes!"

He kept walking, and his steps brought him to a road sign pointing toward three different roads, each a varying distance apart.

Sodet slowed his pace when he realized he was trapped, fifty meters from the roundabout.

"...How did you manage this?" he asked, his voice full of deception.

The two approached carefully, fully aware of his cunning and prepared to capture him.

Remembering how deserted the streets near the roundabout were, Sodet swallowed hard when he realized he could no longer escape.

Moreover, the man in the bowler hat was almost there and would soon catch him, forcing him to raise his hands in surrender.

"Good. You can't run away now," the woman said firmly.

After the two of them cornered Sodet in a one-meter-wide gap between two buildings, the man in the bowler hat arrived, swiftly pulling out a newspaper and showing it to him.

"...What's this?" Sodet asked, his brow furrowing.

The man in the bowler hat looked at him seriously.

"How much money have you received... Mister Sodet."

Sodet chuckled to himself and acted casually, as though their presence posed no serious threat.

"And why is the honorable Mister Albert Hammond interested in a poor man like me?" asked Sodet, completely unaware of his true purpose.

Albert folded the newspaper and slipped it into his suit pocket.

"The corpses. What are you planning to do with the corpses you've been carrying around?"

'Is he working for some organization?'

Albert desperately wanted to say that, but held himself back.

Sodet let out a bitter laugh.

"I don't understand what corpses you're talking about."

"The recent death cases. You know about them, don't you?" Albert asked eagerly.

Sodet sighed sharply.

"If I say yes, then what are you going to do?"

Hearing that response, Albert no longer hesitated to reveal his thoughts.

"Who sent you?"

With a measured movement, he drew a silver revolver and pressed the muzzle against Sodet's forehead.

The cold sensation and metallic gleam of the revolver forced Sodet's head against the rough, damp wall.

Meanwhile, Luke and Feyne stood at the mouth of the gap to ensure the operation succeeded.

No more words followed. Only the wind moving the window above them and the constant deafening noise in the distance.

At first, Sodet had intended to remove his clown costume and change into ordinary clothes to make escaping easier.

However, he knew very well that they no longer needed him once he realized that something strange had been bothering him today, especially since that man was not in his usual place.

After a moment of silence, Sodet slowly raised his hand and pushed the revolver away from his forehead.

The moment Albert saw that movement, he instinctively threw the revolver toward Luke, who caught it and immediately pointed the muzzle straight at Sodet's head without hesitation, ready to shoot if necessary.

Having no choice but to answer, Sodet let out a long sigh as his body slumped down and he sat on the ground.

"Alright, alright. I don't know everything, but they're paying a high price to find someone's corpse around Verce. One more thing, I don't know the true identity of the person behind all this concerning the missing corpses."

"The messenger?" Albert asked, the doubt in his mind gradually fading.

Sodet nodded hesitantly.

"The number of deaths lately has been increasing." He paused briefly and glanced at the revolver pointed at his head.

"Could you put that revolver away?" he asked cautiously.

Luke glanced at Albert, who nodded. He then tucked the revolver into his jacket pocket and resumed standing guard.

Feyne did the same, but she leaned against the wall, allowing her black dress to get dirty. Meanwhile, her gaze remained fixed on the passersby, her eyelids narrowed.

'How much longer is this going to take?'

She sighed inwardly.

Meanwhile, Albert continued interrogating him about the reason behind the sudden disappearance of the corpses.

"Talk quickly, or I'll take you to the church."

The moment he heard the word 'church,' Sodet's body visibly trembled.

"Ah, yes, I'll tell you, but don't report me to the Church of Nacessary, alright?" said Sodet, holding his breath.

Albert adjusted his hat while nodding, stared at him for two seconds, and spoke in his deep voice, "An organization? Tell me the name of the organization that sent you."

"Red Crow... Red Crow is the one that ordered me to search for those corpses," Sodet answered nervously.

Albert raised an eyebrow.

"Red Crow? That's the first time I've heard of it. Do either of you know what kind of organization that is?" he asked while stroking his chin.

Feyne's brow furrowed for several seconds before returning to normal, and she said in a slightly raised voice, "Never heard of it. Must be some newly formed organization."

Sodet only knew about the organization through a messenger he often spoke with, the one who had tasked him with finding the corpses that had turned Verce into a horror film.

Beyond that, he knew nothing about what the organization actually was.

He curled his fingers and said quietly, "I swear in the name of the goddess Nagreitta that what I said is true."

Knowing how sacred that oath symbol was, Albert, a follower of the goddess Yarandrela, swallowed hard.

"...I won't let you go, and I'll take you..."

He had not finished speaking when Sodet quickly interrupted him.

"To the Church of Nacessary? Th-that's not part of the agreement!"

Albert looked at him in confusion and said, "No, don't worry. Don't panic."

"No, what do you mean? You're clearly not keeping your end of the agreement."

Albert quickly clarified the misunderstanding.

"To the basement where I live," Albert said as he turned around.

"The place where you live?" Sodet repeated in confusion.

....

In Chavez, a pale young girl whose movements resembled those of a puppet walked alone along an alleyway street that once concealed something dark, even though that something had disappeared several weeks ago. The air there felt stifling, but it did not stop the young girl from moving forward.

The young girl appeared to be around fourteen years old and wore a black lace hat that matched her black dress, drawing the attention of the people in the alley and prompting them to talk about her presence.

"Where is that expressionless girl going?"

A man asked.

"I don't know," replied another man who had heard the question.

Two other women nearby were also discussing the young girl's presence.

"Is she a noble?"

The woman beside her nodded uncertainly.

"Maybe, but why is she walking alone toward that mansion?"

By the time those murmurs faded, the girl could no longer hear them as she slowly disappeared from their sight.

Now she had arrived, and before her stood a dilapidated iron fence full of holes and the missing gate of a grand mansion.

"The last known location is here, but where is she now?" the girl muttered to herself before walking through the iron fence and entering the mansion grounds.

The last location of the battle and the place connected to a woman with emptiness in her heart.

Sensing that something strange lingered in this place, the young girl transformed into her Recipestele form.

She simply floated silently before the abandoned mansion, which still radiated a sense of grandeur and leaking spirituality. Munien knew that her master, Mine Rasuha, had once lived here.

"...But where is she now?"

Munien was confused, unable to say anything more afterward.

Mine Rasuha's location only led to this mansion. Beyond that, she had absolutely no idea where she was.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!