The Elusive Sorcerer

Chapter 172

Getting everything he wanted while still in school was something he had always longed for, even if it came through his own hard work.

Even so, he never complained about it. Yet something he desired vanished when misfortune befell him.

A teenager woke from his long sleep after hearing the alarm on his phone blaring into his ears.

He suppressed a groan by clenching his teeth.

'I'm so tired. Should I skip class with them?'

Where would they even go? The thought crossed Liam Tirarty's mind as he scratched an itchy part of his body. He had forgotten that today was different from the days before. A day that would torment him and leave his brain steaming.

On the second floor, the curtains and bedroom windows were still closed. The air inside was stuffy, trapped overnight without any circulation, prompting Liam Tirarty to get up and do something about it.

The glaring sunlight reflected through the glass window and struck his face, causing him to raise a hand. Only then did he realize he was going to be late for school.

'Damn it, this will be the third time I've been late!'

The realization, which had yet to fully settle in, jolted his brain into taking control of his entire body as he shoved aside the objects blocking his path and rushed out of his room.

As he hurried down the hallway with a pounding heartbeat, Liam Tirarty felt the loneliness of the house.

On the ground floor, Liam patted his own shoulder while his gaze swept across the surroundings before settling on the wall clock hanging a few meters above the door.

The kitchen was empty.

The living room was empty.

The family room was empty.

His older sister's room?

Tightly shut.

'This is bad.'

Realizing it was already 6:45 in the morning, Liam hurried into the bathroom. Afterward, he put on his school uniform and ate two sandwiches left over from the night before.

The distance from his house to school was fairly far, so he decided to head for the nearest bus stop, only about a hundred meters away from his home at the entrance of Doen Alley.

A few seconds into his race against time, a bitter fact struck him.

7:00 a.m.

As if fate was against him, carrying his bag and without even having time to fix his hair, Liam watched the bus leave with his own eyes.

'What? It was only a few meters away, right? Why, why did that bus leave without me?'

But that wasn't the worst part, because another dreadful realization struck his entire being.

Math class. Physics class. History class, even though Liam actually liked that subject.

Still standing motionless, often glanced at by passing pedestrians and drivers, Liam found himself faced with two difficult choices.

'They're definitely there. I'm sure of it.'

Since he was already far from home, Liam ultimately chose the second option after careful consideration.

Several hundred meters from the bus stop, Liam arrived at a familiar place and could hear bursts of laughter coming from inside, even while he was still standing in the yard.

'I'm sure they're in there, skipping school too.'

The place was called an internet café, where individuals or groups rented out PCs at affordable prices for students like them. It had decent facilities, enough to keep students comfortable.

Comfortable enough to skip school, forget about the future, and enjoy the present.

At first glance, Liam Tirarty wondered what game they were playing.

'Whatever.'

Liam shrugged, thinking he would find out once he got inside.

The moment he entered, Liam briefly wondered whether his friends were actually there.

Just as expected, as though he knew their habits inside and out. After walking six steps from the glass entrance door, Liam spotted the silhouettes of his three friends, each completely focused on their monitor screens.

A mischievous idea immediately crossed his mind.

The three of them were still unaware of his presence, making the plan even easier to pull off.

Quietly, he altered his voice to resemble that terrifying teacher.

"Ahem, good, very good. I'll be giving all three of you a perfect score on your secret assignment."

The three of them, who had been happily watching funny videos on an app, suddenly found their minds going blank.

Not satisfied yet, Liam held back his laughter after seeing their expressions. He poked each of their heads with his index finger and said, "I'll even let all of you graduate today."

Today was January 21st.

The graduation exams were still months away, making all three of them immediately realize what was going on.

"That's enough, Liam," one of his friends said while wiping his forehead.

Another friend sitting on the left and wearing a cap said, "Seriously. Turns out you're really good at imitating that fifty-year-old's voice."

"Fifty-year-old" was their nickname for the teacher they all feared.

Liam chuckled to himself.

"What video were you watching? It looked pretty funny," he asked curiously.

Liam's friend sitting in the middle gaming chair felt a slight jolt when Liam rested both hands on the back of his chair.

He sighed and shook his head before stopping the video and closing the application.

"It could be dangerous if we stay here," the young man finally said.

The teenager with glasses sitting to his right asked curiously, "Something wrong? Your instincts are always ridiculously sharp whenever we skip school, right, Liam?"

He looked at Liam.

"Yeah, Deceh is an expert at making predictions," Liam replied while running a hand through his hair.

Deceh was the nickname of the teenager sitting in the middle gaming chair. His real name was Dennis Roane.

"What do you think, Deceh?" asked the teenager on his left.

Dennis hesitated for a moment, wondering whether they should stay or move somewhere safer and, of course, still affordable.

"If we're following my prediction, or my intuition... we should save the rest of our rental time here."

Having only just arrived, Liam decided to trust the judgment of an expert.

The four of them got up, grabbed their bags from beneath the desks, and headed toward the attendant.

"Bro Win, save my remaining time, okay? Something came up all of a sudden," Dennis said casually.

Win, who knew Dennis was a student who frequently skipped school to come here, shook his head. Two seconds later, he spoke while suppressing a frown.

"Alright." He opened Dennis's PC tab and checked the remaining time. "Twenty-five minutes, huh," he continued calmly.

Twenty-five minutes was valuable, or so he thought.

"...Don't forget that."

After saying that, Dennis walked out of the internet café.

His three friends who had already stepped outside were now frozen in the middle of the street lined with parked motorcycles on both sides.

"What's wrong with you guys...?"

Something he had been trying to avoid had now appeared beside a utility pole a few meters ahead on the right side of the internet café.

Startled, the three of them, or rather the four teenage boys, immediately sprinted to the left to avoid being caught by that terrifying teacher.

"This is bad! What if we get caught?" the teenager with glasses exclaimed in panic.

"Relax," said Liam Tirarty.

'How can we relax when that teacher is still chasing us with that beat-up vehicle of his?'

The four of them turned into a narrow alley where they planned to mess with the terrifying teacher.

Following Liam's suggestion, they split up and agreed to regroup somewhere safe, leaving the teacher completely confused about whom to pursue.

His students?

Or those troublesome truants who loved skipping school?

For a brief moment, the teacher's intelligence seemed to stop working as he realized they were playing him for a fool.

"Dennis..." the terrifying teacher growled in annoyance as he continued the pursuit.

His target was clear: catch Dennis, their leader, and then use him as bait to lure the other three out.

However, the plan did not unfold smoothly because Liam Tirarty was even more cunning.

"He" darted into a resident's yard, nearly trampling the plants and ultimately causing the terrifying teacher to flee in complete disarray.

"Dennis, I'm really going to punish you...!"

Naturally, the teacher was furious after being toyed with by them.

Not far from the yard, in front of a small shop hidden within the alley with a vast expanse of rice fields stretching beyond it.

The four of them decided to head to the river and go fishing, following Liam Tirarty's suggestion.

"That river has a great fishing spot," Liam said while wiping sweat from his forehead.

Dennis glanced at him.

"How do you know that?" he asked curiously.

Liam looked at the teenager whose black hair was parted down the middle.

"Gaku told me himself," Liam answered calmly.

From that moment on, they learned that these carefree teenage days would never come again once each of them started their own families.

And indeed, that became reality only a few weeks later, when Liam Tirarty's fate changed drastically after he was thrown into a cramped, foul-smelling prison cell.

He barely received any visits from the three of them.

In fact, they never even asked how he was doing in that place.

"...Liam... why are you crying?"

"Alisa? Is that you?"

"No," a woman answered firmly.

Liam was confused. He couldn't feel anything around him except that familiar female voice.

"Wake up, Liam Tirarty..."

"Huah..."

Hearing that, James Moriarty woke from his sleep.

He slowly rubbed his forehead. His chest rose and fell while his heartbeat lost its rhythm.

'Alisa?'

"Oh? Alisa, huh..."

A familiar, sarcastic voice came from beside him. James Moriarty lifted his head, adjusted his bowler hat, and looked at the woman in the luxurious red dress standing at the far end of the long oval table before him.

"What are you doing standing there?" he asked in an icy tone.

James Moriarty continued rubbing his forehead gently.

Evelina chuckled to herself.

"Obviously, I'm guarding you from those seven people," Evelina replied, opening her folding fan and waving it toward him.

The familiar sensation made James Moriarty's body shudder for several seconds after witnessing Evelina's action.

'Damn artifact.'

Zavi tapped his forehead, rose from his seat, and stretched.

Afterward, he checked the suitcase beside him on the left, intending to inspect it.

"Relax. No one opened it or even touched it," Evelina said firmly.

She closed the folding fan, held it against her lips, and shivered at the thought.

'How are we supposed to get close to you when something invisible is protecting you, Moriarty...'

Evelina had personally witnessed Luis, curious about the contents of the suitcase, attempt to open it.

The result?

His fingers had been sliced by strands of thin, razor-sharp thread that neither he nor Evelina could even see.

There was only one fitting description for James Moriarty in their minds.

The Elusive Sorcerer.

Although they knew little about either James Moriarty or Zavi Actitus, a Receiver from Prisoner, they considered themselves fortunate that someone so dangerous was on their side.

Staring at him for too long only strengthened James Moriarty's suspicions.

'Wasn't I hugging this suitcase before? Why is she staring at me like that?'

The role of James Moriarty faded as Zavi shifted his gaze to the left side of the room, the central hall brightly illuminated by lanterns.

He placed the suitcase on the sofa where he had been sleeping before approaching the seven people occupying the lounge.

Zavi resumed playing the role of James Moriarty.

"Where are the three of them?" he asked coldly, careful not to damage James Moriarty's image.

Fatir hurriedly stood up, unwilling to meet his eyes directly, and replied hesitantly, "Nuken, Rapal, and Aris are still over there."

"Good," James Moriarty said calmly.

"Eh?"

The seven people were startled to hear those words come from his mouth.

Evelina walked closer, trying to hear more.

"Don't be so stiff. It'll only trap you in that uncomfortable feeling. Act normally, and don't be afraid of me."

This was the first time James Moriarty had spoken this much to the seven men outside discussions of plans.

'Act normal? How am I supposed to do that? My soul is screaming just from your presence.'

That was the pitiful thought shared by Fatir and Zojan, the bald man with a mustache split down the middle.

James Moriarty looked at them and said, "Get ready. I won't forgive any of you if you die in tonight's battle."

The seven of them immediately nodded upon hearing that cold yet profound statement.

Night arrived as the sun slowly sank beneath the western horizon minute by minute. As the moon gradually rose, everything was placed on the line. The moment those eleven people stepped outside and headed underground, the night itself became a gamble.

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