Chapter 59 - The Conclusion

Azriel absently looked around the surroundings that were emptied in an instant. Noir clicked his tongue.

“…Noir, do you know what’s going on?”

Noir groomed his fur like a common cat and feigned indifference. Azriel lifted him up and looked at him in the eye. 

“Did something happen? Why is everyone acting like that?”

“…”

Noir’s green eyes rolled sideways. When Azriel followed his sight and stared at him, the tip of the cat’s nose twitched.

“Hey, Azriel. Can we just go home?”

“No. I won’t go home until you tell me!”

“…Phew.”

The black cat jumped high and got out of Azriel’s hands.

“Follow me.”

Azriel walked around the empty village as she followed Noir. It did not take her more than a few steps before she saw something strange. Centered around where the village chief’s house was, a huge pit had formed. The houses that were at the rim of the pit were halfway collapsed, directly showing the inside of them. As if people had fled in a hurry, furniture was scattered in a mess. Azriel turned pale and gazed at the pit where nothing was left.

“What is this? What about Tom’s house? What happened to the village chief, his wife, and Tom?”

“I don’t know about that. Anyway, I think the people are acting weird because of this.”

Realizing what had happened, Azriel held her breath.

“…This, did Rhema do this?”

The black cat tilted his ears back without a word, which was a sufficient answer. Azriel hectically ran home. Noir was startled as she tripped and rolled on the ground on the way, but she did not care.

“Rhema!”

As soon as arriving at the house, she called his name.

“Rhema? Where are you?”

She looked into the herb garden and the greenhouse in the backyard, the kitchen, and the living room. As she noisily searched around, familiar spirits and the spirit watched her nervously.

“Rhema! Rhema!”

Rhema was not in the study on the second floor nor in his room. The only place left was the basement. Her eyes turned toward the stairs leading to the basement. Down the stairs were storage on the right and Rhema’s lab on the left. If Rhema was not seen, he was mostly gone out of the house, but there were times when he was in his lab.

She did not know what he did in the lab. She frequently went to the storage but had not been to the lab. She had not even held its door knob because Rhema told her not to enter it. She had never gone against Rhema’s words.

She went downstairs and opened the storage door. Rhema was nowhere to be found. Standing against the storage door, she used communication magic.

“Esthera, Reshith.”

She called him a few times, but there was no response. Ever since she learned communication, Rhema always answered her quickly, even while he was out. The only time he did not respond was when he was in the lab. When he was inside the lab, he did not answer her even if she looked for him.

Azriel stood in front of the lab. Its door was much bigger than the storage door. A big bronze knob was at her eye level. She carefully knocked on it.

“Rhema?”

It was quiet. Azriel blinked her eyes. When she focused, she saw mana. Stars were flowing at the door knob shaped in the head of a dragon. It seemed complex magic spells were cast to capacity. They were something that she could not undo theoretically. However, somehow, she intuitively felt that all magic would unwind simply like a knot if she just grabbed and pulled the stars.

“Rhema? Are you there?”

She held the doorknob. She felt the cold metal in her hand. It seemed she could open it. She stood there for a long while. Then she slowly took her hand off of it.

‘Rhema told me not to enter here.’

She eventually turned away, not opening the door. When she stepped her foot on the stairs, she heard a clicking sound of the door knob spinning. When she looked back, Rhema was coming out of the lab. He seemed slightly tired. Finding her standing at the stairs, he tilted his head.

“Azriel? What are you doing here?”

He came near her as if he was going to lift her up. Avoiding him, she stepped back. When she took a few steps up the stairs behind her, her eyes met him almost at his eye level. Rhema was a little shocked by the fact that Azriel avoided his hand. His eyebrows shook feebly.

“…Rhema.”

Looking at his grey eyes, Azriel asked.

“What did you do in Hanora?”

“Have you been to the village?”

“Yes. All the people who saw me ran away. Did something happen?”

“I only searched the memory of the people who might know your whereabouts…”

Rhema, who was answering her candidly, suddenly stopped. He remembered the side effects of the memory search magic. Since he did such a thing while asking about Azriel, it was natural that the people were horrified. He felt like he had broken Azriel’s favorite toys. He slightly lowered his head.

“…I’m sorry, Azriel. Please wait for a day. I’ll erase people’s memory.”

“Erase? Their memory?”

“Magic related to memory is usually like that, but the magic that reads someone’s memory is especially painful. Some people might have gone mad because of its impact. That must be why they’re avoiding you, so it’ll be alright if I erase their memory of what happened.”

“You’re not going to apologize for hurting them… but you’ll erase their memory about what you’ve done?”

“That way will be more neat.”

Azriel was confused. She vaguely sensed something. Rhema’s reaction was strange somehow. It was unexplainable, but something was strange.

“…Then what is the pit in the village?”

“The village chief overlooked your kidnapping for money. I punished him for that and slightly overused mana.”

“Did you… kill the chief? Because he overlooked me being kidnapped?”

“Yes.”

“Wh, what about the people next door? What about Tom? Are they safe?”

“I don’t know. They might have been swept away.”

Rhema indifferently answered.