Atop the pointed tower, a man dressed in a classic suit stood with profound composure. His gaze swept over everything below him, both hands tucked into his coat pockets, his expression flat as though the man were a ghost.
Of course, after learning that "they" had caused such a commotion and chaos, with the involvement of the Cathedral of god Auneron, it was certain that the person they were searching for was no ordinary individual and far too dangerous to simply be left in a public place.
They were searching for the Eistender hunter organization, which had killed around seven people in a short period of time. What was more, the people who had been killed were connected to one another. They were still investigating the incident alongside investigators and the police, while also involving the Cevenose Security Department, which acted as a mediator in incidents related to supernatural matters.
They did not know what the people who had been killed wanted. One of their sides claimed that the incident was connected to the mysterious disappearance of James Moriarty, a man who was also being intensely sought by all three parties.
For the time being, each of the cathedral's envoys, who were certainly not ordinary humans, had separated those suspected of being members of the Eistender group, waiting for the right moment to capture them.
Of course, those men floating around like ghosts would not be foolish enough to openly display their supernatural powers in such a crowded place.
At a glance, his eyes caught sight of about six people dressed in traditional blue clothing with yellow bottoms paired with shawls, contrasting sharply with their structured and systematic movements.
Behind them, traditional musicians playing drums, gongs, high-pitched drums known as ketipung, and flutes made every movement of the dancers feel sacred and magical.
Spotlights illuminated every movement of the dancers. The visitors sitting and standing around them were immersed in profound silence. Not a single sound could be heard as the dancers moved gracefully, with only the melodies of the instruments filling the main stage. They performed this as a tribute to the way people in ancient times entertained those who were sad, dancing to the accompaniment of two main musical instruments that were commonly found during the period of the Middle Star Calendar.
Although they were far away, the music carried continuously on the wind until it reached their ears, echoing in the mind of the brown-haired man and drawing him into profound silence.
Not long afterward, the man ran his fingers through his hair before saying,
"We'd better go down. It's rude to stand up here while they're down there, presenting the beauty of their culture to the visitors so professionally."
"Yeah." The two men behind him responded to their friend's suggestion with a somewhat indifferent tone.
As soon as they reached the ground, their coats billowed for several seconds before returning to normal. The brown-haired man, who was acting as the leader in the pursuit of Elvira and Maeressa, strode steadily toward a place no higher than the tower, continuing his surveillance.
It could become a disaster if "they" did something undesirable to the visitors at this event. Especially with this many people, the three of them were not certain they could save their lives without suffering even the slightest injury.
Unbeknownst to them, the church of Goddess Nagreitta had also come to this place. The three members they had sent were all women, as they specialized in capturing targets hiding within crowds like the two of them.
Their location was not far from the three men, and the three women moved about and assisted them discreetly.
"...Have the others already captured those six people?" one of them asked seriously.
The woman beside her, who wore strange makeup that made her lips black, replied, "It's obvious that they came from some organization. Even the Cathedral of God Auneron is taking part in the search. They certainly won't be caught as easily as you imagine."
The woman opened the hood of her black robe, revealing an expression of displeasure toward the woman who had just spoken.
"Whose side are you actually on?" she asked, her forehead almost furrowing as she saw her friend's strange behavior.
"A ridiculous question. Of course I'm supporting those who are searching for those criminals," the woman replied with a snort.
"I see." Her displeased expression faded as a mischievous look suddenly appeared on her face.
The black-haired woman whose hair was tied into a round shape let out a long sigh before saying in a despairing tone,
"Can't you two be serious? This concerns other people's lives!"
"Yeah, fine, fine. Why are you always so serious?" they muttered almost simultaneously.
Without further ado, the woman pulled her black hood back over her head and walked away from them with heavy footsteps, making anyone who heard them tremble in fear.
"Just follow her. She'll be back to normal later," said the black-lipped woman.
"All right, let's just follow her," said the woman as she pulled up her hood before walking firmly after the other woman.
...
Far from their location, on the road beneath the square, near a pile of crates. From the outside, they looked like an awkward couple, each enjoying their own food. But that was not the case. They were not lovers and were merely coworkers. Neither of them spoke, causing several passersby who saw them to question the man's inability to do anything.
Maeressa faintly heard their murmurs and complained inwardly, knowing there was little he could do. The situation was terrible, because with every passing second, his heart grew increasingly restless. Not because he was afraid of being caught by those searching for him, but because he kept wondering when this awkwardness would end.
"I... I'm going to the bathroom for a moment," Maeressa said, quickly getting up from his seat.
The vendor, who was wiping his face with a clean cloth, briefly observed the change in the pair, his face filled with hope as he looked at Maeressa.
'Well, young man. Did your words manage to win that woman's heart?'
"I don't think so." A relaxed voice brought the man's awareness back to his body.
The man with a white headband immediately turned toward his stall, looking at a man posing while giving him a thumbs-up.
"You startled me," the vendor complained, patting his forehead while shaking his head. "How's business? Busy?" he asked, hoping that his arrival here had no other purpose, despite his suspicious behavior.
The man ran his fingers through his hair, revealing a face that had previously looked relaxed now turning arrogant as his body half-turned.
"Very quiet..." he replied, looking at the man while holding back his annoyance.
"Maybe there's something wrong with the food you're selling?" the vendor muttered like a professional.
The black-haired, dark-brown-eyed man stared at him silently for several seconds before saying, "No. Actually, I don't sell food."
"Then what?" The man's eyebrow rose as he occasionally glanced at the two people who had previously bought boiled tubers.
'That young man isn't moving? How long are you going to keep doing this?'
After thinking for a moment, the vendor stared intently at the man in front of him, waiting for his explanation.
"I sell someone's handicrafts," the man replied with a smile, slightly opening his eyes.
The neatly mustached vendor fell silent and pondered the answer before asking in confusion, "Someone? I thought you didn't have another vendor as a partner besides me and that woman."
The man made a hand gesture dismissing the vendor's words. "Because the handicraft is me."
The vendor felt his mustache tremble for a moment. The man who was supposed to be standing in front of the box filled with steaming tubers disappeared in the blink of an eye.
To drive away his confusion, the mustached vendor turned to the left. Instead of dispelling his confusion, the man became even more bewildered when he realized that the wooden crates had been scattered everywhere while the two people had disappeared from his sight.
He quickly moved toward another vendor on the left side of where his cart stood. When he arrived there, his breath caught in his throat, while his face suddenly went pale upon encountering a man wearing an apron patterned with black stripes.
"What's wrong, Kin? You look like you've run hundreds of kilometers..."
The man raised his head, measuring the distance between their stalls, which was less than five meters.
"Ah, I... I don't know whether this is a dream or reality," he replied in a trembling voice.
"A dream or reality?" repeated the vendor selling grilled food.
Kin nodded, then said with complete conviction,
"I... met Ashison, and he seemed to be acting strangely while talking to me."
"And? Isn't he always like that when he talks to you?" said the vendor in the black-striped apron, tilting his head.
"You don't understand," Kin said, his breathing broken.
"That's not all. Those two people disappeared when the crates scattered by themselves."
The vendor turned to his right, his eyes widening when he realized that the words were indeed true. He had thought his friend was exhausted and hallucinating, but that assumption was shattered when a wooden crate fell without making the slightest sound.
The two immediately fell silent, sinking into suffocating silence before returning to their respective stalls because none of those wooden crates had anything to do with them.
...
Not far from that location, Maeressa and Elvira broke through the crowd in the streets, pushing aside anyone who blocked their path.
Realizing that they had made a grave mistake, they were forced to decide to flee this place, even though they knew it was nearly impossible.
"Idiot! Why did you bring me here?" Maeressa shouted loudly, the veins in his neck beginning to bulge.
Anxiety was written across Elvira's face. She admitted that her foolish actions had endangered her own life and that of her partner, including the survival of the Eistender hunter organization.
Elvira tried to remain calm, attempting to make up for her mistake.
"Just stay calm. We'll escape and return to the others."
"Are you sure?" A man with a wide smile and closed eyes suddenly appeared beside Elvira and interrupted them.
"Huh!?" Although both of them were startled, Maeressa managed to throw a punch at the man.
However, Ashison easily avoided it. Chaos immediately erupted as the murmurs and screams of the people made the situation increasingly serious and intense. But that was not what it seemed. It was nothing more than someone hallucinating.
The three stood motionless while the two of them fixed their gazes on Ashison, watching his every movement.
"An envoy of the church or cathedral?" Elvira asked with full vigilance. She glanced at Maeressa, signaling for him to find a way to escape from the man who was clearly their enemy.
"Relax. There's no need to be so wary," Ashison said with a wide smile. "I'm not part of them. Rather..."
His eyes, which were always closed, opened along with his fading smile, then he continued,
"I'm with the six people, no, seven people you killed."
Without waiting for their response to his words or his presence, Finn Ashison immediately added;
"I want you to fight me seriously, regardless of the people who've been watching you this whole time."
Ashison's final words echoed in their minds for several seconds before both of them raised their heads, sensing the pressure of being judged by the people Finn Ashison had mentioned.
"...How do you know they're around here? And how do you know we're here?"
Holding back something that had been burning in his chest since yesterday afternoon, Ashison instead smiled widely, closing his eyes again because he did not want to see that world anymore, and casually answered his opponent's question.
"That vendor, he's my friend. I learned your location through him."
Of course, Ashison was not foolish enough to reveal the real reason he could determine their location. However, that answer was partially true, because the vendor selling boiled tubers had been affected by his perfect illusion.
It had happened accidentally, after Ashison lost the time he needed to perform the "role" of his ability's stage, causing his ability to lose control and attack someone else.
At the time, Ashison had felt relieved that the ability had not attacked him. But after discovering who had been struck by the attack, that relief had turned into profound guilt for having robbed someone of the freedom to pursue his noble goal.
'Receivers of the Sorcerer, at its third level, Wanderer.'
At the third level, a target affected by the perfect illusion would enter an illusory world created by a Receivers of the Sorcerer pathway, particularly one at the third level, without realizing that they had been caught in the illusion. This power was an advancement of the perfect illusion, which required an intermediary for activation to proceed smoothly and accurately, such as Karl Valhan Vairanz.
The Sorcerer's abilities, aside from being frightening, possessed a profound weakness for the Receivers themselves. Finn Ashison, who suffered from serious mental problems that made the circus club his place of escape, simultaneously performed his "role" as a "Wanderer."
At this level, there were also additional powers that were quite formidable, particularly in terms of supernatural touch and disguise. The face he had shown the two of them was not actually his real face.
"I lost the man who dreamed of raising his parents' status," he said, mourning the incident.
Finn Ashison was not his real name. The name belonged to his friend, who died after being affected by that ability, and now that ability wanted to kill another one of his friends, Kin Dover.
Of course, he would not let that happen while playing the roles of both a "Magician" and a "Wanderer" at the same time, so that his ability would not cause trouble.
"This world is nothing but an illusion..." He could not erase that smile, even though deep within his heart lay a dark past he wanted to throw away. "Don't worry about those people. Now... fight me with everything you've got."
'Perhaps one of them is a Receivers of the same ability as mine, judging from his expression and spiritual aura.'
Finn Ashison activated the Sorcerer's spiritual vision at its first level and sensed that his suspicion was indeed correct. However, Finn realized how expertly Maeressa concealed that weakness, and he had even hoped to become friends with him.
"Come on, let's fight. Let's see how well you can master that ability of yours..." Finn said firmly with a faint smirk, attempting to weaken his opponent's mentality.
Realizing that his opponent was also a Sorcerer, Maeressa held back his smile and chose to remain silent, waiting for his opponent to attack.
"May I ask you something?"
The world around them was filled with people who continued shouting and staring at them, with the same surroundings as before they had been dragged into this world in an instant, reacting to those words as a cold wind blew past them.
There was no response from his opponent, so Maeressa immediately revealed what was on his mind.
"If we fight seriously, who do you think will win, you or me?"
Now, Maeressa wanted to crush his opponent's mentality. He had learned from his mistake, and this ability possessed destructive power despite being concealed beneath the mental weakness of a Receivers.
Finn Ashison felt something strange on his tongue. He smiled faintly, then answered enthusiastically,
"I don't know. I really don't. That's why, how about I make the first move?"
With a single glance, Elvira's body shattered into pieces before transforming into a flower stem, then beautiful purple petals, and carried away by the steady wind blowing through the illusory world.