"Sorry… how long have you two been here?" Zavi asked, showing an awkward expression.
The question lingered in the air like thin smoke, as if the two of them were hiding something, something that could not yet be explained.
They glanced at each other. It confused Zavi, yet at the same time he felt grateful because he had obtained the important ingredient.
"Let me carry it!" Ulriech said in a calm voice, like the breath of the night wind.
Moreira, who had been holding the ingredient, immediately handed it to the stall owner. Ulriech, that was his name. He turned slightly to the side, then gestured for Zavi to move toward the back, into the house, to prepare the herbal potion.
"Hmm..."
For a moment Zavi looked at them before stepping forward with the help of his two wooden sticks. The tips of the sticks touched the stone road, forming a slow, steady rhythm.
Moreira had not yet realized that Zavi's leg was gone. But Celvira, a level-three evil spirit, caught even the smallest detail. She immediately thought of revealing the truth to Moreira.
"That man's leg is gone!" She pointed at Zavi who had just entered through the small stairs of the house. "Could it be something took his leg?" she asked, her expression still cold, as if the incident were nothing extraordinary.
Moreira's lips tightened. His eyes widened as the image of the black market resurfaced in his mind.
'Should I tell him? What about the three of them? Are they alright?' he thought, filled with worry.
Inside the house, specifically in the kitchen, Ulriech fell silent while recalling the composition of the herbal potion. Several minutes passed. Once his memory aligned perfectly, he immediately moved without hesitation, ready to brew it and receive payment for his service.
Business is business. That sentence was his principle, keeping him working regardless of whether Receivers or other Hollows targeted him, or whether other potion sellers scattered across the large province disliked him.
What mattered was that he was ready, and he tried to convince Zavi while also convincing himself, that the potion would not damage Zavi's body. On the contrary, it would change everything.
First, Ulriech burned a spoonful containing four crushed Terami flowers until they released a fragrant aroma, a mixture of the smell of a corpse and the distinct scent of incense.
Step one completed.
He placed the burnt result into a glass bottle that narrowed toward the top.
Five grams of blue mint leaves, which had also been crushed, were inserted into the bottle.
Step two completed.
If the Terami flowers were four and the mint five grams, then as a balance, Ulriech added all the Xie powder, 20 grams.
After step three was completed and the three ingredients mixed and reacted, a strange sound echoed throughout the room screams, cries, and burning rage overlapping without direction.
Unable to endure the sound that pierced their heads and raised the hairs on their necks, both of them reflexively fell to their knees.
"Damn it… what kind of pressure is this?" Ulriech muttered in panic. Although it was not his first time brewing a potion, he had never felt such a reaction before.
With difficulty, he tried to stand, even though those voices still echoed clearly in his head.
On the table beside him, he picked up the second important ingredient: crystal particles.
The moment the particles were poured into the bottle, the strange voices and pressure vanished instantly, as if a ship had sunk without a trace in the ocean.
Step four completed.
Two cinnamon sticks were cut into small pieces to fit inside, then added together with two lemongrass leaves that had also been cut into small pieces.
Step five completed.
A rare six-petaled flower grape, previously purchased by the two of them, was mixed together with fifty milliliters of fresh cow's milk no less, no more. Any error in measurement would bring unpredictable consequences.
Step six completed.
Lastly, the third and most important ingredient. This substance triggered an extreme surge of adrenaline when consumed. If the drinker's mental condition was unstable, they could lose control, suffer severe dissociation, or even die seconds afterward.
However, if their will and consciousness were strong enough, this ingredient would instead "lock" their psychology, neither dead nor insane, but forced to endure every pain and transformation with full awareness.
Blue lotus.
The flower was first crushed, mixed with twenty milliliters of water, and then poured into the bottle.
Step seven, and the final step, completed.
Whoosh—
A powerful gust of wind suddenly swept through the room from an unknown source. Doors and windows shut on their own, even though the kitchen had no ventilation at all, and the wind disrupted the entire room for quite some time.
But Ulriech knew this was the moment before the potion mixed by itself.
A dark purplish aura with faint gray tones emerged from the mouth of the bottle, filling the kitchen and disturbing their sight and sense of smell.
They coughed violently. Their chests pounded like balloons being pumped endlessly, forcing them out of the kitchen.
Several seconds later, the door closed by itself as if someone had shut it.
The event became Zavi's first experience, and a valuable lesson. He did not know what things were hidden out there: beyond the continent, in the sea, in rivers, in lakes, and even around him.
"A-are you alright, Sir…?" Zavi asked, his voice barely audible while covering his mouth.
"My name is Ulriech," he replied while covering his face. "It's nothing. I'm used to it," he said with a confident expression.
About one minute later, Ulriech grabbed the doorknob with a hand that felt cold the lingering effect of the blue lotus.
The knob slowly turned. The hinge creaked as the door opened.
On the table, the potion glowed like a disco light, blue, dark purple, and gray pulsing as if alive. A sight they had never seen before made their eyes widen.
"Please take it, and of course drink it according to the instructions I gave earlier." Ulriech sealed the bottle with a wooden cork, then handed it to Zavi.
"With pleasure," Zavi said with a faint smile.
A strange question crossed his mind. Hesitant, yet needing certainty.
"Mr. Ulriech… drinking this won't kill me, right?" he asked, the corner of his lips twitching upward.
Ulriech burst into laughter, easing the tension in the room.
"It won't. Trust me… maybe," he muttered, slowing his voice on the last word.
"As for the payment, my wife said your female friend paid around a dozen banknotes. I didn't have time to count them, but it's clearly more than 20 Pace. That's far above the original price," he said with an indescribable feeling.
After that, Ulriech stepped forward. He paused for a moment, patted Zavi on the shoulder, then continued walking to tidy his goods as the night grew late.
Zavi then walked using his sticks and left the house, approaching the two who were still waiting outside.
The potion bottle had been hidden between his shirt and trousers. Meanwhile, the damaged coat had been discarded earlier.
The silver revolver without bullets was tucked between the clothes and the shirt on the left side, making Zavi's waist feel slightly uncomfortable whenever he sat or walked using the wooden sticks.
His steps stopped when he saw Moreira standing not far from the doorway, looking at him with an expression that mixed enthusiasm with gloom.
Zavi continued walking, lowering his two sticks carefully onto the small steps, then asked what had actually happened.
"What's wrong with you? Is something bothering you?" Zavi asked worriedly, his blue eyes staring straight ahead.
"Maybe because the weather here is very bad… I think I'm tired," Moreira replied with a bitter smile. "Can we find an inn to rest for the night?" he asked hopefully.
Before agreeing to the request, Zavi thought for a moment, remembering the remaining money he had during this journey.
"Alright," he finally answered. "Besides, I also need rest," he muttered weakly.
Walking back and forth, helped by Celvira in searching for an inn or a simple apartment to stay in for the night, turned out to be far more difficult than they expected.
They were almost exhausted and desperate. When they reached the intersection of Kirei's main road, Celvira saw a flyer about a cheap apartment for rent. However, as expected for its price, the place was located near a quiet area, with almost no neighbors around, although there were still a few inhabited houses in the alley leading to the apartment.
That made them think twice about staying there. But thanks to Celvira's effort to convince them, and as a level-three evil spirit, she claimed that no ghosts or spirits would dare approach, let alone oppose them.
Of course, they did not fully believe the words coming from one of their own kind. Meanwhile, Zavi actually became more cautious than before, staying alert in case something attacked them. Especially since his ability suddenly stopped working as before.
He thought that the Prisoner at that time might have experienced some kind of malfunction, something like a bug in a game, and his body was still in the process of fixing it.
Thinking about that, and based on his experience playing games, Zavi felt it was reasonable to act more carefully. Being cautious before something bad happened was not a mistake.
The pamphlet looked ordinary when Celvira showed it. The paper was dull, its corners folded, and the black ink slightly faded, as if it had been hanging for too long in a place rarely passed by people.
The address was clear. The rent was too cheap for that area, 15 Pace for four days and five nights.
Zavi stared at it for a few seconds longer than necessary. Not because he was interested, but because something felt off. His chest felt slightly heavy, not painful, just… uncomfortable. Like the feeling of playing a game and never winning even once.
"This is strange," he muttered, unconsciously saying it aloud.
Celvira tilted her head. "What's strange?"
"Just a feeling," Zavi replied briefly. "It feels like… this place has been waiting for someone to arrive."
'Am I watching too many horror movies before I ended up in that damn prison?' he thought with a sigh.
Moreira swallowed nervously and glanced around. The street suddenly felt quiet. Too quiet. Even the sound of the wind seemed restrained, as if an invisible boundary was pressing down on the area.
Eventually, they left, deciding they had stayed there too long and had no other choice since they could not find another place to rent.
Zavi walked with his two sticks, while Moreira was carried by Celvira, something that should not have happened.
They arrived and met the apartment owner, a middle-aged woman who had a peculiar way of speaking and used a wheelchair when meeting them.
After discussing the rent price and the condition of the house and its interior which was not too bad, they finally agreed and rented the place for 2 Pace per night.
The clock showed 23:30. Half an hour until midnight, and they would do what Ulriech had instructed earlier.
Strangely, at this hour Moreira had already fallen asleep on the bed beside him. Whether from extreme exhaustion or emotional pressure that allowed him to sleep deeply in a place he had previously been wary of, Zavi who sat leaning against the bed beside him, stared in confusion.
'Didn't he say he couldn't sleep at night?' he thought, puzzled.
But that sight was not entirely true.
Meanwhile, Celvira was in the room next door, not sleeping and choosing to observe the surroundings because she sensed something strange inside this house and in the houses across, beside, and around this apartment.
Exactly at 23:59, Zavi decided to leave the room, closing the door slowly as if not wanting to wake Moreira, then he quietly stepped toward the stairs and went outside the house to drink the herbal potion.
Standing while leaning against the wall of a house across the apartment, unoccupied and poorly lit Zavi took a pocket watch from his pocket, opened its lid, and carefully observed the movement of the hands.
00:00
Click...
The lid closed tightly, and he put it back into his pocket.
Zavi opened the bottle cap, stared at the liquid inside, then drank it all in one gulp.