The biting wind forced the man to pull his scarf a bit higher over his nose. Over the last week, the weather had grown significantly colder. Despite being close to Hals Tirsit and located along the coast, it was noticeably colder here. Yet, driven by his determination to keep his promise, he had remained in the same spot for nearly a week—day and night, through both heat and cold.
In the past, he had broken into the manors of the country's richest families countless times unnoticed. He was almost never afraid of getting caught, since hardly anyone was powerful enough to even sense his presence.
However, the security level of this research center was beyond anything he had anticipated. The building had a single entrance, and every window was covered with iron bars. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have given this much thought; he would simply walk through the front door like anyone else, take what he needed, and leave. But just as Arsh had warned them, many of the people inside the building, as well as the guards patrolling outside, had siunies.
Thanks to his second siuni, he could see the flow of energy through people's bodies, which allowed him to distinguish those who had a siuni from those who did not. Being able to identify and avoid them had, after all, one of the main reasons he had survived until now.
Even though he could see who had a siuni and roughly estimate how powerful they were, he still had to move with caution. A thief working alone had to be twice as vigilant. That was why he didn't rush into a building where the front door was his only way in—and his only way out.
Besides, something else had been catching his attention over the past week, and it made him uneasy. He could always tell if someone had a siuni by the golden energy flowing through their body. But here, many people has a crimson shimmer alongside that golden energy. Although he didn't know what it meant, it was unsettling. This was precisely why he had spent an entire week doing nothing but watching.
He began to wonder what kind of place Arsh had sent him to and what he was looking for. But after all, he had told him he didn't have to go if he didn't want to. Even if it was dangerous, it was his own choice to accept the task.
'What is so special about these translations anyway?' he whispered to himself, as a cold wind made his entire body shiver
There was no point in delaying any longer. He would move tonight. Around nine in the evening, the building usually got crowded with people coming and going. Most of those entering at this hour were ordinary employees, and the ones who did have a siuni weren't particularly powerful.
When the time came, he stepped out of the alley where he had been waiting and headed toward the research center. Both guards waiting at the entrance had a siuni, but it was clear they weren't very powerful. Still, he knew it was best to be careful and go with the flow. Just like the others showing their entry documents to get in, he pulled a paper from his pocket and showed it and passed without any problem.
However, the next stage was a bit more troublesome. One of the guards was asking everyone what their business was there, listening to their responses, and only allowing them through after that. Getting caught by that man would be troublesome for him, but the crowd worked to his advantage. He moved to distance himself by weaving through the others. He slipped through the crowd and made his way inside the building.
For now, he needed to find the office of the man Arsh had mentioned. Luckily, on his second day in Hals, he had overheard someone calling out to a man named Professor Millway and had focused all his attention on him ever since. Although he had expected the man to have a siuni, this Millway appeared to be just an ordinary man.
At the time, the man hadn't left the research center for two days after that day. Ezra tried to figure out if there was a secret passage, but it was impossible to find. When the man finally stepped outside, Ezra followed him. Unfortunately, he came to a restaurant with private rooms. Places that weren't crowded were always the most difficult for him to get in.
To avoid drawing attention, he first found the waiters' locker room. After snagging a uniform and returning to the room's entrance, he stopped using his power as intensely as before. When other waiters arrived shortly after to serve the meal, he opened the door for them and slipped inside.
Besides Millway, there was another man in the room. Luckily, this man was just as ordinary as Millway. The waiters served their food and a glass of wine each, then left the room. As for him, he began to wait silently in the corner.
Ezra was certain he had seen the other man somewhere before, though he couldn't remember where. As the two men talk, he listened in silence. At first, their conversation was ordinary—nothing worth paying attention to. But after the meal was over, the tone of their discussion changed into something Ezra couldn't understand.
"We need a little more time. We still haven't been able to open it," Millway said in a nervous voice.
The man sitting across from him, however, was furious.
"Then break it!"
"No, no. The protective siunis are far too powerful. No matter what we tried, we couldn't break through them. We couldn't even leave a scratch."
"So after all these years, you finally found what we've been searching for, and now you're telling me you can't open it? You don't even know how?"
"The necessary key... is missing."
"Then find the key!"
"We're… not entirely sure what the key even is," Millway said in a trembling voice. Ezra could see Millway beginning to flush with embarrassment, while the man across from him was turning red with anger.
Ezra had no idea what the men were talking about, but judging by their reactions, it was clearly something important. He decided he had to keep this in mind, thinking it might be useful to Arsh.
Now, in the inside of the research center he was trying to figure out what the hell was going on here. He wandered the corridors for a while, observing what people were doing. In some rooms, people were copying inscriptions from tablets; in others, they were examining mummies that belonged to men who had died who knows how many thousands of years ago. The place was almost like a museum.
Occasionally, he saw a golden light flickering inside certain objects. He knew these were special items. He had encountered them before in some of the manors he had broken into. He had even made the mistake of stealing one once. Not only had he sold the object for a pittance, but it was also the first time he had ever faced the danger of being caught. Since then, he hadn't touched them again.
When he went down to the basement, he saw a steel door but didn't dare to approach it. Whatever was being protected here seemed to be something significant, as all four guards patrolling the corridor and standing at the door had siunis. And they appeared to be quite powerful. Without lingering there for long, he headed back to the upper floors.
Following the names written on the doors, he stopped when he came to one that read 'Professor Millway.'
The door was locked. But he was a professional thief. It didn't take much effort for him to open it. He turned on the desk lamp and glanced around. If something was important, people tended to hide it. And no matter how well they thought they were hiding them, they all actually used the same methods.
Without lingering for too long, he searched through the most likely hiding places before finally turning to the painting behind the desk. Just as he had expected, when he pushed it aside, he found a small safe embedded in the wall behind it.
"How predictable," he muttered to himself.
If there was anything easier than picking locked doors, it was cracking safes. Within a few seconds, the lock had already clicked open. Inside the safe were a few notebooks, some documents, a bit of money, and one or two objects with golden flickers inside that he couldn't quite make sense of what they are.
Though he wanted to see what was in the books, they were written in a language he didn't even recognize. After rummaging through them for a while, he found two notebooks that matched Arsh's description. Even though he had no idea what they are about, he slipped a few of the documents he had found between the notebooks and tucked them into his jacket.
Although he didn't really need it, he decided to take the money as well. Stealing from people like these still gave him a certain satisfaction, even if he no longer relied on it for survival. But as he reached out to grab the cash, he noticed a stain on his hand under the dim light.
"Where did this come from?" he muttered, rubbing the black stain with his fingers. But the stain didn't fade. On the contrary, it began to spread. Then, in just a couple of seconds, the blackness started to spread like veins up his arm.
He felt something was going seriously wrong as his hand was beginning to go numb.