NOVEL NEXT Chapter 8: Meet the Creepy Elder!
There was an awkward silence there as Arthur tried his best to show his discomfort. The house was pretty small, and with so many cult accessories hanging on the wall or even placed on the desk nearby, it was like he was cramped in a tight box. However, what truly made him uncomfortable was the creepy stare he received from the old man in front of him.
"So, you are the disturbance that Shira-boy told me yesterday, huh? Interesting… Ku.. Ku.. Ku.." Arthur shuddered at the creepy laugh as the old man stirred whatever it was in his cauldron. Honestly, he was the stereotype of an old wizard in a fantasy story, always stirring some sort of potion while scaring the shit of all the people around him. "So, what is it that you want to know, Boy?"
Arthur gulped for once before he started speaking, "Greetings, Elder. My name is Arthur, and I am here to help Shira figure out the truth behind the death of 22 warriors from the Eldra tribe. To do that, I need to know what happened on that day, and Shira said that you are the only one who can tell me that."
The creepy stare intensified tenfold, and honestly, Arthur didn't know what made him stay here instead of flying away from his spot instantly. The instinct he honed from living in the darkest street in New York for more than ten years now screamed danger and told him to run away, yet his body refused to listen to what his brain wanted to tell. Fortunately, it only lasted for about a minute before the old man let out a chuckle.
"You are afraid of me and want to run away, yet your conviction forces you to stay here. Not bad, Arthur-boy… Not bad… Ku… Ku… Ku…" Arthur felt a shiver down his spine as his name came out of the old man's mouth. "Well, since you are a good boy, I will indulge your request. Now, tell me, what do you want to know?"
Arthur was taken aback by the sudden development, staring at the old man strangely. 'For a tribe whose job is guarding this part of the city, they sure are way too trusting to a stranger. It would be bad if someone with malice intention managed to take advantage of – OUCH! What the hell?!" He widened his eyes as he felt something smacked his head.
"No need to overthink it, Boy." The old man in front of him wiggled the ladle on his hand playfully, letting Arthur know what just hit him. "Even though we look naïve, we possess a good instinct that can tell whether the person in front of us is good or not, and as long as I can remember, our instinct has never betrayed us. So, just let it be."
Even though Arthur felt this method was unreliable, who was he to question the tribe on how to run their job? If anything, he felt embarrassed for getting caught thinking bad about the Kurata tribe in front of their elder.
"So, again, what do you want to know?"
Arthur coughed a little, adjusting his posture to make himself comfortable before starting to barrage the old man with questions. "Okay, to make it short, can you name me all the victims who died on that day? What time was when the incident happened? What were they doing before that? Who else was with them on that day? Also, can you describe their body condition after they died? Oh, one last thing, can you tell me the other's reaction when the incident happened?"
The poor old man blinked a few times, couldn't process all the questions in one go. In the end, he just chuckled before jumping over the desk with the flexibility that no old man in New York would be able to pull. "Afraid that I cannot answer all your questions, Boy. My memory might be good, but I am not that omnipotent."
Arthur was about to be disappointed, but the old man suddenly came and touched his forehead lightly. "I will do you one better. Brace yourself." In the next second, Arthur suddenly felt he was overloaded by the memory of someone else. He was confused for a second as everything flashed too fast, not knowing what was going on here.
"This is the secret branch of magic the Kurata tribe passed down from one elder to another, perfect recall." Suddenly, the old man appeared out of nowhere, patting Arthur's shoulder gently. "By harnessing the life energy harnessed from the Earth, I connect it with the astral energy in my body and share it with your head, and as you can see, it will give you a specific memory that I want to share."
"That… Is a convenience magic." Arthur had to admit, saving this information to the back of his head. "It is a passed down magic, you say?" He asked for a confirmation.
"Yes, this is not something you can learn by yourself." The old man nodded. "After all, tying the life energy in the air to your astral energy is pretty dangerous. One miscalculation in the ratio of the mix would be disastrous. The worst-case scenario would be that the astral energy inside your body gets burned and crippled you for the rest of your life, and the best-case scenario would be an instant death."
Arthur was confused for a second. "Are you sure you are not wrong? OUCH! How in the hell did you still have that ladle?" He rubbed the back of his head as the old man hit him once again with his ladle.
"That one is for questioning me, Boy." The old man chuckled. "And yes, that is the right order. I know that most of the time, death is considered the worst-case scenario, but compared to what happened when your astral energy burned inside you? Death would be a far better situation than any scenario you can think of."
The dead-serious tone used by the old man who always joked and chuckled sent a shiver down Arthur's spine. He didn't know how close the old man's words were to the truth, but for now, he decided to believe it.
"So, any other question?" The old man asked, playing around with the ladle in his hand. When Arthur shook his head, he nodded unconsciously before saying, "Well, if not, let's see the memory of that day. Here we go!"