Chapter 40: God I’m so stupid!
[Jevan Perspective]
As I have said more than once, life is full of surprises, but what I see now is something entirely unexpected. In front of me, a crow was sitting on the table in Corvin's shop, playing cards with Corvin and Vensen. This scene alone is enough to make any normal person question his sanity. Unfortunately, I am not normal. The looks they were exchanging were anything but friendly. Or maybe I am just exaggerating?
I exhaled sharply and left the shop. I badly needed some fresh air and to sort out my thoughts. Everything I had gone through in the past few days was unexpected. I can literally say that I had not faced a single normal situation so far.
I walked down the street without a clear destination. I turned back, and there she was the masked woman following me. I had not asked her to, but apparently she did not need permission. Every time my eyes fell on her, I felt a contradictory mixture of emotions: familiar yet strange at the same time. Familiar in Jevan's original memories, and strange to me.
I tried to strike up any topic with her:
"So, how are you?"
She did not utter a word, just continued walking beside me.
"How did you find me?"
She pulled out a poster from her cloak and handed it to me. It was my wanted poster, with my picture as Jevan printed on it. I flipped the paper between my fingers, then looked back at her. Wait a second… does she know my normal identity as well? Well, that is not comfortable at all.
***
Inside Corvin's Shop
Corvin sat with a grim face, flipping the cards in his hand slowly. Vensen sat opposite him, watching with hollow eyes. Between them sat the crow, Nok, perched on the table holding its cards with a wing. The table was covered with cards, but none of them was playing seriously to win.
Vensen broke the silence as he stared directly into the crow's eyes:
"You seem close to that masked man, aren't you?"
The crow raised its wing to place a card on the table before answering:
"Of course. I am his companion and attendant. How could I not be close to my Master?"
Vensen rubbed his chin with a finger and said:
"And why do you call him Master?"
Nok shook his wings:
"I will answer you when you tell me your relationship with him."
Before Vensen could respond, Corvin intervened:
"And since when have you known him?"
Vensen smiled and replied:
"For quite some time. And you?"
Corvin clenched his cards tighter, then said:
"For some time as well."
They all sighed deeply, then went back to the game. While Ash stood in the corner, watching them play.
***
[Jevan Perspective]
I was still wandering aimlessly, and that masked woman kept walking beside me like my shadow. I tried several times to start a conversation with her, but she never replied.
And as I was looking for any way to make her speak, I started noticing something strange. The neighborhood was swarming with Claw Gang men. It was easy to recognize them by the tattoo on their arms. They were searching houses and entering shops as if they were looking for someone.
It seemed they had started searching for me seriously. Well, that is their problem, not mine. Had they not heard that I officially became a member of the Night Wolves? Anyway, I had no intention of getting into conflict with them now. Verona had clearly asked me to avoid making trouble, and on top of that, I was not in the best condition.
I turned back. I had to inform Corvin of what was going on. I might be able to protect myself, but I could not guarantee his safety, nor Vensen's, and not even that poor man who ended up a slave to a crow. Not that I really cared about his safety, but he might prove useful later somehow.
I avoided the Claw patrols using the mask's presence concealing abilities and returned to Corvin's shop. When I entered, I found them as I had left them. They were still playing cards, exchanging strange looks. I approached Corvin, and the moment he realized I was standing behind him, he shivered. I placed my hand on his shoulder and said:
"The Claw men have started patrolling the neighborhood. It won't be long before they get here."
Corvin frowned, but for the first time stopped trembling and stood up. Then he pulled out a bunch of yellow papers from under the table, busying himself with them, while I continued upstairs. The crow tried to jump after me, but I gestured for it to stay put.
…
When I reached the room, I shut the door behind me and took off the mask. A sharp headache struck me, as if someone were hammering my skull with an iron rod. I pressed my temples with both hands.
I had not known the mask caused side effects like this. Why had the original Jevan never mentioned it in his notebook?
I pulled the notebook from my coat pocket and flipped through its pages hastily, but found no explanation or solution for this phenomenon. In the end, I found a small note written:
"There is plenty of information here about the system pieces and their mechanisms, but not all the information. I am human after all; how do you expect me to gather everything? Anyway, maybe you are reading this now and suffering from some other side effects. I don't know what kind you are experiencing, but since you didn't find them here, it must be due to the way your Authority interacts with the system pieces. When using a system piece, there must be a high compatibility between your Authority and the one inside it, or unexpected side effects may appear.
Best regards, your former self."
I shut the notebook hard this time and left it on the table. Then I exhaled deeply, but the headache did not ease.
I kept rubbing my temples. In the end, I could not bear it and muttered:
"I wish all the negative effects left by the mask would disappear."
Fortunately, the headache vanished afterward. But along with it came the realization that… the amount of stupidity I had committed recently was unbelievable.
First, going straight to a gang headquarters and agreeing to join them. Then strolling through the streets like an idiot. And what about that damned crow? And the masked woman? I had been acting with them as if I were the original Jevan, when I was not. What if they found out? They would try to kill me without a doubt. And in the past days: fighting instead of running, boasting instead of hiding. And now I walk the streets like a civilian in broad daylight and at night too. Surely this time they will send people. I mean, they probably have already overestimated my strength just as Verona had.
I closed my eyes and lay back on the bed, then said as I stared at the ceiling:
"Have I lost my mind?"