"...Of course father." The two men answered simultaneously.
They wiped off the old man's saliva from their face and goes back to their motionless stand. Their eyes locked at the old man, their legs frozen without any subtle shake or motion as if they were a robot.
After confirming their faith to him, the old man then calmed down and sat down on his chair once more, he rubbed his forehead a couple times before he came up with a thought.
"Right.. You all believe me, and so it's my responsibility to give all of you everything that i have.. This city is vast.. Those bureau bastards wont ever find us, and when they do, it'll be too late—
"For the descend of our god.. That's our wish, and our lifelong goal– A disgusting city like Monetre should be grateful that they will be cleansed—
"Time shall answer at the end.. When the full moon arrives, we will give our life for the deity that will carve our god into history."
The old man soon chuckled uncontrollably, he covered his face with his hands as if trying not to laugh at the thought inside his mind while the two men behind him watched in awe.
"You're our savior, father." They said at the same time.
The candle on the desk flickered, the yellow lights from the fire momentarily hit the two men's face, their eyes shone, and a wriggling motion was caught inside of their pupils, that's when the old man stood up and told the two men to go back to be basement.
"Thank you, my children, now.. Kindly go back and keep a watch on our sacrifices." He said as his face got closert to one of the men.
It was then revealed that the two men's eyes had turned wild, their pupils no longer human, instead what replaced it was hundreds of worm-like parasites that swam inside of their retina.
The two men didn't retaliate whatsoever, they could only oblige to the old man's order as their body slowly turned back and they walked into the basement, disappearing from the old man's vision.
After his two children had left, the old man suddenly frowned, his eyes drooped as if his act of being a madman was over.
Then, he looked to the side, specifically towards his desk, where it was being hidden by the pile of books, was a folded whip with thorny rope.
The old man stared at the whip, as if contemplating about something before he sat down on the chair for the third time, he noticed the ring that was previously worn by him on the desk, the jewelry on it still looked glossy even with the rusts and dusts that have gathered on the ring.
All of a sudden, the room went quiet. For a solid minute.
.
.
"–I ask for forgiveness, to you my almighty god.. Please punish me once i became useful to you, for your humble believer that is unable to forget this wicked feeling.. I shall burn in hell for this great sin, and i ask of you, to let hell be a place where the blazing flame give warmth."
The old man stared at the book he was reading, he wasn't reading it anymore, but rather he was staring at his own invisible reflection, his own self within his own mind.
For a few seconds, the old man saw an etheral figure of his young self on the corner of the room. He turned his head to see it, yet when his eyes met, the figure disappeared.
In the end, the old man was only imagining, his mind almost went insane, and his sense of reality was starting to deteriorate as time passes.
.
.
A few hours later, in the East district of Monetre—
The east district, also known as the machine district, is a place in the Monetre city where workshops and machinery contraptions was built everywhere, many people call it an industrial district, though not many exactly knew what indstrial meant, some scholars described is a place where people rely more on machines than their own hands.
Heimfher and the rest of his teams are walking on the street, they wore their usual dark coat and white shirt along with a tie, while Heimfher wore a brown coat, and a simple dark collared shirt beneath it.
The coat was given to him by the bureau after Murph had specifically told Lock that Heimfher liked the brown coat that wss given by the Laughing Fairy Tavern owner, so they made his coat brown instead of black.
Step!
Step!
'I feel like i've gone here before..' Heimfher said to himself, he felt a sense of deja vu after walking on the east district, and after racking his brain for a memory, he realized that the east district was the place where he lived before.
It is also the place where the slums reside, so in a way, if Murph allowed it, Heimfher could meet with his mother and siblings again.
'Isn't this.. Nerphen street...' He thought.
He was a bit unfamiliar with the surrounding since this wasn't the street that he usually went to when living at the inn, but he was sure that the street was still within the Nerphen name.
'It's not even been a week yet since i reincarnated, but i already felt a sense of nostalgia to this place.. Is it because i no longer live here?..'
Eventually, Heimfher and the others arrived at a small house, behind all of the other bigger house around then the house that they're visiting was only a few meters wide, with Heimfher's guess not even reaching the 15 meters mark, it was a subtle sign of the economic hierarchy the owner of the house was in.
Knock knock!
Murph knocked on the door, which soon was opened by an older lady who seems to be a housewife.
Creakk!
"May i help you?" The lady said, she noticed the unusual attire of Murph and the people behind him.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Sella, we're from the Protection Bureau." Murph replied, he slightly lowered his head to act polite.
"The bureau?.." It took the lady a few seconds to process, most likely due to her age, but when she realized, she immediately let out a deep gasp and her eyes suddenly widened in shock.
"IS IT ABOUT MY SON?!" She shouted.
It turns out, the lady was one of the hostage's mother, and unfortunately, her son wasn't in the 33 rescued hostages from Duskiell and Heimfher's investigation.
Murph instantly responded to the lady's worry and he asked for her cooperation.
"We're currently visiting every family members or close friends of all the remaining kidnapped hostages.. And we kindly ask for your cooperation for this matter—
"There is still a way to find your son, for that.. We need a permission from you." He calmly said, which was accepted by the lady as she nodded.
"O- okay.. What do i need to do?" She replied with a little stutter and sweat on her cheek.
Then, Murph gave her the question.
"Does your son have something, that he would cherish? An object that meant a lot to him." He said.
The lady thought about it for a while, she tried to remember everything about her son, and after a few seconds of thinking, the lady frowned all of a sudden and she shook her head in disappointment.
"I- im sorry officer.. But as you may have seen, we're not really well-off family.. Even for eating, we still have to think twice.. I can't think of anything that we own that would mean a lot to my son—
"He always worked hard for us, and i hate to admit it.. But he never really had the chance to use any of his earned money for himself... Ah, sorry, i ended up saying too much—
"But.. Would a broken object count?"
Murph who at first started to feel bad for the lady, quickly changed his face and smiled.
"That'd be enough." He said, his voice was somehow even gentler than before.
The lady was glad to hear Murph's words, as she left Murph and his team on the door, she soon came back with a wooden sword hilt that had no blade. She then goes on to tell the story of the sword hilt to Murph.
"My son had always dreamed about being a swordsman, and this wooden sword was something that we gave him a few years ago as his birthday gift.. I hope this could be useful to you, officer." She said.
Murph then slowly grabbed the sword hilt from the lady's hand, he examined it for a second before he gave it to Bentley and said.
"Bentley, try using this."
"Okay." Bentley replied.
He accepted the sword hilt from Murph and wasted no time as he began to chant for his magic.
"Findelve, bless this ignorant soul with thy wisdom, show me where this dearest piece belongs to."
Swoosh!
A breezy wind burst emerged from Bentley's body, the wind swayed all of everyone's coat and even the long casual dress the lady of the house was wearing.
As the wind subsided, the pendulum in Bentley's hand swung.
But there was no force that locked it in a direction, the pendulum kept swinging until it stopped completely, there was no direction to tell, and that means Bentley's detection has failed.
"It's a failure.." He said as he gave the sword hilt back to Murph, which then he gave it to the lady again.
"What is it?" The lady asked, she felt curious with her son's well being.
However, rather than being told where he was, the lady instead was met with a grim news as Murph then told her what it means when Bentley's magic fails.
"We're incredibly sorry, but unfortunately we can't locate where your son is.. It seems like the wooden sword hilt you gave us doesn't have that a strong connection to him." Murph said.
The lady, who looks devastated, then asked Murph for one last time.
"D- Does that mean.. That my son didn't care about this wooden sword?.." She said with an eyes that almost broke into tears.
"No.." Murph said, he tapped the lady's shoulder and tried to calm her down.
"Im sure this sword meant a lot to him, but it could be that because its broken now, his attachment to it wasn't as deep as it was before..."
Heimfher watched as the lady cried silently, waiting for her son that may or may not came back alive, imagining what would happen if that lady was his mother made Heimfher clenched his chest, his heart was tightening and he bit his lips to calm himself down.
'That could've been Heimfher's mother if i didn't took over his body..'