A few moments after her outburst, the man in question looked up and a wide smile was thrown in her direction. In her surprise, she completely forgot that she was with Landon. She bounded forward to meet him and said, " How come you're here immediately? Aren't you busy?"
She looked at him and couldn't stop being happy to see him. It had been a long time since they last saw each other. He was disguised with an illusion which he usually used when he wanted to go incognito since his face is pretty much known by people in their community.
"I had to. It's not everyday that you asked me for help," he answered teasingly while messing up her hair.
"Stop doing that," Ley muttered, fixing her hair while he laughed.
She was still trying to work on her messed up hair when he asked, "Who is he?"
Ley followed her line of sight and saw Landon gazing impassively at them. Shoot. She completely forgot to introduce him because of her surprise.
"Let me introduce you two to each other. Landon, this is Raul whom I frequently worked with in my mercenary jobs. Raul, this is Landon whom I'm working with for a case right now," she said.
"Nice to meet you,"Raul amiably said while tipping his hat and then told her, "Let's go?"
I was about to nod when I saw Landon's narrowed eyes trained on Raul's hand on her shoulders. It was so piercing that it gave her the urge to shrug off the hand on her shoulders. The atmosphere became weird suddenly. The weather was still warm but she suddenly felt cold. She stared at Raul and he still had a smile on his face which seemed to be mocking someone but maybe that's just her imagination since he's very friendly to people.
She became so uncomfortable that she just said whatever that came to her mind?, "Should we go to the location tomorrow?" she asked Landon.
His darkened gaze switched focus to hers and softened, "Yes, let's proceed as planned. If you need anything else let me know." She nodded in agreement and Landon started to walk away.
"I don't think she will. She has plenty of help here," Raul commented in an obnoxious tone.
"What the heck are you saying?" she mouthed at him and yanked his ears. She looked at Landon's back and sighed in relief when it looked like he didn't pay any attention to it.
"You're so clueless," Raul muttered in a sullen tone while massaging his ear.
She led him inside the building so he could examine the corpse that they stored. She hoped that Raul could give them results and at least give them some leads to work on.
They were about to go into the room when Sera popped up from who knows where and yelled, "Ley! I've been looking for you all morning."
"I actually just came back from Warped Alley with Landon," she replied.
"It's fin- what are you doing here out of the Territory, Your Royal Frivolousness?" She changed tracks in the middle after seeing Raul.
"Shut it or I'll tell your grandfather where you're hiding," Raul shot back.
"Ha! Go ahead. You'll be in trouble too if you did," Sera countered.
"Stop it. We need to deal with more important things right now. Why were you looking for me, Sera?" Ley mediated.
"I wanted to tell you that the other corpse is a shifter but there's magic traces on it. Like the same creepy aura on our first corpse."
"Wait. Stop mumbling there. Let's examine the corpse and compare again," Ley said, briskly entering the room.
They went inside the room and encircled the corpse on top of the table. Sera removed the sheet covering the body and prodded everywhere without batting an eyelid.
Raul went forward and scrutinized the face with a frown. He gestured for Ley to move forward.
"How is it? Is it familiar?" Ley asked with hope in her eyes.
"The body is really distorted so I'm not so sure but the face looks like one of the elders closed to my father before. One of those powerful ones that secluded themselves," Raul surmised after observing.
"This guy performed elemental spells," she informed him.
"If it's the same elder, it makes sense. I would have to ask around in Territory to make sure that it's the same guy. I'll check with my father too and see if he knows something," he nodded.
"This creepy magic surrounding this body and that other one on Landon's base confused me the most. I can't figure out what it is," Sera complained in frustration.
"It's mental magic," someone suddenly spoke while everyone was concentrating on figuring out the magic.
"Oh gosh! You surprised me," Sera yelled in astonishment.
Ley looked over and saw Merda standing still by the doorway. Ley beckoned her over to them while Raul's eyes silently asked Ley who she is.
Merda came forward and stopped to bow in front of Raul, "Greetings, Your Highness."
Raul stepped back away from her in bewilderment, "How does she know me? I'm still disguised."
"This is Merda. I think she's familiar with your magic signature. Have you seen him before?" Ley inquired.
"Yes, many years ago but that's not important." Merda put a halt to the topic abruptly though Raul looked like he wanted to ask more.
"You say it's mental magic but how come we're not familiar with it," Sera said with reason as magicks were trained to recognize all branches of magic as basic rule.
"It is forbidden magic. Anyone caught practicing would be sentenced to death but magicks specialized in mental magic would stumble to this one way or another with their studies. From what I remember, the caster of this spell allows the target to be manipulated through hypnotism. Memories are tampered with terrible side effects such as degradation of brain functions until the target is reduced to an empty person with magic. It makes you become the perfect puppet," Merda explained.
"And it's the same magic in this corpse?" Ley exclaimed.
"Most likely," Merda confirmed with her customary deadpan expression which increased the impact of this horrifying information.
"That can't be," Sera muttered disbelievingly.
"I need to go back and investigate this," Raul urgently told Ley.
"Alright but be careful. This case is getting bigger," she reminded him in concern.
"You too and and let me know of further developments. I'll help with whatever I can from my side," Raul replied before hurrying out to leave the room.
They soon left the room and Ley remembered that she asked Sera for a favor, "By the way, did you drop the business card that I gave you on the base?"
"Not yet. I'll sneak in tonight and do it," she said before heading out too.
Late at night.
The bed cover was suddenly flipped in reverse when Ley woke up abruptly. She stared around her room as she had the feeling that someone was there gazing at her while she was asleep. She sniffed and she only registered Landon's scent which was probably left over from when he was here in the morning.
Was it just her imagination then?