Geo was frozen in fear.
This agent had patiently waited for more than 30 minutes before finally leaving!
'The doctor....no....the Court's agents were truly cunning and terrifying!'
He imagined a scenario where he suddenly gained control of his body and came face to face with the doctor silently smiling at him, from the corner of the room. A truly terrifying scene that would probably persist in his nightmares from now on!
When he was thinking of these things, Geo unconsciously placed his hand on his chest and realized that he was finally able to move! He was overjoyed but he dared not move anymore. The doctor had left a deep sense of paranoia in his mind and Geo was too scared to act differently. He just wanted to fall asleep and wake up directly in the morning!
An hour passed by but Geo was still unable to fall asleep. His mind was too shaken up so he decided to recall and revise the events that had just happened. From how he acted during the night, Geo realized that he was too naive and immature, even after having memories from Earth. He was utterly disappointed in himself and felt extremely pathetic, but Geo did not let this mindset affect him for long.
'This night was a lesson for me, and a terrifying one too. These agents are too smart and cunning, and I would have definitely been found out if I was under the my own control. I've only experienced the doctor's wit, but if I want to survive, I have to acknowledge every agent as highly as him.
Who knows, there must be more cunning and much smarter people than him, and I must be prepared. From now on, I must teach myself to be more cautious and mature.'
With this firm resolve in mind, Geo finally got up from his bed with a serious expression, and quickly rushed to the bathroom! He hadn't realized how full his bladder had been until he nearly leaked himself on his bed!
--------------------
As soon as Geo rushed out to the bathroom, the wall in a dark corner of his room suddenly distorted and a mature middle-aged man slowly stepped out from it. He was dressed very elegantly and looked very handsome, but there was a certain coldness in his grey eyes that made him seem very unapproachable.
With a slight smile, the man silently walked towards the bed and took out a small metal coin from under the pillow.
The metal coin had strange symbols on one side and a side-portrait of a handsome young gentleman on the other. As he was picking up the coin, the handsome man in the portrait suddenly turned his face at him and gnashed his teeth in anger.
The portrait had turn grotesque and sinister in the matter of seconds! Now, the handsome young man in the portrait looked crazed and seemed to be silently screaming at it's holder!
Without paying any attention to it, the cold middle-aged man took out a small wooden case from his coat and shut the coin in it. Then he bit his thumb and smeared a little blood on the case. The blood was absorbed immediately by the wooden case and a dull clicking sound came from inside it.
After securing the coin, the man placed the case back into his coat and took out a small folded piece of paper. He left the piece of paper on the study table and quickly exited back the distorted wall. As soon as the man left, the wall returned back to it's original self and a peaceful silence engulfed the once room again.
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After relieving himself, Geo came back into his room and quickly lied down on his bed. He was quite exhausted after the series of events and was feeling very tired.
Without thinking about anything else, he snuggled inside his blankets and was about to close his eyes when an unfamiliar piece of paper suddenly caught his attention.
'Was that there before? Did I leave a note on the study table? or...was it the agents? Why would they leave a note?'
With a strange sense of caution, Geo got up and picked up the note warily. He didn't know much about magic traps but he had read about them in mangas and webnovels in his previous life. Just in case anything happened, he opened the note backwards while pointing the written part away from him.
Nothing happened.
Still cautious of the note, Geo slowly flipped the piece of paper and finally read the contents inside it.
As he read the few sentences in the note, his expression suddenly grew dark, and he felt cold chill creep up his spine.
It seemed that he was not going to get any sleep tonight.
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--- East Cinter --- Red Rock Street ---
In the silence of the night, two agents wearing identical black trenchcoats quickly and silently jumped from roof to roof as they rushed towards a small museum at the opposite end of the street. They had received a tip-off from one of their assistants, that the infamous 'Criminal' had been spotted near it, and though they were definitely not able to stop him, they thought that they could at least get some information from his actions.
"Ruther, do you think he came to investigate the power leak?"
The shorter one from the two suddenly asked as he jumped over a large gap between two houses. Following him a plain looking man with smooth brown hair, jumped over the gap as well and quickly replied before continuing to run across the roof,
"Definitely. Why else would he suddenly appear in Cinter."
"He wasn't seen anywhere near Cinter for the past two months, and you know that the borders of the cities are monitored tightly...The tip could be wrong."
"....Even if it's wrong, it's still worth tailing him. You know who he is. He could certainly have some connection with energy leak or at least some information about it."
Everything has a counterpart, and agents had outlaws.
The 'Criminal' was a powerful and dangerous outlaw who was an expert in the [Space] order. A very powerful and complicated order that created 'spaces' or 'areas' where one could bend the original laws of the place. Of course, every powerful order has an Achilles Heel*, and the [Space] order's disadvantages were very simple.
It's spells used an extremely large amount of SE (Soul energy) and one was completely safe outside of the effects of the space.
Regardless of the disadvantages, the Criminal still held the top spot in the Court's bounty list. He wasn't like the ordinary [Space] 'holder' (someone who holds a order fragment).
He was far too cunning and devious for just an expert rank outlaw, and on top of that, he had acquired many powerful artifacts which he had stolen from the Courts. This made him even more slippery and powerful.
Combining all of this and considering all his crimes against the Courts, he notoriously held the top spot in the bounty list.
Of course, there were other people more powerful than him but their names were written on another, much more....."complex" list.
Ruther and Arwin were also expert rank agents. They were from the [Mind] order and they did not have much offensive spells, but they had an armory of suppression spells and were confident in keeping the Criminal busy till enough help arrived. Plus, when an order is absorbed and developed with training, the holder's physique also improves along with it. So they were very confident on surviving or at least running away from the Criminal if he fought against them.
With a slight smile on his face, Ruther turned towards his short teammate and continued,
"What's got you in such a rush anyway? Finally found yourself a dwarf lover?"
His teammate, Arwin, did not mind the rude remark. He was used to the short jokes, and he had been working with Ruther for a very long time to know that it was just in Ruther's personality to be provocative.
He just continued running and replied with the usual seriousness.
"No, I've got a whole pile of paperwork and items to review. The Court wants them asap* and I could have actually finished them tonight, but I had to clean up your sloppy work."
Ruther had been sent to perform an interrogation on a normal boy in Red Rock Street and surprisingly, the boy had been a witness to some magical activity. He had successfully interrogated the boy but he felt a slight presence of a 'curse'. Since Ruther was not an expert in that field, he called his friend Arwin to help him.
Arwin was a much more powerful and experienced agent. He was from the same order as Ruther, but he specialized in a different 'job' than him.
'Jobs' were like sub-classes of an order and Arwin's job was a "Psychiatrist".
He was an expert in detecting and curing anomalies in a person's mind and soul body rather than other jobs from the [Mind] order.
He could also use all the other skills from his order but was not very efficient with it.
Similarly, Ruther's job was a "Detective". An offensive job specializing in gathering information, connecting them to find clues and suppressing targets.
With a light chuckle, Ruther smiled at the witty remark and was about to make another joke when Arwin suddenly stopped in his tracks and quickly took out his magical revolver.
Ruther also took out his own revolver reflexively and silently stared at the location that Arwin was looking at.
An elegant man had appeared on top of a building near the museum and he seemed to be silently observing them. The moon was partially covered with clouds but they could clearly see the man because of their enhanced body.
It was the 'Criminal' that had his face printed in the every bounty of the three Courts!
He seemed to be holding a small box in his hands and quickly vanished after staring at them for a few seconds.
As soon as he vanished, Ruther quickly murmured a word and aimed his palm at the Criminal's location.
"[Detain]"
A faint red wave shot out from his palms and hit the building, making the entire building pulsate a dull red light but other than that, nothing happened.
Arwin, who had a smoky white glow in his eyes, came up beside him and said,
"He's gone. Not Invisibility. [Truesight] would have revealed him."
Ruther sighed and asked,
"[Teleport]? He reached pre-perfect rank?"
"Not necessarily. It could have been an artifact or a high-grade item. I'll report to the Court, you go investigate the museum. I'll be back with some reinforcements."
Slightly shaking his head, Arwin replied in a serious tone and jumped off the roof.
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--- East Cinter --- Red Rock Street ---
'Your secret is safe with me but a favor can carry a price.'
The first sentence had already given Geo a minor heart attack. He didn't want to acknowledge this sentence, yet he knew exactly what it was talking about.
Geo had been wondering why his body had acted in such a way in front of the agents. He had considered the unknown force inside him and had also thought about a hidden secret skill from his order, but now, everything fell into place. Someone had helped Geo keep his secret, and there was only one way that they could have done it.
They were the one who had been controlling his body!
Geo was terrified since he believed that the unknown force in him would protect him from mind attacks, but this person had easily by-passed his defenses!
Without arousing any suspicion, this unknown 'helper' had tricked all the agents using Geo's body! Geo did not know why that person had helped him but after reading through the entire note, he finally understood the person's intentions.
The note told Geo that he would be working under a specific person as the price of keeping his secret. He had to contact this mysterious person in a few days. No questions were supposed to be asked and the rest of the note was a detailed plan on how to contact this strange and mysterious person.
After reading the entire note many times, Geo finally sat down on his bed and sighed. He wasn't concerned about any agents watching him. Since this powerful person had left the note quite openly on his desk, it seemed that he was out of their observation for now.
He felt a bit glad that this person had not directly revealed his secret but he was also very worried about the fact that his secret had been revealed so quickly!
The note was written like an order so he was definitely obliged to follow to instructions, and though there was no warning, Geo did not want to displease this person. He had easily hijacked his body, who knows what other terrifying things he could do!
Geo was disappointed and scared but he felt there was still a bit of hope for him. If this mysterious person did not know the full secret, he could try to steer this person away from the actual secret and betray them afterwards. He just hoped that they would not involve his family into this mess.
Geo looked at the note one last time and thought of how to get rid of the paper. As if the paper had read his mind, the note suddenly started melting apart and vaporized into the air.
He was slightly surprised, but the events that had happened tonight were still lurking in his brain, and this small disappearing paper was the least surprising among them all.
'What a horrible night...'
With this last thought in mind, Geo climbed inside his bed and immediately fell asleep.
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A few days later, in the middle of the night, Geo suddenly woke up and groggily walked towards the bathroom. He usually slept throughout the night without any disturbances but a sudden urge to pee had woken him up this time.
As he walked towards the bathroom in his striped pajamas, his eyes suddenly turned sharp and focused. He took out his fake steel rimmed glasses and suddenly stopped before the bathroom door.
He was nervous and scared but he was also determined.
'Let's just get this over with.'
"Keilia Altrum..."
Grabbing the bathroom door handle, he silently murmured the secret code and quickly went inside.
As he entered the bathroom, Geo felt a slight tingling sensation on his skin, like as if he had passed though a soft silk curtain. The bathroom that he had just stepped inside suddenly faded away, and an elegant study materialized in front of him.
The room was quite big and old fashioned, and had a few of bookshelves that were completely filled and arranged in a neat order. The floor was made out of wood and a few paintings of natural scenery decorated the wooden walls of the room. There were also a few strange and exotic flowers on top of some cabinets that swayed gently from left to right.
Overall, the room gave off a very comfortable and peaceful ambiance whenever anyone entered it.
The only thing ruining this atmosphere, was the man sitting behind the elegant desk in the center of the room. He was dressed neatly and looked quite handsome, but there was something cold about his eyes that made Geo flinch in fear when he made contact with it.
Geo stood there frozen before the door. He had prepared an introduction and an entire script of the conversation in his head, but he had forgotten all of it infront of this person.
After a few seconds of silence, the neatly dressed man finally tapped the desk with his index finger and calmly motioned Geo to sit on the velvet chair before him.
"Sit."
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*Achilles Heel - a weakness or vulnerable point.