Uncle Albert left me and Rowan near the entrance of the parking area designated for public carriages and told us to wait as he went inside to fetch our coachman and footman along with the carriage.
Clutching the damp slip in my hand, I looked at Rowan and saw him looking at the horses inside the wooden fence with interest.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry upon witnessing that. Perhaps, only Rowan would find the idle horses more fascinating than murder in board daylight by a Nobilis Class Hunter.
He didn't look any different from usual but to be sure that he wasn't just acting and was actually not traumatized inside, I asked him, "How are you feeling? What did you think happened there?"
Giving me a side glance, he blinked his eyes and replied, "I'm feeling as usual. It was murder."
Hearing his indifferent tone, I was sure that he wasn't acting or anything and was truly not affected by it.
I couldn't keep it in at that time. Even for someone as weird as him, that was something unusual. How could anyone be indifferent to a scene of murder and remain calm after witnessing it for the first time no less?
"Why are you so indifferent about it? It was murder, Rowan. MURDER is a big thing. Someone just died in front of our eyes."
My questions broke his indifferent face down but not by much. He merely tilted his head, appearing to be confused by my question, and replied,
"I don't know how I'm supposed to feel, nervous? afraid?"
His voice was tinted with bewilderment that made his bizarre answer appear normal to a certain extent but it still felt quite jarring in my ears. Since I was supposed to tear through his awkward veil anyway, I didn't stop with that and released another stream of questions at him,
"Are you a piece of rock or what? Don't you have emotions? How can you not feel anything by it?"
He bowed his head down, flustered by my stare, and muttered, "...I don't know."
Taking another look at my face, glistening with annoyance, he realized that I wouldn't stop pestering him until I received a satisfying answer and continued, "When that killer walked in, I couldn't feel any ill-intent directed towards us. For anyone other than my family and Mr. Albert, I find it hard to… care."
His answer convinced me that there really was something weird going on with my elder brother. As he had already begun to speak, I wanted to decipher what he meant and so I asked,
"What do you mean by 'feeling ill-intent'?"
He didn't waste any time in answering that, though he looked quite helpless yet relieved when he did, "I can feel other people's intentions for me when they look at me. I didn't tell anyone because it wasn't anything great. I think it is my innate skill." He stopped for a second to think and continued, "it helps me with potioneering. As for not caring about anyone else, I don't know why but other than a few people, I keep forgetting the voices and faces of everyone I meet. I don't know why it's like that but I really can't care about them even if I want to. Perhaps, it is a side-effect of my innate skill."
Even though I was hoping for it, when so much actually came out of his mouth, I was befuddled by the amount of information.
I looked towards the east to make sure the sun wasn't setting there since everything was going in the opposite direction that day.
A better-dressed yet miserable crowd. A brute victim. A small and elegant killer. A confessing Rowan. A tense and nervous Uncle Albert. I had seen too many things today that seemed to be stretching the limits of my imagination, things that shouldn't have happened at all.
This made it so that it took me some time to process Rowan's claim of having an 'innate skill'.
I could still attribute his ability to sense people's intent by their look to his superior perception but his 'I-don't-care-behavior' didn't seem to resemble any disease I had heard about. However, with how difficult it had been for him to get those words out of his mouth, he didn't seem to be lying or making things up.
With invisible question marks hovering above my head, I smiled at him and didn't question him any further,
"It's alright. I'm glad that you've opened up, even if only a little."
He nodded his head adorably with a faint smile. I wanted to pat his head upon seeing that but remembering that he was still my elder brother, even though it rarely appeared like it, I stopped myself.
By this time, we could already see our unremarkable yet convenient carriage coming in our direction.
It stopped beside us, but before we could get in, Uncle Albert walked out and told Rowan to get in while he stood outside.
It meant he wanted to talk to me about something, and I knew what it was.
When Rowan got inside, I gave him the soaked paper I was clutching in my hand without him asking first.
He nodded his head at that and carefully analyzed the three words hurriedly scribbled on the paper. After a minute or so, he crushed and threw that slip aside as he said,
"Tribuston Carnival is a moving carnival founded by a group of immigrants from the Tribuston Kingdom. They keep moving all year round, performing various acts in different places, usually performing on the outskirts of famous cities, and earning their share.
"Usually, they set their tents for about a month or so in one location before moving somewhere else. They should have released and distributed pamphlets mentioning their schedule. I need to recheck those but from what I remember, the Tribuston Carnival should be near Temsempore City by now.
It would appear within our route and would take us around a month or two to reach there."
I kept nodding my head as he informed me of the Tribuston Carnival of his own volition.
A Talkative Uncle Albert. The list of surprises I was destined to receive that day didn't seem to be ending.
As he was about to go inside after saying that, I cleared my head and decided to ask him the reason for his frantic behavior,
"Uncle, why are we leaving at night?"
He hesitated a little before looking around and whispering seriously,
"I read the lips of that man before he… passed away. He was trying to say, 'save my people'. Together with the guards that would've reached the place by now, it means… trouble."
I was right! The number of surprises I was fated to receive wasn't about to end anytime soon. I couldn't make heads or tails of the statement that Uncle Albert revealed to me. I thought of some wild possibilities but I was afraid to keep thinking in that direction.
However, Uncle Albert's next words made me sure of one of them, "He wasn't human but… a disguised werewolf. By now his corpse should've reverted to its original state.
"We don't want to be interrogated by the authorities investigating werewolves. The consequences are almost always dire. Therefore, we need to leave quickly."
Saying that he didn't wait for me to ask anything else and went inside his compartment through the side door, leaving my anxious and fearful self outside.
I looked around at the bustling crowd and felt uneasy at the thought of authorities coming after us. How long has it been since we left home? One day!!
Yet somehow, what I experienced that day was more than what I did in the last 4 years. How fascinating! How scary!