I handed the cigar over to Dharma who sealed it in a special crystal container.
It isolates the cigar from the outer atmosphere and will remain in the same state. It would later be examined by the experts of the bureau.
After that, I joined the investigators to see if we could find anything from the witnesses while waiting for Dhana to come.
And to our delight she came back with some possible good news.
"The Village head is suspicious. The current dead owner of the restaurant is the brother of the Village Head's secret mistress. I walked in as they fought vehemently in that mansion.
When I caught them in the middle of their argument, I kept them in separate rooms and interrogated the mistress.
She said the Village head was the one to actually make moves on the restaurant and only used her brother as the cover. They forced the restaurant out of his hands."
"Then what happened to Janis? Did the village head reveal any information?" Dharma asked.
We didn't have much to go with this case, so any small lead could lead to a major progress.
"That's the tricky part. The village head was put under a special spell. It appeared like a combination of the memory lock and a curse. Whenever he tried to access the memory, he is losing his mind and at the same time, he is writhing in pain sending his thoughts into chaos. His own body is not cooperating with this thoughts."
I frowned.
That was the only response I could muster. The fact that someone put up a memory lock and a curse is enough to understand that something is fishy.
"Dharma, when you contact the headquarters, tell them to send the information regarding all the Dark Elemental Mages who can put up such a curse, also skilled in mental magic. I will bring the village head back to Anta and break the curse and the lock to access the memories."
"Alright."
With that, the whole group dispersed to finish their respective tasks. I came back to Anta along with Dhana.
While she tried to break the lock, I went back to the Gazette office.
Because of my special contribution in taking down the Draconic Shark, most of the gazette employees got invitations for the baquet and not a single of them survived.
Except for some small-time employees and a couple of interns no one was there. But they were enough to keep the gazette running.
The gazette operations were set up like that. All the gazette branch reporters from all over the kingdom collected the news and sent it to the headquarters along with the prepared articles and images.
The chief editors in the headquarters of the kingdom's gazette will look through the news draft the whole gazette and finally send it back to the branches.
The branches will handle the printing locally and spread it to various mage association branches in the surroundings as well as the vendors that are contracted with them.
A couple of days ago, the news was about the Anta Estate Massacre.
Even though they had a lot of content, they didn't have enough details. I decided to prepare a new article with all the information that I gained.
First of all, printing all the pictures that I managed to obtain, then the news about the restaurant incident.
Of course, I didn't reveal any information about Janis and the Village head.
Only a fool would reveal such a thing.
The article was prepared and sent to the headquarters. And they replied very fast, approving the article and it was the front page.
With my signature beneath it. That was just my second article and I was already on the front page. But I couldn't feel proud. Because it was mostly a giant coincidence.
If I wasn't there at the estate at the right time, it would have been handled by a different person.
And if Dhana hadn't requested me to be a part of the investigation, I was sure that someone else would have replaced me there.
That night was a long one. I didn't have much to do, except wait for the crows to give him a message. Since I share a spiritual link with the crows, I can communicate with them and vice versa.
The moment they find any trace of that person's essence, they will inform me. So, I just went into a deep rest.
Day 22, Second Month of Winter, 599th Year of New Age Calendar.
Everyone was greeted with the Gazette's spectacular front-page news. The pictures of the suspect and his beasts were published and they can now identify this suspect.
But the news of the second incident caused by this person made everyone feel nervous.
Particularly, among the villages and towns within Anta and Kurma Duchies. They were very close in terms of distance and the fact that this guy attacked a common restaurant made them anxious.
That day, I went to the Bureau branch office. Dhana and her team were operating from there for the time being.
As I walked through the streets of the beautiful city accompanied by the cold morning sea breeze and the warm blush of the sun, I felt a bit lighthearted. As luck would have it, it didn't last long though.
When I arrived at the entrance of the Bureau office and was about to enter, I sensed a prick in my mind.
Argh
I felt like I was thrown into a large vat of molten metal. My legs felt heavy and I knelt on the ground. I started sweating before I lost my vision.
It was replaced by the point of view of a bird.
I could see a large mountain valley. It was devoid of any greenery and was only decorated with the trunks. There was heavy fog making the vision a bit blurry, courtesy to the effects effects of the southern winter.
The crow glided through the fog and its eyes landed on a small stone platform in the middle of that valley. And I saw that familiar face once again.
The Silver hair, the half-eaten face, and the sinister aura that could make the devil shiver. He sat in the middle of the stone platform. He didn't have his shirt on revealing the body that looked like it was made of pure muscle.
His skin was pale and flawless. Even the prettiest woman on the planet would have been envious of that skin. It almost looked like it didn't belong on a muscled and brute man.
But that flawless skin did have many flaws. Bite marks, each the size of a quail egg were all over the left side of his upper body.
It was just painful to look at.
The man sat in a lotus position and some black-colored energy swirled around him. It was thick and ominous. It moved ferociously as it condensed at his core. At first glance, it looked like some kind of mana cultivation technique.
The dark-colored energy condensed and started growing in size. Finally, it turned into a black-colored lotus.
The lotus grew bigger with every passing second while the man slowly levitated.
Soon, the lotus situated itself underneath him acting as a seat.
When he sat on it, it started rotating at a ferocious speed. It caused a massive gale that made the crow falter.
*BAM*
The crow hit a giant rock and died. At the same time, the vision disappeared.
"Tej? Tej? Are you alright?"
I opened my eyes to the concerned voice of Dhana as well as some vomited blood on the stone floor.
"At this rate, I will die just from my spirits dying before he kills me."
I muttered while I stood up.
Dhana passed over a recovery potion which I took without standing on ceremony.
"I have a location. One of my crows found him. He is in the mountain range to the west of the Kurma City."
"He is already there? He was at the village, just yesterday."
"At least, this shows that he can travel fast and his presence in the village yesterday means, he had a purpose. We need to go, with his strength, he should be aware of the crow's presence by now. There is a chance that he might leave."
I suggested and Dhana nodded. A smile appeared on her face.
"Don't worry about it. I am sure we have a shot at catching up to him now."
As she spoke, a huge shadow crept over our heads blocking the warm sun.
*CAW*
Accompanied by a loud crowing sound, a huge bird appeared in front of my eyes. In comparison, the bird was double the size of an SUV.
Behind that, there were five more birds hovering over the city, creating quite a spectacle.
The birds had white feathers with black tips. The white as white as snow and the black as black as ink. And the slight blackness of the feather tips was matched by the black beaks. Their blue eyes… I couldn't help but admire them.
It wasn't the first time I saw these beasts, but no matter how many times I saw them, my reaction was always the same.
I was a beasttamer, but I wasn't really fond of keeping beasts in long-term contracts. Wherever I go, I would just create a contract with the beasts in the vicinity and use them for the purpose, and release them after the purpose was served.
That goes against every school of thought of beast taming. But I never felt like having a long-term contract with a beast. But if it was that majestic bird. That I would make a contract a hundred times over for.
They were ZephyrWings. To be precise Aurora Zephyrwings, mutants among the Zephyrwings.
They were known to be the fastest aviation species and they were the specialty of the Daksh's Bureau. The usual zephyrwings used to have snow-white feathers, some tan-colored talons, and beaks.
They were fast and their potential easily enabled them to grow into a seventh-circle beast. But the Aurora Zephyrwings are a subspecies of it, with superior prowess and bloodline. They can reach eight-circle rank easily and there were even a couple of Ninth Ranked beasts within the Kingdom.
At that moment, in front of me, there were six Aurora Zephyrwings. Known for their speed and dominating records in aerial combat. All of them are at the Eighth Rank.
"Bureau didn't hold back, did they?"
"They cannot afford to. His Majesty's special orders. We were ordered to find that person as soon as possible, at whatever cost. He asked for a detailed report of the man's identity and other details.
Until the case is over, we have six eighth circle beasts, that could bring us to any part of Daksh kingdom in less than twenty-four hours."
*THUD*
At that moment, a few people jumped off the birds. They were the experts that came to aid with examining the evidence that we gathered at the crime scene. For example, the cigar. I recognized a few of them from my internship days. But they were in a hurry and the greetings had to wait.
Dhana is called Dharma.
"Dharma we have a lead. Tej managed to track down the suspect. But we need to move immediately. Hand over your tasks to your deputy and come with us."
Dharma immediately ran out.
He controlled a bird by himself while Dhana and I sat on a different bird.
The two birds flew off into the horizon.
With the speed, we zoomed past the terrain and reached mountain ranges in less than an hour.
We hovered in the sky as I closed my eyes and sensed the exact location where the crow died.
As I was gathering the mana.
*BOOM*
Accompanied by an explosive sound, we saw a literal mountain explode and turn into rubble and it was caused by a massive tornado that appeared out of nowhere.
Apart from its massive size and unreasonable power, another notable thing about it was that it was laced with black-colored energy.
The same energy that I saw in the vision.
"Looks like we don't need my special spell."