Two hours passed. After cutting through the darkness of the quiet streets at night, the three of them arrived at Chapena District, 11 Vica Street.

  They walked calmly along the road toward their house. A minute and a half later, they finally stood in front of the door, staring at it with focus and relief after the horrifying incident earlier.

  Zavi slowly turned the handle and realized the front door was not locked, and it opened. He told his mother to go in first, while he waited by the doorway to return Ren's pistol, slipping it into the pocket of his coat.

  A few steps after entering the house, hurried footsteps sounded from upstairs. Isabelle appeared, wearing a blue nightgown.

  "Thank goodness. Mother… I was worried about you," Isabelle said breathlessly as she ran down the stairs and hugged her mother tightly in the living room.

  Seeing her mother safe, relief flooded Isabelle's heart, and her mother returned the warm embrace.

  Zavi was still carrying Ren over his shoulder, standing behind them. He looked at the two of them and said in a half-joking tone, "So you do not care about us, Isabelle?"

  Isabelle's eyes widened. She released the hug and walked toward him. Without hesitation, she lightly punched Zavi's chest.

  "Yes," she replied emotionally. "I am grateful you found Mother. Thank you." Isabelle lowered her head, unable to hold back her tears.

  "That is good," Zavi exhaled, then continued, "Mom, it seems I will go upstairs." He said it softly and began climbing the stairs.

  "Alright, but is Ren okay?" his mother asked to make sure, even though during the earlier journey she had wondered why she and the others had been kidnapped by that strange group.

  Zavi stopped midway up the stairs and turned his head back. The two of them waited for his answer, staring at him sharply.

  He chuckled lightly and answered without hesitation, "He is fine, he will wake up soon anyway, maybe." He lowered his voice in the last sentence.

  His mother and Isabelle nodded at the same time after hearing his short answer.

  "That is strange. It does not look like he fainted normally," Isabelle whispered in disbelief, nodding to herself.

  "Whatever," Zavi said loudly. He turned around, climbed the stairs again, and walked toward Ren's room at the end of the corridor.

  Isabelle and Mei looked at each other and chuckled softly at Zavi's sudden anger. Ten seconds later, they saw Zavi coming back down with his head lowered.

  Instinctively, Isabelle smiled faintly and said;

  "Are you angry?"

  Zavi ignored her and continued descending the stairs quickly, hurrying toward his room. The door opened; he went straight inside and closed it harder than usual.

  Bam!

  Feeling that she had gone too far with her own brother, Isabelle walked toward her room with heavy steps.

  "I am sorry if I was too much," she said softly.

  There was no answer, making the living room atmosphere suddenly tense. From behind, Mei looked at Isabelle's back with a worried expression.

  Isabelle realized it and told her about that meeting.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  "But… I met your friend earlier… and she—"

  "What!?" Zavi cut her off. "My friend…?"

  'Who is she talking about?' Zavi thought, his body unmoving as the corner of his eye glanced backward.

  "Yes," she replied with a short sigh. "If I am not mistaken, her name is Zeta. She came here looking for you," she said gently.

  Zavi continued his steps, sat hesitantly on the bed with his sharp gaze fixed on his bedroom door while thinking about why Zeta came to his house.

  "Alright, thank you," Zavi answered stiffly.

  'Does she already know about what happened to Forn? That would be bad if she knows.' Zavi thought in panic.

  Hearing that, Isabelle's worry slowly subsided. She let out a long breath, turned around, and asked permission from her mother, who was still standing in the living room, to return to her room since it was late and she had school tomorrow.

  Mei nodded in relief. Before turning around, she glanced toward Zavi's room. Two seconds later, she smiled and walked to her own room to prepare for sleep.

  Meanwhile, inside his room, Zavi lay on his back on the bed, still thinking about what had happened earlier, and how Zeta could possibly know about the incident without being told by him and even find his home address.

  "Should she not know where I live? Did someone tell her? Even so, that woman does not seem like an ordinary human, yes, she is extremely obsessed with the supernatural, I know, that could be an answer regarding her coming here." while staring at the ceiling, Zavi truly finished his thoughts.

  Two minutes later, after relaxing for a moment while thinking about his existence in this world, he turned his body to the right, realizing that his memory of Earth had been cut off when he occupied this body.

  'This is bad.'

  Click…

  The revolver rubbed harshly against his waist as he moved his body, causing a brief pain, making Zavi immediately sit up and take the shining silver revolver.

  "Damn it." he cursed in annoyance. As soon as he said it, his eyes widened as he remembered the events of that afternoon.

  'Is it true that Mr. Albert is truly not an ordinary person? And regarding Zeta knowing Forn's condition after being told by him, is that true? But do the two of them even know each other?'

  He closed his eyes, crawled out of bed, and stepped forward twice, placing the empty and useless revolver into the drawer, then turned around and lay down again.

  Zavi slipped his hand into his pocket and took out the pocket watch to check the time again.

  Click…

  The lid opened. His eyes immediately caught the slowly moving hands, accompanied by its distinctive ticking sound.

  After making sure that it was now 23.25, Zavi closed it again, placed the watch beside him, and prepared to sleep, without realizing that he had not taken off his coat.

  ...

  The next day, exactly at 06.50 in the morning, Zavi was still fast asleep, exhausted from the previous night. Faintly, his ears caught the sound of a loud knock on the bedroom door, enough to make them ring.

  He grumbled in annoyance, unable to open his eyes, his mind forcing him to keep sleeping. However, suddenly, the door seemed to be slammed open with a loud bang, causing him to wake up.

  "What was that…" he muttered breathlessly. "Ah… my head hurts so much!" He tapped his head slowly.

  After fully regaining his senses, he realized the door remained closed. There was no knock. Zavi understood that the fleeting realistic sensation earlier was merely a nightmare! But did it truly happen or was the dream related to showing the moment of the original Zavi's death?

  He truly did not know.

  "Sir… here it is. I will be waiting for you."

  A cold, clearly feminine, emotionless voice crept inside the room.

  Once again, Zavi did not hear it.

  He focused on the dream he had just experienced.

  "Damn… how do I get rid of these dreams? Should I just ask an expert directly?" He cursed at himself in annoyance, remembering that in Chapena District there was a supernatural incident consultation service in Cosdever.

  Five days ago, the original Zavi had gone there to ask about something. However, he could not fully remember their conversation.

  'Fiuhh. I do not know what to do after this, and regarding that robed group, they said there are two people left? Huh, I hope they are not targeting me.'

  Zavi got up from the bed, took the pocket watch, and slipped it into the pocket of his hanging coat. After that, he hurried out of his room toward the bathroom.

  Ten minutes later, he was ready to leave the house to go to that old consultant's place. Zavi wore a thin white shirt under a knee-length black coat, and brought his silver revolver, even though it had no bullets.

  'Maybe it can still be useful in an emergency,' he thought.

  Suddenly, he laughed for no clear reason.

  Five seconds later, his expression turned serious, the surrounding air freezing as if reacting to the tense atmosphere of the room.

  He took a deep breath, then stepped forward firmly.

  The bedroom door opened; he stepped out and closed it again. Zavi walked toward the front door while counting paper bills and silver coins in both of his hands.

  '10 Pace, 50 pence. This is more than enough,' he thought.

  Feeling it was sufficient, he put them into the left pocket of his coat. The front door opened, and from that moment his journey to the old man's consultation place began.

  After leaving the street where his house was located, he turned left, joining the crowd on the busy sidewalk before heading to the horse carriage stand. Today the sun was not too scorching, and the cold air mixed with the drift of smoke from the steam companies on the main road.

  Two minutes later, at an intersection, his gaze fell upon a crowd of people surrounding something, accompanied by noisy murmurs.

  Curious, Zavi hurried closer. When only a few steps away, he heard words that made his body freeze.

  "What? A hidden supernatural world behind the mountains?"

  "Ah... Another kidnapping in the town square."

  "Another horrific death!"

  "I cannot stand this news anymore."

  He glanced left and right before slipping through the gap between the people in front of him. Struggling through the crowd, his curiosity was finally answered right before his eyes.

  In the row before the entrance to the small roadside market on the left side, a bakery stood with a square wooden board in front of it, about ninety centimeters long and fifty centimeters wide, used to display black and white illustrated news.

  Covering events in the city, province, industries within the Kingdom of Norn, politics, criminal threats, and matters related to the continuously rising death toll, published through newspapers posted there and also distributed by news vendors.

  'How could they obtain this information?' he thought, his expression turning serious after observing another line of those words.

  'Town square, kidnapping. Riots in Sanerva. Price surges in neighboring cities and also what kind of news is this being displayed here?'

  He questioned the development that was under the Duke's authority, but the media instead steered public opinion by emphasizing the ambiguity and obscurity of the ruler.

  'This is not news. This is a reputational attack.' he thought in confusion, after thinking more carefully.

  Because he did not want to get involved with "politics", in the end, he decided to leave and continue his journey, turning right toward the outskirts of Vica, Counting Road.