Chapter 112: Azik’s Explanation

Chapter One Hundred Twelve
Azik’s Explanation

Backlund, Queen’s Borough.

Audrey Hall sat in a hanging chair tucked inside a shaded corner. Looking out at the clusters of flowers blooming fiercely beneath the sunlight, she began thinking over the matter Fors Wall had asked for help with.

According to Viscount Glaint’s verification, there truly was a young lady named Xio Derecha being held in a temporary prison in Backlund’s North Borough.

Her charge was that, because of a property dispute, she had severely injured a respectable gentleman. That gentleman still lay in a hospital bed even now, and perhaps would never stand again.

Fors’s explanation, however, was that the respectable gentleman was no good man. He was a gang leader from Backlund’s East Borough and made his living from usury.

The matter had begun when a certain borrower discovered that the interest was several times higher than he had imagined, so high that even bankruptcy would not allow him to repay it. After negotiations with that gentleman failed, he found Xio Derecha, a minorly famous “Arbiter” nearby, hoping she could persuade the other party to forgive the unreasonable portion.

The gentleman did not obey Xio Derecha’s “judgment.” He even threatened that very night to seize the borrower’s wife and children. Thus, Xio Derecha changed her persuasive technique and adopted a physical method. By a small accident, she caused serious injury.

Viscount Glaint had investigated the course of events and confirmed that Fors Wall’s description was true. He had also confirmed that the gang leader had lost control of his subordinates and, after a “visit” from someone in the middle of the night, had forgiven the borrower’s debt and issued a statement to the prosecutor forgiving Xio Derecha. But a serious-injury case was not something that would simply stop being prosecuted because the victim no longer wished to pursue it.

“Glaint hopes to resolve it through normal methods. He sent someone to consult a familiar barrister, and the other party said he was confident of securing a light sentence, but that an acquittal would be very difficult unless the person involved could obtain a medical certificate proving mental illness or underdeveloped intellect…”

Audrey murmured soundlessly, leaning toward her friend’s opinion.

For her, the most important point was not to have any obvious connection with Fors Wall and Xio Derecha. After the “Tarot Club” matter, Audrey felt that she was no longer an innocent, ignorant girl.

“Tomorrow evening there is a ball at Earl Wolfe’s house. I will tell Glaint then to follow the barrister’s advice.”

Audrey nodded faintly, making her decision.

In the Loen Kingdom, lawyers were divided into barristers and solicitors. The latter handled matters that did not require appearing in court: gathering evidence, speaking with clients, drafting wills, supervising property distribution, offering legal consultation, and so on. Of course, they could also represent clients in the most basic magistrates’ courts and defend simple cases.

Barristers, meanwhile, studied evidence and defended clients in court. According to the laws of the Loen Kingdom, they had to maintain an objective attitude. Therefore, they could not directly contact clients and instead had to gather information through assistants—that was, through solicitors. Each one of them was a true legal expert, with exceptional eloquence and extremely high debating ability.

Having recovered her ease, Audrey watched the blazing colors of the flowers outside from her position of hiding in the darkness and peering into the light. Suddenly, another thought surfaced.

“A certificate proving mental illness or underdeveloped intellect… psychiatrist…”

“If the Psychology Alchemists have mastered the acting method, does that mean I can search for them among psychiatrists?”

The moment she thought of this, Audrey felt that her line of reasoning was perfectly correct. Her eyes shone like brilliant gemstones.

Just then, she saw the golden retriever Susie sneak toward the clusters of flowers in a furtive manner. The dog slipped into a place only gardeners would ordinarily reach.

“Susie… what is she doing?”

Hidden in the shadows, Audrey stared blankly.

The golden retriever seemed to have been confused by the fragrance of the flowers and did not notice the master behind her. She opened her mouth and made sounds like someone practicing their voice: “Ah, ah, ah,” “Ya, ya, ya.”

Immediately afterward, she made the surrounding air vibrate, producing stiff and not-quite-rounded words.

“Hello.”

“How are you?”

…

Audrey’s mouth opened little by little. She completely forgot the etiquette an elegant lady ought to possess. She could scarcely believe the scene she was seeing, or the rigid voice she was hearing.

She abruptly stood and blurted, “Susie, you can talk? When did you learn to talk?”

The golden retriever was so frightened she jumped. Turning around, she faced her owner.

She wagged her tail in a frantic, hurried manner. Her mouth opened and closed several times before she managed to vibrate the air around her.

“I…”

“I do not know how to explain it. After all, I am only a dog.”

Hearing that sentence, Audrey was left speechless for a moment.

…

Monday morning. Klein, who had the day off, reviewed and consolidated his mysticism knowledge according to his planned schedule. After that, he took a public carriage to Hoy University.

He intended to spend more time with Mr. Azik and see exactly what the other man knew.

Inside the three-story gray-stone building that belonged to the history department, Klein chatted for a while with his mentor, Cohen Quentin, exchanging thoughts on matters related to the ancient ruins on the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range.

Having gained nothing extra, he waited until his mentor left to handle some affairs, then entered the office diagonally opposite and walked to Instructor Azik’s desk.

“Mr. Azik, may I speak with you for a while?”

He looked toward the instructor with bronze skin, gentle features, and a small mole beneath his right ear, removing his hat and giving a courteous bow.

Azik, whose brown eyes held an indescribable sense of vicissitudes, organized the books on his desk and said, “Of course. Let us take a walk by the Hoy River.”

“All right.”

Klein carried his cane and followed him out of the three-story gray-stone building.

Along the way, both of them maintained silence. Neither spoke first.

Only when the flowing river entered their sight, and when there were no longer teachers or students coming and going nearby, did Azik stop. He half-turned, faced Klein, and asked, “Is there something you wished to ask me?”

Klein pondered for a long while. He thought of many indirect ways to begin, yet abandoned them one by one.

In the end, he asked frankly and directly, “Mr. Azik, you are a trustworthy and respectable gentleman. I would like to know what exactly you saw in me, or what you know. I am referring to what happened last time—when you said there was something disharmonious about my fate.”

Azik tapped his cane on the ground. Smiling with a sigh, he said, “I did not expect you to be so direct. It leaves me unsure how to answer.”

“To be honest, the disharmony in your fate is the only thing I can see. Aside from that, I do not know more than you.”

Klein hesitated before asking, “Then why can you see it? I do not believe it comes from divination.”

Azik turned his head and looked toward the Hoy River. His tone carried a few notes of desolation.

“No, Klein. You do not understand. Divination can reach such a level. It only depends on who performs the divination. Of course, my ‘divination’ is merely an excuse used to cover it.”

“…Some people are always special. They are born with strange abilities. I should be one of those people.”

“Should?” Klein keenly caught the problem in the word choice.

“Yes. I do not know whether I was born with it either. Perhaps the price of that ability is to forget myself, forget the past, forget my parents.”

Azik’s gaze, looking at the river surface, carried clear sorrow.

The more Klein listened, the more confused he became.

“Forget the past?”

Azik gave a smile without mirth.

“Before I entered the history department at Backlund University, I lost the vast majority of my memories. I remembered only my name and basic knowledge. Fortunately—fortunately, I had identification. Otherwise, I could only have become a vagrant. Over the years, I have used that identification to search for my parents, but I have never found anything, even though I can see a corner of fate.

“And during those years at university, I gradually discovered that I possessed certain unusual abilities, abilities beyond common sense.”

Klein listened with great focus and could not help asking, “Mr. Azik, why did you lose your memories? No, what I mean is, did you discover the reason for your amnesia at the scene?”

He suspected Mr. Azik might be an amnesiac member of the Life School of Thought, perhaps even a mid-sequence member of considerable standing—this was the secret organization corresponding to Monster, the organization that had produced Prophet and relied mostly on master-apprentice transmission.

Azik shook his head heavily.

“No. It was as though I slept once, and upon waking, I had forgotten the past.”

Holding his cane, he took a few more steps forward, speaking as he walked.

“After leaving Backlund, I began to dream. I dreamed of many strange things…”

Dreams? I am good at interpreting dreams! Entering his area of expertise, Klein immediately asked, “What sort of dreams?”

Azik gave a vague, low laugh.

“Many, many different dreams. Sometimes I dream of the inside of a dark mausoleum, of one ancient coffin after another. The corpses inside lie face-down, and white feathers grow from their backs. Sometimes I dream that I am a knight in full-body armor, carrying a three-meter lance as I charge at the enemy.

“Sometimes I dream that I am a lord, with fertile estates, a beautiful wife, and three children. Sometimes I dream that I am a vagrant, walking along a muddy road in the rain, cold and hungry.

“Sometimes I dream that I have a daughter, a daughter different from those other children. She has smooth black hair and likes sitting on the swing I made with my own hands. She is always asking me for candy. Sometimes I dream that I stand beside a gallows, looking up coldly at the corpse swaying above…”

Listening to Azik’s murmur-like narration, Klein discovered that he was actually unable to interpret the man’s dreams, because the symbols in different dreams contradicted one another. They opposed one another.

Azik withdrew his gaze. His voice was no longer drifting as he said, “The southern Kingdom of Feynapotter believes in the Earth Mother, and the Church of the Earth Mother preaches one concept. They believe every life is a ‘plant’ that draws nutrients from the earth, slowly growing, flourishing, and withering.

“When they wither, those lives fall into the earth and return to their mother’s embrace. The next year, they grow again. Flowers bloom and fall, year after year. So too with life, lifetime after lifetime.

“Sometimes I am very willing to believe this. To believe that because I am special, I can dream fragments of my previous life, and of the life before that.”

At this point, he looked toward Klein and sighed.

“I have not even told Cohen these things. The reason I am telling you is because I…”

Azik paused, then smiled.

“My apologies. My description just now was not sufficiently accurate. The disharmony in your fate is not the only thing I can see. I saw one other thing as well.

“Klein, you are no longer a normal person. You possess extraordinary, strange abilities, much like me.”