Contractbound

"How are we gonna enter like this?" asked Jacco while looking around.

No matter which direction he looked, there were people walking or standing around on the sidewalk. Normally, only designated workers would ever enter a sewer, so the three of them would quickly attract the attention of pa.s.sersby if they tried. They would need to find a more secluded sewer entrance if they wanted to avoid suspicion.

"There is no other way. Let"s go over to that alley first," said Graham.

Luuk and Jacco followed Graham, who already took out his lighter to do divination. He had wanted to do it inside the motor carriage that they had taken to get there, but it was just impossible; the driver would surely notice it.

"How can we enter the sewer without being noticed by anyone?"

The flame that was surrounded by the three men grew brighter and slowly, an image appeared. It was an aerial view of the area and there was a red dot glowing a distance away from their location. The dot seemed to be located in another alley, several hundred meters away from the one they were in. The image then disappeared gradually and the flame returned to normal.

"We have to walk over there," concluded Graham.

"Why didn"t they just build an entrance in this alley?" complained Jacco.

"Beats me," Graham only shrugged.

He put back his lighter inside the pocket of the brown trench coat that he was wearing and started walking. It was a chilly afternoon, so a little exercise shouldn"t make him too sweaty. Luuk and Jacco walked by his side with their equally warm clothing.

"How are we going to sell the loot later?" asked Jacco again.

This guy really knows nothing. I wonder how he even became a Contractbound in the first place... Luuk thought.

"We"ll sell them on the black market," explained Graham shortly.

"Where is the black market?" he asked yet another question.

"I don"t know, but I"ll find out later. Unless you can help me find out how to get in..." said Graham.

Jacco shook his head. He had only heard of the existence of the black market in pa.s.sing and never paid attention to it. When he wanted to sell the stolen valuables from his victims, he would usually ask his right-hand man to do it. Then it dawned on him.

"Wait, maybe I can find out! Ivo surely knows!" he shouted suddenly.

People around them were startled and turned their heads to find the source of the loud noise. Jacco stared back at them with a challenging glare, and coupled with his big muscular body, made the people turned around awkwardly.

"Who is Ivo? One of your men?" asked Graham.

"Yes. He is the one who bought the Thief scroll from you. He deals with selling our "reclaimed" items," answered Jacco more quietly than before.

"You mean stolen?" mocked Luuk.

"At least we steal right in their faces, not from behind their back," responded Jacco.

"After you beat them up half-dead, that is. Right, Val?" muttered Graham.

Jacco didn"t hear it perfectly, so he turned to Graham and asked, "What was that?"

"Nothing. It was just the wind," he said shortly.

The continued walking past the tall buildings and busy stores. The occasional breeze would blow and bring fallen leaves with it, but the people were not affected much because most of them were wearing warm clothing.

"This place is totally different from Oosteinde," said Luuk, breaking the silence.

"Yeah. There aren"t any homeless people either. I wonder how they do it?" replied Jacco in astonishment, looking at his surroundings.

He didn"t travel often, so the sight was fascinating to him. He spent most of his time either working at the restaurant or hanging out with his men, hara.s.sing people unfortunate enough to walk into his territory.

"They probably put them in shelters. There"s a lot of them around the city, and I always see those homeless shelters bustling with activity," answered Graham.

"Why can"t they do the same for the slum residents?" asked Jacco curiously.

"I don"t know, and I don"t care enough," said Graham.

He really didn"t care about things that did not concern him, including how other people lived. He only cared about people he knew and people with ties to him. Although, he would probably still help a stranger if they needed it as long as it didn"t inconvenience him.

"I"m a hypocrite, aren"t I, Val?" he said in ridicule.

The trio kept walking until they finally arrived at the alley where the sewer entrance was. There was currently no one in the alley, but they could still see a lot of people walking past in the street ahead of them. The three of them worked together to lift the manhole cover carefully as not to make too much noise and after some effort, it was finally removed, revealing the dark sewer underneath.

Graham stood there looking at the ladder leading down to the pitch-black s.p.a.ce under the street. He was wondering if he should switch with Valentine for the upcoming battle. He could use divination to determine their locations and Order to control the enemies. If there was a lingering spirit, he could also talk to them while he was down there, but his eyes couldn"t see in the dark, so he would need one hand to hold on to the source of light. On the other hand, Valentine could see in the dark and he could use Restriction to prevent the wraiths from wailing, but he couldn"t control them because his Interrogation wouldn"t work on spirits.

"You two go on ahead. I"ll take care of something first," said Graham decisively.

"Okay," said Luuk and Jacco.

"Before you go, take this," Graham stopped Jacco just before he climbed down the rusty ladder.

He took out a candle and lit it for Jacco. He knew that Jacco didn"t have night vision either, so he would need something to help him see.

"Thanks!" he said gratefully and then climbed down the ladder with his left hand holding the candle.

With his two teammates gone, he went to a spot behind a pile of boxes to hide from the view of people in the street. After making sure there was no danger, he started chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order myself to fall asleep!"

Just as he finished chanting, he felt a heavy wave of sleepiness swept over him, and not long after, he had fallen asleep. Valentine woke up only seconds later and quickly stood up. Graham had decided to switch because Valentine"s eyes were too valuable to pa.s.s in that situation. Regarding control, Luuk could do it to some extent so they could safely fight the wraiths without being overwhelmed by their number.

Valentine climbed down the rusty ladder and dragged the manhole cover over the entrance a little, so that people wouldn"t be attracted right away by the wide-open sewer entrance, but still provided them enough s.p.a.ce to exit quickly. The heavy metal moved slowly with his power and after he felt it was enough, he quickly got down to where his companions had been waiting.

"You"re finally here," said Jacco while looking up.

The candle in his hand was the brightest source of light now that the light from the street above was covered a little.

"I wish I had brought a flashlight," he said in regret.

Luuk, whose eyes didn"t glow anymore even if he activated his night vision, had no problem seeing, so he never needed a flashlight. Valentine was the same. He could perfectly see in the dark, even more so with his enhanced vision; any small movement wouldn"t get unnoticed by him.

They walked down the dark tunnel towards where the sound of the underground stream came from. Once they reached the stream they headed west, in the direction of the cemetery. That was where the wraiths were. Suddenly, the trio was overwhelmed by a strong stench.

"Urgh! This sewer smells really bad!" complained Jacco.

Luuk, who was a medical student, understood right away what kind of smell it was. He looked at Valentine who also knew what they might find soon.

"That is not the sewer; it"s a dead body!" said Luuk.

They quickly walked towards the source of the smell, while Jacco was following closely behind. His candlelight flickered in the dark, so he protected it with his left hand. The thin metal plate strapped to his stomach made a rustling noise as he walked.

The smell of a decomposing corpse got stronger and stronger as they approached the source. It became suffocating, and Jacco vomited several times. Luuk, who was more used to it, was also starting to get nauseated while Valentine was breathing very heavily. Once they got close enough, he chanted.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the smell of the corpse a secret!"

Although he hadn"t canceled his previous Concealment back when fighting against the Tiyanak, his spell still worked because he had gone out of the range of the previous one, automatically canceling it. Once he finished his chant, a thin yellowish mist descended and enveloped the whole area, masking the rotten stench.

"Thanks, man!" Jacco said with much grat.i.tude; now he could breathe normally.

They kept walking for several more meters before finally, they saw the source of the rotting smell.

"Holy s.h.i.tness!" exclaimed Jacco as he shone his light over the area in front of him.

Sitting against the wall, there was the dead body of a man that was half-eaten by probably the creatures of the sewer. Only half his face remained, while the other half seemed to have been chewed on by rats. The man"s remaining eye was closed and his expression didn"t show any horror, which meant he was not another victim of Pravitatem. His shirt and jacket were tattered and had bloodstains in some parts, and his pants were mostly gone, just like the man"s lower half. Judging from what remained of him, the man was very thin when he was alive.

"How long ago do you think he died?" asked Valentine to Luuk.

"I"m not a forensic pathologist..." he answered in regret.

"But you"re a medical student. Just a guestimate is fine," said Valentine again.

"Doesn"t mean I know everything about dead people. And I"m not the best in cla.s.s either," he said weakly.

Valentine shrugged.

"Judging from the decomposition rate, I guess he"s been dead for at least two days?" said Luuk in doubt.

That was a huge time span, but Valentine couldn"t get anything better at the moment. He had to work with what was available. He slit his palm and poured as much blood as he could on the ground, and asked Luuk and Jacco to do the same.

"What is this for?" asked Jacco while cutting open his palm.

The pain didn"t bother him, but he was curious about what the blood was for. Was it a bait for something that was interested in it?

"You"ll see soon," said Valentine while pouring in more blood on the ground. He felt slightly lightheaded after losing much.

Now that there was a huge pool of blood on the sewer floor from the three of them, they stopped pouring their blood and the wound started healing right away slowly. Valentine focused on the area in front of him and projected his spirituality to the blood below him while thinking of the duration that he wanted to cover.

"Show me what has happened here in the last two days."

Valentine"s voice sounded ethereal, and with his chant, the blood beneath him started to move. The crimson liquid rapidly formed a figure of a man who looked similar to the dead person. There were also the blood figures of big rats overlapping with the man"s, which meant it happened at a different time. On a different spot, there was a floating bloodstain, which meant there was not enough blood to complete the figure. Once all the blood was used up, everything started to move.

"Whoa!" Jacco exclaimed in fascination.

He and Luuk had never seen this ability before, so they were amazed. They were watching the figure of the man walking weakly towards the spot of his death and then sat down in the exact same position and remained motionless except for his faint breathing. Meanwhile, the blood rats were moving about. After some time, the blood rat gathered around the man, who seemed to have died, and started eating his flesh. The floating bloodstain also went closer to the man and then suddenly the blood that formed the man"s right face disappeared. The blood rats and the floating bloodstain then moved away and left the dead man"s body in shambles. After that, all the blood evaporated; taken by the Deity as a tribute.

"I guess that means the man died of natural cause, not murder," concluded Valentine, and then added, "Anyway, it seems that is the answer to your question about homeless people,"

"What kind of ability is that?" asked Luuk curiously.

"A glimpse of the past," answered Valentine shortly, then added, "What do you think the floating bloodstain was?"

"I don"t know, but I think it was the one that ate half the man"s face," said Jacco.

"Which means the sewer has something other than wraiths," Valentine said seriously.