Tale Of The Half-Blood Wizard - Chapter 109

I tried to recall again that night when I was with Mirien, and as I remembered I didn’t smell anything bad or things like that. I guessed the woman who was shopping in that shop with me also didn’t smell something suspicious. Even when I went home with Mirien, there was no bad odor or anything coming out of her to my smelling sense.

I was still silent with my confusion until loud bangs on my door startled me. I got up quickly to open it. The next second, someone rushed into my house without permission—then dragged that old lady.

“Who are you? What are you doing? Don’t treat someone who is older than you like that!” I reminded her.

I wanted to help that old lady when Winnter, who just went in behind that woman, held me and said that the younger woman was the daughter in law of that grandmother. So I was just silent to see them leave my house.

“I’m sorry, my daughter. Please forgive us. I promise I won’t allow her to go out again.” That woman kept saying sorry, saying goodbye and leaving my house.

“That woman said that her mother in law was a bit” Winnter put her finger on her forehead horizontally and slightly oblique. “But that is not a good thing to treat her mother like that,” She added. Then, she locked the door. “Don’t be too easy to bring strangers into the house. You are like Mirai, Tha!” She said firmly, then went into her room.

…

That afternoon I went home earlier. I saw that old woman again in front of the gate when I was just about around the alley to my house. She was accompanied by Mirai and Mickey. The tubby cat with grey color gestured to me to take her into the house, and I just followed her.

I snatched Mickey and put him in my arms. He said he wanted to hear all of that old woman’s explanation. I was not sure what his real purpose was but I knew what he wanted.

I opened the talk with light chats before I directed the topic for her to continue her explanation the previous day. She was a bit forgetful due to her age, but I saw Mickey was listening to her very seriously. He seemed to try to get information from her. Until it was coming to the part when she saw Mirien went out of the yard with her hands fumed. In this part I really missed the link if the hands of that shopkeeper turned into smoke or another possibility.

‘Her hands were smokey.Black fumes was out of those hands’ She repeated that part as if to say it was important information. “She gave marks on the entrance of that house”.

“Marks?” I got more confused with her statements.

“She wrote something on the small door beside the gate of that house. I guess she was giving marks and then she left.” Again, she was trying to recall something from that night. “I didn’t know what she was writing because I was standing across the street. She didn’t look like Mirien so I didn’t approach her. I was afraid.” She continued.

She could not tell what she saw that night well so that it gave the impression that it was just a made up story. I myself was not sure whether to believe her or not. But seeing that she also saw me riding my bike with Mirien that night, after she had been found died, were the policeman and two other witnesses.

I contacted Winnter, asking her to go home. I wanted her to explain too so that she would be more comprehending with what that old woman wanted to tell us.

I took some snacks and poured her more tea while waiting for Winnter to arrive. Meanwhile, Mickey asked me to listen to that old woman’s explanation about that night’s incident.

…

A half hour passed, right before that grandmother left the house, Winnter arrive home, panting. Her expression changed when she saw her. “You asked me to go home for her?” As she approached me, she whispered with angry tone.

“Listen to her story first please. Mickey asked me to listen about the part when Mirien marked a house near the market.” I told her and asked that old lady to sit down again. Winnter gave her a lazy expression but she followed my advice, anyway.

That elderly started telling us all what she saw that night, starting from when I was riding home with Mirien, talking with her, the horrible odor she smelled, until she saw the shop owner walking here and there in front of  a house–she marked—a few days after that.

She didn’t seem to know that Mirien had actually passed away, because several times she said, “Mirien isn’t like that. She never stops greeting me now.’ Winnter didn’t really get what the story from that elderly was about.

When the tea was only half remaining, I wanted to pour another tea, but she refused. “I haven’t fed my cat. I’ll be back again tomorrow.” Then she left.

“Tha, Why are you still listening to the story of that old woman? Didn’t I tell you so many times if she is out of her mind?” Winnter was angry to me over nothing.

I wondered why she was so angry just because I allowed that old woman to go in the house and listened to her story. “If you talk with her one more time,” Winnter gave gesture if she would kill me if I still talked with her.

“Sis Tha!” Mirai ran down the stairs hurriedly. “Did you smell something very rotten? It is really bad in your room.” She said.

I ran to my room to check my room, Winnter followed closely behind me, so did Mickey. “If Kerberos were here, he would know right away the cause of that smell.” He said, sniffing every angle of the room. “My smell sense isn’t good, Tha.” He made an excuse.

I kept searching for what caused such horrible odor in my room, when I found ‘something’ came out between the wardrobe and my studying table. I was so shocked I almost screamed. “Tha, so sorry. Actually I have been here for some time before now” It was Yuurei. That creature then walked around my room.

“While Mirai was playing, I came by here” Said Yuurei while he was still searching. “I am sorry but my smell isn’t that good. But I believe that creature brought something very smelly in his body. he is also a creature like me a collection of energy, but…” he paused, kept his words floating, thinking about something

“What?” I was curious.

“Winnter, you also have the same odor almost similar to the creature that came by here.” Yuurei said.

Winnter was furious instantly. She scolded Yuurei and said that Yuurei was supposed to be an inexistent creature, and other curses of anger. But, that creature ignored her. She had just gone somewhere.

“Tha, I want to check the house that the old woman told us about before now.” Mickey distracted me.

I agreed with that idea. I asked Mirai to get ready. Winnter went down stairs.

Within minutes we were ready. I went downstairs first to tell Winnter about our plan while waiting for that teenager to join us. “Winnter, we will go to that place. You’d better join with us! We won’t leave you alone,” I knocked at the door. ‘Winnter!” I knocked harder  because there was no response from her.

“Okay..okay!!” she yelled back so rudely.

Mirai went downstairs at the same time Winnter showed up from her room. After making sure everything was ready, three of us left the house. The house that the woman talked about was not too far, only around seven hundred meters away from my place. However, finding the right house was a bit of a problem. It was because there were four houses that had the same description, each had  persimmon trees in the front yard.

“Didn’t she say that there was a small door next to the main gate?” Winnter’s voice reminded me.

Ughh….I just remembered that. I directly ran my eyes to a building at the corner of the street. That house had a big gate painted in black, one side door, and a persimmon tree that was still small

.

The day would get dark soon, that meant Mirien, that the old woman said, would come.

“Sister, does the creature show up in that house?” Mirai pulled the edge of my shirt, confused.

“Let’s wait and see,” I looked at Winnter for approval.

“We had better wait in that place,” Winnter pointed at a café which was across the street from that house. “It won’t attract people’s attention if we are sitting in that place. We take the seat outside the café so that we can watch the house and see what is going in there,” She suggested.

…