Witch’s Journey - Chapter 20 Harrisonburg City

A dark grey Nissan could be seen on the road. Within the ordinary looking car, Sigil and Alicia were bickering like kids.

Smack

Since Sigil was sitting in front seat, his head was smacked by Alicia and he couldn’t defend himself.

“Ow, you are resorting to physical attacks if I am gaining upper hand in an argument?”Sigil grumbled and his head was smacked again.

“Like I said, we should have just used my car. The engine of your car has such a loud noise.” Alicia spoke with a wise face.

“You don’t understand, that is the beauty of muscle cars.” Sigil replied complacently.

Martha sat beside Alicia quietly as she did not have interest in cars.

Meanwhile, Ricardo, who was driving the car, was in his own thoughts.

‘Did I even reincarnate into my own world?’

He couldn’t be faulted for having such doubts. After all, too much has changed. The emergence of alliance and changes in his supposed enemy- Sigil. He wasn’t arrogant, snobbish.. or a man whore. Instead, he was quite casual with everyone and that included the mortals.

They were currently going to their mission site in Ricardo’s car. His car could be considered ordinary among all the cars in the range of a mortal middle-class family.

“Whatever, I am too tired to argue.”

Sigil shook his head and took out a book from his bag’s outer compartment. It was a thin book with a light-grey cover.

“What is that?” Martha’s interest was finally piqued.

“Oh, I brought some books from the library to pass time in the car.” Sigil spoke and took out the other two book placed in his bag.

“What is that? Furry Heaven?”

Martha and Alicia took a book each. Sigil had the book on Acupuncture, Martha had the book of Furry Heaven and Alicia had the book of refreshing exercising sets between male and female.

The books were filled with interesting content that could bait a youth’s mind and Alicia and Martha were not different. Within a few minutes, they were engrossed in the book. Even Sigil read the book on Acupuncture Pleasure with great concentration.

These three books had different ideas that sounded viable and interesting, but they were extremely expensive and impractical. According to the book, to achieve maximum pleasure, a witch should create some exotic acupunctures with a spell. Of course, nobody ever accomplished such a feat in the witch’s world.

Their destination was a city towards the west named Harrisonburg City. It was a city filled with carpenters and other craftsmen. This city was also regarded as one of the more developed areas of the region. The city was almost 3 hours away and Sigil and the group had a long time of journey left.

***

“Wow! This book had some strange ideas!” Martha sighed as she closed the book.

According to the self-proclaimed Immoral Witch, the author of the book Furry Heaven, reproduction between Familiars and monsters were possible. Even though there is no evidence or any progress in the research, there had been some rumours about strong Familiars that were produced by cross-breeding.

“Tell me about it. This exercise is simply impossible.” Alicia sighed and closed her book too.

What Refreshing Exercise? The author was a pervert and a possible paedophile.

She returned the book to Sigil and closed her eyes. Even though there were some innovative and unusual ideas, the results were impossible to produce, at least, nobody had succeeded in the strange exercise.

Now they knew why these three books were popular with the Elders of the family. They were simply fun to read.

As they kept on chatting amongst themselves, a strange occurrence was

Taking place near Chestcovia City.

***

Inside the Grimoire World.

A small patch of forest started to lose their lustre and kept on growing dull. The process was taking place at a phenomenal speed and slowly, the patch of forest turned into dust alongside the ground and some of the minerals hidden within the ground. A pitch black hole took place instead of the forest as it slowly started sucking away the ground.

***

“Four rooms please.” Sigil tapped on the reception and spoke flatly. Since the group packed light, they decided to carry their stuff to the booked room themselves.

“Wow! This is nice.” Sigil threw his bag on the bed and admired the interior of the room. No wonder this city was famous for their artistic taste.

The room was painted in cream colour and the curtain had a light brown colour with an intricate design in golden colour. The bed was springy and not too soft, making it perfect for tired backs. Sigil refreshed himself before climbing up to the bed and rest with a satisfied smile.

The past couple of days has been tiring for him. The most exhausting day was when he cut the connection of Grimoire World with the Grimoire. Even though he took away most of the important resources, one had to understand that a Grimoire World is a land that can continue creating important treasures as long as it remains in existence.

But Sigil did not regret his decision. no, in Sigil’s mind, there was no such thing as regret. For Sigil, it was simple. He made a decision and he had to live with its consequences. If he could do it over again, he would do the same thing, After all, he wasn’t strong enough to protect the Grimoire World and he couldn’t simply take it away, therefore, he made a decision of taking away the most precious treasures and Familiar for the cost of destruction of the Grimoire World.

Knock Knock

“Ugh, can’t even lay down quietly.”

Sigil groaned.

He got up and opened the door. It was Alicia, Martha and Ricardo. His lips twitched in annoyance as he smiled.

“Yes?”

“We are going to the alliance’s office in the city to take the look at the case file and find some clues. Do you want to join us?”

Ricardo spoke.

“Do I get a choice?” Sigil asked flatly.

“No.” Alicia and Martha spoke in unison.

He sighed and closed the room before taking his leave with them. They asked for the directions to the local office of the alliance from the receptionist before taking their leave from the hotel.

The Alliance had only been established for three days, yet it was too popular among mortals. After all, on the first day of establishment, the Alliance solved more than a hundred thousand cases. This earned them a lot of goodwill among the mortals and many people applied for the mundane jobs in the alliance, like technical support and other accounting services.

It had to be understood that previously, the Witch’s Organisation did not admit the regular mortals into their organisation for even the most mundane task. With the employment from the Alliance, many people now found a stable source of income. Even though it hadn’t been long, it was just a matter of time before the economic state of the whole continent could be raised together.

The regional office of the alliance was established near the police station of the city. The building was leased by some landlord and the outside of the building was decorated with a big board in the name of the alliance.

The four of them quickly entered and stood in front of the reception counter.

“Please check the mission number 1455678. We want all the relevant information about the case.” Martha tapped on the counter and spoke flatly.

Since the other party was a mortal, she did not feel the need to be polite with her. This was the pride of a witch filled within her bones.

Ricardo and Alicia had impassive expressions while Sigil had no comments. The receptionist quickly typed in the relevant information and asked for their identity numbers politely. After verifying their identity through the biometrics scanning, the information about the case was transferred to them.

Usually, there are two types of cases. One, where the mission is reported to the organisation or the alliance and they will post a relevant reward for its completion.

Second, these are the type of cases that the Witch finds himself. Like Alicia’s and Sigil’s first case. They found the case from a newspaper and solved it successfully. In return, they were rewarded by their family. Usually, lone witches that do not have any backing, usually apply for missions from the organisation.

The group left and went to a snacks point for some refreshments.

“I will have a plate of fries.”

“Burger for me.”

“Chicken Wings.”

“A plate of pasta with a glass of Ice Tea.”

After placing their orders, they dived into their discussions. The information collection team of the alliance proved their worth by such a comprehensive data. There were six victims till now and all had the same attacking pattern. A small bite on the neck and a deep wound on the back of the head. The backside of the skull was crushed by the attack and still, the assaulting familiar took a nip on the Victim’s neck.

To humanity of this era, they were only attacked by three parties Ghosts, Monsters and untamed Familiars.

The area was already free of EMF, so the possibility of Ghost was close to nil. The area also had no other clue except the dark footprint of a bunny near the victim. It was as if the feet of the bunny let out some inky substance right before attacking the victim.

Of course, the possibility of a monster appearing could not be ignored and this was their risk of the mission. The rewards for fighting and defeating the monsters were higher than solving the case filled with Familiars. But, if the Familiars could be captured, they could fetch a high price.

Another thing to note was that the footprints were of the different size near different victims.

“So? What are we looking at? A Familiar Nest?” Sigil spoke as he received his plate of pasta.

“If they are Familiars, we have to identify them and also find out their abilities and weaknesses.” Alicia frowned.

Familiars were one of the core parts of a Witch’s battle power, this was because of their myriad Abilities and different usage that made their use very efficient and profitable. But if they were untamed or not contracted, they could also be the reason for the death of a witch.

“We should also try to find a pattern between the victims.” Martha commented.

“What about a rogue witch?” Ricardo’s words quietened the trio.

Even though there were many rogue witches in the dark guilds, they did not tally for all the lone witches that experiment on mortals and kill them for the benefit for their own witchcraft.

“That could be troublesome.”

“How about this? Martha and I will talk with the victim’s’ families and you guys check the crime scene.” Alicia spoke out as he started eating her plate of French fries.

After deciding their plan, they left for their own task after eating their fill.

***

“Well, this is the latest attack. His name was George. He was a good kid.”

The police officer near the crime scene guided Ricardo and Sigil around. The body was taken away, but there were still many clues left. Out of the six crime scenes, only this was left that could provide some insights.

The place of George’s murder was at the back alley near a drug store. His whole body was smashed to the trash can with the back of his head caved in. Sigil walked near the pair of footprints near the trashcan and touched the inky substance.

“Can you bring us all the possessions of the victim during his murder.” Ricardo spoke naturally. After all, he was a Grimoire Master in his previous life and his experience greatly surpassed Sigil’s. After some time, the police officer brought both of them to the police station to allow them to see all of the victim’s belongings.

For the purpose of the investigation, the possessions of all the victims during their murder was placed inside the police station.

Sigil, meanwhile, paid close attention to Ricardo’s movements. He knew Ricardo’s secret. He was a Reincarnator!

To Sigil, Ricardo was a big variable that had insider’s information about various future events and this also made him an untapped treasure trove. The benefits one could receive because of the future knowledge are astronomical.

But, how should he excavate the treasure? He couldn’t simply make Ricardo spill the secrets. All he could do was to slowly build a strong friendship and gain his trust.

After checking all the items, Ricardo frowned. He couldn’t find a pattern through the victim’s possession. This meant that the attacks were indiscriminate or the necessary clue wasn’t in the possession of the victim.

“Please send us all the data of the victims.”

Sigil still asked for their data and left with Ricardo.

“Where should we go next?” Ricardo asked Sigil. Ricardo still felt a need to ask Sigil since he wanted to establish Sigil as the leader of their group. There was no particular reason for such action. Ricardo simply thought that him being in the limelight can cause some suspicion and trouble.

Sigil blinked at his question before speaking out his thoughts.

“Let’s visit the last pub our little friend George visited.” Ricardo nodded in appreciation and followed Sigil. Since they were walking, they received many stares from the opposite gender … and some males as well.

It was mostly Sigil’s handsome figure drawing unwanted attention. Yes, it wasn’t required to move with one girl in each arm.

Ricardo was speechless at Sigil. Two girls, who apparently were friends, decided to tag along with Sigil when he invited them. Sigil was picking up girls in broad daylight. His hand was placed on their hips as he felt their bouncy figure.

Meanwhile, Ricardo thought of Alicia’s and Martha’s impassive expression and felt a little sorry for Sigil. For all the past grievances with Sigil, Ricardo had decided to throw Sigil under the bus and tell the two gals about his current escapade.

After a few minutes of walking, they reached the Pub named Wood Snake and entered it.