'Why is it not stopping?' Kazu frowned.
He quickly jumped and scaled a tree before standing on its top.
He then scouted the area around him multiple times before he stopped.
'Why are my instincts still blaring like an alarm? I thought it was just the village, but no, now the sensation has even increased.' Kazu maintained his calm facade outwardly, so as not to alert whoever was targeting him.
All his scouting involved him moving back and forth on the document and the area around him, as if he were trying to look at the map.
'Did some curse user target me? Or is that Veyren guy sneaking around here with his stealth kills, waiting to pounce on me?' Kazu was internally freaking out. This was the first time something like this happened.
A feeling of something being completely wrong.
Kazu stopped all his thoughts and continued looking at the sunset in the distance.
He blankly looked at it for a few seconds to calm himself.
'Okay, now I am more in control. I am jumping to conclusions pretty quickly. I am just feeling off about the place here. Nothing more. I need more information to conclude something concrete.' He jumped off the top and landed on the ground.
"First things first. Let's reach the position where his trail had ended during the investigation." Kazu said out loud as he started walking in one direction.
Rustle.
He paused, as he snapped his head in that direction faster than he thought is possible.
A rabbit came out of the village.
'...Maybe I need to calm down. I won't be able to maintain my guard for a long time. Instead, I need to appear that I am careless throughout.' Kazu nodded to himself.
SQUEELCH
A paw suddenly came from the bush and grabbed the rabbit.
Kazu raised a brow as he saw the terrified rabbit getting sucked into the bush.
A few seconds later, a tiger came out with blood on its mouth.
"A magical beast?" Kazu raised a brow. Ethernano was overflowing from the tiger's body.
The tiger looked at him for a few seconds before crouching.
It moved its ethernano towards its legs, enhancing them as if preparing for an enhanced pounce.
"I won't do that if I were you." Kazu's calm words stopped the tiger.
The latter gulped as it looked at Kazu's calm smile.
The human looked so harmless, yet the killing intent it excluded was something that the beast had never felt in its entire life.
It was supposed to be the king of the jungle. The Apex Predator.
So, why... why was this tiny human making him feel like it was a prey?
Kazu turned its back to the tiger as it started walking away.
The tiger looked at the former's back with a complicated expression. He felt fear, yet his wounded pride refused to run away now.
He moved all his Ethernano towards its hind legs, before—
The boy's body suddenly moved. It started rotating from left to right, and it was now upside down to the tiger.
Before the tiger could understand what exactly had happened, it saw a headless body.
A headless tiger's body.
His body.
The last thing it saw was the sun before everything went black.
---
Time- 3 weeks later.
Coo Coo Coo
The pigeons cooed as they flew.
"Tracking is really hard, especially if the person who disappeared was months ago." Kazu sighed as he crossed out another possibility from the map.
He had been trying to find the mage's body for this long with the help of his instincts, yet the only thing he found was immeasurable disappointment.
"I wonder when I will find the next clue~ When will this suffering end~" Kazu started singing out loud as he made his way to the next location.
He had found himself doing that when he was alone, walking in a forest with nobody to hear.
He soon stopped singing.
He was out of lyrics he could create.
'Why am I still feeling something is off? My instincts have been blaring for 3 weeks. It's so hard to sleep these days, as if somebody is watching me, ready to strike at any point.
I even tried to look harmless and didn't even react to some instant feeling of an attack coming. Going as far as to ignore my Instinct magic to receive the attack.
Yet no attack actually came. I even tried to remove all the barriers around me during my fake sleeping state in some instances. Even then, they didn't take the bait. They really have high patience.' Kazu hummed.
He really found that whoever is messing with him is a pretty good magician specialising in either stealth or surveillance.
'Maybe I have finally gone insane. Is that reflecting on my instinct magic, too? The constant paranoia is giving me false alarms.' Normally, Kazu would have dismissed that possibility as his instinct magic is his ace card. Something very close to his heart.
He didn't like the reality when his ace was rendered useless.
'It probably is my paranoia. The only thing that I could trust is that something is wrong with the situation. That's it. Though I won't dismiss the possibility of somebody watching me, I won't react much to the attack signs I am getting. Let them come.' Kazu decided with firm resolution.
It was a risky move to let the other party land a hit on him, especially dangerous if they broke through his normal barrier and hit a vital point. But it was a better move compared to going insane and losing all the reliability of his instinct magic.
"A cave? This isn't on the map. Was it created by some animal or something recently? It's pretty hidden." Kazu whistled as he glanced at the cave.
Suddenly, his instincts blared. Kazu paused.
He looked at the cave again. This time, carefully.
His instincts... they were telling him to go.
'Finally. Hopefully, this is not a false alarm and actually a next clue.' He walked towards the cave before entering it.
It was pitch black before a blue sphere materialised in front of Kazu.
The sphere of Ethernano gave out faint light, which was enough for Kazu to look around.
"It's smaller than I expected. Though the smell is gross." He moved the sphere around slowly, so as to look at the surroundings.
Kazu stiffened as he saw something on the ground.
Bones.
Human bones.
"A hand?" Kazu slowly moved the sphere right and found more bones.
It was a human skeleton, with almost no flesh.
"A rotten body?" Kazu grimaced as he inspected the body again.
The flesh had decomposed, but he could still see the clothes and the accessories the person had before dying.
Another sphere materialised in front of him as Kazu took out the document and saw the description of Jules's clothes before he went missing.
"That... shouldn't be a coincidence... right?" Kazu looked at the waist bag lying on the ground.
He made the barrier around his arm thicker as he crouched down and opened the bag to see the contents.
There was money, some artefacts and equipment one would expect from a mage.
Kazu ignored all that and focused on the last thing.
ID card.
It read Jules Earth.
"It's him." Kazu had finally found the body of the previous mage who had disappeared.
---
"So, the trail got cold." Kazu groaned.
He had reported everything he found to Richie and made sure that the body was recovered and sent to the magic guild he belonged to after the Council did whatever they wanted to do.
'Though I said that I wanted a bit long mission, it's already been a month since I started. The only thing that I have improved is my understanding of Instinct magic. I didn't have much time to focus on improving my barrier magic.' Kazu frowned as he felt his body sinking deeper into the bed.
He was currently on a 5-day journey on a train to his next destination. He had bought a VIP ticket as he wanted to make his journey as comfortable as he could.
"Still. Isn't Half a million a bit too much for this ticket? Well, having money is nice at least." Kazu didn't mind spending money on this mission.
He had made a lot in his last few years from working on administrative tasks in the guild. So, spending a bit won't matter.
'I wonder how the master is doing the work? Maybe this would show him my value more and increase my salary.' Kazu found the thought funny.
He barely worked a few hours a month, yet he still wanted a raise.
Kazu turned his gaze to the window outside.
'My instincts... they aren't blaring anymore. This should feel calming... But, why am I filled with even more unease... This mission... what the fuck is just happening?'
---
Kazu arrived at the city of Lusia after 5 days. The city was still in Fiore, but on the directly opposite side of the map compared to Murkwell.
Soon, he entered the village and made his way towards the Mayor's house.
"Hello, I am Dave Sins. Nice to meet you." Kazu shook his head with the mayor.
He was a tall man, over 6 feet. He seemed to be in his late 30s.
"I am Kazu Sukehiro. I will be straight to the point. I am on a mission to investigate Miss Cecilia's disappearance."
A sad expression appeared on the man's face as he heard that name.
Cecilia was the first wizard to take on the mission to investigate Veyren.
The one who had disappeared around this city. The daughter of the mayor of this city.
"I see. How about we talk about this at dinner? You must be tired." Dave suggested.
Kazu nodded. "I would like to thank you for your hospitality." He slightly bowed before falling on Dave in the mansion.
'Dave Sins... My instincts are blaring again. This time not vaguely... but rather on you.' A cold expression appeared on Kazu's face, which disappeared as soon as it came.
***
A/n- Guys, reviews please. 5 more to go only. I would release a double chapter if we reach 10 total reviews.
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