Wednesday the 13th of the third month of the lunar year.
Summer season.
"Hello, Shiros. Are you tired of work? I'm free today; I can work instead of you."
"No, uncle, I'm in the best condition."
Shiros was in the best condition because he was focused on something important to him.
It wasn't the magical training.
Raoul returned to his bedroom. Afterward, Shiros began thinking.
"I've studied Cloud's movements for months, and on this specific day of the month, he doesn't return until three days later."
"It's the right time..."
Shiros cautiously headed to Cloud's room.
He had prepared well for the most likely possibility: the door being tightly locked, so he had trained for a long time on unlocking locked doors.
But he was surprised that the door only needed a push to open.
He didn't enter quickly and didn't take an additional step.
He closed his mind and suppressed his auras so that no signal of his entry would reach Cloud.
Then he looked consciously.
He noticed a very thin thread barely visible parallel to the door, so that as soon as he took a step forward, a sharp blade like a giant dagger would fall from the ceiling and split the intruder's body in half.
Cloud wouldn't dare kill Raoul this way, but this trap was directed at Shiros.
Because the latter was homeless and indeed had a criminal record, so Cloud wouldn't be held much accountable if he caused his death.
Nevertheless, Shiros was a thorough homeless man; he noticed all these details.
He bypassed the thread trap, and after a full inspection of the room, he found he was safe.
Most importantly, he ensured no telepathy or clairvoyance reached Cloud's mind indicating someone's intrusion into the room.
As for the room's details, they shocked Shiros.
The walls were painted with strange drawings everywhere.
There was a cubic cage with each side a meter long in the western corner of the room.
Inside it was a jinn that looked like a child; its color was pale white, its legs were hooves covered in black hair, its ears long, its eyes large and ugly, and it had fangs instead of teeth.
It looked at Shiros and said: "Hello, boy... You should know that Cloud will return soon, and if he finds you here, he'll kill you."
Shiros ignored it and continued contemplating the room's details with focus.
The floor had a huge circle drawn on it with blood that had turned black.
"It seems he drew the circle a long time ago..." Shiros said to himself.
While in the middle of the circle was a hexagram (Star of David) almost filling the circle.
"Hey, boy, I know you. Your name is Shiros, right? Listen, the only way to survive this crime is to free me from this cage."
Shiros ignored the jinn coldly because he was thinking deeply with some shock inside him, for he saw a slaughtered gazelle in the middle of the hexagram.
"This gazelle—I've never seen its like in the entire kingdom of Babylon. It's a completely different type... It doesn't seem to live here in these regions or this continent."
"How did Cloud get it, and why would he get it anyway?"