HLnovel Chapter 135 135: The Man We Must Find
Chapter 135 135: The Man We Must Find
A thief is a man in need. A liar is a man in fear.
Zane was neither of them but he met a man who was both.
Horum.
The Flamekeeper.
The Priest.
The one who had a wooden staff given by Crown Kaldryn.
The one who had a spirit made of black flames living inside his back named Glaxus.
Zane and Xavier both took the same name at the same time and that couldn't be a coincidence.
Everyone heard the name and Jammy was the one who asked it first.
"Horum. I see. It happened yesterday, right?"
"Yes. Around afternoon. Just after the second prayer of the day ended."
"Why do you think he has the relic?"
Zane's brows quivered.
"I just told you why I think that."
"No. I want you to be sure. If you are wrong, then your three days will go to waste."
"I am sure. After he told me how important it was, I never let it go from my pocket. No one touched it. Not even Milo. I kept it safe. I gave it to no one. It was only he who held it. Moreover, he said he was going to the Grey Bloom with many other priests. Which turned out to be a lie just now. So he is the one we are looking for."
Jammy gave a slow nod.
"Maybe he really went to the Grey Bloom. Maybe these people don't know that much. Maybe the relic simply slipped out of your pants."
"Are you an idiot?" Zane raised his voice. "The relic slipped from my pants and then a fake relic came from the sky and went inside my pocket on its own, replacing the original? I am telling you. Horum gave me the fake one and took the real one with him."
Jammy sighed.
"Fine. But we have to—"
"Wait." Someone interrupted.
Everyone looked at him.
It was Ijris. The blood cleaner in the Citadel.
"What?" Jammy asked, scowling.
Ijris ignored the janitor and focused on Zane.
"You said the relic is hot. Very hot. Is that true?"
"Yes."
Ijris stroked his chin.
"Then that must be it. Maybe the Priest really has it."
Zane climbed on the table and came closer to the sitting crowd.
"Explain." He said.
Ijris wasted no time.
"I was also there in the line for the offerings when you dropped the idol. Just after you left, the priest had scratched his right thigh and cursed the mosquitoes."
Zane's brows twitched.
Jammy clenched his jaw.
"You interrupted me for this?"
Ijris rapidly shook his head.
"Let me finish, sir. When the priest scratched his thigh, he accused the mosquitoes but in reality…"
He locked eyes with Zane.
"There were no mosquitoes at all."
Zane went silent.
Jammy too.
But Ijris didn't.
"The area around the churches remains pristinely clean all day all the time. Even cleaner than the capital cities of continents. I may be a gutterborn but I have cleaned enough blood and lived enough to know when mosquitoes come and when they don't."
Zane said nothing.
"Yes. I was there too." Someone else chimed in.
"Come to think of it, he scratched quite a lot yesterday. He kept moving his leg too." Another gutterborn shared.
"But after a while he stopped doing it. He was normal." One more.
One by one those who were in the line for the offerings yesterday said their part and Zane heard all of them.
After ten minutes, everyone was done sharing their parts and Zane pinched his forehead.
"So," he said. "You think the original relic was in his pocket and since it was hot, he was struggling under the pretense of mosquitoes biting him. But after a while he turned normal. Am I right?"
Everyone nodded.
Zane let out a tired sigh and turned to Jammy.
"Like it or not, Horum is the one. He is hiding something. We have to snatch him."
"Yes. Let's go right now." Xavier was ready.
Jammy tapped his foot.
"I understand that the possibilities are delicious. Everything is pointing against the Priest. And we will definitely go after him but only after confirming one thing."
Everyone waited and Jammy revealed it.
"If there really is corruption rising in the Grey Bloom or not."
"The fuck?" Xavier snapped.
He was already pissed off at Jammy for holding his uncle and aunt by their necks and now he wanted Zane to stall the mission for some stupid confirmation.
"Calm down, angrybird." Jammy cleared his throat. "I don't mean that you should go to Grey Bloom and check for yourself. I meant we should ask someone who is knowledgeable about such things, confirm it and then move. If there is no corruption then we will find Horum because it would mean that he was really lying."
"What if there happened to be corruption and Horum happened to be the thief at the same time? Because it is not impossible that Horum told the truth about the corruption and also replaced the relic with me. He might be curing the corruption of Grey Bloom with the relic in his pocket or what not right as we speak."
"Corruption isn't cured like that, kid. Many priests are needed. Sealings, mutterings, spells. Everything comes into play to keep the corrupted zones from not spreading. So if the corruption is really increasing in Grey Bloom, Dwarkam would be at a loss of Flamekeepers and some Emberlords. We will be able to know about it in no time if we ask the right people."
Zane didn't know what to say to that.
He had no clue about such things. Corruptions, Grey Bloom, Rifts. He had to trust Jammy as long as he didn't get to learn about them himself.
Also, Zane believed Jammy was right because Xavier also said nothing. Otherwise the man would have latched on the janitor if he had not made sense.
The basement descended into silence once more and all eyes fixed on Zane.
Zane felt their gazes and he raised his brows.
Are they waiting for the next orders from me?
Only Milo relied on him for all this time. He wasn't habitual to such attention.
But now that he had the attention, he would not make them wait.
He heard all the points spoken by everyone and in the end, he reached a decision.
Finding Horum, confirming about the corruption. Zane recalled everything inside his mind and everyone waited for his final decision.
But the decision he made appeared out of nowhere and it didn't even seem related to the mission at all.
The gutterborn straight out…
"I need a weapon."
Changed the mission.