Mystery: The Last Shepherd

Chapter 46 Visiting Azik

Mr. Azik's house, located in the city, is a detached house with a lawn in front and a garden in the back, occupying a larger area than Old Neil's house. Such a nice house, especially in Tingen, is probably unaffordable for a university professor on a salary.

Old Neil's house is worth 900 pounds, this house must be worth three to five thousand pounds.
Lu Ze looked around the house, thinking to himself, and stepped forward to pull the rope on the side of the door.

"Ding! Ding!"

The doorbell then rang.

Footsteps sounded shortly afterward, and soon the door opened, revealing Mr. Azik, dressed in his home clothes, standing behind the door.

"welcome."

He smiled faintly, "I've been waiting for you for a long time, please come in."

Before coming to Mr. Azik's house, Luzer had already contacted Klein to get Azik's address and arranged a meeting time. This was to prevent the awkward situation of him arriving but Azik not being there.

"good afternoon."

Luze nodded to him. "Mr. Azik, I'm sorry to bother you."

Azik stepped aside to welcome him into the room, closed the door, and led him to the living room on the first floor.

"Please have a seat. Would you like something to drink, coffee or black tea?"

Azik asked.

Sitting in the soft, luxurious sofa, Lu Ze thought for a moment and said, "Black tea will do."

After speaking, he suddenly became curious. Azik's house was so nice, yet he didn't see any servants attending to him, which was quite different from the lives of the upper and middle classes in Rune at the moment. But if that was the case, who would brew the tea? Did he prefer to do it himself?

"Snapped!"

Then, Mr. Azik, with his bronze skin and gentle features, snapped his fingers.

From the empty kitchen behind the living room, the clinking of cups and saucers suddenly rang out, and a moment later, a tray flew through the air. On the tray, teacups and a teapot were placed steadily.

Lu Ze's eyes narrowed. To an ordinary person, all they would see was a tray floating in mid-air, but to him, it appeared as a phantom carrying the tray—a low-level undead creature, a vengeful spirit, as described in the records. But he'd never seen an ordinary vengeful spirit possess such abilities; not only could it interfere with physical matter, but it was also clever enough to brew red tea!
"Qiang."

The tray was placed on the coffee table, the porcelain clinking against it with a crisp sound. The unseen vengeful spirit bowed respectfully to Azik, then drifted into the kitchen and disappeared.

"Try it, she's very good at making tea."

Azik smiled at the dumbfounded Luze and said...

".OK."

Lu Ze picked up the teacup. The tea soup was a clear, reddish-brown, and the thin porcelain cup was a translucent milky white with delicate and intricate patterns, suggesting it was expensive bone china. With a cautious attitude, he brought the teacup to his lips and took a small sip of the tea.

"How about it?"

"To be honest, I don't really understand this."

Between "pretending to be sophisticated" and "telling the truth," Lu Ze frankly chose the latter, saying, "It just smells pretty good."

Upon hearing this, Mr. Azik couldn't help but chuckle.

"Hehe, you're really honest. To be honest, I don't know much about black tea either."

Instead of drinking tea, he picked up a cigar from the coffee table and offered it to Lu Ze, "Would you like one?"

"Thank you, but I won't." Lu Ze shook his head in refusal. He disliked tobacco and alcohol even in his previous life. In this world, because of the danger of losing control, he was even more unwilling to come into contact with them. And most importantly, his younger sister Cecilia had always disliked the smell of cigarettes; it would make her cough.

Seeing that Luze didn't answer, Azik turned around and lit one for himself, the strong smell of the cigar beginning to spread in the living room.

When you go back, make sure to get some fresh air and don't let the smell of smoke get on your clothes.

Lu Ze thought to himself.

He took a few more sips of black tea and finally couldn't help but speak up:
"Mr. Azik, you said you wanted me to help you. What exactly do you need me to do?"

Azik took a deep drag on his cigar, and in the blue-gray smoke he exhaled, he said softly, "I want you to help me regain my past memories."

"Memories of the past?"

Lu Zeqi said.

So Azik began to explain his experiences to Luzer. It turned out that Mr. Azik's memory was incomplete; he only remembered the time after he entered university, and had no recollection of his life before that. He didn't know where he came from or who his parents were.

During this time, he gradually discovered that he possessed a peculiar ability and would occasionally recall fragments of the past. The pursuit of the past became an obsession for him, driving him forward.

“Mr. Azik, do you mean that the aura on my body almost reminded you of something, so you hope that I can let you sense that aura again?” Luze understood Azik’s intention. “But I don’t know what the aura you’re talking about is, let alone how to release it.”

Despite saying that, Luze had some guesses in his mind. The aura that gave Azik a sense of déjà vu was very likely the influence of the true creator on him.

But who was he in the past, that he could have been associated with such a dangerous evil god, yet remain unaffected and fall into depravity?

“Don’t worry, I have a way, but I need your cooperation,” Azik said. “I will summon a special undead creature to draw out the hidden aura on your body. It may look a little scary, though, I hope you don’t mind. Of course, as I said, no matter the outcome, I will give you the reward you deserve.”

Lu Ze was here for the reward, so he naturally didn't refuse and nodded, saying, "Okay, please get started quickly."

If it had ended sooner, he could have gone to the shooting range to practice with revolvers.

Seeing this, Azik said nothing more. He took out a piece of gleaming white bone flute from his pocket, pricked his index finger with his thumbnail, and let a drop of blood fall onto the bone flute. The bright red blood quickly seeped into the bone flute.

"Woo-"

Even though no one was playing it, the bone flute produced a sound on its own. Accompanied by this hollow, low sound, the surrounding environment became hazy, with large, vibrant colors piled up and layered as if the most mad painter had created a chaotic world with bold oil paints.

Luze saw a bronze gate appear behind Azik—just like the one he had seen in his dream. The gate was rusted and damaged, but upon closer inspection, he realized that it wasn't rust, but rather distorted faces.

"Squeak-"

The door slowly opened, and dark vines emerged, encircling Azik and knotting together in front of him to form a sphere.

A crack appeared in the center of the sphere, and from it emerged a transparent monster, a hybrid of an octopus and a jellyfish. It stretched out its slimy tentacles toward Luze.

Lu Ze looked at the monster with a degree of wariness in his heart.

Before coming, he was somewhat cautious and sent a letter to himself at Blackthorn Security Company. If he could get out today, he would retrieve the letter; if he couldn't, the letter would reach other people in the company, and they would immediately notice Azik.

But he seemed to be overthinking it; the tentacle just landed stickily on his forehead and didn't cause him any harm.

Before long, he began to experience blurry hallucinations.

Within the illusion, there are feathered serpents soaring endlessly, as well as many other strange beings.

　I got promoted and received a second round of recommendations! Yay!
　　

(End of this chapter)