His shoulders sagged slightly as he closed the book tightly and returned it to the shelf, his breath catching in his throat.
He did not know what had been going through those people's minds when they committed such heinous acts.
Liam sighed, realizing that he had been reading while standing for an entire hour, completely unaware of what was happening around him because he had been so absorbed in the tension of the information before him.
Liam took a pocket watch from his jacket. His brow nearly furrowed as he said, "Huh? It's already half past eight? Time flies... damn."
He slipped the pocket watch back into his jacket pocket. After that, he hurried out of the library and headed straight for his younger sister's friend's house.
Yesterday afternoon, not long after he had awakened inside Zavi's body, Isabelle had approached him while he was sitting in the living room and asked for his help carrying her belongings on Sunday.
At the time, Liam had only just realized that he was speaking to someone he did not know. However, through his memories, he knew that the young woman was the younger sister of the body he currently occupied.
To hide his confusion, he had agreed to Isabelle's request and asked her to explain more clearly.
Liam then hurried toward Isabelle's friend's house, whose address had been given to him that very day. The house was still located on Cosdever Street, House Number 25.
The journey there took about ten minutes by horse-drawn carriage. He got off at a four-way intersection and decided to turn left, where there was a narrow alley connected to a crowd of people. His steps were calm and steady as he walked along the sidewalk, glancing at each house number with hopeful eyes, eager to arrive as soon as possible.
"Five more," he whispered softly as he quickened his pace, even though his breathing became uneven.
Not long afterward, he arrived. He bent slightly and took a deep breath for several seconds. Then his eyes settled on the number twenty-five plate mounted beside the door.
'Is this really her house? But where is she now?'
Liam closed his eyes for a moment, having no choice but to try. He climbed the small steps in front of him and stood there calmly, positioning himself directly in front of the door.
For a moment, his hand froze as he held the bell cord hanging to his right.
Cling... Ting... Ting...
The soothing ringing echoed briefly from inside the house and reached his ears. Since it was Sunday, a day off from work and school, as well as a day when people went to church, the occupants of the house immediately panicked, and two of them hurried downstairs to investigate.
Liam's ears caught the sound of hurried footsteps filled with urgency, growing closer and clearer with every passing second.
Reflexively, he swallowed with difficulty.
He was worried that he had come to the wrong house.
Click...
The door opened. A woman with long black hair falling over her shoulders, bright blue eyes like seawater, and a rose-patterned head covering that gave her an elegant charm stood before Liam.
For a moment, the two exchanged glances.
"Excuse me... I'm looking for Isabelle," Liam muttered hesitantly. "Is she here?" he asked, his breath catching for a moment as he looked at another woman, who furrowed her brows.
One of the beautiful girls, the owner of the house, was somewhat shy but actually mischievous. She smiled faintly, easing the panic gripping Liam's chest.
"Could you be Isabelle's older brother, Mr. Zavi?" she asked to make sure.
Liam answered with a nod, not knowing what else to say because he had no interest in continuing the conversation, especially with a woman.
After a brief conversation, the girl, as the owner of the house, insisted that Liam come inside and told him not to hesitate because Isabelle was in her room. Feeling uncomfortable, Liam rejected the idea and chose to wait outside until his younger sister came out.
'What a hassle! I feel uncomfortable entering someone else's house even though the owner has given me permission.'
He waited while sitting on a cushioned chair on the house's terrace, his cheek resting against his hand as he watched the people passing along the street in front of him.
Three minutes later, Isabelle came out of the house, standing in the doorway with two fairly large boxes beside her.
Liam glanced to the side. Just by looking at them, he could already conclude that he would have to carry both boxes all the way home, a distance of hundreds of meters or perhaps even farther.
Even so, he would still do his best to make his younger sister happy.
"I'm heading home now. See you tomorrow," Isabelle said softly. "Don't forget about the plan, okay?" She winked with one eye.
The corners of Liam's lips rose instinctively. He knew that gesture.
"All right, take care on the way home," they replied while glancing at and smiling at Liam, who looked gloomy as he carried the two boxes.
'Ugh. It feels like she's playing me.'
Liam continued staring silently at the three women.
Isabelle descended the small steps and grabbed her older brother by the shoulder, telling him to get moving.
Liam smiled bitterly after witnessing such cruelty.
'Damn. This is heavier than I thought.'
Suppressing a grimace, Liam muttered inwardly.
The black jacket he had been wearing earlier, which had restricted the movement of his arms, had now been folded and tucked between the two boxes he was carrying, revealing his white shirt and the black belt around his trousers.
The combined weight of the two boxes was approximately twenty-eight kilograms, enough to make Liam's bones scream from within.
After leaving the narrow alley, the two turned onto the main road and followed the long sidewalk toward the intersection of two streets, Vica and Cosdever.
However, something felt strange after he turned right at the same intersection where Liam had gotten off the horse-drawn carriage earlier.
The stone-paved intersection had a large open area in the middle, large enough to accommodate hundreds of people and spacious enough for several circus tents to stand upon.
And from one of the tents ahead, whispers of amazement and astonishment echoed along the circular street, as if people were witnessing something unusual.
'It's so crowded. Is there some kind of performance over there?'
He did not like leaving his curiosity hanging for too long. After considering it for a moment, he decided to see for himself, completely forgetting his original task.
Meanwhile, Isabelle was still talking about family problems, work, the future, and how her older brother should start putting his life in order as soon as possible.
However, none of those efforts received a response.
Her steps slowed before coming to a complete stop. She slowly turned around, time seeming to slow as Isabelle realized that Liam was no longer beside her.
'Where did he go? Whenever someone starts talking, he always just disappears.'
Her eyes fell upon Liam to the right, walking toward the crowd gathered around the Cosdever intersection's roundabout.
She raised her hand, signaling to a passing horse-drawn vehicle to slow down, then joined the other pedestrians who appeared to have the same destination.
The roundabout.
"Excuse me... please let me through," she said softly, her voice trembling.
She then ran after her brother and immediately tapped Liam on the shoulder once she managed to catch up with him.
"Why did you stop here?" she asked, frowning. "Come on, let's go back and..."
Her words suddenly came to a halt.
Her pupils widened, and her mouth fell slightly open after she saw what lay before her.
A man wearing a bowler hat was performing magic tricks in the middle of the crowd. His movements were precise and confident, captivating the spectators with his performance.
On the other side, a man dressed like an occultist sat behind a small table, telling the fortunes of the people standing in an orderly line before him.
The applause of the audience brought the surrounding atmosphere to life, as other street performances were also taking place in the same area.
"What is this?" Isabelle muttered in disbelief.
She did not like the atmosphere there.
She moved closer and whispered, "Let's go home. I don't want to get involved in something like this."
Liam's face, which had been tense as he observed the movements, slowly softened after hearing her whisper.
"Yeah, all right," he replied hesitantly.
'Just admit that you're afraid of crowds.'
However, before turning away, he observed them carefully once more and sank into thought.
'Something's wrong, but what is it?'
Liam soon left the crowd with Isabelle.
10:45 a.m.
After resting several times along the way, the two finally arrived home on Vica Street. Liam felt as though his lower back was about to break. The two boxes, whose contents remained a mystery, were placed beside the table near the front door.
His eyes shifted to the right. He just wanted to get to his room and lie down on the bed, sleeping for several hours before heading to Tezny District.
He staggered forward, his feet dragging across the floor, but the moment his hand touched the doorknob, Isabelle told him to stop.
Liam's hand froze on the doorknob, as did his entire body. A gentle breeze slipped through the ventilation and brushed against him, creating a strangely dramatic atmosphere.
"Take this," Isabelle said as she took several banknotes from her wallet.
The amount came to eight Pace, and it was frankly absurd for a student to have that much money.
Looking at the four banknotes before him, he smiled faintly and accepted the money without hesitation as compensation for his hard work carrying the boxes home.
Click.
The bedroom door opened, and he immediately went inside. Isabelle turned her face away while shaking her head. But after taking two steps, a voice came from behind her.
"Thank you for giving this money to your useless brother," Liam said, although Isabelle could only hear him faintly.
"Yeah," Isabelle replied briefly with a smile. "Thank you for always helping me without complaining even once."
Inside the room, Liam lay on his back on the bed while staring at the ceiling. However, he suddenly sat up after feeling a tingling sensation in his thigh, then quickly took the pocket watch from his trouser pocket, listening to its faint ticking as he watched the hands move.
"It's almost eleven, huh?" he whispered softly as he began stretching the muscles throughout his body.
At exactly two o'clock, Liam planned to head to the meeting point Leo had told him about in Tezny District.
"There's still time. I should sleep," he said, his eyes no longer able to stay open.
The cool breeze entering through the open window filled his room and swept across his entire body, giving Liam a comfortable sensation.
A minute later, he fell into a deep sleep, with his black jacket still draped over his shoulders.
At 1:35 p.m., Liam suddenly awoke, once again affected by that nightmare about Zavi's death repeating itself until he woke on his own.
Liam remembered it with incredible clarity, too much clarity to be easily visualized, including the final moments before death, along with the nausea and horror that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end while cold sweat soaked his face.
"Damn. That dream again," Liam hissed as he wiped the sweat from his forehead with his black jacket.
His breathing was uneven. His knees were weak as he got out of bed, and the soles of his feet felt cold as they came into direct contact with the floor.
He took a deep breath before deciding to go to the bathroom to clean himself and wash his hair thoroughly.
The nightmare he had just experienced went far beyond human logic. Yesterday morning, Zavi had been alone at home. Of course, he had been unemployed.
Ren's whereabouts, as usual, were unknown, mysterious and indifferent toward his family despite actually loving them deeply. His mother had gone to the market to sell everyday necessities such as fruits, nuts, and fishery products with other people.
Meanwhile, his younger sister, Isabelle, had gone to school with her friend, the same school friend who had visited their house that Saturday, relaxing in the living room before leaving for school together.
Then, at around half past seven in the morning, Zavi had been in his room. His neck had tensed along with his stiff muscles, causing him to awaken from a long sleep.
His steps were weak, his face showing no sign of life as he walked toward the kitchen. Once there, he ate a sandwich with an empty gaze, as though something heavy was weighing down his mind.
After swallowing the sandwich with difficulty, tears slowly fell and dampened his rough cheeks. At that moment, Zavi could no longer hold them back. For some reason, he suddenly stood up, causing the chair to fall backward as his face suddenly turned blue, as if poison had taken over his body.
With heavy yet steady steps, he immediately took a knife from the long table and, without hesitation, repeatedly drove it into his own chest.
Blood continued to flow, soaking the kitchen floor and forming a pool upon it. At its climax, Zavi stabbed his own heart. At that very moment, he died instantly, his body collapsing onto the floor surrounded by a pool of fresh blood, while the sensation still did not disappear during the final seconds before his death was confirmed.
However, one thing was certain. There had been whispers he should have heard, but Zavi did not hear them because countless strands of thread continued to resonate, watching his death.
Liam stood before the mirror, turned on the faucet, cupped water in his hands, and rubbed it over his head after remembering all of it once again.
The cold water calmed his mind more than anything else. Liam narrowed his eyes, the wrinkles around them slowly fading as he stared sharply at his reflection in the mirror while several strands of hair fell over his eyes.
"Suicide? Madness? Or supernatural power?" he asked himself in confusion.
When he had awakened inside this body, his own body had heard a constant knocking sound, and there had been no stab wounds in his chest, as if none of it had ever happened.
"From my observations, it appears that he suffered a sudden mental breakdown. I don't know what happened, but he completely lost control of his own mind and ended his own life while something within his entire body grew increasingly intense."
"I cannot determine the cause. Perhaps sometime between Monday and Friday of last week, parts of Zavi's memories and activities were erased. I can only remember a small portion of the events surrounding his death, and events far removed from it."
He questioned what his purpose was in living in this world. Why had he chosen not to return to Earth?
Liam did not seem to think about it too much, while he continued to hold himself back from telling anyone else about his problems.
Liam punched the wall several inches from the mirror several times. His hand reddened slightly, the skin peeling as fresh blood flowed and stained the wall, but he chose to ignore the wound as he rinsed the blood away with water from the faucet.
Only then did he realize that the wound had given him a warning.
'Ah, right. I know that. Anger isn't the only way to solve a problem.'
After that, he left the bathroom and returned to his room to take the two banknotes his younger sister had given him earlier.
"Isabelle, are you in your room?" he shouted loudly. "I'm going out. You don't mind staying home alone, right?"
After waiting for several seconds, Isabelle responded to his shout from upstairs.
"I'm fine," Isabelle shouted from her room.
Hearing that, Liam felt relieved enough to leave the house. He took the coat hanging on the rack near the front door and immediately put it on.
Several minutes after Liam left, Isabelle finally realized something and hurried out of her room, running downstairs.
"Oh no, I forgot I'm home alone," she whispered in panic. "So, is he trying to find a job again after being rejected over and over?"
Isabelle lifted her shoulders slightly before walking steadily toward the front door, checking whether Liam had locked the house or not.
Certain that the door was locked, she clenched her hands, hoping that the Goddess Yarandrela would guide the soul of her lost older brother.
After doing so, with a faint smile, Isabelle returned to her room and continued her homework.