The God of Jesters
Chapter 301 - 5.09.2 Don’t come back.

Chapter 301: 5.09.2 Don’t come back.

After that day, the fear in his heart had grown stronger.

The ignorant boy was no more, the moment he understood the gravity of his situation and knew that what was on the line, he slipped into depression.

He worried for his life, but more than his own life, he worried for his parents and their future.

He wondered that he had ruined their life by going on a nonsensical adventure, all in an attempt to help his friend.

A foolish endeavor when looked at in hindsight, there were so many warnings, even Rashid himself has warned him of all of this. But his ignorant self had ignored all of them. He had fallen deep into trenches with figures he couldn’t fully understand. And he was also unaware of how long until police arrived at his door.

A simple sign that Henry was not the old him, neither was he like Crow, a foolish boy who just pursued wonder and entertainment.

Unlike Crow, Henry cared for the chains that bound him, he was just unaware of how weak those chains could be and hence caused his current state of mind.

But this is where Crow’s little trick came to work.

"It’s his fault..."

"How can he do that to me..."

"Why did he do it?..."

"So many died, out of his selfishness..."

Each letter contained a slight remark about Rashid, written in moments of frustration and emotion. Just a single sentence, while most of the letter was still filled with the small time they spent together.

Crow did his best to not make it obvious of his agenda and Henry, reading all those letters slowly, didn’t notice when a seed of distrust and hate had been implanted in his mind.

No, he still remains ignorant of it, only in some of his words and gestures, you can see the slight hint of hate he feels for Rashid. How he feels wronged and how the fear turns to hate when he mentions his name while talking with Crow.

But none of this would have worked if not for the spark that would make Henry take these letters a lot more seriously, a spark of cinder that was carried by his girlfriend to him, along with the last letter that never mentioned anything about my bullying.

And then, the subsequent absent days mine were also sent to him via his girlfriend, making him know that something bad had happened and he couldn’t just stay huddled inside like a coward.

"What has made you so shaken?" I asked him, curious about his response and what had been hidden from me. "It’s... its hard to define. But there was an intelligence officer, puppeteering a corpse and... an.."

"Wait, you say an intelligence officer was puppeteering a corpse? Are you sure you were not asleep during the whole ordeal after being tired of the fight?"

"It is what I saw, along with some other weird things." At the mention of the thing, I creased my eyebrows up. "The woman that Rashid wished to meet?" I asked and he nodded. Speaking in melancholy. "She was not as horrible as Rashid claimed her to be... but I am not sure as she did something to Rashid and that other Knight."

The rest of the story was fascinating, to say the least, and with a bit of tea and cookies, I laughed. Saying how the intelligence agent would have done something to him by now if he wanted. So he can be free of worry.

A kind of small talk to clear his mind and look at the bigger picture. "We didn’t harm anyone, I am a foreigner in this land no one has visited my home yet. So why would they do to a native like you." With an emotional vector that changed with each word, I showed my own worry through my words, along with loneliness at the mention of the word Foreigner.

Keep it natural, keep it focused on letting the boy know what I was feeling when he was not in school, and then act as if I understood why he did that.

All the while showing some desperation that he comes back to school. And like that, time went by.

Till the end, he didn’t mention anything about my troubles at school, how I was bullied. It was a surprise to see someone as straightforward as he would catch on to my intent from the prior actions I made.

With him not acknowledging my beating in front of him, he is helping me keep it to myself so that I can maintain my dignity. A good albeit childish move, but I appreciate it nonetheless.

’He will be in school tomorrow.’

"Do you wish to meet my Foster Father?" I asked him and although a bit embarrassed. He ended up relenting to my request.

*****

It felt suffocating for some reason. As if something bad had happened..

"??" Sheva can’t pinpoint this emotion, why she felt this way. It’s such an odd feeling that makes her heart tremble but considering the circumstances, she can’t explore out of this mansion.

"I have been able to find all the materials for the Mind Lock Ceremony. Led through my blood, it can keep your mind protected for a week at most. So remember to come back here when the protection comes loose."

One of the biggest issues with this whole operation was Jester himself. His ability to enter the minds of his targets as they sleep and then steal information was a bit too much. Leaving only two choices for people who wish to keep their minds free from his influence.

Either you don’t sleep at all, or in this specific situation, you don’t leave the border of this house, a place that is banned by Jester.

But this itself was problematic. How could they scour the city for information when they can’t even leave this compound?

It is due to such a reason that Remira came up with a simple trick.

Use her blood as a medium to cast Mental Protection Ward on the Grey eyes along with Sheva. A Protection Ward through Ritual, that she can cast on anyone as long as there are enough materials available. And through her regular visits to the market, and by collecting and purchasing them one by one with each visit, she had finally accumulated enough.

"Do you think they won’t capture us directly if we were to go out?"

"No, it would ruin the game in her eyes, and he probably doesn’t want that to happen," Remira answered, but even she was not sure how true her words were. "Besides, we go as a group, each will look at a different topic at random, so he can’t pinpoint what we are actually looking for."

Of course, in this plan, there needed to be someone who needed to look after their home, and that someone was none other than Sheva, a sniper with good senses when it came to dealing with intruders.

Remira’s reasoning can’t be faulted here. So Sheva didn’t say much and went on with her work.

"Sit inside the circle first." As it was the last turn, Remira didn’t think of it much and slowly drew the incantation over Sheva’s head as she had done so before. And then, the ceremony started.

"It will hurt for a bit, so bear with it." Considering it was protection over the mind, it was understandable. But what kind of hurt it will be Sheva didn’t expect it at all.

"It’s cutting into my skin.’ She could feel Remira’s blood seeping into her flesh, turning golden like fire causing intense burn over her face. But she didn’t panic, not like she could to begin with as her body had stopped working.

"Done," Remira said, looking at the blanked-out Sheva, who shook her head a bit before taking a deep breath. "This was painful." She complained, giving Remira a weird look before asking. "This will keep my head clear?"

"Just for a week, no more than that. Unless you wish to go through this once again?"

"No need to worry Sir Knight, I was just wondering." Sheva smiled before leaving the room as well.

But Remira’s eyes didn’t change through all of this. She just said. "I am sorry." In her own head, before getting ready for the outing that has been delayed all this while.

*****

"Confirm form master, Is Carp even alive?"

"I will go and check."

It was a long arduous journey. Being on a small boat riding the waves for a month before reaching the opposite shore of Cynark, four hundred kilometers away from their own country was too much for Team one to handle.

But all of this had a purpose.

"Astafa, truly a beautiful city. It’s a shame over what we have to do."

Astafa was at the very end of Wortham principality, a small city of thousands living next to a desert. And if not for the sea and reefs filled with fishes, this city wouldn’t have existed.

"Scart, go and break this vial into the city water source"

"Why me??"

"I don’t want to be anywhere near that thing when you break it."

"Then why do you want me to do it? Can’t you do it yourself."

"Stop being so childish, go and deal with it as instructed. I would talk to the master and see to it that you can get three more Jars for your collections."

"Promise?"

"I never go back on my words." Although Owl said such words, Scart didn’t move. "I say this with Master’s name on the line. Go and do it."

Seeing that Owl won’t be able to back out of his promise anymore, Scart took the Vial and started to walk into the direction of the common well. Though before he could go too far, a voice from Owl came, which instructed. "Don’t come back to us until three days at most."

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