Secret Society: Raising Calamity Class Disciples

The whole room lit up in Eulene's eyes- as if they were not inside manor walls, but out in the open under the sun.

An orange hue surrounded Trisha, representing curiosity, and a bit of yellow. It was most probably the lingering worry for her marriage.

She put them to the back of her mind and focused on the white strings that originated from Trisha's chest. There were dozens of strings thin and thick, but the three broadest of them all pointed to different directions.

The strongest karmic link travelled eastwards, passing through all the walls and obstacles. The other two, which were similar in diameter pointed to the North and Northwest. The one that went to the North was elevated a bit.

She memorised the position and angles of the three strings before, just out of curiosity, turning to Xavier.

And the findings surprised her, No colours surrounded him. He was as emotionless as one could get. But that did not surprise Eulene. If one could not keep their emotions in check, immortality was a pipe dream.

The thing that surprised her was the fact was his karmic links. Yes, there were hundreds of white strings that originated from Xavier's heart. But almost all of them were thin to the point of being invisible.

A handful of the strings stood out, but the one that stood out the most- the strongest of them all- was attached to… her own heart?

Remembering that both parties add to the strength of their karmic link, she blushed. Other than that, she felt another emotion.

If she watched herself in the mirror with her Celestial Eye, she would have witnessed the grey hue of sadness surrounding her.

A man who has been living for more than 200 years, in his own world- the strongest connection he had was that with an outsider he met barely a month ago? Just how lonely was he?

[Are you done yet?] Xavier's transmission knocked Eulene out of her stupor.

The vertical sky-blue eyes on Eulene's forehead closed as she opened her regular eyes. She detached the joined palms and sent Xavier the signal.

Xavier finished pulled out a card from underneath his hat and handed it to Trisha, finishing the magic trick, before getting back on the couch.

Trisha clapped in response. "And you say this is just a hobby of yours. You pulled the trick off better than all those professional magicians I have met before."

"I appreciate your remarks."

After a few more minutes of conversation, Xavier and Eulene bid Trisha farewell and boarded the carriage.

"Weren't you going to do something?" Xavier asked.

Eulene's ring twinkled as she summoned her super-thin sword. She grabbed the hilt with both hands and inclined the sword diagonally- its tip being a few inches away from Xavier's hat.

Xavier watched everything with nonchalance.

Eulene closed her eyes and began chanting voicelessly in a foreign language. Moments later, her third eye opened. Xavier could see an entire sky behind her vertical eyelids.

The hundreds of strings appeared again. She focused on six of the strings- four thin and two a bit thicker- three originating from Xavier's heart and three from her own. With her sword, she carefully sliced the six strings, making sure the blade did not touch the others.

******

Back inside the Ponting manor. Trisha, who was walking through the corridors of her mansion, suddenly stopped in his tracks and frowned. Right before her, the butler who was coming from the opposite direction with a tray filled with tea and biscuits did the same.

"Where are you taking those?" Trisha asked.

"I apologise, madam." The butler gave a slight bow. "We were out of ingredients. Hence, it took some time to prepare the snacks for the guest room?"

"Guest room?" Trisha frowned. "Are there any guests?"

"Nobody visited today. But you ordered me to…"

"Forget it." Trisha rubbed her temple. She suddenly realised something and inspected her hand. There was a playing card that depicted the Queen of Clover. She scowled. "Hilton, do Joseph own any set of playing cards?"

"Pardon?"

Trisha shook her head and sighed. "Forget it. Bring the tea to my room."

"As you wish, madam."

******

"Do you feel anything different?" Eulene asked.

"Different?" Xavier raised a brow.

"Do you remember where we are coming from, and who you just met?"

"Trisha Hearts, and we had about 950 words worth of conversation," Xavier replied with indifference.

Eulene raised a brow. "How did you do it? I have cut the connection." Honestly, she wasn't surprised. She was just curious.

"Actually, memory erasure is rare, but still a probable authority held by Paranormals. Moreover, there are potions that can cause short term memory loss. Hence, I always have contingencies of such causes. After your warning, memory erasure was in my hypothesis; therefore, I had myself prepared."

That son of a bitch! But her question was still not answered. Nevertheless, she waited.

"I have finished thousands of books by now, with all the words memorised. I made it so that all the words used in the conversation today can be converted to a number corresponding to the ordinal number of the book I've read, the page, and the ordinal number of the word on that page. I converted the whole conversation to a 5700 digit number."

Eulene's mouth was open agape. That motherfucker!

"Did you memorise the whole number?" She asked.

Xavier brought forth his hand and opened his fist. "Why work hard when you can work smart?" There was a small piece of sliced silver hair on his palm.

Eulene scowled, awaiting an answer.

There's exactly 'that number' of particles making up this piece.

Eulene sighed. She gave up. The more she knew him, the more monstrous he turned out to be.

"So, why did you severe your connection with her?" Xavier flicked to piece of hair to his head. It attached perfectly to one of the hairs. "You originally did not want to mix up with her because she was the partner of someone who killed children. But now that you understood her, and even became her friend, you had no reason to."

Eulene sighed yet again. "I became her friend. That's exactly I severed her connection."

Xavier awaited her answer.

"I don't want her to be friends with her husband's killer."

Silence ensued.

After a few minutes, Xavier asked the actual question. "Have you located him?"

A smile crept up on her lips. "Thought you'd never ask."

Eulene waved her hand. A blue holographic map of the entire town appeared and hovered in the air. From one of the miniature mansions on the extreme east of the city, three white lines travelled to three directions.

"Not bad." Xavier could not help but praise.

Eulene raised her chin in pride. "You are not the only one with a good memory." She had memorised the whole layout when she travelled with Xavier to search for the remains.

Xavier pointed at the line that travelled East. "This points to Doctor Ponting who is stationed in Melbin." Then he aimed his finger at the one that directed to the North. "This leads to Aramon, where her brother resides. And as for this one…" Xavier traced his finger through the last line and stopped at an old but artistic building over a small hill. The white string passed through the hill.

"He is here," Xavier declared. "The Southern Art Gallery- under it to be precise."

"Shall we head there?" Eulene scowled. She wanted to punish that murderer.

"Why the hurry?"

Xavier smirked.

"You, the psychiatrist and I are not the only players in the game, are we?"