Chapter 198: Where The Devil Slept

Spitting in the devil’s face requires walking into his house.

Horum might not be the devil but Zane would spit on his face anyway. That’s why he entered his house.

The door was locked but Zane’s ring opened the door with no problem and since the door opened easily, the Wardens who were even a little suspicious drifted their gazes.

If they were thieves, the door couldn’t have opened that easily. It would have made some kind struggling sound.

Also, they didn’t see Zane using some kind of lockpick on the knob as well.

The man simply went to the door, touched the knob and the door opened.

Either the man had the key or he was simply the owner of the house.

The Wardens were only supposed to look after the houses they were paid for or to stop any kind of disturbing activity happening in the city.

Though, they weren’t standing in front of houses because they wanted to protect the people, they were standing because they were paid for the very same thing by the rich.

As soon as Zane entered the house, he was met with darkness.

But seeing darkness, he ended up saying:

I am home.

It felt familiar.

Still, he didn’t take a step further.

He didn’t move after opening the door and those who came after him did the same.

All of them huddled around the door.

They weren’t sure if it was okay to enter further without being able to see anything.

Horum might be inside.

A trap might be inside.

Someone else entirely could be inside.

"We need a light. Jammy. Do it." Zane whispered. He couldn’t afford to shout.

"I don’t want to waste my lighter’s fuel." Jammy complained.

"I will buy you a new one. We need light here right now." Zane ordered and with reluctance, Jammy ended up passing his lighter to Zane.

The gutterborn shook his head and focused on the device on his hand.

I just realized.

He fiddled with it.

I don’t know how to use it.

"Just press the button that is pressable." Jammy whispered.

Thank you.

Zane said that in his mind only as he felt embarrassed about not knowing how to open a lighter.

Nonetheless, he now knew so he pressed the button that could be pressed.

FLICK!

SHIII!

The lighter made a sound and soon, the surroundings lit up.

But not enough to illuminate the whole house.

"I don’t think Horum is here. Why would he stay in darkness?" Draxus commented.

Zane said nothing and showing light near his feet, he checked for wiretaps.

He found nothing and finally stepped forward.

Everyone followed behind.

"We can’t stay in one place. We have to split up to search better."

"In this darkness?" Hena asked.

"We have no other choice. Or you can find something to light up. A cloth or a firetorch."

"To find it we will need light anyway." Xavier remarked.

Zane bit his lip.

"Fine. We will search together until we find something to burn."

Zane gave up arguing and looked around the house.

What should I look for anyway? Papers? Drawers? Upstairs? Anhg. Too much to look for.

Zane felt the frustration rising.

Jammy felt the same but for his lighter. He couldn’t afford to see it burning away in the air like that.

But Zane couldn’t care less about that at the moment.

The room smelled of nothing and if anything, it smelled of loneliness. Not that loneliness had a smell but that was the point.

If a house had people in it, it would smell of something. The fact that there was no smell suggested the existence of loneliness here.

While looking around, the light of the lighter fell on a photograph hanging on the wall.

He brought the light closer and along with him, everyone else saw it too.

"Is that Horum?" Hena asked.

She had never seen him after all. Including Tesla and Draxus as well.

Only Xavier and Zane knew the man.

"Yes." Zane said. "He is the one."

"So he is a family man." Draxus said.

The photograph contained Horum, a woman on a single sofa in front of him and Horum carrying a baby in his hands.

"Yeah. I just got to know that right now too." Zane said.

He turned serious after seeing the picture.

He wondered where the woman and the baby were now.

Horum looked young in the photo and Zane didn’t want to believe it but it was likely that they were dead or Horum ran away with them.

"Let’s keep looking." Zane moved further.

He checked more walls but he didn’t find any other photos.

But he did find a piece of cloth.

He wasted no time and burned that cloth.

He gave that to Hena and she used her sword to carry the burning cloth.

As soon as she got it, she understood the job.

She dashed to the other side of the hall and began searching for clues.

Zane let her be and walked forward.

Later, he stumbled on something.

It was a door.

But it was the same color as the wall so Zane wasn’t able to see it.

Nevertheless, he twisted the knob and went inside.

He found two more sets of clothes near his feet and after burning them, he gave them to Jammy and Draxus.

Both of them split up as well and searched on their own.

Now only Zane, Draxus and Tesla were inside the new room they found.

Zane continued the process of his search in this room as well.

But instead of clues, he found two more clothes.

Am I inside a wardrobe?

Zane wanted to find something more than clothes.

He shook his head and burned the clothes.

He tossed them at Xavier and Tesla.

Xavier caught it and left the room to look somewhere else.

Tesla also caught it but he dropped it and put out its fire with his feet.

Zane’s mouth went agape. "Why did you do that?"

Tesla sighed. "I don’t need it."

"Huh? Why?" Zane didn’t understand.

Tesla scratched his cheek and after a few seconds of silence, the merchant said:

"I can see in the dark."