The Person Was Me

"Sure." At Geralt's instruction, Alan answered and ran into the back room.

When he came back out, he had two gleaming gold coins in his hand. "Big brother, here you go. When are you going to treat me to roast leg of lamb again?"

Kraun reached out, but the boy didn't let go of the Gold Shield in his hand.

If Kraun couldn't give him a specific date, he wouldn't get paid.

He smiled and worked out the timing. "The night after tomorrow. I'll have you all over to my place for dinner and show you what real cooking looks like."

As soon as he finished speaking, Alan let go, and the two little darlings dropped into his palm.

Kraun tucked the Gold Shield into his pocket, pulled up a chair, and sat down. "Have you found any clues about the Evil Spirit?"

The boy shook his head. "The victims' bodies were all burned, and the houses where the incidents happened have already been cleansed. We searched the rooms where the most recent accidents took place but found nothing. Tomorrow, my teacher and I will go to Skunk Street and investigate the place where this kind of incident first happened in town. I heard there was a survivor."

Isn't he talking about me?!

Kraun was about to respond when Geralt's icy voice rang out, like a winter gale sweeping through a frozen forest.

"According to the Father's and the Patrol Squad's descriptions, an Evil Spirit that powerful wouldn't leave any survivors. That person must have an unusual constitution—one especially suited to hosting an Evil Spirit."

"Teacher, didn't Father Nick say that person had already received Holy Baptism at the church? If an Evil Spirit had possessed him, wouldn't it have revealed itself?"

The Witcher snorted and said with a hint of derision, "Evil Spirits have all kinds of abilities. It's not surprising that some can resist an Exorcist Priest's Holy Power. I encountered one a few years ago. Besides, Nick is only a junior Exorcist Priest."

"Someone possessed by an Evil Spirit drank Holy Water and only developed a slight fever. Before long, he had completely recovered."

"Tomorrow, I'll examine that survivor thoroughly. With the powerful senses I gained after undergoing the Trial of the Grasses twice, no Evil Spirit will be able to hide."

"Mm-hmm." Kraun cleared his throat, looking a little embarrassed. "Actually, I'm the survivor of that Skunk Street incident."

"Ah, it was you?" Alan's eyes widened. He circled Kraun's chair several times.

The Witcher stood frozen in place too. To his senses, the young man was like sunlight, warm and comforting.

The aura of an Evil Spirit, on the other hand, was always cold, and its essence reeked.

Under the two men's piercing gazes, Kraun felt a little awkward.

An eerie silence fell over the room. Only Alan's footsteps could be heard clearly.

After a brief pause, Geralt seemed to remember something. He picked up a dark red wooden box from the table.

The box had no decorations; the wood itself was dark red.

He opened it. Kraun noticed a thick layer of white velvet lining the inside, with several small oval glass bottles resting quietly in it.

Geralt took out one of the bottles. It contained fine silver sand.

The grains drifted inside the bottle, glimmering faintly beneath the oil lamp like stars gathered in the sky.

The Witcher uncorked the bottle and held his index finger to its mouth.

His finger seemed like a magnet. Tiny grains of stardust floated upward, enveloping his fingertip.

After recorking the bottle, Geralt uttered a strange word: "Axii."

The stardust on his fingertip blazed like a river of stars. Kraun was briefly engulfed in silver light, and then a faint fragrance filled the room. He felt as though he were strolling through a place where jasmine was in bloom.

Geralt furrowed his brows, making the scar over his left eye look even more menacing.

After a long while, he finally spoke. "The Evil Spirit had no reason to spare you. Do you remember what happened back then?"

Kraun shook his head. His predecessor had no memory of it at all.

The real Kraun only remembered going to bed early, as usual. When he woke the next day, his soul had already been replaced.

After thinking for a moment, he gave a half-true answer. "I only remember something seeming to squeeze its way into my body. It was awful. When the Father performed the Holy Ritual for me at the church, I felt a huge octopus covered in tentacles and eyes appear in my thoughts. The monster caught fire as the Holy Emblem in the Father's hands shone with light. A few days later, I discovered that my consciousness could reach a strange place. There was a silver hourglass cast from bronze there."

"So you didn't awaken your bloodline and become a Warlock. Instead, you became a Spirit Controller without taking any potions. What exactly is your ability?"

"Oh, sorry." Geralt quickly added, "You don't have to tell me. That's a secret that belongs to you alone. I'm more curious about why you were completely unaffected by the Evil Spirit. I can sense malice, to some extent, in every other Spirit Controller, but there's none of that ill will about you."

The Witcher was deeply puzzled. Spirit Controllers bound Evil Spirits inside themselves, forming a symbiotic relationship between the two.

Even when a Spirit Controller didn't use an Evil Spirit's power, the spirit's evil nature would gradually reveal itself over time.

Kraun spread his hands and gave the ultimate answer for playing dumb: "I don't know."

Too much said could be a liability. Letting listeners fill in the blanks might give them a more reasonable explanation.

"Then why didn't you tell the Father at the church?" Alan, standing nearby, asked in confusion.

His answer was only natural. "I think I was afraid. Something inexplicable had appeared inside me. If I told someone and they burned me at the stake, who would I turn to for justice?"

"So the later paranormal incidents were caused by another Evil Spirit. Teacher, where should we investigate tomorrow?"

The white-haired Witcher's gaze was grave. "We'll look around town or in the nearby wilderness. For now, all we can do is wait for another victim to appear."

"Sir, now that I've become a Spirit Controller, what should I do from here on?"

"I don't know much about Spirit Controllers. I only know that the Evil Spirit's subtle influence makes them increasingly unstable. I don't know how they grow stronger. Now that you've become a Transcendentalist, you can wait until you've entered this circle and ask other Spirit Controllers for advice. As far as I know, they're all troubled by how to hold on to their sanity. But from observing you, I've found no sign of that at all."

The group talked a little longer, but the Witcher still couldn't give him any clear answers.

Kraun stood up to take his leave. He still had to stay up all night practicing how to make the Blood-Boiling Potion.

The bright moon lit his way as he strode briskly home.

When he reached his front door and pulled out his key, he abruptly stopped.

Someone was inside!