Chapter 4
“For a detective like you, that’s not much money, is it?” Mr. Henderson shot Aria a sly glance.
Seeing this, Aria clenched her fists tightly, holding herself back from exploding with anger.
“It’s fine. Do you need my help?” Aria sighed and chose to let it go.
“Hmm… Not right now, I don’t think so. But if I do need your help, I’ll come looking for you,” Mr. Henderson replied, his tone turning serious.
“No problem,” Aria replied briefly.
“When that time comes, I hope you won’t ask me too many questions.” Mr. Henderson looked straight at Aria.
Feeling that Mr. Henderson was being too serious, Aria fell silent. But a moment later, she simply nodded in understanding.
“Well then, see you later. I’ll call you when I find new information,” Mr. Henderson replied.
Mr. Henderson then walked Aria out of his house.
Outside, it was still drizzling, and the sunlight was beginning to fade that afternoon. Thanks to the bad weather, the sun was setting faster than usual.
The atmosphere on 17th Avenue wasn’t very pleasant; Aria could feel the cold wind hitting her body as she stepped out of Mr. Henderson’s house.
“I want to go home right away,” Aria muttered softly.
But she couldn’t just go home because the book had told her to go to a small alley near 17th Avenue.
Pulling her coat tighter, Aria broke into a light jog, covering her head with one hand, toward the small alley the book had mentioned.
“Why do you want me to wait here?” Aria still couldn’t fathom why the book had told her to wait by the side of the road like this.
According to the instructions Sheer Death had given her, Aria had to wait there for about an hour.
Aria didn’t know what would happen to her after waiting that long here.
If she wanted to find out, she’d have to play along and see what unfolded.
After waiting nearly a full hour, Aria felt the notebook she was clutching to her chest begin to vibrate.
“Is it time already?” Aria began to get excited as she felt the movement from the notebook.
Slowly, from a distance, Aria heard the sound of animal hooves; she wasn’t sure what it was.
Through the haze of dusk, Aria saw a carriage pulled by large black goats approaching her.
At first, everything looked normal, until the carriage was illuminated by the streetlight.
She was so shocked that Aria thought she was going to faint when she saw the carriage.
It was the Black Goat Carriage of Death!
The two black goats pulling the carriage looked like corpses with eerie, sunken black eyes.
Aria couldn’t understand how they still had the strength to pull the carriage as if they were still alive.
The coachman holding the reins of the two black goats was no different; his hands gripping the reins were a pale blue, characteristic of the dead.
Not only that, but one of the coachman’s eyes was gouged out and only partially covered by the hat he was wearing.
Aria was terrified when she heard the coachman’s sharp hiss as their eyes met.
The carriage stopped in front of a bar, and a drunk man, still clutching a bottle of beer, slowly walked toward it.
“Oh no…” Aria was too shocked to stop the drunk man.
When the drunk man got into the carriage, Aria realized that the carriage had teeth as its locks.
By the time Aria snapped out of her shock, it was too late; the drunk man had already gotten inside the carriage.
The two black goats slowly walked toward the darkness of the night that was beginning to fall.
The people around Aria seemed completely unfazed, as if they didn’t see the terrifying figures of the two black goats.
“Is this… is this the ‘Broken Souls’ the book was talking about…” Aria remained frozen in place.
Aria could feel her body shaking violently as she realized what had just happened to her.
After her encounter with Sheer Death, Aria believed that supernatural beings truly existed.
But what she was seeing right now was completely beyond anything Aria could believe.
Aria never thought she would see a supernatural being with her own eyes like this.
Her mind reeling, Aria slowly pulled her notebook from under her coat.
Her hands still trembling from a mix of fear and the cold, Aria began to write a series of words in it.
“What did I just see?” “Is that the monster in this book?” Aria quickly jotted down a string of questions for Sheer Death.
“It’s The Black Goat.” An answer began to appear.
“The lesser Death by carriage. Those are the Broken Souls whose blood you must obtain today,” the book continued, writing its answer.
Deep down, Aria thought to herself that it seemed she was now worthy of being called The Broken Souls Hunter.
Sheer Death had assigned her the task of hunting these entities called Broken Souls right now.
“But why do I have to obtain that creature’s blood? Do you want me to die at the hands of that monster?” Aria realized she wouldn’t be able to defeat the monster on her own.
Before Aria could even type her question into the book, she already saw a new line of text there.
“I’ve opened your inner eye to see the Broken Souls. But to become a witch, you must make a greater sacrifice to connect with the core of the world. To do that, you must experience Death yourself.”
“Oh no! I’ll really die if this keeps up!” Aria almost cursed the book when she saw those words.
Aria shook her head, then focused her attention on writing another question.
“Then how do I kill it?” Aria wrote briefly before finally writing another line.
“You said earlier that I could kill it with magic. But it seems I can only gain magic if I kill that creature!”
“The Lesser Death can apparently be destroyed like any other beast. You can use your power or other weapons to injure it.”
“Explain it properly! I won’t understand if you’re being so vague!” Aria wrote angrily.
“I am the Guide of Immortality and am tasked with eliminating the Broken Souls in the world. I won’t teach my secrets to a useless Master. Prove to me that you’re worthy of being my master; bring me the blood of The Black Goat as proof of your worth.”
Aria felt the back of her neck tense with anger as she read the string of sentences Sheer Death had written for her.
In an instant, Aria closed the book and tucked it back into her cloak.
“In that case, let’s begin the hunt!”