Mr. Azik's house was located in the city proper, a standalone building with a front lawn and a back garden. The overall plot was even larger than Old Neil's place.
A house this nice, right in downtown Tingen, would be far beyond the means of a university instructor's salary.
Old Neil's house was worth 900 pounds, so this one probably runs around three to five thousand pounds, Silas thought to himself as he looked over the property.
He walked up and pulled the rope at the side of the front door.
"Ding! Ding!"
The doorbell rang out in response.
Footsteps sounded shortly after, and soon the door opened. Mr. Azik, wearing casual home attire, appeared behind it.
"Welcome."
He smiled faintly. "I've been waiting for you. Please, come in."
Before coming to Mr. Azik's house, Silas had already contacted him through Klein, getting the address and arranging a meeting time.
This was to prevent the awkward scenario of arriving only to find Azik not home.
"Good afternoon."
Silas nodded to him. "Mr. Azik, sorry to disturb you."
Azik proactively stepped aside and welcomed him into the house, closing the door behind them and leading him to the living room on the first floor.
"Please, have a seat. Would you like something to drink? Coffee or black tea?"
Azik asked.
Sitting on the soft, high-quality sofa, Silas thought for a moment. "Black tea would be fine."
After he spoke, he suddenly became a bit curious. Azik's house was so nice, yet there were no servants to be seen.
This was quite different from the lifestyle of Loen's middle and upper classes.
But if that was the case, who would brew the tea? Could it be that he preferred to do it himself?
"Snap!"
Bronze-skinned Mr. Azik, with his soft features, simply snapped his fingers.
Behind the living room, in the unoccupied kitchen, the sound of cups and dishes clattering suddenly rang out.
After a moment, a tray came floating through the air. On the tray sat a teacup and teapot, perfectly steady.
Silas's eyes narrowed. An ordinary person would only see the floating tray, but beneath his gaze, he could see the translucent shadow carrying it.
It looked like one of the low-level undead creatures recorded in the files: a wraith.
But he'd never seen an ordinary wraith with such capabilities, not only able to interact with physical objects but smart enough to brew tea!
"Clink."
The tray was set down on the coffee table, porcelain and tray meeting with a crisp collision.
The invisible wraith bowed respectfully to Azik, then floated back into the kitchen and disappeared.
"Give it a try. She's quite skilled at brewing tea."
Azik said with a smile to the dumbfounded Silas.
"...Alright."
Silas picked up the teacup. The tea was a clear, lustrous red. The thin porcelain cup had a semi-translucent milky-white color with intricate, elaborate patterns.
It seemed to be expensive bone china. With a careful attitude, he brought the cup to his lips and took a small sip to taste the tea.
"How is it?"
"...To be honest, I don't really understand this sort of thing."
Between "pretending to be refined" and "telling the truth," Silas frankly chose the latter. "I just think it smells quite nice."
Hearing this, Mr. Azik couldn't help but chuckle.
"Haha, you're very honest.
Actually, to tell you the truth, I don't really understand tea either."
He didn't drink any tea himself. Instead, he picked up a cigar from the coffee table and offered it to Silas. "Would you like one?"
"Thank you, but I don't smoke."
Silas shook his head in refusal. In his previous life, he hadn't liked tobacco or alcohol.
In this world, because of the danger of losing control, he was even more reluctant to touch such things.
More importantly, his sister Cecilia had never liked the smell of cigarettes since childhood. It made her cough.
Seeing Silas decline, Azik turned and lit one for himself. The strong smell of cigar smoke began to spread through the living room.
I'll need to air out my clothes a bit longer when I go back, so the smell doesn't stick, Silas thought to himself.
He took a few more sips of tea, then finally couldn't help but speak up. "Mr. Azik, you said you wanted me to come help you with something. May I ask what specifically you need me to do?"
Azik took a deep drag on his cigar. Through the blue-gray smoke he exhaled, he said calmly, "I want you to help me recover memories from my past."
"Memories from your past?"
Silas asked, puzzled.
So Azik began explaining his circumstances to Silas. It turned out that Mr. Azik's memories were incomplete.
He only remembered his time after entering university. His life before that was a complete blank.
He didn't know where he came from or who his parents were.
During this time, he gradually discovered that he possessed peculiar abilities and occasionally recalled fragments from his past.
Pursuing his past had become an obsession, driving him forward.
"Mr. Azik, you're saying that the aura on me almost helped you recall something, so you're hoping I can let you sense that aura again?" Silas understood Azik's intention.
"But I don't even know what this aura you're talking about is, much less how to release it."
Though he said this, Silas had some guesses in his heart.
The aura that gave Azik a sense of déjà vu was most likely the influence of the True Creator on himself.
But what kind of person could he have been in his past to be connected to such a dangerous, evil god yet remain unaffected and not fall into corruption?
"No need to worry. I have my methods. I just need your cooperation." Azik said.
"I'll summon a special undead creature to use it to draw out the hidden aura on you.
Its appearance might be a bit frightening, but I hope you won't mind... Of course, as I said before, regardless of the outcome, I'll give you the compensation you deserve."
Silas had come here for the compensation in the first place, so naturally, he wouldn't refuse.
He nodded. "That's fine. Please start as soon as possible."
If they finished early, he could still go to the shooting range to practice with his revolver.
Seeing this, Azik said nothing more.
He took out a gleaming white bone whistle from his pocket, used his thumbnail to cut open his index finger, and let a drop of blood fall onto the whistle.
The bright red blood quickly seeped into the bone whistle.
"Woo woo..."
Though no one was blowing it, the bone whistle produced sound on its own.
Accompanied by this hollow, low tone, the surrounding environment became hazy.
Large blocks of vivid colors stacked and layered together, as if created by the most frenzied painter using bold oil paints to smear together a chaotic world.
Silas saw a bronze gate appear behind Azik, just like the one he'd once seen in a dream.
The gate's surface was corroded and damaged. Looking closely, he realized those weren't rust stains but twisted faces, one after another.
"Creak..."
The gate slowly opened.
Black vines emerged from within, embracing Azik, knotting and gathering in front of him to form a sphere.
A crack split open at the center of the sphere. From the crack, a transparent monster emerged, like a combination of an octopus and a jellyfish.
It extended slimy tentacles toward Silas's face.
Silas watched the creature with some wariness.
Before coming, he'd taken some precautions, mailing out a letter he'd written.
The recipient was himself at the Blackthorn Security Company. If he were able to leave today, he would naturally retrieve the letter.
If he couldn't return, the letter would be received by others at the company, and they would immediately take notice of Azik.
But it seemed he'd worried too much. The tentacle merely rested slimily against his forehead without causing him any harm.
Before long, blurry visions began to appear before his eyes.
In the visions, there were feathered serpents soaring endlessly, along with many other peculiar entities.