THE LAST KEEPER

Chapter 203: 203. THE STRANGER

”You finally came,” Sagiri said. His speech was all strange, and his movements were awkward. He was speaking not in korun but wenji. It might have been a broadly spoken language in the West and taught in schools, but it did not mean that Squad 25 spoke it as fluently as he did.

”Who are you talking to?” Kiuga asked the whole team, growing tense, looking for the intruder, but everything remained silent.

The person had indeed come prepared. He must have done his research on Sagiri and knew he could hear a person speak distances away. The person was conveniently 20v away, and he had called Sagiri. Under the sound of night, the chirping of crickets, mating calls of beasts, and the squads around that distance, the voice had stood out to sagiri because it called his lineage.

”Southerner? We finally meet.” The person spoke. He did not seem scared at all.

”Who is it?!” Sagiri called into the night.

”I think you know who it is. Besides, we have both been waiting for this moment.” The voice answered.

”Why don’t you come closer?” Sagiri snarled. He could very much get to where the person was in a second if he wanted to, but the sigil was on now, and perhaps the person was betting on the fact that he could not move while even the mandra watched the test through the watcher’s circle.

”Are you betting between my desire to kill you and keeping my secret?” Sagiri said in the Tagayia national tongue. With each word, he took a step forward.

”I could not be that stupid,” The Man said. ”But your secret lies in my hands now. It is only a matter of time before you have nowhere to stay in Tagayia. You are no longer a student. The ten schools council can’t protect you much longer. You will soon meet your end.” The man said.

”Let me guess. You are the only one who can offer me a way out. Is this what this is?” Sagiri said the darkness he had tried to hide until this moment became colder. How dare a person who had made his life a joke bargain with him?

”Who is he talking to?” Ulekai shuddered. Of course, no one gave him an answer; they were all looking at Sagiri with puzzled expressions.

”I know I can offer you a way out.” The man said, and a small laugh left Sagiri’s throat. They put him in the suffocation chamber, sent assassins after him, and made the warriors’ guild suspicious of him. He was also sure the death of the Yugo was also a part of their plan to corner him and make the war general himself wary of him. They had purposefully left a trail of blood behind him, and who knew what else they had done to have him cornered. Yet now they wanted to be a solution to the problem they had caused. How very ironic.

They had even used a poison banned in Tagayia to target him, pulling the supreme mandra’s attention. They had created a ring of shit around him, and now that things had gone this far, they were offering to help. So that was their plan all along. To corner him, and when he had nowhere to turn, they could swoop in and give him a way out. The question was what the price was.

The laugh Sagiri let out was so cold and chilling. He laughed for a long while before he stopped. By now, he was standing so close to the treeline almost blending into the darkness.

”And what is the price? Or are you helping out of the goodness of your heart?” Sagiri asked. He did not know how the man was hearing him. He must have come with an innovation of his own to help him hear him that far. He must have also entered the outer nonagon while the watchers’ circle was down. It is almost as if it were planned.

”Well, you will find out once you come with me willingly.” The man said.

Willingly. Huh. Silence stretched for a long moment. Sagiri stared at the ground for a long time before he looked up into the darkness.

”And what if I refuse. To come with you willingly?” Sagiri asked, changing his tone to a condescending one when he said the word willingly.

”I was sure you would say that.” There was a long pause for a moment before the man’s voice came again, and when it came, it was filled with cold intent. ”Aren’t you curious to know why your friend is turning pale by the moment?” The voice asked.

”What?!” Sagiri paused, his head swiping around.

”I must say he really is something. He refused to call for help even after I poisoned him with the teardrop poison. He was supposed to call for you, or you were supposed to perceive him going mad for a few minutes with pain, but who knew the boy would jump into a swamp till the madness passed. His type is the worst. He has now ruined my plan A. Good thing I have a plan B.” Sagiri could not take what he was hearing.

N’varu was poisoned with the teardrop? The poison, just like its name, is the most painful. One can’t stop wailing once they are poisoned with it. As long as it is in your body with every pump of the heart, it would cause agony all over the body. It was mostly used to interrogate people. Its other name is the ’truth sayer’.

It does not kill in the normal sense of all poisons, but most people die in three days from the immense pain it causes. It breaks even the toughest of them. If the pain didn’t kill them first, they would kill themselves just to make it stop or beg for death. The fact that N’varu had been persevering in the last three hours without a sound or a tear was remarkable. The first few minutes of pain must have been agony, and the story he had said finally made sense. He had thrown himself into the swamp. To get some relief or hide his presence from Sagiri while the pain ate him alive.

”You are poisoned?!” Sagiri turned, and he was by N’varu’s side in a flash.

N’varu was now sweating bullets, and he looked ashened.

”What are you talking about?” Kaka asked.

”It’s just the teardrop. The position is not lethal. Their target is you, not me. I can persevere till midnight. Midnight was an hour away or so now, but just hearing him say it made Sagiri so mad.

”Where is the antidote!” Sagiri snarled, turning around with rage. He was asking the man in the shadows, but to this he remained silent.

The poison could kill in three days at most, but that did not mean some did not die sooner, and Sagiri did not want to bet on it. Its antidote was not easy to make either, and it would still take a day to make. Perhaps the sixth wing back in the war headquarters could have them, but that did not mean other places had poison antidotes lying around.

”Sagiri, don’t go to him. You know they want you, and you are poisoning yourself. I can wait for the antidote to be made later. Don’t give him what he wants.” N’varu said, and his voice came out strained as if even opening his mouth was torture.

”Sagiri is poisoned? And you are poisoned? When did this happen?” Kiuga asked in a grave voice.

”Fire the red flare and take N’varu to the healer’s wing. I have someone to kill.” Sagiri said, standing to his feet.