Her body trembled slightly as she reached for the door handle, but she did it anyway. The hinges creaked softly as the door opened, revealing a man of her age, around twenty, with black hair and sparkling brown eyes, staring back at her without blinking.
Behind the man stood a woman with neatly tied black hair. Her blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight streaming through the dull window, while her brown dress swayed gently in the breeze. A red ribbon around her neck looked contrasting and striking, as if it was too red to be just an accessory.
"What brings you here, sir and ma'am?" asked Kyle, his right hand stroking the back of his hair.
The man took out a note containing Kyle Xirius's complete identity. He opened the second page and pointed the note at Kyle.
Seeing this, Kyle was a little surprised. He accepted the note with a puzzled look on his face. He opened it and saw his date of birth, his school records, his sister's identity, his parents' occupations, and the address of his family home.
"Are you Kyle Xirius?" asked the man, his voice flat but his tone as if he was weighing something. His hand reached out slightly, asking for the note Kyle was holding back.
Kyle frowned, sensing something odd. "What a stupid way to start a conversation," he muttered softly.
"Yes," he replied finally, his voice cold. "So, what do you two need here?"
The man turned his head. Kyle caught a glimpse of the two of them exchanging glances, as if giving each other a signal that only they understood.
"So... sorry for the sudden visit," said the man in a heavy tone. "And also sorry for using your identity without permission."
His face suddenly clouded over, changing too quickly from calm to guilty.
"My name is Valsa Zorca," he continued. "And this woman is Zenich Simone. We are private detectives."
He paused for a moment, staring at Kyle longer than he should have.
"And we are here to discuss your responsibility... regarding the damage to the roofs of the houses that fell along the road."
Kyle froze. The reason he had just heard was too absurd to comprehend. He tried to hide his shock with a look of surprise, even though his eyes clearly reflected his confusion.
But the two remained adamant about the report they had received. Without further ado, Valsa looked him straight in the eye. "Then come with us," she said briefly. "There's a witness you need to hear for yourself."
They walked along a path towards an area the locals called the haunted house. The air there was colder than usual, and the surrounding trees seemed to bow down as if hiding something.
Soon, they arrived in front of several old houses with badly damaged roofs. There stood three old men and a middle-aged woman. They all stared at Kyle, not with anger, but with fear.
Kyle felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He didn't know what they were actually afraid of.
Valsa walked up to one of the old men wearing a worn apron, her steps calm but her voice heavy with tension as she asked,
"Can you explain the previous report, sir?"
The man glanced at Kyle from a distance and said, "Yes, I saw that young man damage the roof."
Kyle couldn't believe such a ridiculous excuse. He immediately turned around and left them all behind.
Feeling annoyed, Zenich ran towards him, stopping Kyle in his tracks by grabbing his right hand.
But he immediately pushed the hand away, putting his right hand in his pocket to take out some money.
His left hand pulled and opened Zenich's palm, gave him the money, and continued on his way.
Zenich, who saw this, was surprised, but on the other hand, he accepted it with great joy. Kyle did not know that this incident could be used by a group of people to extort money from their target.
But he didn't care if his money ran out. Earlier, he had come up with an idea to make counterfeit money using grey stones, but the counterfeit money wouldn't last long and would turn into grey stones about a day after the change.
Meanwhile, Kyle walked calmly and smiled mockingly, thinking how stupid it was for that group to target him. He shook his head and decided to go home.
A few minutes later, he arrived home and had just finished showering. Kyle wore a shirt with two buttons open at the chest. He was in the kitchen, making food that would fill him up this morning.
On the other hand, he had just recalled the strange feeling he had earlier.
"Was I hallucinating back then?" he murmured softly, thinking about his previous vision of Finn Ushimi walking towards his house.
But Kyle didn't know that such an incident was quite common once experienced. The effect of half of the Essence missing from his body caused Kyle's brain to visualise the lingering fear.
Like Finn Ushimi's terrifying power, the nightmare of losing a loved one, the curse that Hana had once given him, still lingered strongly in his mind. After regaining consciousness, only half of his memories returned, while the rest remained shrouded in a hazy fog.
The consequences were fatal. His target, Devy, along with his companions, managed to escape from the transparent world. If Hana hadn't taken the Essence at that time, Kyle might have found the answer he had been searching for all this time.
Without realising it, he had been in this world for almost a week. However, he felt that only three days had passed.
Since first occupying Kyle's body, he had been trapped in the transparent world, his body alive, while his soul and mind remained in the transparent world, unaware that he had been in this world for a total of one week.
He made two egg sandwiches with spicy sauce that whetted the appetite. On the table, he placed a plate with three freshly baked sandwiches, accompanied by a glass of fresh white milk beside it.
The time had come, and without hesitation, he ate all the sandwiches. A few minutes later, his stomach was full, not because of the three sandwiches, but because of the glass of milk that made his stomach swell.
Kyle stood up, his body suddenly feeling heavier. He walked with both hands gripping the surrounding walls, heading towards the sofa to sit quietly there.
He lay down afterwards. Unconsciously, sleepiness began to overtake him, and after that, he finally fell into a deep sleep following the previous events.