Pleasing the Deity of Deception and Hidden Thoughts

Just as Graham was finished with his experimentation, he felt a nudging feeling from inside. It seemed that Valentine wanted to switch with him for some reason.

"What is it, Val?" He said as he was walking towards the bed.

Graham lied down and gave his new chair a glance. Evert, who had been turned into a piece of furniture, was standing-- or sitting motionlessly by the door without even making a sound. There was a trash bin placed on his stomach while his eyes were staring blankly at it.

Seeing that nothing seemed abnormal, Graham began closing his eyes and letting his thoughts wander. His consciousness drifted away slowly as he was falling into the dream world.

Once Graham was completely asleep, Valentine woke up and quickly got up.

"G, it seems that the messenger of my Deity was trying to reach me,"

Valentine followed the intuition in his heart and took out his dagger. With a quick and confident motion, he slit his palm and let his blood drip down to the carpet below, and once there was a lot of blood pooling and slowly seeping into the carpet, he began chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Deception and Hidden Thoughts, call forth an illusion that covers this whole area!"

An illusory orange curtain began descending slowly while the pool of blood on the carpet evaporated rapidly. Under the curtain, a transparent figure began forming very slowly, and the more realistic it became, the more painful Valentine's head grew as he was looking at it.

He quickly retracted his gaze and looked down at the floor instead.

The figure fully formed some minutes later, after which it began speaking right away. Its voice was as loud as a gong that was played right next to his ears and as rough sounding as porcelain being scratched by metal.

"YOU... HAVE PLEASED... HIS LORDSHIP... ENOUGH. NOW... JUST MAKE... PEOPLE THAT YOU'VE MADE... A BIG IMPRESSION ON... FORGET ABOUT YOU...!!"

The loud voice sounded like thunder in his ears, hurting him highly, especially since his hearing was boosted. He felt that blood was oozing out of his earholes and running down his neck.

After shouting those words, the illusion dispelled itself as the orange curtain ascended back into nothingness. His bloody ears also began healing rapidly.

"G, so it seems that pleasing the Deity doesn't require us to wait for the messenger. He might have probably been pleased by our use of Illusion to inflict mental trauma on those people, or as the messenger worded it, 'leaving a big impression',"

Valentine looked at the human chair by the door and examined it. It seemed to have been unaffected by what had just transpired in the room. Evert Holsten remained motionless while breathing very quietly at that side of the bedroom.

"Now I've just got to erase those people's memory of us. But the problem is that they don't even know about us because we were using the mayor's identity the whole time. Even when we were attacked by that woman, we were using that Police guy's appearance."

Valentine crossed his arms and sat on the chair that he had turned around. Rather than looking in the direction of the human chair, it was better to look out the window at the mountains outside.

"Does it mean we need to erase the memories of the related person from each of our targets or do we have to completely erase the existence of 'Graham Hymes' in Hoorn?"

Looking at the still mountains beyond the glass window calmed his mind.

"But my ability only allows me to erase people's memory of us. It doesn't specify which identity it will erase. Perhaps, it'll just erase the memory of any identity we used when interacting with the target because that is, ultimately, also us,"

It felt like such a shame to him because he and Graham had worked hard to turn those people against the mayor. Making them just forget everything would mean erasing their hatred as well since they couldn't hate someone who didn't exist. However, the task given to him was much easier than what Graham had had to do, so he wasn't complaining.

"Although, erasing that woman's memory might be a tad bit problematic..." he sighed.

Graham's illusory flame was still active and floating in front of him. Since he was going to leave the hotel, he might need it to keep an eye on the human chair by the door.

"I hereby declare the illusory flame in front of me a secret!"

A thin yellowish mist descended and covered the flame. However, Valentine could still see the real-time image that the other, real flame was sending it. After that, he put on his leather jacket and cast Concealment on himself, covering his presence, face, and sound.

Valentine left the hotel room and locked the door from outside. If somehow Evert returned to being a human, he at least wouldn't be able to steal stuff and run away.

Downstairs, Stefan had come back to the reception desk. He didn't notice Valentine who was walking lightly past the hotel lobby towards the door. Only when he opened the door did Stefan notice that the doors were open on their own.

The young man looked confused for a second but then he brushed it aside. In his mind, if it was the doing of a ghost that was the same as the one in the Bauwen's Mansion, he'd better not check and just stay away; that would be the smartest move.

The closest targets to him currently were Wiebe and Danny van Houten, whose house was just a couple of streets away. Valentine began heading east, where Klifstraat was located.

It was already late afternoon when he left. Without him realizing it, a lot of time had already passed. The sun was beginning to set as the sky gradually turned orange in the west. The eastern sky, on the contrary, was dark blue in color.

Although already walking very quickly, Valentine still reached the destination more than half an hour later. Hoorn was indeed much bigger than Sloten.

Valentine had reapplied Concealment along the way, so now he was still covered by the yellowish mist that shrouded his whole being.

On Klifstraat, it was already dark and the allegedly beautiful cliff had turned into a dark, endless abyss that would swallow anyone unfortunate enough to step too close to the edge. He still remembered the abyssal eyes that were staring at both him and Graham and even the thought of it made him shudder.

He quickly made his way to find the house where his two targets resided. Valentine was not sure if they were at home since unlike Graham, he didn't have any divination ability to check. He could only get in and see, and if they were both home, he would consider himself lucky.

From time to time, he would check the concealed illusory flame in front of him to see if anything was happening in his hotel room. Nothing seemed to have happened yet: Evert still remained motionless with the trash bin on his body.

Upon arriving at the target's house, Valentine walked to the back street to find the back door leading to the kitchen that he had used before. There was currently no one on that quiet street, so he took out his wallet and fished out the lock picking tools hidden in it. Skillfully, he began tinkering with the door's lock.

Click!

The door was unlocked shortly after and Valentine very carefully opened it. The yellowish mist covered the door the moment he touched it and muffled any sound that the door created. He made it inside without any accident.

There was currently no one in the kitchen, but Valentine could hear the sound of someone eating from the next room, which was the dining room. Judging from the sound of it, it was just one person.

Carefully, he walked towards the room while remaining in the shadow. It turned out that it was Wiebe who was eating. Sneaking into the dining room without being noticed, Valentine stood quietly behind his target while placing his hands on each side of the man's head without touching it. After that, he began chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Deception and Hidden Thoughts, hereby erase all of Wiebe van Houten's memories about me!"

An illusory smoke was released by his palms and entered Wiebe's head through his ears. The man's expression looked confused for a split second but then it returned to normal again.

Valentine didn't know what effect his ability had had, but he wasn't about to find out right at that moment. He needed to get a move on.

Leaving Wiebe who had resumed his dinner, Valentine perked up his ears and tried to listen to the other sounds coming from the house. Besides the clanking of metal cutleries and porcelain dishes, there was a sound of gentle breathing coming from upstairs. It was regular and faint, most likely coming from the man's sick mother.

There was also a heavier sound of breathing coming from the room next to where the sick mother was staying, farther from where Valentine currently was. He swiftly and carefully walked upstairs and headed for the room where the next target should be.

At the end of the second-floor corridor, behind the brown wooden door, the sound of breathing was coming. It was Danny van Houten's room. Valentine reached for the door handle and twisted it, opening the unlocked door.

Seeing that someone was trying to open his room door, Danny became alerted and looked in that direction, expecting his brother to come in. However, there was no one and the moment the gap was wide enough, he lost consciousness.

He had been placed under Valentine's Interrogation!

Valentine walked up to his victim whose expression was blank and whose eyes were staring lifelessly into the distance. He placed his hands on each side of the man's head and began chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Deception and Hidden Thoughts, hereby erase all of Danny van Houten's memories about me!"

The same smoke that had invaded Wiebe's brain came out of Valentine's palm and entered Danny's head through his ears. Danny didn't show any change in expression since he was still under Interrogation, but Valentine knew that his ability had worked.

"That's two targets down," he murmured as he was leaving the house through the same way that he had entered.

Next, he had to take care of Lucas Baltes since his house was the closest to the siblings'. Quickly, he began walking west and then going east again at the junction, effectively circling around the dark abyss of a cliff. He reached Lucas' house in less than thirty minutes.

The sound of the waterfall once again became the prominent background of the dark street illuminated by artificial lights. He reached house number 43 where Lucas lived not long after. Occasionally, Valentine would also check the illusory flame to make sure that everything was okay at the hotel.

"That man seems to still be under your ability's effect. Does your ability last forever, G?"

Valentine did some lock picking again and entered Lucas's house after making sure that someone was home. The sound of the waterfall made it a little difficult for him to listen to the sounds coming from inside the house, but in the end, he could faintly hear light footsteps coming from inside.

The yellowish mist muffled the sound of the door being opened, but it seemed that Lucas noticed someone trying to enter his house. Suddenly, the sounds of his footsteps disappeared.

"He's gone invisible... won't work against me, though,"

Valentine concentrated and faintly, he could feel the invisible man's presence thanks to his Secret Detection. It was most likely the same for the man for him to be able to sense through Valentine's Concealment.

With his dagger, he cut open his palm and gathered the blood there, clenching it in a fist. Pretending not to be able to sense the invisible Contractbound, Valentine walked around the house sneakily in search of him. The moment Lucas tried to strike him from behind, Valentine quickly waved his arm.

Splash!

The blood splattered all over the bodyguard, taking him by surprise. Not wasting his opportunity, Valentine quickly shouted.

"I hereby put you under Interrogation!"

The blood-covered invisible man stopped moving at once. Valentine couldn't see his expression since the blood was mostly covering the man's body, but he knew Lucas had fallen under his control.

Judging where the father of one's head was, Valentine places his hands on each side and began chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Deception and Hidden Thoughts, hereby erase all of Lucas Baltes's memories about me!"

Thin, illusory smoke came out of his palms and blew into Lucas. Since the man was invisible, the smoke looked like it just disappeared mid-air after going through a certain spot. His spiritual intuition told Valentine that his ability had worked, so he quickly left the house before closing the door behind him.

"That's three down. G, I'll need your help to track the bitch and the motherfucker. Also the hobo woman,"

For now, Valentine could only go back to his hotel first and switch with Graham.