Chapter 57- SOA
Eva's face relaxed completely as she kept looking at Kai, not averting her eyes even once. Maybe it was the orange hue of the sun that gave his face a rather divine look or maybe it was simply because she adored every part of Kai's face, either way, she found herself encaptured by his features.
"Did you really kill Gabi?" The latter, seemingly oblivious to her blatantly strong stare, asked as he jumped from the branch and landed quietly on the ground.
"Huh? Uh, yes! I did! His corpse is over ther-" Waking up from her trance, Eva pointed at where she left Gabi's corpse before she lost consciousness, however, when she looked there, he was nowhere to be found.
"What? Where is he? I left his corpse there." She murmured confusedly.
"So you don't know either, huh?"
"What do you mean, Kai?"
"When I came here, he wasn't there. He either didn't die and ran away or someone had picked his corpse up."
Eva's beautiful features frowned as she gazed at the bloody, vacant spot where Gbai's corpse was.
"No, I'm sure he died. His pulse was completely gone. Besides, he killed himself after destroying his own heart. He couldn't survive that."
"Which means that someone indeed arrived here before me and picked him up," Kai concluded before he looked around him, searching for any traces the culprit could've left. However, he found nothing within a radius of a few kilometers.
'They are skilled. But, if they were really after Gabi, why didn't they attack Eva?' He asked himself.
The time between the end of the fight and Kai's arrival was almost 30 minutes. It was enough time for the culprit to kill Eva or kidnap her too. However, they weirdly did nothing.
Then there was the second most important question, why would they carry Gabi's corpse away? Did they have some kind of relationship with him? Or maybe it was simply to bury him? But, that wouldn't make sense since they left the one that killed him alive.
'Their goal isn't revenge… That is a given. So, what would they want from a dead… corpse.' Reaching that point, it clicked in Kai's head.
Of course, why did he not realize this sooner? It was obvious.
"Kai?"
"Hm? Right, I think I know the reason Gabi's corpse was snatched."
"Really?"
Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Kai finally looked at Eva and said. "Can you move?"
"Y-Yes! I'm feeling better now that you healed me. Thank you!" Standing up slowly, Eva stretched her limbs, accentuating her amazing curves before she smiled warmly.
"Good. Follow me." He said before he vanished and appeared on top of one of the trees with his eyes staring in a particular direction.
"Where are we going?" She asked.
"The Charlamagne family. If my prediction is correct, the answer should be there."
***
The Charlamagne household was located merely 100 kilometers away from the Lavines so the trip wasn't that long for the duo. One hour or so later, they reached their destination.
Since the huge villa was near the mountain range, it had a great view that was breathtaking enough to make anyone spend a good chunk of their day merely staring out of the window.
However, this magnificent place was now eerily quiet except for the occasional guars moving around the place. Unbeknownst to them, the owners of the house were brutally killed. The whole world was still unaware of the results of this clash between these two prominent families.
"Ugh!!" Knocking down one guard, Kai looked at Eva who had also easily gotten rid of another one. Then, the two moved inside the house while knocking out all the guards.
"Why are we here Kai? What is there to find inside their household?" Eva asked for the second time. She still had no idea what was happening since Kai was oddly silent the whole journey.
Looking back at her, Kai finally decided to tell her what exactly happened with Trevor. He omitted some details like the fact that he used 'Wretched Heart' to slice the man into countless pieces. Those weren't fond memories of his, after all.
When he finished the story, Eva had a shocked expression on her face.
"An undead? How could that be…" She could barely believe what he said. It was akin to a fairytale rather than reality.
"It is the truth. I did notice that man Trevor doing something with his hand before I killed him. My suspicion is that whatever he did was the reason for his transformation."
"So, we came here to see if they have created some kind of concoction that makes the dead rise?" Eva concluded. Since she knew that the Charlamagne family were the world leaders when it comes to medicine, potions, and even Origin-related abilities.
In fact, when Trevor summoned the King of Plants, it wasn't a talent but a chemically made capsule that entrapped monsters inside of it to summon them for use whenever the user wanted. These things were called 'Synthetic Origin Abilities' or SOA for short. Since its discovery years ago, SOA had been a flourishing field that came up with numerous world-changing inventions. In fact, Anti-Origin bullets and Leviathium were the results of research coming from that field.
Granted, both the Hitman Guild and Divinity took that matter very seriously and even invested in it in hopes of one day, in the future, where they could make every single human being on Earth an Origin user.
Anyway, since the Charlamagne family was a prominent powerhouse in inventing and manufacturing top-grade SOAs, they had the highest chance of discovering something as unlikely as undead monsters.
"Exactly. But, I doubt this was created by the Charlamagnes. Trevor is a very impulsive man. If he was to discover such a thing, he would've probably told everyone by that point. But, he didn't. This meant that he either suddenly gained a moment of enlightenment that made him think rationally… Or, someone had given him that ability and made sure he never tells anyone about it."
Eva nodded her head in understanding. It was very logical. Not to mention the fact that a power like this would rack him an astronomical fortune simply by selling the paper for it. The Hitman Guild and Divinity would kill to be able to get it.
"It's not highly likely that we won't find anything. But, considering how dumb that man is, he could've made a mistake or a mishap…" Kai squinted his eyes as he walked through the corridors of the house with Eva by his side.
The two eventually stopped in front of Trevor's office and opened the door. The inside of the office was still intact.
The duo then walked inside before they headed toward Trevor's desk.
"Search for anything eye-catching," Kai said as he looked at the messy desk of the now-deceased man.
Kai then started looking through the desk thoroughly, checking the documents, the drawers, and even the cup of cold coffee left on the table.
However, nothing could be found.
Meanwhile, Eva was looking through the decorations of the office. The drawings, the vases, the small shelves filled with books, and even Trevor's license as a doctor.
'How did that man even become a doctor with that small brain of his?' Eva asked herself as she rolled her eyes. The world was truly a weird place.
As she walked around casually, her eyes scanning the place, she noticed something odd. It was a very, very small detail that she missed at first.
On the wall, there was a particularly beautiful drawing of a red rose inside a vase filled with water. The piece of art was quite known in the world and was worth millions. However, for some reason, this drawing was tilted by 1/4th of a degree to the side.
This detail would've gone unnoticed if it was anyone else other than Eva. So, she approached it and touched the drawing, intending to move it back to its normal position.
Surprisingly, the moment she moved it, the office shook noticeably as the shelves beside the drawing parted in the middle. The wall had suddenly moved, revealing a secret path.
Kai looked up from the desk before he nodded his head.
"Hidden in plain sight. Smart." He murmured as he gave Eva a 'Good job' look or what he at least assumed to be a 'Good job' look. From a third-party standpoint, his expression didn't change at all. But, for Eva, it was a world apart.
The latter beamed with happiness.
"N-No need to praise me that much, Kai. I didn't do much." She said awkwardly as she fidgeted slightly. Her heart fluttered with happiness when Kai praised her even though it was merely a look.
The latter ignored her goofy behavior and walked toward the secret door before he peaked inside. It was completely dark inside with the door being connected to a staircase that went deeper into the darkness.
"Let's go. We might've found what we're looking for."