Chapter 47: The Black Moon

Reinhard walked out through the emptying auction hall, and he couldn’t stop smiling.

The Deadly Mouth.

The girl who had once terrified arrogant Awakeners across the entire region was sitting at home right now, probably worrying about whether she was even allowed to hope for her future.

My wife, Reinhard thought, has such a fun side.

He was going to have to ask her about it. But he had a feeling that if he brought it up too suddenly, she would try to roll her wheelchair straight into a wall to escape the conversation, and the thought made him laugh out loud in the middle of the hall.

Several people turned to stare and whisper among themselves.

He took out his phone as he walked, and then he stopped. A notification was waiting for him.

[Gnosis Recovery Investment Updated.]

[Restoration Compatibility: 73% → 75%.]

Reinhard looked at it for a moment, and his smile softened. "So even remembering who she used to be helps?"

The System didn’t answer.

His phone vibrated again before he had fully recovered from being called the Mirror guy one more time. It was a new message from an unknown number.

Unknown: We heard you acquired the Oath Keeper Water.

Reinhard’s smile faded as another message appeared.

If you’re searching for the remaining materials, we may be able to help.

Then one more line.

Come to Eclipse in Aurileus City.

Reinhard stood still in the middle of the auction hall and looked at the screen for a long moment. Eclipse.

The name the Silent Night assassin had been so desperately afraid of. Whatever happens, Eclipse cannot find out that Emily’s Gnosis has recovered.

Slowly, his smile came back. "Eclipse, huh?"

He slid the phone into his pocket and kept walking.

...

Reinhard crossed the auction house parking lot with his hands in his pockets when a familiar feeling crawled up the back of his neck. Someone was following him.

He slowed down as a blue window appeared.

[Investment Opportunity Available.]

[Target: Emily Ashcroft.]

[Current Value: B+.]

[Objective: Deal with the six men following you.]

[Difficulty Grade: A.]

[Success Probability: 30%.]

Reinhard blinked. Six?

He glanced over his shoulder. The parking lot was still crowded, people leaving the auction, cars pulling away, and valets hurrying between vehicles.

Nothing looked unusual.

Followed again, after another auction? The last time he had walked away from an auction, someone had tried to kill him in the street.

Don’t tell me this is going to become a tradition.

At this point, he should start charging a fee for being hunted.

He didn’t feel nervous but curious. The last time, letting his attackers lead him somewhere had gotten him a file full of names, and maybe this time would be just as generous.

A snack cart sat near the exit, and Reinhard walked over. "One popcorn."

The vendor handed him a paper bag.

"And a soda. Large."

The vendor nodded, and Reinhard paid and kept walking toward the far end of the lot. If I’m going to be kidnapped tonight, I’m going to be comfortable about it.

He ate his popcorn casually while extending his senses. Since the night at the factory, his control over mana had sharpened considerably, and he could now send out a tiny pulse every few seconds without breaking stride.

Pulse. Six presences behind him, still following.

Reinhard smiled. You’re really committed to this.

Another pulse. Still six. He took a long drink of his soda.

Another pulse, and the six presences suddenly surged forward.

There you are.

Reinhard’s eyes narrowed, and Fooling activated, the world rippling for an instant across six minds at once, while Veil wrapped around the real him.

...

One of the men thrust out his hand, and a strange force slammed into Reinhard, locking his whole body in place.

"What...?!"

Another man was already beside him, and his palm struck Reinhard’s chest. Water erupted from nowhere, twisting into a huge sphere that swallowed Reinhard whole and sealed him inside.

Reinhard thrashed against it. "W-Who are you people?!"

Water surged over his mouth, and his voice vanished.

"Area’s clear."

"Move him."

"Quickly!"

Four of the men surrounded the floating water prison while another slid open the side door of a black van. "Get him in."

They hauled the sphere into the back, five of them climbed in after it, and the sixth slid into the driver’s seat. The doors slammed shut, and the van peeled out of the lot.

In the back, one of the men leaned toward the water prison and stared into it. "What did Emily Ashcroft tell you? About the incident two years ago?"

Reinhard struggled, and said nothing.

The man frowned. "Speak."

Reinhard glared at him through the water.

The man sighed. "Fine."

The prison tightened, and water surged up over Reinhard’s face. His body jerked violently, and a few seconds later, the water drained away from his mouth, and he coughed and gasped for air. "Who are you people?" he spat.

The man stared at him. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way." He raised his hand. "Speak."

Reinhard scoffed, and the man sighed again as the water rushed back over his face.

None of them noticed the sound coming from the front of the van.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

...

The real Reinhard was sitting in the passenger seat.

He had climbed into the van completely unnoticed, hidden under Veil, while the six men were busy wrestling his illusion into the back.

Now he sat with one leg propped against the dashboard, a bag of popcorn in his lap and his soda in the cup holder, watching through the gap between the seats as his own illusion got drowned.

Technically, nothing they did could hurt something that wasn’t really there, and that was exactly why the illusion held. It was still extremely annoying watching them do that to his face.

His actual face.

He had nearly lost it to Blue Death two nights ago, and it had been through enough.

Crunch.

He took another sip of soda. The things I do for everyone’s safety.

The driver sniffed. "Does anyone smell popcorn?"

"Focus," one of the men hissed from the back.

The driver kept sniffing suspiciously, and Reinhard quietly moved the bag a few inches farther away.

...

In the back, the interrogation went on. "What do you know about the Black Moon Incident?"

The illusion blinked water out of its eyes. "The what?"

The men exchanged looks. "The Black Moon Incident."

"Don’t play dumb," another snapped.

"I’ve genuinely never heard of it."

"It’s practically common knowledge!"

The illusion scoffed. "If it’s so common, why are you asking me?"

The man opened his mouth, found no answer, and clenched his fist instead. "You really don’t know?"

"Also," the illusion added, "could you stop getting water in my ears? I just got this face back to normal."

The men stared at each other. Just got it back to normal?

Up front, Reinhard quietly pulled out his phone and typed the words into a search bar. Black Moon Incident. The results appeared instantly, and as his eyes moved down the screen, they slowly widened.

Two years ago, a black moon had appeared in the sky above Aurileus City in the middle of the day. The moment it rose, darkness spread across the entire city, and people began to feel something no one could explain.

A crushing despair and a fear so heavy that some of them simply stopped moving. The deaths started within the hour, and by the end, there were hundreds.

Reinhard’s face slowly changed as he kept reading, and then he froze. The black moon had appeared directly above the Lasko Corporation building, where fourteen S-Rank Awakeners from Aurileus City had been at the time.

All fourteen had died.

His thumb stopped moving on the screen, and he read the next line.

Only one survivor was confirmed. Emily Ashcroft.

Fourteen S-Ranks, some of the strongest people in the city, had died inside that building, hundreds more had died across Aurileus, and Emily had been the only one to walk out of it.

"What happened in there?" he whispered.

Wait... Why didn’t old Reinhard have memories of this? He furrowed brows. Even though old Reinhard didn’t care about Emily past or history. This type of event should have still been known to him.

No, I have more important matters.

In the back, the men had started arguing among themselves.

"She really didn’t tell him anything?"

"No way. A woman like her wouldn’t let someone stay close without at least warning him."

"That incident was where it all started," a third man muttered. "Everything that led to her Gnosis shattering."

Reinhard’s eyes sharpened. He picked the man who had spoken last, the quiet one sitting closest to the illusion, and activated Mind Glance.

We need the answers tonight. Then we wipe his memories. The Collectors can’t be connected to that incident. Not ever.

Reinhard slowly leaned back against the seat. Collectors. The same name Cassian had whispered in that hospital hallway.

He let the skill fade. He didn’t need it for the rest, because the others were more than happy to keep talking out loud.

"Half the companies in Marvello wanted her put on trial," one of them said. "Wanted her to explain what happened inside that building."

"And she made the courts back off, and Aurileus Security too." The man shook his head. "I was there when she looked at the judge. Just looked at him. I wouldn’t try anything after seeing that face."

"I heard he resigned the next week."

"He did."

Reinhard pressed his lips together hard.

"It’s those damn Baal people," the third man muttered. "Why are they so obsessed with it? Sure, five of their S-Ranks died in there, but everyone knows the rule. No one disturbs Emily Ashcroft."

Reinhard’s eyes narrowed. House Baal, five dead S-Ranks, and a rule that someone was apparently now breaking.

His mana was quietly draining with three abilities running at once, but he barely noticed. He had learned more in ten minutes in this van than in two weeks of searching.

...

In the back, the illusion suddenly snorted. "So which lowlife is behind all this?" The men looked at it, and the illusion smiled. "The Baal family?"

Nobody said a word.

The driver’s hands jerked on the steering wheel, and the van swerved hard across the lane. A horn blared outside as the driver barely dodged another car, and up front, Reinhard’s soda sloshed dangerously in the cup holder. Can these people drive better?!

The man nearest the prison leaned in, his face hard. "How do you know about the Baal family?"

"Did Emily tell you?" another demanded.

The illusion laughed. "They must really have you all by the throat if you’re this scared of me knowing their name."

The men’s faces went tight.

The illusion leaned forward as far as the water would let it. "So why are you getting involved with that trash family?" It smiled. "Do you Collectors have no pride at all?"

All five men froze. None of them had expected him to know what they were.

"H-How do you..."

The illusion laughed. Its face was still drenched and its clothes were soaked through, and yet its smile only grew. "Does it matter?" Its eyes narrowed. "The first thing you should be thinking about..." It paused. "...is how you’re going to get out of this van alive."

The back of the van went silent.

For the first time, all six of them seemed to realize something about this situation was wrong. They had caught him, surrounded him, trapped him, and taken complete control. At least, that was what they believed.

The man they had been interrogating was only an illusion. The real Reinhard sat in the passenger seat less than an arm’s length from the driver, his foot still propped on the dashboard and the bag of popcorn resting in his lap.

He picked out another piece, ate it calmly, and smiled.

They had no idea what they had just invited into their van.