Chapter 387 - Twisted Bookkeeper
The snowy mountain seemed as if it got further away from them the more that they walked. The group kept walking, but it looked as if they would never reach their destination.
"The cold is intolerable," the monk Lin Zhao grumbled. "The bookkeeper always made it a hustle to find him."
"Have you tried looking for him before?"
"No, but I met others who have," Lin Zhao explained. "They always said that the bookkeeper was a devotee to his craft, so it took special care to make sure no one finds it and disturb it."
"Such a bothersome spirit," Hana shook her head, and Arthur agreed with her.
"I think we've entered some sort of loop," Arthur looked at the trail. "The mountain keeps getting further away. If the bookkeeper truly took it as its residence, then some sort of mechanism to ward off visitors is at play."
"Even if that was true, what can we do about it?" Lin Zhao looked around. "The bookkeeper is one of the few officials of the Spirits Realm. If it didn't want to be found, there's little we can do."
"That little is all we need," Arthur raised his hand, and his chains multiplied. "Let's try something," his chains began expanding in a circle around them. Arthur's spiritual energy infused into them, deterring the snow away.
Suddenly, their view began shaking. A crack appeared in front of the group as if they were looking at the world through a glass. The glass broke down, and they were at the base of the snow mountain.
"That was easier than I thought,"
"Easier, huh?" Lin Zhao seemed to be baffled by the event. "You pull off something like this and call it easy?"
"Mister is weird," the little girl agreed.
Arthur ignored them and resumed walking toward the summit of the mountain. As they began going up, the snow grew thicker until it reached their knees.
"Mister, can you hear that?" Hana suddenly craned her neck upward and closed her eyes. However, Arthur was confused as he heard nothing but the snowstorm. He could feel the existence of spirits in the mountain, but there was no sound.
"I can hear nothing," the monk was the same.
"What can you hear?" Arthur asked the young girl as he stopped moving. She didn't answer right away and kept her eyes closed.
"A scream,"
Hana muttered, and the earth began to shake as soon as she said that. Arthur looked up the mountain and could see the snow roll down toward them like a tsunami. A giant white monster emerged from within the snow that looked like a yeti, striking toward a smaller seeker.
"Come!"
The seeker shouted as he slashed with his sword, creating a deep gush in the snow mountain. The snow kept rolling toward them, and Arthur decided they needed to flee. He might survive this, but the others would not.
"To the trees!"
There were giant trees at the mountain base, and the group jumped to hide on top of them. The snow arrived, and so did the two fighters, passing and ignoring the group.
As he used his chains to deflect the collateral damage of the battle, Arthur noticed another figure running behind the yeti spirit and the seeker.
'Is that a cloak on a bicycle?' Arthur was confused at what he was seeing. Flying across the sky was a cloak with no one beneath it riding a bicycle. The bicycle rolled on an invisible path midair, avoiding the battle and the snow.
"MARVELOUS! HEROIC!"
A shout came from within the cloak as it jotted down something in its book. The inked brush danced around the pages as if recording what was going on.
"I guess we found the bookkeeper," the monk muttered, but the identity of this spirit was obvious to Arthur.
"Hey there!" Arthur shouted from above the trees. "Can we have a chat?" He said toward the cloak, who only glanced at him before turning back to record the battle.
"Not used to being ignored?" Lin Zhao snickered to himself as he saw Arthur's speechlessness. "The bookkeeper is eccentric, so get used to it. We should follow after it before we lose it."
And so, the game of cat and mouse began.
***
The trees were slashed down, and rivers got frozen under the brutal attacks of the knight and the snowman. Each of them battled to their heart's content to determine whether the other party was worthy of being a contractor.
As the scenery neared obliteration, it seems that both sides realized that any further fighting would be unnecessary. With a final strike, the bond of the contract was established, and the spirit disappeared into the seeker's body.
"And so, ends another chapter of our hero, Avalon. What awaits him next after he obtained the power to save his kingdom from the trolls?"
The bookkeeper sang the words he wrote down as Arthur, and the others stood behind him. The seeker was disappearing, not understanding the words of the cloak behind him. As the knight left the realm, Arthur could feel its unwavering determination for a better future.
"The betrayal of his friends and the death of his family. The price he paid for power would forever haunt him, ah!" The bookkeeper gave a pleasured moan at the tragic fate of the knight, and it made Arthur feel sick.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?"
The bookkeeper turned at Arthur's harsh words. It stared silently at him, and the appearance of a hollow cloak staring at him gave Arthur's goosebumps.
"You are the seeker who almost broke the bell," the bookkeeper said and started flipping through the pages. "You were on my list of visits, but it seems you have a purpose of your own."
"I was on your list?" Arthur felt an ominous forbidding. Since the bookkeeper liked tragedies and betrayals, it wasn't a spirit you would like to attract.
"Ah yes, of course, you were. After all, no other seeker caught the attention of the Spirit Sovereign itself!" The bookkeeper flapped through its book rapidly as if searching for something. "I see, I see!"
"What now?" Arthur frowned.
"The reason you are here! You told the gatekeeper that you are here to find a friend, but that's a lie. You are here to kill that friend!"
"What?" Lin Zhao was shocked. Arthur didn't say anything and simply glared at the bookkeeper as if glaring would give him the method the spirit knew of his plans. "You want to kill your friend?"
"No, I don't want to." Arthur shook his head. "It must be done because..."
"...she asked for it? No betrayals?" The bookkeeper reached another page and read aloud. "What a boring aspiration! If she wants to die, then make him hate you before you do! Add some spices to the story, stupid witch!"
Arthur's chains paused before daring toward the bookkeeper. They struck the cloak, and the bookkeeper screamed as it lodged to the nearest tree.
"You think you can hurt a servant of His Majesty? I am the..." The twisted spirit tried to threaten Arthur.
"Shut up. You twisted psychopath." Arthur's voice was full of rage and indigitations. "Tell me where I can find her, or I'll kill you here."
"You can't kill a spirit in the Spirits Realm," the bookkeeper snickered.
"I guess you haven't reached that chapter, huh?" Arthur walked over slowly. "I don't care what sick mentality you carry. If you dare insult my friend, then you will die here, I promise you that."
The bookkeeper was silent before it began laughing hysterically. As it did, a gate opened above it that looked similar to the ones before.
"When one becomes a servant of His Majesty, they get the ability to someone The Realm Guards. It was never used as a method to fight before, but I guess there's a first for everything."
The gate looked celestial, and its doors began to open. A guard came from beyond the doors that looked like the one seeking to arrest Arthur in the Earthen World. However, this one was bigger and looked more threatening.
"How about you kneel on the ground now, you weakling?" The bookkeeper said with disdain as it tried to break free but could not. "Release me, or you will die!"
"Close."
Arthur commanded the gate, and its doors were flung shut before the gate disappeared from existence. The present people looked shocked about what happened.
"You were saying?" Arthur turned to the cloak, which began trembling.
"How can you... No, this is absurd. This shouldn't be possible. The only two who can command the guards are them!" The bookkeeper refused to believe what was happening.
"I don't care about what you think is normal and what is not, bookkeeper. You have two choices. You can either tell me where Gala is or refuse to do so and perish like a dog." Arthur's aura exploded to suffocate the spirit. "Which one is it going to be?"