195 A Foggy Nigh

Graham had returned to his original appearance and went back to the hotel after he was done with Wiebe. The man would definitely hate the mayor because of him, which was exactly what Graham wanted.

"It's time to decide on the second target now. We need to strike while the iron's hot, so I guess Wiebe's brother would be the best option. But he almost never leaves the mayor's side, and if he does, Lucas is always with him,"

Graham was leaning back on his chair, looking out the giant glass window at the mountain view outside. White fog covered the highest peak, gently and slowly making its way down.

"And since he is a Contractbound, it will be a little more difficult, but should be manageable,"

Looking at the quiet late afternoon sun, coupled with the silence of the mountains and the slowly setting fog gave him peace of mind. Graham took a deep breath and exhaled very slowly.

"It will be foggy tonight it looks like. Let's head out later, Val. I'm curious about foggy nights in the mountains... but right now, let's get to work,"

There was a black lighter lying on the table and an open notebook with a drawing of a map. On the other side of the table, a bottle with a clear liquid inside was standing inconspicuously, despite there being a carcass of a snake inside.

"This drink will accompany our night tonight. Just be sure not to get too drunk, Val," he said, in amusement.

Among the items on the table, he picked up the lighter and lit a gentle flame. He then used his flame manipulation and made the flame float in the air above the table. The tiny fireball suspended itself in the air and illuminated its surrounding with its warm, soft orange light.

Concentrating on the flame in front of him, Graham began asking a question that he needed an answer to.

'When will Danny van Houten be alone?'

The supernatural phenomenon that always accompanied his divination began to happen. The image in the flame showed him the man that he was targetting, walking in the street alone. The man's surrounding was dark and foggy, which meant that his target would be alone at night. After that, the image disappeared.

Graham then continued with his divination until all of his questions were answered. He always felt lucky to be a Fire Divinator, because everything he needed to know could easily be done through divination. He imagined if he were not one, he would have to manually do all the investigation processes himself.

"We've got everything we need to know, Val," he said finally, "At least most of them,"

By the time he finished his divination processes, his stamina had been drained quite a lot, both for the divinations themselves and for sustaining the tiny floating flame above the table. He rested his back against the chair and looked at the view beyond the window.

The sun had begun setting in the west, painting the southern sky that he was looking at different shades of blue. The more westward the sky was, the brighter and more colorful it was, whereas the eastern sky had become a lot darker.

After grabbing the small glass place upside down on the bottle, Graham pouted a little amount of the liquor on it. The narrow bottleneck made sure that the snake carcass inside wouldn't come out, which arose another question: how did they get it in in the first place? However, it wasn't something he bothered to find out right now.

Graham rose the glass in front of him and gave it a gentle circular shake. The clear liquid turned rather cloudy after being shaken. There was a strong stench coming from the liquid, which made him think of the smell of sweaty workers' undershirts after working in the hot afternoon sun in the desert. It was not a pleasant smell, and certainly not an appetizing one. However, it made Graham even more curious about the taste.

With a sip, the cloudy liquid entered his mouth and down his throat, stinging everything it touched. The liquor itself had a subtle sweet background note while the dominant flavor was an earthy and somewhat chickeny taste. His tongue got a numbing sensation from the liquor, but not an unpleasant one. In fact, it was a kind of addictive numbing feeling that made people want more.

As the liquid entered his body, he felt hot and energized. Graham now understood why people in Hoorn drank it. The low temperature could be unbearable at times, especially during these times when winter was just around the corner.

"As long as we don't drink too much, we should be fine," he giggled.

Right then, he felt something nudging his right hand. That was where he had put on Gloom's Redress, and he felt that the bracelet was looking for his attention.

"Oh, it's time to feed you, eh?"

Graham's warm body negated the bracelet's negative effect of being too cold, so he didn't notice that it had actually gone even colder. If it was Valentine, his wrist would have probably got mild frostbite because of the bracelet.

He put the bracelet closer to his hair, but it didn't open its tiny mouth. Instead, Graham could feel that it was trying to bring his hand somewhere else.

"The snake liquor? Are you kidding me? You're a bracelet, and underaged, at that!" exclaimed Graham.

The liquor was too precious, so he didn't want to share it with his questionable bracelet. He had specially asked Stefan to bring him one that was of the best quality in the city, and the price was a staggering half a guilder. There was no way he was sharing it.

Gloom's Redress seemed insistent on getting the liquor as it tried even harder to bring itself closer to the glass of liquor. Graham quickly took it off and placed it on the table. Since it was a bracelet, it couldn't move on its own. However, he could see its mouth showing a begging expression somehow.

"A no is a no!" he didn't back down.

Using Valentine's dagger, he cut a tiny portion of his hair and stuffed it down the bracelet's tiny mouth, force-feeding it. Once it had eaten its wearer's hair, it didn't seem to be begging anymore.

Graham put the bracelet back on and continued enjoying the beautiful sunset in the mountains while drinking his snake liquor.

Night fell and Graham was already tipsy from drinking, even though there was still more than three-fourth of the liquor left in the bottle. The alcohol was in his blood, and he didn't have any blood manipulation ability so he couldn't supernaturally get it extracted. He had no choice but to switch with Valentine, who had a higher alcohol tolerance. He did so after replacing Mass Illusion inside Purloin with Transformation, by quickly transforming into the mayor and transforming back.

Valentine woke up not long after Graham fell asleep and quickly took off the bracelet that felt like it was trying to freeze his wrist solid. He shook it violently before stuffing it inside the deepest part of his pants pocket, squishing it against his thigh as he moved about. He got up and walked towards the counter near the door, where a large pitcher of water had been prepared.

After drinking a lot of water, he felt much better, and now he was ready for action.

The fog had set outside. From his window, he couldn't see anything except the gently floating white fog that blocked everything it covered.

Valentine activated his night vision and everything became a shade of yellow, outlining everything even those hidden in the darkest spot. However, he still couldn't see anything outside because of the fog.

He put on a black sweater on top of his shirt and his favorite leather jacket on top of the sweater. Currently, he was wearing four layers of clothing to ward off the cold mountain air. His hands were all covered in gloves while his head was warmed up by a thick wool hat, black in color.

After that, he placed Concealments on himself and left the hotel room. He walked down to the lobby and was surprised to find someone other than Stefan there.

"So our theory that Stefan is a humanoid replica that works 24/7 has been proven wrong, G," he muttered jokingly.

The clock showed six forty-two in the evening and there were quite a lot of people in the hotel lobby, enjoying the warmth of the place while being accompanied by bottles of snake liquor. However, none of them seemed to notice Valentine, who was sneakily walking past them towards the main entrance.

The street was dark and foggy, with visibility only about 500 meters in front of him. The street lights shining above were covered by the dense fog, causing them to look like spectral lights descending upon the Earth.

"Where might that bodyguard be going in this condition?"

Valentine wondered as he was walking towards the location that Graham's divination had indicated.

The road, strangely, was still busy with vehicles driving by. It seemed that people in Hoorn were used to foggy nights like that. They didn't even drive slower than usual-- if anything, they drove faster.

Since the location was not that far from his hotel, Valentine could just walk there. With his pace, he arrived less than an hour later and it was just about time that the bodyguard should show up. He was currently on Woudstraat, where it was supposed to be beautifully surrounded by trees during the day. However, at night time like that, coupled with the dense fog, he felt like he was in a horror movie scene, and the trees looked like monsters hiding in the dark.

The man that he had been waiting for finally came. Danny van Houten was wearing a thick wool sweater that looked tight, defining his muscular body well. There were no sunglasses nor masks covering his rough-looking face. Valentine could now see the similarities between the two brothers, and it was clear that Danny was the younger one.

Valentine followed the man who suddenly crossed the street once the road was clear. Danny then walked towards a small path between the trees, going into the dark woods. Valentine walked closely behind as not to lose his target in the fog. The sounds of his light footsteps, as well as his presence, were concealed. Unless Danny was very perceptive, he wouldn't notice Valentine, especially since he was a higher-rank Contractbound.

The way that the man walked showed that he was impatient. It was apparent that Danny wanted to get to his destination as soon as he could. Valentine could feel the repressed anger as the man walked.

After treading the path for about fifteen minutes, finally, something other than trees appeared in the distance. It was a small house with faint orange light coming from inside. Amidst the foggy woods, the house looked like the lair of a witch who beckoned weary travelers with its warm light.

Danny van Houten approached the main entrance and through the eyehole, someone from inside asked the man for a password.

"Revolution..." replied Danny coldly.

Click!

The door was unlocked and someone opened the house slowly, revealing only a gap big enough for one person to enter. There didn't seem to be any other entrance, so Valentine had to seize his chance. Using the ability stored inside Purloin, he began chanting while focusing on the person behind the door through the eyehole.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Domination and Order, intensify your desire to open the door!"

Instead of opening it a little, suddenly the person felt the urge to open the door all the way. Valentine's copied ability was much weaker than the original, so after a short while, the person quickly started to close the door again. However, he had managed to slip past, right after Danny entered the small house.

"I'm not that big. No need to open the door that wide," complained Danny.

"Sorry," replied the man who was behind the door.

Valentine was now inside the house and was hiding behind a shelf in the corner of the room, away from everyone's eyes. The house was illuminated only by a single lantern that for some reason was shining brightly. The room itself didn't look as dilapidated as it was outside. It was messy indeed, but it was apparent that the house was still being used.

Besides himself, there were seven people in that room, including Danny who had just arrived. To his surprise, the female tour guide from his trip to the city was also there, and she even seemed to be the leader of the small gathering. There was one other woman besides her while the rest were men, and Valentine didn't recognize any of them except for Danny.

"Welcome, Danny. Now I believe everyone is here, so we can start our meeting," said the tour guide with a voice that was not as loud as before. Even her cheerful tone was completely gone, replaced by a mature, scheming voice that sounded experienced.

"Before we start, I want to say something," Danny raised his hand. He was standing with his back leaning against the wall on the right side of the room.

"Yes, Danny?"

"The mayor has just done something terrible to my mother and brother, so if there is the need to kill him, I volunteer to do the honor," he said coldly. There was hidden anger in his voice.

Everyone looked at him curiously, but he didn't seem to be in the mood to share. The woman smiled.

"If that comes down to it, then I'll let you do it, Danny. But for now, we need to cook up the plan to overthrow the snake first,"