Chapter 100 Norbert’s soul

“I beg you, tell me that you can hear me!”

A desperate voice reached Mathew’s ears just as he was about to relax while waiting for Nadia to return.

“Huh?” Mathew uttered a small moan of surprise only to rapidly open his eyes and look around.

But there wasn’t a single living soul for him to see anywhere around.

“Was it a hallucination or something?” Mathew silently uttered the first thing that came to his mind. He then sharpened his ears and even made sure not to breathe too often, hoping to hear something again… But to no avail.

“I guess I’m just tired,” Mathew muttered before shrugging his shoulders, resting his back against the wall, and closing his eyes.

“HEY!”

The instant Mathew’s vision turned black, the voice returned. But what was even worse, this voice was extremely familiar.

“Norbert?” Mathew asked while opening his eyes again. Yet, no matter how long did he wait, he didn’t receive a single word of answer.

‘Is it something about having my eyes closed?’ Mathew thought, instantly moving in to check its validity… by simply lowering his eyelids.

“DON’T CLOSE YOUR FUCKING EYES!” A desperate scream instantly filled Mathew’s ears.

“Yeah, figured it out myself already,” Mathew replied, only to shake his head a little. “Still, I didn’t expect you to improve your ability so quickly,” Mathew said with a smile, only to then shrug his shoulders. “Or maybe Daniel didn’t bother to tell me that you could do it?” he pondered.

“I wish that was the case,” Norbert replied, his voice turning sour.

“What happened, then?” Mathew asked. After the initial shock of finding out that he could somehow communicate with Norbert despite him not being here, the young man’s rationality struck back. “Wait, didn’t you go to check on that assumed sister of yours?” Mathew asked, his soul firing up.

‘Isn’t this the perfect opportunity to check out the waters before we attempt to take over the last of the merchants?’ he thought as another plan hatched in his head.

“Who are you talking with?” a new voice reached Mathew’s ears. A voice that was clearly worried.

“Wait for a second,” Mathew said before opening his eyes.

To Mathew’s lack of surprise, it was Nadia that asked him the recent question.

“Don’t ask me how, but I can somehow talk with Norbert,” he explained. “I believe this is some sort of his ability or something,” he added. “But I need to close my eyes to do so, so give me a moment,” he requested before pushing his eyelids down again.

“Close your eyes?” Nadia’s voice turned even more worried than it already was. “Let me try it too,” she said.

“Guys, you really don’t have the time for this,” Norbert stated while his voice filled with desperation.

“Wait, I can hear him too!” Nadia said out loud, the worry in her voice turning into a shock. “So, what’s the case?” she then asked, her voice once again changing to an amused one.

“I basically died,” Norbert revealed.

‘Huh?’ Mathew couldn’t really put his shock into words. ‘What the hell does that mean?’ he thought. Yet, rather than asking for clarification, he opted to just wait for Norbert to explain his case.

“That bastard killed me the second I came out to check whether that girl was really my sister,” Norber revealed while his voice turned dark. “And yes, the Carol that you spoke off is actually my sister,” he added.

“Wait for a second, let me process that,” Mathew requested as he raised his hands in a stop sign even though the other party wasn’t actually there to see him.

“Did you just say that this guy actually killed you?” Mathew asked after taking some time to organize his thoughts.

“How else do you think I managed to improve this strange ability?” Norbert asked what clearly appeared as a rhetorical question to him. “Didn’t you claim to go through two weeks of apocalypse before?”

“I did,” Mathew didn’t hesitate to confirm his statement. “But I guess you didn’t hear the entire story,” the young man rolled his eyes. Then, without opening his eyes, Mathew raised his hands and slapped both sides of his face.

“Anyway, what do you want us to do, then?” Mathew finally asked, forcing the topic to move back to what was actually important. “Do you want revenge? Do you want to save your sister? Or maybe there is a chance to stop you from dying?” Mathew asked while tightening his hands a little.

‘And it’s all under the assumption that he is actually telling the truth,’ Mathew thought.

There were only five people in the whole world that he was willing to trust unconditionally. His parents, his sister, Nadia, and himself. Yet, there were many times when Mathew doubted the validity of trust in the last person he thought of.

“I want to save Carol; that’s obvious,” Norber said. “Even though I found a lot about her and how she ensured her… relative safety in the school,” he added as his tone darkened to the levels when a shiver moved down Mathew’s spine.

‘So my gut feeling about that guy was correct all along,’ he thought, rolling his eyes underneath his eyelids.

‘How strong is that guy?” Mathew asked as he shook his head and stood up from the ground.

The few moments that he spent resting allowed him to return to a perfectly normal state. Coupled with the rest he had at the office with Nadia, Mathew finally could say his goodbyes to the insane pain of exhaustion he had felt before.

“Because if he didn’t, he wouldn’t know you are approaching,” Mathew added a few words of his own, just to voice his thoughts out.

“Guys?” a new voice suddenly entered the fray.

“Close your eyes,” Mathew replied.

There were only two people that could invade their blind discussion right now.

“Sure?” Leila said, her voice full of doubt.

“Can you hear me now?” Norbert asked.

“WHAT THE HELL?!” the girl screamed out. A noise of someone falling down followed, indicating that she tripped on her legs as she attempted to back off.

“It’s that guy’s ability,” Mathew explained before Leila could freak out any further. “Give me a moment,” he said before opening his eyes.

Mathew’s eyes didn’t betray him. Leila did actually trip on her legs.

‘It’s good that she didn’t fall down the stairs,’ he thought.

In the current world, where medical care likely ceased to exist, something as simple as a broken leg or a small infection could very easily turn into lethal conditions.

“Calm down,” Mathew said as he approached the girl and helped her get back to her legs. “Do you remember Norbert?” he then asked. “The other, younger policeman,” he added to make sure the girl could know who he was talking about.

“Vaguely, but yeah,” Leila nodded her head before casting a quick glance towards Nadia, who continued to sit down with her eyes closed.

“He can speak to us when we keep our eyes shut,” Mathew explained before moving back to his prime wife and tapping her on her shoulder.

“We need to go,” he said as he closed his eyes. “Can you tell us where that fucker is?” Mathew asked.

“He is on the floor below the place where you have that other merchant,” Norbert replied without even a second of hestiation.

“ANd how can you tell that even though your soul is here, with us?” Mathew asked, his suspicions raising through the roof.

“I can still perceive everything around my body,” Norbert replied. “It seems like Carol forced him to attempt to save my life,” he added, only for his tone to turn even darker than it already was.

“For the specific kind of favor, I guess,” Mathew commented, only to shake his head.

“Guys?” yet another voice entered the fray. “What the hell are you all doing?” she asked. “And you, can you please stop flying all over the place?” she added.

“Huh?” Mathew uttered a small, shocked moan when he opened his eyes and looked at Daria’s face. “You can see him?” he asked, his eyes opening up wide.

“Yeah,” the girl shook her shoulders. “He is flying in circles above you,” she explained, only for her face to turn still as she looked at the rest of the group. “What, you guys can’t see him?” she then asked, her face filling with surprise.

“Yeah,” Mathew confirmed the girl’s guess before shaking his head, slapping his hands against his cheeks again, and then closing his eyes.

“I will need you to guide us,” he said while moving his eyes in the direction Daria pointed out. “And warn us before we will encounter him,” he added before opening his eyes. “It will be your job to keep track of his warnings,” Mathew said as he looked towards Daria, only to then clap his hands together.

“And with that said, let’s go and kill that bastard!”