Chapter 79: The Approaching Gaze
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: PlumSauce
Early in the morning, as the sun had just risen, Coraci’s house was still immersed in discussions about Darling Town.
Meanwhile, in a private research institute, Lucian had just stepped out of the lab. Both he and his assistants bore dark circles under their eyes, nursing cups of coffee — he had lost count of how many he had consumed in the past twenty-four hours.
After breakfast, the assistants began preparing to leave. Lucian, however, continued scrolling through documents on his computer, frowning occasionally.
Over the past three years, apart from normal lectures and research, he had leveraged the Blackmoon family’s resources and his own network as a spell researcher, spending nearly all his spare time tracking Coraci.
Sometimes, Lucian suspected Liz was deliberately withholding information. He had ways to verify if she spoke the truth, but he chose not to use them.
At that moment, Liz was outside the research institute. She had asked Carolyn to wait in the car and went in alone to see Lucian.
When Lucian saw her on the surveillance feed, he pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. He knew exactly why she had come.
“You sent someone to follow me?” Liz demanded as she entered, slamming the door with a loud bang.
Lucian stirred his coffee slowly. “Lizbeth, spending too much time with Miss Carolyn has clearly made you more…uncouth. Mother’s birthday is approaching. Sai and Emma have prepared a rather large gathering. I hope your behavior won’t startle them.”
Sai was the second child of the Blackmoon family, and Emma his wife. Compared to the researchers, they were more like ordinary businesspeople. Sai was also the first of the three Blackmoon children to start a family.
Liz didn’t want to talk about the party. “Even if I am uncouth, I’m better than Sai and Emma. Sai flicks ash casually at home. Forget them. I came here to tell you to stop sending people to tail me every day. It’s pointless. Do you really think following me will help you find Deville Coraci?”
“Of course not,” Lucian said. “First, I monitor more than just you. Second, I only check on you occasionally; I do not observe you daily. Third, I want to find Coraci. You and your colleagues are not proactive. Perhaps one day he will appear in your field of view, but you might not report it to me. To prevent that, I have some assistants keep an eye on you when necessary. Rest assured, I do not interfere with your actions — and even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.”
Liz grew increasingly tired of speaking with Lucian. He always had that attitude of “I know you’re unhappy, but I will do this anyway. I am merely informing you politely.”
She leaned both hands on the desk. “Lucian, do you think I would hide Coraci’s whereabouts?”
“Wouldn’t you?”
“Of course not,” Liz said firmly. “I understand how dangerous dark creatures are. If I saw him, I would report it to the Association.”
“But you wouldn’t tell me first,” Lucian said, removing his glasses to wipe them. “Over these years, the Association has made no serious effort to find Coraci. I know your feelings. You consider him a friend in life and death, and you can’t bear to be cruel to him. I don’t hate him either; I am acting purely on reason. I cannot change your feelings, so I must find another way.”
“If you find him, what will you do?”
“Not much. I will make every effort to get him to cooperate with research.”
“Even if he hasn’t done anything wrong?” Liz asked. “Even if he’s lived like a normal person all these years without harming anyone? Offices worldwide track supernatural activity closely. No cases over the past years suggest devilish involvement. That proves Coraci hasn’t changed.”
Lucian replaced his glasses and frowned at Liz, as if chastising her for flawed logic. “Do you think I am a court of law? No. I merely seek him, not to judge him. His actions or misdeeds are irrelevant.”
“Then why are you so obsessed with researching the devil fragment?” Liz pressed, though she held back the rest of her question — how was this different from the Arcane Covenant?
Lucian replied, “The Blackmoon family has always been this way. Research has never been limited to devil fragments. Our bloodline has accumulated vast knowledge over generations. I intend to do the same: achieve as much as possible and pass it down.”
“But it’s different,” Liz said. “Your obsession harms others. Don’t say, ‘Coraci isn’t human.’ I work for the Association and interact with supernatural beings daily — I see no distinction.”
Lucian lowered his head. His coffee had grown cold, but he continued stirring it gently.
“Lizbeth, can’t you see another reason?” Lucian’s voice dropped lower than usual. “Spending so much time with Carolyn, you’ve become loud and distracted. Working at the Association has made you notice irrelevant details. You’ve forgotten what the Blackmoon family fears most.”
Liz met his gaze. “You mean…”
“Don’t forget what lies buried beneath our ancestral estate.”
All members of the Blackmoon family knew the story: their ancestors had sacrificed the last devil to secure the family’s prosperity. The ritual turned the curse on the victim into a blessing for the bloodline. As long as one blood-relative survived, the sacrifice remained bound. But if all family members died, the buried victim would gain immense power and return to the world.
Three years ago, Liz had witnessed the Atwood incident. The souls of the dead became malevolent spirits, devouring life and spreading outward.
Liz hesitated. “Do you think…it could ever be free again?”
Lucian shook his head. “Not now, of course. But no one can guarantee it will never happen. Who can predict the future? People once believed devils were completely extinct — yet Coraci appeared, a devil raised as a human. Nothing in this world is absolute. If one day, for any number of reasons, the devil sacrifice really were to gain freedom, what could people do then?”
“If that devil were free,” Liz said quietly, “the Blackmoon family members would already be gone.”
“Exactly. We hope it never comes to that, but we must be prepared,” Lucian said. “Even if the Blackmoon family ceases to exist one day, the knowledge we leave behind will remain. Someone will find it, use it. Right now, Coraci is the best means for us to study devils. He can provide countless insights, even unexpected breakthroughs. Knowledge and magic accumulate like layers of sedimentary rock. I merely want to leave enough in my layer to pass on to the world.”
Liz stood before her eldest brother’s desk, her gaze slightly distant. She still considered Coraci a friend, yet she understood he was one of the most dangerous beings alive. She didn’t want Lucian to find him, didn’t want Coraci to endure the life of a test subject. But…she couldn’t argue with Lucian’s reasoning.
If sacrificing devils for prosperity was the sin left by their ancestors, then today, researching devils was not only the Blackmoon family’s interest — it was their responsibility.
Liz exhaled slowly. “I’ve strayed from the topic… I didn’t come here to talk about devils.”
“Then what did you come to talk about?”
“Surveillance!” Liz emphasized. “Stop sending people to follow me.”
Lucian shrugged innocently. “It’s just occasional monitoring, not full-time tracking. I keep tabs on many people, not just you.”
Waiting outside the research institute, Carolyn grew impatient and called to urge her along. They had cases to investigate later that afternoon. Reluctantly, Liz ended her conversation with Lucian.
In her mind, she thought wryly, I should’ve known. No one can persuade Lucian. His day job is as a university professor, facing young skeptics like me every day. He’s an expert at persuasion.
After Liz left, Lucian’s female assistant emerged from another room. She had planned to leave earlier, but overhearing the siblings’ conversation through the door had made her hesitant to appear.
As she prepared to go downstairs, Lucian called after her.
“Charlotte, can you stay? You can rest in the guest room downstairs first.”
Charlotte was one of Lucian’s longest-serving assistants, and she had assisted with Coraci’s spell assessments and experiments. She nodded. “Of course. I’ll go downstairs then. Sir, do you need me to prepare anything?”
“For now, no,” Lucian said, standing to open the door for her. “A contact will be coming to see me in person later. I may need your help. He won’t arrive for a few hours, so go rest first. I’ll summon you if needed.”
After Charlotte left, Lucian returned to his computer. He had received a new email yesterday.
The sender was from a company with ties to the Blackmoon family — formerly Engrity Pharmaceuticals. The sender was a sandbox-space environment designer. Lucian remembered his name: Mark.
Mark said he might have encountered the person Lucian was searching for, though he couldn’t be certain. He would come to the research institute to discuss the details in person.
Previously, Lucian had tracked several men with black hair, around thirty years of age, whose first or last names sounded like “Coraci.” None of them were the right person. This time might be different — Mark had mentioned in his email that the individual had interacted with John Lockland.
…
The pale yellow MINI was a two-seater, and the windows had no blackout coating. During the day, John had no choice but to wrap himself completely in a blackout blanket, curling up across the seat like a caterpillar.
Forest Spirit Jožef continued to drive, while Coraci told them about the cultist priest in Darling Town.
“I only glimpsed him briefly,” Coraci said. “From what I could tell, he isn’t human — he’s something we’ve dealt with before.”
“A shapeshifter?” John asked, his voice muffled from inside the blanket.
“We never ‘dealt with’ shapeshifters, just…knew them,” Coraci replied. “That priest is an incubus — a male succubus.”
“Another rapist?”
“Yes, but smarter than most. Usually male succubi go straight for force; female succubi are better at posing as innocent humans to lure prey. This priest in Darling Town has clearly lived in human society for a long time. He’s far craftier than his kin, using illusions to deceive people. He doesn’t force the townspeople; he lets them sleep with him voluntarily.”
Jožef interjected,“I heard that trickery still counts as rape.”
John thought for a moment. “Depends…sometimes, yes. Other times, at most, it counts as fraud.”
The silver-haired young god drove at a very slow pace, frowning. “He collects money in my name. He sells plants claiming they can cure diseases — which they actually can, because while bound by the mark, I had to work magic over that land regularly. When he sleeps with his followers, he claims he’s fulfilling my will, as if I participate in it! It’s unbearable!”
“Uh…why don’t you stop him?” John asked.
“I can’t,” Jožef sighed. “Forest Spirits excel at blessings for abundance and vitality for barren lands. We don’t like violence. So when conflicts arise with dark creatures, we usually can’t gain the upper hand…”
“Simply put…you can’t beat a succubus?”
Jožef paused for a few seconds. “…Yes.”
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