บท 81: Human during the day, Devil at nights

Masaru felt like he went form the 2000's to 1900's when he looked at the buildings, it was really like he went back into the past. From the looks of it the townspeople appeared to be normal, the shops look quite old like those shops you find on the titanic movie.

"This is Yorkshire, Greater Malling... You will be coming here often for when I send you to buy some daily necessities and other smaller things" Jessy happily explained everything to Masaru however he honestly felt like he entered a territory of a beast, there even the occasional feeling of being watched from the surroundings.

"Steve, you have to make sure you work hard otherwise you will turn like those other boys who ended up in jail" Jessy reminded Masaru who simply kept his face stoic but he really was feeling a bit irritated at being reminded so many times, however, he could only endure it for the sake of his mission.

"Oh yeah there is also this boy called Matthew Freeman who is also a child on the LEAF project, his foster parents are Mrs Deverill who lives down near Lesser Malling... But I doubt you will meet him considering his situation was more severe than yours" Despite her naggings Masaru was listening carefully about the information she was giving him.

He was especially curious about this Matthew Freeman, if the information was not incorrect then the several reports he read about this boy would be true. A Human blessed with the ability of foresight that could see in the future and telekinesis.

'Could it be they intend to use his ability to see in the future? Although it sounds amazing, I doubt they would go that far considering the fact that such a powerful ability must have a lot of restrictions. It's quite common that powerful abilities tend to have a price or restriction on them'

Masaru thought as he was trying to figure out just how does this boy link up with the witches, if he was not then this Matthew Freeman must probably be here to bide his time before he is old enough to be an adult. When that time comes he can come and go as he please.

It did not take long for the bus to stop in the middle of nowhere, there was a virgin forest on the one side of the road and on the other was a fence that went as far as both directions of the road which was probably a farm fence.

"We're here" Jessy walks in front while Masaru was following her along the road till they came across a gate that looked similar to the rest of the fence so from a distance it was quite easy to miss it.

Jessy unlocked the gate pushing it open for herself and Masaru to enter but the latter had to lock the gate after being reminded although he would not even forget something so basic. There were five farmhands working on the fields two Africans and three British whites, from the looks of it they appear to be quite healthy but the smell on them was reeking smell of something that decayed for a long time that was extremely pungent enough to make him feel a bit repulsed.

"You should get used to the smell Steve, you will be working here from now on" Jessy said as she noticed Masaru's repulsed behaviour towards the smell, although it was a shame but she could do nothing about it since such smell is part of their farming lives.

"If you don't mind I would rather work on the fields with planting, weeding and harvesting since I have experience in these"Masaru muttered as he honestly wanted to stay away from the places that smell the worse, so he chose to volunteer for something else on his own.

Hearing Masaru's request Jessy was a bit surprised this boy had experience in farm work and since he was only asking to work in the fields instead of the Ranch where the pigs are it was still reasonable, "That's fine, I can have Matoto lead you tomorrow"

Masaru nodded feeling relieved that he avoided working with the pigs, it appears one of the Africans names was Matoto. He was not certain if Matoto was really his name or a nickname this old lady gave him.

Glancing at his surroundings Masaru steeled his heart to endure his days here, he knew nothing will get better unless he gets evidence faster. But he knew it was more difficult to get evidence than to find witches. Not to mention, he could not recklessly use magic to scan so he had no choice but to rely on his intuition.

The house they were staying in was a traditional British farmhouse, two stories with a chimney sticking out the tiled rooftop, the walls appear to once be painted white but the age had already begun to change it to yellow stained colour.

If the smell was taken away then Masaru could more or less handle it, but the smell was really horrendous for him who has a sacred gear that boosted his senses and since he trained his senses it was naturally sharper than normal.

"Your room will be in the attic, I had Noah clear out the room for you so you can go up and take a rest dear, tomorrow you will start working on the farm," Jessy said as she began to escort him through the house,

Masaru heard what she said before he went up to his room, it was quite empty in the roof but the height was short so he had to bend slightly to move about, there is only a single bed, small table with a lamp on it.

At the other end of the room is the Cabinet where he could store his clothes. From his mission point of view, it was a good place, but he was having some difficulty controlling his urge to kill the cat he spotted looking at him meaningfully from the window outside.

'This cat gives me a peculiar feeling... Is it sentient!?'

Even he was shocked about why he was having such urge which he normally only have when enemies were around.

[So it is finally safe to talk huh?] Drago who was sleeping inside his sacred gear woke up just in time for Masaru to ask him a few things.

[I am not sure but that cat is not normal, if the witches are still here then you can consider that cat their familiar or something... Unless this world's pets started to develop their intelligence or it might be a Nekomata like your Rook]

'I will place my bet on the familiar theory since I could not sense any life nor death from that cat at all' Masaru responded in his mind while he laid on the bed to act like he did not feel suspicious of the cat.

[I have been sensing around but boy this place feels weird]

'Yeah, from the looks I can see the people seems to be normal and going on about their lives... But I feel like I entered a cage with animals in it. And one trigger is all that needs to turn this entire place into a hell hole'

[Well from the looks of it the women and her workers don't have any mana, so I suppose if you're intending to slip away every now and then. I will suggest that you keep an eye on the cat and woman, although I could not sense any mana I still do sense a dark aura within her body]

'Dark Aura?'

[It's difficult to explain, I will have to keep sensing her till I can understand what this peculiar feeling is]

Masaru nodded feeling quite relieved he managed to hold his urge to use his mana or demonic energy back then, however, Masaru was pondering over the Dark Aura Drago mentioned.

'Could it be that Dark Aura is their energy? Or do they make use of it for their abilities?' Masaru thought as he felt it was possible considering that devils could not sense Witches, it would be accurate to say they could not recognize the dark aura.

Masaru was thinking while gathering information his grimoire had of magic styles that did not require mana from the host, so far the information he managed to read told him of another way to use magic by using the natural mana from the surroundings.

This meant an ordinary human could cast magic without having mana of their own, according to the spellbook grimoire is that they could possibly not be using magic but Sorcery...

Some regards Sorcery as a higher-level kind of magic but in reality, it was a business cooperation kind of magic, the requester summons the granter and requests their power for a price.

Depending on what kind of Demonic, Holy or Elemental Spirit was summoned or how much the summoned Spirit was willing to grant, it could give the requestor unimaginable power although it would not be their own power but borrowed power. If that is the case then it will make sense if they could not be sensed normally like other magicians.

'I will have to wait for Drago to investigate that dark aura, for now, I can conclude that the witches are using sorceries until I am proven wrong. In the meantime, I have to integrate into this area before I can actually start investigating the surroundings'

The next morning Masaru got himself dressed in second-hand articles of clothing which he could simply discard if it gets too dirty, it was a white t-shirt, brown pants and a pair of Wellington Boots.

After making sure he was at least looking the part he decided to head down when he smelled the breakfast but the pungent smell of faeces still destroyed it, Masaru was not sure if Jessy was doing this on purpose or if she was simply too used to smelling faeces.

When Masaru was about to head from the first floor to the ground floor he felt a pair of eyes gazing at him, when he stopped to look he spotted the cat who leapt off the chair heading into the room where he could not see so he ignored it going down.

"Morning Steve! It appears you are an early riser which is good!" Jessy was currently serving an old English breakfast made of two sausages, bacon, fried eggs, mushrooms and a bit of chip.

Although it looked perfect, being wary of any possibility he had no choice but to stealthily use his ki to compress the food within his body before throwing it up later if there is a need for it, "Morning Jessy, I normally wake up this time"

Masaru spoke as he took his seat, there was no need to pray since this was not a religious household so Masaru could start eating immediately, but he could taste it, the fact the food was a bit expired as it had a strange sour taste that makes you want to spit it out.

It angered him that he had to stomach this kind of food, using his ki he coat the food each time he swallowed to prevent him from tasting it and till he gets rid of it later. He could on endure it like this for the sake of his investigations.

Jessy watched Masaru who swallowed the food without a change of expression, this made her feel pity that this boy really never really had any good food in his life. 'Such a poor young lad, although I can't help with the food expired since I still have to wait for my pension money to be released. Hope he can handle it till then' Jessy thought

When breakfast was over Masaru went outside where the larger African farmhand was waiting for him, he was wearing the standard farmer clothes which were the white shirt, blue pants and a pair of leather boots.

His face was without wrinkles from Masaru's perspective it appeared like he was in his 20's but in fact, this man was older than 40 already, "Morning Steve, I'm Matoto. There is no need to speak of your past, I have no interest in it either. You came here to reform and that is what you will do, follow the rules and things will be smooth, break the rules and you will work in the pigpen till your an adult"

And thus Masaru's Farm life started in the worst possible way, fed bad food and surrounded by bad people. Just how much lower can it get than this!?

>\/<

"Matthew! Get to work!" Mrs Deverill was calling out to Matthew who came to live with Mrs Deverill because of this Project called LEAF.

It was horrendous for him since he was not used to the Farm life, the food was alright but the pigpen was simply disgusting. "Coming!"

He called out while leaving the pigpen, ever since he met the stranger at the Abandoned Nuclear plant he began to believe he was in a dangerous place and he simply wanted to get out of here, the people all oddly know of him and even looked at him strangely not to mention he felt like he had been growing weaker than he was when he has gotten here.

"I need you to go help Noah with the weeding in the back for me" Mrs Deverill ordered him to do something before leaving, Matthew, however, thought it was a chance to escape this place since he had a charm he will not go around in loops as he did previously when he tried to escape this maddened place.

But then again he agreed to meet the man who is intending to escape from this place as well and he wants to take Matthew with him. So Matthew waited till he was certain that Noah and Mrs Deverill was gone before he grabbed the bicycle and went off towards the direction he was told.

He kept pedalling till he reached an average looking house that was easy to find anywhere else, but it was strangely quiet but he still entered as he thought maybe he was busy in the back or sleeping upstairs in his room.

But the suffocating smell of blood penetrated his nose causing him want to vomit but he held it in as he began to move up the stairs where the smell was becoming more and more pungent, when he opened the door which should be the bedroom he saw the corpse of Thom Burgess Body.

He was murdered causing Matthew's breathing to become hastened and rough while he looked at the words on the wall painted with green written "Raven's Gate" Matthew was scared, he had special powers that do not activate when he wants it too so he was a helpless child if the murderer was here so he made a run for it.

It did not take long for Matthew to come across policemen who was currently on patrol so he made them stop. "Huh? Aren't you Matthew that Mrs Deverill is looking after?" One of the officers spoke but Matthew's pale fearful face made him stop his question.

"T-Tom Burg-Burgess has been murdered!" Hearing this the officers both had a serious look on their face, they knew of this child being a LEAF project meaning he had a criminal history, they could not easily trust the words of a child even though Matthew did not want to return he was still made to come back with the officers so they could take a look.

But when they arrived at the house the door was opened by a woman Matthew once met in Lesser Malling which greatly shocked him, he had many questions coming to his mind as he could not understand what was going on. "Good Morning Officers, ah Matty! Why are you here? Did you perhaps escape from Mrs Deverill's place?"

"Why are you in this house?" Matthew asked feeling something was wrong ever since he saw the officers not taking his words seriously, and now this woman appeared in Tom Burges's house?

"Why else would I be here when I have to clean this house while Sir Tom Burges is out on vacation?" Miss Creevy said.

"Good morning Miss Creevy, I hope you can forgive us, however, we have been reported by this boy that Tom Burges was murdered upstairs?" One of the officers questioned,

Miss Creevy flinched acting quite surprised at the question, she immediately denied it. According to her, Tom Burgess went on a vacation to help his friend with a request so he was not home. When Matthew heard this, he began to understand why he felt so strange and began to strongly protest that he saw him dead in the bedroom upstairs, "No! I saw his dead body upstairs in his room!"

Because of Matthew's relentless strong protest, Miss Creevy had no choice but to allow the Officers and Matthew to go up the stairs to investigate. It was as if fate was toying with Matthew and he had no way to prove his words were true when they entered the room it was clean, no words were written, no bloody smell nor was there a corpse.

Matthew wanted to speak but could not find any words to say, it was simply too shocking!

"I'm not sure what to say, I feel sorry for this child who lost his parents at a young age maybe that is why his imaginations seem real for him?" Miss Creevy said putting on a face filled with pity watching the shocked Matthew.

The two officers were quite irritated at this boy who kept his act that someone died, however, now they were here and there was nothing. It felt that this boy simply wanted to create trouble for them and they were not going to allow that to happen anymore "Don't worry Ma'm we will make sure to take him back to Mrs Deverill and tell her about this"

"This is wrong! I know he was here, dead! You are mistaken, something is wrong with Miss Creevy! Why is she here? Why would Tom be gone for a holiday if I met him yesterday!?" Matthew kept saying what he saw was true but the officers did not listen to him and even wanted to take him back to Mrs Deverill's place.

"Damn it!" Matthew cursed when he realized that the officers were not going to listen to him anymore since he did not want to go back to that damned place. He dodged their attempt to grab him and escaped before they could make their move once more to try to subdue him.

'This place was wrong, everything was wrong.' Matthew thought as he was truly scared. Despite his fear his instincts kept prodding him, that he had to find out what this Raven's Gate is, Tom Burgess died to give this message to him and he had to find out about it.

After getting away, he first went to the Lesser Malling where the library he knew of was located at. He kept searching through the books on the shelves until he managed to find a book that was related to Raven's gate written by a woman named Elizabeth Ashwood.

Feeling relieved he starts to read the book, making sure he reads the content thoroughly he commits it to memory till he reached the part that should have contained information of Raven's Gate was ripped out, there was nothing else.

He even went to ask the Librarian but she said that was the only book they had and that the author who wrote that book was dead. Since books were no use, Matthew turned to use the computer where he entered "Raven's Gate" in the search engine. However, what appeared on the screen was not a search result but a chat window.

}{Who are you?}{

Seeing this Matthew was taken aback, he was not certain why he ended up chatting to a stranger. But if this man could answer his question, then he had no choice so he gave the person his name

{Matthew Freeman}

{Do you know of Raven's Gate?}

{What is it?}

{Hello?}

Matthew kept asking questions regards to Raven's Gate, but the man did not respond back to him at all. With no way out, Matthew gritted his teeth and went to the librarian to ask where he could find information more information that this library did not have. When the Librarian heard his question, the librarian suggested to him he should go to the greater malling without suspecting anything.

Matthew grabbed his bicycle he had "stolen" from Mrs Deverill's farm and started pedalling towards Greater Malling, although he felt that he could escape right now. His conscience still drove him to find answers, as that could tell him why Deverill wanted him personally and why she investigated him so deeply.

It was quite coincidental that Masaru himself also went to Greater Malling since Jessy and her farmhands were gone as well as the cat, he set up an alarm device in his room that will go off if any of them return back home so he could instantly return back before they reach nearby.

Today Masaru was reading books searching for Raven's Gate and this was where he met Matthew Freeman, he recognize the boy as Jessy for some reason had a photo of this boy in her closet along with investigation reports along with a letter which was from Mrs Deverill and it appears almost every villager had his information.

Masaru could see the boy was searching about Raven's Gate quite openly unlike him who is searching in silence, Masaru could not help but shake his head thinking this boy was truly reckless or plain stupid 'Could it be he has information or did something happen?'

Masaru did not want to openly approach the target that is being monitored even now by the librarian who took out a phone to send a message which Masaru presumed to be Mrs Deverill.

'I will have to follow this boy' Masaru thought as he walked pass Matthew bumping into him "accidentally" while allowing his spellbook to place a tracker which could not be sensed easily on the boy, he was not sure but he knew if something big happens this boy will be in the centre of it.

Otherwise, the entire Yorkshire was just a huge land of perverts

Matthew had no time to think about Masaru who bumped into him so he went to the newspaper gazette to get more information, Matthew did not even realize that Masaru followed him from a distance while making it appear he was going towards the cafe to order a cup of coffee.

Looking left and right, Masaru took out a hat from his bracelet placing it over his head allowing his ears to be covered before he called out his sacred gear to only cover his ears. He was not sure if the boy was stupid but Matthew was currently talking with a man named Richard Cole who is a young man and a reporter.

Matthew was telling him everything about Mrs Deverill, Raven's Gate, Tom Burgess while listening Masaru felt his story would simply be maddening and crazy from a human's perspective. But he who heard this with his sacred gear was shocked as he never imagined that this boy is actually something the witches wanted to use.

He was quite familiar with Witchery magic after investigating about it, it was different from Sorcery but quite close since Witchery normally uses live sacrifices in their rituals, it would be the only reason this boy was being monitored by almost every resident of Yorkshire Lesser and Greater Mallings.

'Just what in the world are these witches planning to do with the boy?' Masaru thought with a serious expression, he felt that he might have to act sooner than later.