Diary of a Dead Wizard-Chapter 189: Awakening

Saul had returned to the proper timeline.

“Victor?” he called out, searching for his brother.

But once again, no one answered.

Saul made his way back to the main hall.

It was empty. The large doors stood wide open, and rainwater had already pooled over the tiles by the entrance.

The doors swayed back and forth, like a trembling, restless soul.

Lightning flashed, and in that stark white light, Saul once more saw the knight kneeling on the floor. This time, he saw the man’s face clearly.

It was, as expected, Olaf.

This Olaf was not nearly as composed as he had been half a month ago—his face was stricken with panic, and blood ran from his eyes and nostrils, dripping onto his dulled armor.

But compared to David, at least his features were still intact.

“What did they run into?”

“And Victor… who knows where he ran off to.” Even after returning to the present, Saul still hadn’t seen his brother. He was getting worried.

“I should be the one asking where you ran off to,” said a familiar voice from behind him.

Saul turned around to see Victor thudding down the stairs.

Victor ran up to him and circled around once. Confirming there were no wounds on Saul, he let out a sigh of relief.

“Where did you go? One flash of lightning and you vanished. Don’t tell me this place has some kind of magic trap?”

“I was suddenly sent back half a month ago. I don’t know if it was an illusion or an actual space-time distortion. I even saw the squad of soldiers who entered this place back then.”

“Space-time distortion? That’s impossible, right? Even a Third Rank Wizard couldn’t pull that off.” Victor waved the harp in his hand. “Maybe we should just leave. This place is way too dangerous! Maybe that treasure just isn’t meant for us.”

“The treasure…” Saul muttered, thinking it over. “No. It’s not time to give up yet. Even if time’s distorted, I haven’t run into any real danger.”

Victor looked at his brother with sorrowful eyes.

“Silly brother. What treasure could possibly be more important than your life?”

Even so, Saul showed no intention of turning back. He’d come too far to give up before finding the treasure.

“What’s that in your hand?” Victor pointed to the small vial Saul was gripping tightly.

Saul raised it to show him. “It belonged to the soldiers. They called it holy water. Supposed to have some effect on common spirits.”

Victor glanced at it.

“Cheap stuff. Not even half as useful as a single Holy Light spell. Poor fools. They didn’t even know what they were facing. Marching into a den of wolves with weapons made of straw. Why are you keeping it?”

“If we run into a spirit, I want to test it.”

“You want to see if it was all just a hallucination?”

“Not exactly,” Saul explained. “This stuff isn’t stable—it evaporates easily. And normal people don’t have the proper storage methods. If this really is what the knights brought in half a month ago, it should’ve lost its effect by now. But if it hasn’t…”

Victor’s eyes lit with realization. “Then it means you really brought something back from half a month ago.”

“Which would make this place terrifying,” Saul muttered, licking his dry lips and lowering his voice.

Though he said it was terrifying, Saul still had no intention of backing out.

“Where did you go just now? Why’d you come down from upstairs?”

“When you vanished, I went straight back to the room we were in. That old wizard and the boy were there too—when they heard you were missing, they kindly helped me search. But we split up, so I don’t know where they are now.”

“Hmph. Helping search, yeah right. They’re just after the treasure,” Saul snapped, immediately on alert. He gave Victor a shove. “Let’s hurry upstairs too. We can’t let anyone else get to it first.”

The two arrived at the staircase opposite the room.

The stairs were made of stone, with a red velvet carpet stretching from the upper floor down to the hall.

But after years of neglect, the once-vibrant carpet had faded.

Climbing the stairs, they entered a spacious corridor. One side of it opened onto a wide, semi-circular balcony.

Through tightly shut floor-to-ceiling windows, they could see flowers on the balcony being ravaged by the wind and rain.

Thunder crashed, and for a split second, Saul saw a slender figure tumble from the balcony railing.

It didn’t leap, it fell.

Head-first.

Seeing Saul stop and stare toward the balcony, Victor also paused.

“What is it?”

“I think I just…” Saul shook his head. “No, it’s nothing. Let’s keep looking.”

On the other side of the corridor was a row of rooms.

The doors were carved with intricate patterns, though the locks appeared damaged.

“I don’t know if my treasure is hidden in one of these rooms. Let’s split up and search.” Saul suggested.

Victor hesitated. “What if you disappear again…”

“Even if we stick together, if time’s going to disorder, it'll be a disorder either way.” Saul spread his hands.

Victor fell silent.

Only after a clap of thunder made them both glance toward the windows did he finally relent.

“Alright, let’s split up.”

Saul nodded and entered one of the rooms in the middle of the corridor.

He looked around but found nothing. When he came out, he saw Victor still standing expressionlessly in the hallway.

“What is it?” Saul asked in confusion.

Victor’s face broke into a smile. “Nothing. Just checking if my poor brother would disappear again.”

With that, he stepped into the room beside Saul’s.

Saul waited until Victor went in before heading into another room further down.

Once inside, he gently pulled the door mostly shut, leaving only a sliver open.

He leaned against the wall, suppressing his breathing, and exhaled a long, shaky breath.

His pupils trembled, and the cold sweat he’d been holding back started to prickle out through his pores.

He took several deep breaths, trying to suppress his body’s instinctive fear.

“This Victor…” he muttered, swallowing hard. “Who the hell is he?”

He glanced to his left shoulder before quickly straightening.

“There’s no mention of him in the diary. Somehow, I ended up being brothers with Victor, and when I saw Wizard Clawn earlier, I didn’t even remember meeting him before. Is this all the manor’s doing, or is someone manipulating things behind the scenes? Could it be Sid’s grandfather, Ralph? Is he the threat the Tower Master warned about?”

About ten minutes ago, when Saul climbed over the wall of Ralph’s manor and landed on the soft grass, his entire perception had suddenly shifted.

He’d believed that he’d entered the manor to steal something incredibly important to him.

But aside from feeling that the treasure was precious, Saul had no idea what it was. Like a drowning man grasping at a straw—desperate for something to hold onto, but unsure of what that was.

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What scared him most was that he had come to believe that he had been travelling with an experienced Second Rank apprentice named Victor, someone he’d never even met before was his biological brother.

It was laughable.

At first, Saul didn’t notice anything was off.

Not until he entered the sun-drenched hall for the first time did he begin to realize something was wrong.

He had not only forgotten his true purpose here, but even his own identity.

He was here to clean up the trouble Sid had left behind, and to look for clues about the Diary of a Dead Wizard.

Remembering the name of the diary was what gradually brought his distorted consciousness and memory back into alignment.

But what about Victor?

Was he the source of all this confusion… or just another victim like Saul?

“Saul?”

Victor’s voice rang out from the corridor just then.

Saul stood and casually walked around the room. “What is it?”

“…Nothing. Just checking if my poor brother had vanished.”

Maintaining his usual tone and expression, Saul stepped out and waved at Victor, who stood a short distance away, watching him.

“Let’s go. The sooner we find the treasure, the sooner we can get out of this damned place.”

(End of Chapter)