It was rare for one to wear hooded robes at this time of the year. But at a corner of a packed street in the Southern border of Enet City, two such oddities could be seen. Even at night, the weather wasn't cold enough to stay as covered as these two, but their existence was mostly ignored by everyone in their surroundings.

Crime wasn't a rare occurrence here. The ordinary folks knew better than to initiate something unprovoked. You never knew what kind of power you might end up offending over the scuffle. Not all transcenders were good people, after all.

The lack of attention made it convenient for the two men to communicate unimpeded.

"How long will it take for your beast to make them fall unconscious?" one asked in a low voice, impatience dripping in his tone.

"Ten more minutes. I told you we can't rush things. If even the smallest trace gets leaked, we're done, remember that. We're not the only people after that thing!" His companion hissed.

"Is it really worth the risk, though? I mean, don't you think we got the info a bit too easily? Even the Church of Sunbreaker didn't make it here as fast as us."

His companion sent him a disdainful look under the hood.

"I'm not so sure about that..."

"What?"

"Nothing. Stop disturbing my focus! This creature isn't easy to control."

"Fine, fine. Hurry up though. The longer we wait, the more unsettling my gut grows."

..... ......... ........... ........... ........... ...........

"Damn it!"

Slapping one of the numerous mosquitoes in his room, Mir realized once more that he had dozed off. He immediately checked the time.

21: 24

The night would pass after 7 more hours. Mir wasn't sure what time exactly Murray had meant when he had written that a solution would arrive by the next morning. It could be several hours after sunrise too.

Till then, he had to guard this diary, not that he actually wanted to. But he had a firm trust in Murray. From what he could see, Murray appeared to have landed both of them in trouble by handing him the diary. Someone else was after this sacred artifact, and they were willing to break some laws to retrieve it from Mir without making a scene publicly.

But if someone in the Church of Sunbreaker wanted the diary so badly, they could have certainly gotten access to it before Murray joined and applied for the permission to borrow it.

That Deacon was older than Murray and held a real official position. If a trainee Deacon could borrow it, there was no reason for an official Deacon to lack that right.

Was this Deacon perhaps trying to use them as scapegoats to steal the Diary permanently from the grasp of the Church?

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

This appeared to be the only logical conclusion. But to make it make sense, the diary had to have some sort of a specialty that Murray hadn't elaborated on to Mir. He had to have known that someone was after it due to that specialty, because otherwise, the diary wouldn't be worth so much risk and secrecy.

So why did Murray hand it to Mir as if it was a harmless toy? Maybe Murray might be at fault behind the scenes as well. It was a plausible scenario.

Mir couldn't wrap his head around the mystery. But he knew that he could only trust Murray and guard the diary for now.

In a conflict of interest, the main object of leverage cannot be lost before understanding the full consequences of the loss.

But for some strange reason, sleep continued to assault him in endless waves. Usually at this time around in the night, Mir would be playing games on his data terminal or browsing entertainment networks. So why did he feel-

Mir's droopy eyes opened wide for a second. He stood up from his chair and entered the washroom, checking his eyes in the mirror.

The whites of his eyes looked somewhat red, but nothing else seemed unusual. Mir washed his face, poured cold water over all four of his limbs, and splashed some on his pants, just to be extra sure.

Examining the new red stripes on his hand from the journey to College that day, Mir returned to his seat in silence. Switching on a timer from his pocket, he waited.

A minute later, a sudden alarm broke him out of another dazed session of hazy thoughts.

The timer had gone off, activating the alarm he had set.

Within just 60 seconds, he had almost fallen asleep despite wearing wet clothes.

The result of this small test made him tremble.

His suspicion was correct! Something, or someone was trying to sneak in! Had they used a sleeping gas to knock them out?

Wait... Mir realized with a start that his thinking was still too narrow. He had to broaden the scope of the crime here. Normal people wouldn't be trying to sneak in for this diary. It could very possibly be someone capable of using companion creatures. In that case, the method used wouldn't be so traceable as sleeping gas, neither would it be easy to counter.

Mir's expression turned gloomy. If the assailant was willing to risk it all, they could take any of the family members hostage. That would leave Mir with no choice but to agree to their demands.

Between compromises, one HAD TO be made.

Mir pulled out the diary from it's hiding spot once more and opened the first page. Below the 'wish' he had written yesterday, he added another one.

'I feel so stimulated and focused tonight that nothing in the world will be able to make me fall asleep tonight.'

This was a gamble. From what Murray told him, the dairy couldn't affect the material world. However, it could bend that rule slightly when the wish was centered around him, the wish-maker.

Last night, he had been up for hours studying without rest. There had to have been hormonal secretions stimulating his brain. Hormones were obviously a part of the material world. Yet the diary had been able to affect that, which was the main reason why Mir had grown so apprehensive of the diary.

If one rule could be bent, the same could happen to another.

This might be a clue to the secret value of the diary that had gotten that Deacon so worked up.

Mir felt no different after finishing the sentence. He stood up and placed the diary inside his shirt. Using a belt, he tucked tightly to his stomach.

Then Mir strode out of his bedroom calmly.

"Mom! Dad! Murin!"

His loud shouts reverberated throughout the house. But no one yelled back asking why the fuck he was making a ruckus in the middle of the night.

Heart sinking, Mir pushed on the door to Murin's bedroom and found it unlocked.

She was deep asleep. Even after a rough slap to her face, her eyelids merely twitched. Mir checked her pulse and gasped in horror.

12 beats in a minute! That wasn't even one-third of the normal pulse rate during sleep!

Mir carried her out of the room and kicked open the locked door of his parent's bedroom downstairs.

Both were in the same state as Murin. Both of their pulse rates had significantly dwindled.

Mir placed Murin between their parents and left the room.

Outside in the living room, he turned on his communicator and sent a message to the only unknown ID in his catalog.

Then he turned the communicator off and threw it on the table. In his bedroom, he deleted the message Murray had left on his terminal's notepad completely.

Satisfied with the preparation, Mir left the house through a small window on the roof, leaping onto their neighbor Mackie's large front yard. The darkness of the night provided him enough cover in this place to sneak away.

Did someone went to sneak into his house?

Welcome! No one's gonna stop you!

Did they want to steal the diary?

Feel free to search! But it's not there.

Did they have the guts to come out in the open and threaten Mir?

Sure, but how do you threaten someone you can't find?

Did they have the audacity to take his family members as hostage and blackmail Mir?

How do you blackmail someone you can't even communicate with? Mir's communicator was right there on the living room.

Would they go as far as harming any of his family members as a threat for the future?

Heh. Your boss might yell at you to run the fuck away as fast as possible...because, the law enforcers have been tipped off already. And Mir had been kind enough to send them the photo of the Deacon who had visited him that evening.

How would their boss know this?

Because Mir had been sent that ID the screenshot of the messages sent to law enforcers' emergency chatroom.

Mackie used to rear dogs. He had built a house for them in a corner of the yard. The sun's curse had taken them, but the doghouse was still there.

Mir crawled inside and laid his shirt over the dirty floor. His skinny figure easily fit in there.

Closing the miniature door, Mir turned his father's spare communicator on. Being somewhat more expensive than his, this model had browsing features supported by most networks.

Feeling pretty comfy and extremely awake, Mir began to browse the info about the Sacred Ground he was being forced to enter.