From then on, days passed without any feeling of experience. The reason behind Lukas’ suicide was concluded as a case of mental instability based on the report that I gave to Central. I did not reveal to them my new identity, and the series of incidents that followed after I had fallen. I simply referred to my previous case with Lukas, and concluded with remarks that no further investigation was needed.

I was assigned with the same rank that I had before on the notice that I will be under supervision of Heinrich. It seemed they could not afford to lose the man named Hermann von Hartenheigh. Even without that, keeping me for observation purposes was also plausible. For what reason I was still here, I could not tell. Despite all this, Heinrich let me have free reign.

The mansion case was still put up as top priority, and it occupied my mind constantly. It was the only lead to why I had become Oulanem. When I was poking around trying to find the identity of the spirit, I found an ancient magic user who had submitted a report on it to the military as an external agent. He simply concluded with an oddly ominous title: “Oulanem, the Spiritus.”

From the outside, it looked like a cheap shop which sold magic items. It went by the name: “Faery Den,” inscribed on the top with calligraphic letters. The inside gave a different impression of it. Each item was arranged into its types, and further into its subtypes. The shop seemed to possess all kinds of items, from the Mana series, to the Bard series. 

I remembered that I possessed an affinity to Mana of Holy One, which was part of the Mana series. It was a collection of all magic under the name of Niamh. Of course, it was not a type of magic that was brought up in the Kingdom. It was supposedly brought up from the Land Beyond Mag Mell.

“Oh, by the name of Lover! A military man who seems to be brought by the most misfortune here.”

Purely from the accent, I could tell he was not from here. I shaked his hand to greet him.

“I am searching for a man by the name of Padraig.”

The man raised his right hand, with his palm facing outward.

“You have a man by that name right here. How may I help you?”

“I have followed your intel that you gave on Oulanem. I have come to inquire about him.”

The man seemed to be quick to remember it, and he signaled to come with him. From the looks of it, he seemed to be taking me to a personal room. When I entered it, it was nothing short of a surprise. There were paintings of spirits everywhere. By standard law, there were some that they were blasphemous to keep as well.

“Why do you show me this, despite being fully aware of where I come from?”

The man laughed, and said it in a playful tone: “To be a partner-in-crime in my work! Come here, sit down.”

He sat down behind a table placed in the center of the room. On top of it laid an instrument of a most careful contraption which I had never encountered before. It was similar to a fiddle, albeit with seven strings going outwards on both sides, and meeting the end in an external circuit.

“First, let me sing you a tale!”

I signaled to go on. With a deep breath in, he started the song.

“To wherever with the wind, I go from volition.”

It seemed I was elsewhere now. The music seemed to continue playing in my ears, and like a sweet melody, it seemed to wrap around me. While I could not tell where I was, strong breezes often went across my cheeks.

“In Heaven’s part, we know not our role.”

The breezes seemed to become stronger, enough that I had to keep weight on my feet to hold ground.

“Like a lullaby come by.”

Suddenly, I was swept away by the breeze. My eyes opened in shock, and the tune piped down. I was now in a chamber, with a perplexing design around it. There were seven seals scattered around the corners, with the first four being portrayals of horsemen. The later designs were indiscernible to me, except the last, which seemed to be a symbol with the silence in the Land of the Heavenly Lord.

“And now, there was silence.”

The room became eerier, and completely silent. I started to see a figure “come to the light,” even though the room was perfectly illuminated. It stood opposite to the image of the Heavenly Lord, and it sat on a throne. Silence was still there, and I felt it was there for half an hour.

“The Rebel Of Judgement has come!”

I woke up, and was back in the room with Padraig. I understood everything with clarity.

“It seems you’ve figured it out, my friend. My work here is done, it seems.”

I was about to exit the place, when a final question struck me.

“What did you mean by ‘The Spiritus’?’

He simply smiled, and I knew the answer. Spiritus was the word for spirit, or the word origin for it. It must mean that Oulanem is primordial. I said my farewells with him, and left the place. The muse stuck to me. I found myself humming to it while I was walking on the streets. Despite there being multiple verses, there was one verse which I could not understand:

“Like a lullaby come by.”

I was too far from the shop to go back, and ask him the meaning behind it. I started to notice that the song seemed to switch who it was being directed to repeatedly. Who exactly was singing the ‘lullaby?’ I seemed to phase out in between, trying to discern its meaning.

“A dream….”

The words escaped my mouth again, like a solution to a problem. The ‘lullaby’ must refer to these involuntary sights that I was having constantly. But, who commanded this ‘lullaby’ remained a mystery. I noticed that I chose to unconsciously decide that the song was a personal reference, despite there being no evidence of it.

The specific choice of word perplexed me. I sat down on a bench, and lit a smoke.

“‘Praise to the Heavenly Lord!.’ What a farce.”

I realised that I had never felt this way before as Hermann. It must be Oulanem’s nature growing on my body. Now that I have complete free-will, I feel more deprived of it, as if I was restrained. At the same time of feeling in control, I felt that I had less control.

I rushed to catch the train back to the Northern House, with this emotion preoccupying my mind.