OUTCAST: THE ALPHA KING’S BELOVED BY BLUE TEARS
CHAPTER 97 A MADMAN
Simon’s POV:
I led the group to a mountain in the east of the Rainbow Pack. It was a desolate place where almost nobody would want to live. The only sign of life was a dilapidated village on the mountain. It was small and scant, with very few residents.
Over the years, I had tried many times to contact Tony, but to no avail. After the initial period, I had completely lost contact with him.
I sent my subordinates to this mountain to look for him, but they returned with empty hands, saying that there was no trace of Tony anywhere. I knew that there must be some reason why Tony hadn’t contacted me all this while, but I didn’t know what.
By coming to this mountain to look for him, I just wanted to try my luck one last time. I hoped that at the least, I could get some clue about his whereabouts.
“Elder Simon, I don’t understand. Why did Elder Tony have to live in such a remote place?” Jennifer asked in surprise, glancing around the environment as we walked along the mountain path.
“Here is the thing, Jennifer. After Arthur became the Alpha, Tony was afraid that Arthur would take his life. He was so scared that he fled to this mountain. He has been living a life of hiding ever since,” I explained to her gently.
“But now I’m even more confused. Why would Arthur want to kill Elder Tony? Did Elder Tony provoke him somehow?” Jennifer asked, with her eyebrows furrowed.
“I don’t know either. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say that it has something to do with Tony’s prophecy. Tony once predicted that you were be a jinx. He said that you would harm those who were closest to you, and that everyone who approached you would suffer misfortune. I don’t believe the prophecy myself, but there are many others who firmly believe in it.”
As we talked, we arrived at the village on the mountain.
Just as I expected, it was a very backward village. All the villagers were staying in simple log cabins. We looked around for a while, but there was no sign of Tony. We only saw a child about ten years old flying a kite in the open space. There was no one else nearby, so I decided to ask the boy for help.
“Kid, come here.” I waved the child over and handed him some money. “Have you ever heard of an old werewolf named Tony? Does he stay in this village?”
“Thank you, sir! With this money, I can buy medicine for my sick mother.” The boy’s eyes lit up at the sight of the money, and he happily stuffed it into his pocket. “You want to know about an old werewolf named Tony? I’m sorry, I’ve never heard that name before. There are very few people living in this village. There is only one old werewolf, but his name is Kim, not Tony. Kim is a terrible madman. No one dares to approach him. Don’t go there. He can’t be the one you are looking for.”
I thought about it for a moment and decided that since we were already here, it wouldn’t hurt to go and have a look, just in case. So I asked the boy where this old werewolf named Kim stayed. The innocent child shrugged helplessly and showed the way for us.
Jennifer’s POV:
I was eager to find Tony so that I could ask him about the truth of the prophecy. The whole way, I couldn’t stop feeling nervous.
With the guidance of a strange child, we finally found the log cabin where the werewolf named Kim stayed. I was hoping against hope that Kim and Tony would turn out to be the same person.
However, when we arrived at the log cabin, the scene in front of my eyes shocked me.
A delirious old werewolf with grey hair was sitting in the front yard, staring blankly ahead and cackling to himself. He was dressed in rags, and blabbering nonsense that no one could understand.
It was impossible for this deranged old man to be Tony, an elder of the Rainbow Pack. It seemed that the child was telling the truth. Kim was not Tony; he was just a madman.
I couldn’t deny that I was greatly disappointed. It seemed that this trip was in vain.
But while I sighed inwardly, Simon gasped and stepped forward with a bright smile on his face.
“Jennifer, it’s really Tony! I didn’t think he would still be here.”
Simon approached the old werewolf and patted him on the shoulder.
“Tony, it’s really you! How have you been these years? After a long time of not being able to get in touch with you, I a*s*sumed that you must have left this mountain.”
“Tony? Who’s Tony? It’s not me. My name is Kim. Who are you? I don’t know you!” When the old werewolf heard the name “Tony,” his face changed, as if he was struck by a bolt of thunder. He suddenly held his head with his hands and jumped up and down, crying and shouting with fear.
“How could this be?” Simon shook his head and sighed. He looked at me helplessly and said, “Jennifer, I have known Tony for many years. I’m sure that this is him. But I don’t know how he ended up like this. Maybe something bad happened to him and drove him insane.”
I nodded and stepped forward to observe Tony carefully. I found that his eyes were vacant and lifeless. He was dull, and kept repeating the same sentences over and over again.
“I’m not Tony. I’m Kim. You’ve mistaken me for someone else. Don’t kill me. Don’t kill me…”
I could more or less guess the situation. Tony must have been hunted down by Arthur, so he had no choice but to hide in this mountain. And in the process of fleeing, he must have gone mad.
Of course, there was also another possibility that Tony was pretending to be a madman to protect himself.
I was not sure whether Tony was mad or not. The only way we could find out was to take him back somehow and get a doctor to check his mental condition.
“Elder Simon, is it possible for us to take Elder Tony back with us? If he really has gone mad, we have to cure him first. Only when he recovers can we ask him about what happened in the past,” I told Simon. Simon and Helen had both helped me more than enough recently to earn my trust.
“That would indeed be the best course of action. Let’s do that.” I was glad that Simon agreed with my suggestion.
With a slight smile, I walked into the log cabin where Tony lived. Before leaving, I wanted to look around his residence once. Maybe I could find something useful.
I searched the place as fast as I could. In the process, I came across a priceless treasure in a broken wooden cabinet.
It was an antique, but that wasn’t the part that made me stop and take a closer look. I was shocked because it was an item that had belonged to my father. When I was a child, I had often seen this antique in my father’s room. If my memory served me right, it was the thing that he cherished the most.
Thinking of my late father, I couldn’t keep calm. I took the antique with me, intending to wait until Tony had recovered to ask him why this item was in his possession.
Why did Tony have something that belonged to my father? What had happened in the Rainbow Pack during my absence all these years?
We took Tony down the mountain and looked for a place to stay. Now, with the deranged Tony accompanying us, it was really inconvenient for us to stay at any hotel. If Arthur found out that we were here, the consequences would be unimaginable.
“Jennifer, how about all of you stay in a villa that I own? I rarely use it, and few people know that it is under my name. It will be safer for you to stay there,” Simon suggested after pondering over it for a while.
“Thank you, Elder Simon.” I nodded in agreement. “We’ll move in there today. Please arrange a doctor. I want Elder Tony’s condition to be examined first.”
Looking at the muddleheaded Tony, I had a heavy heart. Could I get any useful information out of him? Even if he knew the truth, would he be willing to tell it?