Chapter 91
"Nirma, wait up. I just want to say something, and I need you to hear this—like, really hear this, okay?"
Nirma stopped.
She did not turn around, merely standing still with her back still facing Ashita, giving the impression that she heard her but was not interested enough to show a response.
Arya, beside her, also stopped.
His eyebrows lifted slightly upon hearing the strange language that suddenly flowed from the mouth of the woman who, only seconds ago, had nearly been struck by Nirma's fist.
Across the corridor, the household guards and the Prefect soldiers could only remain silent.
Their ears caught the stream of sounds they could not understand.
Their eyes shifted from Ashita to Nirma and back again, trying to read a situation that had suddenly grown even more confusing.
Ashita took a step forward—close enough to approach, yet not close enough to appear threatening.
Her face was calm.
Her smile had returned.
But behind that smile lay something serious, something she genuinely wished to convey without any mask standing in the way.
"Look, I know what you did to my parents back then was, like, totally brutal. Super biadab, gila banget even by our standards. Tapi honestly? I don't even care anymore. In fact, I should probably thank you."
She paused for a moment, letting her words settle in the air, before continuing in a slightly lighter tone.
"My parents were toxic af, Nirma. Like, really really annoying. Mereka bikin hidup gue miserable every single day. So yeah, thanks for, you know, freeing me from that. I mean it."
Nirma did not move.
There was no change in her face.
No twitch at the corner of her eyes.
No sign that the words affected her in the slightest.
But inside Arya's heart, something rumbled.
He knew what Nirma had done in the past.
He knew she had once made someone an orphan in the course of carrying out her duty.
Yet he had never imagined that the child of those people would stand before them one day and offer thanks.
Truly a world turned upside down.
Truly time that twisted everything within it.
Ashita did not wait for a response.
She continued speaking in the same tone—casual yet meaningful—like an old friend chatting over coffee in a café.
"Okay, so here's the real reason why we're here. And I need you to listen carefully because this is important."
She stepped forward again, her eyes fixed on Nirma's back with growing intensity.
"Tegar and I—we couldn't care less about this murder investigation. Seriously, it's so boring. Like, who killed who, why, with what weapon—all that detective stuff?
Boring banget, we don't give a damn.
Tapi Kepolisian Waktu Linear, they sent us here for one reason and one reason only. There's an Abnormal involved. An Abnormal is the real mastermind behind the murder of Étienne d'Arques."
The air in the corridor seemed to change.
Nirma, who had been standing motionless, slowly turned her head.
Only slightly—just enough to show that she was now truly listening, that the word Abnormal had caught her attention like a magnet drawing iron.
Arya beside her also moved.
His body stiffened.
His eyes narrowed as he processed the sudden piece of information thrown before them.
Ashita saw their reactions and smiled—a small, victorious smile that seemed to say finally, I have your attention.
"Étienne d'Arques, korban kalian yang berumur 34 tahun itu?"
Ashita continued, her voice now more serious despite the odd cadence of her speech.
"Dia bukan kurir biasa. Dia adalah salah satu prajurit dari pasukan salib yang hendak diberangkatkan. Dan seseorang, atau sesuatu, tidak ingin dia mencapai tanah suci.
Someone wanted him dead before he could even leave Constantinople. Dan tebak siapa yang paling diuntungkan dari kematian seorang prajurit perang salib?
Hint: it's not the Byzantines, it's not the Turks, it's not even the French."
She paused again, allowing the tension to thicken, before continuing in a whisper that was almost inaudible.
"It's the Abnormal. The one who's been playing games with history for centuries. The one we've been hunting across time. And now, Nirma—whether you like it or not—you're in the middle of this game. Dan kami di sini untuk memastikan bahwa Abnormal itu tidak mengubah sejarah lebih jauh dari yang sudah terjadi."
Ashita stepped back, her hand reaching for Tegar's arm, who had been standing silently beside her.
"That's all I wanted to say. We're not your enemies, Nirma. We never were. Tapi kami juga bukan teman kalian. Kami di sini untuk menangkap Abnormal, dan jika kalian membantu, great. Jika kalian menghalangi, well…."
She did not finish the sentence.
She merely shrugged with an expression that clearly said you know how it is.
"Think about it. We'll be in touch."
Nirma turned around.
Her movement was swift and without hesitation, like someone who had suddenly realized she had been walking in the wrong direction and needed to correct her course immediately.
Arya beside her moved at the same time.
Their bodies turned in unison, facing the corridor where Ashita and Tegar had just disappeared around the corner.
Nirma's eyes narrowed, staring blankly toward the faint shadow still moving at the far end of the hallway.
And in her eyelids, something happened—something only Arya, standing right beside her, could notice.
Two blinks.
Quick.
Certain.
Like the ticking of a clock marking an important second.
Deep within Nirma's heart, a long murmur flowed like an underground river that never appeared on the surface.
Abnormal.
The word echoed throughout the chambers of her mind, connecting one scattered point after another.
Étienne d'Arques—the thirty-four-year-old crusader soldier found dead with a hissing wound at his waist.
Seventeen other victims that the investigators of Constantinople had been examining all this time—bodies appearing in various places with motives that had never truly been clear.
And now Ashita had arrived carrying the news that all of this was the work of an Abnormal—a time-spanning entity that toyed with history like a child dismantling wooden blocks.
It could no longer be denied.
The red thread now stretched clearly before her, as bright as the candlelight illuminating this corridor.
For months, Constantinople had investigated a chain of murders that seemed to have no pattern—violence that appeared random and meaningless.
But if the culprit was an Abnormal, then everything made sense.
Abnormals did not kill the way ordinary humans did.
They killed to change history—to create small ripples that would grow into tsunami waves in the future.
And Étienne d'Arques, the crusader soldier preparing to depart for the Holy Land, must have had a role in the flow of time that could not be replaced.
Nirma smiled faintly.
The same smile she had worn while reading notes on her wax tablet—a smile that said I'm beginning to see the bigger picture now.
Their purpose in coming to Constantinople, their reason for investigating this case, had not been entirely mistaken.
They had thought they were merely searching for an ordinary killer, chasing a cruel human who needed to be brought to justice.
But now they knew that at the end of this investigation lay something far greater—something they had previously heard only in whispers within conversations among the agencies of the Linear Time Police.
Abnormal.
Creatures that had become nightmares for all guardians of time, whose existence always stirred ripples of chaos in every era they visited.
To be continued…