The door to Ginkgo Tavern was gone. The ash-covered talons from last night——a pack of intelligent monsters said to possess reason——had smashed it to pieces, leaving only the frame cutting through the morning light. Shards of broken plates scattered across the stone pavement. Two overturned chairs lay against the wall. The sign hung crooked. By any measure, it looked like a ruin. And there, Satoru Kuroki was prepping. He tied his apron strings tight, sorting fragments by material——ceramics here, iron parts here, wood splinters here——while checking the heat on a large pot in between, stirring a bone broth made from magical boars. It was a completely ordinary morning. Except for the missing door. A face peeked nervously from beyond the doorframe. "……You're prepping!?" Gotts, a Sand-rank adventurer with a sturdy build, froze as if he'd seen a ghost. Sand-rank was the lowest tier in the steel-lattice ranking system, but this trio had been regulars since Ginkgo Tavern's opening day. By now, they were practically "fixtures" of the shop to Kuroki. A long, thin face appeared beside him. Noppo. "You're opening for lunch!? There's no door!? Part of the wall's gone too!?" "Since there's no door, we'll be operating as a temporary open-air establishment, but service will be normal," replied without turning around, checking the salt balance of the soup. Silence hung for a moment. "……Temporary open-air," murmured, repeating the words. The shortest of the three suddenly brightened. "It has a nice open feeling! Great for a tavern!!" "That's way too positive!!" Gotts held his head. Noppo pressed a hand to his forehead. Only Chibi looked satisfied. The morning at Ginkgo Tavern had begun. As the three started to sit down casually, Kuroki paused his prep work and glanced toward the back room. Irina, who had exhausted her dissolute reserves to their limit last night, should still be sleeping. "……He just looked back there," whispered to Noppo. "Yeah," nodded. The two were about to exchange knowing grins when Kuroki had already moved on to adjusting the soup's heat. He hadn't caught a thing. Then, a heavy footstep crossed the threshold where the door used to be. All three——Gotts, Noppo, and Chibi——straightened their spines simultaneously. Salt-and-pepper gray hair, cut short. A black eye patch covering the left eye. A steel-lattice emblem on the chest——a badge worn only by branch commanders, its design showing chains wrapped around a shield. A frame of 188 centimeters, and the bearing of a former Gold-rank adventurer still lingering in his gait. Dorgu Harven. The man who had stood beside them in last night's battle and remained here even as dawn broke. "The door's gone, so you could get in!!" No one could laugh. For a moment, there was complete silence. Dorgu walked toward a seat without expression. Gotts's face turned red as he realized what he'd just said. --- "We need to talk," said as he settled onto a stool at the counter. The three Sand-rankers reacted immediately. "Should we step outside?" "I'm curious," "I'm staying," "You three can't be split on this——get out!" "You just said you were staying!!" "I didn't!!" "You did!!" A heated whispered argument continued for a while. Eventually, all three positioned themselves at the far end of the counter——about seven meters away from Dorgu. "We'll pretend not to hear," declared as their representative. All three turned forward at once and began staring straight ahead like wooden statues. They were obviously listening. "Please step outside," said. "But we're staying," "Staying," "We'll stay," All three at once. Kuroki looked quietly at Dorgu. Dorgu spoke briefly. "It's fine," That single phrase silenced the room. The three shrank their shoulders and went quiet. Apparently, being told "it's fine" made it harder to stay put. All three suddenly became well-behaved. Dorgu began to speak. "It was from my twenties," His tone was stripped of emotion, merely laying out facts. "Exploring the seventh floor of the Forbidden Tower. We went in as a six-person team. Everyone was Silver-rank or higher. There were two among us stronger than me," Kuroki continued stirring the soup. He didn't stop. "In the depths of the seventh floor, we encountered a pack of ash-covered talons. Double, maybe triple the number we faced last night. They're more coordinated inside the tower. Much more troublesome than when they emerge outside," At the far end of the counter, Gotts pressed his lips tight. Noppo clasped his hands on his lap. Chibi nodded quietly. The usual noise was gone; all three sat in silence. "We lost five. I was the only one who crawled out. I lost my right eye that day," It was matter-of-fact. No tears. No lamentation. Just facts laid out as they had occurred thirty years ago. That very plainness made it heavier. "So the more attached you become, the greater the loss when it happens. Do you understand?" Kuroki stopped his prep work. He lowered the heat on the soup and looked directly at Dorgu across the counter. "And do you still think that way now?" He asked in return. His voice was gentle. Not accusatory. Just asking. A long silence followed. The remaining flame of the dissolute lamp——a light source from this world that used dissolute in the air——flickered. Morning light streamed through the frame where the door used to be. "……I don't know," A low, brief word. But Kuroki understood. This man saying something like that——it might have been the first time in thirty years. It was a voice admitting it to himself. At the end of the counter, Gotts started to stand. Noppo's arm shot out, grabbing Gotts's sleeve and pulling him back. Chibi whispered, "This is a moment to stay quiet." A surprisingly accurate judgment. None of the three said anything more. --- The door to the back room opened softly. Silver-long hair appeared in the morning light. Irina Melva. Her odd eyes——one gold, one azure——swept across the shop with a hazy gaze. Last night's exhaustion still lingered on her face. The mark on her neck——the seal that bound her magical power——wasn't glowing this morning. The quiet that comes after being spent. "……Good morning," Her voice was small. She spoke to Kuroki, then noticed Dorgu and her body stiffened slightly. But she didn't run. Something had changed a little after last night. "Good morning. Breakfast will be ready shortly," replied, turning to face Irina. "While you eat, I have something to ask you," "……What is it?" "I want to create a dish that stabilizes dissolute runaway. Could you tell me how your body feels while eating? You're the most precise tester I have," There was a moment of silence. "You're experimenting on me?" "He's using the word 'tester' again!!" A shout erupted from the end of the counter. Gotts stood up, pointing. "When he first made you drink that soup, he called you a 'tester' too!? Maybe think about your word choice a little!!" "I think the problem is the content, not the wording," "Both are problems!!" "Gotts, your voice is too loud," "Of course it is!!!" The corner of Irina's mouth moved slightly. She started to smile, then stopped. But it definitely moved. Gotts didn't notice. Kuroki pulled a small booklet from the shelf. A well-worn notebook with "Dissolute Experiment Records" written on the cover. "May I show you?" Irina nodded. Kuroki opened the notebook. First page——records from the very first night Ginkgo Tavern opened. A sketch of light dwelling in a knife blade and hypotheses. Second page——protein soup experiments. Notes on effect duration and side effects. The detailed record of how adventurers became skeletal three hours later. And pages further in——Irina's dissolute sensitivity descriptions. Patterns of emotion and dissolute correlation. Records of plate levitation frequency and height. All of it, in one notebook. Dorgu leaned in silently to look. His sharp single eye traced the pages. "……You've been recording all this time?" It was almost a whisper. "Now that you mention it, he was always writing," Gotts said, remembering. Noppo nodded, "That small notebook." Chibi added, "Even during service." Irina was looking at the notebook. At the pages written about her. Her expression moved in a complex way. --- And so began a long night. Kuroki opened a fresh page in his research notebook and wrote "Dissolute Density Experiment, Trial One." The prototype looked like ordinary thin soup, but the cooking process involved intentionally infusing it with dissolute. It was an attempt to apply dissolute arts——the technique of drawing dissolute from the air into one's body, converting and releasing it——to cooking. Kuroki wasn't a formal practitioner of dissolute arts, but somehow dissolute would unconsciously transfer to ingredients during his cooking. He was trying to intentionally recreate that mechanism. First trial. The soup was complete. Irina took a sip. Five seconds later. Five plates on the counter suddenly shot into the air. "They're floating!?" "They are," Kuroki wrote in his notebook. "Dissolute excess. Runaway acceleration. Direction: failure." Irina said "……I'm sorry" while setting each plate down by hand. One cracked. "Today's breakage is due to the experiment, so it won't be included in the records," "That phrasing assumes you're recording it anyway!!" Second trial. Kuroki adjusted the dissolute amount to half. Irina drank. Ten seconds later. This time the soup pot itself floated gently. With contents. "The pot!! The pot is floating!!" "Please catch it before the soup spills," "Who's being calm about this!!" Dorgu rose silently and pressed the pot down with both hands. A former Gold-rank adventurer's reflexes were genuine. The soup didn't spill. Kuroki wrote in his notebook. "Possibly not a matter of dissolute quantity but of structure. Direction: requires investigation." Gotts checked outside. "How long have we been at this?" It was just before dawn. The world outside was beginning to pale slightly. Gotts, Noppo, and Chibi had all collapsed onto the counter. Gotts slept with his arm as a pillow. Noppo rested his head against the chair back, mouth open. Only Chibi sat on the floor, leaning against the wall, dozing. All three were in that ambiguous state between sleep and wakefulness, yet none of them left. Only Dorgu remained, back against the wall, eyes open. Third trial. Kuroki murmured, "I thought it wasn't a matter of density but direction, but——" reviewing his notes. Irina said quietly, "……The feeling was a little different from before. Rather than spreading from inside, it felt like pressure from outside." "Pressure from outside," repeated, writing it down. "That's probably a matter of density, not direction. I was packing it too tightly," He revised his hypothesis. Moving into the fourth trial. This time he cooked thinly, uniformly, without forcing the dissolute in——waiting for the ingredients to naturally accept it. The sensation of unhurried cooking he'd learned in a three-star kitchen in his previous life. Like dashi broth, dissolute probably lost if you rushed it. Morning light seeped through the doorless frame. Kuroki finished a single bowl. It looked utterly ordinary. White, thin soup. Small portion. The bowl was the cleanest one from the unbroken stock. But——from the rim of the bowl, a faint light wavered. Dissolute light. Not forced in, but naturally dissolved into the ingredients, slowly seeping outward. A gentle, green-tinged shimmer. Kuroki placed it before Irina. "Please drink. Tell me what you feel, just as it comes to you," Irina held the bowl in both hands. After a moment, she took a sip. No plates floated. The pot didn't float. It was quiet. Then——light kindled from Irina's fingertips. Dissolute light. But not a runaway. Not overflowing with force, but with intention, quietly, at her own pace. Completely different from before.