Outside Oswald's hideout, the bells began to toll. At fixed intervals, the heavy, dull sound reverberated through the cobblestones. The residents of the La Ruelle district knew what these bells meant. An emergency proclamation. Leon Crawford sat up on the blanket spread across the floor. Beside him, Lily was still asleep. Her deep navy twintails rested peacefully on the pillow. Only a few hours had passed since they'd escaped their pursuers the night before. Refia, who had been hugging her knees against the wall, quietly rose to her feet. Her long silver hair swayed in the lantern's pale light. She walked over to the window and peered through a gap in the wooden shutters. Her violet eyes narrowed slightly. Oswald Grim lifted his head from the map spread across his desk. Beneath his unkempt, ashen-brown hair, his amber eyes glinted sharply. The three piercings in his left ear made faint metallic sounds whenever he moved. "[cold]A lockdown." A short statement. But its resonance instantly transformed the air inside the hideout. From outside, the furious shouts of heralds could be heard. Two mounted soldiers advanced slowly through the alley, bearing flags embroidered with the Celestial Council's crest. "Proclamation of the Celestial Council! Leon Crawford and former personal maid Refia Arcronos are heretics who have blasphemed against the teachings of the Seven Stars!" One of the heralds unfurled the parchment in his hand and read aloud in a booming voice. "Whoever secures the persons of these two shall be granted a temporary elevation in status equivalent to the Gold Star! Those who harbor them shall be deemed accomplices and sentenced to death by fire!" Proclamation notices were plastered across the cobblestones, one after another. Every wall in the lower district was being covered with the Celestial Council's crest. "[cold]They actually did it." Oswald muttered under his breath, still gazing through the gap in the window. His fingers gripped the edge of the desk. The ink-stained tips trembled faintly. It was anger. Taking the entire lower district hostage, baiting the impoverished residents with rewards, forcing them to spy on one another. This operation demonstrated, more clearly than anything else could, exactly how the Celestial Council viewed commoners. Leon tried to stand. But his legs wouldn't obey. (What have I done?) The events since yesterday churned endlessly in his mind. The truth in the forbidden archive. His confession to Refia. The revelation that she was an assassin. Their escape. Every choice he'd made had led to this moment. —Just then. A small rustling sound. A folded letter slipped through a hole in the wall. Oswald swiftly picked it up and broke the seal. A follow-up report from his information network. His amber eyes narrowed further with each line he read. By the time he finished, all expression had vanished from his face. Refia asked in a hoarse voice. "[whispers]...What does it say?" Oswald didn't answer. He simply placed the letter on the desk. With trembling hands, Leon picked up the parchment. *Lily Crawford has been detained. Transferred to the top floor of the Starlight Spire.* The letters warped before his eyes. *If both individuals do not surrender within 24 hours, the hostage shall be publicly executed as an accomplice to heresy.* Below, the gold seal of the Celestial Council of Celestia was coldly stamped. Leon fell to his knees on the floor. The parchment slipped from his fingers. No voice came out. No tears came either. His mind went completely blank, unable to form a single thought. Only the fact that every choice he had made had driven his sister to this place—that fact alone gouged at the depths of his chest. Lily had only come to get a drink of water in the middle of the night. And yet. "[angry]...It was me." The voice he finally managed to squeeze out was so hoarse he barely recognized it himself. "[angry]It was all me. Entering the forbidden archive, telling Refia, running away... Lily just... she just..." He clutched his head. Rough breaths escaped between his fingers. Refia took a single step closer. She started to reach out her hand. But that hand stopped in midair. On her right wrist was the brand of the time-devouring serpent. She knew better than anyone that this hand had been meant to kill Leon. (Because I couldn't pull the trigger.) Refia bit her lip. If she had fulfilled her mission last night, Lily might never have been taken hostage. Her own failure to suppress her emotions had sent everything spiraling toward the worst outcome. She lowered her hand. And hung her head. Oswald silently folded his arms and watched the two of them. He didn't interject. He knew that anything he said now would be nothing but empty platitudes. That was when it happened. *Splash.* A dry sound. From Leon's fingertips, an indigo light began to seep forth. His left eye—a gaze as blue as the sea—began to glow as if losing all control. The power of Neptune. Whenever the dam of his emotions broke, this power always ran wild. "[angry]Damn it...!" The light distorted space itself. Ripples spread across the wall. This time, the phantasm did not reflect Leon. What appeared was—a gray stone chamber. Fort Noir. Moonlight streamed thinly through a small barred window. The stone floor was cold and damp, thick with the smell of mold. The walls were rough-hewn masonry, stained here and there with old traces of blood. In the corner. A girl of perhaps seven or eight sat hugging her knees. A grimy training uniform clung to her body, and layers of purple bruises covered her left arm. Her long silver hair was matted against her cheeks with tears and sweat. She was crying. Desperately stifling her sobs, her shoulders trembling, her small mouth moving faintly. —Why. —Why was I even born? —No one will save me. —There's nowhere for me to go back to. Her violet eyes were wet with resignation and sorrow. The color drained from Refia's face. Her entire body went rigid, as if turned to stone. (That's—my memory.) The night she had cried herself to exhaustion in a solitary cell at Fort Noir as a child. The night she had understood, down to the marrow of her bones, that she was nothing more than a "tool of the stars." Leon stared at the phantasm, unable to move. The anger and despair with which he'd been condemning himself just moments ago were being overwritten by something entirely different. (This person... is just like me.) Himself, who had lived as a Stardust in the corner of the royal palace. Refia, who had been raised as a tool of the stars in the stone chambers of Fort Noir. Different places of birth. Different stations. But at the root—neither of them had been allowed to live by their own will. Their worth had been decided for them. They had been used and discarded. He understood that pain now. Not through logic, but through his skin. The phantasm vanished. Silence returned. Leon rose on unsteady legs. He stood before Refia. She retreated against the wall, her gaze fixed on the floor, unmoving. As if praying that her very existence might simply disappear. Leon knelt down, trying to look up into her face from below. "[whispers]...Refia." She didn't answer. "[gentle]I'm not angry. I won't blame you." His hand gently touched her arm. Her body trembled, ever so slightly. "[gentle]You were just like me, weren't you? Not allowed to live by your own will, just used for someone else's sake..." His voice caught. "[gentle]But that's enough now. Let's stop running." Refia's violet eyes slowly turned toward Leon. Something she had been holding back wavered deep within them. "[whispers]...Leon-sama." Her voice was wet with the hint of tears. Oswald averted his gaze from the two of them. Wordlessly, he looked down at the map spread across his desk and began tracing it with his finger. He wouldn't interfere. The route of an old waterway passed directly beneath the foundation of the Starlight Spire. Having once served as a scribe in the royal palace, he knew its structure better than anyone. He alone had obtained the information that this waterway—supposedly sealed off on the surface—had never actually been completely filled in. If he told them about this, he would fully become an accomplice to heresy. His position as an informant, observing the Celestial Council from a safe distance, would be over. But. He didn't hesitate. "[serious]Go through here." Oswald pushed the map in front of Leon. "[serious]Beneath the lower district, there are traces of an old waterway. Officially, it was sealed off a hundred years ago, but in reality, it's still hollow. It runs directly beneath the foundation of the Starlight Spire." Leon stared at the map. "[serious]You've been... hiding this all along?" "[cold]When I was driven out of the royal palace, I once thought about burning all of this information. But it looks like keeping it was the right call." He shrugged. But his eyes weren't smiling. (The system itself has rotted to the core.) Oswald thought to himself. Using innocent civilians as a human wall. Taking a young child hostage to make threats. This wasn't a distortion of the system. It wasn't corruption. The system itself had been like this from the very beginning. Perhaps it was no coincidence that he—who had once recognized the contradictions of the Star Rank system and been exiled—had encountered these two. Leon stared at the map hard enough to bore holes through it. A frontal assault was impossible. The elite of Voile Noir guarded the tower in multiple layers. Even Refia had judged a direct breakthrough to be difficult. But if they used the underground waterway. They could bypass the first line of defense. Leon raised his head. His eyes met Refia's. There was no longer any hesitation in her violet eyes. A clear resolve had taken root there. "[serious]Let's go." A short statement. To put an end to the Celestial Council's lies. To get Lily back. And then—to create a place where Refia could live as an ordinary human being. Refia nodded quietly. On the final line of the plan, Oswald scribbled the infiltration time and each person's role. It was the moment he cast aside his position as an informant and chose to stand as an accomplice. The three of them gathered around the map, heads close together. Outside, the Celestial Council's heralds had begun reading a new proclamation. The countdown of remaining time ticked away mercilessly. The bells tolled once more.