Halburn's mornings come early. The East Gate Market opens as soon as night breaks. The sound of carts rolling across cobblestones, merchants arranging their wares, a rooster crowing somewhere. Kai left the Crossroads Company and slipped into that cacophony. Gil had handed him a small piece of paper. Three locations were scrawled across it in hasty handwriting. An illegal weapons dealer in the back alleys, a black market where former mercenaries gathered, and a tavern called the Iron Pot. These were places where the mysterious man had been spotted—information Gil's network had picked up. Kai tucked the paper inside his jacket. Don't let your guard down. The moment he entered the back alleys, the air changed. No more cobblestones—just packed earth. The buildings pressed close together, blocking out the sunlight. This was a different world from the noise of the main streets. Fifteen years had passed since the civil war ended, but the benefits of peace hadn't reached these narrow passages. Men hunched against walls, old people motionless with their eyes closed, children in tattered clothes—such scenes spread out in quiet desolation. The black market where illegal weapons were traded lay three turns deeper into the alley. Strictly speaking, it didn't deserve to be called a "market." It was just an old warehouse where a handful of men had arranged their goods on crude wooden tables. Broken swords, rusted armor pieces, old short bows from the civil war era—the kind of merchandise no legitimate merchant would touch. Kai handed a silver coin to the man at the entrance and stepped inside. "[serious]Looking for something?" A man in his thirties. An old burn scar marked his cheek. His eyes were sharp. "I'm looking for a mysterious man. Supposedly been lurking around here for about three weeks." The man's expression changed. Just for an instant, but unmistakably. His brows drew together, his gaze slipped away from Kai. "Don't know anything." The answer was too short. He said nothing more. Kai pressed a bit longer, but the man remained silent, immobile. It was fear. The eyes of someone who knew something and was terrified to speak it. Kai thanked him and left. The next location was the same. In the alley where former mercenaries gathered, men who'd survived the civil war were drinking in broad daylight. Their reasons for drifting to Halburn varied, but they all shared one thing—nowhere else to go. Kai recognized one of the faces. A man he'd fought alongside on the same battlefield several times during the war. It took him a moment to remember the name. "...It's been a while." The man looked up at Kai, then looked away. "Yeah." That was all. The man used to be talkative, Kai thought. He tried to pull up memories from five years ago but couldn't quite grasp them. Five years of digging soil in Forena had worn away the details of his memory. When Kai asked about the mysterious man, the mercenary fell silent, still holding his cup in both hands. "Don't know." The same answer again. But his eyes fled once more. Kai left the alley. As he walked across the cobblestones, something grew heavier in his chest. Not emotion exactly—weight. The faces he'd seen everywhere. Former soldiers with no work, no place to belong, sinking into the underside of Halburn. While he'd been digging in Forena's fields for five years, they'd been rotting away in these alleys. (I was the only one who escaped.) That's what he thought. He hadn't wanted to think it, but he did. He wouldn't put it into words. But deep in his body, it was accumulating, bit by bit. --- Past midday, Kai entered the Iron Pot. The tavern sat one alley back from the commercial street in the East District. Pushing open the thick wooden door released the smell of stewed game meat and smoke. It wasn't large. Seven tables, four stools at the counter. Half full despite the early hour. A fat proprietress—a cheerful woman named Moira Kid with a voice that carried well—moved between the kitchen and the seating area. "Welcome! The lamb stew is delicious today too!" "[serious]I'll order later." The man Gil had told him about was sitting in the back. Laquv. A large man in his forties. His right arm was a prosthetic—iron from the elbow down, secured to his shoulder with leather straps. Lost in the civil war, no doubt. Multiple scars marked his face, his eyes sunken. He was drinking strong liquor in the middle of the day. When Kai approached, his gaze immediately turned toward him. Wary eyes. Kai pulled out the chair across from him and sat. "Laquv?" "...Who are you?" "Kai. We fought together during the civil war, at the bridgehead along the Narva River. I was a mercenary for the Eldrain Kingdom." Laquv paused slightly. The fingers of his prosthetic hand moved slowly across the table. A motion like he was confirming something. "...I don't remember." "That's fair. I don't remember the details either. But you can confirm the night we destroyed the bridge." Laquv fell silent. That silence was his answer. He remembered. He'd been there. "What do you want to know?" "A mysterious man. There's talk of someone coming and going from the Peregrina Cathedral ruins for about three weeks now. I heard you made contact with him." Laquv's hand stopped. He froze, still holding his cup. Then slowly set it down on the table. "...Who told you that?" "Someone I trust. I can't say more." Laquv studied Kai for a moment. An appraising look. Then he sighed. A long, heavy breath. "[serious]When I got close, he attacked immediately. The moment the distance dropped below ten meters. His movements were too fast to see properly." "A fighter?" "I don't know. But it wasn't normal movement. So—" Laquv looked at his non-prosthetic hand. "I stabbed myself in the knee with a dagger." Kai said nothing. "To escape. I thought if we really fought at that distance, I'd lose. So I stabbed myself to distract him. A wound like that—if you're trained, you can move again in an instant." "Did you get away?" "I got away. But—" Laquv met Kai's eyes. "That man was watching the moment I stabbed my knee. We were less than two meters apart. His expression didn't change at all. He saw me drive the dagger in and didn't react." "...He didn't react to the pain?" "That's right." A quiet answer. Kai turned it over in his mind. Combat training can make you accustomed to pain. You can raise your threshold. But you can't eliminate it completely. Human nerves won't allow it. Not changing expression when a dagger is driven into your knee—that exceeded the bounds of normal training. "...That's not all." Laquv's voice alone stopped Kai as he started to rise. "When our eyes met. Kai, you've been looking into human eyes for a long time. Eyes filled with killing intent, eyes of fear, eyes of anger—there are many kinds. But his eyes were different." "How were they different?" Laquv paused for a moment. "[whispers]There was no one inside them." Kai placed several silver coins on the table. He thanked Laquv and went outside. The tavern door closed behind him. Kai stood on the cobblestones without moving for a moment. No reaction to pain. Eyes with no one inside. Those two phrases circled through his mind. --- At dusk, when Kai returned to the Crossroads Company, Gil was on the second floor. The usual carefree air was gone. Even hearing Kai's footsteps on the stairs, he didn't turn around. He sat frozen, facing the table with documents spread before him. Kai entered the room. Gil looked up. His green eyes seemed darker than usual. "[serious]Sit." His voice held no unnecessary words. Kai pulled out a chair. Gil spread papers across the table. Three of them. Each bore a name and a simple description of a face. "Former fighters who've disappeared from the Halburn area in the past two months. All survivors of the Trias civil war. All of them lost to my information network." Kai's eyes fell on the papers. His hand stopped at the third name. "...Selda Volk." "You know him?" "Met him once during the war. The fighting on the east bank of the Narva River. He was skilled." Gil nodded. He said nothing more. The two of them compared the documents in silence. Kai recounted what he'd learned from Laquv. Gil overlaid it with the fragmentary information he possessed. Disappeared fighters, "Peregrina Cathedral ruins," a man who didn't react to pain, and the words Renka had spoken in the second episode—the elimination list, materials, Neugestalt. Gil stopped his pen. He slowly leaned back in his chair. "[serious]Veilhand is systematically hunting former fighters. Taking them alive. As materials." "Yeah." "We still don't know what Neugestalt is. But I can roughly imagine where those three disappeared people are now." "The Stone Caverns." The Stone Caverns—Veilhand's secret facility built underground in the old Karant Mine. About sixty kilometers southeast of Halburn, deep within the abandoned mine. The name had come up when they interrogated Renka in the second episode. Gil stood and pointed to the wall map. "The Peregrina Cathedral ruins might be a relay point to the Stone Caverns. The mysterious man coming and going there is probably part of that operation." "I'm on the elimination list too." "Probably near the top." His tone was light, but his eyes were serious. Gil moved away from the map and sat back across from Kai. "[serious]Don't move yet. We need more information. If you charge into Peregrina alone, you'll just die for nothing." "If Selda's being used as material somewhere right now, we don't have time to be careful." "Don't act on emotion." "It's not emotion. It's judgment." Gil fell silent. A brief silence. Kai watched Gil's face. Gil watched Kai's. Neither gave way. But it didn't become an argument. Because the root direction they both pointed toward was the same. The destination was identical—only the speed differed. Gil looked away first. "...Yeah. You're right." --- Deep night came. The people vanished from Halburn's streets, and silence descended on the cobblestones. The distant sound of water from a tributary of the Narva River drifted through. Lamplight leaked from the Crossroads Company's windows into the darkness. Kai fastened a short sword to his waist and put his hand on the door. Gil didn't stop him. Instead, he pressed a single piece of paper into Kai's hand. A simple map. The shortest route from Halburn to the Peregrina Cathedral ruins was marked on it. The distance was fifteen kilometers. Cross the hills and walk southeast, and you'd arrive. "[cold]If you don't come back, I'll spread all the information I've gathered. Enough to have Veilhand hunted across the entire continent." Kai took the map. "I'm counting on it." No unnecessary words. No handshake. But it was enough for Kai. He opened the door and stepped out into the night cobblestones. The air was cold. Halburn's autumn nights wore a different face than the daytime. No merchants' calls, no cart sounds—only footsteps echoing on stone. Kai began walking southeast. The city's lights receded behind him. As he walked, Laquv's words returned to his mind. Eyes with no one inside. A body that didn't react to pain. Eyes with no one inside. When those two things combined, one answer surfaced. Kai didn't want to acknowledge it yet. But not wanting to acknowledge it meant he already understood. Neugestalt—that word Renka had spoken with fear. Some kind of device, he'd said. Something that rewrites personality, perhaps? (If it's Selda...) Kai stopped his thoughts. There was no need to think now. Once he reached the Peregrina Cathedral ruins, the answer would come. Or perhaps it wouldn't. Either way, there was only one choice. The silhouette of the hills floated against the night sky. Kai walked straight toward them, continuing into the darkness.