The darkness before dawn still lingered on Halbern's cobblestones. Kai stared at the ceiling of the hideout. His ribs asserted themselves with every breath. He couldn't inhale deeply. The bandages were wrapped too tightly, constricting his entire chest. Gil had wrapped them last night. First aid for a fracture. Nothing more, nothing less. The laceration on his left cheek had stopped bleeding. When he touched it with his finger, the skin pulled taut. Sain's face was still there, behind his eyelids. Kai closed his eyes. --- Gil returned when morning light began filtering through the windows. His footsteps stopped for just a moment before opening the door. Kai heard that hesitation. He could tell from the way the footsteps paused that Gil was carrying something. The door opened. Morning light fell on Gil's reddish-brown short hair. The usual light smile was gone. The small scar at the corner of his mouth stood out more prominently in his stiffened expression. "[serious]You awake?" "Yeah." Gil pulled out a chair and sat. He rested both elbows on the table and remained silent for a moment. Kai pushed himself up. His ribs ached dully. "[serious]A body was found in an alley in the East District." His voice was lower than usual. "Two people connected to my information network. Their throats were cut." Kai said nothing. "A brand was burned into their foreheads. The mark of Veil Hand. The shape of a covered hand." A covered hand—a pattern derived from the ancient language that gave Veil Hand its name. Kai had seen that shape once before, on Renka's brand. Gil continued. "[serious]Neither of them were just information brokers. They were people I've dealt with since the civil war." Kai felt something being pressed down beneath that voice. Something heavier than anger or sorrow. Kai looked at the ceiling. People died because I came here. The words almost made it to his throat. But saying them wouldn't change anything. The fact remained. The two were already dead. "[sad]...It's my fault." He said it shortly. Gil looked at him. "[serious]I don't have time to blame you for it." His voice was calm. But in the depths of his green eyes, a quiet rage burned. Not directed at Kai. A cold flame pointed in a different direction entirely. Gil stood and pulled papers from a shelf. He spread them on the table. A map of Halbern. Multiple locations marked in red. "[serious]Dolg made his next move. Fast." --- From the next day onward, things began to move. Merchants who had regularly sold information to Gil's Crossroads Trading Company began cutting off contact one by one. "I'd like to suspend dealings for a while." "I'm a bit busy right now." "Once things settle down..." The excuses were all different, but the meaning was the same. False notices had circulated through Halbern's underworld. Kai, a former combatant, was a wanted criminal involved with illegal organizations, and anyone harboring him would be equally guilty—the source was unknown, but Veil Hand had distributed it through multiple channels in the criminal underworld. There was no way to verify the truth. No one tried to. In the underworld, the rumor itself held more power than its source. A stone was thrown through the trading company's front entrance. Kai heard the sound of breaking glass from the second floor. Gil went downstairs and silently cleaned up the broken glass. Then he returned to the table and began writing something on paper. Names and dates of clients who had withdrawn, one by one. His hand stopped for just a moment. Kai watched that pause. "[serious]You're tearing down everything you've built with money and fear." Gil looked up. "[sarcastic]Yeah. Efficient guy, Dolg." His tone was light. But the fingers holding the pen gripped a little harder. --- Deep in the night, two days later. The door was kicked in without a sound. Wood shattered. Kai jolted awake instantly—his ribs screamed in agony, but his body moved first. He grabbed a short blade. Sain was standing there. That build existed in the darkness. That low center of gravity. Moonlight streamed in, illuminating an expressionless face. "[serious]—Sain." The name escaped his lips. He couldn't stop it. Sain moved. Fast. The same speed as during Peregrina. With ribs shattered in that ruined battle, Kai couldn't properly defend against that speed. Kai jumped to the side. His back hit a shelf. It toppled. He was slammed to the floor. "—!" The fractured bones screamed. Air wouldn't enter his lungs. Gil moved. He tried to circle behind Sain's blind spot. Quick movements, excellent reflexes as always. Sain didn't turn around. Only his elbow moved. A dull thud. Gil's body slammed against the wall. A bookshelf collapsed. Documents scattered. Gil fell to the floor with a groan. "[scared]Gil—" Sain turned back toward Kai. Kai tried to stand. He put force into his legs. He stood. But his hand holding the short blade wouldn't move. He couldn't grip it. Every time he tried to make a fist, those eyes surfaced. Sain's eyes in the Peregrina ruins. Eyes with no one inside them. But—the moment he shouted the name, those feet had stopped for just an instant. Something still lingered in the depths of those eyes. Sain's step came forward. The first strike hit his abdomen. A cracking sound echoed through his body. He was slammed against the stone wall. Cracks appeared in the masonry. Kai fell to the floor. He tried to stand. He was kicked again. This time in the side. The strikes came precisely near the shattered ribs. "Ah—!!" He rolled. A shelf collapsed. Debris rained down. Stone and wood fragments struck his cheek. A third strike grazed past his head. If it had connected fully, it would have been over. Eventually, Kai ended up on the floor, unable to move. Debris scattered around his face. The taste of iron filled his mouth. His body wouldn't obey him. Fifteen years of combat experience, the techniques of a warrior—none of it mattered now. Demanding movements beyond his limit from a body cradling shattered bones, the body simply couldn't answer. That was all. But something deeper within Kai, for a different reason, had kept his hand from moving. Sain's footsteps approached. They stopped. The presence was right beside him. Kai didn't have the strength to lift his face. He only listened. --- Sain crouched down. In the next moment, right beside Kai's ear—a voice came. The voice that came from Sain's mouth was not Sain's voice. "[cold]It's been a while, Kai." A low, dry voice. Kai knew that voice. The voice of the man who stood in the shadows beneath the stone cavern. The Third Finger, Dolg. A small transmission tube embedded in the ear—that was how Sain was being used. "[cold]Your precious partner is my creation. I spent six months systematically destroying that man's personality and rebuilt him from scratch." A quiet voice. No threat, no anger. Simply stating facts. "[cold]No matter what you do, that man will never return. The man you knew is already dead." Kai forced every ounce of strength he had. He used his arms to push his body up. His ribs screamed in agony. Still, he lifted his face. He met Sain's eyes directly. There was nothing. Nothing was there. No anger, no sorrow, no memory of the bridge they crossed together ten years ago. None of it could be found. "[crying]...Come back." His voice trembled. He couldn't stop it. "[crying]Sain. It's me. That night, on the east bank of the Narva River—in the fog, I called for you. You didn't answer. I—" His voice broke. Sain's eyes didn't waver. Dolg's voice continued. "[cold]Appeals to memory are futile. That stage of material was completely disposed of in the sixth month. No matter how much you cry or scream, that man won't hear it. I designed it that way." Kai kept staring into Sain's eyes. Nothing returned. A quiet water surface, undisturbed by any ripple. Sain stood up. He walked toward the broken door without turning back. His footsteps faded. The sound of descending to the cobblestones. Then—nothing remained. Dolg's purpose tonight had not been to kill Kai. --- Silence returned to the hideout. Gil pushed himself up against the wall. Blood seeped from his forehead. Books lay scattered around him. He tried to speak to Kai, then stopped. Kai remained motionless on the debris. Face turned toward the floor, unable to move. Not just from physical limits. His shoulders trembled slightly. No sound came. Not even a sob. Just his body, trembling of its own accord. For five years, digging soil in Forena, he had kept a lid on memories of the civil war. The night Sain disappeared. His own resignation. The count of corpses piled up on the battlefield. All of it buried deep in Milgrove Forest, playing the role of a farmer. All of it came back tonight in the worst possible way. Gil said nothing. He didn't stand. He simply sat with his back against the wall, beside Kai. After some time, Kai lifted his face. With a face smeared with tears, blood, and dust, he stared into the void. "[sad]...It's over." His voice was terribly quiet. Not a shout, not a lament. Simply confirming a fact. Gil didn't deny those words. He couldn't deny them. Not in this situation. Two allies were dead. The information network was isolated. His body was battered beyond measure. Sain had been completely transformed into something else. Gil simply sat there. --- While the night still hadn't fully broken, Gil knelt before Kai. He finished tending to the wounds—checking Kai's ribs again, rewrapping the bandages, applying medicine to his face wounds. He did it all in silence. Then Gil pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket. He unfolded it. A topographical map drawn in ink. Mountain ridgelines, symbols marking abandoned mine entrances, and one red dot. "[serious]Stone Cavern." His voice pressed emotion down. That made it heavier. "One of the two who were killed sent a carrier pigeon before dying. It contained fragments of location information and details about the camouflage of the mine entrance." Gil looked at Kai. In his green eyes, anger mixed with something else. "[serious]This is the last one." Information obtained at the cost of two lives. Both Kai and Gil understood what that meant. Gil spoke quietly. "[whispers]Are you going?" Kai looked at the map. One red dot. Sixty kilometers southeast of Halbern. Deep within the abandoned Karant Mine, a underground facility. At least fifteen soldiers stationed on the first underground level. The internal structure was unknown. Where Dolg kept the activation key for Neugestalt was unknown. Five seconds. Ten seconds. Silence continued. Kai reached out with a blood-stained hand. He grasped the map. His fingers trembled, but he grasped it. Dragging his aching body, he stood. Slowly. Deliberately. Gil watched that rise. Not resignation, he understood. Despair was there in those eyes. But not resignation. Something colder, harder than that. Gil said nothing. He stood beside Kai. That was all. In the darkness before dawn, the two of them studied the map. With bodies broken and battered, with isolation complete, facing a underground fortress guarded by fifteen or more soldiers. Not knowing the internal structure, not knowing where Dolg was, not knowing where the activation key lay—knowing nothing. But Kai's hand didn't release the map.