"What happened during the days of the Demon Hunter Order?"
Lloyd hesitated at first. To him, it was not a story he wished to revisit. Robin seemed to notice this and continued quietly.
"Could you tell us how your Demon Hunter Order hunted demons?"
The question became more specific, and Robin pressed on.
"For example… some particularly strange hunts."
The Purge Bureau had encountered few demons in recent years, and even fewer conflicts twisted enough to be called truly bizarre.
"A bedtime ghost story?"
Lloyd chuckled softly, clearly amused that Robin would want to hear such things.
"That's not entirely wrong… In truth, the Purge Bureau and the Demon Hunter Order were extremely similar organizations. Yet at their core, they were completely different."
"The Purge Bureau was founded upon science—formulas and theories. But the Demon Hunter Order was built upon divine authority and faith."
"In other words," Robin said, voicing the confusion in his heart, "you were alike, yet entirely opposed."
Both had pursued the same goal, yet each had cultivated its own iron branch against the darkness through utterly different means.
"Yeah… You hid yourselves well. The Demon Hunter Order never discovered your existence."
Lloyd stared into the flames within the hearth, his eyes narrowing into thin lines as though searching through the ashes of memory. Yet the once vivid past had long since blurred into fragmented shadows in his mind, tangled and indistinct.
Ever since he had returned from death, this had become common. It was as though he had stepped prematurely into senility—memories shattered into broken fragments, arriving out of order and impossible to piece together.
"The Demon Hunter Order used its power against demons as leverage to threaten the nations. Inglvig refused to be controlled by them, so it began developing in secret, even going so far as to trade steam technology with Jiuxia."
Like a sealed monopoly over weaponry, the Gospel Church had once controlled everything. Until the power of the Far East entered the stage, shattering the stagnant waters and stirring the tides once more.
"By the standards of the Gospel Church, you would've been branded heretics. Then the hunters would've entered the field, crushed your immature technology, and secured their dominance over humanity's war against demons."
But at this point Lloyd suddenly let out a cold laugh.
"Luckily, they destroyed themselves first. Otherwise, the few of us sitting here might be crossing blades right now."
Whenever he thought of it, Lloyd understood Merlin's words about the death of alchemy more deeply. Mysterious powers would inevitably be stripped from human civilization; they could never be allowed to dominate it. Once the Book of Revelation was lost, the Gospel Church's secret-blood technology had been locked in place forever.
It was a warning for the Purge Bureau.
After cursing the Gospel Church for a while, Lloyd seemed far more at ease. To him, those years had been beautiful… and cruel.
The night stretched endlessly onward, dull and sleepless. Pulling the conversation back, Lloyd spoke slowly.
"Well then… just treat this as a strange demon-hunting tale."
As the memories gradually sharpened, he continued.
"This was the most unforgettable—and the most peculiar—mission I ever experienced. I can't remember every detail anymore, but I still recall the general shape of it."
Seeing him finally grow serious, the three others silently focused on Lloyd by the fireplace. No one could suppress their curiosity toward the mysterious Demon Hunter Order.
A lonely castle. A freezing winter night. Quietly burning flames. And a group of people forever tied to the darkness.
There could hardly be a better setting for a story.
"But before I begin, there are a few things I should explain."
Lloyd adjusted himself slightly before continuing.
"When it came to demonic incidents, the Demon Hunter Order and the Purge Bureau handled them in completely different ways. We didn't really have plans, nor prearranged protocols."
He paused, recalling the distant past.
"Different branches of hunters fulfilled entirely different duties. So despite bearing the title of demon hunters, most hunters never actually fought demons on the front lines."
"For instance, I belonged to the Metatron Branch. Our duty was guarding the Grand Cathedral of Saint Narlo. Most of us rarely even left the Seven Hills."
"But before taking up our real positions, every hunter underwent a period of practical training… Which basically meant dragging hunters from every branch out to kill a few demons before sending them back. Like a work internship."
The expressions around the room turned strange. Presumably, only a lunatic like Lloyd could describe something so deadly as an internship.
"You invented Geiger counters to detect demonic corruption. We were different. Reconnaissance relied mainly on local churches, supplemented by the foresight of the Shandafon hunters."
"That sounds primitive," Joey remarked. "Possessing the greatest power in the world, yet relying on medieval methods for detection."
"That's why the Gospel Church became a relic of the old era," Lloyd replied. "The number of hunters was always small, so most operations were conducted in squads."
"And because we lacked efficient methods for detecting demons, the reports from local churches were often wrong. People treated every strange occurrence as demonic activity."
"So in truth, we rarely encountered actual demons. But that case… that one was complicated. Extremely complicated."
Lloyd frowned deeply as he recalled the incident.
"Our squad received the report and traveled to a small town hidden deep within a mountain valley. It was incredibly isolated, with almost no contact with the outside world. The only reason we learned of it was because of a postman."
"He was terrified—like someone already touched by demonic corruption. His mind was on the verge of collapse. After escaping the valley town, he was discovered by nearby travelers. The local clergy noticed the situation and managed to extract information about the town from him. Shortly afterward, the hunters were deployed."
Lloyd looked at the three of them. His voice gradually slowed.
Outside the walls, the freezing wind howled like monsters screaming in the dark. In the silence, it felt as though only the four of them remained in the world.
"When we arrived at that town… it was like a reflection of Old Dunling."
As Lloyd spoke, it seemed even he had returned to that distant past.
"The town lay deep within the valley, with terrible transportation routes. The buildings looked centuries old. Mist covered the valley constantly, much like Old Dunling… except worse. The towering mountains blocked out most of the light. Sometimes you couldn't even tell whether it was day or night."
Almost instinctively, Lloyd reached toward his coat for a cigarette, only to grasp empty air. Only then did he remember that his cigarette case had not returned from the dead alongside him.
After a brief moment of silence for the loss, he continued.
"We demon hunters were extremely sensitive to the presence of demons. You could even say we ourselves were living Geiger counters. Most of the time, the moment we arrived at a scene, we could determine whether demons were involved."
"But this case was different. We sensed no corruption whatsoever… yet we could clearly feel the town was saturated with something deeply unnatural."
Lloyd remembered that gray town vividly. Whether under daylight or darkness, it always seemed trapped beneath the same lifeless shade of gray.
"And precisely because that feeling was so impossible to explain, we chose not to withdraw."
His voice paused briefly.
"Instead, we decided to uncover the truth."
Then Lloyd slowly uttered the name they had given the mission.
"We called it… the Uncanny Valley."