"Iron doors~ iron bars~ iron window grilles~"
Lloyd sat in the corner, humming a strange tune beneath his breath. His gaze drifted through the iron-barred window toward the gloomy sky outside, where evening was slowly surrendering to dusk.
Several burly men were curled up against the wall, facing the corner in complete silence as though they had collectively retreated into themselves. To be fair, anyone who had just endured the beating Lloyd had delivered would probably become a little withdrawn.
About half an hour earlier, Eve had dragged him back to the holding cells of Su Yalan Hall in handcuffs. The location was excellent—perhaps too excellent. From the officers' desks, the cell was in full view. A few familiar policemen kept glancing over at him from time to time. Lloyd knew they were doing their best to suppress their laughter, though several reckless souls had failed miserably and burst out laughing anyway.
The entire experience made him feel like an animal on display in a zoo.
The moment he had entered the cell, the men already inside had looked at him with open disgust. A few had even thrown insults his way.
To be fair, Lloyd had only recently climbed out of a sewer. The smell clinging to him was not exactly pleasant.
He had said nothing and simply sat down in a corner.
The suspect had escaped. He had been launched several yards by a horse carriage. Then Eve had hauled him back in chains. Now he was being sneered at by a bunch of strangers.
The more he thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt.
His eyes slowly shifted toward the burly prisoners beside him.
"Why are you looking at me?" Lloyd asked.
The men blinked.
"What if we are?"
"What if you are?" Lloyd cracked his knuckles. "You still dare talk back?"
And that was how things had arrived at their current state.
In an astonishingly short amount of time, Lloyd had established himself as the undisputed tyrant of the holding cell.
He was not particularly worried about his situation. There were people above him who could smooth things over. The detention itself was little more than a formality. If anything, it provided a convenient place to rest. The dull aches throughout his body had eased considerably, allowing him to finally think about the pursuit earlier that day.
The smugglers from Florence were clearly plotting something.
Ordinary people did not visit Rat's Nest to purchase information, and the carriage that had helped their escape suggested they had support waiting for them inside Old Dunling. A carriage was not something just anyone could afford. Whoever had assisted them possessed both resources and influence.
Which raised an interesting question.
If they had that kind of backing, why bother entering the city illegally?
With enough money and connections, forging legitimate identities should have been easy. Unless, of course, they specifically did not want anyone to know they had arrived.
A particular organization surfaced in Lloyd's mind.
The Purge Agency.
A colossal force hidden beneath the shadows of Old Dunling.
With foreign delegations visiting the city and security heightened across every district, the Agency was undoubtedly more vigilant than ever. Whoever these smugglers were, they clearly wished to avoid attracting its attention.
If that assumption was correct, the entire matter became far more interesting.
According to what Arthur had told him, the Church was secretly attempting to exchange technology with the Purge Agency. The delegation from Florence was undoubtedly involved in those negotiations.
And yet another group had been smuggled into the city in secret.
They were willing to risk jeopardizing the exchange itself by deploying hidden assets.
There was only one thing valuable enough to justify such a gamble.
"Revelation..."
Lloyd murmured.
The moment he identified that missing piece, the entire puzzle snapped together inside his mind.
The Demon Hunter Order had already been rebuilt. The Stasis Temple was operational once more. That bizarre institution monitored demon hunters constantly. During his battle with Lawrence, they had likely discovered his existence and, through him, confirmed the whereabouts of Revelation.
Everything suddenly made sense.
Yet Lloyd felt no satisfaction.
His thoughts were interrupted when the iron door swung open.
"Come out," a police officer called. "Time for your statement."
Lloyd's face darkened immediately.
Still, he obediently followed.
Starting a massacre inside a police station was not exactly what his privileges were meant for.
A few minutes later he was escorted into a small room containing only a table and two chairs.
A familiar young woman sat across from him.
Eve.
She held a notebook and pen with complete seriousness.
"L-long time no see," Lloyd offered awkwardly.
The room contained only the two of them now, and the silence felt unbearable.
"Mm. Long time no see."
Her response was cool and detached.
Exactly as expected.
"Tell me something," Lloyd began. "Is this revenge disguised as official business? I admit my decision back then wasn't exactly admirable, but there were reasons for it—"
His mind raced as he launched into an elaborate defense.
After all, Lloyd was a detective with a silver tongue. Convincing a young girl should have been effortless.
Except Eve remained completely expressionless.
She listened—or perhaps didn't listen at all—until he finished.
Then she finally spoke.
"Done?"
Lloyd nodded.
A faint, disdainful smile appeared on her lips.
"You think I'm taking revenge?"
"Aren't you?"
After cuffing him, she had tied him to a horse and ridden through the streets while he jogged behind with his hands raised. The image belonged more to a medieval battlefield than a modern city. Victorious knights dragging prisoners behind their mounts.
Eve shook her head.
"Lloyd, I'm not a child anymore. I'm an adult. I can be rational."
She paused.
"I was helping you. Or at least getting you out of trouble. Those mounted officers weren't a real threat to you, but if things had continued, you would've created an even bigger mess and attracted even bigger problems."
Lloyd blinked.
He had not expected that answer.
"Old Dunling is under near-martial lockdown right now. Even I'm assigned to street patrols. Think about it. Given the circumstances, you could've started a full-blown street battle. I simply kept a small problem from becoming a large one."
Following her logic, she might actually be right.
Given his mood at the time, he very well might have punched the first mounted officer who blocked his path.
"So I should be thanking you?"
"That's unnecessary." Eve wrinkled her nose slightly. In the enclosed room, Lloyd's scent was particularly memorable. "I'm more curious about what you were doing. Hunting rats in the sewer?"
"Funny enough, it actually involved rats."
Lloyd leaned back.
"Just a complicated case."
Eve nodded and did not ask further.
Silence settled over the room again.
An uncomfortable silence.
Lloyd desperately searched for another topic.
"So... the Duke of Finisk finally agreed to let you become a detective?"
After everything that had happened, Lloyd had expected Arthur to send Eve as far away as possible.
Instead, the man had abandoned that idea entirely and allowed her to pursue her dream.
"More or less."
That was all she said.
No one knew how she had managed to convince Arthur.
Clearly, she had no interest in prolonged conversation.
The topic died immediately.
Unable to endure the atmosphere any longer, Lloyd spoke again.
"I'm sorry."
"What?"
For the first time, genuine curiosity appeared in her eyes.
"I'm sorry I chose to sacrifice you."
There was no point dancing around it.
Better to speak plainly.
"There's nothing to apologize for."
Eve's answer was calm.
"I understand."
She paused.
"And I learned something from it."
"What's that?"
"Never place too much expectation on other people."
Her voice remained steady.
"Forcing your wishes onto someone else is unfair from the start."
"That makes me sound like a bastard."
"Because you are."
The answer came immediately.
"Lloyd, you're an excellent liar. Sometimes your performance is so convincing that I forget what you're really like. This time, I simply remembered to stay cautious."
She lifted the pistol in her hand slightly.
"Don't take it personally. We're adults. No need to be dramatic."
Then she stood and opened the door.
"You can go."
"What about the statement?"
"Like you said, we're familiar with each other. This is just procedure."
The attitude felt strangely unsettling.
Though she claimed not to care, Lloyd could feel the distance.
As Press had once said, trust was precious.
An invisible wall now stood between them.
The girl was no longer easy to fool.
With a silent sigh, Lloyd walked out.
Having regained his humanity had brought unexpected troubles.
The old Lloyd would never have cared about another person's feelings. To him, everyone else had simply been tools that assisted him in hunting monsters.
But things were different now.
The stone in his chest had melted into flesh and blood.
And that cursed thing called guilt was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
"Could you at least look a little happier?" Lloyd suddenly called back.
Eve stared at him.
Then she laughed.
"Lloyd, even shamelessness should have limits."
"Last time we met, you nearly got me killed!"
"No," she corrected. "You nearly got me killed. The fact that I didn't lock you up for several days is already me showing restraint."
He had to admit she sounded far more rational than before.
The old Eve would have drawn her gun by now.
Instead, she had quietly bent a few rules to help him.
"So is this love and hate mixed together?"
Lloyd offered with his usual lack of dignity.
He often used shameless jokes to dissolve tension, turning serious matters into something easier to bear.
Eve saw straight through the act.
As always.
"So hurry up and get lost, Lloyd!"
She punctuated the sentence by planting a boot squarely into him and kicking him through the front doors of Su Yalan Hall.
Lloyd found himself standing alone on the street.
Night was approaching.
Gas lamps flickered to life one after another, bidding farewell to the dying daylight.
He glanced back at the building.
Fortunately, things had not escalated.
If they had, the person suffering the consequences would not have been Lloyd.
It would have been Press.
According to the reports, the two had been working together.
Press needed the job to survive.
Lloyd did not.
He only needed something to fill the emptiness left behind whenever there were no monsters left to kill.
After standing in thought for several moments, a new idea formed.
Turning toward the Lower District, he disappeared into the gathering darkness.
Not long after he left, Eve emerged from Su Yalan Hall as well.
She was no longer wearing her police uniform.
Instead, a broad overcoat concealed her figure.
To any observer, she appeared to be heading home after work.
Yet she walked down the very same road Lloyd had taken.
As though both of them were pursuing the same destination.
What an unexpected encounter.
Eve had never imagined she would meet Lloyd today.
At least not like this.
A trace of coldness lingered in her eyes.
She spoke of rationality, yet part of her still wanted to shoot him.
One bullet.
Just one.
The demon hunter would survive it anyway.
Lawrence's attack had shattered her world into countless fragments.
She had faced monsters before.
She had looked directly into horrors beyond imagination.
Yet even then she had possessed the strength to resist.
Lawrence had been different.
That encounter had felt utterly hopeless.
Like sinking into the depths of a black ocean.
No one could save her.
In the end, her last hope had rested upon Lloyd.
The demon hunter himself had seemed moments from death, but still...
Still, she had hoped.
Perhaps Lloyd would shout something ridiculous about love and peace before somehow defeating Lawrence.
Perhaps a miracle would happen.
But miracles never came.
Lloyd had not tried to save her.
In fact, he had intended to drag her into hell alongside him.
Oddly enough, she had not felt despair.
Only disappointment.
You think you've gone through life-and-death situations together.
You jump from carriages together.
You fight monsters side by side.
And then the bastard turns around and sells you out without hesitation.
Afterward, Eve had replayed the memory countless times.
She could not truly blame him.
Demon hunters fought to eradicate monsters.
Compared to such a grand ideal, her own life was insignificant.
And then someone she never expected appeared.
Arthur.
He took the fatal blow in her place.
It had been a difficult choice.
Lloyd had sacrificed everything for an ideal.
Arthur had abandoned everything for a person.
He chose Eve.
From that moment onward, the hidden world Arthur had spent years concealing was finally revealed before her eyes.
There was no hiding it anymore.
Surprisingly, their conversation afterward was not the fierce confrontation she had expected.
For the first time, she understood why Arthur had always tried to send her away.
Because that dark world had always been far closer than she realized.
In the end, father and daughter reached a compromise.
Arthur allowed her to pursue her dream of becoming a detective.
And in return, everything concerning that hidden world would remain unspoken.
He would tell her nothing.
She would ask nothing.
Both would pretend none of it had ever happened.
And continue living their lives.
Unfortunately, Eve had never been the obedient type.
She had her own plans.
She knew that hidden world existed somewhere within Old Dunling.
And she was getting close to finding its doorway.
Suddenly she stopped walking.
Her gaze dropped toward her hand.
Pale skin.
Faint blue veins beneath it.
She was human.
Yet something different flowed through those veins.
She still remembered Lloyd's words.
There was something wrong with her body.
Not the powerful secret blood carried by demon hunters.
But something very close to it.
Arthur himself was proof enough.
The ridiculous story about being some captain from Ingelvig was clearly nonsense.
Yet the stubborn old man refused to explain anything.
Her feelings were difficult to describe.
It was as though she had spent her entire life inside a beautiful dream.
Now the dream had shattered.
The cold wind surrounded her.
And she still did not know who—or what—she truly was.
Then an amusing thought crossed her mind.
Maybe she was some kind of Ingelvig captain too.
A female captain?
That actually sounded rather impressive.
Arthur might refuse to answer questions.
But that did not mean Eve could not uncover the truth herself.
She continued toward the Lower District.
Truthfully, she was still frightened by what had happened that night.
But she had learned something important.
Sometimes your life belongs only in your own hands.
That was why a pistol rested beneath her coat.
She lowered her hat, hiding her face within the shadows.
Time was limited.
If she returned home too late, Arthur would undoubtedly become suspicious.
Yet before she had taken more than a few steps, a rat darted across the street in front of her.
A red charm dangled from its tail.
Eve froze.
She watched the creature vanish into the darkness.
For several moments, uncertainty lingered across her face.
Then she let out a quiet sigh.
The plans she had made for tonight were abandoned.
Turning around, she retraced her steps and headed home like a perfectly obedient daughter.