Pushing open the rust-eaten iron door, Baner gestured for the men behind him to carry the cargo inside. The crates were filled with glassware—fragile things. Though packed with cushioning scraps, they still had to be handled with care.
The group labored in silence, hauling what amounted to a fortune. One of them staggered as he walked. He had injected himself with the hallucinogen earlier, and the visions were already taking hold, making his steps unsteady. Baner had wisely forbidden him from carrying anything. Instead, the man drifted along behind the others like a sleepwalker wandering through a dream.
"You go on ahead. I need to take care of something."
Baner glanced at him before addressing the rest. As their leader, he was not someone they could ignore.
The others continued deeper into the darkness.
Baner walked directly toward the swaying figure.
A strange smile stretched across the man's face. He was already lost inside whatever blissful fantasy the drug had granted him. The dim light concealed the truth from the others: swollen veins protruded visibly beneath the skin of his neck.
"Bo...ss..."
Through the haze of hallucination, he seemed to recognize the approaching figure.
Baner caught him before he could collapse and drove a dagger into his heart.
The dream was too beautiful.
So beautiful that he never felt the pain blooming in his chest, nor the blood rapidly abandoning his body.
"Next time, learn some restraint. Don't use every strange thing you find."
Cradling the man's head, Baner spoke softly.
According to information from an insider, this hideout had already been compromised. Yet because of this extraordinarily important shipment, they had decided to risk using it one final time.
The people stationed inside knew nothing.
But they still had to die.
Only Baner knew what made this cargo truly special. Everyone else believed the containers held nothing more than a new kind of hallucinogen.
To muddy the trail, Baner had obtained permission to turn the remaining personnel into demons, using them as a distraction. Unfortunately, there was always someone incapable of following orders.
In the end, Baner was only human.
He had no desire to complicate matters further. Killing the man here was the simplest solution. The last thing he wanted was a demon tracking their movements.
"What happened?"
The man's voice drifted out like a dreamer's murmur.
Baner smiled and gently patted his back.
"Nothing. Just go to sleep."
As the transformation began, Baner slit his throat.
Then he pressed harder.
With grim effort, he severed the entire head.
Blood soaked his clothes.
Looking down at the corpse lying in the widening pool of crimson, Baner felt exhaustion creeping into his bones. Still, he forced himself onward.
The shipment had to make it out.
Turning away, he disappeared into the darkness.
Not long afterward, footsteps echoed from the shadows behind him.
Lloyd advanced through the darkness with a folding knife in hand, while a terrified Em followed close behind.
Em had never imagined that Lloyd could kill so many people without making a sound.
Nor had he forgotten how close he himself had come to dying beneath that same blade.
Lloyd remained silent, contemplating the situation as he walked. Every so often, however, he glanced over his shoulder to make sure the boy was still following.
"You didn't have to save me."
After a long stretch of silence, Em finally spoke.
He had spent enough time in the Lower District to understand that kindness always came with a price.
He couldn't begin to guess what this strange man wanted.
"You reminded me of the past."
Lloyd's voice drifted back from ahead.
"A good past."
"A memory... in exchange for my life?"
"Something like that."
What a cheap life.
Lloyd wasn't lying.
Originally, he had intended to kill both men outright. But the conversation he'd overheard in the darkness had awakened memories he thought long buried.
His life could be divided into three chapters.
As a child, he ran wild through the streets of Fiorenza. He was constantly hungry, but when he ran, it felt as though the entire city belonged to him.
Then came the Demon Hunter Order.
Freedom vanished.
Yet so did hunger.
There was food. A bed. A place to belong. Even his status rose above what it had once been.
Then came the Night of Divine Descent.
And everything changed.
Those born amid chaos could never truly escape its grasp.
Long ago, Medanzo had once asked him whether they should leave the Order.
Yes, the Order fed them and sheltered them.
But Medanzo still missed the days when he could race recklessly along the riverside.
They had shared that conversation many times.
The two had known each other before joining the Order. They had both belonged to the lowest rung of society, clinging to survival together like freezing souls huddled around a fading fire.
Lloyd never knew how to answer.
Perhaps there was less freedom.
But there was food.
There was shelter.
The worst days had ended.
Time was merciless.
Before he realized it, all those years had slipped away.
"You're still so young. Why are you already mixed up with the Lower District?"
Lloyd's voice broke the silence again.
Em was only a child.
The Lower District simply had a way of making everyone look alike—thin, dried out, like dead branches left beneath a winter sky.
At his age, he should have been helping his mother at home.
Not surviving in shadows like these.
"I was tricked into coming here. I needed work. I just didn't know it would be this kind of work."
Lloyd nodded slightly.
That sounded about right.
The Lower District thrived on deception. For every newcomer, there was always someone waiting with a smile and a trap.
Em was merely a boy who had stepped into the world and immediately been struck down by it.
In some ways, he resembled Lloyd.
Not in temperament.
In circumstance.
Lloyd himself had once been approached by a priest and lured into the Demon Hunter Order.
Unlucky people often found a strange comfort in one another.
Seeing another suffer the same fate somehow made one's own misery feel less lonely.
And perhaps, more than anything, Em reminded him of what had been lost.
Human beings were like that.
Memories once considered precious slowly gathered dust as years passed.
Then one day, a familiar sight or a familiar voice would awaken them.
The tides of memory would surge ashore once more, revealing a past that had become almost unrecognizable.
The boy who once roamed the streets of Fiorenza had become this man.
Forbidden blood flowed through his veins now.
Steel and fire rested in his hands.
"You're still young. The Lower District isn't where you belong."
"Then where am I supposed to go?"
There was a faint tremor in Em's voice.
Lloyd knew the boy was trying desperately to hide his fear.
Yet the answer struck him nonetheless.
He realized he had spoken foolishly.
If Em had somewhere to return to, he would never have ended up in the Lower District.
He would never have been here at all.
Silence returned.
Lloyd decided he had said enough.
Now he needed to catch up with the smugglers.
The scent of rust and blood lingered heavily in the darkness.
For Lloyd, it was unmistakable.
Following the trail, he soon found the corpse Baner had left behind.
Another one.
Lloyd had witnessed the entire execution from the shadows.
The dead man had also injected the hallucinogen.
Which meant someone among the smugglers knew the substance's true nature.
That was why he had been killed.
Lloyd crouched to inspect the body.
Then suddenly—
A violent blast erupted from the tunnel ahead.
Scalding steam surged through the passage and hurled both Lloyd and Em to the ground.
Heat washed over them like burning claws.
Fortunately, it wasn't hot enough to kill.
Neither suffered serious burns.
Em scrambled to his feet, breathing hard.
Such accidents weren't uncommon underground. Whenever a steam pipe ruptured, disasters like this followed. Thankfully, the distance from the source had cooled the vapor considerably.
Lloyd was already moving.
The instant he regained his footing, he sprinted toward the source of the explosion.
In the darkness, Em could barely make out his silhouette disappearing ahead.
Fear clenched around his chest.
He knew only one thing:
Without Lloyd, he would never find his way out.
So despite his terror, he ran.
As fast as he could.
Following the fading footsteps.
The Secret Blood churned within Lloyd's veins.
Like a hunting wolf at full sprint, he cut through the steaming air and vanished into the darkness.
Afternoon was approaching.
Beyond the curtain of rain clouds, deep crimson light spread across the sky like spilled paint.
Travelers from distant lands paused in the streets, marveling at the breathtaking spectacle.
Flames painted the heavens red.
The sight was awe-inspiring the first time one witnessed it.
After enough years in Old Dunling, however, it became almost ordinary.
People even joked that the crimson sky was the easiest way to tell how long someone had lived in the city.
"Wh-What is that?!"
A traveler's cry shattered the casual atmosphere.
Heads turned skyward.
A steel whale burst through the clouds.
Its altitude was unusually low as it glided over the city.
The sight belonged more to myth than reality.
The colossal whale split the scarlet clouds apart, tearing through the painted heavens and revealing a fleeting glimpse of the blazing sun beyond.
The war airship was moving.
Only this time, it was descending.
Older citizens recognized the maneuver immediately.
During the War of Radiance, aerial cavalry had arrived exactly this way.
The warships would first bombard the battlefield from high above, reducing the ground to an inferno.
Then they would dive.
And the sky cavalry would descend from the heavens.
Most people didn't understand what this low-altitude flight meant.
Then came the sound of galloping hooves.
Mounted police thundered through the streets in full gear.
They gathered in a public square.
More riders arrived from every direction, converging as though preparing for an assault.
Eve was among them.
She looked up at the steel whale drifting overhead and felt strangely detached from reality.
Chief Donas surveyed the assembled officers.
Most wore expressions of confusion, completely unaware of why they had been summoned so suddenly.
His briefing soon changed that.
Pres hugged his rifle tightly.
According to Donas, they were about to launch a raid against a hallucinogen smuggling operation.
With an official delegation visiting the city, the authorities of Old Dunling had chosen this moment to crack down on the rampant drug trade.
Most operations had already vanished under relentless pressure.
A stubborn few remained.
This raid was intended to eliminate them once and for all.
Only a handful of people had known about it beforehand.
The mounted police would strike immediately, supported by nearby Imperial Guards.
The smugglers would have no time to flee.
After finishing his speech, Donas prepared to depart.
Yet before leaving, he couldn't help glancing toward a certain young officer.
Eve.
The spread of hallucinogens had long plagued the Sujaland Department.
Everything changed when this newly recruited officer provided intelligence regarding a major smuggling network.
Donas had no idea where Eve had obtained the information.
But repeated verification had confirmed its accuracy.
"Move out!"
The mounted police charged toward the Lower District.
"Was that really necessary?"
One of the men couldn't hide his confusion.
He didn't understand why Baner had sealed the route behind them.
The iron gates had been locked shut.
The pipes had been detonated.
Every entrance and exit was blocked.
Superheated gas now filled the passageways.
The people left behind couldn't escape.
And nobody could reach them.
"Knowing too much isn't a blessing."
Baner had no intention of explaining further.
He didn't know how long the hallucinogens required to take effect.
The last thing he wanted was for a horde of demons to emerge before he could leave.
The tunnel eventually led into an old building.
Climbing out of the passage, the smugglers inhaled fresh air with relief.
A window overlooked the city.
Beyond a clearly visible dividing line lay the Lower District.
Curiously, this route emerged at the border between the West District and the Lower District.
The discovery had been pure chance.
Originally, they had intended to dig a smuggling tunnel into the Lower District.
Instead, they had accidentally broken into a workers' passage and entered the Furnace Pillar's underground system.
The contacts waiting inside had already prepared everything.
They took possession of the cargo.
Below, a carriage waited to depart at a moment's notice.
"Is everything handled?"
Ender asked.
He was the receiver.
They had spent a long time preparing for this special shipment.
"Exactly as you instructed."
Baner nodded.
Only a handful of core members understood the true significance of the cargo.
Fortunately for him, Baner was one of them.
"Good. I'll take the shipment and leave."
Ender's gaze lingered on the crates being loaded.
Then he turned back toward Baner.
"But you aren't leaving."
Baner froze.
A second later, understanding dawned across his face.
His eyes hardened with anger.
"The mounted police are already on their way. I need you to delay them."
Ender spoke calmly.
"So I've been abandoned?"
Baner asked, forcing his voice to remain steady.
"Yes."
Ender offered no pretense.
No sympathy.
Only honesty.
"I don't know who leaked the information. But that's the situation. The police are almost here. Their mobilization was too sudden for anyone to react."
He lit a cigarette and inhaled slowly.
The cargo was still being loaded.
There was time for conversation.
"I... I can't accept this."
For the first time, Baner felt the cruel irony of life.
Moments ago, he had abandoned those stationed below in order to create a distraction.
Now he and his men had been abandoned for the exact same reason.
He knew he had no right to complain.
Yet the mockery of it cut deeply.
"You don't have a choice."
Ender's tone remained calm.
"This is our duty. For the sake of the great ideal."
He exhaled a stream of smoke.
"You know that, don't you, Baner?"
"You swore an oath."
Baner fell silent.
Of course.
He was a man bound by vows.
His heart struggled.
Then finally surrendered.
"All right. I understand."
After a long pause, he added quietly,
"Take care of her for me."
"I will."
Ender nodded.
"We're all brothers and sisters here."
The cigarette burned out.
The final crate disappeared onto the carriage.
Ender had arrived alone.
And he left alone.
"Aren't you taking these?"
Baner pointed toward a stack of hallucinogens still resting in the corner of the room.
Ender didn't even turn around.
"Those," he said,
"are for you."