"Where should I even begin?"
Inside the cramped kitchen, Herkri sat beside a cupboard, looking even more restrained than before. That was hardly surprising—his wrists were tied to the chair with thick rope. Across from him sat Lloyd, idly cradling the fluffy silk-furred rodent named Polo. Within easy reach of his free hand rested several soup spoons and forks.
"Take your time. I've got plenty of it. Rat King, Herkri... actually, forget it. Whatever you are."
At this point, everything had become painfully clear. There was no room left for tricks. Not in front of Lloyd.
The oversized rodent curled comfortably into Lloyd's arms. Watching Herkri hesitate, Lloyd finally broke the silence.
"Why don't I ask instead? Why did you choose to worship it as the Rat King?"
As he spoke, Lloyd absentmindedly stroked the creature's unbelievably soft fur. It was little more than a living puffball. According to what he remembered from history, animals like this had once been hunted to near extinction purely for their luxurious pelts. They were extraordinarily rare throughout Inglvig. He vaguely recalled they had another peculiar nickname... something about a chinchilla.
"Because that big rat saved my life. More precisely... the first Polo saved my life."
Following Lloyd's question, Herkri slowly unfolded the story of his past.
"I'm not from Inglvig. I came from Lish. I worked as a police officer for a while before I was caught in a shipwreck and drifted all the way here."
"A shipwreck?"
"Yes. Those damned Viking pirates. I escaped during the chaos aboard a small boat. They didn't even bother chasing me. Out there in the open sea, without food or fresh water... they assumed I'd die soon enough."
His gaze drifted toward Polo.
"What they didn't realize was that I wasn't alone. There was also a silk-furred mouse aboard. Wealthy families kept them as pets. They were rare and incredibly expensive. One merchant had brought several aboard to sell in Inglvig. During the confusion, one of the cages must have broken open, and the little fellow escaped onto my boat with me."
"So... you ate it?"
Given the horrors Lloyd dealt with on a daily basis, that was naturally where his thoughts went.
"What? Of course not." Herkri raised an eyebrow. "Look at the little thing. It's adorable. Besides, there's barely any meat on it. The hardest part wasn't hunger—it was my mind. In that endless despair, I talked to Polo every single day."
He paused.
"Human willpower is fragile. At first, it was just me talking to myself... then one day, Polo answered."
Lloyd froze.
"Wait... the mouse talked?"
"It did. We talked about everything."
As if afraid Lloyd wouldn't believe him, Herkri spoke even faster.
"We chatted constantly. There was nothing else to do. I began looking back over my entire life. Around then, something strange happened. Every memory became perfectly clear. Every forgotten moment returned as though carved into stone. The closer I came to death, the sharper everything became."
He burst into laughter that bordered on madness.
"Polo said he'd remembered everything too. He told me he had three brothers. He was the unlucky one who got caught by humans, while the others were still happily living out in the forests."
"You were hallucinating," Lloyd said flatly.
"Yes."
Herkri nodded with a lonely smile.
"After all... mice don't talk."
"When I was on the verge of death, another merchant ship rescued me. I insisted Polo came with me. We'd survived death together, after all. But when I looked over... the poor little thing had been dead for who knows how long. Its body had already begun to rot."
He sighed.
"That made far more sense. Those little creatures are delicate. The blazing sun alone was enough to kill one."
"And then?"
"The merchant ship eventually reached Inglvig. That was its destination. I had no money. No identification. My mental state was in ruins. I kept hearing a giant rat squeaking beside my ears every single day. Like that... I drifted into the Lower District."
"And became the Rat King?"
Lloyd had to admit, viewed from an ordinary man's perspective, Herkri's life sounded almost legendary.
"Hardly." Herkri laughed bitterly. "You know better than anyone how difficult life is for an outsider in the Lower District. Especially one who's probably losing his mind."
"So... did you recover?"
"If I hadn't, I wouldn't be sitting here."
His eyes slowly swept across the room, as though they could see through the walls into the district hidden beyond them.
"I became a beggar. Drifted through life day after day. But life is fair—or at least it was to me. I suffered, and in return I gained something else. I could remember every person I met. Every conversation. Even words spoken carelessly in passing stayed with me forever."
His gaze settled on Lloyd as he continued explaining how he had become the Rat King—or rather, the man behind the Rat King.
"At first I had no idea how to use that gift. In the end, I was simply someone with an unusually good memory. Then one day, by pure coincidence, I pieced together scattered conversations into the outline of a story... and somehow I could see where it was heading."
Now came the truly unsettling part.
Lloyd listened in complete silence.
This was the question that fascinated him most. Somehow, through nothing but mortal ability, Herkri had approached something frighteningly close to a limited form of omniscience.
"I decided to test it. I hid in the shadows and quietly became the greatest winner behind the scenes. Those thugs never imagined that it was I who had manipulated everything."
"That was the turning point. I finally understood how to use my gift."
"And so... the Sewer Rats were born."
"In an astonishingly short time, I amassed enormous wealth. No one knew where it came from. I existed like a shadow. At first, I planned to leave this place forever. But then something happened that changed my mind."
He looked directly at Lloyd.
"That was when I began searching for... people like you."
At last, Lloyd understood the feeling that had always bothered him.
Herkri bore him no hostility.
Instead...
It was curiosity.
The same insatiable curiosity Lloyd had once sensed in Merlin—that mysterious alchemist who had casually asked whether Lloyd would consider donating his corpse after death.
Herkri was a seeker.
He hungered for forbidden knowledge.
"The Rat King was nothing more than a smokescreen," Herkri said. "A symbol. A silk-furred mouse named Polo."
"You know how chaotic and dangerous the Lower District is. The stronger the Sewer Rats became, the more dangerous my own position became. Rather than living in constant fear, I chose to redirect everyone's attention."
Lloyd lifted Polo into the air.
"So that's how Polo became the Rat King?"
Herkri smiled and nodded.
"Polo was my lucky rat. The first one died during the shipwreck. But if not for that endlessly chattering little mouse, I would've completely lost my mind. So after I made enough money, I bought another one from a merchant."
"The second Polo."
"A mysterious Rat King ruled over every Sewer Rat. Naturally, I remained the one making every decision. But whenever someone came looking for trouble, they'd search for the Rat King—not some insignificant information broker."
He smiled.
"And now... I suppose we've reached the real topic."
Lloyd answered calmly.
"You trade in information. You understand better than anyone how valuable it is. Yet you've just revealed secrets that could easily get you killed."
"What exactly are you hoping to receive in return?"
Herkri's smile widened.
"You truly are a clever man, Mr. Holmes."
"That... is another story."
"After earning my fortune, I intended to return to Lish."
He paused.
"But human beings are greedy... aren't they?"
"You wanted even more money?"
Herkri shook his head so vigorously that his face flushed red.
"You're like me, Mr. Holmes. We don't think like ordinary people."
"Would wealth move you?"
Lloyd remained silent.
If forced to make an impossible choice, money would never influence him. Should he ever truly need it...
He could simply take it.
He seriously doubted any bank in existence could stop him now.
"Exactly," Herkri continued.
"Money is ordinary. Easily obtained."
"I used to pursue things like that too."
"But the shipwreck changed me."
"Human beings shouldn't chase wealth."
"They should chase something far more mysterious."
"Something closer to truth itself."
"So tell me... aren't forbidden secrets infinitely more valuable?"
His voice rose with growing passion.
Something inside him had ignited.
For the first time, Lloyd felt an undeniable sense of familiarity between them.
"I am the Rat King."
"I command every Sewer Rat. They run through every corner of this city."
"I buy everything they see and hear."
"They are my eyes."
"My ears."
"Information flows endlessly into my mind."
"It is... an unhealthy obsession with control."
His words burned hotter.
"From dockworkers' conversations, I can predict market prices."
"From gangsters' idle gossip, I can reconstruct entire smuggling operations."
"I've even stretched my reach into City Hall."
"Don't look so doubtful, Mr. Holmes."
"It's actually quite simple."
"I can't know what tonight's dinner will be."
"But by observing what's missing from the marketplace... I can deduce exactly what ingredients the chef purchased."
"Your logic has plenty of holes," Lloyd replied, deliberately maintaining a calm expression.
"Which is why every story I reconstruct includes a margin of error."
He smiled.
"For example, you killed those thugs."
"The truth is... you did it with nothing more than a soup spoon."
"But that's too absurd for ordinary people to believe."
"So I adjust the story."
"In my version... your waterlogged shotgun still fired."
Lloyd's expression hardened.
Without realizing it, his fingers tightened around Polo.
Though hardly human, the timid creature sensed the suffocating tension. It immediately curled itself into a tiny trembling ball and didn't dare move.
"As more and more information poured in... and as quickly as it arrived... I came to understand this city better than anyone."
"It became clearer."
"Sharper."
"Eventually... I realized that by analyzing every thread... I could predict nearly anything that would happen within these streets."
His eyes burned.
"Mr. Holmes..."
"Sometimes I feel no different from Queen Victoria herself."
"I have this city."
"Completely."
Lloyd stared at him for a long moment before speaking with open disdain.
"Impossible."
"No ordinary human can accomplish what you're describing."
"Frankly, I'd sooner believe you're not the Rat King at all."
"You're merely another puppet."
"Somewhere beneath Old Dunling, there's an archive staffed by dozens—perhaps hundreds—of people collecting reports from the Sewer Rats, piecing together ridiculous stories before handing them to you, so you can stand here pretending to be some mystical prophet."
Herkri laughed.
"So... you share the same weakness as everyone else."
"I reacted exactly the same way at first."
"It exceeds your imagination."
"And people can never truly imagine what they've never witnessed."
His laughter grated against Lloyd's nerves.
"Mr. Holmes..."
"Let's return to why I began searching for people like you."
"It started quite innocently."
"I possessed an unimaginable amount of information."
"The workings of the city lay completely exposed before me."
"But the harder I looked..."
"The more I realized there was a fog inside this city."
"A fog that refused to disperse."
"It concealed the deepest secret."
"No matter how far the Sewer Rats searched... I could never see through it."
"All these years... I've only managed to confirm one thing."
"There exists something inside this city that absolutely no one is meant to know."
His speech accelerated again.
Every surge of excitement seemed to push him closer toward madness.
Perhaps the shipwreck had never truly released its grip on his mind.
"You're right."
"I am only human."
"No mortal can become truly omniscient."
"My deductions rely upon reality."
"I construct stories from facts."
"But within Old Dunling..."
"Too many stories contain impossible deviations."
He looked directly into Lloyd's eyes.
"You may not understand what that means."
"To put it simply..."
"Too many events violate common sense."
"Or perhaps..."
"They involve supernatural forces."
The instant the word supernatural left his lips, Lloyd's pupils contracted.
The change was microscopic.
Yet Herkri noticed.
His smile grew even wider.
"So I investigated."
"The deeper I searched..."
"The more I discovered the storm clouds hanging over Old Dunling."
"There is another force hidden within this city."
"A supernatural force."
His eyes locked onto Lloyd.
"Mr. Holmes."
"You saw that monster too... didn't you?"
"What do you call them?"
"Demons?"
"You killed it."
"But afterward... you didn't even bother disposing of the corpse."
"It was grotesque."
"If ordinary people had seen it, panic would've spread throughout the city."
"And yet..."
"You walked away without looking back."
"Was it because you believed no one would ever find it?"
"Or because you knew..."
"Someone would come after you and clean up the mess?"
Though Herkri remained tied securely to the chair, Lloyd suddenly felt as though he were the prisoner instead.
The entire conversation bordered on the absurd.
If everything Herkri claimed was true...
Then he was either an unparalleled genius...
Or a madman.
Using nothing but countless insignificant clues scattered throughout the city, he had deduced the existence of the Purging Bureau itself.
He had even uncovered the existence of diluted Secret Blood...
And manipulated Lloyd into becoming part of his plan.
"The rumors... are true."
Herkri suddenly said.
With surprising force, he jerked against the ropes.
Lloyd instinctively tensed.
Yet Herkri did nothing.
He simply remained seated.
"For example... that archive."
"It really exists."
"So you are just another puppet?" Lloyd asked. "Your organization built all of this?"
"No."
"Everything I've told you is true."
"There's only me."
"And the Sewer Rats who help me."
"As for the archive..."
"It truly exists."
He slowly raised one finger...
...and pressed it firmly against his own temple.
"It's here."
"Everything I've witnessed since that shipwreck..."
"Every memory."
"Every conversation."
"Every secret."
"It's all recorded here."
"The past of this city."
"Its future."
"Everything."
He strode toward Lloyd as far as the ropes allowed, stretched out his hand, and beneath his curled mustache, a broad grin spread across his face.
"Allow me to introduce myself properly."
"Herkri Christie."
"But if you'd rather call me the Rat King..."
"I certainly don't mind."
"After all..."
"Someone still has to make sure Polo gets fed three times a day."