"Wait a minute."
The voice cut through the silence of the city gate just as Will was about to pass through the final checkpoint and step beyond the boundaries of the imperial capital.
It wasn't loud, yet it carried a strange weight, sharp enough to make him stop mid-step.
Will turned around slowly.
A young man stood several meters away, rain-washed stone beneath his boots, posture straight, gaze fixed firmly on Will.
His eyes were intense, sharp in a way that suggested discipline and obsession rather than arrogance. There was no hostility in that stare, but there was something just as dangerous: focus.
Ethan.
The moment their eyes met, something subtle shifted.
Ethan had come here with a purpose. He had been looking for the owner of Infinity Choco House, the mysterious shopkeeper rumored to have survived an impossible sword incident, the same person Klaus had hinted might be hiding far more than he showed.
