Haru arrived early.
Not out of anxiety, but by method. Someone who schedules a meeting and arrives exactly on time only sees who comes afterward. Someone who arrives early sees who was already waiting before the appointed hour.
And whoever was waiting beforehand had arrived early for a reason.
The underground corridor was the same—lights flickering in the second section, the floor sinking slightly on the left side of the third door, the smell of cold stone and cleaning solution that never completely faded.
But one thing was different.
There were already three people there.
Haru stopped at the entrance to the corridor before anyone noticed him.
He assessed them.
First: a short-haired girl, her uniform far too neat for someone who had spent the morning negotiating in the courtyard. The posture of someone who had arrived early because she had been ordered to, not because she chose to.
"An envoy."
