Chris, Leo, and Ray sat around a table inside the most expensive bar in Berkyo. Golden chandeliers hung from the ceiling, bathing the entire hall in a warm glow, while the scent of expensive liquor and freshly prepared meals drifted through the air. Wealthy merchants and influential nobles filled the establishment, enjoying the luxurious atmosphere. Yet despite all the elegance surrounding him, Chris paid little attention to any of it. His mind was occupied by the woman sitting across from him.
Helen rested her head on the table, completely drunk and fast asleep. An almost empty bottle stood beside her while her messy blonde hair covered part of her face. Chris had countless questions he wanted answered, but questioning someone in this condition was impossible.
Leo glanced at Helen before looking at Chris. "How exactly are we supposed to wake her up? She's so drunk she's practically unconscious."
"Then you wake her up," Chris replied without hesitation.
Leo immediately frowned. "And why am I the one who has to do it?"
As the two quietly argued, fragments of their conversation reached Helen's ears. Her sleep gradually began to fade. After a few moments, she slowly lifted her head from the table and sat upright. Her eyes were half-open, her face slightly red from the alcohol, and she looked completely confused.
"Who... are you people?" she asked in a sluggish voice. Before Chris could answer, Helen suddenly narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Wait... did you come here to cancel my license?"
Her voice carried a strange mixture of fear and disappointment. "I already threw my license card away somewhere. Don't even remember where I left it."
"I'm the captain of the Sixth Division," Chris said calmly. The moment she heard the word captain, her attention immediately sharpened. "We found your bag. Inside it was your investigation report. I read it, and I wanted to discuss it with you."
The drunken confusion on Helen's face vanished almost instantly. She pushed herself to her feet so quickly that the chair nearly fell backward. "Not here," she said in a low voice while glancing around the room. "We're not talking about that here. Come to my house."
The moment she attempted to walk, however, her body swayed dangerously. She could barely keep her balance and nearly stumbled forward. Chris immediately grabbed her arm and steadied her before she could fall.
Just as they began moving, Helen suddenly froze in place. "Oh, shit."
"What now?" Chris asked.
"I don't have any money to pay my bill."
"I already paid it."
For a second, Helen simply stared at him. Then a huge smile spread across her face. Without warning, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "Thank you so much!"
Chris instantly stiffened. Completely caught off guard, he awkwardly pulled her away and cleared his throat. "Let's just go."
Behind them, Leo and Ray had watched the entire scene unfold. Leo exchanged an amused look with Ray before standing up from his chair. "Come on. Looks like we're leaving."
The group exited the luxurious bar and made their way through Berkyo's busy streets. During the walk, Helen informed them that she lived on 34th Street, House Number 11. Nearly twenty minutes later, they arrived in front of a massive apartment building that towered above the surrounding structures.
Leo looked up at the enormous building and whistled. "So this is where you live?"
Helen immediately burst into laughter. "Not even close." Raising a finger, she pointed toward a narrow staircase hidden beside the building. "My home is over there."
The staircase descended underground, disappearing into darkness. The entrance looked neglected and easy to overlook. Without hesitation, Helen began walking down, forcing the others to follow her.
The deeper they descended, the worse the smell became. It was a disgusting mixture of sewage, mold, dampness, and rotting garbage. Ray immediately covered his nose while Leo did the same with a look of disgust.
"What the hell is that smell?" Leo complained.
Helen let out a bitter laugh. "Now you know where I live."
At the bottom of the staircase was a long underground passage hidden beneath the city. It wasn't exactly a tunnel. Instead, small concrete rooms lined both sides of the corridor, almost like forgotten apartments buried underground. Most of them were completely empty, their doors hanging loose from rusted hinges. Broken furniture, scattered trash, and years of neglect filled the abandoned spaces.
Dim lights flickered weakly overhead while rusty pipes ran across the ceiling. Water dripped steadily onto the cracked floor below. Large rats scurried through the shadows, disappearing into holes between the walls. The entire place felt forgotten by the city above, as though nobody cared what happened here.
Among all the abandoned rooms, only one showed signs of life. Near the end of the corridor stood a worn wooden door with faint light escaping from beneath it. Compared to the surrounding rooms, it looked slightly cleaner, though only barely.
Helen pointed toward it and smiled tiredly.
"That's my home."
Chris, Leo, and Ray fell silent as they stared at the miserable place. None of them had expected the woman who possessed crucial information about their investigation to be living in conditions like these.
Chris stepped closer and extended his hand toward her. "Give me the key."
Helen blinked for a moment before shaking her head. "Let go of my arm first." Chris released her immediately, expecting her to pull out a key. Instead, Helen simply walked forward, grabbed the handle, and pushed the door open. The door swung inward without any resistance.
A frown immediately appeared on Chris's face. "Why isn't it locked?" he asked. Helen didn't answer. She simply walked inside as though the question wasn't important enough to deserve a response. The others exchanged confused looks before following her into the room.
The room was much smaller than Chris had expected. It wasn't really a house at all, just a cramped underground shelter hidden beneath the city. A small bed occupied one corner of the room, while beside it stood an old wooden table and chair buried beneath stacks of papers, notebooks, and investigation reports. It was obvious that most of Helen's life revolved around whatever work she had been doing there.
The opposite side of the room looked even worse. Water continuously dripped from a crack in the ceiling and fell into a steel pot placed underneath to collect it. Every few seconds a metallic plink echoed through the room. Near the back wall stood a tiny attached bathroom that barely looked functional. The entire place felt damp, cold, and forgotten.
Chris slowly examined the room before turning toward the entrance. Leo and Ray were still standing outside with their noses covered. The disgusting smell from the underground corridor lingered in the air, while distant scratching noises from rats echoed through the darkness.
"We need answers quickly," Chris said. "And after that, we still have to find Felix Ward."
Ray glanced toward him and shook his head. "I don't think we're getting those answers anytime soon."
Chris frowned. "What does that mean?"
Instead of answering, Ray simply pointed behind him. "Look for yourself."
Chris turned around and immediately froze. Helen had already collapsed onto her bed and fallen asleep. For several seconds complete silence filled the room before Chris dragged a hand across his face in frustration.
"Oh, come on."
Leo finally stepped inside and looked at the sleeping woman. "Well, we don't exactly have another option now. We'll just have to wait." Ray entered behind him, and after a moment Chris reluctantly accepted reality. The three of them sat on the floor in a line facing Helen's bed.
Hours slowly passed. The sound of dripping water became the room's only constant noise, accompanied occasionally by the scratching of rats somewhere beyond the walls. The weak light hanging from the ceiling flickered every now and then as evening slowly gave way to night.
By the time midnight arrived, nothing had changed. Chris, Leo, and Ray were still sitting exactly where they had been before, their eyes fixed on Helen as they waited for her to wake up.
Finally, Helen stirred. She slowly opened her eyes, sat upright on the bed, and immediately grabbed her head. "Why does my head hurt so much?" she groaned.
A few seconds later her gaze landed on the three men staring directly at her. Confusion crossed her face. "You three are still here?"
Chris looked at her with an expression that clearly showed his patience was running out. "We have some things to discuss."
Helen stared blankly for a moment before looking toward the ceiling. Suddenly something clicked inside her head. "Oh right," she muttered before pointing toward Chris. "You were the ones who picked up my bag from the trash."
"We did," Chris replied. "And that's exactly what we want to talk about."
Helen leaned back until her shoulders rested against the wall. Folding her arms, she let out a tired sigh. "Alright then. Ask whatever you want."
Chris remained silent for a moment before pointing toward the entrance. "First, tell me why your door doesn't have a lock."
Helen answered immediately. "Because there's no point." Her eyes drifted toward the open doorway as she continued speaking. "A lot of people have broken into this place before. Every time I discovered something important, someone eventually came here, broke the lock, and stole my reports. I changed the lock again and again, but it never mattered."
A bitter laugh escaped her lips. "So eventually I stopped replacing it. Besides, I don't have enough money to waste on locks anymore. Honestly, I'm not even sure how I'm still alive."
The room fell silent for a few moments. Chris studied her expression before asking his next question. "What happened to your family?"
The atmosphere changed instantly. The tired look disappeared from Helen's face, replaced by something much colder. Even Leo and Ray could feel the sudden shift.
"I had a husband," Helen said quietly. "And I had a son." She lowered her gaze toward the floor before continuing. "My husband loved my appearance. That's all he ever loved. It took me less than a month after our marriage to realize that. So I stopped valuing him and focused on my work and my son instead."
A bitter smile slowly appeared on her face. "Then one day he found someone else. He divorced me... and he took my son with him." Helen looked around the miserable room she called home before letting out a quiet laugh filled with self-mockery. "And now I'm here."
Leo slowly stood up from his place. The guilt on his face was obvious as he lowered his head toward Helen.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked something like that."
Helen looked at him for a few seconds before giving a small smile. There was no anger in her eyes, only exhaustion.
"It's alright," she said calmly. "Actually, I like your manners."
Her gaze then shifted toward Ray.
"Kids these days don't even listen to their elders. Some of them start fights instead."
Ray immediately understood who she was talking about. His jaw tightened, and his fists slowly clenched. The irritation was visible on his face, but he didn't say a single word.
Helen simply ignored him.
Reaching toward the table beside her bed, she picked up a cigarette and placed it between her lips. A moment later, she lit it with a lighter. Smoke slowly drifted upward toward the stained ceiling as she took a long drag.
"Ask the next question already."
Chris nodded.
"Alright. Then tell me this. Why did you start this investigation? And how did you find out that people were disappearing and being murdered?"
Helen didn't hesitate even slightly.
"This started about a year ago. Back then I was working for Morveth Times, and I was actually in a pretty good position there. In a few months I was even supposed to get promoted. If everything went well, I could've become the Deputy Director someday."
For a moment, a look of regret appeared on her face.
"I could've brought my son back."
Her voice became quieter.
"But that was my mistake."
Chris frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Helen looked directly at him.
"You're the captain of the Sixth Division, right?"
"Yes."
Helen took another drag from her cigarette before continuing.
"Every continent is huge. Morveth alone has countless towns, villages, and cities. Every major town has a knight captain responsible for protecting the people and solving problems. Just like Vortan Wells in Greyrock."
Chris nodded.
"I understand."
Helen continued.
"Well, Berkyo has its own captain too. The Captain of the Twelfth Division Sword Knights."
She paused briefly.
"Captain Benjamin Northern."
The moment Chris heard the name, recognition appeared on his face.
"I've heard of him before. I even met him once when I came to take the entrance examination for the knights. Back then he was only one year senior to me. He wasn't a captain or vice-captain yet. He was just a member of the Twelfth Division."
Helen stared at him.
"That's all you've heard?"
Chris nodded.
"That's all."
Helen took another slow puff from her cigarette.
"Benjamin, the Captain of the Twelfth Division, is useless."
Chris immediately frowned.
"Why would you say that?"
Beside him, Leo and Ray remained completely silent. Neither of them interrupted. Both simply listened carefully as the conversation continued.
Helen leaned back against the wall.
"Chris, there's something about me you should know. I only investigate things that interest me. That's it. I don't care whether finding the truth takes one year or ten years. If I decide to investigate something, I keep going until I find the truth."
She pointed the cigarette toward him.
"And I have a reason for calling Benjamin useless."
Another cloud of smoke escaped her lips.
"You saw the red marks in my report, didn't you?"
Chris nodded.
"Yes, I saw them."
Helen's expression became serious.
"When people first started disappearing and getting murdered, their families went to Benjamin for help. They expected protection. They expected someone to listen."
A bitter smile appeared on her face.
"But Benjamin called them poor and worthless and threw them out."
The room became silent.
"I confirmed that myself by speaking to the people who went to him. At first I thought it was just an isolated incident, so I ignored it. But day after day, more people started gathering outside Benjamin's base asking for help."
She took another drag from her cigarette.
"Even then I ignored it."
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"But eventually those same people started showing up outside the Morveth Times gate ."
Chris listened carefully.
"That was when something clicked in my head."
Helen pointed toward the floor.
"That day I stopped one of them and gave him some money. Then I asked him what was happening."
The room remained completely silent.
"He told me that people from his village and several nearby villages were disappearing. Some of the bodies were later found in forests. Others appeared near rivers. Some were discovered in the mountains."
Chris's eyes widened slightly.
"I was shocked."
Helen nodded.
"So was I."
She took another puff before continuing.
"Then I asked him about Benjamin."
The bitterness immediately returned to her voice.
"And do you know what he told me?"
Nobody answered.
"He told me Benjamin was demanding money before helping anyone."
Chris frowned.
"How much?"
Helen looked directly at him.
"Fifty gold coins."
The moment those words left her mouth, Chris's expression darkened.
"What?"
His voice echoed through the room.
"What kind of nonsense is that? Our job as captains is to protect people and help them when they're in trouble. How can someone call himself a captain and do something like that?"
The anger in his voice continued to grow.
"What kind of division is the Twelfth Division? I've completely lost my respect for Benjamin. What happened to humanity?"
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Then Helen suddenly laughed.
Chris, Leo, and Ray exchanged confused looks.
None of them understood why she was laughing.
Helen slowly raised the cigarette in her hand and looked toward Chris through the rising smoke.
"Humanity?"
A tired smile appeared on her face.
"Humanity died a long time ago, Captain of the Sixth Division."
She took one final drag from the cigarette before exhaling slowly.
"Nowadays only greed, corruption, and cruelty exist."