"Should a pickpocket choose his victims carefully?"
That was the question Baston found himself asking as he ran.
He was not the noble, not the merchant, and not even the well-fed academy student who walked with heavy wallet. He was not special from outside yet someone had chosen him.
He was just a poor student that he barely qualified as a commoner.
He was just someone whose the entire fortune amounted to a single dinner coupon that was folded carefully inside his sleeve. That was precisely why he refused to let it go.
The alley was narrow, barely wide enough for two men to pass without brushing the shoulders. The damp stone pressed close on either side and the smell of rot clung to the walls.
Baston's breath burned in his chest as he ran. His legs were pumping harder than he ever had during the physical training and his robes flapped awkwardly, threatening to trip him.
At this time, he did not care about his dignity since he only cared about his survival.
Ahead of him, the pickpocket moved like the smoke. He was thin, quick, and slipping through several turns without hesitation. The man indeed knew the area far too well.
Baston barely noticed when the familiar streets vanished behind him, replaced by cramped passages and sagged buildings that leaned inward. He didn't realize how far he'd gone.
Not far away, Alicia sat beneath the warm lantern light, delicately cutting a slice of honey cake.
The restaurant was small but clean and its windows fogged from the chill. It wasn't luxurious by the noble standards but it was the best the district could offer. She didn't mind such treatment.
After all, Prius Academy had its own problem after the explosion. It was still being investigated, forcing the students to eat somewhere else.
At the moment, Prius Academy occupied an awkward position since it was too remote to attract the elite noble families and too respectable to be dismissed entirely.
That was precisely why Alicia had chosen it. In the capital, every smile hid a calculation and every conversation was a negotiation. In here, the pressure eased.
Her fork paused in midair as the movement outside the window caught her eye. A familiar silhouette rushed past, breathing hard while chasing someone through the side street.
"Baston?"
He had awkward posture and uncoordinated stride but his expression was tight, focused, and almost desperate which was quite new. As for the man ahead of him, she didn't know his identity.
The explosion in the cafeteria flickered through her thoughts like a half-remembered nightmare. Alicia didn't believe in coincidences. She believed Baston was chasing a clue. With that thought, she then rose from her seat.
"Follow that boy…" she said quietly.
Two knights detached themselves from the restaurant's shadows without question. They were assigned discreetly and they had learned not to ask why.
Alicia also didn't explain and she only watched Baston disappear into the twisting alleys and felt an uneasy pull in her chest.
*****
Meanwhile, the fat boy cornered the pickpocket at the end of a dead alley. The building ahead was half-collapsed and its windows were dark and broken. The man skidded to a halt, glancing back and clicking his tongue in irritation.
"Tch..."
Before Baston could shout, the man hurled something back at him and vaulted through a shattered window in a single smooth motion.
Baston barely caught the object. His fingers closed around the crumpled dinner coupon. He stared at it before he sagged against the wall in relief.
The paper was bent, creased, and ugly yet it was still intact. He smoothed it carefully as if it were something sacred.
"I almost starved for this thing…"
Suddenly, the footsteps echoed behind him. Baston turned and froze to see Alicia at the alley entrance. Her expression was composed but sharp. Two knights flanked her and their hands were resting casually near the swords.
"Why is she here?" he thought.
"Where did he go? The man you chased earlier…" Alicia asked calmly, "That person must be connected to the explosion, right?"
Baston hesitated because if he told the truth, Alicia would think he had wasted her time. After all, it was just her misunderstanding. Even though so, he didn't dare to correct her. The coupon was already hidden back in his sleeve so there was no need to after the man.
"He vanished…" Baston said carefully, "One moment he was there and the next thing, he was gone."
The knights exchanged glances and they moved without waiting for the orders. They were scanning the walls, the ground, and the broken structure ahead. Indeed, they were quite professionals and that was when the ground gave way. The knight's sword struck the stone hardly.
"BAM!!!"
The floor collapsed inward, revealing a stairwell that was descending into the darkness. Baston stared at it in disbelief.
"Why is there actually a hidden passage here?!"
Alicia's lips curved in interest, "Well… That man must be hiding there..."
They soon descended cautiously before coming to a small room. It was sparse with only a bed, a cabinet, and a single wooden chair that was placed neatly at the center.
"There's no one here," one knight reported.
"I also sense no living presence," the other knight added.
Baston swallowed and his mind raced. This wasn't supposed to happen.
He'd intended to bluff or misdirect. Instead, the reality itself had decided to cooperate with his lie in the worst possible way. He had no other choice but to keep bluffing by staring at the chair.
"Who are you?" Baston asked suddenly.
The atmosphere went still and the knights frowned. Alicia soon narrowed her eyes but she found nothing in the darkness.
But then, an applause reverberated around the room.
"Clap… Clap... Clap…"
A man suddenly appeared in the chair as if he had always been there. A porcelain clown mask that smiled broadly, painting the frozen lips in eternal cheer. He wore a tailored suit, immaculate and old-fashioned. His posture was relaxed and polite.
"I'm impressed…" the clown said lightly, "You found me..."
The cold washed through the room and the knights reacted instantly. The steel rang as both swords cleared their scabbards, positioning themselves between Alicia and the clown. The mana stirred faintly around their armor and their defensive enchantment was activated.
"State your name!" one knight demanded.
"Ha… ha… ha…"
The clown's laughter came out light and airy like the bells in a tomb.
"If you want to know my name, you have to state yours first..."
The nearest knight's jaw tightened, "I'm…"
"Don't tell your name!" Baston's voice snapped through the room.
The knight froze mid-word and his eyes were flicking toward Baston with open irritation as if the fat boy had just forgotten his place.
However, Alicia went still since she was not confused but alerted.
She had read enough the sealed reports and the old documents to know of one thing about the names. Though it was not clear, she still believed the secret rules in rituals, curses, and contracts that did not require ink.
This was surely the means of dark wizards.
Baston realized what he had done a heartbeat too late. He'd spoken too quickly and too sharply. He was unlike a frightened boy
He forced himself to swallow down and soften his expression, letting the panic show instead of certainty.
"It's…" he began then stopped as if he was searching for the words, "It's a trap… Don't answer it…"
The clown spread its hands, "Why so serious? I ask your name and I give mine. It's fair and it's polite."
He took one step toward them, making the knights tensed and their blades was lifted.
Baston's pulse thudded. It was too close since he couldn't let the puppet approach too far.
If it moved with the perfect confidence, Alicia might sense the invisible thread. If it moved too stiffly, the knights would notice the unnatural gait.
He adjusted the flow of mana carefully like pulling a marionette across a stage while pretending the strings that didn't exist.
The clown tilted its head, "Are you afraid that I will whisper your name into the darkness and something in the dark will whisper back?"
Alicia's fingers curled slightly at her side, "Step back…"
The clown paused and he slowly put a hand over its chest, "Oh, my… You break my heart…"
But then, the clown's smile seemed sharper, "I guess you're right that I could curse them just by their name."
Baston felt Alicia's knights shifted again, sharpening their protective instincts. Their formation tightened around her without being told.
The clown then clasped its hands, "If only they spoke, then they would die terribly… They would wake up smiling, and then, they would choke on their own neck. Perhaps, their shadows also would strangle them in their sleep."
A cold shiver crawled up Baston's spine because he had written those words and he had given the puppet that line to sell the performance yet, hearing it out loud here in the dark made his stomach twist. After all, the fake performance could convince him.
Alicia's eyes narrowed over the threat, "You're exaggerating!"
The clown's head snapped toward her, "Am I?"
The clown raised a finger and the lanterns on the walls flickered once.
It was just one small trick and a harmless flex, but it was enough to make the knights' shoulders tense as if they had felt a breath against their necks.
Baston was satisfied yet he must be careful.
If he overdid it, he would turn a bluff into a situation that he couldn't control. If he underdid it, Alicia would call it a cheap act. Either way, he was walking on a tight rope here.
Alicia spoke again, "You said you would tell your name if we told ours."
"Yes…" the clown chirped, "That's how the introductions work."
"What if we don't?"
The clown shrugged, "Then, you stay strangers and such strangers are disposable."
One knight's grip tightened until the leather creaked, "My lady… We should withdraw from here…"
Baston's eyes flicked toward the stairs.
Leaving now was good and it meant the puppet could dissolve while the lie could end. However, the clown's acting was very convincing. Everyone feared once they showed their back, the death would face them.
The inconvenience soon occurred. The clown wanted the victims to escape yet the victims were paralyzed in fear.
Baston's mouth felt dry. He needed to steer the scene back into control. In order to do that, he should make the lie became bigger.
"Where's the man from earlier?" Baston asked, forcing his voice to steady, "He should come down here."
The clown blinked slowly as if thinking hard, "I don't know. There was no one here before you arrived."
He spread its arms, continuing his acting. The clown kept convincing the others and his performance was very real.
"If you're asking about a dead man…" the clown added thoughtfully, "Then perhaps, there was one."
"You killed him?" Baston demanded.
The clown hummed, "Maybe yes… Maybe no…"
He paused then he smiled again, "I can't seem to remember."
That was indeed the right tone from the clown. It was careless, childish, and cruel. It made the knights looked ready to strike.
Alicia's gaze sharpened further, scanning the clown's posture from his breathing to the way he shifted the weight. She was searching for any information she could use and Baston hated how perceptive she was.
The clown's hands folded neatly behind its back, "You're all so tense… I gave you a simple trade with a name for a name and you act like I asked for your lives."
"That's because you did," Alicia said softly.
The clown laughed again, "You nobles have such poetic paranoia."
One knight took a half-step forward, "I will cut you down..."
Baston felt his mana thread wobble. It was not from the fear but from his strain.
Holding a puppet this detailed and this expressive while also monitoring two trained fighters and a noble girl felt like it was trying to juggle the knives while walking through the fog.
He needed an endpoint. He needed a clear hook or something that forced them to talk instead of attacking.
The clown then clapped its hands once. It was quite loud and the sound bounced off the stone walls while struck the room like a gavel.
"It's kind of boring here…" he said and the cheer in the voice seemed wrong, "Let's play a game…"
Alicia's eyes narrowed, "Play a game?"
"Yes..." the clown sauntered back to the chair and sat again with his legs crossed as if he was hosting a tea party, "One question for one answer."
He leaned forward, "If you can't answer, you only need to say it's a secret.'"
The clown lifted three fingers, "The one who says secrets more will lose."
The knights exchanged a look, "Lose? What do you mean by lose?"
The clown's mask tilted, "Lose… It's such a simple word. You don't need the details since such details ruin the suspense."
Alicia did not move, "What if we refuse to play?"
The clown's posture relaxed further as if the entire world belonged to him, "Well… Then, it's too bad…"
He tapped the armrest, "This place will blow up with all of you here."
Baston's heart lurched since he had planned to threaten them into compliance, yet he was afraid of their reaction. The words were too real and it was the kind of promise that made people choose the desperate measures.
Alicia's eyes flicked toward the stairs behind her again before looking at the cabinet and the corners of the room. She was calculating inside her head.
"I have a hunch that she believes this nonsense…" Baston realized with a sinking feeling.
Since Alicia had already lived through an explosion once, she believed the clown. She avoided the first one, and now, she wondered if she could avoid the second one.
The clown continued and he was cheerful as ever, "It won't include me anyway because the explosion pieces here will be made of you."
The silence swallowed the room and Alicia's knights subtly shifted, placing themselves closer to her. Alicia's gaze returned to Baston slowly and carefully like she was looking at him for the first time. Not as a classmate, not as a helpless boy, but as someone who could help them here.
Baston forced himself to breathe, keeping it together. He realized it was too late to break out since his drama had succeeded. Alicia was convinced there was something hidden here.
The only problem now was how he could escape from the performance he created.