After successfully returning to my apartment and meeting up with Taele, I informed him that we wouldn't be able to meet and that my help regarding this case would be limited.

To my surprise, Taele informed me that the case was basically over. Apparently, the killer had taken another life in the meantime, and someone managed to see it. Although the witness didn’t see the death itself, she did see two people walking into a house together and only one leaving.

The witness was the neighbor of the victim—an elderly woman who liked to keep track of what happened in her neighborhood.

She didn’t see the man up close, but she managed to describe all of his characteristics: pale skin, jet-black hair, a black trench coat, black gloves, and an entirely black cane.

Of course, his clothing wasn’t much help since he could change his appearance at any time. However, Rankbearers working for the government were called in, and they managed to get a picture of what he looked like thanks to one of their abilities.

He had hollow cheeks and high cheekbones; his face was unnaturally thin, with a scar running across his lip.

They had yet to issue wanted posters but were on a massive manhunt for him in order not to alarm him.

But that could backfire greatly. If people didn’t know he was a killer, how many more lives could he take before the Enforcers got to him?

But I guess this is for the best. Now I can fully concentrate on protecting Sharron for a few days.

I had been wondering how she managed to awaken and who helped her gain knowledge.

I doubted it was Mr. Alodia; she might have accidentally awakened by eating something rich in spirituality, but that seemed unlikely.

Besides, from what I’d heard, her knowledge was basically on par with mine, so there had to be someone who helped her.

Maybe there are others like Mr. Alodia residing in this city. Perhaps one of them assisted her; they might even know Mr. Alodia.

But that seemed unlikely. From what I observed when Mr. Alodia gave me his true name, no one had said it before in a long time.

That’s not right.

They don’t necessarily have to be friends to know him. There are more powerful people in the country; I’m sure of it.

From Termian's memories, all the country leaders and important figures were mostly strong Rankbearers or even above that—Pathwalkers.

Speaking of Termian, I wasn't quite sure how strong he was; nearly all of his memories were displaced and sometimes years apart from each other.

Sometimes it would be him doing ordinary things—like eating breakfast—while other times it would be battles that never followed up on each other.

Well, no matter.

After returning to the forest and seeing Sharron waiting for me, I secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

I would be lying if I said I didn't expect something to happen—like Viano's goons finding her or her going somewhere else entirely.

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Standing there, she looked at me with her golden eyes; after confirming it was indeed me, she smiled—a smile that was quite beautiful.

"So you came back after all, huh?"

I scoffed.

"Did you think I wouldn't?"

"Weeeeeell... to be entirely honest," she stopped mid-sentence.

"I'm just kidding! I'm seriously thankful to you for doing this."

"I guess it's expected of me."

"Now now, don't be overly humble. I doubt many guys would help me to this extent—especially knowing that if that lunatic Viano found out, it wouldn't go so well for you."

I... guess she's right to some extent.

Although I wanted to help her, I didn’t want to put myself in the crosshairs of that crazy Viano.

"Let's get comfortable; we won't be leaving for at least a few hours."

All in all, it was close to 9 p.m., and I had stayed with Taele longer than expected—but it couldn't be helped with all the information he gave me.

What if that lunatic killer was still in the forest?! There wouldn’t be a better place for him to hide in the city!

Good thing the Enforcers hadn’t published this yet.

"Alright! Did you bring anything to help pass the time?"

Instead of answering her question directly, I took out a deck of cards and tossed it her way.

"Do you know how to play?"

"Do I? Come find out!"

---

After we spent a few hours playing and talking—mostly talking—I gained better insight into the kind of person she was.

She was very interested in the world; she wanted to visit all kinds of countries and experience various cultures. But like me, she hadn’t ever left Termol.

To be entirely honest, I never really had a desire to visit any country—or rather, leave Termol at all.

Sure it's not the greatest country but it's still where I've spent my entire life; although I don't have a desire to leave Termol, I wouldn't be against it either.

She also talked about the war between Arcan and Bruta and how Arcan gained control over Bruta's territory.

I hadn’t managed to read today’s newspaper but apparently that's what happened.

We obviously couldn’t take a carriage so we decided on walking instead. It would take us at least a few hours to get to my place; we mostly walked through alleyways and shadows.

I didn’t want to stop even for a moment for any reason but we eventually slowed down because she went out of her way to feed a bunch of stray dogs with what little food we had on us.

Eventually we reached my apartment after which she went straight to bed; I let her sleep on my bed while I stayed up keeping watch in the living room.

After the sun rose and she woke up, I instantly went to sleep—it didn’t take long for me to fall asleep as I was incredibly tired.