“It won't be long, I'll be back in two or two and a half hours at most.”

“No problem Mr. Valarfin, I'll take good care of Neko- I mean Yurine.”

“Thank you, I trust you.”

Yu knelt in front of Yurine after talking to Lucie.

“I'm sorry, even if I say I don't want to leave today, I can't take you there."”

Yu looked worried when he said that and Yurine could see his sincerity even if she didn't want to.

But that didn't change the fact that Yurine was angry.

“You're just a stupid person, I'm not surprised that someone like you would lie.”

“You'll make me look bad to Ms. Leafera by saying that. Besides, I am very honest with the people I care about.”

Having said that, he stood up and turned towards the door to go with Marino to the Thirtyoné Bar.

“If anything happens, run to the post office and if I can't find you, I'll go there too, okay?”

Yurine didn't answer and Yu left.

---

“Mr. Valarfin was right, you're too quiet.” Lucie put a slice of cake in front of Yurine. The cake was white, just like Yurine, and had a red strawberry on it.

Yurine thought the cake was Lucie's way of making her feel loved, so she wasn't going to eat it, even if she wanted to.

“You hardly ate anything for dinner, I thought you were saving yourself for dessert.”

Yurine crossed her arms over her stomach and waited in silence.

Ever since Yu had left her with Lucie, Lucie had been talking nonstop and Yurine's patience was running out.

There was nothing in Lucie's house that interested Yurine. The house was big and luxuriously furnished, but all these expensive things were meaningless to a child. For Yurine, the only things that existed here were the chair she sat in and the table in front of her.

“Well,” Lucie cleared her throat to get Yurine's attention, who was looking at the floor. “So, Mr. Valarfin adopted you.”

She wished no one would talk about it. Being Yu's daughter made her think of things she didn't want to think about.

“You seem to be an introverted child.”

Trying to break the silence and start a conversation, Lucie drummed her fingers on the table with more force every second Yurine ignored her.

“So, where did Mr. Valarfin go?”

Before Yu left, he told Lucie that he had something to do, but he didn't say what it was.

“That pervert must've gone to go flirting with the girls.”

“Flirting?!”

One of Lucie's two sentences was ‘Mr. Valarfin’ and her interest in Yu was bothering Yurine.

If she could vilify Yu a little and alienate Lucie from him, she was going to do it.

“Don't get me wrong, words like pervert don't seem to suit him.”

“Do you think a superior being like me would misunderstand something, elf? You asked me a question and I answered it.”

Lucie was waiting for Yurine to say ‘just kidding’. Yurine didn't budge and kept talking to cool Lucie down.

“He looks at girls and stuff when he walks, what do you see in him?”

“Not that much!” Lucie slammed her hands on the table and Yurine's glass shook.

As Yurine took a sip of the juice on the table, Lucie tried to normalize what Yurine had said, as if she wanted to ruin her whole plan.

“He's a man, after all, so...” Lucie stopped talking at a sharp knock on the door and stood up. “Perhaps Mr. Valarfin has arrived.”

Yurine, feeling it was time to leave, followed Lucie to the door.

Lucie opened the door as it’s knocked again “Mr. Valarfin, what is it?”

Yu had obviously come running, his face was red and he was taking deep breaths. He raised his head and looked at Yurine behind Lucie.

“I had to, need to, will have to hurry.”

“Why?”

“Some kind of adventuring thing, I'll tell you later.” He kept talking, looking at Yurine. “Yurine, let's go.”

She didn't like his imperative tone and didn't like to obey, but she didn't want to waste her breath on such a small thing, so she walked past Lucie and came to Yu.

“I thought we'd eat something.” Lucie looked after Yu and Yurine, who started running in disappointment.

“I'm sorry, I'll be back tomorrow!” Yu shouted as he took off running.

***

He had come running from the loan shark's place to pick up Yurine. Just after they had left Lucie's house, they had luckily come across a carriage dropping off its last customer, paid him a slightly higher fare than usual, and had driven to the inn and then to the harbor.

“What happened?” Yurine asked. Since they were in the carriage, they didn't speak until they got off, lest the coachman overhear them.

In fact, Yurine was asking for the second time what had happened. Yu had asked her when he was picking up some things he might need at the inn, and Yurine hadn't gotten her answer because they had gotten back into the carriage while Yu was thinking about his answer.

“I'm afraid we had a bad mission.” As he looked around, he thought of possible night spots. The last time he had been to the harbor before he met Rie and Yurine, he hadn't looked in the direction of the bars.

“Explain in detail, idiot.”

“We went to Marino's loan shark, and he said that if we wanted extra time on Marino's debt, I had to kill his son.” As he pronounced the word kill, he reached for the dagger he kept hidden in his waistband.

He knew before he bought the dagger that one day he would need to use it, but he hadn't thought that day would be so close.

Even now, he was praying that he would not need to use the dagger.

“His own son?” Yurine waited for Yu to repeat his words.

“His own son.”

Like Yurine, Yu also found it hard to believe. Pepe Don was obviously a bad person, but what could have made him go so far as to have his own son killed?

He took out the necklace the loan shark had given him and handed it to Yurine. When Yurine opened it and looked at the miniature, she too thought it was a girl.

“His name is Camaeron Don,” Yu said. His name didn't directly indicate that he was a boy.

“It's a girl.”

“It's a boy. Maybe it's some kind of family honor thing, he doesn't approve of his son having different orientations and he thinks he'll clean up his honor by killing him.”

Given that there were similarly motivated murders in the First World, honor killings were likely to be more common in the Second World, which was less developed than the First World.

“You can't kill someone if they haven't done anything bad!”

He stepped in front of Yu again and blocked his path, as she had done before. Yu moved left and right to get past her, but Yurine kept getting in his way, blocking his progress.

“Yurine, how do you know he's innocent? The son of a loan shark, who knows what crimes he has committed.”

“You're just saying that to ease your conscience!” Yurine shouted the truth and nailed Yu in place.

As she said, all Yu was trying to do was to ease his conscience, to deceive himself so he wouldn't feel guilty.

Because some people were like that, afraid to face the truth and trying to be happy in their fake world by building walls between them and reality.

“It is,” Yu replied. He couldn't deny Yurine's words or her realization that what he was doing was bad. He didn't want to do it either, he knew it wasn't easy to kill someone.

But it was not about what he wanted.

“The loan shark has taken Marino prisoner.”

When Yurine had asked him where Marino was, he couldn't answer. Now he was telling her.

“He took him prisoner even though his current deadline has not yet expired and said he would kill him if I failed the mission.”

If Marino Swann died, his wife would be widowed and his children orphaned, but he didn't care about Marino's family or Marino himself. The only thing Marino meant to Yu was money. If there was someone else who could replace Marino, he would deal with him.

“If he dies, his wife and children will be left out in the cold, but I honestly don't care about that.”

He wanted to be honest with Yurine, even if what he said made him sound heartless.

“The first thing I thought about was you. Like I told you, we need money to achieve your goal and-”

“Our,” Yurine intervened. “Our goal.”

Yu looked like he was helping Yurine with her wish. He also wanted Yurine's wish to come true.

But he still found it hard to believe that it could come true.

“Our goal.” He repeated to make her feel better. “Anyway, of course we can think of other ways to raise money if necessary. It's the other thing that's really driving me to do this.”

Ignoring the first two reasons, the third one alone was motivation enough for him to accept the mission.

“If the loan shark kills Marino, and I'm sure the bastard will kill him, he will kill me too, to prevent me from blowing the whistle to the city guards because I know who killed Marino.”

He wanted to live, he had killed Sorrow to live, and his motivation to live made him accept a mission in which he had to kill an innocent man.

“This is what they call a double-edged sword. If Marino dies, I will be killed to keep me from talking, and if I kill his son, he can say I killed his son and have me arrested. Even if I have to kill him, I have to do it carefully.”

As Yu began to plan how to carry out the mission, Yurine moved out of the way and started walking beside him.

Yurine wanted her mother to live, so she wanted to rewind time to prevent her death.

She needed Yu, the only person who knew what had happened, to fulfill her wish.

Yurine whispered. “Why did it have to be with an asshole like you?”

Yu heard her quietly spoken words. He still didn't say anything, he couldn't refuse. He knew he was an asshole.

“I'm not planning to kill him, if things go well we will catch him and give him to his father.”

He didn't have a rope to tie him up, but he planned to use the whip he had bought in the hope of using it again one day. The whip was also in his bag.

He did not know how to use it and was afraid of injuring himself trying, but he would not hesitate to use it, just like his dagger, if he had to.

The last thing he had with him to be effective in defense and attack were the magic stones. He had seen Rie using them, and when he found out he could buy them in Rolderhelm, he wasted no time in buying them.

But they were expensive and he had only been able to buy a few magic stones.

“As if he won't kill him.”

He had ordered his son's execution, of course he would not hesitate to kill him if he could.

Maybe normal fathers would show mercy, but Pepe Don was not normal.

“If we manage to turn back time, it will be as if it never happened.”

He didn't know what to believe, the things he wanted to believe seemed like dreams to him, yet he couldn't stop imagining them.

“Where will you find him?”

Yu and Yurine were walking in the harbor area. They were walking next to the street where Yu had walked on his first night, and where he had fallen down when the ground collapsed.

He hadn't gone in there so as not to remind Yurine of that day.

“Let's think about it.” He brought his right hand to his chin while holding his elbow with his left hand. It was a gesture he always made when he was thinking about something serious. “There are probably ships coming into the harbor at night, but I'm going to assume they leave in the morning, and he will want to be as close to the harbor as possible because he will want to leave as soon as morning comes.”

Yu was still on a street with houses where people lived, it was in the harbor area, but not at the bottom of the harbor. He had to go a little further and get closer to the harbor.

“I want to say he might be somewhere with a lot of women, but it's like the middle ages, I don't think there are any bars for women, or anywhere to hang out at night.”

There might be women working to entertain men, but even in Rolderhelm he couldn't say that women had a nightlife.

“If you walk into the same place as him, how are you going to recognize him?” Yurine pointed to another problem. “Maybe he dyed his hair, maybe he cut it and started to look like a man.”

In addition to changing his appearance, it was also difficult to recognize him just by looking at the miniature portrait because it was drawn by hand.

“If he's disguised as a woman, there is a way to recognize him, but it's a bit of luck.”

“What's the way?”

“Adam's apple. The area where the vocal cords are located, look here.” Yu used his index finger to show Yurine the slight bump on his throat.

The Adam's apple was a protrusion, usually seen in men, where the vocal cords were located.

“It is usually seen in men, but occasionally in women, and in some men it is not obvious. In the miniature, he is drawn as a girl, but if he is still a man and the Adam's apple is prominent, I think we can recognize him.”

When he was in high school, his teacher asked him a riddle. In the riddle, a criminal escaped to a bar where only women were present, disguised as a woman, and the policemen who followed him into the bar caught him by looking at the Adam's apple.

“How will you recognize it if there are other women?”

“Unless lens technology has improved, her eyes will be dark blue. His father was a baby face, and his face will be completely smooth, unless he inherited the gene of a bearded man from his mother's side. Even if he changes the color of his hair, these two features combined with the Adam's apple will give us a chance to recognize him. If he cuts his hair and tries to look like a man, the dark blue eyes and smooth face will still be there.”

He didn't believe he could suddenly find a false beard, he couldn't change his eye color if he didn't have a magic for it, and if he had such magical power he would have escaped earlier.

And if he put a hood over his head to avoid being recognized, it would only attract more attention.

So Yu believed that if he tried to blend in where there were people, Yu would somehow recognize him.

But if he locked himself in a room or hid on a street corner until morning, it would be impossible to find him.

“It's all down to luck, as always.”

***

They went into the bars and inns by the sea and the restaurants that were still open at night, looking for Camaeron Don.

The path Yu and Yurine walked along had the sea on the left and buildings on the right. Walking here reminded him of when he used to go for walks at night with his older sisters.

“This could last all night.” Yurine watched the sea as she walked. There were ships at anchor and one in the distance was approaching the harbor. “Stupid human, so eager to get yourself killed.”

“Is this you being nice to me?”

Every place they entered, they left empty-handed. Worse than finding nothing was the possibility that they had missed Camaeron in one of the previous places.

They stopped in front of another bar that was open, and unlike the other bars, this one had female voices mixed in with the male voices coming from inside.

“Remember, we're looking for someone with dark blue eyes and baby face. And look at women's throats.”

“I know.”

The bars of the Harbor District were innocent compared to the bars in the remote corners of the Hull Quarter.

Still, children were not allowed inside, so getting Yurine inside was a challenge.

“We don't allow kids here, there are more family-friendly places downstairs.”

As soon as they entered the bar, a man Yu assumed to be security called after them and stopped them.

“Oh,” Yu and Yurine both sighed at the same time and looked at him.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The man who stopped them was an old teacher type who had moved to the coastline after retiring. He was wearing short sleeves even though the weather was getting colder and his hair was gray, just like his eyes.

“I understand you, but it's getting annoying to be stopped everywhere we go. She's not a child, she's a magical loli about a hundred years old.” He grabbed Yurine's shoulder and encouraged her to use magic to make her words convincing.

“But how should I let her in now?” The man seemed a little convinced after seeing Yurine's light and wind spells, but hesitant because the girl in front of him still looked like a child.

“Listen to me, low life form, we have no time to lose. Shut up and get back to work.”

“Don't be rude! I'm trying to make our point properly, it would be easier if you didn't do that.”

After Yurine's rude words, he shook her shoulder and warned her. They had pre-scripted the dialog to be more convincing and even a small detail like shaking her by the shoulder was scripted.

“Look, we're after someone.” Yu approached the retired teacher-looking man and showed him a miniature portrait of Camaeron Don. “Despite her good looks, she is a dangerous criminal. She is on the run from Rolderhelm and we need to find her before morning. We suspect she may be in here.”

“Ah- I see,” the man warned after taking a good look at the picture. “Still, she'll attract too much attention, so don't linger too long inside.”

“Okay.”

Yu and Yurine went inside the bar and started scanning around for the man they were looking for.

A few people who saw Yurine were surprised that she was here because of her appearance, but Yu and Yurine ignored them and focused on their search.

“Hello,” a tall brunette woman called out from behind Yu, who was looking around for Camaeron.

“Hello.”

She had light purple hair that clashed with her black eyebrows, a style Yu didn't like. She was dressed as a waitress, so he knew she was an employee.

"No children allowed here, take her out-"

“Please.” Yu interrupted her exasperatedly and put his hand to his face in reproach. “Yes, I know that, no children allowed, but she's not a child, she's a hundred year old magical loli. We told the man at the door.” Feigning exasperation to increase credibility was a method Yu had discovered in elementary school. “Let's show her your magical side and get back to work.”

With the same bored expression, Yurine showed the woman a few orbs of light and she believed she was a hundred years old.

It seemed so ridiculous to Yu that they could easily believe Yurine was a hundred years old that he couldn't believe they believed it.

“They're no strangers to magic, but they don't understand it, that must be why they believe so easily.”

“I'm sorry, but I can't tell how old someone is either. An elf is two hundred years old, a child is a hundred years old, we can't understand.”

“You are right, of course.” He nodded that he agreed with her, then took the miniature picture out of his pocket and showed it to her. “What about this girl, have you seen her around here? She may have dyed her hair or cut it. She has dark blue eyes and a smooth face.”

“I haven't seen her, and even if someone like that came here, I wouldn't remember, I deal with so many people every day.”

“Got it, thanks.”

After the woman went back to her own business, they stayed in the bar for a while, looking for Camaeron, but he wasn't here either, or he was hiding somewhere they couldn't get into.

They went out and walked to the next place.

“What does loli mean?” Yurine didn't know what it was because the word hadn't appeared in the dialogues they had studied before.

“It means little girls, but only the cute ones.”

“What a stupid word, don't say such stupid things, stupid person.”

“What part don't you like? Is it the little girl, the cute one or the way the word is pronounced?”

“Shut up.”

“I didn't mention that part.”

For all his awkwardness, he liked being able to talk to her. The small conversations were important to lighten his heart.

“There's not much space left and we still haven't found him. Maybe he's left behind, maybe he's never been here.”

“How else is he going to escape the city? That bastard wouldn't tell me when his son escaped. The city is blocked after sunset, and if he doesn't use the illegal routes, the only way out is to wait for morning.”

If he bribed the guards and left the city walls, there was no way to find him. If instead of going to the harbor, he waited near the city gates for them to open, they were too far away from him now.

It was all down to luck and Yu hated that. The information Pepe Don had given him was inconclusive and it was unclear where Camaeron Don would use to escape.

“Which of the surrounding countries is the easiest to live in?” Yu sat on a bench overlooking the sea to rest.

“To the east is İlonya. It is the most similar to Rolderhelm in the world.” Yurine moved to the other end of the bench as she answered Yu's question.

“What countries are there further away? I want to know places that are a bit harder to reach but not so hard to live in.”

“When you go more east, there is Qrath, an island country south of the Brahatul Empire. Qrath is far from Rolderhelm and is a rich country. To the south, there is the El Island . The island is made up of many small states and they are always at war, but Elhaven there is a promising country. Its people are richer than the people of most of the countries around Rolderhelm.”

Yurine's knowledge of geography gave Yu some ideas. If he could find ships to İlonya, Qrath or the Island of El, he could get close to capturing Camaeron.

“But that's only if Camaeron will use the sea to escape, as his father claims, and if he makes a connecting voyage, my plan will fail.”

He had never needed luck more. With every second that passed, his fear for his own life grew.

“Fuck my head, where did I get into this?”

Everything had happened so fast that Yu couldn't do anything but go with the flow.

When he realized that his legs were shaking from the stress, he put his hands on his knees to stop them and stood up.

“Let's go to that place over there and see if there are any ships going to the countries you mentioned.”

“You keep dragging a lady after you, you have no shame.”

Neko grumbled and started to follow Yu one after the other. Yu, afraid of her getting lost, turned around every three steps and looked back.

“Why don't you walk beside me?”

“I'll walk wherever I want.”

Yurine had no intention of speeding up and walking beside him, so Yu stayed in place and started walking again when they were on the same line.

“You're such a troublesome child.”

The place they were looking at was a small place called the Coastal Inn, with a blue sign from the ship's helm. There were a few old men smoking tobacco at the entrance of the inn. Among the old men, a swarthy, middle-aged man with a machete stood out.

He had a dirty black beard, a few scars on his face and his long black hair tied back in a bun.

A pirate's scimitar hung around his waist, gripped tightly in his left hand. When he locked eyes with Yu, who he saw approaching the inn, Yu felt uneasy.

“Good evening,” said one of the old men. He turned his head away to avoid blowing the smoke from his pipe in Yu's face.

“Good evening.” Yu nodded to the others.

“Are you here for the room?”

“I wanted to ask a question.” The men put down their tobacco and turned their attention to Yu. “İlonya, Qrath, El Island. Are there ships going there?”

He studied the men's faces carefully, one of them, who had lost interest after hearing the question, brought his pipe to his mouth and took another drag.

“You can't always find ships to Qrath and El, but tomorrow morning my ship will leave for İlonya.”

“You are ship captains?”

“Well, most of us.”

He thought captains would be younger and more charismatic, not old men.

“Are there any other ships going to İlonya?”

“I'm the only one around here who will go to İlonya. I'm carrying passengers, of course, but the freighters down below can also go that way.”

With the answer he received, a new question appeared in his mind. If Camaeron Don was around, would he take this man's ship to escape? Or would he want to take a freighter, thinking it was safer?

The best way to know was to ask the man. He reached into his pocket to pull out a miniature portrait of Camaeron.

“Grandpa!”

The thin voice of a boy made the man Yu was talking to turn around and look through the open inn door.

“Come here! You said you were coming!”

“I'm coming.” The man went to his grandson without looking back.

“Fuck your family... At least say let's talk inside before you leave bastard.”

As he reached into his pocket and grasped the necklace, he thought it would be strange to leave it there and take his hand out again. He took out Camaeron Don's picture to ask the other captains who were staying here.

“I'm looking for this girl, she ran away from her father's house. We suspected she would escape to İlonya tomorrow morning, have you seen her around?”

“This?” One of the captains approached and looked at the picture with old green eyes. It was drawn by human hands, so it couldn't perfectly convey all the details of a face, but the outlines were clear.

Yu thought from the man's look that he would say yes.

“We haven't seen it.” The dark-haired man, younger than the others, continued to hold his machete, his eyes shifting from the picture to Yu.

His voice was harsh. The hand holding his machete tightened and the veins on his hand bulged as he looked at Yu.

“So, did you see it?” Looking into the big man's black eyes, doubts began to creep into Yu's mind, then he asked the others again.

“No.” A few of them gave the same negative answer, while one shook his head no.

“They must be under the influence of that bastard, something is going on here.”

Excitement, fear and stress permeated his blood at the same time. Could that man be connected to Camaeron?

“I'd better talk to the other captain.” He called out to Yurine as he passed between the old captains. “Be careful.” He could feel danger approaching.

The men were silent as Yu entered. Just after Yu entered, the man with the machete came in behind him and went up the stairs inside the inn.

“Are you thinking the same thing?”

“That lower life form, dangerous.”

“We were thinking the same thing, but not the totally same. That man is acting strangely.”

They came up to the old captain, who was holding his grandson in his arms at a table with cookies on it.

When the man saw them, he bowed his head and apologized sheepishly. “Sorry, I had to leave when my grandson called me. We can continue the conversation here.”

The little boy, about five years old, whom he said was his grandson, was eating a cookie, spilling crumbs all over his grandfather.

“I didn't say my name, my name is Lethi.” The old captain held out his hand to Yu.

“Yu, nice to meet you.” He shook Lethi's hand and looked around for an exit. “Is there another exit from this inn?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Our business is urgent, I need to know.”

If Camaeron was here, escaping anywhere else while Yu watched the front door would be a failure that would make him punch the wall in frustration.

“No, there's only the front door.”

“The back and side of the building are connected to the other buildings, if they go out the door they have to go through here, and if they go out the window...” He turned to Yurine. “Go to the entrance and see if anyone tries to escape through the window.”

“Don't tell me what-“

“Yurine.” He interrupted Yurine, he was not going to deal with complexes when his head was under threat.

When Yurine looked at Yu's face, hardened with seriousness, she couldn't resist, she moved towards the door and stood behind the old men still talking in front of it, peering into the windows of the building.

“Camaeron Don, do you recognize this girl?”

Lethi squinted at the picture, put a hand to his chin and shook his head slightly. “It's not easy to recognize people from a picture, but a few hours ago someone like her arrived. She was with the swarthy one, the one with the machete. She is going to İlonya on my ship tomorrow morning, but I don't know her name.”

“Really?” Yu shouted in excitement, startling the grandson in the man's arms. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Is that girl upstairs right now? Is that brunette really with her?”

“Yes.”

“Now calm down, there is nothing to be afraid of.” Yu first calmed his excited self, then lowered his voice as he leaned towards the clueless captain. “We are adventurers, those two are really dangerous people. They belong to a criminal organization and are trying to flee the country. We are here to catch them.”

“What?” Lethi's face paled before Yu had finished. “Criminal, organization? I don't understand.”

“Who knows what trouble they were going to get you into... Okay, nothing to understand, now I'm going to ask you to cooperate for the safety of your grandson. Which room are they in?”

“Number four.” Worried Lethi agreed to cooperate without question.

“Please come out and call me if the criminals try to escape through the window. We will intervene immediately if they try to harm you.”

“Noi, be quiet, okay?” Lethi walked to the entrance of the inn, holding his grandson tightly in his arms. When the other men waiting at the door questioned him, he shook his head and told them to be quiet.

“Yurine.”

As Yurine came up to him, Yu was once again proud of himself for having a good appearance.

He was aware that in most cases people looked at the outer beauty rather than the inner beauty. He could easily win the trust of females and other age groups, even though males of his own age sometimes envied him for having an awesomely incredibly super handsome face.

“Can you feel the presence of the people here?”

“I can sense mana, but I can't tell if they are human or not.”

“But you can still feel that there are people up there, can't you? And if those people move, you can feel the movement of mana?”

“I can feel it.”

If they tried to escape, Yurine would be able to detect it early because of the mana movement.

“And is the power of mages based on how much mana they have?”

“Yesn’t.”

“What do you mean with yesn’t?”

They were climbing the stairs slowly. At each step he paused to talk and ask questions to make sure Yurine could take down an enemy.

“It's connected, but it's not. I can't explain it to you now, but I know there's no one with powerful magic nearby.”

“Can you defeat that dark-haired man?”

“Ha! A lowly human would have a chance compared to my power?”

“Your confidence is reassuring.”

Yu grabbed one of the magic stones to use just in case and went upstairs with Yurine. The moment Yu's head appeared on the stairs, the door number four in the corridor they had just left closed and locked.

“MR. YU!”

After a few seconds, Lethi's voice came from the entrance of the inn and reached Yu. Immediately picking Yurine up, Yu jumped down the stairs two at a time.

Meanwhile, Yurine, who was suddenly picked up, was tapping Yu's shoulder to put her down after she recovered from her shock.

“Put me down!”

“Wait two minutes!”

He could see Lethi calling to him through the open inn door. The old ship captain was looking up.

Down from above jumped the swarthy man carrying a blonde woman in his shoulder.

Yu didn't know when his feet touched the ground, he flew out of the inn and started chasing the swarthy man, leaving the old sailors behind.

In the shoulder of the man he was chasing was probably Camaeron Don, who was actually a man.

“Why don't you cast a spell or something and knock them down!”

There were two reasons why they were running away from Yu. The first was that they didn't know Yu and thought he might be strong; the second was that they were afraid of Yurine, not Yu.

But no matter what their pursuers were running from them for, Yu was fast enough to catch up.

Still, he was not a good enough runner to overcome a long run. If they couldn't stop them in the next two or three minutes, he would tire and slow down.

“Don't tell me what to do!” Yurine, still being carried by Yu, raised her hand and the winds that had begun to gather at her wrist shot out in a horizontal column towards the two fleeing figures.

The man carrying Camaeron Don sensed Yurine's spell and slid to the right with a two-meter leap to avoid the column of winds that was moving straight ahead.

The spell went straight through and hit a tree, shattering its trunk.

“Did you try to kill them?”

“I couldn't adjust the setting.”

By the time they left the area of buildings in the harbor behind, they had been running for over a minute and Yu was getting tired.

The harbor strip was divided into two parts, the area where the ships anchored and the area that was usually used as a warehouse.

The man they were chasing was fleeing to the warehouse area. He must have known it better than Yu, and if Yu lost sight of him, he might lose the only chance he had to catch Camaeron Don.

The dark-haired man entered a rocky area, skipping over the rocks like a parkour athlete. Yu followed him into the rocky area, but he couldn't move as fast as he could on the rocks.

He had to slow down to avoid losing his balance and falling, and the one they were chasing was catching up.

“Fire where he steps!”

“Fire what?”

“Just throw your magic!”

Yurine was confused, unable to understand Yu's term from the era of gunpowder weapons, and Yu, unable to find the right expression, chose words that would be more understandable to Yurine.

As before, Yurine threw a pillar of wind at the next rock the man they were chasing would step on. The dark-haired man felt the magic coming, but there was no other boulder for him to jump to, his foot made contact with the rock at the same time as the magic did. The rock shattered and the swarthy man and Camaeron fell into the water.

“We did it.”

He set Yurine down and strode confidently over the rocks to where their prey had fallen.

“Don't try to escape, surrender if you don't want to be harmed.”

He was holding Yurine's shoulder for his own safety, for the moment he left her he would have been destroyed by the dark man, who was much bigger than him.

A thin, white hand appeared on another rock. When that hand pulled the body it was tied to onto the rock, Camaeron Don appeared.

“Camaeron Don, don't try to escape.” Camaeron collapsed on the rock. He was wearing a one-piece dark blue women's dress and it was wet.

It had started to rain. At first it was a light drizzle, but in the blink of an eye it picked up speed and became hard enough to hurt Yu's head.

Yu took another step and the dark-haired man carrying him jumped out from where Camaeron had come out.

Frightened by the sudden appearance of the man, Yu lost his balance and fell between the rocks into the water.

“Y-” He heard Yurine's voice, he was about to say his name but at the last moment she swallowed the word.

Then a man's harsh cry was heard, and by the time Yu climbed back onto the rocks and emerged from the knee-deep water, Yurine had sent the man back into the rocks with her wind magic.

“It hurts!” He was angry because he had hit his head as he fell, his hands peeling from scraping against the rocks.

"He's running away!"

Yurine reminded Yu, distracted by his pain, of their purpose. Camaeron Don had crossed the rocky area and was running in the direction of the big warehouses.

But he wasn't running fast, he was limping because he had injured his foot when he fell.

“Pathetic.” That's what Yu thought of the fleeing Camaeron. Together with Yurine, he crossed the rocks, went out onto the plain and ran after Camaeron.

Camaeron didn't know where he was going either, and as he tried to dodge Yu by going between buildings, he ended up in a dead end.

Yu and Yurine had Camaeron cornered as the rain continued to fall heavily and thunder rumbled.

“It was so easy, it's not even midnight.” He had worried about the difficulty of the mission, but now he marveled at its ease.

With nowhere to go, Camaeron turned away, his long blond hair wet and stuck to his cheeks. Whether it was tears or rain running down his dark blue eyes, Yu could not tell in the night lit only by the moon and stars.

“Now let’s end this.”

He had no intention of using it, but he wanted to scare him into behaving, so he pulled out the dagger hidden at his waist and showed it to Camaeron. “Don't make us use force. We will take you to your father-”

“NO!” It was not clear whether the thin voice belonged to a man or a woman, but what was clear was Camaeron's fear.

He shouted and threw the magic stone at Yu, who had not seen where he had gotten it from.

Yu, not expecting a move from him, froze in surprise. If it hadn't been for Yurine, the stone would have hit Yu in the face, leaving wounds that would have made him give up on life, and perhaps kill him.

But Yurine was here, she used her wind magic and the stone changed direction in mid-air, traveling back as fast as Camaeron had thrown it.

Camaeron fell to the ground screaming when the magic stone hit his leg. The stone exploded when it hit his leg, leaving a wound Yu hadn't anticipated and tearing off part of his leg.

“It happened so fast.”

Camaeron groaned in pain on the ground. Yu knew his father would kill him after he had taken him in, but it hurt to see him in pain.

He moved closer to Camaeron, his pain reminding Yu of his helplessness against the Joy.

“Kill me,” Camaeron said, pleadingly.

He was beautiful when you ignored the fact that he was a man and looked at him roughly. He was just as he had been portrayed in the miniature portrait, with a smooth white face and long, straight straw-blond hair. Her eyes were dark blue.

“But don't take me to my father...” When the lightning lit up the night again and Yu got closer to him, he could see fear and tears in the blue eyes.

“Why did it happen so fast?” He was someone he hadn't even known existed until a few hours ago, someone he had never seen until five minutes ago.

But a man he hadn't even known existed a moment ago was now in front of him, begging him.

“I don't want to kill you.” He bit her lip, unable to say the words aloud.

He didn't want to kill Camaeron Don, but he believed that if he didn't kill Camaeron, Pepe Don would kill him to hide Marino's death.

To survive, he had to kill him and hope that he would be cut off from Pepe Don forever.

“I'm not going to kill you, we're going to Pepe Don.” If he had to die, it had to be by the one who gave the order, Yu would not get blood on his hands.

“Why?” Camaeron was still in pain, his hands bloody from holding his shattered leg, and the pleading look in his eyes continued to hurt Yu.

“Because I want to stay alive too.” Yu answered without thinking, not knowing why he was being honest.

Anger, then understanding, then acceptance appeared in Camaeron's eyes as he lay on the floor.

Yu was worried that if he talked to him anymore he would gain empathy and lose the cruelty needed to complete the task.

“Why are you laughing?” But despite his worry, he couldn't suppress his curiosity when Camaeron started laughing.

“It's normal, isn't it? This is the world, forcing you to step on others.” His voice, which gave no information about his gender, trembled.

“I'm not interested in your philosophy.”

Camaeron's thin lips trembled constantly as his frayed nerves formed a painful smile on his face.

“Please, kill me, don't take me to my father.” Camaeron crawled closer to Yu and held onto his legs.

Unable to suppress a feeling of pity, Yu felt both disgusted that he was a man and sad that he was in such a pathetic state.

“I don't want to kill you!”

He pushed Camaeron, and Camaeron, who had no strength in his body, fell to the ground. He was hurt, and Yu felt instant regret for pushing him and making him hurt.

He was going to apologize but thought it would be ironic since he was the one who was going to get him killed. Yet his heart ached for the cruelty of his act.

“Please, if you take me to him... again...” He didn't finish his sentence. Camaeron grabbed Yu's right hand as Yu bent down to pick him up and take him away. He still held the dagger he had pulled out to scare Camaeron.

“Stop.”

“Don't take me to him, I beg you kill me yourself.”

He was begging a man he didn't know to kill him. Yu felt the strength in his arm fade, Camaeron had put the point of the dagger to his chest.

Only when he realized that the tip of the dagger was touching him did Yu regain control and stop himself.

“You want to survive too, don't you? I understand...” Camaeron's voice was getting lower and lower. “Someone is stepping on someone, I understand, but if this pain is to end, let it not end at his hands. I don't want him to touch me again.”

“W-what you said?”

When confusion drove Yu into a void, Camaeron took advantage of it, grasping Yu's hand in both of his and pressing the dagger to his chest.

Unable to do anything about the sudden turn of events, Yu could only stare at Camaeron's face, hardened by pain. His hand was trembling. Camaeron's hands dropped and he let go of the dagger.

“What is your name?” said Camaeron. He was putting all his strength into speaking and raising his left hand to wipe the blood he had spat on Yu's face.

“Y-Yu…”

He was still dazed, everything was out of his control. Or he just wanted to believe that.

“…Valarfin.”

“Yu Val...ar...fin...” Camaeron spelled Yu's name as he took his last breaths. “Your face is more beautiful than my father's.”

Yu couldn't even swallow, he just looked into Camaeron's eyes.

Not wanting the last word to be about his father, Camaeron tried to say Yu's name again. "Yu... Val..."

With tears still streaming from his dark blue eyes, Camaeron breathed his last before he could finish the name on his lips.

“Why?” He had stopped fighting when he realized he had nowhere to run. Instead of begging to live, he had begged Yu to kill him, accepted death in a way Yu never could.

And when he left, he left Yu struggling with one question in his mind.

“Why? Why?”

How could things have moved so fast? He couldn't understand, he couldn't understand anything.

“Why?” He looked at Yurine as the word swirled in his mind.

She had watched the whole thing without making a sound, but her silence was not because she found it normal. On the contrary, she was horrified.

Yurine's red eyes widened and her pupils shrunk. She stared at Camaeron's dead body in Yu's lap as the rain soaked her whole body.

“Yurine...” he called out to Yurine for emotional support.

When Yurine looked at him, what he received was not support, but an angry glow that reinforced his guilt.

“Look at me, human!” Yurine was unable to resist her voice, she looked him in the eyes. Yu was holding his breath like a soldier obeying an order. “I did all this for my mother! DO YOU UNDERSTAND? FOR YOU TO BRING MY MOTHER BACK!”

“Yes,” Yu said, but he said it in his heart, he was in no mood to speak with his tongue.

“I did it to get my mother back...” Yurine clenched her fist, Yu was scared. “For my mother... for her...”

He understood, he felt guilty too.

Yu's guilt was even stronger for making Yurine feel guilty too.

As the pit in his chest sucked the remaining ounce of happiness out of him, he looked back at Camaeron Don, dead with his eyes open.

“Why?” he whispered. “How did it all happen so fast, how did it all come as a fait accompli?”

His scattered mind could not find the answers. Grief was preventing him from thinking clearly.

He closed Camaeron's eyes, it was time to go.