The man tucked the hand holding the gold coins inside his clothes, as if hiding it.
They were heavier than he had expected.
He did not smile.
There was no reason to.
He simply knew all too well that this was how cities like this worked.
“A good deal.”
The smell of metal lingered on the man’s fingers.
He rubbed his thumb as if to erase it,
then quickly stopped, worried it might draw unnecessary attention.
In this city, both information and silence had a price.
And the one who received payment ran before the one who paid it.
The man knew that.
So he left behind the words, “The deal is done,” first,
then vanished into the crowd as if folding himself among the people.
Lina did not watch his back to the end.
It no longer mattered.
“Now we have a rough location.”
Lina spoke in a low voice.
Adel did not answer.
Only the brief sound of a cup being set down rang out.
Lina swept her gaze once over the surrounding commotion and reached a conclusion.
“If we all move together, we’ll stand out too much.”
“I’ll go out and take a look.”
It was closer to a decision than a request for permission.
If they moved together, there would be a commotion,
and if there was a commotion, someone would gain “time to prepare.”
That time always favored the other side.
Alone, she would be fast,
and if she was fast, she would leave fewer traces.
In Schia, traces soon became currency.
As if trying to save that cost,
Lina slipped away quietly without even pushing back her chair.
Adel’s eyes brushed over Lina for a moment.
Whether that was approval
or tacit permission, there was no need to distinguish.
Lina rose from her seat and quietly left the inn.
She threw a cloak loosely over her silver armor.
She had no intention of hiding it completely.
In this city, a clumsy disguise stood out all the more.
As she stepped into the street, Schia’s noise wrapped around her body once again.
Lina first walked near the place where the man had said they were currently staying.
She passed through the people, quickly scanning her surroundings.
And then—
A familiar color brushed past the edge of her vision.
Orange hair.
Without stopping, Lina shifted her gaze only slightly.
She saw it at once.
Orange hair walking ahead.
And one step behind,
a man moving his gaze as if surveying the surroundings.
The chain coiled at his waist belonged to the person in front.
Though it looked as if it had been wrapped around carelessly,
its position remained precise with every movement.
Memories overlapped.
The street back then, that posture back then.
And—
Lina briefly sorted it out in her mind.
Hongnyeon.
Her gaze naturally shifted to the man behind.
He is not alone.
And soon another judgment followed.
The information was correct.
Without disturbing her breathing, Lina matched her pace.
Neither too close
nor too far.
Keeping both of them in her sight, she quietly began to follow.
Lina did not slow her steps.
The orange hair ahead was still cutting through the crowd at the same pace.
The man following behind walked one step back, as if watching the surroundings.
It was natural.
So she kept him in her sight once more.
After passing one alley,
when people’s shoulders briefly overlapped—
Lina widened her field of vision slightly.
The orange hair was still there.
But the man who had been behind was nowhere to be seen.
As if confirming it once more, Lina turned her head only the slightest bit.
Shoulders brushed, luggage swayed,
and amid bursts of laughter, it was common for a person to disappear in this city.
That made it all the stranger.
That man had moved like someone “prepared to disappear.”
A way of sticking close and then falling away, leaving no trace.
Lina folded that fact away in one corner of her mind.
For now, Hongnyeon came first.
Melanie’s steps were gradually leaving the bustling street.
Toward a direction where the density of people thinned
and the noise faded.
Maintaining her distance and her line of sight, Lina followed that change.
There was no need to attach meaning to it.
For now, not losing him was everything.
At last, Melanie stopped walking.
It was not entirely sudden.
His pace slowed a little,
then he turned naturally, like someone who had taken the wrong road.
“Are you my fan?”
His tone was light.
It was not quite laughter,
but it was loose enough to sound like a joke.
Lina stopped where she stood.
Her gaze brushed past Melanie,
then immediately moved to the surroundings.
The end of the alley.
Overlapping walls.
A few footsteps growing distant.
She sensed no other presence.
That was enough.
Lina looked back at Melanie and spoke low.
“Hongnyeon.”
Then added very briefly,
“The abdominal wound you took back then.”
“It must have been deeper than expected.”
Melanie’s eyebrow rose faintly.
“Ah.”
Melanie placed a hand on his waist,
then lowered it as if it were nothing.
“I had a pretty hard time thanks to that.”
It sounded like neither complaint
nor resentment, but a report of fact.
Melanie tilted his head to one side.
“But you know.”
His gaze briefly brushed past Lina’s back.
“Are you alone?”
Melanie’s eyes returned to Lina.
Unlike his light tone,
his eyes were not light in the slightest.
Instead of answering, Lina changed the angle of her toes.
Not an angle meant for escape, nor one meant to charge—
an angle that allowed both.
Whether it was sword or chain, whichever moved first, she would not be late.
Melanie’s fingers brushed past his waist.
It was a motion checking the “distance” before the weapon.
Lina did not answer to the end.
Within that silence, the two were already measuring each other.
—
Bang!
Erdin pushed the door open almost as if shoving it in and entered.
He was slightly out of breath.
Even after stopping, he took a beat to steady his breathing.
“Huh?”
Mendel reacted first.
“Erdin, didn’t you go out with Sir Melanie today?”
At those words, Miryeong’s expression twisted faintly.
Erdin shook his head briefly.
“No.”
Then immediately continued.
“Sir Melanie—”
“Said that female knight from back then was following him.”
The air in the room sank in an instant.
“He told me to inform you of this and moved first.”
Those words alone were enough to convey the situation.
“They’re faster than expected.”
Mendel muttered low.
Miryeong was already rising from her chair.
“Where is he?”
Without even waiting for Erdin’s answer, she poured out her words.
“Hurry and lead the way.”
The moment Erdin nodded and was about to turn—
Rangnan’s voice cut in briefly.
“Muryeong?”
Erdin lifted his head.
“Not yet—”
Before he could even finish, Miryeong opened the door first.
“Later. That idiot Melanie…”
Erdin and Miryeong rushed out of the room almost at the same time.
Those left behind stared after them for a moment.
The situation had already begun moving.
Miryeong and Erdin ran straight through the crowd, forcing it apart.
Shoulders collided,
and curses burst out behind them, but neither paid any attention.
“Can’t you run a little faster?”
Miryeong spat out without even catching her breath.
Erdin ran with his head lowered and said,
“I-I’m sorry…!”
Each time his feet struck the ground, his breathing lagged by a beat.
“Still—”
Erdin continued.
“It’s not far. It was around here.”
Instead of answering, Miryeong clenched her jaw tight.
Then—
The air split faintly.
Miryeong’s nose twitched for an instant.
She did not stop walking.
But her breathing changed once.
There.
Amid the smell of people, a familiar line was mixed in.
The smell of iron, sweat.
And—
“Melanie.”
Miryeong muttered briefly.
The scent was distinct, but not steady.
With just one shift of the wind, it thinned,
then grew close again with the next breath.
Miryeong glanced back at Erdin.
“I’ll go ahead.”
Before the words were even finished, Miryeong’s foot struck the ground hard.
Her speed changed visibly.
As if dodging through people, as if cutting them apart, her body shot forward.
Erdin watched her back recede in an instant and gritted his teeth.
“It’s that way—!”
The shout was already left behind.
Without losing the scent, Miryeong was throwing herself deeper into the alley.
Miryeong ran, looking only ahead.
Even in an alley where people had thinned, she did not slow down.
Her certainty that he was ahead was stronger than the sensation of her feet striking the ground.
At that moment—
Her shoulder slammed hard into something.
“Ugh—”
In an instant, her body was knocked sideways and rolled across the ground.
The stone pavement scraped past her arm and side.
Her breath cut off for a beat.
Miryeong gritted her teeth.
It felt as though someone had thrown their body out from among the people “just once,”
pushing her path sideways.
The scent left on her shoulder followed belatedly.
Alcohol, sweat, damp leather.
Not the trace of someone trying to interfere,
but simply the trace of a drunken person staggering around.
“Tch.”
Miryeong changed her breathing again.
A short inhale, a long exhale.
She pressed the gravel underfoot with her toes to set her direction,
and kept her body close to the wall.
There was no time now to worry about a drunk.
So Miryeong moved quickly again.
Ahead.
Then—
The air she sensed changed.
A sharp but ominous smell that pierced the tip of her nose.
Different from the smell of iron,
it was the smell of human blood.
Miryeong’s eyes widened in an instant.
“……!”
Holding her breath in, she shouted.
“Melanie!”
The sound shot into the depths of the alley.
Miryeong raised her speed even further.
She pushed the pain lingering in her leg and side out of her awareness.
Without losing the smell of blood,
toward the deeper part—
She was almost hurling her body forward.