At 5:00 a.m. on Thursday, Zavi got to his feet and stretched his muscles.
After completing several sets of push-ups and pull-ups with short breaks in between, Zavi stood by the window at 5:30 a.m.
His mind had grown calm, and he felt a profound sense of peace as the last breath of the night breeze drifted in through the window.
In truth, everything he was doing that morning was pointless, and Zavi knew it.
As for that chain, it and his pocket watch were always on his mind.
'Like my own life?'
Zavi found it strange that at that moment, he could clearly hear the distinctive ticking of his pocket watch even though it was far away from his room.
What had happened that night left Zavi confused, unable to find even the slightest clue behind the oddity.
He raised his head higher and sank into thought.
'The chain, the pocket watch, Friday, and Saturday. Is all of that really just a coincidence?'
Zavi had always denied that he possessed any kind of luck in life, at least for now.
Everything he had experienced seemed to be connected, and that was precisely why he wanted to unravel it all.
From the very beginning, the destruction of Eaurealis Castle had made no sense at all.
In early November, the month of his birth, the demon horse appeared. December 20th, in the morning, at an apartment in Luand District, Greysia City.
The city square, where he met Zuhen Mudelk and Felina Ronatte.
A brief battle. Allies. Searching for information about the appearance of the ten demon horses in Moran City, in Niki District.
Meeting Aaron Kwok and fighting one another. The clock tower and its bell on Suncrise Street No. 11, along with the winged creature Resse.
His encounter with the Level Five evil spirit woman, Mastering.
Zavi being dragged into a world that blatantly ignored all laws.
The traces and members of the Order of The Blazing Dawn wandering throughout Moran.
The death of Karl Vairanz. The traces of the Intersection Society Order and the bustling Forgenate District.
The battle at Zen University on Huween Street No. 2.
The appearance of the winged creatures and Moran becoming a dead city after the comet fell in Niki District.
All of that had happened within only a few days.
Zavi recalled those events with emotions he could not put into words.
After thinking for a while, he finally prepared to take a bath.
They were all still asleep. Zavi knew that.
Once he had finished, he returned to his room and got ready.
Standing before the mirror built into the wardrobe, Zavi smiled at his reflection before putting on his bowler hat.
Lately, Zavi had rarely worn that bamboo hat, the one that had become James Moriarty's symbol.
After staring at his reflection for several seconds, he nodded, picked up the suitcase resting on his bed, and walked out.
The suitcase still contained the Star and Crescent artifact, along with the Category "World" Rank 4 artifact: the Hoisline Fan.
He took a few steps toward the door, but stopped when he heard someone's voice.
Zavi slowly turned around and looked at the man for several seconds.
"Where are you going, Mr. Moriarty?"
"..."
Zavi turned back, twisted the doorknob, and stepped outside.
The man was Wildan, who had been unable to sleep for one simple reason: he had spent the entire night enjoying his money at a bar.
With an exhausted face, he walked to the left, collapsed onto an armchair, and tried to close his eyes for a moment. His body was utterly worn out, his breathing uneven, and despite the warmth of the morning, he felt cold.
Outside, on the sidewalk running alongside the house, Zavi did not tell anyone about his departure, especially not the three people he knew.
Or perhaps it was simply because he no longer needed them?
That was wrong. Zavi still needed them to help him find something he had yet to discover.
Making use of a noble, someone with extensive influence and connections, could help ease the difficult situation he was facing.
The journey to the station passed quickly, at least from Zavi's perspective.
He boarded a tram to Aramah Station, located several miles from the house, then bought a train ticket for 4 Pace and 500 Pence, the standard weekday fare.
The price was roughly equal to the cost of a meal and a drink at an ordinary café, at least in Moran.
After waiting there for what felt like an eternity, Zavi grew bored and restless as he looked around.
During his boredom, he happened to overhear an important conversation.
"Is it true there's going to be a grand airship inauguration in central Kuranda?" one man asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
A raggedly dressed teenage newsboy approached the two men, offering newspapers.
One of them, a man wearing a top hat, bought a copy for 10 Pence.
The conversation continued as the man in the top hat confirmed the details. "Yes, just look at this newspaper. Not only that, but two ruling Dukes attended the inauguration: the Dukes of Havanuheta Province and GreyHeaven."
"I wonder how many millions it cost to build such a magnificent airship."
The man who had asked earlier pointed at the illustration of the airship, only a few centimeters to the right of the top-hatted man's hand.
"At least 10,000,000 Pace could create something that astonishing," the man in the top hat explained with a chuckle.
"And there's another article too, about the king visiting a neighboring kingdom?"
The man in the top hat turned and stared at him for several seconds.
"How did you know?" he asked to make sure.
"Read a little further down," the black-haired man replied rather indifferently.
The man in the top hat laughed, scratched his cheek, and continued reading the upper paragraph beneath the illustration of a magnificent place.
Zavi fell silent. A few seconds later, he waved toward the newsboy standing several meters away.
"Hey, kid, come here."
The teenager, wearing a wool cap, stopped offering newspapers to a woman and hurried over to where Zavi was sitting.
"Yes, sir? Why did you call me?"
Displaying a mixture of innocence and an awareness of his social standing, the teenager hesitated as he looked directly at Zavi's face.
Zavi reached into his pocket and pulled out some money.
"Give me the newspaper with the best information," Zavi said firmly, extending his hand.
'As if there's a newspaper that publishes only the best information. Idiot.'
Zavi muttered to himself. The teenager was only doing this job to earn money for his own survival, and in truth, he had no idea what Zavi was talking about.
The newsboy hesitated briefly, then quickly picked up the newspaper from the top of the stack and handed it over.
Upon clearly seeing the banknote, the teenager stared at it for several seconds while Zavi unfolded the newspaper and began reading the first few paragraphs that caught his attention.
Noticing the delighted expression on the teenager's face as he looked at the money, Zavi lowered the newspaper and asked, "Why are you just standing there instead of taking the money?"
The teenager froze when Zavi looked at him sharply, though Zavi was simply puzzled by his reaction.
"Um, the newspaper costs 10 Pence. You're offering 1 Pace, sir, and I don't have any change," the teenager answered nervously.
Zavi instinctively began folding the newspaper again.
"If you don't want it, that's fine too."
"Of course I want it," the teenager snorted.
He snatched it.
"Huh?"
Zavi was caught off guard. The teenager grabbed the money and, before leaving, smiled and said, "Thank you, sir."
"You're welcome..."
Zavi's attention shifted to a familiar figure walking directly in front of him, and the blue in his eyes seemed to fade for a moment.
He instinctively straightened his posture. Sensing that someone was watching her, the woman turned around. Her gaze settled on his position, hidden behind the wall lined with protruding benches and a partition separating the waiting room from the exit, for several tense seconds.
'Who? Is someone watching me?'
After hesitating briefly, she continued walking, the muscles in her neck visibly tense as she climbed the stairs and disappeared back into the crowd at the station.
Still seated in the second chair, Zavi let out a sharp breath the moment he saw the woman leave.
'Damn it, why... why is she here?'
Of course, he disliked her after what had happened that day. That woman was Evelina Kalderan.
He hated the fact that she had dragged him to the Corsturetion the Corps club, along with that sharp smirk of hers.
Yes, Zavi had been in terrible condition that day. For now, he wanted to cut ties with her.
After waiting for half an hour, the steam train arrived at exactly 8:00 a.m., as usual.
A station employee announced the train's arrival through a megaphone.
Zavi immediately made his way over, carrying his suitcase while glancing at his ticket.
'This journey will take several days. I know that.'
Zavi slipped the ticket into the breast pocket of his suit, adjusted his bowler hat, and handed the ticket to the attendant standing beside the door.
"Thank you. Have a safe journey," the attendant said with a smile.
"Yes, thank you," Zavi replied rather indifferently.
After walking for several seconds, he took a seat in the first carriage beside the window. Soon afterward, another passenger arrived, sat across from him, and struck up a brief conversation.
His journey back to his hometown had begun.
....
Far from the station, on Jikusuma Street.
9:18 a.m.
Click.
The door of a modest two-story house opened, and a woman in a red dress stepped inside. The area around her was brightly lit, while directly ahead, everything seemed dark, gloomy, and deathly silent.
"Has everyone already left?"
The woman shook her head before calmly continuing inside.
From the left, beneath a mahogany chair, a familiar acquaintance startled her with a groan.
"Evelina... what are you doing?" the man asked.
"...Luis? Why are you lying under the chair?"
Instead of answering, Evelina asked her own question.
A moment later, her curiosity about the house's silence returned.
"Where are Luifis and the other ten people?" she asked again.
Luis raised his head and looked at the woman with weary eyes.
"I don't know," he answered weakly.
"Huh? Haven't you been in this house the whole time?"
Luis nodded before suddenly getting to his feet.
"The problem is, I've run out of money," he said, scratching the back of his head.
Evelina stared at him in disbelief before saying, "You gambled again? That's why you shouldn't gamble whenever you have money. Just look at yourself now..."
Her words stopped when Luis interrupted her with a gloomy expression. "No. The money didn't disappear because of gambling..."
Luis bit his lower lip as Evelina watched him with bated breath while the unfortunate man continued.
"...It just vanished."
At first, Evelina didn't believe him. However, after seeing the gloomy look on Luis's face, she began to consider his story.
"Where did you lose the money?"
Luis pulled a chair behind him, sat down, and answered, "On the outskirts of Jikusuma."
"You mean the Haban slum district?" Evelina asked to make sure.
Luis nodded, unable to say anything else.
After that brief conversation, Evelina was left speechless when she realized Luis was not the only one who had lost money. On the contrary, the people walking along the same sidewalk at precisely the same time had suffered the same fate, making the incident seem unlike an ordinary theft.
Realizing this, the two of them hurried to the scene, which by then was already crowded with police officers, investigators, and pedestrians.
....
In a rundown alley in Haban, hundreds of meters away from the commotion, the specialist team dispatched by the police apprehended a suspected thief.
He was falsely accused despite never having stolen anything. The man, with his messy black hair and rough, furious temperament, struggled desperately against the team's grip.
Feeling threatened, one of them fired a shot.
Bang!
"Ah... what are you doing..."
The man screamed, clenching his fists and repeatedly punching the stone beneath him until the skin peeled away and flesh was exposed.
The police specialists searched him while raising their weapons, then executed the man.
A barrage of gunfire echoed through the air for several seconds.
The birds nesting throughout the slum scattered in every direction, leaving only the thunderous sound of flapping wings behind.
Although he had been suspected of being the lucky thief preying on the crowded streets of the slum, the man had merely stolen food and did not deserve such a death.
His companions, or more appropriately, the unfortunate children who had lost their parents, especially the thirteen-year-old teenager, could not accept his death.
Two of the six young men stepped forward, throwing punches at one of the officers while shouting furiously.
The elite police team dodged the attack. However, one of them did something utterly despicable.
Bang!
His cold stare settled on a filthy-faced girl dressed in tattered clothes.
A silver revolver was aimed directly at her head.
"Step forward if you want to die..."
Naturally, both the girl and the teenager shouted back in anger, accepting the challenge.
One of them, a fifteen-year-old boy, stepped forward to protect the two of them.
"Please forgive them, sir." He ordered the two young men to step back.
"They don't know anything. Please forgive them for their mistake."
The teenager bowed, hoping to earn forgiveness from the five officers.
They shoved the teenager aside and hurried off in search of their real target.
Meanwhile, the two girls and the teenager approached the dirty blond-haired boy.
"Ein, are you okay?" the girl asked anxiously.
Ein looked at the young girl and smiled.
"I'm fine. Of course, this is what we have to do for now."
The six of them turned their eyes toward the man's corpse, looking at it with pity while anger burned within their chests.
The other three youths, each a year older than Ein, looked toward the three acquaintances.
"You'd better stay quiet. Neither of you stands a chance against those bastards."
Another young man with messy black hair added,
"We have to be careful of that devil. Otherwise, we'll end up like Wasa."
He pointed toward the corpse.
Another young man examined the body and said without looking up, "We mustn't steal for the next few days."
"Why?" they asked almost in unison.
"...Someone has marked this area as their own territory for stealing."
"Someone?"
"How do you know?"
"Just a hunch, nothing more," the young man replied as he stood up.
He looked at his five acquaintances and suddenly smiled, drawing reactions from them.
"Ah, so you were just joking?"
The girl ran over and playfully punched the young man, her lips pouting.
"Yeah, yeah. But remember my words. It will happen."
After saying that, the four of them looked at the young man and the girl for several seconds before falling into a long silence.