Elsewhere, at 9:30 on a Tuesday morning, members of the Eistender hunter organization, deployed by their captain, Ashley Wilshere, were in the middle of a pursuit.
On streets that were less crowded than they had been two hours earlier, the six of them were doing everything they could to capture a tall, white-haired man dressed in a formal suit.
They were not chasing the tall man to kill him, but to obtain crucial information from him.
That information was related to James Moriarty's appearance in the city of Semilir and the death of Zavi Actitus, which seemed to have been orchestrated by someone.
Although he was around forty-five or forty-six years old, the man managed to evade capture with astonishing agility. He slipped away like a snake at the exact moment a beautiful woman tried to kill him with her dagger.
Tap.
The sound of their footsteps echoed along the broad street. One of the men did not hesitate to throw a dagger as a feint toward the tall man, but the throw missed and instead lodged itself into a pine tree by the roadside.
"This city isn't safe anymore..." a passerby muttered in panic. The dagger had nearly struck him.
"Who are they?" a man asked as he approached and helped him to his feet.
"I don't know, but one thing's certain: they're no ordinary people," he replied with a relieved sigh.
Several meters away, on the stone-paved sidewalk, a group of pedestrians was discussing the very same pursuit taking place in the middle of the city.
"You're right, Miss. They're definitely not ordinary people," one man praised the woman's observation.
Some pedestrians stepped aside to avoid getting caught in the chaos, while others paused what they were doing, fascinated by the tall man's agility as he evaded all six people trying to capture him at once.
"That man is incredibly flexible. Is he a circus performer?"
"Maybe," replied a man in a red suit with a nod.
The man beside him adjusted his hat and said, "One thing's for sure, they belong to some kind of organization."
Without letting anyone see his face, the man blended into the flow of pedestrians before disappearing into the bustling street.
Confusion immediately spread through their minds. Who had just spoken?
Each of the six people asked the same question.
"Was one of you the one who just spoke?"
Their answers were identical.
"No," because each of them had been focused on watching the pursuit until the figures vanished into the distance.
The two women were confused, and the four men clearly felt the same way. Not wanting the matter to complicate their lives, the group, who had been blocking other pedestrians, dispersed and returned to their own business.
At the mouth of an alley, the tall man's breathing became ragged as his legs could no longer keep up with his desperate sprint. He realized that age did not lie, no matter how much his spirit refused to accept it.
"Please... just hold on a little longer," he muttered under his breath, steadying his breathing as he thought through their plan.
From straight ahead, a dagger shot toward his neck. The man widened his eyes and swiftly ducked before rolling past his attacker and breaking into a run once more.
'I never expected Eistender to track me this far.'
He did not even know what they wanted from him if he were captured. Being caught by an organization like that was no trivial matter. They would not hesitate to kill him, or even torture him until he opened his mouth.
One thing was certain: the man wanted to escape this situation and return to his work.
But that escape never came. Three figures, including the woman who had confronted him earlier, blocked his path. Three more appeared behind them, each drawing a firearm.
The man's lips twitched repeatedly as he realized death was right before his eyes. At that very moment, an old saying perfectly suited to his situation crossed his mind.
No matter how skillful a squirrel is at leaping, it will eventually fall.
"Damn it, I hate situations like this," the man grumbled as he glanced back and forth between the people in front of him and those behind, raising both hands.
"Good. There's no point in resisting any longer," Renneiver said while restraining himself from pulling the trigger.
The man let out a sigh.
"What do you want from me?"
The six figures slowed their approach. A chance to escape briefly crossed the tall man's mind.
Whoosh.
A gleaming object caught the sunlight as it sliced through the air before striking the tall man.
"Agh..." the man cried out as a dagger buried itself in his leg.
He lost his balance and collapsed face-first onto the ground. Something kept rising from his stomach, causing his consciousness to slowly fade, but realizing it was too dangerous for him, Renneiver, the one who had thrown the dagger, pulled the weapon back out before the fatal consequence could occur.
"I really didn't want to do this." He flicked his dagger to the side, sending blood splattering across the road in uneven streaks.
The man screamed, breathing heavily as sweat soaked his face. He lifted his head, enduring the pain, driven by the need to see the faces of the people who had chased him with such enthusiasm.
He forced himself to breathe, his gaze fixed on the cobblestones where his sweat had pooled into tiny puddles.
"What... what do you want from me?" he asked, his voice hoarse and strained.
They exchanged glances before one of them, Maeressa, let out a sigh and said in a cynical tone, "We're not what you think we are. Relax. You'll be free as soon as you answer our questions, especially since we've already killed several people over the past week just to reach this moment."
The tall man pretended not to hear him and steered the conversation elsewhere.
"Questions?" he murmured as he slowly raised his head.
"Yes." Maeressa paused for a moment, giving the others a chance to speak, especially Elvira, who had been watching him closely the entire time.
He had already concluded that the tall man had neither friends nor allies nearby. The moment he realized that, he informed his teammates, and now they had successfully captured one of the many people they had been hunting.
"I heard that circus has members with supernatural abilities. Is that true?" Michael crouched down so his voice could reach the man more clearly.
The man hesitated for a moment. There was no way he would sell out his own companions to people who were planning to kill him.
Even though it had nothing to do with him personally, the tall man knew exactly what he had to do.
"I don't know. I was only assigned to hand out flyers."
"...Just handing out flyers, huh..." Elvira, a woman with orange hair glowing beneath the sunlight, smiled with her eyes closed.
The man immediately realized something. His entire body turned cold as the woman steadily walked toward him.
'Is she the leader of this group? Judging from the way the others act, there's no doubt about it. The woman I fought earlier really is their leader.'
Despite being weakened by the Soul Dagger, a fleeting thought of killing Elvira and escaping crossed his mind.
But the tall man knew that one of them would never allow something like that to happen again.
For now, he chose to remain silent and wait for the right opportunity to escape.
"Of course." The man spoke normally despite the pain that weighed heavily throughout his body.
Click.
Calvert's patience ran out as his finger eagerly moved to pull the trigger of his pistol. However, the attempt was stopped when Michael covered the muzzle and pushed it downward.
"Remember, don't act recklessly," Michael said casually. "Do you want Nawai to stay like that forever?"
Calvert let out a sigh before slipping the pistol back into his coat. The others looked at him, momentarily forgetting their duty to interrogate the tall man.
"I don't want to stay here any longer." Renneiver pulled out his cigarette pack, took one, and placed it between his lips. "You don't want to stay here any longer either, do you?"
The man remained silent, clearly surprised by his opponent's relaxed tone.
'Who exactly is this guy? Judging from the way he talks, he's not from Semilir. So where is he from? Minehold? BuluKamba? Rafess? Or Yorkshire?'
After thinking for a moment, the man gave up. He realized there was no point dwelling on it, especially when he suddenly remembered his master's words.
Never underestimate someone who appears calm on the surface. If they explode, they will unleash all the restraint they've been holding back.
Not wanting that to happen, the tall man swallowed hard, hoping everything would go smoothly.
"I'll tell you what you want to know," he said in a somewhat skeptical tone.
"Good." Renneiver exhaled a cloud of white smoke while glancing at his companions.
'I'll leave it to you.'
After thinking for a moment, he turned around, took five steps to the right, then sat down with his back against the wall.
They fell silent, aware of the oppressive heat and the fact that Renneiver had been one of the key figures responsible for capturing this man.
"Where can I find information about James Moriarty's whereabouts?"
They asked almost in unison, staring intently at the man as they awaited the answer they had spent an entire week searching for.
...
Not far from there, still within the city of Semilir.
A bespectacled man walked alone through a quiet alley. His expression was gloomy, as though misfortune had already found him that morning.
His calm, measured steps brought him to a modest two-story house standing beside a street intersection.
He stood in front of the door for a long moment, his fingers freezing just as he was about to press the doorbell.
'Is this really the right choice?'
Ding Dong.
Not long after the doorbell rang, the resident shouted from inside and hurried toward the entrance.
The door opened, revealing a brown-eyed man with messy black hair. He remained silent, frowning at his visitor as he prepared to close the door again.
"Wait," the man said firmly as he adjusted his glasses.
The other man stopped himself from closing the door. Displeasure and irritation were written all over his face.
"Is there something you want to talk about?"
'Did he find out? This is bad. I don't want the money Mr. James Moriarty gave me to disappear in just a few minutes.'
Luis swallowed hard as he wondered what had brought the man to the house where they had carried out that astonishing operation the other night.
"I... I'm being hunted by unknown people," Nuken explained. There was no one else he could talk to besides Luis.
His other companions had disappeared without a trace, and none of them had told Nuken anything about where they had gone or what had happened to them.
"So...?" Luis responded coldly and curtly.
"Those of you involved with James Moriarty will be caught too..."
Luis flinched, his body frozen for several seconds as those words pierced his mind.
'This is bad, this is bad, this is bad. Should I tell Evelina about this? We're all going to die if we're killed for cooperating with that man.'
For the first time, Luis found himself cursing James Moriarty for disappearing without warning and leaving one problem after another for the people he had hired.
"...Come in. It's not a good idea to talk about this out here."
Nuken nodded and hurried inside. To make sure no one had followed him, Luis carefully scanned the area around the house before closing the door and continuing their conversation.