Limping along with a hand against the wall, Satin suddenly heard footsteps from somewhere nearby. The sky was still a deep indigo. It would be quite a while before sunrise—who would be out at this hour? Could it be that someone had already noticed his absence from the VIP quarters?
Satin stopped in his tracks and pressed tightly against the wall. There weren’t many places to hide on the well-maintained road. Keeping to the shadows, away from the streetlamp’s glow, was the only way to conceal himself.
He held his breath and listened closely. As the sound of footsteps drew nearer, he let out a small sigh.
‘Not who I thought.’
There was only one set of footsteps. If someone had discovered his empty bed in the VIP quarters and come looking for him, there would surely have been more than one person.
The slow, heavy steps drew closer until they were right nearby. Satin waited silently for them to pass. Strangely, time seemed to crawl by.
‘Just keep walking already…’
His frayed nerves weren’t helped by the throbbing pain in his ankle. He eased the tension in his body and stretched his leg out, which helped a little.
Finally, the figure passed under a streetlamp. It was a man. Nothing particularly remarkable about him. What was he doing out here at this hour?
‘A midnight stroll?’
No matter where he looked, there was nothing but high stone walls. And the street—spotless and silent—gave off an eerily sterile vibe. There wasn’t even a hint of romance in the scene, but eccentrics existed everywhere.
Satin dismissed the man as one of those oddballs and waited for him to move on. But for some reason, the man suddenly stopped. He was standing not far from where Satin was hiding.
‘Did he see me?’
It’s hard to see into dark places from a well-lit area. The man had been walking along the path lit by streetlamps—how could he have noticed Satin hidden in the shadows?
Then it hit him. His left foot was sticking out from the shadow, clearly visible. Should he pull it back? Or stay still and hope not to draw attention?
As Satin hesitated, the man turned fully toward him.
“Hey there.”
Satin didn’t respond. He hoped the man would think he was seeing things and just move on, but instead the man took a few steps closer and called out again.
“Hey, why are you hiding over there?”
Still, Satin said nothing.
The man stopped just a few paces away. At that distance, even in the dark, it was easy enough to tell he was looking at a person and not an object.
With a sigh, Satin stepped out from the shadows. The man grinned as he asked,
“You heading to the VIP quarters too, by any chance?”
Satin recognized him instantly—he was the intruder who’d helped him escape earlier.
The man must’ve taken Satin’s silence as confirmation, because he lit up and started talking animatedly.
“I just came from there myself. Went yesterday and the day before trying to catch a glimpse of the Hero, but they wouldn’t let me near. Today, I finally climbed over the wall to see him—and just my luck, I locked eyes with the guards! Had to run like hell, man.”
Now that Satin could see more clearly, he noticed the man’s face was glistening with sweat. Apparently, he hadn’t even had time to wipe it off.
‘Should I just run for it?’
Satin had gone in the opposite direction from where the guards and the intruder had run earlier. But now, bumping into him like this meant the guy must’ve sprinted an incredible distance to get here.
Which meant that outrunning him was next to impossible.
“Hey, what’s got you so deep in thought?”
The man looked like he really wanted a response. Satin parted his lips and managed to mumble a single line.
“…Sounds like you had a rough time.”
The man grinned and clapped Satin on the shoulder like they were old friends.
“Looks like we’re outta luck tonight. Just give it up, man. All I wanted was to see the guy’s face—how hard can that be, right?”
Satin wished he’d just take the hint and leave, but the man kept rambling on. Every second felt precious, yet the guy was utterly oblivious.
“Oh, right—I just had a brilliant idea.”
Satin couldn’t have cared less and kept quiet. He figured the man would spill it anyway, and sure enough—
“Let’s go together! I mean, c’mon, it’s fate that we ran into each other like this. Let’s go see the Hero together!”
“No, I was just—”
“Oh, your leg’s hurt. Don’t worry—I’ll support you!”
“No, that’s not—wait a minute.”
“Put your arm around my shoulder—there you go. Let’s go!”
This, Satin hadn’t anticipated.
***
While Satin was being dragged along on an unplanned excursion with a strange man, Cain opened his eyes.
It had been three days since he’d started staying here, but he still wasn’t used to the ceiling above him. Cain frowned at it—not because of the ceiling itself.
‘Something feels off.’
He hadn’t had a bad dream, but a deep unease crept through him the moment he woke. It was the kind of ominous feeling that something had gone wrong.
He’d felt like this before, many times. During those days in Cloverland, when he’d stayed with Satin, Cain would pace back and forth outside his room every night. He knew Satin couldn’t have just disappeared, yet the anxiety never let up.
Of course, Satin had never once been missing. Every morning, he’d open his door and greet Cain with a casual “Did you sleep well?” as he checked the garden and brought in the newspaper. Whatever worry Cain had built up overnight would be washed away like it had never been there.
It would probably be the same this time, too. Satin was probably sound asleep, having gone nowhere.
Still, Cain got out of bed. He didn’t even bother with his robe and walked out of the bedroom. He had to do something to shake the unease that had flared up inside him.
‘I’ll just go up to the door. Just that.’
The dark, silent corridor pulled Cain into a contemplative mood. The lavish walls, the ornate ceiling, and the detailed floor patterns, now cloaked in shadow, reminded him of the accursed school from four years ago.
‘That godforsaken school doesn’t even exist anymore.’
The short walk to the next room felt like an eternity.
Cain didn’t knock. He only intended to stand there for a moment, like always.
Then he heard something strange. Thud. Thud-thud. Thud. Not loud, but undeniably present, and irregular. What kind of sound was that in the middle of the night?
Wrapped in a strange sense of dread, Cain knocked on the door. But no matter how long he waited, there was no reply from Satin.
Meanwhile, thud, thud-thud, thud—that mysterious impact noise continued. The anxiety gnawed at him, growing larger with every second.
Cain couldn’t wait any longer and opened the door.
“Satin?”
The room was chilly. Not just from the early morning air.
A shiver ran down Cain’s spine. The window by the bed was wide open. With every gust of wind, it swung on its hinges and banged against the frame. Thud. Thud-thud. Thud.
***
Since the VIP quarters were reserved exclusively for foreign royalty, dignitaries, and high officials, the staff there were all exceptionally refined. No one raised their voice or acted rashly.
But today, the entire VIP residence was in an uproar before dawn had even broken. A completely unprecedented event.
Even as the sun began to rise, the chaos only grew louder.
Carriages from the Grand Temple, the royal palace, the Bureau of Order, and various government offices arrived in rapid succession, lining the porch and all the way to the main gate. It was the busiest the VIP residence had been since its founding.
The reception room, in particular, was so crowded it was nearly bursting at the seams—an exaggeration, but only barely. There weren’t enough seats, so many people had to stand. The once-elegant and serene space was now more chaotic than a public stagecoach terminal.
“Of course it’s a kidnapping! Why else would he leave on his own?!”
Rita was the loudest among them all. But loudness didn’t equal consensus.
The head of the VIP security force remained composed as he offered a counterpoint.
“If it was a kidnapping, there’d have been no need to make a rope. They’d have come prepared.”
“But you said there was an intruder!”
“Strictly speaking, the intrusion failed. The person tried to climb the wall but ran away.”
“There could’ve been multiple people scaling the wall at the same time. Even if just one of them succeeded, snatching someone like Satin—he’s practically made of paper—would’ve been a breeze!”
Before the captain could reply, Katrin interjected with a warning.
“Please don’t refer to the Hero as a paper doll, Your Highness.”
“I’m his friend, so it’s fine. Look, even if it’s just possible it’s a kidnapping, we should issue a wanted alert. I’ll personally offer a massive reward to whoever brings him back safely!”
It was an extreme suggestion, and the captain looked troubled. Fortunately, Katrin stepped in again to rein her in.
“That’s not your decision to make, Your Highness. Please don’t pressure the captain.”
“Ugh, come on. We have to do something!”
Rita stomped her feet in frustration as the captain resumed his report. He’d been trying to give one earlier, but Rita had interrupted.
“At present, we’re working with the Bureau of Order to conduct a sweep of the area. We’ve also notified all checkpoints to thoroughly verify the identity of anyone leaving the capital.”
The Commissioner of Order, seated beside the captain, nodded in agreement. It was all standard procedure, but Rita still looked dissatisfied.
“What about the wanted alert?”
This time, the Commissioner answered.
“With all due respect, issuing a wanted alert this early would be premature.”
“What do you mean premature? What if something already happened to Satin?”
In truth, Rita was the only one genuinely worried something might have happened. Everyone else wore expressions suggesting that they couldn’t imagine any harm befalling the Hero—chosen by the gods, slayer of demons. None of them said it aloud, but it was written all over their faces.
Regardless, the Bureau had to follow the law. There were no clauses that allowed different treatment for the Hero versus an ordinary citizen. That meant his disappearance had to be handled the same way—though in practice, it was more akin to how they’d treat the vanishing of a high-profile guest.
“If word gets out that the Hero has gone missing, it could actually inspire someone to try and kidnap him. Zealous believers are often unpredictable.”
The Commissioner didn’t offer any specific examples—but he didn’t have to. The earlier report from the security captain had already made that point.
The person who’d tried to scale the wall at dawn had been a fanatical believer demanding to see the Hero’s face. A guard had confirmed that the man had been loitering around the VIP residence since the day before.
