Dunwick slept quietly, its narrow streets that were once crowded with rchants now laid bare.
He moved across the rooftops in near silence, boots landing with controlled precision.
Ryn moved like a ghost, even managing to jump right over a drunkard’s head without him noticing a thing.
Movents like these ca too naturally. Regression hadn’t erased them.
[Enhanced Senses] had never been strong enough for frontline combat.
That was why, in his past life, the kingdom reassigned him. Pushed him toward reconnaissance instead.
Turned out, he excelled at it.
He beca one of the kingdom’s most important recon operatives, slipping through borders and gathering information no one else could. Eventually, he earned a title:
"Ghost."
A phantom who saw everything and was seen by no one.
Due to this, he gained information no one else did, and worked many tis with the ’hero party.’
Ryn sighed. He didn’t hate that ti... but the muscle mory always pulled him back toward it.
Then, [Enhanced Senses] picked up sothing, an argunt.
He moved closer along the roof’s edge, angling himself just right above a run-down house. One of the windows had dim light leaking from a cracked window.
Ryn approached carefully, distributing his weight across the roof so the old planks wouldn’t groan.
Another voice floated up.
"—I told you, keep your head down!"
He stilled.
That voice.
He crawled the last few feet, peering through a narrow gap in the wood.
Inside the house, lanterns burned low over crates and barrels. Five figures were gathered around a makeshift table.
Familiar figures.
Ryn’s expression tightened the mont he recognized them.
Bandits. The exact sa bandits Stonewake had captured earlier.
He exhaled silently.
So they were freed by the ’priests’. But why...
Inside, the bandits whispered harshly among themselves.
"Tomorrow’s the day, right? That big holy guy coming in?"
"Yeah. The cardinal. A real one this ti."
"Still can’t believe we’re supposed to grab him alive. Since when do we take care not to rough soone up?"
"He’s important, that’s why. Boss said not a scratch on him. Not one."
"What’s a guy like that even doing in Dunwick? This place doesn’t even have a proper temple."
"He thinks he was called here. So inspection nonsense. Checking the faithful, blessing the town. Whatever cardinals do."
"That’s insane. Why not just kidnap so random priest?"
One of the bandits shrugged, "Beats ."
They went quiet for a mont, then soone spoke again.
"So... when exactly does this holy guy show up?"
"Midday, boss said. Just before the bells. He’s comin’ through the south road."
One of the bandits lowered his voice.
"So how we snatchin’ him? We just walk up?"
"That’s the point, idiot. We’re in the robes. We greet him all proper-like, say we’re the local clergy here to escort him."
"And he’ll believe that?"
"Of course he will. The real church sent him a letter askin’ for help... or so he thinks."
"So it was fake then."
"Obviously. Dunno who forged it, but it worked."
Another bandit leaned in.
"Where we takin’ him after we reel him in?"
"Keep im’ at the south warehouse, then by midnight we can smuggle im’ out."
Another voice spoke up, quieter.
"What if the cardinal slls sothing fishy?"
"Then we push him into the warehouse by force." A pause.
"Carefully. Boss said he has to be alive."
Ryn calmly exhaled and eased back from the window, the plan already forming in his head.
A cardinal walking willingly into the jaws of a trap.
And Ryn was the only person in Dunwick who now knew exactly when, where, and how it would happen.
The question is...why a cardinal?
He slipped away from the warehouse rooftop the mont the bandits’ voices dropped to idle grumbling. The information was enough. More than enough.
Ryn thought for a while.
Cardinals weren’t political players, but they held sothing far more dangerous:
Trust.
Ryn landed silently in a narrow alley and stopped beneath the shadow of a shuttered window.
He exhaled slowly.
This was more than a kidnapping. It was a plan.
He scaled the side of a building and stepped onto the inn’s roof, settling on the tiles as the night wind brushed past him.
The cardinal arriving tomorrow...Ryn needed to find out more.
If the bandits et him first, he’s gone. No one will ever know where he went.
Ryn rubbed his thumb along the edge of his glove.
There was a way to prevent this... a clean one.
et him first.
Not as a wanderer, but as Ryn Eden Arctis, the noble.
He was sure his family na would be enough to at least secure a conversation with the cardinal.
Ryn sat on the edge of the bed, already planning the route he’d take at dawn, and the things he needed to do.
Tomorrow was going to be a big day.
***
Ryn barely slept.
Morning light seeped through the shutters in pale strips, dust drifting in the quiet room. Dunwick was waking slowly.
He strapped on his boots, adjusted his cloak, and went to leave his room.
But Ellis was already in the hallway.
She wasn’t dressed for travel yet, just simple morning clothes, hair tied loosely, a book clutched under one arm. She blinked when she saw him.
"...You’re up early," she said.
"So are you."
Silence stretched on for a while as they stared at each other.
He could walk past her. He could handle this alone.
But she was from this region, and he needed soone like her as a guide.
And also the fact that she already sensed too much for him to lie convincingly.
"...I need your expertise," Ryn said quietly.
Her brows lifted.
"What happened last night?" she asked.
"I learned soone important is arriving today. Soone walking into danger without realizing it."
He paused. "A cardinal."
Ellis’s expression tightened imdiately. "A cardinal? Here? Why?"
"That’s part of the problem," Ryn answered. "He was summoned. Fraudulently."
Ellis whispered, "A trap."
"That’s... that’s not a simple cri, Ryn. Cardinals don’t answer letters lightly. Whoever forged it knew how the Rokhan Church operates. They knew exactly what strings to pull."
Ryn nodded once.
Ellis pressed her lips together, thinking fast.
"Alright, what should we do?"
"We get to the cardinal first," Ryn replied.
She hesitated for a mont, then spoke in confusion.
"How’s that going to help? He’s not gonna talk to so random civilians."
Ryn held onto his cloak, answering confidently.
"Don’t worry, I have a plan."
***
The town was quiet in a way that no settlent should be at dawn. Just yesterday, it was alive, but now it seed like everyone avoided the streets like the plague.
They reached the southern gate without any major problems, deciding to wait at a nearby cafe in order to spot the man.
Ellis stood on a small rise beside the gate, shading her eyes with a hand as she looked down the road.
"...He’s coming," she said quietly.
Ryn followed her gaze.
In the distance, a small traveling group was approaching. Three people, all on horseback, rode toward the gate with relative calm.
And riding in the middle...was the cardinal.
Even from far away, Ryn could sense sothing... clean about him. The way he carried himself with confidence, his calm posture, and steady eyes. Like a man who traveled not in authority, but in humility.
Ellis inhaled softly.
"That’s him. Cardinal Leon."
The guards at the gate straightened instinctively, their sluggish morning bodies suddenly attentive.
Ryn stepped slightly forward, watching the cardinal’s approach with a focused, calculating eye.
He really ca alone, Ryn noted. Only two escorts. Exactly like the bandits said.
The cardinal himself walked with hands folded in front of him, staff in one hand, the morning sun catching on the gentle gold trim of his vestnts.
"He’s... nothing like the priests here," she murmured.
Her voice carried awe, and a hint of guilt that Dunwick planned to devour soone like him.
Ryn and Ellis walked down the slope toward the gate just as the three were finishing their procedure. They stopped a few paces ahead of the group, letting the cardinal close the distance. When he reached speaking range, Ryn stepped forward, hand raising to his cloak.
"Cardinal Leon," Ryn called, voice steady, controlled. "Might I request a mont of your ti?"
The cardinal stopped a few paces away, his escorts lifting their hands instinctively. But the cardinal himself regarded Ryn with calm curiosity.
Ryn drew a slow breath, lifted a hand to his cloak, and opened it just enough for the morning light to fall across the garnts beneath.
The effect was imdiate.
Ellis stiffened beside him, breath catching. The escorts froze, staring. Even the horses seed to quiet.
The Crest of Arctis shone brightly in the morning sun, and beside it—Alia’s gift, tucked neatly into a nearby pocket.
The Crest of Grandal.
A noble lineage impossible to mistake.
Ryn let the cloak fall shut again.
The cardinal stared, lips parting, voice trembling for the first ti since he arrived.
"You’re..." The cardinal’s voice trembled faintly, shock breaking through his composure.
"Ryn Eden, of House Arctis." Ryn finished his sentence.
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance... but we need to have a talk."
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