"I'm sorry, Katerina. I'm so sad..."
Snot still clung to Barry's simple face.
Barry?
Lu Li, lying in the hospital bed with his neck bandaged, frowned slightly.
They had t Barry in the Port of Storms, and he, like Katerina, Prusius, and Elder Sister, had decided to follow them.
But why was it so hard to rember the details?
"It's alright. Lu Li is awake now, isn't he?"
Prusius's words interrupted Lu Li, pulling him from his mories.
"Lu Li, are you feeling better?"
...
"Better than expected. The doctor said the bullet only grazed his neck, though it ca dangerously close to breaking it. The assassin was likely inexperienced with firearms, unfamiliar with ballistics..."
In the hallway outside the ward, the assistant, filled with relief, spoke to the arriving Mayor Matteus.
"So he's alright?!" the mayor asked anxiously, his mind fixed on one thing.
"Just so blood loss; he fainted. He regained consciousness a few minutes ago."
Mayor Matteus looked toward the room, from which voices could be heard. The sound seed to trouble him, and after a mont's hesitation, he knocked.
"It's , Matteus."
Opening the door, the mayor identified himself to Katerina and the others, who were eyeing him with suspicion.
"Is Lu Li alright?"
"Not in the slightest."
The usually cheerful Prusius showed a flash of anger for the first ti and even demanded:
"This can't be a coincidence, can it, Mayor? Lu Li only moved into that room this morning."
The window of his previous room had faced the street stretching out before it. But the new room was next to a three-story stone building running parallel to it, giving the assassin a perfect opportunity.
"I am deeply sorry. This was my oversight..." Mayor Matteus said, bowing his head with deep regret to the pale Lu Li in the hospital bed.
"Please, give
so ti... I will launch a full investigation."
The mayor had humbled himself to such an extent that Katerina and the others couldn't bring themselves to say anything more.
After urging Lu Li to rest well, Mayor Matteus left the ward, his expression turning grim.
"Was this a conspiracy?" his assistant asked.
"Did they catch the assassin?" Matteus asked.
"He killed himself."
"That settles it, then."
Matteus walked to a window in the corridor, glanced at the guards stationed at the end of the hall, and then down at the soldiers cordoning off the hospital outside.
"Indeed... the assassin showed up at a very convenient ti. And, Mr. Mayor, your reputation among the councilors and aristocrats is suffering," the assistant said from behind him.
"What are they saying?"
"A lot. They're saying you allowed the attempt on Lu Li's life, that it was a ploy to keep him here. And so are even saying..."
"Saying what?"
"...That you sent the assassin yourself to prevent Lu Li from leaving."
...
"The mont you announced you were leaving, there was an assassination attempt."
Katerina leaned against the ward's wall, which was covered in old, rose-patterned wallpaper, her arms crossed over her chest.
"And you end up with an injury just serious enough to make travel inconvenient... Maybe it's a warning to stop you from wandering off."
Katerina's theory was grim, but under the circumstances, entirely plausible.
"But... Mayor Matteus seems like a good person," Barry said hesitantly.
Katerina sighed, exasperated, unsure what to say to the naive young man.
"Good people don't beco politicians."
Her few days with the Lange family seed to have instilled in Katerina a deep loathing for politicians.
"The probability is very low."
Lu Li spoke calmly, though his pale face lent his words a trace of weakness.
"No one would use an assassination attempt simply to inconvenience soone."
"It would be too foolish."
Besides, after Lu Li himself, Mayor Matteus was the one who stood to lose the most from this.
One could only imagine how the rest of the human world would mock Vinnelag, and how the aristocratic councilors would attack the mayor for his incompetence.
The political struggles in Vinnelag were more intense than in Midnight; here, the threat of anomalies didn't suppress infighting in the sa way.
The councilors, eager to seize the mayor's office, wouldn't let an opportunity like this—a weapon handed directly to them—go to waste.
Or perhaps, they were the ones who had handed it over...
...
"After he was captured, the assassin shouted that he was doing it for Lord Lori, then swallowed poison and took his own life."
Lori Hama, a councilor on the Privy Council and a mber of the mayor's own faction.
Matteus sighed softly.
"A very simple slander, isn't it?"
"But a very effective one. The enraged citizens won't stop to think; they'll simply vent their fury," the assistant replied.
"Go and tell him that I'm temporarily suspending him from his duties. We know he's innocent, but we need to give the people an explanation."
"I advise against that. The Brotherhood has likely been eyeing that position, just waiting for you to remove him so they can put their own person in place."
"Then we'll lend them the spot for a while. The priority right now is resolving this issue with the exorcist."
Everyone who knew the details of the assassination attempt understood that the assassin should not have made such a crude and foolish mistake.
"But one thing is certain."
"What's that?"
Matteus turned to his assistant.
"That exorcist won't dare to leave anyti soon."
...
"You're still going to leave? But your wound..."
Katerina frowned.
Prusius and Barry also tried to convince him to stay.
"It's just so blood loss," Lu Li said.
The Book of the Apocalypse had granted him faster recovery and greater endurance.
"Vinnelag won't let you leave," Katerina said.
"Then the key is not to let them find out."
Lu Li gazed out the window, where gulls were circling over the port.
"If you insist." Katerina didn't press the matter.
The ward door swung open, and everyone in the room fell silent at once.
The rchant entered the room.
They averted their gazes and asked no questions. His appearance could only an one thing: a transaction.
What was strange, however, was that the rchant's gaze fell on Barry.
"What are you?" he asked.
Lu Li's brow furrowed.
The naive Barry froze, his face suddenly paling, and then he vanished from the room.
With his disappearance, everyone's mories of him also began to blur and fade.
"Why can't I... rember who Barry is?" Prusius muttered, shaking his head.
"A mory of sothing that never was."
Lu Li whispered, his own recollection of the man dimming and vanishing. Lifting his head, he asked the rchant:
"Was that an evil spirit?"
"No information."
Katerina had the mayor's assistant run an investigation, but there was still no information to be found on anyone nad "Barry."
Was it a newly manifested evil spirit, or so other kind of anomaly?
After the relief ca a chilling fear.
They had been completely oblivious to the anomaly that had infiltrated their group; even Lu Li hadn't sensed anything amiss.
In any case, it was a good thing the rchant had exposed and driven it away.
The outside world had descended into chaos over the attack on Lu Li, but the turmoil was kept outside the hospital walls.
anwhile, Katerina returned to the city hall to collect their luggage and prepare for a secret departure.
"When do we go?"
Fearing the walls had ears, Katerina left her question unfinished.
"Before dawn."
Despite being at the epicenter of the storm that had engulfed Vinnelag, Lu Li and his companions found themselves in a state of strange tranquility.
The rchant left again that evening. Katerina and Prusius rested in the ward, preparing for their clandestine departure in the dead of night.
"I don't know why the rchant hates
so much..."
The naive man sat in the corner, his head hanging low.
"Don't worry, Barry."
Prusius got up, wagging his tail, and walked over to console him.
"We all believe you."
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