With that thought, Xio turned to the Highlander. "For the vagrant disappearances — just focus on the most recent incidents. Don't worry about anything older."
"Understood, Boss!"
The lead Highlander hesitated. "One more thing, Boss — a guest died in one of our Docklands pubs today."
Xio kept her expression neutral. "What happened?"
"Not sure. He was found in the washroom, head submerged in the toilet."
"Anything to do with us?"
"No. But... it happened on our turf. And the dead man appears to have been one of Calpin's associates."
Calpin?
Xio quickly placed the name. An infamous "businessman" from Jorwood District — publicly a philanthropist of some renown, but widely rumoured to be a crime boss with blood on his hands, although lack of evidence had kept him free.
"You think Calpin might come after us?"
"Yes."
Xio nodded. "I'll go and have a look."
She swung down from the bar stool. The Highlanders immediately stepped aside. These past weeks had given them a different picture of their diminutive "Boss."
Behind her stood that terrifying woman who could destroy the Zmangg Gang with a casual gesture and kill with a smile. But Xio herself was no one to take lightly, either. Barely reaching their waists in height, and yet capable of sending them sprawling without breaking a sweat — not quite the level of their previous "Executioner," but clearly not an ordinary person.
More to the point: her abilities were becoming stranger by the day.
Even as they thought it, Xio's silhouette abruptly stretched and melted away, vanishing into the shadow at the doorway — like a ghost dissolving into the dark.
That was because the previous day, after assigning Xio the commission to track Qilangos, Vincent had also upgraded her Boon from Sequence 9 Merchant to Sequence 8 Shadow Merchant.
A small reward for her hard work — and an extra layer of protection. In the original story, Xio had come within a hair's breadth of death on more than one occasion. With the story's trajectory already shifting because of Vincent's presence, there was no guarantee she would escape those near-misses the way she had before.
As for Xio herself — after experiencing the Shadow Merchant's various abilities, she had completely reversed her earlier fear and anxiety, and was now singing its praises at every turn. Even Fors had grown a little tempted, wondering whether to recite that mysterious being's Honorific Name and get some of these remarkable powers for herself.
In the end, though, she decided against it.
Not out of fear of the mysterious being — but because Xio had explained that receiving a Boon came with the obligation to work for them. For Fors, whose life philosophy was "never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lie down," that was simply too arduous a prospect.
A little over ten minutes later, Xio arrived at the scene.
At this hour, the pub should have been at its busiest. Tonight it was cold and nearly empty.
She was about to ask the barman what had happened when she spotted a familiar face. She walked over quickly and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Sherman, you—"
In the next instant, Sherman flinched, twisting aside with fluid, reflexive precision — the steak knife in his hand swinging automatically toward her wrist. Then he saw who it was.
Sherman immediately dropped the knife, talking over himself. "Ah — sorry, Xio, I thought you were one of those idiots who like to bother me."
"It's... fine."
Xio stared at her old friend, her mind replaying that swift, seamless series of movements. Since when does Sherman move like that?
Sherman caught the confusion on her face. A flash of unease crossed his eyes. He lowered his head slightly. "What are you staring at, Xio?"
This transparently guilty posture made Xio's expression turn serious. She sat down across from him. "Sherman. Is there something you want to tell me?"
"..."
He opened his mouth, hesitated for a long moment, and finally shook his head. "No... nothing."
He raised his hand to signal the barman. "Another meal over here!"
Then he looked at Xio with a mixture of pleading and ingratiation. "Let me buy you dinner, Xio."
"Alright."
Xio held his gaze for a few seconds. "Sherman. We're friends. If you're in trouble — tell me."
"...Yes. Of course."
She asked after his life over dinner. He repeated, several times, that he'd found new work and things were going well — then left in a hurry.
Outside the pub, Sherman's movements became nimble again, like a cat slipping through the dark. He made his way quickly to a run-down waterfront warehouse on the nearby Docklands.
The surrounding area was deserted. His footsteps, light as they were, still produced a faint whisper of sound against the floor.
"Mission failed?"
A woman's voice broke the silence. A figure emerged from the darkness — a woman in a black chiffon dress, whose face in the blood-red moonlight was breathtakingly beautiful. Every expression, every small movement, drew the eye.
Sherman stared, breath catching slightly. Will I really become a beautiful woman like her someday?
"I'm sorry, Miss Alice. Something unexpected came up. I'll finish it tomorrow — I swear."
The woman called Alice smiled slightly. "I don't mind. You're the one in a rush to advance — I'm only here because your sincerity moved me."
"I — I understand!"
"Good. I hope you advance to Sequence 7 soon, so you can better help me with—"
Alice broke off suddenly and glanced to one side. She raised a finger, and several tendrils of black flame along with a cluster of ice spikes shot toward a patch of shadow.
The flame and ice struck the floor and found nothing.
"Escaped?"
A trace of surprise crossed Alice's face. "Slipping into a shadow — would that be one of the Aurora Order's lunatics?"
Sherman finally caught up. "What happened?"
"You were followed."
"Impossible. I was careful the whole way."
"Ha. They were tracking you by entering shadows and shadow-jumping. Of course you didn't notice."
She pinched her fingers together, her tone dropping to something casual. "For now, work on digesting the potion on your own. I'll contact you when the time is right. Go."
With those words, Alice stepped back into the darkness and was gone.
Sherman had no choice but to walk out of the warehouse looking baffled, still not fully grasping what had just happened.
On the other side, Xio executed several more shadow jumps in rapid succession, putting as much distance as she could between herself and the warehouse. When her spirituality finally gave out, she fell back out of the shadow and sat down on the ground, gasping.
The lingering fear on her face was vivid. Her instincts told her that even in her shadow form, if she had been touched by those black flames, the chances of survival would have been grim.
After a long moment, she slammed her fist against the floor. "Damn it. What kind of business has Sherman gotten himself mixed up in, and with that kind of dangerous person? What is going on?"
Trier.
This was Vincent's second visit to Trier — a city mentioned only a handful of times in the original Lord of the Mysteries.
The first time, they had gone straight to Bonova's church, asked a few questions, and left promptly, leaving little impression. This time, Bernadette walked him through several of Trier's liveliest streets.
Strolling, eating, commenting as she went.
Vincent, naturally, was restricted to listening and watching.
He was in the middle of hearing her describe something from the past when Bernadette suddenly stopped. Her gaze fixed on the street ahead.
"What is it?"
"I was just thinking..."
She spoke quietly. "Of the people on this street right now — how many might have already been quietly replaced by Mirror People?"
Vincent thought about it. "Before you last encountered them — had you ever heard of Mirror People existing? Outside of the Demoness Pathway, I mean."
"No."
"Then either Mirror People have always been excellent at hiding, and their trails never surfaced — or their appearance post-dates your departure from Trier."
He said suddenly, "Have you ever been into the underground levels of Trier before?"
To be continued…
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