Suspected Supernatural

"Very well. Since the direction and timing both work, I'll catch up to him. If I can't, I'll go straight to the church. In any case, I can't spend my first day in a new world going hungry... No, I can't think like that, or I'll start feeling sorry for myself."

With such "simple" thoughts in mind, Shade gathered his things and set off along the low wall by the street, following the man ahead.

To avoid being noticed, Shade did not dare follow too closely, even though the fog drifting through the city grew thicker as evening approached. He knew his own limits and understood that he had no skill at tailing someone.

Thus, as expected, after a dozen or so minutes, when they rounded the rear wall of a milk delivery company and slipped into an alley, Shade completely lost the man's trail.

"Ha... Should I say I knew I'd lose him?"

He stood in the alley and looked around blankly. Only after confirming that he had truly lost his target did he shake his head and give up searching. He did not dwell on it. Since he had lost the man, he would go collect his "relief food," but—

"Where am I?"

In a completely unfamiliar city, while following someone and trying not to be noticed, Shade had had no time to memorize his route. He only knew that he was now in a narrow alley that smelled absolutely awful.

The milk delivery company's outer wall stood to his left, while the side wall of a three-story apartment building stood to his right. Rusty pipes crawled across both walls, connecting in different directions. Beneath them were layer upon layer of filthy words and chaotic graffiti, while garbage and excrement littered the ground below.

Only near the mouth of the alley were two or three thick, rusted steam pipes piled together, abandoned there by someone unknown.

"I'll check the milk delivery company's name, then find my current location on the map."

Having made up his mind, Shade stopped caring about the person he had wanted to follow.

He turned around and retraced his steps through the alley, carefully avoiding the indescribably filthy things underfoot. Just as he was about to leave the alley, he cautiously stepped aside when a group of uniformed police officers hurried past on the street in front of him.

The tall, middle-aged man at the back of the group, his face covered in stubble, glanced at Shade. Shade returned an innocent look, so the officer did not pay him any attention.

"What happened over there?"

Shade stood at the alley entrance and gazed in the direction the police had run. Since he did not even know which street this was, he had no way of identifying what lay in that direction.

"None of my business."

He muttered softly, tucked his notebook under his arm, and walked toward the milk delivery company's entrance. This was not a Factory, merely the office building of its delivery department. The courtyard enclosed a two-story yellow building, and an old-looking dog lay at the entrance.

The dog glanced at Shade as he approached. Seeing that Shade merely stopped at the entrance without coming in, it lazily got to its feet and moved to a spot touched by the evening sun before lying back down.

The milk delivery company was called Silver Parrot. It was a strange name, but it was indeed marked on the map. The previous Detective had even noted that a Murder Case had occurred here three years ago.

The Murder Case naturally had nothing to do with Shade. Holding the map unfolded to a quarter of its size, he walked onward while constantly confirming that he had not mistaken his location.

There were not many pedestrians on the street, so walking with his head down did not cause him to bump into anyone. Before he knew it, amid the sunset glow and thick fog, he had followed the direction of the pipes venting white steam from the walls and reached the end of the street. Ahead was a Five Intersection. According To the map, taking the road slanting to the left, the one with a dessert shop, would probably be shorter.

But the intersection was almost completely blocked by a dense crowd. Near the mailbox on the eastern side stood a silverware shop, its sign scrubbed clean, but something seemed to have happened there. The group of officers Shade had seen at the alley entrance were maintaining order and preventing people from approaching.

As he stopped to observe, more Four-wheeled Carriages arrived from behind Shade and from the other roads. Within only a few minutes, even more police officers appeared. There were even several people who looked like school Scholars getting out of carriages, though no one knew what they had come to do.

Shade had not intended to join the commotion. Collecting relief food was more important now. But there were simply too many people crowding around, and as he tried to pass through the intersection, he was unknowingly squeezed to the front of the crowd.

He wanted to retreat, but the people behind him would not allow it. The police in front kept shouting for everyone to disperse, saying there was nothing worth seeing here.

Perhaps noticing that Shade had merely been pushed forward and had no intention of getting closer, a young officer maintaining order, with a fountain pen in his breast pocket, kindly reminded him to watch out for pickpockets.

This made Shade somewhat nervous. He instinctively touched the Ten Pence banknote in his pocket. After confirming it was still there, he caught sight from the corner of his eye of another group of armed police officers escorting three plainly dressed men into the silverware shop.

The tallest of them was extraordinarily burly, while the young man walking in the middle carried himself like a Scholar. The last man looked familiar to Shade. He seemed to be the Priest who had handed him a flyer that afternoon.

"Do Priests in this world also work part-time with the police?"

Thinking of a conclusion he did not believe himself, he gripped the coins and pocket watch in his pocket and prepared to leave quickly, or he would be late.

The instant he turned and tried to squeeze backward, a strange warning suddenly rose in his In Heart. Before he could understand why he felt that way, he heard a sound—

BOOM!

The explosion took everyone by surprise. The nearly eardrum-shattering sound sent screams erupting from the crowd. Though no flames were visible, the silverware shop's glass display windows immediately shattered, and the wall seemed to tilt slightly, making the metal pipes on it emit a piercing screech of twisting metal.

Fortunately, the police had kept the crowd away from the shop entrance, so when panicked cries broke out, no one was injured.

The crowd immediately scattered like floodwaters released from a dam. Shade, standing at the front, remained calm and wanted to leave as well, but he saw a brown-haired middle-aged man running toward the silverware shop entrance.

"I'm a reporter! I'm a reporter! What happened here?"

With a notebook clutched in one hand and identification waving in the other, he charged over more excitedly than anyone else, only to be neatly stopped by the young officer.

"Gas Pipeline Explosion, sir. Please do not approach."

Shade did not believe that conclusion at all. How could a Gas Pipeline Explosion possibly—

BOOM!

Another explosion, powerful enough to nearly stop his heart, erupted inside the silverware shop. The vibrating air almost generated enough force to push people away.

This time, even the glass on the silverware shop's second floor shattered. The falling shards forced the officers maintaining order to retreat temporarily. As Shade backed away, he saw through the window that on the exploded second floor, two people seemed to be fighting amid white fog, and one of them appeared to have light shining from his fist.

The distance was too great, and the fog that had arrived with the sunset was also obscuring his vision, so Shade could not see clearly.

"Supernatural?"

He thought to himself.

Yes.

The woman's voice startled Shade, but knowing that she would not offer further explanation, he did not ask. Instead, he quickly left the area.

"Those three men just now were definitely from The Church, and this happened right after they entered. As expected, The Church in this world is most likely a supernatural force itself, and it seems closely tied to the kingdom's order. This Way, the chance that the Orthodox Church can be trusted has greatly increased. I wonder whether I might have a chance through The Church's channels."

That gave him two choices now. Not only the psychologist, but also the city's five churches offered Shade a chance to come into contact with the supernatural and figure out the voice in his head.

"But why did I happen to run into something like this?"

He walked with the dispersing crowd in his original direction, while the woman's voice in his mind repeated a sentence she had already said before.

Observe his ring.

Though he still did not know what the woman's voice in his head was, Shade at least knew that it bore no obvious malice. He immediately obeyed the voice and looked around. To his surprise, he once again saw the young man wearing the Pebble Ring and carrying a Suitcase, walking Not Far Away ahead of him.

"This is too much of a coincidence. There's no way it's really such a coincidence. Wait, could the explosion just now have had something to do with him? Why would I think that? There's no evidence at all right now."

With that thought in mind, Shade no longer wanted to follow him. If the other person could create explosions with bare hands like the two people in the silverware shop, following him would be practically the same as trying to repeat the previous Detective's tragic fate.

"No, no."

Shade slowed his pace, wanting the other man to naturally vanish into the Distant Place beyond his sight. But unexpectedly, the young man also stopped. Like Shade earlier, he took out a map to examine it, then carried his case into a small alley beside him.

"Follow or not?"

The woman's voice in his head had pointed out that ring three times. She could not be doing it out of boredom. But Shade, who knew almost nothing about this world, also had to maintain necessary caution.

He continued forward according to his original plan. As he passed the entrance to the alley the young man had turned into, he casually glanced inside and saw the man turn at the corner ahead and disappear.

"Follow or not."

He asked himself again, suddenly realizing that the decision ahead would affect his life for a long time to come.

"Follow or not?"

He was asking the woman in his mind. He heard laughter, then a whispered reply:

The road of Destiny lies before you, guest from another land. Will you be content with mediocrity, or do you long for immortality? The world is like the Ocean. Do you have the courage to explore the horrors beyond the peaceful island? The road of Destiny lies before you, one leading to the supernatural, one...

"Follow!"

Shade gritted his teeth, pressed himself against the wall, and entered the alley as well.