By the time they left the Adventurer Guild, night had already fallen.
He Xi put the silver badge into his Dimensional Bag, with no immediate plans to go anywhere.
Zoya walked half a step behind him, while Bruce jogged leisurely beside their legs, his nose occasionally nudging into the cracks between the flagstones as he investigated the unfamiliar scents of this city.
The streets here were far broader than those in Rose Town, paved with neat gray-white stone. Buildings of all kinds stood on either side—brick-and-stone houses with pointed roofs, as well as square buildings whose walls were covered in Runes.
At this hour, soft magical glows shone from the windows of most buildings, casting faint outlines around the potted plants on the sills and the bronze bells hanging beneath the eaves.
Streetlamps stood along the roadside, one every twenty meters or so.
They were not flames, but transparent crystals set within wrought-iron lamp housings, giving off a steady, somewhat cool white light.
The light carved clear circles into the deepening night, beyond which lay ever-darkening gloom.
The two of them wandered casually along the street.
Their footsteps made soft sounds against the stone slabs, mingled with the scrape of Bruce's claws.
Now and then, the distant rumble of wheels rolling past could be heard, or the creak of a door opening and closing. Yet it all sounded vague and far away, making the street seem even quieter.
It was not only the buildings and streets that felt unfamiliar—even the air carried an unfamiliar scent: the crisp chill of flagstones soaked in night dew, mingled with incense drifting from some distant household's windowsill.
That scent suddenly slowed He Xi's steps.
For a moment, he was dazed, as though he had returned to memories so distant they felt like a previous