Tyre! (17)

"Don't panic! Don't panic! Everyone, proceed through the inspection in an orderly manner! Everyone, proceed through the inspection in an orderly manner!"

A loudspeaker mounted on a vehicle blared the broadcast, ordering the soldiers to organize an orderly evacuation. Twenty infantrymen had formed a security cordon beside the vehicle.

"Alex..."

Julia turned back and anxiously clutched the wizard apprentice's hand.

Alex knew she was worried, but in a crisis like this, he could not afford to think about that.

Obviously, compared to facing those terrifying monsters behind them, being caught, losing his job at the library and his home, or having Duke Hank take whatever he wanted from him, was far better.

"It'll be fine."

He smiled.

"They don't have time to verify identities. They're only checking whether everyone is, you know, human. Just keep your head down. They'll let us through."

He did not know where his confidence came from, but he still took Julia's hand and kept moving forward.

Up ahead, two soldiers were questioning a middle-aged man.

Alex's stomach ached with fear, but he still desperately tried to think of a solution.

Should he look the soldiers in the eye? Or avoid their eyes entirely? Could he keep from drawing their attention?

He suddenly remembered the fine clothes he wore, so out of place among high society, and only then noticed dark red liquid splattered across his gray coat. It could only have been a dead person's blood.

Julia's elegant blue coat was stained as well. Alex also noticed that the ruby necklace her mother had left her—an heirloom with protective power—was gone.

He did not know whether Julia had secretly hidden it or whether it had been stolen long ago.

Then they reached the soldiers.

Alex could feel the sharpness of their gaze as it swept