"Melissa Moretti?" Lorne mulled over the name.
"She really is a pure-hearted girl."
His lips curved slightly as he recalled the girl's clothes and demeanor.
"And quite devoted to her family."
"She seems thrifty and good at managing a household..."
"What am I daydreaming about?" Lorne shook his head hard, trying to banish those ill-timed thoughts.
He was a cold-hearted transmigrator. How could he let himself harbor such unnecessary feelings?
Besides, he was still on the run. He had no time to think about such things.
"But Moretti..."
He had a strange premonition, a persistent feeling that he would become entangled with the name Moretti.
Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Lorne stared at the orange cat in his arms.
"So you suddenly dashed off just to find a girl?" Lorne asked Lucky, keeping his eyes on her.
"Meow?" Lucky gave a cry and a speechless look.
"Honestly, you..." Lorne wanted to lecture her, but he had no idea where to begin. Lucky was only a cat, after all.
After mulling it over without finding a solution, Lorne could only put Lucky back into his shoulder bag and say thoughtfully,
"If you run off again, you won't get any meat for dinner."
"Do you know how expensive meat is in this era?" Lorne sounded as though he were scolding a child.
"And if you really want a mistress, remember to give me a little warning. A hero saving a damsel in distress is far too common a plot.
"A cliché like that won't attract a girl." Lorne seemed to be speaking to Lucky, yet also to himself.
"Meow???"
"Meow!"
Lucky suddenly grew agitated at Lorne's words, making the entire shoulder bag jerk about. She seemed utterly baffled that her owner was blaming her.
"All right, all right, I'm not blaming you anymore." Seeing this, Lorne gently patted the bag and soothed Lucky.
He collected himself again. His purpose today was to find that notebook from before. Everything else would have to wait.
"Daly has seemed a little odd since she came back this time. What do you think, Old Man?" Alone on duty behind the Chanis Gate at the Blackthorn Security Company, Leonard addressed the neighbor living inside his body.
"That Spirit Medium?" Pallez's voice sounded in Leonard's mind.
"Yes." Leonard nodded.
"She's probably worked things out, but still can't quite let herself go, so she's feeling awkward."
"After all, anyone with eyes can tell there's something unusual between her and your captain." Pallez spoke with the air of someone who had been through it all.
After a moment of silence, Leonard changed the subject.
"Old Man, it's been so long already. We should be fine now, shouldn't we?"
"Hard to say. I keep having a bad feeling." Pallez sounded uncertain.
"Are you that afraid of the person hunting you?"
"..."
"All right, then who exactly was the person we met that night?"
"He really did carry that being's aura..."
After pondering for a moment, he added:
"That's what puzzles me. In theory, no creature should be able to carry His aura and still retain its own identity."
"Old Man, you should know your opponent very well. Why did you mistake him?" Leonard asked the question that most intrigued him.
After waiting a moment, he heard the Old Man's answer. "I misjudged that person's level?"
"Level?"
"Yes. Thinking about it now, that person's Sequence was probably no higher than yours."
"But he bore traces of a power of a high level."
"How high?" Leonard asked curiously.
"That's not something you're entitled to know."
"In short, I mistook him for that enemy of mine at the time. But now that I think about it, although the power he carried was faint, its level was probably even higher than my enemy's."
"It reminded me of an old friend..."
Pallez did not elaborate, instead concluding:
"In short, judging from the current situation, it was just a false alarm."
"A low Sequence, but traces of power at an extremely high level? Could he be like me, with someone living inside his body?" Leonard pressed a hand to his forehead as he voiced his guess.
"Perhaps. Who can say when it comes to fate?" Pallez neither confirmed nor denied it.
"Ah!" Leonard heard a sigh.
"If only I still had that card or admission ticket. Then I wouldn't have to stay inside you."
"A card? An admission ticket? What are those?" Leonard asked in confusion.
"You're not my grandson. Why should I tell you everything?"
"Then tell me what you meant by being careful of monocles." Leonard switched to another question.
"..."
Pallez did not answer. Silence fell once more, and the space behind the Chanis Gate returned to its usual quiet.
It's almost dark. Is there really a clue to that notebook on this street?
Having wandered along the street all day, Lorne was growing anxious.
He was now squatting by the roadside, eating a piece of bread he had bought from a bakery along the street, with nothing to wash it down.
Lucky was eating better than Lorne. She was crouched by the roadside, enjoying the ham he had brought along as travel rations.
"I've shared my meat with you, so you'd better pull your weight."
"If you discover anything, tell me right away."
Lorne reminded the orange cat as he watched her eat with relish.
The sky gradually darkened, and the crowds on the street began to thin.
"Melissa?" Lorne looked at the girl in the distance with some surprise. He had not expected to encounter her twice in one day.
"Providence? Destiny?"
"Forget it."
Lorne shook his head. He had no intention of greeting Melissa. After all, he was searching for a notebook connected to Beyonder powers. It was best not to have too much contact with ordinary people.
"I'm only here to find something. Why do I feel like a bad guy?"
Lorne realized that the way he kept stopping and starting, occasionally surveying his surroundings, would make him look to an outsider like a furtive criminal casing the area.
A few more hours passed.
Bang!
Still wandering along the street, Lorne suddenly heard a faint noise.
"Was that a gunshot?"
"It sounded pretty far away."
"Did something happen?"
But the moment he took a step, he froze in place, one leg still suspended in the air.
"This... this feeling is a 'Monster's' spiritual intuition."
"No! It's more than that. This is a warning from fate." Lorne felt that familiar shudder once more.
"It's forbidding me from going forward."
"Something terrifying has appeared."
"Could it be that notebook? No!
"It's definitely something much more terrifying!"
"Melissa." Just as Lorne was about to turn and leave, he suddenly thought of the girl. She probably lived on this street as well.
"No, calm down. We're only passing acquaintances.
"And this is the first time I've received such a powerful warning. Even when I fled Backlund last time, the feeling wasn't this intense."
"This is definitely something beyond my abilities."
If I act rashly, I'll only throw my life away. Leave first, then decide what to do, he warned himself.
Yet just as Lorne was preparing to leave, he discovered to his surprise that everything had returned to normal. Fate's warning had vanished.
"This... this..." The sudden change disrupted his plans again, leaving him rooted to the spot.
"Just go. Why meddle? The notebook isn't worth more than your life."
"Ah!"
He had barely taken two steps before he sighed and turned back.
After a little thought, Lorne activated Spirit Vision and made a quick circuit of the area. Only after confirming that nothing seemed unusual did he hurry away.
The Azure Hotel.
Lorne sat at the desk, considering what to do next. Although fate's warning had disappeared, he did not believe Iron Cross Street was completely free of trouble.
"The authorities..."
"Although the police are hostile toward transmigrators, they certainly won't ignore a Beyonder incident if one really occurs."
At that thought, he picked up a fountain pen, took out a sheet of writing paper, and quickly wrote something down. Then he looked at the orange cat lounging idly on the bed.
"Lucky, sorry for the trouble, but I need you to make a trip. You remember the police station we saw during the day, right? I need you to help me..."
Indeed, what he handed Lucky was a letter reporting a Beyonder incident on Iron Cross Street.
Before you continue