"Heading out on patrol?"
"Yes, Detective Inspector Lucas, it's my turn on duty today. I'm covering the Hearthfire District!"
Eleanor hurriedly stopped and greeted the middle-aged man before her.
"Lucky you. The Hearthfire District has always been one of the most peaceful areas in the Imperial Capital, even better than the Dome District. You know, those big shots sometimes stir up trouble too."
Eleanor smiled shyly, struggling to suppress the constantly whispering [it] within her.
As she stepped out through the Night Watch Bureau's doors, her expression instantly darkened. She casually hailed a hired carriage and headed for the Hearthfire District. "It's been getting harder and harder to control lately..."
Feeling the restlessness inside her, Eleanor's face twisted in pain.
"Don't rush. I'll find a way to feed you... don't rush," she muttered softly.
It took quite some time before the cold sweat on her face gradually subsided.
Everyone thought Eleanor wanted to try her hand at frontline work because she was young. Even she herself believed it was her own wish. Her memory had been getting rather poor lately-well, that should have been a recent change. She couldn't quite remember what it had been like before.
Most of the time, she was that somewhat happy-go-lucky History Department graduate, Eleanor, a newly confirmed police detective. Only rarely, in moments of dazed awareness, did she remember that she had actually gone mad.
Those dazed moments had been growing more frequent lately.
Her life seemed to have broken into separate segments. One moment she was reading in bed; a blink later, she was sitting in a café with pastries she had never seen before in front of her.
That seemed wrong, yet it didn't seem so bad either.
"Huh? What did I come here for again... oh, right, patrol... patrol."
She stepped