The sunlight stretched their shadows across the rough stone steps, like silhouettes slipping into the city.
Far behind them, on a palace terrace, a hand wearing a white glove slowly lowered a telescope.
"They're here."
The speaker's voice was steady, betraying no emotion.
In the shadows behind him, someone softly murmured, "Mm,"
in reply, a trace of barely perceptible excitement mingling with the sound, like a beast grinding its teeth in the dark after catching the scent of prey.
The smell of gunsmoke reached their nostrils before the sound of the blasts.
The stone slabs of the dock shattered amid the tremors. Shock waves spread along the ground, compressing the air into transparent ripples.
Chunks of stone flew like locusts startled before a rainstorm, shrieking toward a huddled figure-his uniform was immaculate, but now all he could do was clutch his head in vain.
A coat, billowing like the wings of a night bird, shifted half a step sideways to block their path.
Dull cracks burst out in succession, like hail striking heavy canvas.
The fragments, powerful enough to pierce wooden planks, abruptly stopped in midair, then fell limply and rolled a few times at the tax official's feet.
He hesitantly lowered his arms and looked up, his gaze meeting a still expanse of black.
"Are you hurt?"
The voice was level, as though asking about the weather.
The tax official opened his mouth, his dry throat working once. "N-no...
Thank you."
He did not understand what that invisible wall was, but in these waters, inexplicable power often meant only one thing: the person before him was someone who could never be judged by ordinary standards.
The figure wrapped in the black coat had already turned toward the sea.
Two monstrous ships were tearing through the thin mist beside the