As much as he hated leaving Elena and Luminberg, Rinvar had to go back to the job at hand.

Everything felt different the moment Captain de Melvich disembarked from the train. Blaurosen's station had more uniformed men on the watch than usual; what used to be two men on each side of the waiting platforms increased to six. Whispers of passengers about "escaped criminals" or an upcoming rebellion could be heard – some within earshot of the railway guardsmen.

Yet the Gray Fox was holding on to his secrets, Rinvar thought – nothing was made known to the empire just yet.

Nothing was established yet, except for that attack on a rival syndicate at Altrecht, and that forest fire at the heart of the Antikwald. There were no incidents of civilians being targeted by strange contraptions or men bearing unfamiliar equipment. Everything proved to be calm at this point, but the air of uneasiness was beginning to be breathed by much of the populace. Rinvar approached a nearby newsstand and saw these headlines:

"The Kaiser with the Parliament on New Security Laws"

"Banking Conference at Frankland"

The usual fare, Rinvar thought. He thought he was done with browsing the headlines until these other topics emerged from the lower-shelf publications:

"Antikwald Fire Remains A Question: Who and Why?"

"Next After Altrecht: Will There Be More Syndicate Clashes?"

No doubt that the public was slowly catching on the news. Blaurosen remained untouched by these incidents up to this day, but it would not be people would start questioning until when. The Capital didn't deploy too many of its guardsmen on the streets. The last time there was a sizeable force dispatched out in the open was during the peace treaty renewal with the Yellow Empire – a time in which Rinvar De Melvich was serving as an Imperial Army cadet. Four years of training, under his father's insistence and supervision, that was supposed to bring him to the Imperial Army's officer corps. Yet here he was, almost on his sixth year as an officer, but of a branch of the Imperial Intelligence Services. While the placement he chose was not something Lord Erik De Melvich wanted for his son, but Rinvar managed to be true to his word in his own way.

The exit could be barely seen with wave after wave of people coming in and going out of the waiting platforms, but the scent of roasting pork served as Rinvar's string out of the train station. He knew that the food stands outside the station led to Blaurosen's Third District: that meant he was a ride short to his place of work. Rinvar took a tram to the city's Second District; the marble-faced Investigations Bureau Headquarters stood near a right turn to the Balfourstrasse, where a good portion of commoners made their residences. Captain De Melvich saw jets of white water rise from the fountain behind the gates. A rare event, he thought. The fountains were only turned on during holidays (which in itself was another oddity brought about by the War Council). To him, perhaps this was a twisted way of a "welcome back".

Behind the fountain were the office's main doors. Two riflemen stood on the left and right sides of it, paying the officer a salute before opening the door for him. The same staircase was a little brighter than how he remembered it; it was either the sun was playing tricks on his mind, or something was done to the ceiling windows while he was out of office. There were some things that did not change.

He entered the room to see Farin's outline against an open balcony window. Much of her face is hidden beneath a golden shadow; a wide lock of hair caught the sun and subdued the light landing on her head. Smoke coming out of a hot coffee mug formed a pale screen before her.

"Just in time, with ten minutes to spare. How's your arm, Captain Rinvar?"

"A lot better than before, and you, Director?"

"At least I can move without flinching, but the doctor advised me against active duty. I'd better stay here and read your reports while I completely recover."

"It was that bad...?"

"You were never hit by a bolt of magical energy before, so I understand your naivety about it." Farin stood up; how slowly she straightened her back gave Rinvar the hint that she was far from recovered. "Still nothing on the whereabouts of the Gray Fox or of General Schild?"

"Nothing yet Farin. I'm not getting any clues on him using everything we got so far." Rinvar took a pencil and played with it between his fingers. "Any leads we got from Altrecht and the Antikwald?"

"The scientists were sure of one thing: none of our industries or even those of competitors produce the metal used on the constructs. They were more interested in talking about how the metal was refined using some sort of 'synthesis'. It took me half an hour to understand that they were talking about it being tempered by something they called 'mana-enhanced forging'."

"Could they copy it, at least?"

"The Imperial Science Academy had twenty attempts in doing it – none of them matched the quality of what was used on the hulks."

"That's quite reassuring..."

"Everyone at that convention was more baffled at what kind of bullet was used to melt through them first. They couldn't even begin to understand that something is capable of defeating this kind of armor like paper. Did you see anyone in Altrecht using that kind of weapon against these machines?"

"Those I've seen couldn't even leave a dent on the constructs – and they were all dead trying to fight them."

"And I was thinking we could get a gun from the weapons confiscated by the Altrecht Town Guard for testing."

"We could still try, Farin. Time to get to a lead is given to us generously by the Emperor." Rinvar was spinning his pen while reading through some of the papers on his desk. "We will have to sift through seventy or fewer rifles and pistols. Not a hard thing to do, right?"

"If only you will sit with the generals and explain to them why we can't get anywhere with this yet..." Farin swept a loose lock of her hair aside and continued reading through other files. "You're right with the fact that they are somewhat tolerant of us having a tough time figuring things out."

Farin Arinas stood up and paced around the board. Pictures of various scenes from the Gray Fox's Schweiglands fortress to the Antikwald incident were posted; each of them belonged to a category of dates ranging from '25/3' to '20/6'.

Almost three months, and not a single lead provided to the Investigations Bureau. He did not earn the moniker "The Gray Fox" for nothing.

Several syndicates were identified; each reported group was complete with the names of their highest-ranking members and their bases of operations. The Intelligence Bureau pointed out some of them who had possible ties with the Gray Fox's group; their leaders were caught for interrogation. These missions only proved that even their business partners knew too little about the death merchant.

"I admit that this job is up to the point of driving me nuts, Captain." Farin let out a sigh before taking her eyes off the board. She returned to her seat and stared at three other folders on her desk. "No wonder none of the Army's Intelligence officers went up to the task of finding him."

"And the man who gave us a way to find him has gone missing, not to mention possibly dead."

"It's strange that the Gray Fox is not making any demands if Lord Cecil was abducted by them." Farin's eyes were at the photographs taken from the syndicate's Schweiglands fortress. "He does have a very powerful bargaining chip in his hands right now. I would assume that he's still alive, somewhere. There was nothing else found in the place where he disappeared aside from the Schild family sword and shield."

"We have parts of Alberta's Home Guard searching the southern territories. It's not that hard to find an ironclad hulking man."

Rinvar scanned at more photographs from their current information pile. None of the pictures captured parts of his experience. Yes, that was right. None of the photographers took any shots of anything above street level.

"Farin, I think I'll get us somewhere in this case."

"Got an idea? I'm all ears."

"I've been thinking that there was something I've seen on both the Altrecht and Aurelburg Archives attacks. We would be able to get a good lead on the Gray Fox, or at least be a step closer to it."

"Your point?"

"Anyway, I saw some flying objects that were above those involved in the attacks. Some beam came out of them. Whatever light that was made them disappear the moment it hit them."

"And how big are these flying things?"

"The size of dinner plates, from how they looked back then."

"No photographs?" Farin looked at the picture compilation, only to find nothing that was aimed at the sky. "A very strange contraption, but it is hard to believe that those attackers have access to this technology you are saying. Are those 'flying plates' the attackers' means of transport?"

"Looks like it. I wouldn't be surprised if that magician whom you've fought at the Archives was present during the incident at Altrecht."

"These flying machines that you're talking about while being small, can actually transport people by shooting beams of light at them?"

"I'm not too sure how they work, but one thing is for sure: they don't disappear with whoever they light up."

"In other words, they return to the site that launched them."

"Exactly." Rinvar said, "If we could watch out for these flying objects, it will give us the way to at least one of the Gray Fox's cells. I'll need at least four teams with telescopes to spot the floating disks from the sky."

"And how are we supposed to make these flying contraptions known to us, Captain?"

"I'd say... we wait for the next time the Gray Fox's men strike down another syndicate. Those who were defeated at Altrecht were trying to outdo him in arms dealing if I recall it correctly. He would surely send his forces using those machines, it's not like he'd want to have an armed group parading in the streets."

"If that's the case, I leave everything to your better judgment. I'll get you the spotters when needed. There are only two remaining arms dealers in the Empire: the Ricciardone Crime Family and the South Severniya Trading Company. Both of them are quite stronger than the Dragon's Claw." Farin walked to a file cabinet and opened it, sifting through another set of folders. She found four of the needed files and set them on Rinvar's table. "You'll have a lot of reading to do then."

"Anything to get us anywhere, Director. This time, we'll get our answers and find General Schild while we're at it."