"Gran, I'm here!"

The bell at Wendy's Bakery twinkled, and a young woman burst through the doorfront.

"I can hear you just well, Darcie dear. No need to yell." Wendy chuckled as she came out from the back of the store. "Your shift ended for the day?"

"Yep. I switched my late-night shift with another coworker today. It's Doris's birthday, after all. We gotta celebrate!" As she said that, Darcie poked her head around the bakery isles and gasped.

"What's this, gran? You're almost all sold out!" She turned to look at the sky outside the store window.

The sky dimmed as dusk slowly fell upon the city, painted in a darkened orange.

"But it's barely dark!"

"The business has been doing well lately, you see." Wendy tucked a strand of whitened hair behind her ears. "Say, Darcie, have you heard of the Prophet?"

A few weeks ago, Prophet Edris and his companion visited the bakery for lunch. Apparently, their actions caught the eyes of other citizens around the area, and as a result, they attracted quite a lot of customers to the store.

Darcie blinked at the question, then proudly crossed her arms by her chest. "I may not look like it, gran, but the Prophet and I are acquainted with each other."

Seeing her granddaughter's smug smile, Wendy raised an eyebrow. "You are?"

"Of course! His name is Edris, and he's a regular where I work. One time, I even almost got him to take me as his disciple!"

"Did you now…" Wendy smiled, the tips of her eyes creasing in the process. "He seemed like a nice man when I saw him in the bakery."

"Super kind." Darcie nodded, only to knock herself on the head. "I got caught up and forgot what I came here for! Gran, are there really no bakeries left? None at all?"

Darcie started to pout, and Wendy couldn't help but chuckle at her youthfulness.

Two years ago, Darcie's parents died due to sickness, leaving Darcie and her younger sister Doris on their own. She was only fourteen at the time of the incident, but Darcie immediately dropped out of the academy and started working part-time to care for the remaining family.

Having watched them grow up, Wendy naturally undertook the role of their unofficial guardian. Although they're not related by blood, she treated the girls as her own granddaughters and supported them whenever she could.

"Of course there is. I'll never forget about young Doris's birthday," Wendy said as she revealed a bag of limberry cupcakes, along with a boxed cake. "Take these. Don't worry about the money. Instead, send her my greetings, won't you?"

"Gran…" Darcie took over the bakeries with a complicated expression, and after a few seconds, she rushed over and pulled Wendy into a tight hug. "Doris and I are the luckiest to have you as our gran. You're really the best."

"Geez, sentimental as usual, aren't you?"

"Gran, you should join us for dinner. I have enough food for the three of us."

"The bakery doesn't close until another three hours." Wendy gently caressed the back of the young girl, whose face remained buried in her shoulder. "It's getting dark, so you should get home before then. Doris is waiting! Remember to eat especially well on this special occasion."

"Will do, will do." Darcie giggled.

After giving Wendy another big hug, she looped the bags over her arms and headed towards the door. Making her way outside, she didn't forget to blow a kiss toward the elderly woman, who only shook her head with a helpless smile.

Standing outside, Wendy noticed the moon now hung above her head, spreading its silver rays upon the city. She took a whiff of the cool night air and grinned with her tiger teeth showing.

"Doris will be so happy when she sees all this!"

***

"A spirling?" Dolan examined the floating ball of pink.

"It appears so." Edris nodded. "It's been with me following me for a while now."

He snuck a glance at Ace's deadpanned eyes, then shamelessly continued.

"It seems to have taken a liking to me."

"Is that so…" Dolan didn't seem surprised as he withdrew his scrutiny towards the pink ball. "Prophet Edris truly has nature's favour."

“Prophet” Edris merely smiled in return.

Witnessing their conversation from the side with a strange expression, Alan couldn't help but step between them. "Your Highness, what troubles you to personally come here yourself? If you need anything, I could just have people bring it to the palace."

Dolan Zacriya was a regular at his store, a VVVIP, to say the least. However, their usual transactions occurred through his butler, so this was Alan's first time meeting the Crown Prince in person.

A strange silence settled between them. The Crown Prince shifted his gaze left and right, hesitancy seeping through his handsome face. Edris ignored Ace's stare as he kept a plastered smile, while Alan grew more confused by the second.

What could it be for the Crown Prince to show such apprehension?

Blatantly speaking, with his influence and power, there was no reason for Dolan Zacriya to come to him for assistance. He had plenty of competent people back in the palace to tend to his requests.

Unless…

Alan's eyes widened.

"It's about my brother." Dolan sighed. "His conditions are getting worse, and it seems to be due to dark magic. The priest said he didn't have long."

Alan gulped.

…Unless it was something the Crown Prince was keeping a secret.

"I've been looking into the origins of this dark magic. So far, results point towards the underground from the Nolmes slums. More specifically—" he looked towards them "—the Sect."

Mage, Education, Healing, Fortune, and Risk–these were the five factions in the Zacriya Kingdom. However, there was an unspoken sixth faction, what was known now as the Underground Prison Sect.

Originally, this sixth faction was called the Judgment Faction. This faction collaborated with the Risk Faction; criminals deemed dangerous by the latter were taken to the Judgment Faction to claim their punishments.

Alan wasn't sure of the details either, but rumours have it that a major conflict between people in Risk and Judgement led to the disbandment of the latter. This was over three years ago.

"Even the priests couldn't purify this dark magic." Dolan pursed his lips into a thin line. "With Her Majesty ill and His Majesty in distress, the current royal family shouldn't be taking on more problems in its current state."

"So, Your Highness decided to take on this problem alone?" Alan looked at him in disbelief.

"I can handle it," Dolan said. "As an informant and merchant, I just need you to provide me with your best items that go against dark magic, as well as any information on the Sect. And as usual, you will be generously compensated."

At the Crown Prince's words, the machina couldn't help but crease his brows.

While the Crown Prince wasn’t wrong about the royal family being in a pinch, taking on this investigation without telling any of the palace people was undoubtedly reckless. Alan observed the stern expression on Dolan's face.

Rather than reckless, his decision could even be coined as…

"How naive."

Alan's breath hitched in his throat as the man standing beside him spoke his thoughts out loud. Edris, quiet until now, looked at the Crown Prince with the same calm expression since he entered the store.

"Pardon me?" Dolan's eyes flickered as he glanced toward the dark-haired man.

The last person who spoke to Dolan Zacriya, the future king of the Zacriya Kingdom, in such a manner was executed on the spot.

The person before that was Mia Vyris, the twin of Magnus Vyris, one of his few friends unbounded by political ties.

The air in the room thickened.

Witnessing the situation unfold right inside his store, Alan felt as if he was ageing tenfold. Even if Edris currently held a special reputation as the Prophet, speaking to the Crown Prince like such was clearly overstepping a boundary.

Please, if he were to cause trouble, at least do it outside!

"Your Highness, Edris, I think that's enough–"

Before the machina could stop things from escalating, his sentence halted halfway as the Crown Prince lifted a hand his way.

"You're saying I'm naive." Dolan turned towards Edris. "How so?"

"Not you, Your Highness." There was not a hint of anxiety in Edris's voice. "It's your plan."

"My plan?"

"Since Your Highness's goal is to find the culprits behind Prince Treo and Her Majesty's injuries without notifying the palace people, you're planning to head to the Underground Prison Sect alone, correct? After all, that's why you're coming here personally to meet Alan Grennor, since he's the best merchant in the kingdom. After being in contact for some time, after ascertaining that he was clear of suspicions, only then could you proceed with your plan.

"You trust him, at least more than those in the palace, right?"

"What are you…" Alan wanted to grab the nearest voice-strip potion and chug that thing down Edris's throat.

It's one thing if Edris didn't care about his life, but don't drag him into it!

"If I'm not mistaken, there are leaks in the palace, correct? And quite close to the royal family, too."

The clock, ticking like a bomb, was the only audible thing in the room.

"...As expected from the Prophet. You're truly something." Rather than appearing angry, Dolan merely ran a hand through his hair and, under Alan's horrified gaze, let out a refreshing laugh.

"Your guess is spot on. I can't trust people in the palace." He laid both hands out with a shrug. "I've got a few suspicions, likely the truth, but I can't make a move on them unless I have conclusive evidence."

Dolan’s mind flashed to the rumours circulating throughout the kingdom.

"Crown Prince Treo suddenly fell ill!"

"There has been an assassination attempt at the royal banquet. Her Majesty has been injured by dark magic!"

To outsiders, a series of misfortunes had fallen upon the royal family, but Dolan knew they were more than misfortunes.

They were a list of premeditated events aimed at him.

Prince Treo didn't "suddenly fall ill"—he became like this in his stead.

Similarly, Her Majesty wouldn't have been injured by dark magic if it weren't for Dolan’s presence.

He could never forget the day of the attempted assassination, the horror in the Queen's eyes as the dark magic invaded her last bit of consciousness.

For you.

Those were the words the possessed Queen had mouthed towards Dolan Zacriya from across the room.

The attacks, the invasion–they were all aimed at him.

Dolan's decision to act alone wasn't just because he wanted to avoid information getting to the palace moles. In fact, it was the opposite.

"Using yourself as a lure is a naive move, Your Highness," Edris said, pulling him out of his trance. He peered towards him with eyes that resembled the Serenity Lake. "Your enemies are in the shadows. Acting like this will work against you in the long run. You may want to lure them out of the darkness by letting yourself in the sunlight, but have you ever thought about what they're truly aiming at?"

"You mean…"

"It's not you, Your Highness," Edris said softly. "It's the entire Zacriya Kingdom."

Upon hearing his words, both the Crown Prince and the machina widened their eyes.

As Dolan Zacriya had only recently become the Crown Prince, it was a sensitive time for both the royal family and the Zacriya Kingdom.

What would people say about him if one incident followed another, all related to those around him, all occurring during this critical period?

Dolan had assumed initially that whoever was working against them was after the royal family, but it appeared that his thinking was still juvenile.

"Your Highness," Edris remained unfazed by their reactions as he continued. "What is the most effective way to ruin anything?"

Despite Dolan's silence, they all knew the answer to his question.

It was from within.

A kingdom's greatest fear was not inexperienced ruling, but an inconsistent one.

Inconsistency was bound to lead to distrust. If what was supposed to be the heart of the kingdom was no longer trustworthy, it wouldn't take long for the rest of the kingdom to collapse.

"… You're right. I was too naive." Dolan pulled back his hair with a sigh.

Without a proper plan, the consequences of his actions backfiring would be grave. In the worst-case scenario, it may lead to the kingdom's downfall. Whoever was behind all this, they've set up a multilayered trap for both the royal family and the kingdom itself. In this case, the most important thing Dolan Zacriya could do was stay steady.

Stay steady for both himself and the citizens of Zacriya.

As the Crown Prince, he should at least be able to do this much.

"To think a foreigner could see the kingdom's situation more clearly than its own Crown Prince." Dolan turned towards Edris with a wry smile. "I'm truly embarrassed."

"Don't be, Your Highness," Edris said. "After all, these are only my speculations."

"But I can't just leave the Sect alone." Dolan pursed his lips into a line. "There are too many problems with that place that we didn't know where to start investigating. With all the recent events, I can't shake off the feeling that something is going on there."

"Are you still going to investigate, Your Highness?" Alan eyed him with apprehension.

"I can't leave it alone now, can I? Especially when it might harm the kingdom's people." Dolan sighed. "Don't worry, though. I won't do anything that would place myself at risk."

"…I will prepare the items."

Watching Alan make his way to the back of the store, Dolan fell into deep contemplation. His original plan coming here was to ask Alan for both information and items that could purify dark magic. However…

Dolan quietly stared at the dark-haired man, recalling how he had extracted the dark magic and saved the Queen at the banquet.

There was a living magic purifier right in front of him.

"Your Highness." Sensing the Crown Prince's gaze, Edris cautiously took a step back. "I'm merely a traveller."

From the back of the store, Alan nearly scoffed.

After all Edris had done, now he's pulling the traveller card?

"Hey, what kind of person do you take me for?" Dolan held his hands in defence.

Despite being surrounded by paperwork these few days, even he’d had heard about the Orteon Manor incident where Edris had lost control of his powers and gone berserk. According to the circulating rumours, the traveller had only barely held on to his sanity thanks to Beast Tamer Celio and his own saintly convictions.

Frankly, Dolan was apologetic towards Edris. In normal circumstances, he would have had the palace knights or even members of the Mage Brigade carry out the investigation. Still, in the presence of dark magic, Dolan didn't have full faith that he would be able to ensure everyone's safety. Furthermore, dispatching these people would inevitably attract attention from the palace, which was the last thing he wanted to happen.

On the other hand, Edris was both the winner of the Wulin Tournament and the holder of the Tempest, the incredible skill capable of neutralising all magic—including dark magic.

"Your Highness—"

"You will be generously compensated."

Edris's sentence fell midway.

Seeing the dark-haired man's hesitation, Dolan promptly followed on. "You can make any request of me. Do you want money? Potions? I heard you were house-touring in Nolmes.

"As long as it is in my power, I will grant your wish."

Edris entered a rare silence, and Dolan unknowingly held his breath, awaiting his next words. Instead of continuing on, however, the dark-haired man responded with a question.

"Do you know why I came to Nolmes?" Not expecting an answer, he continued. "Someone told me some very lovely things about it. About how it's a city where opportunities are found at every corner, about it being a place where everyone is given a chance to dream.

"My dream is to live a peaceful life."

His grey eyes met Dolan's ruby ones.

"Your Highness, do you think you can grant this wish?"