Several mercenaries were discussing their recent escort missions.
“The northwestern trade route has been much more peaceful lately.”
“I heard the Royal Knight Order cleared out a bunch of bandits a few days ago.”
Another person shook their head. “Bandits are nothing. The real trouble is the magical beasts in the forest. Last month, the Black Tooth Mercenary Group lost seven people. Even their captain lost an arm.”
Someone nearby couldn’t help but chime in. “Is that for real?”
“Of course it’s real. My cousin is in the Black Tooth Mercenary Group. When he came back, he’d lost a whole layer of fat. Word is they ran into a Tier 2 magical beast.”
At another table, several caravan guards were chatting.
“I’m afraid grain prices will rise again this year. It’s been raining in the south for two months straight. Many manors have seen a decrease in production. Spices have become quite a bit cheaper, though. Several shipments have arrived by sea.”
Matthew simply listened to these tidbits of information and committed them to memory, though he didn’t pay them too much mind.
What truly caught his attention was another table in the corner. Seated there were three older mercenaries. Their clothes were somewhat tattered, and their equipment was far from refined. However, the weathering on their faces was far deeper than that of the young mercenaries in the hall.
People like this often had the most experience and knew the most secrets. One of them took a large gulp of ale before suddenly lowering his voice.
“I saw the City Guard blocking the road again yesterday.”
Another laughed. “What’s so strange about a road being blocked? There isn’t a day in the Royal Capital where they don’t close off a few streets.”
The old mercenary shook his head. “It’s different. This time, it was the Theater District again.”
Upon hearing the words ‘Theater District,’ Matthew’s fingers paused for a fraction of a second. His ale cup remained at his lips, and his expression didn’t change in the slightest.
Another mercenary frowned. “The Theater District again? Wasn’t it just closed off a few days ago?”
“Who knows.” The old mercenary curled his lip. “Anyway, my brother is in the City Guard. When he came home last night, he only said one thing.”
The two beside him immediately became interested. “What did he say?”
The old mercenary imitated his brother’s tone, his voice dropping considerably lower. “Don’t go to the Theater District at night lately. If you see a patrol squad, walk the other way. And if you hear someone shouting for help... don’t go over.”
At those words, the three men at the table fell silent for a moment. One of the mercenaries couldn’t help but say, “That’s pretty spooky.”
The old mercenary threw up his hands. “I asked him about it too. He said he couldn’t talk. When I pressed him, he just told me to stop asking. He also said...”
He looked left and right, lowering his voice even further. “Some people aren’t coming back.”
The tavern remained noisy, yet for a brief instant, the area around that table seemed to fall completely still. The other two mercenaries exchanged a look.
One of them asked in a whisper, “People died?”
The old mercenary shook his head. “I don’t know if they’re dead. My brother didn’t say. He just drank two full pitchers of ale after he got home. He’s usually a teetotaler, but he didn’t say a word that day.”
“Later, I kept pestering him. He got annoyed and finally told me one thing: ‘Don’t go near the Theater District at night lately. Especially don’t go there alone.’”
Another mercenary frowned. “Could it just be those vampire rumors again?”
The old mercenary scoffed. “I didn’t believe them before either. But now...” He picked up his cup and drained it in one go. “I’d rather believe it than not. Besides, missing a trip at night won’t kill me.”
A mercenary with a thick beard suddenly interjected. “Actually, it’s not just the Theater District. I took an escort mission the day before yesterday to take some noble young masters home.”
“When we passed White Rose Street, one of them was drunk and insisted on taking a detour. He kept shouting that the shortcut was faster. The result? The guard captain leading us turned hostile on the spot.”
“He dragged the guy back himself. He preferred to detour for an extra half hour rather than walk down that street. When I asked why later, the guard captain didn’t say a word. He just told me to stop asking. He also said...”
He paused. “Some places in the Royal Capital aren’t the same at night as they are during the day.”
The men at the table all laughed, but their laughter was somewhat forced. One of them waved a hand. “Let’s stop talking about this. It’s creepy enough in broad daylight.”
Another person suddenly spoke up. “Actually, I heard about something else.”
“What?”
“Last winter, there was a patrol squad in the Theater District. Five men went out on night patrol together. The next day, only four came back. The fifth person just... vanished into thin air.”
“The City Guard searched for three days. No sign of the person, no sign of a body. Later, the matter was just dropped.”
Someone immediately countered, “Nonsense. What’s one missing person? The Royal Capital is so big; aren’t there plenty of people who go missing every year?”
The man shook his head. “It’s different. For a normal disappearance, they’d post a notice or a bounty. But for this incident, every record of it was gone that very night. I heard even the patrol roster was rewritten. It was as if... that person never existed at all.”
As the words fell, even the person who had countered him went silent. Such a thing was already beyond the scope of what ordinary mercenaries could understand.
Matthew sat in the corner, his expression remaining calm. However, his mind was rapidly connecting these pieces of information.
The Theater District. Repeated lockdowns. Nighttime prohibitions. Patrol squads. Missing people. Erased records.
Taken individually, these things could be explained as coincidences. But when put together, the likelihood of coincidence began to dwindle.
Matthew wasn’t in a hurry to draw a conclusion. Information in a mercenary tavern was three parts truth and seven parts fiction. Some people saw things with their own eyes, some heard from friends, and others were just bragging while drunk.
What was truly valuable wasn’t a single sentence, but recurring information. The Theater District had already been mentioned for the third time today.
Just then, someone at another table suddenly laughed and cursed. “Old Karl, you’re scaring the newcomers again. Last year, you said there were ogres hiding in the sewers.”
A wave of laughter immediately erupted in the hall. The old mercenary named Karl rolled his eyes.
“Believe it or not. Anyway, I’ve lived longer than you. I’ll leave you all with one more piece of advice: there are three places in the Royal Capital at night where you’d better take a detour if you see them.”
Many people immediately became interested. “Which three?”
Old Karl held up three fingers. “First: the Theater District. Second: the Abandoned Clock Tower. Third...” He suddenly stopped there. He picked up his cup and took a large gulp. Then, he shook his head.
“Forget it. I won’t say. Talking too much only brings trouble.”
People immediately began to jeer. “What are you afraid of?” “Exactly. You’ve already drunk the ale, don’t keep us in suspense.”
Old Karl just waved them off. “It’s not that I’m afraid. It’s just that there are some things that aren’t good for you to know.”
After saying that, he lowered his head and refused to speak further. The people in the hall cursed a few times but didn’t continue to press him. After all, old mercenaries like him often liked to act mysterious.
Matthew, however, firmly committed those names to memory. The Theater District. The Abandoned Clock Tower. And that third place that remained unspoken.
He had a faint feeling that these places were likely the few areas where the ordinary world and the extraordinary world overlapped. Wizards wouldn’t actively appear before mortals, but the traces of their activities couldn't be completely erased.
And these urban legends circulating among mercenaries, seemingly difficult to distinguish as true or false, might just be the best breakthrough point.
Matthew didn’t continue listening. He picked up his cup and took a small sip. The ale had a hint of bitterness, but it made his thoughts even clearer.
He hadn’t come to the mercenary tavern today to find news of a specific person. He came to observe. To observe this Royal Capital. To observe the people here. To observe the details hidden beneath the prosperity that were not easily noticed by ordinary people.
Now it seemed his harvest was even greater than he had expected. With that thought, he set down his cup and slowly stood up.
“Let’s go.”
Aidan was slightly stunned. “We’re leaving already?”
Matthew nodded. “It’s enough.”
The two settled their tab and left the tavern. The moment they pushed open the wooden door, the afternoon sunlight spilled down once more.
The street was still bustling. Pedestrians came and went, and carriages flowed incessantly. Those slightly oppressive topics from the tavern seemed as if they had never existed.
Aidan glanced back at the tavern and couldn’t help but say, “Brother Matthew... is what they said true?”
Matthew didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he walked forward slowly. After a moment, he spoke softly. “Whether it’s true or false isn’t important.”
Aidan was taken aback. “Huh?”
Matthew said calmly, “What’s truly important is that the same place is being mentioned over and over again by different people. Even if ninety percent of it is fake, that remaining ten percent is worth noting.”
Aidan nodded thoughtfully. He realized that Matthew’s way of listening to news was completely different from that of an ordinary person. Others focused on the story, while Matthew focused on the patterns.
As the two continued along the street, the flow of people ahead suddenly became slightly agitated. Several City Guard Knights riding tall warhorses approached slowly from the end of the street.
Their silver-white armor glistened in the sunlight, and they wore the kingdom’s crest on their chests. The longswords at their waists gleamed with a cold light. Upon seeing this, the street vendors actively made way, and pedestrians stepped to the sides of their own accord. The entire process was orderly, without any chaos.
Aidan couldn’t help but marvel. “As expected of the Royal Capital. The discipline is much stricter than in the County Seat.”
Matthew nodded, but his gaze fell behind the knights. Following them were over a dozen ordinary City Guard members. They looked solemn as they escorted a pitch-black enclosed carriage.
The carriage bore no family crest. The windows were all covered by thick black cloth, and there was even a layer of iron railing on the outside. It didn’t look like it was transporting goods; rather, it looked more like it was... escorting something.
Aidan saw it too and whispered, “Is that a prisoner?”
Matthew didn’t answer because he noticed that many old residents along the street only took a single glance before immediately lowering their heads to mind their own business. No one watched. No one discussed it. It was as if they had long since grown accustomed to it.
This reaction was actually somewhat abnormal. Just then, an old man at a nearby fruit stall quietly warned his grandson. “Don’t look. Keep working.”
The child was still curious, but the old man gently pressed down on his head. “Be good. This kind of excitement isn't for us to watch.”
The voice was very soft, but Matthew heard it clearly. His eyes narrowed slightly. This wasn’t the first time. Throughout their walk today, whenever something special was involved, the ordinary people almost always maintained a striking tacit understanding.
Don’t ask. Don’t look. Don’t discuss. It was as if they knew what they should know and what they shouldn’t.
Matthew silently noted this scene. After the knight party had completely vanished into the distance, the street quickly returned to normal. Calls of vendors rose again, and children continued to chase each other and play, as if everything that had just happened was merely a trivial interlude.
Aidan couldn’t resist looking back. “Brother Matthew, is the Royal Capital like this every day?”
Matthew shook his head slightly. “It’s not that it’s like this every day. It’s that the people here have already grown accustomed to it.”
Aidan grew even more confused. “Accustomed to what?”
Matthew gazed in the direction where the knight party had disappeared and said slowly, “Accustomed to the fact that some things don’t belong to them. The less they know, the longer they live.”
He didn’t explain further after saying that. But in his heart, he had already made a new judgment. The Royal Capital was not as peaceful as it appeared on the surface. At the very least, beneath this prosperous city, there was surely another world that ordinary people could not touch.
And the vampire rumors, the Theater District lockdowns, and the night prohibitions he had heard today... perhaps they were all just a corner of that world that had accidentally been revealed.
The two continued to walk slowly along the main street. Along the way, Matthew was clearly much quieter. Aidan knew this was Matthew’s habit when he was thinking, so he didn’t speak to disturb him, simply following quietly behind.
The Royal Capital’s prosperity continued. Shops lined both sides of the street: tailor shops, jewelry shops, spice shops, pottery shops, and even shops specializing in imported fruit and sea goods. People from all over constantly moved through them.
There were merchants haggling loudly and noble carriages passing slowly. Occasionally, several members of the Clergy in temple uniforms could be seen hurrying along, causing the surrounding pedestrians to actively make way. Everything appeared orderly.
But as Matthew looked at this scene now, he had a different feeling. The more prosperous this city was, the more it indicated that the forces hidden in the shadows were even more mature. Being able to let millions of people live normally meant that someone was maintaining it all.
With that thought, Matthew suddenly stopped and looked toward the end of the street. There, a squad of the City Guard was changing their patrol route. Their movements were perfectly synchronized, their cooperation seamless.
...
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