In the bottom drawer, he found a strip of leather folded neatly. Nestled inside were seven additional bullets, each held in place by tight, stitched loops. Zay picked them up and whispered, "Arbiter: Vault." A soft violet light flashed as the bullets vanished.
'A total of fourteen bullets,' he thought, snapping the cylinder shut with a quiet click.
He gave the revolver one final glance, then scratched his head before turning to the next drawer. He retrieved the nineteen pieces of gold, thirty silver, and seven bronze coins, then whispered again, "Arbiter: Vault."
Another pulse of violet aura shimmered briefly, and the curved dagger, the coins and the revolver disappeared into his vault. Zay exhaled quietly.
Zay left the room and crossed the narrow pathway to another chamber, nearly identical in shape and wear. Dust veiled the floor in a soft film, and like the last, the room was bare—nothing more than a dresser, a mattress but this one was on the ground, and this time, a small wooden table beside the dresser.
A woman lay asleep on the thin mattress. She wore a skin-tight black tunic that clung to her frame and loose black trousers adorned with dangling straps. The air around her was still.
Zay inhaled deeply, then looked down at the sheaths for the stone daggers and unsheathed another one tipped with venom. After cracking his neck once, he moved silently to her side, placed a gloved hand firmly over her mouth, and drove the dagger into her neck at the same time.
Her eyes snapped open.
With a sharp gasp, she reached instinctively for the dagger strapped at her waist and struck. Zay flinched, eyes widening as the blade caught his glove and sliced through it slightly, drawing blood that splattered onto the mattress. His expression hardened, jaw clenching.
The venom surged through her veins. Her muscles tensed, spasms rippling through her limbs. She let out a muffled scream into his hand, her eyes rolling back as foam formed at the corners of her mouth.
In one last desperate act, she flung the dagger at Zay, but he simply tilted his head to the side from how weak she had gotten. The blade plunged deeply into the wall. Her body convulsed one final time before collapsing back onto the mattress.
Zay lowered her gently onto the blood-soaked bedding, pulling the dagger from her neck. He flicked the blood off and returned it to his belt, counting silently as he sheathed the dagger.
"Eight," he muttered to himself. 'Damn. I must've forgotten to get the last one before leaving that room.'
He scanned the room again and looked over at the dresser that was old and chipped, the table beside it small and stained. Dust lingered in the air, catching faint beams of light from the cracked ceiling.
He exhaled the breath he'd been holding to remain silent, then took a few slow, heavy breaths. His hands flexed at his sides before he stepped toward the dresser.
In the top drawer, he found a revolver, its body made from steel laced with bronze trim, nearly identical to the one he'd already collected. He located a small latch on the side and pressed it. With a quiet click, the cylinder swung open, revealing five loaded chambers. He rotated the cylinder with his fingers, watching the bullets gleam faintly in the dim light.
Beside the weapon lay a strip of leather, bound with frayed threads. He undid the stitching and unfolded it, revealing nine silver bullets nestled in sewn loops—identical to those in the revolver.
'Another revolver,' he thought, counting again. 'Another fourteen bullets. Is this some kind of pattern with this group?
He snapped the cylinder shut and placed the weapon gently on top of the dresser, lining the extra bullets beside it. Then he dug deeper into the drawer, uncovering ten bronze coins, a Cindrel note worth forty silver, a pressed rose, a letter written in Venlic with messy handwriting, and a black mask embedded with a rose ornament on one side.
Zay took the bronze coins, the note, the letter, and the mask, placing them neatly next to the revolver and bullets. He then bent down to open the next drawer.
Inside, he found a small collection of garments—skirts, tunics, dresses, gloves, and undergarments. Shifting the clothing aside, he uncovered twenty more silver coins hidden beneath the fabric. He reached and grabbed them then added them to the growing pile on the dresser.
Continuing to search, he found a journal tucked under the last layer of fabric. As he opened it, the first page was written in Venlic. At its center was an intricate symbol he didn't recognize—but somehow, it felt familiar.
His gaze dropped to the bottom of the page. The words there made his chest tighten.
"Oh shit," he whispered under his breath.
Scrawled in fading ink were the words: Seal of Eternal Keepings.
Just above that, in bold black lettering: A.D.
"A.D. The Seal of Eternal Keepings... there's no way this is connected to that occult book me and Renzo found, right?" he muttered, a sinking feeling curling in his gut.
He closed the journal gently and laid it beside the other items. His expression darkened as he began rifling through the remaining drawers, hoping to find a form of identification, a note, something that could tell him her name. Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe it only looked familiar on paper.
Zay looked through the dresser and found an identification card containing a name, age, hair color, and race.
He picked it up and scanned the details:
Name: Nora Novak
Age: 21
Hair Color: Light Pink
Race: Feline – Novak
'She's part of the Novak clan?' Zay narrowed his eyes slightly. 'I don't know all the details, but I remember a rumor—they had a trait that could hide their feline features, and another that boosts physical strength. How did one of them get captured? If she got captured at all...'
He walked over to the lifeless corpse sprawled on the mattress. A black tail curled limply against the blood-stained fabric. As he approached, he carefully removed the mask from her face. Her light pink hair spilled out, framing a pair of distinct black cat-like ears atop her head.
'Her hair might be dyed...' he noted, inspecting the contrast. 'Both her ears and tail are black. Normally, in the Feline races, those features match their natural hair color… Though that's not true for every clan.'
He exhaled and returned his attention to the ID card. At the bottom was a faint symbol: a rose bound tightly by a collar.
"The verification mark of being sold," he muttered under his breath. "So she was either a slave, a maid, or… maybe part of some back-alley training deal, cutting costs by skipping the proper paperwork of Cindra."
He set the card down beside her and turned away from the body.
'At least now I know... it was all just some sort of coincidence. Nothing more.'
Zay walked toward the place where the door had been and stepped into the narrow pathway outside, descending deeper into the complete darkness pathway as he saw everything in perfect vision due to [Night Vision].
'Seventeen bronze, fifty silver, and nineteen gold... will that be enough to buy this person?' he wondered, recalling the task that had been the deciding factor on doing what he's doing currently.
'Better to bring more than what I think is enough,' he thought as he burped slightly.
Zay blinked a few times, rolling his shoulders as his right hand came to rest on the hilt of Evershade.
'I need enough money to pay for all this gear... and enough to buy this Naomi Duskvine person,' he thought, exhaling a slow, steady breath.
Up ahead, a wooden gate blocked off a narrower pathway. He sighed deeply.
'But besides this whole Naomi situation, if I remember correctly, Nox has tunnels running beneath all of Gyro—connected routes that let them move completely unseen by the public.'
As he reached the wooden gate, Zay lifted a hand and infused his fist with aura before slamming it against the wood. It cracked and splintered beneath the blow. He raised his hand again and struck once more, shattering the gate completely as it collapsed onto the cracked pathway made of hardened red sand.
Stepping over the broken pieces, he continued down the narrow passageway. Holes pockmarked the surrounding walls—tunnels that branched off into other paths. With every step, he passed yet another diverging route, each one leading who knows where. He could only assume they were alternate entrances and exits.
That's when he heard it—the sharp crack of wood breaking from one of the corridors.
Zay didn't hesitate. He slipped into a nearby tunnel, surging forward into the shadows. With a breath, he activated [Shadow Hide], his form blending into the darkness until he became one with it—an indistinct shadow crawling along the walls.
Then he saw them.
Three men, each dressed in pristine white suits. On the right breast of every suit was an embroidered insignia: a dark cogwheel wreathed in broken chains, flanked on both sides by metallic silver wings—outstretched, yet clipped, like remnants of a fallen freedom. The emblem shimmered faintly with a sinister crimson aura.
'Watchmen? What the hell are they doing here?' Zay thought, narrowing his eyes.
Behind them walked a man in a dark blue trench coat. His hair was short, the same deep shade of blue, and his eyes gleamed like sharpened emeralds.
"Rei Alvor," Zay muttered under his breath, recognizing the figure instantly.
The four burst into the corridor he'd just passed through.
"Search this damn place and sentence them all to death under Article Seven of the Crimson Judgement Act. Do not leave one alive," Rei commanded.
The three men in white nodded and split off without hesitation, rushing into side rooms and corridors—killing everyone they found.