The sounds of celebration still thundered in the distance. Firecrackers, applause, Stella Banner's voice spilling across the air like a gilded net.
But here, at the edge of the wreckage Hermes had left behind, it was strangely quiet.
Or maybe it only felt quiet because Hermes' ears still rang with his own heartbeat. His chest rose and fell like he had sprinted for miles, though the hooded figure had slipped away after only seconds.
His hands shook as he clenched them, again and again, into fists.
He didn't even notice Ymir and Magni until they were already beside him.
"…What the hell happened here?"
Ymir's voice was sharp, cutting through the haze. His pale eyes swept over the mess—the overturned carts, shattered glass, toppled chairs, the smear of melted cotton candy on the pavement like spilled blood.
Magni crouched down near the edge of a broken stand, touching the splinters with a massive hand. "Brother Modi was chasing someone. Weren't you?"
