"Haruto, the Lieutenant said the issue just sat down to have tea with us," someone called from outside the door.
"Oh, now we are talking."
I laughed as I picked up my sword.
"Ji-woo, I'll be right back."
She said nothing.
She merely rolled onto her side, turning her back toward me.
I smiled.
After this, we would have enough money to purchase our dream.
The thought brought a smile to my face.
It was either genuine amusement or amusement wearing a stupid's hat.
Either way, I liked it.
I closed the door behind me.
"Where are they, and who are they?" I asked the man waiting outside.
"The boss's office."
He adjusted his grip around the knife in his hand.
"A man and three women."
I nodded and walked past him, tightening my grip around the sword.
The man would be the opponent.
I exhaled slowly, trying to calm myself.
My heart was already beating faster.
Not from fear.
At least, I didn't think so.
"Minato."
I noticed him along the way.
His hands were still wrapped in white bandages.
He turned toward me.
"All these men for just one foreigner?"
I looked at the people gathered around the corridor.
"Are the weapons okay?"
"Haruto, you are here."
He paused.
"Well…"
His expression changed slightly.
"They are likely with the Concord."
I stared at him.
The Concord.
I should have woken her up.
The thought crossed my mind immediately.
Ji-woo would have probably known what to do.
Or, at the very least, she would have told me I was being stupid.
"The weapons are still secured," Minato continued. "The boss decided one demonstration should do."
I nodded.
Then opened the door.
There was a man inside.
A foreigner.
He said something.
I didn't listen.
My eyes had already settled on the weapon in his hands.
A polearm.
I charged.
My sword swung toward him.
He blocked it.
Steel struck against the polearm.
The sound echoed through the office.
He blocked it.
I stared at him.
For a moment, the entire room seemed to go quiet.
Not actually quiet.
I could still hear breathing.
Clothing shifting.
The faint movement of people around us.
But everything else disappeared from my attention.
I looked at the weapon in his hands.
A spear.
How did he do that?
I hadn't seen him draw it.
I struck again.
"One."
My blade came around.
He deflected it.
"Two."
I swung toward his shoulder.
He pushed the blade away with the shaft of his weapon.
"Two."
I took a step back.
He seemed to be thinking.
That was enough.
I moved again.
A feint first.
My sword shifted toward his weapon.
Then I changed the angle.
His head.
The blade struck the shaft.
There was resistance.
Then the resistance disappeared.
The polearm folded inward.
Not snapped.
Folded.
For an instant, it looked as though the weapon had forgotten how to remain straight.
My eyes widened.
What—
I charged.
One of the women stepped in.
A fist struck my side.
Pain exploded through my ribs.
"Ah—"
My fingers opened.
The sword fell from my hand.
I inhaled sharply.
The pain became worse.
I staggered.
The woman who had hit me stood in front of the only person in the room who wasn't a foreigner.
A dagger was already in her hand.
I turned back.
One of our men had rushed the foreigner.
He landed a jab.
It connected.
The foreigner stumbled.
The weapon in his hands disappeared.
Or rather—
He dropped it.
"Ouch."
The foreigner sounded almost offended.
Then hands came out of thin air.
I froze.
Hands.
Black hands.
They emerged from nowhere, curling around the men.
One grabbed an arm.
Another caught a shoulder.
Another wrapped around someone's waist.
Within moments, every man around me was restrained.
"What…"
I looked around.
Where was the boss?
I couldn't see him.
Had he already left?
No.
Something was holding me down.
I tried to move.
Pain shot through my side again.
I stopped.
My eyes moved toward where my sword had fallen.
Then toward the foreigner.
The brother who had struck him was now hanging in the air.
A black hand held him by the body.
It looked almost like smoke.
No.
Not smoke.
Something shaped like a hand that had forgotten it was supposed to be solid.
I stared.
Just one person?
I remembered the Fair.
The first time I had found it.
The strange place.
The strange people.
The strange things being sold.
All of it had begun after I robbed that man's cargo.
I had thought I had discovered something.
Instead, perhaps I had merely stepped into something that had always been there.
I exhaled slowly.
The pain in my side told me not to move.
So I didn't.
I lowered myself carefully onto the floor.
A broken rib, perhaps.
I couldn't tell.
The sun poured through the windows, giving the air a strange character.
The warmth only made the room more unbearable.
My breathing became shallow.
"Ji-woo…"
My voice cracked.
Tears filled my eyes.
For the first time since I had picked up my sword, I wasn't thinking about the money.
Or the weapons.
Or the dream.
I was thinking about the person sleeping in the other room.
And wondering whether I would ever see her again.