A street vendor waved a pair of bright red ribbons as Kei and Yejin wandered past her stall. "Come look, young lady! Fine ribbons, polished pins! Something pretty for a handsome pair, hm?"
Yejin stopped, smiling as she leaned over the wooden tray laid out on the counter. "Do you have anything with a rose design? A hairpin, maybe?"
"A rose!" The vendor scrambled through her stock, snatching up the first floral pin within reach. "Here, my lady — carved peach wood. Lovely piece, isn't it?"
Yejin took it gently, turning it beneath the lantern light. "A peony, actually. Pretty, but not quite what I had in mind."
"Ah — forgive me! One moment, please." The vendor set it aside and dug deeper into a woven basket tucked beneath the counter.
While she searched, Kei's gaze drifted sideways, catching the red petals stitched delicately along the hem of Yejin's dark dress, and the small silver flower charm swinging gently from the bracelet on her wrist.
"I see now why you named your unit the Blood Rose," he said quietly, almost to himself.
Yejin glanced back at him over her shoulder. "What was that?"
"Nothing." Kei turned his attention to a row of small iron daggers laid out at the next stall, feigning sudden interest. "Just thinking out loud."
The vendor let out a small, triumphant gasp, holding up a pin carved from dark walnut — its head shaped like a rose caught mid-bloom, petals wrapped in fine silver wire twisted to look like tiny thorns. "This one, perhaps?"
Yejin's eyes lit up instantly. She took it, running her thumb over the smooth wood grain. "Yes. This is exactly it. How much?"
"Seven kyeols, my lady."
She counted out the copper coins and pressed them into the vendor's waiting palm. The woman bowed low, hands pressed together, thanking her over and over as they turned to leave.
Back out on the street, Yejin lifted the pin and slid it carefully into her hair, just above her right ear. She tilted her head slightly toward Kei, lips curving into a slow, knowing smile — and when she caught him watching, his eyes widened for just a beat before he swallowed and looked away, suddenly very interested in the rooftops.
"What?" Yejin stepped closer, refusing to let him escape her gaze that easily. "Cat got your tongue? Or am I really just that pretty?"
Kei cleared his throat, eyes fixed firmly straight ahead. "It looks... fine."
She laughed softly, nudging his arm with her elbow. "You really aren't any different from the other men, are you?"
Before Kei could think of a response, the sharp sound of running boots cut through the quiet evening air.
Three city guards sprinted past them, followed close behind by two medics hauling a wooden stretcher between them. People along the street stepped aside fast, murmuring low as they watched the group disappear toward a narrow alley near the eastern wall.
Kei caught fragments of conversation from two merchants standing beside a fruit cart nearby.
"Did you hear? One of the high priests, from Hwadosen."
"Slit ear to ear, they're saying. All four of them died."
"Inside Goryeong? The invasion only ended three days ago, and now this?"
"What's happening in the empire?"
Kei's posture shifted instantly. He let his focus sharpen, the world around him washing into dull gray as his Deathsight flared to life. He swept the street, searching for any trace of hostile prana or lingering residue — nothing stood out among the crowd. They had followed the guards all the way to the alley's mouth.
A crowd had already gathered there, held back by two guards with wooden poles braced across the entrance. On the cobblestones inside lay four bodies, robes soaked through dark red. In the center, slumped against a stack of crates, was High Priest Abe Kizuki himself — his throat opened clean to the bone.
"Goddess Amaterasu..." Yejin's hand rose to her mouth. "We just saw him. At the restaurant. What happened here?"
"Stay back, please!" one guard shouted at the gathering crowd. "No one enters!"
Yejin stepped forward, pulling back the edge of her cloak just enough to reveal the imperial crest beneath. The guard's eyes went wide, and he dropped instantly to one knee, lowering his pole. "Lady Yejin! Forgive me, I didn't realize—"
"Officer." She stepped past the line, Kei close behind her. "Tell me what happened."
The lead watchman approached, face pale beneath his iron helmet. "A disaster, my lady. High Priest Kizuki and his three attendants were ambushed, probably when they were heading back to the temple quarters. Some witnesses we interviewed said the High Priest was still alive eating in the nearby elite restaurant in the afternoon. So this murder happened not long ago. No shouting, no sound of a struggle at all. By the time my men reached them, all four were already gone. Although it was still a mystery why the High Priest and his attendants would even come in this dark alley."
"Did anyone see who did this?" Yejin pressed.
"No one, my lady." He shook his head grimly. "Whoever's responsible knew exactly what they were doing. No dropped weapons, no signs of a fight. We don't even have a motive to work from."
"Get word to my father immediately," Yejin ordered. "A high priest murdered inside our own fortress walls — this could shatter the people's trust in our guards entirely."
"Right away, Lady Yejin." The officer bowed deep and turned to relay the order to one of his men.
Yejin made to leave, but stopped short when she noticed Kei crouched beside the priest's body. He wasn't looking at the wound across his throat at all — he had the man's cold wrist turned upward instead, angling the open palm toward the lantern light.
A mark had been burned into the center of the skin — a stylized eye, three sharp lashes curling out from the upper lid.
"Kei?" Yejin moved closer, brow furrowing. "What is that?"
"An eye." Kei's gaze stayed fixed on the blackened flesh.
Through his Deathsight, the skin around it wasn't empty at all — a faint, oily purple haze still clung to the burned lines, humming with something cold and rotten underneath.
"An omen curse," he murmured.
Then, his mind slipped backward without warning, pulled years away to another cold night on another rooftop entirely.
Rain had been falling over the slate rooftops of an old district in Luvrio, Gammora. From high above, Kei and Cero had watched a slaughtered family lying cold on the ground below, city guards holding the crowd back while investigators combed through the scene.
"Ever killed a person, Kei?" Cero had asked, one hand resting against the chin of his mask.
Kei hadn't answered, staring down at the crowd instead.
"Guess that's a yes, then." Cero's voice had stayed even. "Was it necessary?"
Still nothing.
"So that's a yes too." A slow exhale. "You've fought fiends before, so you know they're mostly mindless — violent, sure, but not truly aware of the harm they cause. But some people are different. Doing terrible things while knowing full well it's terrible."
"Where's this going, Cero?"
"I'm saying people who slaughter others like this — really slaughter, deliberately — are worse than any fiend you'll ever fight. Fiends need a reason. Survival, hunger, something. These people don't. They hurt others simply because they want to. And murderers like that, the true ones, always leave something behind. A signature. You learn to recognize it."
"A signature?"
"I ran mind games against a crime syndicate once. Called themselves the All-Seeing Eye. They've got one signature they never deviate from." Cero had tapped two fingers below his own eye. "The Eye itself."
Kei had stayed quiet, though something about it had clearly stuck with him. "If you ever see it," Cero added, "you'll know exactly who's behind it."
The memory dissolved as Yejin's voice pulled him back into the present, back into the alley.
"Kei? What are you thinking?"
"This mark, on his palm. I've heard about it before." He straightened slowly. "Unless I'm mistaken, it's the signature of a group called the All-Seeing Eye."
The watch officer's breath caught audibly. "The All-Seeing Eye? You're certain, sir?"
"Not certain, no." Kei shook his head. "A comrade of mine fought them once, told me about the mark. I can't confirm this is what he meant." He returned to examining the bodies, searching for anything else that might help.
Yejin's brow creased further. "I've never heard that name before. Who exactly are they?"
"Rumored to be a large criminal syndicate, Princess," the officer said, voice dropping low. "Killers, black-market sorcerers, the whole operation buried in shadow. Most of what's said about them is only rumor — I can't confirm much beyond that myself."
"They're real," another guard added quietly, glancing over his shoulder like the words themselves were dangerous. "We've only ever heard whispers from caravans coming out of Oddin, Artemia, further west. If they've made it inside Goryeong now, that's a serious problem for all of us."
Yejin's expression hardened further. Her eyes settled on Kei, still crouched over the bodies.
He caught her look and straightened fully. "I don't know much more than that. Cero fought them once, stopped a few of their operations. That's the extent of what I've got."
He rose, turning to face her directly. "For now, all we can do really is wait for the investigation result, Princess Yejin. But all of us must stay sharp. The killer must still be within Goryeong's walls."
"I agree with him," the watch officer added quickly. "Please, don't let this weigh too heavily on you, Your Highness. We will do everything we can to find this culprit."
Yejin nodded slowly, some of the tension easing from her shoulders, though not all of it. "You're both right. Please work on this case thoroughly. I will also try to help and find out more about this All-Seeing Eye." she said.
They emerged from the alley and walked quietly back to the infirmary, but when they returned, Vincent and the people who were supposed to look after him were already gone.