While the head of the Marnac branch of Adiak was listening to the man’s scream, Laila and Eustar were continuing to walk in the direction Sicker was pointing.

Eustar said:

“I don’t quite understand what kind of ‘influence’ Marnac is talking about.”

Laila, who had been fixated on Sicker’s needle, glanced up at him.

“Could he be referring to that man from earlier?”

“Probably. But I feel it’s a bit odd to say ‘having an influence’ based on just one case. I’m not sure if the members haven’t grasped the exact situation yet, or if there’s something they’re not telling me.”

“Are there people trying to hide things from you?”

When Laila asked, Eustar smiled with his usual unreadable expression.

“Everyone does. Don’t you have anything to hide from me, Laila?”

Laila’s eyebrows furrowed. Without slowing her pace, she lowered her gaze slightly, then glanced at Eustar’s face again.

“I don’t think so.”

“That’s an honor.”

It was a strange thing to say. Why would she have any reason to hide anything from him? Probably such a thing would never happen in the future. Her life had nothing to hide, and was one that couldn’t be hidden.

“Come to think of it…”

Laila, looking around, suddenly lowered her voice to a whisper.

“People aren’t staring at me.”

“It’s because of the clothes you’re wearing.”

Laila looked down at her uniform. Eustar continued:

“The Tentinella uniform explains a lot. Especially in a town like this where there’s a branch, it has an even greater influence. Laila, as long as you’re wearing that uniform, no one will dare to pick a fight with you. They simply can’t.”

“Because it proves I belong to the Order?”

Eustar nodded and added:

“Not just any Order. As I said, Tentinella is a special organization. In places with little interaction with others, like Rijikerus, it might not mean much, but elsewhere it’s different.”

Rijikerus. Laila repeated the name in her mind. Suddenly, she felt as if decades had passed since she left that place. It was a strange sensation. She had been in that village just a few days ago.

“Eustar, can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

Laila narrowed her eyes slightly, pondering what to say. In fact, she had wanted to ask him this for a while, but each time something happened, and she missed the opportunity.

“You know, the whole time I lived in Rijikerus… I thought there was something strange about that village.”

A smile of interest appeared on Eustar’s lips. At times like this, he looked like a merchant about to start a pleasant bargain.

“How so?”

Laila bit her lower lip slightly, thinking again.

“I mentioned it briefly before. I couldn’t explain it accurately, but… Rijikerus, how should I put it… It felt like the village itself was hiding from the world. I constantly felt like we were living… in a huge pit.”

Speaking intermittently, Laila glanced at him with a slightly embarrassed expression.

“I’m sorry. I can’t explain it well.”

“No, I understand.”

His response was so immediate it almost sounded cheerful.

“Really?”

Laila said with a slightly puzzled voice. Could he feel that sensation, that strange sense of isolation that had kept her uneasy throughout her life in Rijikerus? In less than a day?

Eustar lightly touched his chin with his long fingers.

“I told you before, didn’t I? That it’s rather surprising that a Sync has never occurred in Rijikerus.”

Laila nodded. When talking about Rijikerus being an isolated place, Eustar had certainly mentioned this to her.

Eustar continued:

“Now that you understand to some extent why Syncs occur, you’ll get it. Why I said that. Laila, that strange sense of isolation you felt in Rijikerus, that feeling of living in a huge pit, it’s because of the problem with the village itself. That village… has been stagnant for too long, narrow and deep. It’s been sinking alone like a swamp that no one looks at. Such a place is perfect for a Sync to occur.”

“You mean it’s a problem with the people?”

“Most problems are caused by people. The unique closed-mindedness of people living in a small village has changed the energy of the atmosphere itself. Hmm, maybe this will make it easier to understand. It’s like putting clean air in a small box, then slowly adding a tiny bit of toxic gas. Eventually…”

“The box will be filled only with gas.”

As Laila finished the sentence, Eustar blinked as if to say that’s exactly right.

“Rijikerus was already like that. It was in a state where almost no clean air remained. In fact, I was surprised when I first set foot there.”

That was the truth. Honestly, if it weren’t for the purpose of finding Laila, Eustar wouldn’t have bothered to visit that village. If he had known a Sync had been created, he couldn’t have ignored it in the end, but…

“Then…”

Just as Laila was about to say something, they both stopped walking at the sound of footsteps behind them. One person, no, two? No, about five or six people were running towards Laila and Eustar.

“Laila.”

Eustar carefully grabbed Laila’s wrist and moved to the side of the road. Just in case they might attack, one of his hands moved to the hilt of his sword.

The people kept running… getting closer and closer. When the distance narrowed enough to distinguish their features, Laila realized that their ages and genders varied. Women, men, old people, young adults. They seemed to be villagers.

And they were all smiling broadly at Laila and Eustar.

As they passed right in front of them, Laila unconsciously held her breath. Those grotesquely distorted faces seemed to be screaming even as they smiled. It was as if someone had forcibly stretched their lips.

“The seeker is coming.”

A man whispered as he ran past Laila.

“The seeker is coming.”

An old woman running behind him also whispered. Looking closely, one of her feet was a wooden prosthetic. But the old woman kept running, wobbling. Smiling.

Only after they disappeared beyond the road could Laila exhale the breath she had been holding. Eustar stared blankly at where they had disappeared with a hardened expression, then tied up his long hair that had been hanging down.

“We should follow them.”

The two started walking at a faster pace than before. There were no more people running behind them now, but it was hard to stop the back of their necks from bristling.

Laila said:

“Those people said ‘the seeker is coming.'”

“I heard it too. They’re saying the same thing as that man.”

“Could this seeker be something that came out of the Sync?”

The probability was high… Eustar recalled what Marnac had said. That ‘when the members approach beyond a certain range, the Sync hides its appearance.’ He was so lost in thought about this that he forgot to answer Laila’s question.

A Sync that hides its appearance, he had never seen such a thing before. Even for Eustar, who had seen all sorts of bizarre things since Syncs started occurring and Tentinella was established to deal with them, a Sync that disappears and reappears was a first.

Syncs have a will. Eustar thought.

But whatever desire it had… if one had to compare, it was most similar to an ‘appetite’ that could never be satisfied. Setting traps, luring in prey, and constantly devouring was the extent of the will that Syncs showed.

What if it wasn’t that?

What if there was something even more cunning?

‘This is troublesome.’

They had walked for a long time, but there was no trace of the people who had run ahead. As Laila started to pant, Eustar slowed his pace a bit.

“Look at Sicker, Laila. Is the direction correct?”

Laila took Sicker out of her pocket and nodded, gasping.

“What about the needle? What color is it?”

At his question, Laila looked at Sicker again. The color of the needle had changed slightly.

“Light green… I think.”

“Good. We’re closer to the Sync. It turns green as we get closer. But…”

Eustar exhaled a long breath and looked around. The scenery of the fishing village where they could hear the sound of waves and smell the sea was nowhere to be seen. They were standing in the middle of a forest, half of which was filled with dead trees. And…

“It’s ruins.”

Laila muttered.

“The houses…”

Among the dead trees, there were traces of what used to be houses, or rather, remnants of what were once houses. It looked as if something huge had rained down from the sky and swept away all the houses on this hill. Overnight.

Eustar moved towards the nearest house foundation. The nettles were overgrown and stinging, but he didn’t mind.

Half of the house was blown away, and the foundation was almost completely rotten. The things stuck here and there were probably furniture, but they were so blackened and damaged that it was impossible to recognize their original form.

“What happened here?”

At Laila’s question, Eustar shook his head.

“I’m not sure either, Laila. This… seems like an issue we’ll have to look into when we return to the branch. It’s clear there’s a Sync nearby, so let’s just confirm that and return for today.”

“But… what about those people from earlier?”

Eustar’s lips pressed tightly inward. No matter how much he strained his ears, he couldn’t hear even a mouse scurrying by, let alone any human presence.

Despite there being no fork in the road, there was no trace of that grotesque group. It was as clean as if they had evaporated somewhere.

“If we find the Sync, we might be able to trace their tracks. Let’s find the Sync first.”

Laila nodded and cleared her throat. Whether due to dust or the unfamiliar seaside air, her throat felt itchy and her breathing constricted.

As she coughed and cleared her throat, there was a rustling sound from behind the decaying house foundation.

Laila and Eustar’s gazes simultaneously turned towards the source of the sound.