"Eggs?"

Dennis froze for a long while.

"You mean eggs?"

"That’s right, eggs."

In a situation this dangerous, the old woman nevertheless seemed to be thinking of something wonderfully beautiful. She grinned and said,

"A full two pounds of eggs."

"Eggs? Eggs laid by hens?"

Dennis still sounded unable to believe it. "Not golden eggs? Not silver eggs? Not some kind of crystal gem? Just eggs?"

"That’s right."

The old woman looked puzzled. "Could it be the Holy Envoy’s hearing is as bad as mine?"

"My hearing is perfectly fine!"

Dennis suddenly flew into a rage. "I just can’t believe you’re this stupid. Eggs? Eggs? For two pounds of eggs, you’re willing to give up your chance to go to the new world? That’s the new world! The new world countless people yearn for!"

"Can you get eggs in the new world too?"

The old woman asked blankly, "Can I collect them in advance? My grandson’s {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} fighting on the front lines. Once the war’s over, I’ve got to help him build his strength back up."

"You—"

So all you care about is your damn eggs, is that it?!

Dennis felt like his chest was about to explode from anger.

Even when the earlier plan had failed, even when he had fled in humiliation, he had never felt this close to breaking down.

Because as a member of the Salvation Society, what kind of desperate situation had he not seen before? But this time alone made him especially furious, because it felt as though he were watching the very soil, the very foundation most important to the Salvation Society, crumble away before his eyes little by little.

"No. This doesn’t prove anything."

Dennis took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

There was no need for him to get so worked up over a fool like this. If there was some sin that would make her perish in the ashes of the old world, then it would surely be stupidity.

Stupidity was one of humanity’s original sins too.

"The poison’s not bad, but something at this level still can’t do much to me," Dennis said with a sudden cold laugh.

As he spoke, large amounts of pitch-black, foul-smelling toxin began to seep from his pores. Some residue still remained in his body and continued to affect him, but it was no longer enough to matter.

For a cat lover as obsessed with details as he was, how could he possibly have failed to max out his resistance to important poisons?

"But to dare poison me—do you know what kind of consequences that brings?" Dennis said darkly.

"Ah..."

Seemingly frightened by the terrifying look on Dennis’s face, the old woman’s hand shook, and the scissors slipped from her grasp to the floor. She herself began backing away step by step.

"Heh."

At the sight, Dennis let out a mocking laugh. "So you dared do something like this without knowing anything at all? I thought you were actually brave."

Ignorant old trash.

But ignorance too was an original sin.

The greatest original sin.

These ignorant, lowly commoners fit only to serve as soil could be tricked into doing absurd things with the slightest bit of manipulation.

And so he would cleanse those sins.

"When you reach hell, I hope you don’t blame me. The one responsible for your death won’t be me, but the people who incited you to do this in the first place!"

Dennis lifted his head and slowly advanced.

He was planning to kill this old fool who had dared scheme against him, turn her into a gift for those people, and then head for the other covert line the Salvation Society had left behind.

This game was not over yet. He was still far from—

"Hm? Wait."

Dennis, just about to make his move, suddenly stopped. Staring at the trembling old woman before him, he fell into thought.

Something was off.

Something was very off.

This old woman was unquestionably an ordinary old woman. She had neither battle aura nor magic. She was so frail that one puff from him would be enough to blow her to death.

But... where, exactly, had an ordinary, lowly, aging old woman like this gotten a deadly poison potent enough to affect even him?

Belrand’s control over poison could not have grown lax to this extent. Besides, a poison capable of affecting even a fifth-tier warrior had to be extremely precious. No matter how wealthy those gangs were, they could not possibly be rich enough to hand out something like this to every resident in the entire Lower District and then wait for him to take the bait through sheer blanket coverage.

And yet he had still been poisoned.

So perfectly timed, so absurdly coincidental, so damned exact—even though this was a place he himself had only chosen on the spur of the moment.

"Could it be..." Dennis’s brow slowly furrowed.

Bang bang!

Just as Dennis was deep in thought, hurried knocking suddenly sounded from outside the house.

"Open up! Open the door!"

"..."

Dennis’s expression sharpened, and he threatened the old woman with his eyes.

Her whole body trembled, but under the pressure, she still forced herself to answer,

"W-Who is it?"

"Security force! Routine inspection!"

The person outside said,

"Open the door!"

"What?"

It was only the most ordinary response imaginable, yet Dennis felt his head buzz violently.

Security force? Routine inspection?

Why did those words sound so familiar?

No, impossible... a coincidence, it had to be just a coincidence...

Dennis kept telling himself that the correct thing to do now was to make the old woman open the door, bluff the security force outside, and use the opportunity to escape.

Just like before, at Old Zorde’s place.

But as though possessed by some evil impulse, he stepped forward himself, walked to the door, and looked outside through the peephole.

"Security force! Routine inspection! Open the door!"

Outside, a stern-faced officer and his assistant were knocking insistently on the door. They wore security force uniforms, and perhaps because they had been forced to show them too many times tonight, the identification badges hanging openly on their chests were even more glaring than any light in the night.

Everything felt as though time had reversed itself. Karl from the security force had come to the door again, demanding a routine inspection.

But Dennis knew this time it absolutely was not a coincidence.

Because a man as obsessed with details as he was knew perfectly well that Nick Street, where he was now, was separated from Old Zorde’s street by who knew how many blocks.

Even if this Karl could use cloning, stop time, or teleport instantly... there was no way he could have checked his way from the western quarter of the Lower District to the eastern quarter in barely two hours.

So...

"Why?"

Dennis murmured unconsciously, but it was as though he already knew the answer. His trembling hand reached into his coat and pulled out a thick wad of bills.

Most of the money was crumpled, as though the sweat of an old man’s lifetime of labor still clung to it. But the few large notes on top were crisp and brand-new.

The portrait of the Empire’s founding emperor on the banknotes was solemn and dignified, but to Dennis it looked as though the corners of his mouth were slowly lifting, mocking him.

Details.

Details.

Details.

He cared more about details than anyone.

And in the end, he had still fallen because of something as small as this?

"But I still can’t understand..."

Dennis shook his head hard.

There was a reason he had ignored this before. Now that he realized the money was the problem, he could easily work backward and understand the setup: they must have left money in every household, then simply waited to see where those bills moved.

But, but...

Money was the kind of thing that naturally changed hands, wasn’t it? How could they be certain the money in this place pointed specifically to him?

"Not really."

Outside the door, Karl adjusted his cap as though he had heard Dennis’s thoughts and answered them.

"For the desperately poor people at the bottom of the Lower District, the kind who’ve been poor their entire lives, if they suddenly receive a sum this large, they won’t go running around spending it. They’ll hide it in the safest place they know. After that, unless something very unusual happens, those bills might not see daylight again for years.

"As for urns..."

Karl smiled and shrugged. "How could they bear to waste money on something so useless? A clay jar bought off the street for twenty aimiers would hold ashes just fine, wouldn’t it?"

"..."

"That’s what real detail is. Too bad your eyes never once looked at the truly dark places. You only imagined yourself to be someone living in the dark."

"..."

Dennis opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but no words came out.

Stiffly, he lifted his head. Through the peephole, he saw Karl’s gaze meeting his through it in turn. He saw the royal knights and royal mages surrounding the place from all sides behind Karl.

And he also saw, in the endless night, this Lower District...

A place he had never truly understood.

It was like some gigantic beast, about to swallow him whole.

"Mr. Dennis, right?"

Karl let his smile fade, took down the badge hanging on his chest, and revealed the tattoo on his arm marking his gang affiliation.

Grinning, he spoke word by word in a sinister voice,

"Our emperor is looking for you."