Another week went by. Morning sunlight filtered through the boarded windows of the abandoned building, slipping through narrow gaps and painting thin golden lines across the wooden floor.
For the first time in what felt like forever, the hideout was unusually lively.
The aroma of fried eggs drifted from the kitchen.
"...You're putting too much pepper."
"I'm seasoning it."
"You're burying it."
Skinn glanced over his shoulder at Karl with mock offense.
"You've never appreciated culinary genius."
"I appreciate not coughing while eating."
John chuckled quietly while placing clean plates onto the table.
"I think it smells fine."
"You hear that?" Skinn proudly pointed his spatula at Karl. "John has taste."
"No," John replied with a smile. "I just don't want to become your next argument."
Karl snorted.
"...Fair."
A small pair of footsteps echoed down the hallway.
Brei appeared, already dressed in her school uniform. She quietly hugged the stuffed rabbit Jaz had given her and stood near the dining table without saying anything.
"Morning, Bre," Jaz greeted warmly.
The girl gave a tiny nod.
"Did you sleep well?"
Another small nod.
"...Good."
Jaz smiled before setting another plate on the table. She remembers how Brei's eyes glimmered as she saw those colorful light streaks whooshing around Manademia.
It is the first time she admired what 'magic' is, and Jaz noticed it.
"D-did Dad make those same lights too?" she hesitantly asked Jaz.
Jaz's eyes saddened a bit, but she tried to cheer up Brei anyways. "I bet he would. So be good at doing it yourself so you'll be able to do the same, okay?"
Brei bowed under a table, hiding her first genuine smirk in front of everyone.
Boss entered a few moments later with a stack of documents tucked beneath one arm. As usual, he looked as though he had already been awake for hours.
He glanced once at the table.
"Everyone's here."
Almost.
Another door upstairs slowly creaked open.
The newly awakened young man hesitated at the top of the stairs.
He looked far better than yesterday.
Still exhausted.
Still confused.
But no longer terrified.
"...Morning," John greeted.
The young man awkwardly nodded.
"...Morning."
Skinn waved him over.
"Come on. Before Karl eats everything."
"I do not—"
"You absolutely do."
"I eat efficiently."
"See?"
Boss pulled out a chair.
"Sit."
The recruit quietly obeyed.
Breakfast passed surprisingly peacefully.
Conversation bounced naturally from one topic to another.
Skinn complained about surveying uneven terrain.
"My supervisor keeps saying, 'Measure twice, cut once.'"
Karl looked amused.
"That's because you're measuring buildings, not sandwiches."
"I measured those too."
"...Why?"
"I wanted to know if the advertisement was lying."
John sighed.
"...Was it?"
"The picture was approximately forty-three percent larger."
Karl burst into laughter.
"I can't believe you actually calculated it."
"It bothered me."
"It bothers only you."
Even Boss let out a quiet chuckle.
The recruit looked around the table.
It felt...
Normal.
Strangely normal.
Had someone walked in without knowing where they were, they would have mistaken them for an ordinary family having breakfast together.
Except...
Nothing about this place was ordinary.
Boss suddenly looked toward him.
"Yesterday."
The recruit blinked.
"...Yes?"
"Birthday?"
"...Yeah."
"Twenty-one."
"...Yes."
Boss took another bite before asking the next question as casually as if he were asking about the weather.
"When you woke up..."
"...Did you find a very small book beneath your pillow?"
Silence settled across the table.
The recruit slowly nodded.
"...How did you know?"
John looked equally surprised.
Boss answered simply.
"Because you aren't the first."
The recruit instinctively touched his pocket.
The tiny book was still there.
"...I thought somebody left it there."
"No."
Boss placed his chopsticks down.
"It was yours."
"...Always?"
"No."
"It became yours yesterday."
The recruit frowned.
"I don't understand."
"You will."
Boss leaned back slightly.
"When you ran yesterday..."
"...Did you know where you were going?"
The young man shook his head.
"I was just..."
He struggled to find the words.
"...Following something."
John quietly looked down at his plate.
Exactly...
Just like me.
"It felt..."
The recruit continued,
"...safe."
"I don't know why."
"I just..."
"...knew someone was there."
Boss nodded once.
"Instinct."
The recruit looked between everyone.
"What exactly is happening to me?"
Nobody answered immediately.
Finally, John spoke.
"...I asked that exact same question."
The recruit turned toward him.
"And?"
John smiled faintly.
"...I'm still figuring it out."
After breakfast, everyone naturally began preparing for the day.
John slipped on his office jacket before checking the time.
"I should get going."
Maria would probably already be waiting for those revised reports.
Skinn grabbed his surveying bag.
"I'm heading out too."
Karl stood.
"My father's expecting me."
Jaz looked toward Brei.
"Ready?"
The young girl adjusted her backpack before giving another quiet nod.
Boss finally spoke.
"John."
John stopped.
"Hm?"
"Walk normally."
"...What?"
"You've been looking around every three seconds."
John blinked before realizing he'd unconsciously been checking every corner since leaving the dining table.
"...Sorry."
Boss shrugged.
"If someone wants to kill you..."
"...they won't wait for you to notice."
John stared for a moment.
"...Somehow that wasn't comforting."
"It wasn't supposed to be."
Skinn laughed.
"See? That's the Boss we know."
John sighed.
"...Fair enough."
Jaz gently held the door open for Brei.
"We'll head to school first."
Boss gave a brief nod.
"Take care."
"You too."
One by one, they left the building.
The once lively headquarters gradually became quiet again.
Only two people remained.
Boss.
And the newly awakened recruit.
The silence lingered for several seconds.
Boss walked toward the office.
"Come."
The recruit followed.
The office was simple.
A sturdy wooden desk.
Several shelves filled with books and neatly labeled folders.
Maps pinned to one wall.
A hand-drawn layout of the abandoned district rested beneath a layer of transparent film, covered in notes and markings.
Boss sat down.
The recruit remained standing.
"Relax."
"...Right."
He slowly took a seat.
Boss opened a blank notebook.
"This isn't an interrogation."
The recruit looked relieved.
"It's information."
He uncapped a pen.
"Start from the beginning."
"...Everything?"
"Everything you remember."
The young man nodded.
"My birthday was yesterday."
"I spent most of the afternoon helping my father."
"What does he do?"
"...He's a wood sculptor."
"He carves religious statues... furniture ornaments... decorative figures."
Boss wrote something down.
"And your mother?"
"She helps manage the orders."
Boss nodded.
"A family business."
"...Yeah."
"What happened after work?"
The recruit took a slow breath.
"I went home."
"I slept."
"When I woke up..."
"...there was a tiny black book under my pillow."
He instinctively reached into his pocket again.
"I still don't know what it is."
Boss quietly extended his hand.
"May I?"
The recruit hesitated for only a second before placing the tiny book into Boss's palm.
Boss examined it silently.
Then...
He handed it back.
"Open it."
The recruit frowned.
"...It changes?"
"Try."
The young man slowly opened the miniature book.
A faint pulse of mana rippled through the room.
In an instant...
The tiny object unfolded into a moderately thick black grimoire, resting heavily across both of his hands.
Boss watched carefully.
"...As expected."
The recruit stared silently at the grimoire resting in his hands.
Even after watching it expand with his own eyes, part of him still refused to believe it.
"...This happened yesterday too," he admitted quietly. "I thought I was dreaming."
Boss leaned forward.
"Open it."
The young man carefully flipped through the first pages.
Unlike an ordinary book, the pages felt strangely warm, almost as if they were responding to his touch.
Most of them were blank.
Only a handful near the beginning contained writing.
"...I tried reading these last night."
"They don't make any sense."
Boss stood and walked beside him.
"Read one."
The recruit nodded.
"The hand that buries the nameless sculptor shall one day remember the grain of forgotten wood."
He turned another page.
"The river carries no monument, yet every stone remembers the mountain."
Another.
"Only the apprentice who mourns the unfinished statue may borrow the master's final chisel."
Silence filled the room.
Boss continued reading over his shoulder.
Another page.
"When the silent witness repairs the broken remembrance, the buried craft shall answer without speaking."
The recruit sighed.
"...I don't understand any of it."
"I thought maybe they were poems."
Boss gently closed the book.
"They're instructions."
The recruit frowned.
"But... they don't tell me anything."
"They aren't supposed to."
Boss returned to his chair.
"They only become meaningful when your experiences give them meaning."
"...So I just wait?"
"No."
"You live."
The recruit blinked.
"...That's it?"
Boss nodded.
"For now."
The room became quiet again.
Finally, the recruit asked the question that had been lingering in his mind since yesterday.
"...Those people..."
"They were trying to kill me."
Boss looked directly at him.
"Describe them."
"There were four."
"They weren't dressed the same."
"They didn't even look like they knew each other."
"They just..."
"...worked together."
Boss remained silent.
"They kept shouting things."
"'Don't let him get away.'"
"'The book.'"
"'Take the book.'"
The recruit lowered his gaze.
"I don't even know what this thing is."
Boss folded his hands.
"They weren't after you."
"They were after your grimoire."
"...Why?"
"Because you're a mage."
The young man's expression stiffened.
"...That's really all it takes?"
Boss gave a single nod.
"For some people."
The recruit looked down at the black cover once more.
"So..."
"...I almost died because of a birthday present."
Boss actually smiled.
"That's one way to describe it."
The office door opened.
Karl stepped inside.
"...Forgot my notebook."
He looked toward the recruit.
"You two still talking?"
Boss nodded.
Karl walked over to one of the shelves, grabbed a worn notebook, then paused.
"...Boss."
"Hm?"
"John left his lunch."
Boss looked toward the table.
Indeed.
A neatly packed lunchbox still rested beside the chair.
"...Call him."
Karl pulled out his phone.
"I'll just tell him to come back after work."
"No."
Boss stood.
"I'll bring it."
Karl looked confused.
"You're leaving?"
"I need supplies."
"Same direction."
Karl shrugged.
"...Fair enough."
Boss picked up the lunchbox before looking back toward the recruit.
"Stay here."
"I'll be back."
The recruit nodded.
"...Okay."
The office became quiet once again.
The afternoon passed peacefully.
John had already buried himself beneath stacks of recruitment reports.
Maria glanced over the divider separating their desks.
"John."
"Hm?"
"You look... happier."
John stopped typing.
"...Do I?"
"A little."
"You've smiled three times today."
John laughed awkwardly.
"I counted?"
"I work in HR."
"I notice people."
"...Fair."
Maria smiled before placing another folder onto his desk.
"The partners approved yesterday's presentation."
John let out a relieved sigh.
"Finally."
"You earned it."
For a brief moment...
Everything felt ordinary again.
No grimoires.
No mana.
No hidden headquarters.
Just paperwork.
Several districts away...
Skinn adjusted the measuring instrument resting on its tripod.
"Five point six three."
His supervisor wrote it down.
"You've gotten faster."
"I've been practicing."
The older man laughed.
"Trying to impress someone?"
"...Maybe."
"What does she do?"
Skinn immediately shook his head.
"No, not like that."
"...Just friends."
The supervisor smirked knowingly.
"They always start as friends."
Skinn rolled his eyes.
"...Not helping."
He looked across the construction site.
Workers moved steel beams into place.
Concrete trucks rumbled past.
Everything looked...
Normal.
Yet he found himself instinctively scanning the crowd.
Could any of them secretly be mages?
The thought would've sounded ridiculous only a month ago.
Now...
He wasn't so sure.
Late afternoon.
Boss returned to the hideout carrying several grocery bags.
The recruit was still sitting in the office.
"...You waited."
"I wasn't sure if I should leave."
"Good."
Boss placed the groceries onto a nearby table.
"I have one last question."
The recruit straightened.
"When you were running..."
"...did you consciously decide to come here?"
"...No."
"Did you even know this building existed?"
"No."
Boss nodded.
"I thought so."
The recruit looked puzzled.
"...Why?"
Boss walked toward the large map hanging on the wall.
"You followed mana."
"...Without realizing it."
The recruit slowly stood.
"...Mana."
"The energy mages naturally emit."
"You sensed ours."
"And your instincts brought you here."
"...So..."
"I would've gone somewhere else if another mage had been closer?"
Boss answered without hesitation.
"Most likely."
The recruit quietly absorbed that thought.
Yesterday...
His life had depended entirely on chance.
Or perhaps...
Instinct.
Boss folded his arms.
"For now..."
"...consider this your refuge."
The young man looked around the office.
The maps.
The books.
The quiet building above them.
For the first time since yesterday...
He felt safe.
"...Thank you."
Boss simply nodded.
Night slowly settled over the abandoned district.
The hideout lights dimmed.
Crickets sang beneath the trees.
Far beyond the district...
A lone man stood beneath a flickering streetlight.
He slowly lowered the worn photograph in his hand before slipping it back into his coat.
"...Lost him again."
He let out a quiet sigh.
His eyes drifted toward the abandoned multi-storey building one last time.
It looked abandoned.
Empty.
Forgotten.
Yet...
"...Odd place."
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"...People do have a habit of disappearing into places that shouldn't matter."
He turned around and walked away without another glance.
"Next time."