Chương 6: Stalker Behavior

Lio took a deep breath. Then another. And another. He forced his heart rate to slow down, until the iron bands around his chest loosened. Slowly, the noise of the Union Hall came back to him. Around Lio, the conversations had quieted in their immediate vicinity, a few nearby Delvers casting uncomfortable glances their way before looking back down at their drinks.

William himself was staring at Lio with wide, bloodshot eyes, his chest heaving as he tried to recover from the shock of being grabbed by the throat by a barefoot teenager. The beer bottle sat completely forgotten on the table, condensation dripping down its sides in slow rivulets. Lio ignored all of them. Instead, he quickly pulled out the chair directly across from William and sat down. In response, the other boy flinched so hard that his chair slid back an inch. Lio folded his hands on the table in front of him.

His countenance became cold and unreadable once more, the mask firmly back on his facial features.

"The girl. Describe her to me." William blinked, still catching his breath.

"What—what do you mean, describe—""Her appearance and everything you remember. Start from the beginning." William swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing visibly. He glanced sideways at his companions, who were slowly recovering from the shock. One of them—the lanky guy with the crooked nose—was already leaning forward, squinting at Lio with irritation.

"Oi, the fuck do you think you're doing, kid?" he slurred, pushing back from his chair.

"You—" But the moment he looked into Lio's eyes, he immediately stopped talking. Something about those eyes just made the words die in the guy's throat. Though he couldn't feel any kind of bloodlust or anger in their depths, they were just so… empty. It was like staring at two deep holes that had no bottom—an abyss. He settled back into his chair without finishing his sentence, suddenly very interested in his drink. The girl with short brown hair shifted uncomfortably in her seat but said nothing.

The others kept their eyes fixed on the table. Nobody else moved to help William. William winced, and his bearing changed as the realization that he was completely on his own here with this lunatic teenager dawned on him. But maybe if he answered the weird kid's questions, he would leave them alone?

"She was, uh..." William sighed.

"She was pretty short. Shorter than me, definitely. Maybe five, five and a half feet? Kinda... delicate looking? I don't know, she just seemed really thin." Lio's expression didn't change.

"What about her hair?" he asked.

"It was blonde," William answered quickly.

"That stood out to me. Most Crater folk don't have blonde hair, other than those from the North."

"You said her eyes looked weird. What did you mean by that?"

"Because..." William paused, frowning slightly, like he was trying to remember something.

"They were blue. But that wasn't the weird part. See, there was this ring of gold around the..." He gestured at his own eye, pointing at the pupil.

"Around the middle part. I've never seen anything like that before." Lio made a mental note of that. This is good. There aren't many people who have gold rings in their eyes.

"What was she wearing?"

"Just... normal stuff. It was the standard Delver gear, I think. I remember that, cause I was pretty surprised. She just seemed too thin and weak to be a Delver." William's brow furrowed as he dug through the haze of alcohol clouding his memory.

"But she had all these colorful stitches and patches on it."

"Which direction did she go?"

"Toward the main market, I think? I wasn't really watching where she went after that. I was just kind of standing there holding the bottle. It isn't everyday that a pretty girl gives you a drink for free. I honestly was trying to figure out if I was getting scammed." Lio frowned.

"Anything else?" William thought for a moment, then shook his head. Lio mentally sighed. It didn't seem like the other boy would provide any more clues. But he had what he needed. He stood up without another word. The chair scraped against the marble, causing the other boy to flinch once again. As Lio left without looking back, he heard the clear sound of William and his companions breathing a sigh of relief that this strange, homeless-looking kid was finally leaving their table.

He walked toward the exit, his bare feet making soft sounds against the polished marble floor. His hands stayed buried in his pockets, still clenched into fists. As Lio crossed the hall, his eyes swept the room out of habit. It was something he often did, cataloguing positions, tracking movement, and memorizing the overall layout of a structure he was in. And that's when he noticed the staff watching him. Two clerks, to be exact.

Both of them were all pretending very hard to look like they were preoccupied with other things. One was behind an administrative desk, her hand resting just a hair's breadth from a brass bell that would call the guards. The second was near the entrance itself, positioned in a way that would have made it very easy to step into his path if she'd wanted to. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Lio almost gave a thin smile. It made sense, really.

Working in a place like the Delver's Union was akin to working around living bombs. Every person who walked through those doors had a chance to have a rune—that under the right circumstances—could level half the building. The clerks had no weapons or combat training worth speaking of. All they had was observation, instinct, and the good sense to know when to ring that bell and call the guards. Today, they'd chosen to stay still. What a smart choice.

Because Lio himself didn't know what he would've done if they'd chosen to stop him. Right now, his mental state was definitely not at its best. He might've ended up killing a few of them. Lio pushed through the heavy oak doors and stepped out onto the cracked stone steps. The cold morning air hit him once again. He descended the steps and paused at the bottom, scanning the immense crowd streaming past him in two directions.

In this city, there were thousands of bodies and faces, all moving through these narrow streets. And somewhere among them was a girl with bright blonde hair and gold-ringed eyes. Lio started walking toward the market district. ◈◈◈◈ His first stop was an alley three streets down from the Union building. It was narrow and dark, smelling of rot and trash. At the far end, huddled against a crumbling brick wall overcome with vines, sat two figures wrapped in threadbare blankets. Lio approached them without hesitation.

"Tam." He lifted his hand in greeting, addressing the smaller of the two.

"I need some information." The figure looked up, revealing the features of a kid barely eight years old. He had dark, weary eyes that were full of caution, and thin, messy dark hair.

"Lio," Tam rasped, his voice destroyed from all those nights out in the cold.

"Been a while."

"I need you to find Poluo for me. Go and tell him it's urgent." Tam nodded, and extended out a thin, bony hand from beneath the blanket. Lio dropped three copper Rels into them. The kid pocketed them and stood up.

"Wait here for a sec." As quick as a rat, he disappeared into the maze of alleys. Left alone, Tam's companion—an older woman who hadn't spoken—watched Lio with tired eyes but said nothing. Lio waited. Around five minutes later, Tam returned with a tall man in tow. Poluo was in his forties, thin and wiry, with a disheveled beard that covered most of his face. He walked with a heavy limp—an old injury from his days as a Delver. Nowadays he made his living collecting and selling information for money.

His eyes lit up when he saw Lio.

"Well, well. Little Lio." A grin split his bearded face.

"But not so little anymore, huh? I haven't seen you in a while, kid. How've you been since getting out of that orphanage?" Lio shrugged, his expression unchanging.

"Fine. I'm just working as an apprentice for a Delver now." It was a lie, of course. But it was a useful lie that would help explain why he had so much money and why he was still in the city. Poluo's grin widened.

"A Delver! Look at you, making something of yourself. Knew you had it in you, kid. That place was hell, but you got out clean." He clapped Lio on the shoulder approvingly.

"Good for you!" Lio looked at the hand touching him and felt a surge of disgust, along with an urge to shrug it off. Yet he tolerated it without showing any kind of outward reaction.

"I need some information."

"Right, right. Tam said it was urgent." Poluo nodded, his facial expression changing into something more professional.

"What do you need?"

"It's about a girl," Lio explained.

"She has blonde hair, blue eyes with gold rings around the pupils, and wears Delver gear with a lot of colorful stitching. Have you heard anything?" Poluo's eyebrows rose, and he gave a knowing grin.

"A girl, huh? Didn't know you had it in you, Lio. Finally taking an interest in the opposite gender?"

"It's not like that."

"Sure, sure." Poluo waved a hand dismissively, still grinning.

"None of my business anyway. But yeah, I've heard about her. From what I heard, those eyes are hard to miss." Lio's fists tightened inside his pockets. I got a lead.

"Tell me everything." Poluo's grin faded as he realized something in Lio's tone. His head tilted a little, studying the kid in front of him with new attention. Something was different. Poluo couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was a quality to Lio now that hadn't been there before. The kid had always been quiet, but this felt like something else. It was like he'd aged years in the few months since they'd last spoken. And in a way, he had. To Poluo, it had been a few weeks since their last conversation.

But for Lio, centuries had passed. He'd relied on Poluo's information heavily in the earlier loops, back when he was still struggling to learn who to trust and who to avoid. But that had been hundreds of loops ago. Of course, until today.

"You alright, kid?" Poluo asked, his voice losing some of its joviality.

"You seem... kinda different. You sick or something?"

"I'm fine," Lio said.

"Just tell me about the girl. What do you know?" Poluo hesitated for another moment, then seemed to decide not to push it.

"Right. The girl. She came through the main checkpoint about three days ago. Apparently, she's a Delver that came from one of those country settlements. The guards mentioned her because of her eyes. They had to go through a whole process because they thought she was using a rune or something to hide her true eye colors."

"And?"

"And she checked out clean. They let her through." Poluo scratched his beard thoughtfully.

"As far as I know, she hasn't left the city yet. She's still somewhere in Crater City."

"Anything else?" Lio pressed harder.

"Not much. If she's staying somewhere, it's not in any of the major inns or boarding houses." He paused.

"Though... there was one thing."

"What?"

"One of the market vendors mentioned seeing her hanging around the fourth Ring yesterday. She was asking around for the classic Delver questions, like how Ghenna is and such. The guy mentioned it cause it's pretty weird to be asking those types of questions around there, when she could've just gone to the Union building." The fourth Ring. That was where Lio lived. Crater City had been built outward from Ghenna's entrance in deliberate layers, each Ring marking a change in function and value.

There were four Rings in total, all encircling the descent into Ghenna's depths. The first Ring sat closest to the pit and was the most heavily fortified, with guild halls and barracks. The second was filled with the rich and elite, huge mansions and exquisite establishments. The third Ring supported everything else like general markets, workshops, and licensed housing. The fourth Ring was where the poor congregated. Lio pulled out five silver Rels and handed them over for the payment.

Poluo's eyebrows rose—since that was more than double his usual rate—but he pocketed them without comment.

"If you hear anything else," Lio said, "tell it to Tam. He'll get word to me."

"Will do." Poluo paused, then added, "And Lio… you've got a good thing going with that apprenticeship. Don't throw it away chasing some girl." Lio didn't respond. He just turned and walked back toward the main street. Behind him, Poluo stood there for a heartbeat, watching Lio's back as he disappeared into the crowd. Something about the kid was nagging at him—something that he just couldn't quite put into words. He shook his head and turned away. Well, it wasn't his problem. Lio, for his part, didn't notice.

His mind was already elsewhere, think about the last piece of information that Poluo had given him. Nobody went to the fourth Ring unless they had a very specific reason. There were no fancy shops there, no reputable vendors, and definitely no reason for a fresh Delver to be wandering around. So why had the girl been there?