Osian and Martinez began their meal.
For Osian, Ena's cooking was something he always ate, but it always felt new and it was simply delicious.
He asked how this could be possible, but Ena herself didn't know the reason. She just made it according to the recipe.
'This is more like witchcraft than showing illusions with matches.'
Surprisingly, Martinez was thinking similarly to Osian.
'Why is it delicious?'
He had guessed from the aroma. But after actually eating it, the dish Ena made went beyond just satisfying hunger.
As a judge, Martinez had never cared about taste.
For him, meals were merely a means to continue living.
It was nothing more than supplementing minimal energy for his lacking body.He had eaten general meals since coming to Tirna, but his thoughts remained unchanged.
Originally, it was impossible to have such a high-quality meal in an orphanage with insufficient funds.
That thought was now being completely shaken, as if cracking from the roots.
The two scraped their plates clean.
Osian thought he had eaten well, and Martinez felt a strange sense of gratitude.
He felt conflicted not just because he was defeated by appetite, but also because the one who made the food was the witch he had once wanted to kill.
"Let's go."
"......Yes."
Martinez followed Osian's lead. He felt his values would be greatly shaken if he didn't do so.
The place Osian took Martinez to was a large warehouse.
Inside the warehouse, where items were supposed to be stored, loud shouting echoed.
-Heup. Heup. Ha!
It sounded like a groan of pain, or a shout of passion.
Martinez opened his eyes wide. What could be happening inside to produce such sounds?
As Osian opened the warehouse door, a hot heat rushed out.
Outside it was raining with humid weather, but the air inside the warehouse was twice as intense.
The fortunate thing was that Martinez had traveled through harsh territories to hunt down heretics.
Therefore, he didn't feel much repulsion in this peculiar environment.
Inside, various iron tools were visible. And people with bare torsos, drenched in sweat, were lifting them up and down.
They all stopped hammering and stared at the wide-open entrance.
The air in the heated training ground, or warehouse, became slightly cooler.
"Oh?"
Everyone recognized Osian and hurriedly stood in formation. Asmer, who could be called an instructor or assistant, was also among them.
Martinez unconsciously stepped back.
It was overwhelming to have muscular, sweat-glistening people suddenly rush over.
'I've never felt this way even when dealing with heretics secretly committing terrible acts.'
What should he say? It was unfamiliar.
"You've arrived!"
Regardless, Asmer bowed politely to Osian.
The knight apprentices behind him did the same.
Now they could be called apprentices rather than aspirants.
"What brings you here? Is there something I need to do?"
"No, I'm not here for that today."
Osian's gaze turned to David.
David, who used to have a gentle demeanor, had changed dramatically with significantly more muscle.
"I need some advice."
"Advice? Is it about the fixer's work?"
David, still sharp-minded, immediately caught what Osian was getting at.
"A child has gone missing. I need a way to find them."
"Hmm. A missing child. It's something even fixers are somewhat reluctant about. It's difficult."
"Why?"
Martinez inadvertently interjected with a question.
David saw Martinez for the first time but sensed something from the child Osian brought.
Therefore, he didn't mind the seemingly rude informal speech.
"Well, of course. Because such cases are not just one or two. There are too many, which is why it's difficult."
"Many, yet difficult?"
"How many people do you think disappear in Tirna in just one night?"
Martinez couldn't answer. He could only guess it was a lot.
"The proportion of missing children is very high. Dozens of children disappear every day. Requests to find missing children are at that level. The unofficial number of missing children is more than double."
"Unofficial? Even when children have gone missing?"
David let out a slight chuckle.
He seemed capable, but lacking in experience and knowledge in this area.
"Those who sell their children for money or kill them to make money in Tirna would fill multiple trucks. Though, this isn't just a Tirna problem. The outside is the same. If a child goes missing from a relatively safe 20-something district, they might at least try to search somehow."
And that's only if you come from a well-to-do family. If you're a middle-class kid everything becomes irrelevant.
Martinez felt a chill run down his spine.
This was in the 41st district, a neighborhood that was notorious for its lack of security. There was no way around it.
“By the look on his face, it's not a good premise. In that case, I don't really have any advice for you.”
“Why not?”
“Willpower alone won't make things better, but at least it's better than doing nothing. Start by checking the scene to see where the child disappeared. If not, at least find a witness.”
David looked at Osian and scratched his head, wondering if that was too obvious and basic.
“I'm sorry, I know you trusted me and came to me, and I didn't give you the help you deserved.”
“No, I'm glad I came to you.”
“Is that so?”
“So, how's the training going?”
“It was killing me at first, but now I can't sleep if I don't do it.”
It was a voice full of sincerity, no pretense. David's expression actually brightened considerably.
“Wow. I don't know why, in the past, I've given up on my physical body and only cared about that lump of hot steel.”
David said with pride in his voice as he looked at the muscles on his body.
“.......”
Osian looked at David in surprise.
Ronald and Reginald were David's favorite automatons.
He'd made a name for himself as a fixer thanks to them, but to look down on them like that?
Hearing that, Asmer crossed his arms and shook his head in amusement.
“Mmmm, yes. That's a good attitude. You deserve to be a knight.”
“......Well, I'll leave you to your training.”
“Yes! Oh, but first, I need to talk to him for a moment, do you mind?”
Osian nodded, and David approached Martinez, expecting to offer some hopeful words of encouragement that the missing child would be found, but the words that came out of David's mouth were unexpected.
“Boy, you've obviously been out of shape. How about you join us for a little hammering later, when you have time?”
“......?”
Martinez didn't quite understand what he was hearing.
“Hmm. You're so skinny. Are you eating right? You don't seem to be getting enough protein.”
As if that weren't bad enough, other aspirants came up behind him and threw in a comment or two.
“Look at these biceps. Holy shit. You can barely lift a single dumbbell.”
“Boy, a man is a muscle, his muscles tell the whole story!”
“Muscle is power, join the club!”
Little do they know, Martinez, the skinny, weak guy they saw is the Purifying Judge of the Order of Petra.
But even he has grown weary of the physical assault of David and Jonathan's knight aspirants.
“You want to be like us, don't you?” he asked.
“Uh, no.”
The honorifics rolled off Martinez's tongue.
*
“Hmm. I thought we could get some help, but I guess it's not as easy as I thought.”
Osian muttered softly as they left the training center.
Martinez didn't answer. The sight of the training grounds was still fresh in his mind.
He was afraid of Tirna, even if only a little. Could there be such things in the City of Sinners?
Of course, if a resident of Tirna had heard this, they would have been outraged.
The knight aspirants taught by Asmer were very alien to Tirna.
Unfortunately, there was no one to correct Martinez's misinformation.
And so, in Martinez's mind, one more line was added to the City of Sin's list of sins.
“Do you have a next stop?”
Martinez asked, using the respectful tone that was now more natural to him.
“Hmm. I asked a fellow fixer and he didn't have an answer, so I'm going to do what I was told and do some basic investigative work.”
Osian’s solution was simple: go to the location where the kid disappeared and search the area around it.
Martinez nodded, knowing it was the only answer.
At that moment, a passerby recognized Osian and approached him with a look of recognition.
“Oh, aren't you brother Osian?”
The man was quite large, with a gruff face and bushy beard and was wearing a suit.
He looked like someone who did dangerous work in the underworld.
“Are you.......”
“Oh, I'm Skar Gunnarsson, we met once before.”
“I see, you're one of Balud's men. What can I do for you?”
“I was passing by and thought you looked familiar, so I said hello. Other than that, where are you going now?”
With nothing to hide, Osian said he was going to find the missing child.
“That's not an easy task.”
“But I have to do it. It's an assignment.”
“A request.”
Skar had a strange look on his face. He knew what Osian had done to the North Blinders with Balud’s help.
It was his organization, but he felt no anger that Osian had turned it upside down. Rather, his actions were heartening, even for a Northerner.
“In what district has it happened?”
“Forty-one, he says.”
“District 41.......”
Skar hesitated, and Martinez tried to talk Osian into letting him pass.
From the way Skar was talking, he assumed he was a mafioso.
Mafia are criminals. If not heretical, it was evil enough for him, as a member of the Order, to declare it so.
But since he could not judge him, it was best to pass him by uninvolved.
“Hmm, perhaps I can be of some assistance.”
But the words out of Skar's mouth made Martinez look surprised.
The mafia's suggestion that they could help made him suspicious.
“How?”
Martinez blurted out, and Scar stared at him with a blank stare.
He quickly realized that Martinez was the client and explained.
“There's a guy I know who operates out of the 41st District. If you contact him and ask around, you might be able to find something, but don't hold your breath.”
“Do you have any connections in the 41st District?”
“Well, I'm in the business of information, so I have connections with the guys over there, nothing major, just a little bit, and sometimes if there's someone useful over there, the organization will take them in and keep them.”
The motivation, of course, is criminal behavior, but Osian doesn't point to that.
“In that case, would you be able to get in touch with them?”
“Yes. I can. Please wait a moment.”
With that, Skar pulled out his communicator and made the call.
It was a modest connection, but if they could communicate with each other like this, it wasn't as bad as it sounded.
“I've relayed the message. You should be on your way.”
“Thanks.”
“You're welcome. You helped my brother out, and it's the least I can do.”
Skar smiled cheerfully, as if he didn't mind. It was the kind of smile that only someone who wasn't looking for favors would wear, someone who was doing it purely to help the other person.
Martinez thought that was surprising.
The Mafia, at least the ones he knew, were criminals in the guise of legitimacy. It was a symbol of vengeance, brutal and unforgiving.
It was only after Skar left that Martinez revealed his mixed feelings.
“I never thought I'd get help from the mafia in a place like this.”
“Why? Did you think they wouldn't help you because they're evil?”
“......To be honest, yes. A favor from an evil man, I don't know how to take it.”
Every evil person Martinez had ever met was hateful, and so was their reaction to him.
“You'd better get used to it. You'll see a lot more of it when you live in Tirna.”
At Osian's words, Martinez nodded in small realization.
At the same time, he saw Osian, and by extension, the city, again.
And what a narrow well he had been living in.