Old Hank's eyes were filled with despair, and he lowered his head. He stared blankly at the ground. After several breaths, a trace of madness began to hide behind his eyes. When he finally raised his head again, he seemed to have completely given up resisting.
He said painfully, "Sir, Hank's Carpenter Shop has always done business with the harbor. A lot of the woodwork at the harbor was made by us. My son... those two apprentices should already have told you about him... My son has always dealt with people from the harbor too.
"Last month, a group of strange people came to the harbor. They were preaching some strange things. My son liked spending time with them. At first I didn't think anything of it, but I never expected them... them to set fire to Blackport City.
"Sir, I can take you to find those outsiders. I swear to you, my son didn't do anything. He simply likes new and unusual things."
Leo thought for a moment, then asked, "You'll take us there? Or will you give us the address and let us go ourselves?"
Old Hank said, "I'll take you. The place where those outsiders meet in secret is hard to find. I'll go prepare..."
Leo frowned. "What? Worried about those silver pennies you hid in the secret compartment of the cabinet upstairs?"
Old Hank hurriedly shook his head. "No! No, I'm not. I don't need to prepare anything. I'll take you there right now, sir!"
"I think there are a few things we should make clear beforehand," Leo said. "Our assignment is to find at least three criminals responsible for the night of the Blackport City fire.
"These outsiders you've mentioned interest me. If we can catch them, then your son's offense becomes considerably less serious. I can make the decision not to hang you or your son. If we can complete our assignment with these outsiders, then our results will be much more convincing, and we'll have something proper to report to the city defense battalion.
"If we can't find them, then we'll have no choice but to use you and your son to fill the quota."
Old Hank stared at Leo in disbelief. Leo continued, "We're being paid to do a job too. We take the Count's salary and do the Count's work. There's no need to look so surprised."
Brad spoke from the side. "Old Hank, I grew up in the western part of the city. You may not know me, but I know you. We're still neighbors... just neighbors with more than a dozen streets between us. If we really can find those outsiders, why would we go after our own neighbor instead?"
Old Hank looked at Brad and decided that Brad did not seem nearly as fierce or threatening. After a moment of silence, he said, "Then please wait here for a while, sirs. When night comes, I'll take you to find those outsiders who committed the crimes."
Leo nodded. "Good. That's what both of us want to see."
Old Hank glanced at his two apprentices. Both lowered their heads, not daring to meet his eyes. Old Hank said, "Sir, I'll go back to our carpentry and pretend nothing happened. How does that sound?"
"Of course," Leo said. "That would be even better."
Leo and Brad remained inside Old Hank's house and waited for nightfall, while Old Hank and his two apprentices returned to their carpentry. Old Hank seemed to have made some kind of decision. He was no longer flustered and worked with complete concentration.
The two apprentices, on the other hand, became timid and submissive, as though they felt guilty toward Old Hank. But judging from Old Hank's behavior, he did not seem to blame either of them.
Leo sat in a chair and, as usual, let his mind wander, no one knew where. Brad stood nearby, looking as though he wanted to say something but kept stopping himself.
Leo noticed him from the corner of his eye and asked in confusion, "Brad, do you have some thoughts about tonight's operation?"
Brad shook his head. "Not about that. You can decide what we do tonight. I can't be bothered thinking through complicated things like that. It's just..."
After hesitating, Brad finally said, "Leo, I think you've changed since Kozmo was swept away. You've become a little..."
When Brad failed to finish, Leo said, "Brad, we're friends. Just say it. It's fine. What have I become?"
Brad said, "Well... a little... cold. Like just now, when you stood outside and watched the carpenter shop through the crack in the door. I was standing there watching you. It went on for quite a while, and there wasn't any expression on your face.
"Leo, I know Kozmo's death hit you hard. You even completed Kozmo's Final Entrustment ritual. But I still hope you can become more cheerful again, like you used to be."
Leo gently shook his head. Partly, it was an expression of regret at Brad's suggestion. There was no going back for him now. Partly, shaking his head seemed to make the black clouds drifting through his Soul Sea feel a little lighter.
When he had completed the original Leo's Final Entrustment ritual, the white clouds left behind had quickly dispersed, affecting him very little. But after completing Kozmo's Intimidation ritual, clusters of pitch-black clouds had remained in his Soul Sea ever since.
Those black clouds were slowly diminishing, but far too slowly. They left Leo's head in a constant state of heaviness and kept his expression perpetually grave. Physical and psychological discomfort distorted his behavior to some extent.
The fallen Intimidation ritual had produced a great deal of negative emotion, and those emotions affected him far more than he had imagined. Sometimes, people simply let negative emotions shape everything they did.
No wonder Koliver Enwey had always struck Leo as mentally unstable. At that moment, Leo suddenly thought of Lydia Murray. There too, in her eyes, he had caught the faint shadow of mental disorder.
But none of this was something he could tell Brad.
After hesitating, Leo said, "Brad, I know I've become somewhat cold. Kozmo died in front of me. I killed Kozmo's older brother, Koliver. There was the night of the Blackport City fire, the cavalry charge... The truth is, I've experienced too much in just these few days.
"On top of that, the Count said that order is gone. The calm we have now exists only because of the momentum built up over the previous fifty years. Before long, perhaps immediately, our lives may be turned completely upside down.
"Maturity sometimes has nothing to do with age. For some people, growing up happens in a single instant while they're going through something. Maybe only after passing certain turning points can a person suddenly understand all those lessons they once heard and barely paid attention to."
Brad nodded after listening. What Leo said sounded reasonable to him. Leo really had experienced more than their other classmates. He had already earned two Third-Class Merits in combat. With one more Third-Class Merit, Leo could become a Knight of the Count of Blackport.
Brad said, "All right, Leo. I understand how you're feeling. But like you said, maybe I still haven't gone through anything serious enough to make me mature, so I can't really feel what you're feeling. I still hope you can be a little more cheerful, though. Smile more."
Leo shrugged. "Brad, I wish I could think less too. I'll try."
What Leo did not say was that he genuinely liked being around Brad. Brad possessed a kind of human warmth that Leo himself lacked. It made Leo feel that this world truly existed.
Brad was, in fact, one of the anchors connecting Leo to this world. Whenever Brad was around, the world felt much less unreal, and Leo's heart became a little calmer.
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