# Chapter 92
Once you entered Rosmunt, you couldn’t leave without passing through a checkpoint. Even if you tried to return to Idelven, you’d have to pass through inspection. Moreover, judging by their attitude, it seemed that a warrant hadn’t been issued yet.
Arden glanced up at Rite. Rite was standing much closer than the distance Arden had imagined. Rite was looking down at Arden with a worried expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“…Nothing.”
Arden’s hand rose naturally. Rite took in all of these movements. Having lived with Arden, Rite knew that Arden touched his ears whenever he felt anxious. Arden’s hand, which Rite expected would go to his ear, moved instead toward his neck.
Arden fingered the necklace and took a deep breath. As if doing so would somehow calm him down.
Something hot stirred within Rite. Though it was buried beneath clothing and not clearly visible, what Arden was touching was unmistakable. It was the black rose that Rite had made with his own hands.
Negative emotions were buried in the snow-white expanse. Although the emotions he was harboring now couldn’t be called pure and clean, snow was inherently greedy by nature.
“Next.”
At the knight’s call, Arden moved forward first. Letting go of the necklace, he opened his bag and displayed its contents. The knight, chewing gum, nodded slightly. It meant he could pass. Arden closed his bag, trying not to appear too hurried.
After exiting, he turned to look back. Rite also opened the entrance of his backpack toward the knight. The knight looked at it with half-hearted eyes, neither properly looking nor ignoring it, and then nodded.
“Next.”
Only after Rite had also safely passed through did Arden’s face relax a little. He felt as if he had aged ten years in an instant. Something clearly needed to be done. Arden made a resolution as he gazed into the purple eyes.
People caught in routine sometimes looked like machines. Machines that simply output what was input. For some reason, Arden felt uneasy rather than relieved.
As soon as they left the station, Rite looked up at the sky at the sound of a roaring noise. Just then, a train passed overhead, and white steam filled their vision. The train quickly passed between buildings and disappeared into the distance.
The elevated tracks were a kind of landmark that could be seen from anywhere in Rosmunt just by looking up. Though there was much to see and hear in Rosmunt, it was the tracks that had served as both a guide and a spiritual pillar for a long time in this hazy city. People often found comfort and stability in permanent structures that never changed.
Arden put on his hat and nodded toward Rite. Rite also put on his hat and followed behind Arden. Seeing such sights for the first time in his life, Rite kept turning his head around. For Rite, who had only lived in the small, underdeveloped Winterishe and a secluded cabin in the adjacent Winter Forest, everything was simply fascinating.
Through the misty air, which might have been fog or steam, people walked hurriedly, looking only ahead without even glancing at each other. Automated carriages, rare in Winterishe, were commonplace here. Walking between carriages that belched smoke and charged forward aggressively presented difficulties quite different from walking through snow.
“Be careful. Stay close behind me.”
Arden said, grabbing Rite’s hand. Rosmunt was also unfamiliar and overwhelming to Arden. Except for the four years he had spent as an engineer in Moran, he had never lived in a city, having grown up in a quiet rural village.
Since Rite had no intention of separating even if told to, he obediently nodded while holding Arden’s hand in return. Rite focused his hearing and smell on Arden while appreciating the city a bit more.
Overall, it was a dull, bronze-colored city, but it was bustling with all kinds of noise; there were automated carriages, robots, and even mechanical dogs running around, yet it was eerily silent. It was filled with artificial sunlight and yellow and blue lights everywhere, yet it was dimly lit; and despite the towering buildings that seemed to reach endlessly upward, the street lamps shone brightly.
A strange city. Just as Rite was coming to this conclusion about Rosmunt, something caught his sensitive senses.
Before he could even think, his hand moved first. Reflexively grabbing, he found himself holding a stranger’s wrist.
“……”
“……”
The man had only three fingers on Arden’s pocket and was now staring with wide eyes. Rite now understood what was happening. It was a simple pickpocket attempt.
Quickly grasping the situation, Arden hurriedly checked his own pocket.
“…Ah, it’s still here.”
After taking out the opening of his coin purse to check its contents, he exhaled in relief. Having experienced it once, this much wasn’t a big deal. Instead, the man started to act up.
“Let go of this! These people are treating me like a thief! I just brushed past while walking by!”
Arden pulled out the man’s hand that was still in his pocket and spoke quietly.
“I have no intention of reporting you. I’ll believe that’s the case, so you can just quietly leave.”
“No, I’m telling you it’s not…!”
Beep. An ear-piercing sound rang out amidst the noisy mechanical city. Looking toward the source of the sound, they saw a knight holding a wind-up whistle the size of a finger.
“There! Is that you?”
Damn it. The man irritably and urgently tried to shake off Rite’s hand, but it didn’t budge. As the captured wrist not only wouldn’t come free but remained steadfast without even the slightest tremor, the man became flustered and grunted.
“Rite…!”
Arden grabbed Rite’s other hand and whispered softly. Realizing the situation, Rite released the man’s wrist. At the same time, Arden grabbed Rite and began running in the opposite direction from the knights.
“Hey! Why are you running away!”
The whistle sounded again from behind, but they kept running without looking back. Rite, who had been trailing behind Arden, suddenly overtook him and started leading the way.
“Where should we go?”
At Rite’s question, Arden briefly recalled the map of Rosmunt. A map is useless if you don’t know where you are. Even as he looked up to find a sign, all he could see were the tracks faintly visible through the fog.
“I don’t know either!”
Rite laughed softly and accelerated his pace. It felt like a scene straight out of a book.
No matter how much they might be poor victims who almost fell prey to a pickpocket, if caught by the knights, they couldn’t avoid identification. Pickpocket and traitor. Which was the more serious criminal was obvious without needing to ask.
They ran towards one of the tallest and most ornate buildings. As they approached, a wall appeared, standing firm like a castle wall. It seemed like an entrance to something, not just a simple building. Beyond the door, even though it was winter, green plants and flowers were visible. Though it was a space separated by just one boundary, it looked like a completely different world.
“We can’t go there. Let’s go somewhere else.”
“Why?”
“Not everyone can enter that place.”
Arden pointed to the knights standing guard on either side of the door. People dressed in fine clothes were calmly walking in between the knights, who stood solemnly with swords at their waists.
“That’s the entrance to the Fourth District. Not just anyone can go in there. You need to pass through inspection.”
“But those people are just walking in.”
“Because they’re residents of the Fourth District.”
Rite twisted his body and ran to the right. Glancing back, he saw the pickpocket running in the same direction. While the whistle sound could be heard from a distance, the knights themselves were hidden from view by the crowd.
A gate similar yet different from the previous one appeared. As they passed through a door that no one was guarding, the fog suddenly thickened. It felt exactly like walking into a cloud.
Visibility soon returned. It seemed to be a residential area, with windows and doors tightly attached to large buildings. It wasn’t a single building but rather had a messy and disorganized appearance, as if several small houses had been hastily welded together.
“I know where we are.”
The Third District. The whistle sound covered Arden’s murmur. They began to move their legs again, which had momentarily stopped. As they were running along a main road centered around a large building, Rite suddenly embraced Arden and quickly changed direction. This was to shake off the pursuing knights.
“Huh…?”
At some point, their feet suddenly sank downward. What they thought was a narrow alley turned out to be stairs, not flat ground. Their bodies tilted precariously. Rite firmly wrapped his arms around Arden’s head and curled his body. The arm felt through the cloth became rigid in an instant. They fell straight down.
Arden’s vision darkened, and his body shook in various directions. As soon as he realized that Rite was falling while embracing him, he reached out and wrapped his hands around Rite’s head. The two, entangled like this, were slammed onto a landing of the staircase, raising dust.
The crackling sound came from the arm that had wrapped around Arden, and the solid feeling disappeared. Arden immediately got up and checked Rite first. He ran his fingers through Rite’s hair to see if there was any bleeding, and rolled up his sleeves to check for injuries.
“I’m fine……”
“How could you protect me first? You should take care of yourself first.”
“Should I be scolded right now?”
Rite gestured with his chin behind Arden. As Arden stopped talking and turned his head, he saw people watching them. They had curious and wary gazes directed at these strangers who had made such a noisy entrance.
Just then, the whistle sounded again from above.
“Hey! Aren’t you going to stop?”
Arden closed his mouth and stood up. After grabbing Rite’s hand to help him up, they ran without any particular direction. Before long, as they were about to pass an alley, a hand suddenly shot out. Before Arden could stop, the hand grabbed his arm and pulled.
