A few chambers away from the courtroom, and after hours since the meeting ended, Atomu and Chyuuichi were guided towards different rooms equipped with various items to adjust their well-being and step-by-step guides (written by Xard) to retrieve their equipment.

There was a little note at the end though, on both cards, with the King's name signed next to it.

"Meet in my chamber after you get ready."

Atomu gulped, scanning the few words. With no clear direction as of now, especially since Rowan left on such a whim, the only thing he could do was find a way to thank the man who, inadvertently, saved his life.

Or maybe it wasn't the King. Maybe it was Bancho, who knew something the three didn't know.

Atomu put his hands together, breathing out, and eventually started getting ready to solemnly step back into what once was.

He picked up a pair of scissors and looked at himself in the mirror. Everything around him would be dimly lit if not for the sunlight shining through the oval window, which looked out to a garden area, with vines creeping in. Turning to those vines, he stared at his beard for longer. It had almost reached his stomach, and with one swoop, most of it was gone.

Next, he moved on to his hair, trimming it to just below his shoulders. The equipment provided in this specific room of the castle was all typical Paladian stuff - everything surrounding self-care, especially hair products, usually stemmed from Lignoria.

It wasn't created in Prope Portam but imported from Saphrith, so even the scissors' edges weren't dull, with a sharpening cloth stuck at the bottom of the drawer.

After getting rid of all that hair, he picked up another item, a small blade, and slid it across his chin and above his lips. Quickly gone was the moustache and all that remained was a stubble that Atomu always bore.

Now he could look at himself. The horns, the nails, and the tail retracted and once again he turned out to be Atomu Turon, out of all people. A simple Paladian, who wished to call himself just that.

Although, there was one slight difference. A slit across his eyebrow, right in the middle. He recalled Kania sticking a knife right there, but it didn't hurt as much as he imagined.

***

The sunset and the moonrise usually differed between regions of Errarion. Be it, the seasons which came and went or places closer to the sun. Well, you could probably see that in Harabara, out of all of them. No matter what season it was, it rarely snowed, and the temperatures stayed rather closer to the centre and moved towards hotter ones in Gorro.

Lignoria and Malikan were also rather humid regions, with the former having generous amounts of rain, but the latter pretty much always pouring cats and dogs. Shimori was much colder, and the frost itself began to show near the mountains separating Malikan. Morta varies in climate depending on where you go, in short, there were certain things which were thought to affect the daylight cycle.

Either way, the sun sets at about seventeen in the Saphrith region in Herbes.

Of course, Paladians didn't know what seventeen was, so using Gallian terms makes things a little simpler. Maybe that stupid month thing should've been replaced with the Gallian clock instead.

When the moon dawned on Oldenklow, and the sun edged beyond the horizon, most of the celebrations thrown weren't halted but instead moved inside various restaurants and buildings. There was a rule in Oldenklow that when it was dark, things weren't supposed to be happening. Such stemmed from a very old and debunked myth that demons and all creatures alike preferred to roam at night. Even if daylight or night didn't matter, demons preferred darker areas.

Some rules didn't change and resembled traditions. It was unlikely to spot any creatures other than humans wandering the streets of Willia or Oldenklow. There was a better chance that those vines were conscious instead. Then again, one wouldn't call Oldenklow the safest of places. There have been minor intrusions of weaker demons, quickly taken care of by Demonears, juxtaposed with all the crimes humans commit against each other.

Kania screamed out, smashing the wooden mug on the table and taking a deep breath. Ranpa gave him a strange look and kept folding his arms.

"ONE MORE!" he continued, and the others joined the fervour. "I'll outdrink ya, Tomahawk!"

The mentioned guard stared at Kania for a few more seconds, grinding his teeth. "On it...!" he bellowed, waving, and the bartender let out a large sigh. She scooped herself over to the right, adjusted her belt and generously poured in so much beer that it spilt over the edges.

Kania intensely stared him down and began gulping.

"Some things don't change between Paladians." Ranpa thought, closing his eyes for a second. Admittedly, he was more interested in everything except for Kania's new reason to compete.

When he finally lifted his eyelids, he found himself quietly appreciating the insides of the tavern. Sure, the outside was as marble as everything else, but the bar was rather homey. There were windows up on the symmetrical ceiling, facing a rather oddly shaped chandelier, with lamps hanging off without much of a rule. They matched the candles tucked inside sporadical places.

Everything was made out of wood. Be it, the tables, the floor, the counter itself or the small balcony that stretched above it with a few windows facing the outside, now sealed shut, and almost pointing to the doors. Of course, vines, but you couldn't miss the other greenery that went alongside. If it wasn't ferns hanging off the upper parts of the taverns or the arches that barely made the ceiling, it was a few potted plants placed on the tables, all matching the big carpets.

Although, Ranpa could barely see them, since everyone was gathered around Kania, and he was essentially forced to endure that. All in all, the general feeling of Saphirth's high-aiming standard was present, the people inside kind of ruined it. At the same time, you couldn't go that far with a pub called A Royal Pig.

Kania looked up. His hand clenched the side tighter. "MOOORE, LADY MAMA!" he uttered. "I CAN DO IT!"

Ranpa rolled his eyes. The Lady Mama in question did so as well.

"Okay, okay," she uttered, grabbing the stack of Silver from the adjacent table and once again, doing the same thing she did last time. Ranpa shook his head. It was going to be a long night.

All the royalty that was supposed to arrive in town today was already accommodated in the nearby inns or given houses depending on the severity of their status. Bah, some even came back from their long journeys to Prope Portam or some remote village in Malikan. Either way, the point was that the gates leading towards the main street where all the carriages went through were closed, and would only be reopened the next day.

Naturally, this didn't mean that the other exits were closed. Naturally, there were no exits or entrances, as the transition between Willia and Oldenklow was practically seamless if you took the right path. Naturally, someone from Prope Portam wouldn't know that.

"Are you alright?" Rufus asked, standing next to Sam.

Sam breathed out, his hand on the side of his stomach. "I'm f-fine."

"Y-You certainly don't look it." the bartender uttered.

Let me make this clear. After a few days of Ranpa seemingly vanishing into thin air and Danuta not necessarily caring for his existence, it was only up to Sam to find out the truth. This precisely paralleled the discovery of Atomu being the one behind Bancho's murder. Well, supposedly.

Sam originally planned to set out towards Saphrith by himself, only leaving his family a note, but Rufus caught him halfway through the first steps into Orawood, which would later change into the mountains. The bartender didn't have any other reason other than being a little interested in that scientist he stumbled into, and curious about what could have happened to Ranpa.

Leaving the bar in the hands of his wife, it took them almost four weeks of travel to make it to town.

As for Sam, his reaction to Atomu's name being given in that newspaper was rather surprising. He shook his head as if denying that something like this could've ever happened.

After all, everyone told him to move on. After all, his family wanted to forget.

But the world found yet another reason for him to keep his eyes wide open at night.

Even if it was just another hoax or coincidence, he found himself in Saphrith.

Sam and Rufus turned to where most of the sound came from. A few windows were left ajar and some were fully open. Feeling like intruders and they would've probably been marked as ones if someone had seen Sam's attempt at climbing the gate, they hid behind the lamps and sat beneath the window of A Royal Pig.

"ONE MORE!" Kania screamed out.

"Oh," Rufus uttered.

The two took a peek, very carefully though. A plant obscured most of their vision, but they could make out the silhouette of Kania, and Lady Mama, who rolled a barrel full of beer towards the two. Tomahawk was pale, but Kania was still up to the challenge, already scanning the area for new competitors.

They couldn't see Ranpa, mainly because he sunk into his chair and climbed under the table to destress.

As for anything that would've caught their attention?

"Everyone's getting sleazy around these parts nowadays." one of the Paladians uttered. Sam moved down, but his eyes scanned the source of the sound.

"Come on Dad, just not your times."

"It isn't about that." he shook his head. "It was only a few years ago when Saphrith was completely different." he coughed out, continuing with his grumpy voice. "There were guards all around, each knowing there were things to protect. Each fighting against danger even if it wasn't necessarily to come." he stopped for a second. "...and not doing all this!"

"Do you blame them?" the supposed son replied. "Nothing's been happening in the Mainland for a long while. Could you name something, spare for the attack in Magna or Bancho's death?"

"Maybe they needed that spark." he bellowed. "Who the hell knows? The world hasn't changed, son, but the way people are prone to ignore everything something could happen. They banned Guardian Demons in town because they're worse than demons."

The son stared at him for a few seconds, before sighing. Sam blinked a few times, breathing in. "No. Something changed, for sure."

"Then, history might only repeat itself." he pointed. "You reckon that the Kania fellow would be able to take down a massive dark deformity with his bare hands? I don't."

Sam turned to Rufus. Ever since quite a long while, spare a demon wandering into town here and there, nothing was happening. No deaths were reported, and no creature came to strike or harden them through their journey. Maybe they were lucky with the paths but everything was sincerely quiet.

Too quiet, perhaps. The bar was the thing that broke the silence, and Ranpa closed his eyes, hoping things would end sooner than later.