* * *

A narrow alley lay shrouded in fog. Through it, a woman was running with all her strength, though the fog was so thick that even walking, let alone running, was difficult.

“Hah, hah.”

Jessica ran for her life. In her frantic flight, she had already lost one shoe, and her appearance was a complete mess, but she paid it no mind. She simply kept racing down the alley, repeatedly glancing back with frightened eyes.

CRASH!

“Ah!”

Was it because the fog was too thick? Or because she had been looking behind her instead of ahead? Missing a sudden flight of descending steps, Jessica lost her footing and tumbled down them.

Even after that fall, Jessica tried to get straight up and flee again, but wanting to was all she could manage. Perhaps she had struck her head on the way down. Her dazed mind and blurred vision made her collapse again before she could even rise.

'N-no. I have to escape.'

Overwhelming terror was the only thing keeping Jessica conscious, though she was in a state where she could have passed out at any moment. The dreadful certainty that any further delay would leave her unable even to escape stirred her survival instinct, making her forget the pain.

Was it a small mercy amid her misfortune? Looking desperately around, she happened to spot a door and pounded on it with all her remaining strength.

BANG, BANG BANG BANG.

“Hello? Is anyone there?!”

“Please let me in for just a moment! I'm begging you!”

“Even just until the fog clears. Please...!”

Jessica cried out plaintively. But despite her desperate pleas, the door remained firmly shut, without so much as a twitch.

Of course it did. At least in this city, no fool would be lured into opening a door by an unfamiliar voice during the Misty hours.

Even knowing that, Jessica had no choice but to keep clinging to the door. It was the only lifeline she had left.

'I shouldn't have come out.'

Caught in a whirl of impatience, anxiety, terror, and countless other emotions, Jessica regretted it far too late. She should never have gone outside so close to the Misty hours. Whatever happened, she should have waited until the bell rang.

'No, I shouldn't have gone to a place like that in the first place.'

Regrets that cannot be undone grip the heart all the more deeply for that very reason.

As Jessica's face filled with despair before the door that would not open no matter how hard she knocked, her regrets mounting, a deep bell note rang through the air.

DONG...

'That sound...!'

At that moment, Jessica's face brightened involuntarily. That distinctive peal, like a thousand hammers striking a thousand lumps of iron at once, was precisely what she had been waiting for. It signaled that the Misty hours were coming to an end.

DONG...

Twice, three times, four times.

Watching the fog gradually disperse with each toll, Jessica burst into tears. The sensation of death retreating after coming within a hair's breadth let her taut nerves loosen at last, filling her with relief.

But that was precisely why she failed to notice the shadow drawing ever closer with each successive peal, with each thinning layer of fog.

And so, when eleven peals had finally echoed through the air and Jessica sighed in relief, believing it was all over—

CRUNCH!

DONG...

Bright red blood splashed across the wall, and a rigid corpse sprawled on the ground. With the final, twelfth toll ringing out as though to console the dead, the fog, thick as a curtain, loses its strength and falls apart.

In its place, blue shadows emerged as though rising into view. They were knights who looked as if they belonged in old tales, their bodies encased in full armor and draped in blue cloaks.

And at their head, before the blood-drenched ground, stood a woman. Blue-haired, she wore a neat uniform rather than armor and held a bloodstained sword. After gazing down at Jessica's corpse with eyes as still as a lake, she sheathed her sword and spoke.

“Sir Lucas, please handle the cleanup.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“And please check for any witnesses as well.”

“Understood.”

The man in the most elaborate armor bowed low. The knights moved in perfect coordination, collected the corpse, and disappeared. The woman watched silently throughout, leaving with the knight called Lucas only after she had confirmed that every trace had been neatly removed.

Thus, the death of the woman named Jessica vanished into the fog as though melting away, leaving only the metallic smell of blood... .

* * *

[“I'm going to London.”]

[“Me! I'll come too!”]

[“... I'm not going for fun.”]

[“What does that matter? Bringing along one adorable little baby bird like me won't cost you any extra fare!”]

[“Aren't you getting a bit heavy these days to call yourself a baby bird?”]

[“You're not supposed to question a lady's weight!”]

[“Lady, my ass. More like an overfed pigeon.”]

Having followed Limon all the way to London despite his endless jibes, Yu Na-gyeong had high hopes for this trip. Traveling abroad was exciting enough—she had never had the chance while alive, being too busy working. That her destination was London, the City of Magic, made her heart positively flutter.

But the moment she stepped off the train, she realized her expectations had been wrong. The London she had reached after that long journey was far more fantastical than she had imagined.

[“Wooow!”]

Magical lamps floated in the air in place of streetlights, pushing back the fog, while one in every ten pedestrians strode proudly through the streets in robes. Instead of taxis, carpets and horseless carriages carried passengers through the sky and along the roads, and dancing puppets solicited customers outside shops.

On one side of the street stood a monster shop displaying two-headed snakes and eagles with lions' bodies. Opposite it was a perfume shop selling love potions.

It was a veritable cauldron of chaos. The city looked less like reality than a scene from some abstract painting. Gazing at London, Yu Na-gyeong marveled.

[“When I saw it in movies or on the news, I thought they might be exaggerating, but London really is the City of Magic!”]

“...”

[“Come to think of it, you've been to London before, haven't you, Team Leader? Compared with then... why do you look like you have a headache?”]

“Why do you think? Because I have a headache.”

Limon lowered the hand he had been pressing to his forehead. Looking at the scenery that had so impressed Yu Na-gyeong, he muttered incredulously,

“What the hell is this insane spectacle?”

[“What else would it be? It's London! The magical city with more dungeons and magic-type players than anywhere else in the world.”]

“What damned magic? Every last thing here is an item, a skill, or a player.”

[“What's wrong with that? It might be a little different from the old days, but all that's really changed is that skills and items have replaced what magic used to do, right?”]

“... Don't tell me you think London always looked like this?”

[“Huh? Didn't it?”]

“If London had always looked like this, they'd have called it the Realm of Horrors, not the City of Magic, you blockhead.”

In his long life, Limon had seen countless country villages become great cities and cultures undergo abrupt transformations. Especially since the dawn of the Iron Age, he had grown quite accustomed to the world's rapid changes. But London's transformation was enough to leave even him dumbfounded.

'What the hell have these lunatics done to London?'

London had once been so tranquil. Seeing that quiet city transformed into something like a theme park made Limon shudder.

Of course, he had known that London had changed considerably since the Magus Guild established itself there. He also knew that ninety percent of the world's magic-type players had gathered there, turning London into a new City of Magic.

But seeing was believing. A sight he had merely clicked his tongue at in newspapers and on the news was shocking on an entirely different level in person. All the more so because the bizarre scenes shown in the media had not captured even a tenth of the reality.

[“Oh, Team Leader! Look over there. They're having a sale on dancing cookies! Can I go take a quick look?”]

As Yu Na-gyeong delightedly surveyed her surroundings from atop the exasperated Limon's head, a cold voice sounded behind them.

“It's good that you're excited, but I would advise against wandering off alone, just in case.”

[“Huh? Why?”]

“I hear unattended pets have been disappearing frequently in London lately. They say they're probably being eaten by other abandoned pets.”

[“Oh, Wei Ling, you worry too much. As if I'd ever become food for some mere pet...”]

Yu Na-gyeong abruptly shut her beak midway through her confident reply. Moving only her eyes, she watched a man emerge from the monster shop with a collar on some sort of winged wolf, and swallowed hard.

[“... I'll stay right beside Team Leader.”]

“I'm glad you've decided to be careful.”

Having quieted the excitable Yu Na-gyeong, Wei Ling—a woman dressed as a man in a suit—asked Limon softly,

“Where do you intend to go now? As instructed, I haven't booked any accommodation, but if you'd like to rest, I can find somewhere for you to stay.”

“...”

“Is something wrong?”

“No, I was just thinking you're starting to seem quite like an attendant lately, you clueless know-it-all.”

“... I don't merely seem like an attendant. I am one.”

“Were you?”

“Yes. Though a certain person may have forgotten, since he treats me as nothing more than a machine to do his work and keeps me shut away at the office.”

“Whoever he is, it sounds like you're working for someone with an eye for talent.”

Limon chuckled at the dark circles beneath Wei Ling's eyes as she radiated a chill, apparently harboring quite a backlog of grievances. To be fair, she had been handling all of Guardian's work in his stead. With one incident after another ever since Guardian's founding, her days had consisted of overwork piled upon overwork upon overwork. It would have been stranger if she hadn't resented him.

“Well, forget the lodgings. Just show me the way first.”

“Would you like a tour of the sights?”

“No, none of that. You know what I asked you to look into beforehand.”

“... The magic halls?”

“Yes. The magic halls of the twenty-seven magical lineages are hidden so thoroughly that even you people would have trouble finding them, but I think we'll need at least that much to get this job done properly.”

“In that case, I don't believe you'll need me to guide you.”

“Huh? What's that supposed to mean?”

Limon looked puzzled. Rather than answer, Wei Ling raised a hand and pointed in one direction. The instant he followed her finger with his eyes, an odd expression involuntarily crossed his face.

[“Team Leader, didn't you say the magic halls of the twenty-seven magical lineages would be hard to find?”]

“... Yes.”

[“They seem awfully conspicuous for that. Is it just me?”]

“I wish it were just you.”

A magnificent clock tower rose directly opposite London Station. Looking at the banner prominently affixed to it—[The Original Magic Hall District, Carrying On the Traditions of the Twenty-Seven Magical Lineages!]—Limon wondered where the City of Magic he had known had disappeared to over the past few decades.