Several minutes later, after finishing his meal, Zavi unconsciously stood up and his eyes fell on Isabelle, who was still in his room, standing in the same position as before.

  At a glance, it might look completely ordinary for someone to stand near a window, gazing at the cloudy sky and the pleasant weather like this.

  However, Zavi's thoughts were very different. Instead, he felt that his younger sister was hiding something, something she could not tell anyone, not even him as her older brother.

  "Why?" Zavi let out a slow breath. "Is something bothering you? Like there's a problem or something like that. If there is, you can tell me about it. If you don't want to, that's fine too. I won't force you," he said gently, though his tone carried a hint of concern.

  Isabelle slightly lifted her head when she heard those words. She wanted to say something, but her lips still refused to open.

  'Huh… I didn't expect everything to turn out like this. Should I tell him? Or keep it to myself?' Isabelle thought anxiously.

  Behind her, Zavi kept staring, waiting for the answer he hoped for. After a long silence without any response, he spoke again, his voice slightly restrained;

  "Get out of my room. I want to change my clothes."

  Hearing that, Isabelle's eyes widened as her fingers tightly gripped her orange dress. She immediately left Zavi's room and ran as fast as she could toward her own room.

  Today was Saturday, she knew that, and she planned to go out. Without truly understanding what had happened to her family, she chose to search for a purpose to restore her memories on Earth and in this new world and investigate what was actually happening.

  He placed the plate on the table, then turned left toward the wardrobe.

  "Ah, right. I just remembered. It's been a week since I was thrown into this world." With quick movements, he put on a black knee-length coat, each pocket filled with his notes and money.

  'So what caused it? Why am I in this world… inside this body?' He looked at himself in the wardrobe mirror for quite a while.

  He let out a deep sigh and decided he would look for the answer another time.

  The drawer opened. Then he prepared his belongings: a lighter, a revolver along with its ammunition, money, which he considered the most important item, and his pocket watch that had previously stopped but was now ticking again.

  After everything was ready, he took a deep breath and left his house.

  He walked along the narrow road in front of his house, then entered Eleventh Street, Vica. Contrary to his earlier assumption that today was Friday, it turned out that today was Saturday.

  Coincidentally, today Zavi was supposed to meet a man he had encountered before, someone who would accompany his journey to complete the second stage after the ritual, none other than Moreira Lounge.

  Before Zavi allowed Moreira to leave, he had given him a piece of paper containing a cooperation agreement. Written on it were the purpose of the partnership, the meeting place, and his alias.

  However, suddenly something began to bother his mind.

  As he walked along the street at the edge of Vica searching for a passing horse carriage that could take him to Hava, a strange feeling crept into him.

  'Did I forget something? But what?' he thought in confusion.

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  After thinking about it for a moment, he continued walking.

  Meanwhile, without Zavi realizing it, he was being followed by two unknown individuals. Both wore black trousers and long coats that reached their knees with black and gold tops. One of them wore a bowler hat and dark glasses that suited his calm face, and they had been observing Zavi's actions since he left Vica Street.

  They stood beneath a street sign.

  As soon as their target attempted to head toward Hava, the two figures revealed themselves fully, moving calmly as they blended into the crowd of passing pedestrians.

  It could be said that they were members of a bounty hunter group, hired by the sect involved in the kidnapping at the square, attempting to take revenge because Zavi and the others had disrupted their sacrificial ritual.

  Why were they planning to attack or kill Zavi?

  Simply put. They believed Zavi was nothing more than an ordinary human, easy to kill, without needing to deploy more members or spend more money, and they were aware he did not possess one of the fifteen supernatural abilities, unlike Ren or Veranica.

  They were certain that their lowest-ranking members, the six people they had sent to carry out the operation, had died after discovering that the oath-binding spell had disappeared.

  That assumption was completely wrong.

  They were from the bounty hunter organization, Eistender. Even without supernatural abilities, the two of them were capable of killing ten people in a minute or more, though they were not as strong as some of their other comrades.

  A well known name.

  Zavi himself had once read about them in a newspaper he had bought earlier, in an incident involving the destruction of a castle, where Eistender was suspected of being involved in a case that had shaken several cities and even a province.

  He never expected that today he would face them.

  The man wearing dark glasses and a bowler hat took a cigarette from his pocket, slipped it between his lips, then pulled out a lighter and lit it.

  He took a drag, then calmly exhaled the smoke before speaking.

  "How are your preparations? Does that person have any other skills?"

  He was indeed careless, knowing nothing before entering this place.

  He did not have detailed information when he began tailing Zavi, even when leaving Forgenate. He had simply nodded when his teammate, Nawai, accepted the hunting job, which offered a fairly high payment. 150 Pace.

  Before he could finish his sentence, his partner casually cut him off.

  "He's just an ordinary human. Otherwise, of course I would have refused. Besides, the one who hired us already said that! Oh right… I forgot. You didn't attend the full briefing, did you?" Nawai chuckled softly as he partially closed his eyes.

  The man in the bowler hat lowered his dark glasses.

  His blue eyes hidden behind them widened, not from surprise but from displeasure at being laughed at. His mood was bad, easily provoked, and would only calm down after finishing this job and reporting back to their captain.

  "Ah, ah, the friendly Mr. Calvert. Don't look at me like that."

  Nawai slowed his steps, raising both palms as if surrendering, his face showing discomfort.

  They were indeed part of a well known hunter group that carried out dirty work by killing targets at the request of clients.

  Of course, the group did not kill randomly unless they had personal grudges, and their captain did not care about such matters.

  Now they continued walking while following their target, trying to get closer as they noticed the target standing calmly at the corner of a building near an intersection.

  When their eyes focused on the target, the two of them accidentally bumped into a passerby walking in the opposite direction. As he apologized, thinking that person had disturbed his work, they noticed Zavi looking around as if searching for something in the crowd.

  Through the pedestrians, they finally saw him wave toward the street.

  A passing horse carriage that operated along the district border stopped right beside Zavi.

  They saw the coachman speak briefly with him.

  Moments later, the crack of a whip sounded, followed by the echoing neigh of horses between the buildings and the noise of the street.

  The carriage curtain was drawn from the inside.

  The carriage moved slowly, then disappeared behind rows of increasingly dense buildings and other passing horses.

  "Damn, so he's heading to Hava. I hope they don't find him first."

  After Nawai muttered briefly, not wanting to lose the target, the two men immediately moved.

  They ran through the crowd, pushing pedestrians aside, sometimes shouting for people to move away.

  Twenty minutes later, after passing through the bustle near the district border, Zavi arrived in Hava.

  He stepped down from the carriage and approached the coachman to pay the fare.

  "1 Pace, thirty Sen, correct?" Zavi asked to confirm, occasionally glancing around.

  He did not know whether Moreira would agree after reading it.

  Thinking about that, he suddenly let out a small laugh, unsure whether the man was still at that location and whether he had come alone.

  "Thank you for the payment, sir."

  The driver lifted his hat briefly before leaving Sixth Street, Suwwer, Hava District, searching for other passengers.

  Zavi let out a long breath.

  Each breath felt heavy, as if doubt and determination were mixed within his chest.

  He did not know whether this decision would endanger himself or his new family in this world, but he did all of this so he would not lose the people closest to him again.

  "Relax. I already said I will do what needs to be done."

  That murmur became his final resolve before he walked along Sixth Street, Suwwer Kurs, toward a house with the number plate twenty five.

  A few minutes later, he arrived.

  In front of him stood a house at the edge of the area, surrounded by wide land stretching dozens of meters, and in front of the house tall trees spread across the yard.

  Beside it, the sound of rushing river water echoed in a chaotic rhythm.

  "Ah… so this really is the house?" Zavi muttered.

  He stepped closer and stood right in front of the door, and as he raised his hand to knock, from the side...

  Sret!

  A dagger shot past his left side. His eyes briefly caught the reflection of light from the blade's tip.

  Zavi's eyes widened.

  An instinct he did not even understand made him tilt his head a fraction of a second before the blade narrowly missed his body and finally embedded itself in the wall to the right of where he stood.

  A tense atmosphere gripped the surrounding air.

  Two unfamiliar figures appeared from the side of the street.

  They exchanged glances, silently assessing one another.

  Zavi swallowed. His eyes were sharp and alert.

  "Who are you," he said quietly, "was that a warning or an attempt to kill me?"