We mainly discussed trivial everyday topics, but there were three things I picked up on through all the drunken loudness.

1. The large white house in the middle of the town was where the town's president lived.

2. Eddie's firm was very small and worked on one project at a time with only three employees.

3. There was allegedly no crime in the town.

After hours of loud nonsense, we left the bar and started heading toward Eddie's place.

"Is it like this every time?" I asked, as I was worried that my eardrums had been damaged and couldn't take such abuse night after night.

"Yeh, how else could we keep living?" Eddie said drunkenly.

"Have you considered developing a hobby of sorts? Drinking like this every day will lead to your death."

"Yeh, and breathing will lead to your death too, won't it?" Eddie said and laughed.

"Yes, but it won't be the cause."

"Who cares about the cause? Dead people are dead, no matter how they died." Eddie said, sounding pissed about the whole topic.

"So you're saying it doesn't matter, if a person was murdered, or died from old age," I got his point, and I didn't back down.

"Tch. Well, he's dead either way, ain't he?"

"Yes, but to the—" I was saying when Eddie shoved his index finger in front of my mouth and shushed me.

"Hey, buddy, Akir, just relax. You have this constant desire to win everything or something. It's cool that you're ambitious, but shut up once in a while. That is, if you don't want to go sleep in that motel," Eddie said and started walking again.

I swallowed and started walking again.

"My bad," I said with my head down.

"Eh, don't worry about it. Let's just get to my place and sleep," Eddie said in a carefree manner.

We continued walking as I cursed inside my mind. This was a regular occurrence. This feeling overcame logic and dictated my actions. A pointless desire that sought to ruin everything.

***

"Here we are," Eddie said, after we arrived in front of a building next to an alley.

Eddie took a while to find the right key from his large key ring and then opened the door to the house.

We walked in and found ourselves in a short hallway with one door on each side that led to some stairs. We walked up the stairs, and at the top there were three more doors.

"Which one is your place?" I asked Eddie, who was still walking up the stairs.

"Shhh," Eddie shushed me and walked over to the one on the right.

Eddie again took a while to find the right key, which he shoved into the lock of the door on the right.

The lock made a clicking sound, as Eddie twisted the key. Eddie then pushed the door open, and we walked inside the apartment.

"Why did you tell me to be quiet?" I asked, after Eddie closed the door quietly.

"The neighbors here are a pain in the ass and always complain about making sounds in the hallway," Eddie explained.

"So what if they complain?"

"In Cavea even little conflicts are made into big deals, and the fines here are ridiculously large," Eddie explained with some bitterness in his voice that told me he'd had some unpleasant experiences with such matters before.

"Oh, okay."

"This place has five rooms. The kitchen, the bedroom, the storage closet, the bathroom, and then there's the living room that I use to store all kinds of junk and the like. I thought we could clean up the living room a little, and you could sleep there." Eddie explained as we walked inside the apartment.

"Huh?" I made a sound unintentionally.

"What?" Eddie asked.

"No, I was just wondering about something."

"Well, what is it?" Eddie insisted that I respond.

"Well, I thought this place would be bigger with you being a business owner and all."

"If we take into account that we're in Cavea, this place is enormous. You should see the places other people live in."

"So the president's house takes up an enormous amount of space, and the citizens have to live in cardboard boxes."

"That's society for you," Eddie said. "Now then, let's get to cleaning up now."

I rolled up my sleeves. "Right."

***

15 minutes later, we were finished organizing the junk in the living room.

"Okay, that should be enough," Eddie said, stretching a little.

"Huff," I breathed out and collapsed onto the brown couch that was next to the white painted living room wall.

In truth, I wasn't physically tired at all, but I still felt the need to lay down for a while.

I hadn't forgotten where I was. This place, these so-called ruins, weren't some kind of resorts, and I was sure something had to happen sooner or later.

I hadn't been given any information or clues when I came here, and there was nothing pointing to trouble here. This was simply a peaceful town, so what could it have been? What was the purpose of my being here? What was I supposed to do?

"Hey, how long are you going to stay? Because your being here is dependent on you working for me, when my employee comes back from leave, you won't be able to stay here anymore." Eddie sat on the couch and said, disrupting my thoughts.

"I'm not exactly sure. Once your employee comes back, I suppose I'll find another place to reside."

"Okay then. Work starts at 6 o'clock in the morning, so we should eat some supper and get some shut-eye."

***

After supper, I was laying on the brown and comfortable couch with my eyes open in the dark.

Eddie was probably asleep already. I wondered why he trusted a stranger so much. Was he just a very good judge of character to know I had no interest in stealing anything or killing him? Or maybe he was just an idiot. Well, it didn't matter. Now that I had a place to stay, I was going to begin focusing on more important things.

With that in mind, I slowly and quietly stood up and started making my way out of the living room, and soon I was already at the door that led out of the apartment.

I opened the door as quietly as possible and crept out of the building.

"Haaa," I breathed in the fresh air as I looked around the dark streets of Cavea.

'Why are there no streetlights here?' I asked inwardly as I observed my surroundings.

After looking around for a while, I decided to walk in the opposite direction of the president's house, since it seemed like the town revolved around it.

I observed the multiple dark alleys across the streets, the different businesses that all seemed to be closed, the cleanliness of the streets, and the absence of homeless people as I walked.

'Is this place real?' I couldn't help but think, as I walked through the streets of the weird little town.

The streets seemed unrealistic, the wind was just the right temperature, and everything seemed just perfect, but at the same time, the place felt lonesome and empty, like no one had ever walked, talked or even existed on the ground I walked on at this moment.

Suddenly, I felt dizzy. Not just a little dizzy, but on the verge of puking. There was no pain, but only confusion. Then the feeling, went away, and I looked around.

Nothing had changed.

'What was that?' I thought in confusion for a little while, but then decided to just continue moving forward.

I looked around and saw that nothing had changed, my surroundings were the same as before.

I felt my confusion being wiped away, and I continued to move forward.

My strides became relaxed again as I forgot about what had happened and continued walking through the dream-like city.

Then something entered my vision that made my eyes open and my brows furrow.

'The... president's house?' I thought as I looked at the

I stood still for a while and then slowly stepped forward, then stepped forward again and again.

It was as if I was in a trance.

'Did I... make a mistake? No, no, no, I remember clearly the direction I walked in, and if I had walked in the wrong direction, I would have seen the president's house much sooner,' I thought.

'Then it has to be that I was teleported. Of course, I was. I'm in a ruin, after all. How did I forget? The town has an area that can't be surpassed. What an interesting little place.' I figured out what was going on and continued walking.

The town had a certain area that couldn't be escaped, so what I had to do in this ruin was certainly inside this little area.

So what could it be? What did I have to do? Was I to just wait and see?

As my mind was full of questions, I suddenly heard something.

It was quiet and came from afar, but my senses had developed beyond what was humanly possible, and I picked it up nonetheless.

I acted like I had not heard anything and kept on walking, though. Then I suddenly turned and walked into an alley on my left. The alley was dark, dirty, and full of garbage. I put my back against a stone wall and stood there for a little while before deciding to head back out into the alley, when suddenly there was a gust of wind from behind and the sound of a pair of feet impacting the ground.

I turned around, seeming startled by the sound, and was met with a sword to my neck, and then there was the sound of two men dropping to the ground behind me from the rooftop.

Instantly, I lifted my hand up and froze.

Even though I was curious as to what the men behind me looked like, I didn't dare take my eyes off of the man in front of me and the blade that was raised up against my neck.

The man whose sword was threatening my life had his face completely covered except for his dark eyes that exuded focus, and his hands were covered by black gloves that matched the rest of his fully black uniform.

The man's mask moved slightly as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Who are you, and what are your intentions in this place?" the man asked me monotonously, moving the sword closer to my neck.