It was already half past nine when Ulrich and Victor left Cartwright Security.

  They both rode a carriage and headed toward Portsmouth. The street was foggy and empty. This wasn't surprising, as people are either home, or busy at the nearby bar.

  Almost an hour passed before Ulrich and Victor arrived at Portsmouth.

  “Here you are, gentleman.” The driver announced, glancing at the two men in suits.

  Victor nodded and stepped off the carriage.

  Immediately, a wave of cold breeze blew by, almost knocking his hat over. He frowned, raising his hand to press down on his brown felt cap. At the same time, he took a deep breath, and the scent of burning coal filled his nostrils.

  The stench and the wet ground had Victor shuffling his feet. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, covering his nose.

  Seeing this, Ulrich shook his head in amusement, ”Where to?”

  “Our commissioner is Manfredi Francis. He should be down this block. But we'll go to the scene of the incident first.” He said, narrowing his eyes at the sign at the crossroad.

  “The road is unreliable, I don’t think you should use that as your guide,” Ulrich suggested.

  “You know this area?”

  Facing this question, Ulrich was silent.

  Did they not research my background thoroughly? If the Ministry did, then they would’ve known he was part of the Blackhand Gang, whose main area of influence is Portsmouth.

  However, Ulrich recalled Captain Ottis' behavior and shook his head, “The Blackhand gang is king here.”

  Immediately, Victor's eyes flickered with enlightenment. He quickly changed the topic and stared at Ulrich, “Alright. Since this is our first operation together, I’d like to see your thoughts on the case while we make our way to Lambord Street.”

  With that said, Ulrich took the lead while Victor followed closely behind him.

  "Consider this situation. A man named Manfredi Francis contacts you from Portsmouth. His 10-year-old son, Albert, has been kidnapped.

  Yesterday at 3 PM, the boy was sent to Lambord Street for groceries, a routine errand, only a ten-minute walk from home. When he didn't return after an hour, Manfredi searched and found no trace of the boy’s presence anywhere. No one at Lambord Street saw him. No witnesses, no struggle, he just vanished into thin air.”

  He paused, making sure that Ulrich had the time to process his words. Seeing Ulrich nod, Victor smiled and continued.

  “It's been over 24 hours. The police are involved, but Manfredi is impatient and desperate for a faster result.”

  “What would you do in my position?"

  Ulrich paused, staring at the intersection, then took a left turn, “Does he have any known enemies?”

  Victor's smile grew increasingly wide as he shook his head, ”No, he is an ordinary man without any special status or standing.”

  “What about precedence? Is this the first time someone has gone missing on this particular street?”

  He thought about it for a moment, then said, ”Third time. This is the third time this has happened in the past three months on this particular street. Let me add that the victims were never found, and are all children.”

  Ulrich organized his thoughts as well as the information presented to him by Victor. After three minutes, he aired out his thoughts.

  “In this situation, I would first arrive at the primary crime scene. Yes, crime scene.”

  “On what basis?”

  “On two basis. One, the father is not an abusive figure and cares about his children. My reason for this is his response regarding Albert’s absence. If he had not cared, or been neglectful, perhaps he would have just waited for the police to keep updated without requesting our help.”

  “Of course, I can’t exclude the possibility that this is just a guise.”

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  Victor nodded, clapping his hand. He can’t help but wonder, ”What about the second basis?”

  “It's simple. Like you said, there has been precedent. How likely is it for three similar cases, all involving children, to voluntarily run away from their home, their parents? Extremely unlikely!”

  “Thus, I will assume that they have all gone missing involuntarily. On these two basis, then this is a crime, not just a simple act of teen rebellion.”

  By the time Ulrich finished speaking, they had arrived at the dimly lit street. The gas lamps flickered weakly at irregular intervals, casting trembling shadows that made the alleyways between buildings seem to breathe.

  Victor stopped Ulrich and walked forward to lead the way. At the same time, he spoke in a rather pleasing tone.

  “I share the same thought with you, this is most likely a crime.”

  Ulrich nodded, then continued from his previous statement, ”Since this is a crime, we should secure the crime scene and gather evidence, followed by interviewing witnesses and interrogating suspects.”

  Finally, he smiled and turned to Victor, “Do you have anyone in mind?”

  “No.”

  Brother, are you even taking this seriously? He lamented inwardly.

  They arrived at Lambert’s Street, standing in a rather unassuming alley.

  Victor’s boots made a soft squelching sound against the wet stones as he surveyed the scene. The cold wind carried with it the taste of salt from the nearby harbor, sharp and briny on his tongue.

  He turned to Ulrich, who was not affected in the slightest. At the same time, Ulrich could feel Victor’s sharp gaze.

  “You’ll get used to it.” He shrugged, assuring his ‘mentor’.

  “…”

  Victor offered no comment and crouched to take a closer look at the ground. Meanwhile, Ulrich watched on the side, not far behind him.

  After about thirty seconds, Victor closed his eyes, as though he was listening to the surrounding breeze.

  How are you going to see with your eyes closed… Ulrich didn’t interrupt him, believing that Victor must have his reason.

  “Three people… One of them is definitely Albert, as for the other two, I can only assume they are the culprits.” He stated, opening his eyes.

  “And you know this, how?”

  Victor didn’t take offense to his doubt; rather, he was pleased that Ulrich was asking such questions.

  “Instinct.”

  “…”

  Ulrich didn’t believe him, but since he didn’t want to say it, there was no point in pressing further.

  “What else do you know about these two people?”

  Victor pointed his finger at the uneven ground, his voice turning deep and low,” I’d say quite big men, and they left us a gift.”

  Ulrich's eyes narrowed, then, slowly walked to the spot that Victor had pointed. Under the wet stone, between the crevices, there was white powder of some sort.

  What is this? He crouched against the floor and put his eyes closer. As he inspected the ‘white powder’ up close, Ulrich was startled.

  “Snowflake!”

  This revelation sent a chill down his back. How can there be snow in Portsmouth? The entirety of Belham was humid and hot during this time of the year. The appearance of this white powder is clearly abnormal!

  Immediately, his expression darkened. He turned to Victor, who was in deep thought with his hand resting on his chin.

  Ulrich recalled his meeting with Captain Ottis.

  This case is clearly abnormal! Three missing children on the same street, with no suspect, leaving behind specks of snow in the middle of a hot season.

  After two minutes of silence, Victor spoke first, ”This matter… We need to report to Captain Ottis immediately.”

  Hearing this, Ulrich expressed his doubt, ”Isn’t that too soon? This case might be a bit strange, but it doesn’t warrant informing Captain, right?”

  Victor shook his head, ”This is something you will soon understand. All matters that are considered ‘abnormal’, no matter how trivial, must be reported to Captain Ottis as soon as possible.”

  “In the past, we were more lenient in this process, often waiting to report to the higher-ups only after crucial information appeared. But, by that time, it was already too late.”

  “What is seemingly small and unimportant might in fact involve a web of sinister schemes and acts of evil beyond your imagination.”

  That serious? He thought. After giving it a thought, it made sense.

  At the same time, Victor added with careful consideration, ”You haven’t been given the relevant information, but since you already knew of the confidential matters from before, telling you this won’t break that agreement.”

  With that said, Victor spoke solemnly, “There exists a rune that involves ‘snow’ and ‘coldness’—Frost Rune. Weavers who bear the Frost Rune, we call them Frostmancer.”

  Another rune… Shadow and Frost Rune, I wonder if the Ministry has both runes in their possession.

  Ulrich took a deep breath, not sure what action they should take.

  At this moment, Victor pressed on his cap while patting his coat, “We should return and inform the captain. Since this case might involve Weavers, Captain will have to personally lead this investigations.”

  “Honestly, I hope that I’m just being paranoid.”

  But looking at his expression, Ulrich could tell Victor didn’t hold that hope too highly.