"You don’t have to tell me the details. The fact that you made it back alive is enough."
Richard nodded and didn’t elaborate.
His mother took a sip of her tea.
"Next time there’s a field mission of this scale, don’t go if you can avoid it."
"...I know."
"I know you won’t listen." His mother sighed. "So just be careful. Don’t let us find out after the fact."
"Yes."
......
In the morning, Richard walked into the classroom.
Warren was sitting in his usual spot. His eyes lit up the moment he saw Richard walk in.
"Richard! Where did you and Mr. Hutton go yesterday?"
"To the area around the mining museum," Richard answered nonchalantly. "The industrial history of the old mines. Pretty boring."
"What’s there to study in a place like that?" Warren pouted. "No wonder you’ve been so hard to find lately."
Hugh, meanwhile, was hunched over his desk, drawing in his sketchbook. The newest page depicted a method of roasting some kind of fowl from the cafeteria that Richard had never seen before.
"Want to see?" Hugh pushed the sketchbook over. "I drew it from imagination yesterday. ’Charcoal-Roasted Brighton Winter Dove.’"
"You imagined this?" Richard took the sketchbook.
"Mhm." Hugh nodded seriously. "I plan to go to the market next spring and buy one to see if a real dove looks like this."
Richard couldn’t help but laugh.
"You drew it in such detail."
"An artist must be meticulous," Hugh said with a straight face.
Mason leaned over from the next aisle.
"Richard, have you heard? Over a dozen people died in the West Suburb strike yesterday."
"...I heard."
"For real?" Warren leaned in.
"It’s true. The workers fought the foremen, and the militia was called in."
Mason lowered his voice.
"My dad came home last night furious. He’s at that flour mill in South City. The workers there wanted to cause trouble too, but he and the workshop foreman shut it down."
"..."
Richard didn’t join the conversation.
Just then, Grey came in through the back door of the classroom.
"Morning."
She nodded at the group and placed her schoolbag at her seat.
"Richard, I made you almond crisps for lunch today."
"Thanks."
"You’ve gotten thinner again lately." Grey’s eyes scanned his face.
’I probably just look haggard because I haven’t been sleeping well these past few days,’ Richard knew. ’It’s not that I’ve actually lost weight.’
Richard was distracted throughout his morning classes.
Ever since he activated [Rationality], the way he listened in class had changed.
When the teacher told a short story, his mind would automatically dissect it, identifying its foundational arguments, its weak points, and its hidden biases.
By the end of class, it was far more bustling inside his head than outside.
After school let out in the afternoon, Richard left the classroom and went to the third floor of the library.
Mr. Hutton hadn’t returned today. He was probably still handling the aftermath of the incident at the mine pit.
In a private reading room in a corner of the third floor, Richard placed his shoulder bag on the table.
He first took out the medium-concentration Ether Condensate he had received at yesterday’s debriefing and set it on the desk.
A scan with his Spiritual Vision revealed the uniform, translucent Ether Layer on the condensate’s surface.
After a moment’s thought, he returned the condensate to a compartment in his shoulder bag.
He had no use for this kind of thing for now. He would save it for nurturing Marvels in the future.
Next, he took out his notebook.
From the start of the winter break until now, he had gathered almost enough material for the next Divine Pantheon Salon meeting.
He re-evaluated the things he could present.
Information related to the Unyielding Pit was absolutely off-limits.
It was one of the pieces of information the Branch Office was keeping under wraps. The more he knew, the less he could say about it to outsiders.
What he could offer were the half-finished models for his papers on reverse-engineering a few Techniques, as well as some improvement plans for normal Techniques.
He could also offer up a few of the spoils he’d received this time and see if he could trade them for anything.
Richard closed his notebook.
By the time he finished organizing everything, it was nearly six in the evening.
Most of the students on campus had already left.
The streetlights came on, casting a pale yellow glow on the snow-covered ground.
Richard walked out of the library and headed toward the school gate along the main path.
Just as he reached the gate, he stopped in his tracks.
A deer was crouched on the street corner outside the gate, looking as if it had been waiting for a long time.
His gaze was immediately drawn to it.
It was a small, light brown deer, only about a third the size of an ordinary horse.
Its antlers were small and two-pronged, having just recently grown in. The forks were still covered in a layer of light, downy velvet that hadn’t completely shed.
The moment the little deer saw him emerge, it stood up, its large, amber eyes fixed on Richard.
Richard scanned the pedestrians on the street.
A mother holding her child’s hand was walking right past the deer.
The child followed his mother’s finger, looking at the candy shop across the street without even glancing at the deer.
A worker pushing a bicycle went around from behind the deer, the bike’s tire almost grazing its tail, but the worker didn’t notice a thing.
It seemed Richard was the only one on the entire street who could see it.
His Spiritual Vision told him that this deer was also a Spirit Realm Messenger.
But its aura was different from that of the fluttering moth and the polite, gray-robed figure.
The moth was mechanical, and the gray-robed figure was cold and sinister.
The deer had an air of innocence, a mix of woodland wildness and Spirituality.
The little deer looked at Richard, then turned and walked into an alley.
After a few steps, it glanced back at him.
Richard followed.
The high walls on both sides of the alley blocked the streetlights, and the snow on the ground had been trodden into gray slush.
The deer lowered its head and swiped at a spot on its neck, and a letter appeared on the ground.
Richard bent down and picked up the letter.
The symbol on the envelope was Hermes’ Caduceus.
He looked up.
The deer was less than three steps away, but it hadn’t left.
It raised its head and gently nuzzled Richard’s chest.
Richard felt a warm Ether Flow.
It was inspecting something he was wearing.
Richard looked down.
It had nuzzled the silver ring upon which Lady Mary had left a "kiss."
He had been wearing it close to his skin this whole time.
After "sniffing" the Silver Ring, the deer gently shook its antlers, as if in reminiscence.
Then, it turned and walked out of the alley.
By the time Richard snapped out of it, the deer had completely vanished.
The alley was empty, leaving only his own footprints in the gray slush.
Richard stood where he was, collecting himself.
This Messenger deer very likely knew Lady Mary.
Combined with his previous speculations about Hecate’s identity, the probability of this theory was over ninety percent.
Richard didn’t dwell on it any longer. He looked down and opened the letter.
Inside was Hecate’s familiar handwriting, telling him to attend the meeting the day after tomorrow at the usual time.
The signature was, as always, a torch and a key.
After reading the letter, he walked out of the small alley.
The streetlight at the corner was still on. A few students, heading home late, ran past him toward the bus stop.
Richard followed behind them, walking toward the bus stop.
The headlights of a bus turned the corner.
The bus pulled up in front of him, and the doors opened with a CLANG.
He got on.

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