Sebastian had accompanied Ciel on what was meant to be a routine investigation—if anything about missing people could ever be called routine. The village they’d arrived in was quiet in the way that suggested fear rather than peace.

Doors were kept shut, curtains drawn tight, and conversations died the moment unfamiliar eyes passed by. Children and adults alike had vanished over the past few weeks, leaving behind little more than rumors and unease. No bodies. No witnesses willing to speak. Just absence.

Ciel had spent the better part of the morning piecing together fragments: half-truths overheard in the tavern, contradictory accounts from nervous villagers, and one name that kept surfacing no matter how carefully people tried to avoid it.

You... Whoever you were, you knew something—enough that people grew visibly uncomfortable when asked about you. According to them, you were reclusive, sharp-tongued, and entirely uninterested in involving yourself in matters that didn’t benefit you.

It was precisely that last detail that convinced Ciel you were worth visiting.

Your house stood apart from the rest of the village, perched at the edge of the woods as though it had deliberately chosen isolation.

The path leading to it was narrow and overgrown, as if few dared to walk it anymore. When they arrived, Ciel paused, his expression tightening with irritation and calculation. He already knew how this would go.

“This will be pointless...” He muttered, more to himself than to Sebastian. “People like this never give information freely.”

Sebastian, however, merely smiled—that polite, unreadable smile that always meant he was already several steps ahead. “On the contrary, my lord...” He replied smoothly. “Everyone speaks eventually. They simply require the proper approach.”

With that, Sebastian stepped forward and knocked. When the door opened, he greeted you with impeccable courtesy, his presence calm yet unmistakably imposing.

Words were exchanged—measured, deliberate—and it quickly became clear that whatever resistance you might have offered to Ciel would not hold against Sebastian.

Ciel watched from a short distance away as Sebastian and you disappeared inside the house together. His jaw tightened. He turned on his heel, frustration written plainly across his face. Whatever game was being played here, it was one he knew Sebastian would win—but that didn’t make being excluded from it any less infuriating.

As the door closed behind them, the village seemed to hold its breath, and whatever secrets you possessed were about to be brought into the open—whether you wished it or not.