The room inside smelled exactly as expected: olive oil, chili, bacon, butter, and a jumble of spices. The mixed aromas didn’t reveal a single dominant dish, but they did indicate a skilled cook. Beyond the door at the end of the corridor, the clamor suggested the kitchen still had many guests even at this hour.

Because most shops were closed today, the contrast between the building’s warm interior and the street outside felt strangely like a division between two worlds.

“Wait, wipe your feet clean first.”

The woman leading them turned, pointed to a mat on the floor, then climbed the steep stairs beside the long corridor.

Leonardo paused, rubbing his feet as if to dry them a bit, but he kept his guard up all the while, uncertain where she was taking him.

The old wooden stairs creaked, the sound softened by moisture. Holding their breath, they climbed two flights and reached another door that opened onto a dim attic.

The ceiling was high enough to stand with straightened back and neck. Only after both were inside did the woman shut the door firmly and light a lamp.

“How did you know him?” she asked, bending over to pull out a heavy chest hidden under the table. It looked so weighty that he expected it would be difficult for her to drag alone, but she managed it without apparent trouble.

Watching her unlock the padlock with a key, Leonardo exchanged a quick glance with Terzio. When Terzio nodded once, Leonardo faced forward and spoke.

“I stopped by his shop before. I traded with him and he helped me a bit.”

“What kind of help?”

“That part’s difficult to say. Is this a verification procedure?”

Her voice carried a hint of sharpness. The woman paused with her hand on the chest lid and looked up. Leonardo lowered his eyes and added, “I still don’t know anything about your side of things.”

“Oh, I see. I thought you two were companions and already knew. My name’s Dott. You can see it on the nameplate; I own this place.”

“......”

“And don’t be so stiff. I didn’t take you in out of the kindness of my heart.”

Her curt reply raised one of Leonardo’s eyebrows.

“If it weren’t for him asking, I’d have turned that person away at the door.”

Dott glanced at Terzio as if to brush past him. Leonardo’s gaze followed, but Terzio merely shrugged his shoulders and offered no further explanation.

“He asked you? What, before he died?”

Leonardo bent his knees to meet her eye level. Dott answered in a tone that was cynical yet oddly kind.

“Of course he asked while he was still alive. Just two days ago. He told me that if he died, the card’s owner from out of town would come to claim it, and he entrusted it to me. He asked me not to tell the Council or anyone else.”

When she finished, she flipped the chest lid back and the lamp’s light flashed, momentarily blinding them both. Leonardo and Terzio each squinted and turned their heads.

“Oh, sorry. I should’ve said that beforehand.”

Her apology sounded perfunctory. Inside the chest were strange talismans and ornate jewelry and parchments that looked like things one might have seen in Grimbleton’s shop. Though the metals and gems were dust-covered, they still held a luminous gleam.

Could he really have meant to leave all this to me?

While Leonardo [N O V E L I G H T] stared in puzzlement, Dott produced an envelope sealed in wax. The surface bulged as if something other than paper was inside.

“Here. He left this for you.”

She echoed his stiff tone mockingly as she handed it over, then produced the amulet made of cycullar stone — the same amulet he had had the shop owner make before he left.

“This is—”

Holding the two items, Leonardo traced the outer surface of the envelope and asked, “What’s inside?”

“I don’t know the details. I haven’t opened it. I only heard there was an address.”

An address?

The shop owner’s voice — about introducing someone who was versed in curses — flickered through his mind. Had he kept his promise before dying? Leonardo asked Dott in a low voice.

“...Aside from you, does anyone know about this item?”

“Since he’s dead, it’s just the two of you left apart from me. Why, do you intend to kill me?”

She said the terrifying line offhandedly and closed the chest again, snapping the lock. Leonardo narrowed his brow and parted his lips in disbelief.

“What do you take us for?”

“Just joking.”

Her laugh was a little odd. Dott added that she had no reason nor desire to leak what had been entrusted to her.

“Is that all you were going to give me? What about the other things inside?”

“Don’t be greedy. He left this to me. He said the things he left for you were potent and should be sealed as talismans, so I just kept them with the others.”

Potent, she said. Leonardo cocked his head as she continued in explanatory tone.

“You said you’d been in his shop before, so you know how the place felt inside — weird in ways. Best to be careful.”

“...You — no, what is your relationship with him? Why would he ask you to handle these things?”

“If you don’t want to answer, that’s fine.”

For a moment Leonardo was at a loss for words. Dott straightened and brushed the dust from her apron with both hands.

“He was like a father to me. He treated me like a daughter. I don’t have a family.”

“...I see.”

“I never expected anything in return, but I always made sure he had meals. He used to complain about the side dishes, but he came down here faithfully. It’s been ten years; he must have trusted me a lot.”

Watching the chest slide back under the table, Leonardo recalled what Signe had told him: how Grimbleton and the townspeople cared for war orphans together.

He wondered if the woman before him had suffered similar pains, but he lacked the courage to pry. He didn’t really want to know.

Instead, he asked what had been gnawing at him.

“I heard the townsfolk outside say you were the first witness. ...How did he die? It sounded like he anticipated his death. Did he take his own life, or was he threatened by someone—”

“He wouldn’t do that. Eccentric maybe, but not vengeful; he was stubborn as old iron. When we first found him, it didn’t look dire. He was lying on the shop floor with both hands on his stomach — like he was sleeping.”

Dott lowered the tablecloth and tidied, then walked over to the small attic window. The overcast light from outside softened her face.

“I remember something he said while eating recently. ‘I think I’ve finally finished what I needed to do.’ He always said he had the kind of fate where he wanted to die but couldn’t. Lately, though, he said he’d been having good dreams.”

Her expression mixed composure with bitterness. Rain streaked down the window and cast shadows across her cheek. Though it appeared she might weep, Dott showed no outward sign.

“Good dreams?”

When Leonardo simply echoed the question, she continued calmly.

“The Mother of this world told him it would be all right to rest. He said he felt relieved.”

The rain’s roar pounded the attic roof. For a few seconds the three of them were silent. The hum of guests downstairs occasionally throbbed through the floor.

Her demeanor as the first witness was surprisingly composed. When digging into deaths, it was often the case that a seemingly innocent witness turned out to be the culprit.

Because the magic items in Grimbleton’s shop had seemed valuable, Leonardo had harbored suspicions. But from the brief talk, he didn’t think she had harmed him. Grimbleton had taste for people, and the composure on her face betrayed a deep, unmistakable emotion.

Leonardo regarded her with a comparatively calm gaze while sorting through tangled thoughts.

If the likelihood of murder was low... then is the pursuer unrelated?

Did he really die because his time had come?

Does age grant people the sense to predict their own end...?

At that moment Dott turned from the window and approached Leonardo, pushing him back toward the door.

“Well, I’ve done my part. Now go. Honestly, I don’t want to see anyone today, and I especially don’t want unknown strangers in here.”

Shoved forward, Leonardo turned to reply.

“Wait, wait. There’s still so much I haven’t heard—”

“I’m tired. Please understand.”

“We still served the customers, didn’t you?”

“Is that the same? If I didn’t run this place, the people who live alone would starve. Especially on a day like today. This is my work. You don’t need to be here. And the Council’s investigators will be here soon. I’m clean, but I don’t want to be suspected for letting strange people in.”

Dott reopened the door and extended a hand toward the outside.

“Be careful. Don’t tell anyone you came in here.”

Her hospitality had turned to chilly dismissal. Leonardo held the doorframe with a face that said he was taken aback. Terzio placed a hand on his shoulder and motioned that they should leave.

“The owner’s right. If the Council sees you here, it might look suspicious.”

Terzio grabbed Leonardo’s hand from the frame and pushed him out. Leonardo started to protest but, for now, stepped forward.

He hesitated on the threshold, then turned back and asked in a solemn voice,

“...Did he go peacefully?”

Terzio made a troubled face. Dott buttoned her cardigan and stood behind them.

“Only he would know. But I think so.”

Her final words were small but clear as she said the man’s face had seemed at ease.

Standing in place, Leonardo slowly nodded and then looked out at the gray sky visible beyond her window.

The rain would likely honor the dead all day.

“Thank you.”

Only then did Leonardo move on.