The next morning began with screaming.
Not monsters.
Not danger.
Not an attack.
Just Abel.
"WHERE IS IT?!"
Haruto woke instantly.
Years of survival instincts took over before his brain did.
He was already standing before he fully opened his eyes.
Belial fell off a bookshelf.
Elias nearly dropped a stack of books.
Somewhere downstairs, something shattered.
The scholar burst into the room.
Hair disheveled.
Glasses crooked.
Several sheets of paper clutched tightly in his hands.
He looked like a man witnessing the collapse of civilization.
"What's wrong?" Haruto asked.
Abel pointed dramatically.
"My map."
Silence.
"...your map."
"My map."
"The thing causing this."
"YES."
Elias sat back down.
The old man suddenly looked exhausted.
Belial climbed back onto the shelf.
"I THOUGHT WE WERE UNDER ATTACK."
"We are."
"No, we're not."
"We absolutely are."
Abel pointed again.
"My map is missing."
Haruto was beginning to suspect that scholars experienced reality differently from everyone else.
---
Twenty minutes later, they stood on the second floor.
Maps covered nearly every surface.
Some were pinned to walls.
Others lay spread across tables.
Most were covered in notes written in Abel's tiny handwriting.
The missing map rested in the center.
Abel carefully unfolded it.
Then flattened the corners.
"There."
Haruto stepped closer.
The map was enormous.
Far larger than any map he had seen before.
At the very top stretched an endless sea of tan and gold.
The Northern Expanse.
His desert.
The place where he had awakened.
Below it spread forests.
Mountains.
Kingdoms.
Trade routes.
Rivers winding across the continent like veins.
For the first time since arriving in this world, Haruto realized just how small his journey had been.
He had only seen a fraction of it.
A tiny corner.
"This," Abel announced proudly, "is Asterra."
Haruto looked up.
"Asterra?"
"The continent."
The scholar sounded offended that the answer wasn't obvious.
Belial laughed.
"It TOOK YOU THIS LONG TO LEARN THAT?"
"Nobody told me."
"YOU NEVER ASKED."
Fair.
---
Abel pointed toward the center of the map.
A narrow channel of water divided two massive landmasses.
Bridges crossed between them.
Ships filled the surrounding waters.
At the heart of the channel sat a heavily fortified island.
Even on parchment, it looked imposing.
"That is Aurelis."
Haruto leaned closer.
"The capital?"
"The Imperial Capital."
Abel nodded.
"The largest city on Asterra."
His finger tapped the island.
"Crown Isle."
Another tap.
"The Imperial Palace."
Another.
"The Grand Archives."
Elias smiled faintly.
"Most records eventually find their way there."
Haruto studied the drawing.
The city wasn't built around a castle.
The city was built around a strait.
Water divided it.
Water connected it.
The island fortress stood between both shores.
A city joined together by bridges.
A city separated by water.
For some reason, the image stayed with him.
---
Abel continued explaining.
The Northern Expanse.
The Eastern Wildlands.
The Southern Coast.
The Central Heartlands.
Kingdoms rose.
Kingdoms fell.
Borders shifted.
Trade flourished.
History moved.
For nearly an hour.
Haruto stopped understanding after the first twenty minutes.
Belial stopped listening after five.
Only Elias seemed genuinely interested.
---
Then Abel suddenly went quiet.
Very quiet.
The scholar frowned.
His finger hovered above the map.
Then stopped.
"That's strange."
Haruto immediately regretted those words.
Every time Abel said something was strange, trouble followed.
"What?"
Abel didn't answer.
He simply pointed.
A section near the eastern coast.
Not large.
Not important-looking.
Just a small area between two trade roads.
Haruto squinted.
"I don't see anything."
"Exactly."
The scholar looked troubled.
For the first time all morning.
"There should be something there."
Elias froze.
Only for a moment.
But Haruto noticed.
Abel noticed too.
The room became quiet.
The scholar slowly lowered his hand.
"Elias."
The old bookseller sighed.
A long sigh.
The kind that belonged to someone who already knew the answer.
"I was hoping you wouldn't notice."
Abel stared.
Haruto stared.
Even Belial stopped joking.
Elias stepped forward.
His gaze lingered on the empty section of the map.
For a brief moment, sadness crossed his face.
Then vanished.
"I remember what used to be there."
The room became still.
Abel's notebook slipped slightly in his grip.
"What do you mean?"
Elias tapped the blank section.
Once.
"There was a city."
Silence.
The words settled heavily between them.
"A city?" Haruto asked.
Elias nodded.
"A city."
Abel immediately began searching through nearby records.
Maps.
Documents.
Notes.
Anything.
Paper exploded across the table.
"No records."
Another notebook.
"No trade reports."
Another.
"No population records."
The scholar looked increasingly alarmed.
"There is nothing."
Elias folded his arms.
"Exactly."
Haruto stared at the empty section.
A city.
Gone.
Not destroyed.
Not conquered.
Not abandoned.
Forgotten.
Arthur's words echoed in his mind.
The world forgets evidence.
For the first time—
he wasn't hearing a story.
He was looking at proof.
---
That evening, Haruto stood on the roof.
The city stretched below.
Lights flickered through the darkness.
Life continued.
Unaware.
Above him, Evernight and Dawnfall hung silently in the sky.
Beautiful.
Distant.
Watching.
Haruto reached into his pocket.
His fingers brushed against the small blue stone.
The gift he still intended to give Sakura someday.
An impossible promise.
Yet one he refused to abandon.
The rooftop door opened.
Abel emerged carrying another stack of books.
Of course he was.
The scholar sat nearby.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
Then Abel asked:
"Do you think memories matter?"
Haruto glanced toward him.
The question sounded different this time.
More personal.
Less academic.
"...yeah."
"Why?"
Haruto looked at the lights above.
Then at the city below.
Then at the blue stone in his hand.
"Because people do."
Abel frowned.
Haruto smiled faintly.
"If people matter..."
He looked toward the distant horizon.
Toward someone impossibly far away.
"...then remembering them matters too."
The scholar fell silent.
Thinking.
Processing.
For once, he had no immediate response.
The two sat together beneath the strange sky.
And somewhere far beyond deserts, forests, and kingdoms—
the first thread of a much larger mystery had begun to unravel.