The department store incident had been over for some time.
Northveil was still covered in winter snow.
A heavy snowfall had occurred the previous night.
Uncleared snow remained piled along both sides of the streets.
Morning sunlight filtered through the thick clouds and fell across the city, reflecting faintly off the white surface of the snow.
The city had already returned to normal operation.
Vehicles moved along the roads.
Pedestrians hurried toward their respective destinations.
The department store incident seemed to have already become a thing of the past.
The news had stopped reporting on it.
Ordinary residents had returned to their usual routines.
Only the Administrative Center, the Pollution Processing Department, and the few people who had been involved in the incident still remembered everything that had happened that day.
Lucian stood inside the station.
Announcements continuously echoed through the hall.
Trains arriving.
Trains departing.
The electronic displays constantly refreshed with new schedules.
Travelers passed through the hall with their luggage.
Some people were saying goodbye.
Others were meeting again.
The entire station was no different from usual.
Lucian lowered his head and glanced at the electronic ticket in his hand.
His return time had already been confirmed.
According to the original arrangement, he was supposed to leave Northveil today.
After that, he would return to the Jace Family.
The purpose of his stay had already been completely fulfilled.
The Pollution Processing system.
The Administrative Center.
The management of ability users.
And the department store incident.
He had seen almost everything there was to see.
Under normal circumstances, there was no reason to remain.
Lucian stared silently at the electronic ticket.
After a moment of silence,
the terminal in his hand quietly lit up.
He canceled his return trip for today.
The system quickly displayed the updated information.
Return time.
Postponed by several days.
Lucian put away the terminal.
There was no change in his expression.
He had not made this decision because of Northveil.
Nor was it because of the pollution crystal.
There was only one reason he had decided to stay.
Irina.
More precisely,
it was the people who had been watching Irina all this time.
When they parted yesterday,
he had already confirmed one thing.
Those people were definitely not ordinary passersby.
Nor did they look like trackers hastily assembled for the occasion.
They did not communicate with one another.
They had no obvious identities.
Yet they were able to maintain complete coverage of Irina's movements at all times.
That kind of coordination required long-term training.
It also required clearly defined roles.
A terrorist organization alone would have difficulty achieving something like this.
If they belonged to an organization that had been hiding in the shadows all along,
then now was the perfect opportunity.
Because everyone would assume that Lucian Jace had already left Northveil.
No one would expect him to still be in the city.
Lucian did not tell the Jace Family about this.
Nor did he leave behind any message.
The reason was simple.
If he informed them in advance,
the slightest leak of information could alert the other side.
Compared to that,
concealing his whereabouts for the time being was the more reasonable choice.
With that thought,
Lucian dragged his luggage out of the station.
He did not return to his previous residence.
Instead, he rented an ordinary hotel room nearby.
The hotel was not large.
It was located on the outskirts of the commercial district.
There were many guests coming and going.
No one would pay particular attention to any individual person there.
After checking in,
Lucian placed his luggage in the room.
He kept only the most basic personal belongings with him.
Then he took off the coat he had been wearing and changed into a completely ordinary winter outfit.
The colors were subdued.
There was nothing about him that would leave an impression.
He stood before the mirror and adjusted his collar.
After confirming that everything was fine,
he turned and left the room.
Half an hour later,
the district where the Pollution Processing Department was located came into view again.
The weather was slightly clearer than yesterday.
Most of the snow on the roads had already been cleared.
Many employees were gradually entering the office building.
Transport vehicles continuously entered and exited the underground entrance.
The entire facility had returned to its usual busy state.
Lucian did not approach directly.
Instead, he went to the opposite side of the street.
He chose a café where he could see the main entrance of the Pollution Processing Department.
There were quite a few customers inside.
Some were working on laptops.
Some were quietly reading newspapers.
Others were simply sitting there and resting.
Lucian found a seat by the window.
He ordered a cup of hot coffee.
Then he naturally turned his gaze toward the street outside.
He did not deliberately observe anyone.
Nor did he keep staring at the entrance of the Pollution Processing Department.
He simply looked outside occasionally,
then lowered his head to check his terminal.
Time slowly passed.
Steam gradually rose from the coffee.
People on the street constantly changed.
Some entered the office building.
Others left.
Delivery vehicles came one after another.
Throughout the entire morning,
nothing seemed different from usual.
One hour passed.
Nothing unusual happened.
Two hours passed.
The street continued at its steady pace.
Then, close to noon,
the entrance of the Pollution Processing Department opened again.
A familiar figure walked out.
Irina.
She was still wearing the uniform of the Pollution Processing Department.
Several documents were held against her chest.
A terminal was in her other hand.
She checked her new assignments for the day while slowly walking down the steps.
The moment she appeared,
Lucian's gaze finally changed slightly.
Not because of Irina.
But because of the street.
The changes he had seen yesterday
were beginning again.
At the street corner,
a young man who had been making a phone call ended the conversation.
He naturally walked toward the other side.
Beside the bus stop,
an elderly man who had been waiting for a bus slowly stood up and left with his shopping bags.
Almost at the same time,
another man carrying a briefcase stopped.
He stood at a position from which he could see the exit of the Pollution Processing Department.
The entire process happened without the slightest pause.
There was no exchange of glances.
No signals.
Everything looked like an ordinary scene in the city.
But if those movements were connected together,
it became clear.
There had never been a gap in their observation coverage.
Lucian remained quietly seated.
He did not act immediately.
Nor did he continue watching Irina.
His gaze slowly shifted.
Eventually, it settled on the young man who had just left.
This time,
his target was no longer the person being watched.
It was the observer.
Lucian did not stand up immediately.
He remained seated by the window.
He picked up the coffee, which had already cooled slightly,
and took a small sip.
His gaze, however, remained fixed on the street outside.
There was nothing unusual about the young man.
After ending his call,
he simply followed the flow of pedestrians.
His pace was neither fast nor slow.
He did not look back.
He looked exactly like an ordinary office worker heading home after finishing his work.
Lucian waited another dozen seconds.
Only after the young man had created some distance from the Pollution Processing Department did he slowly stand.
He placed the coffee back on the table.
Then he paid and left.
There was no urgency in the entire process.
After walking out of the café,
he did not follow directly behind the young man.
Instead, he kept an entire street between them,
using the flow of pedestrians to gradually adjust his direction.
The two maintained a stable distance at all times.
The young man continued forward.
He passed a flower shop.
He stopped and glanced at the bouquets displayed outside.
Then he continued.
He passed a convenience store.
He pushed open the door and walked inside.
Several minutes later,
he came back out with a bottle of mineral water.
Every movement was natural.
There was not the slightest flaw.
Lucian did not approach.
He simply stood across the street,
using the reflection in a shop window to keep track of the man's position.
After leaving the convenience store,
the young man continued toward the commercial district.
The streets gradually became more crowded.
As noon approached,
the surrounding office buildings gradually entered their lunch breaks.
Office workers in suits.
Mothers pushing strollers.
Students on their way home from school.
All kinds of people continuously poured into the streets.
The entire city was filled with the atmosphere of ordinary life.
The young man maintained the same pace as everyone else.
Sometimes he stopped for a red light.
Sometimes he avoided pedestrians coming from the opposite direction.
There was nothing worth noticing.
But the more ordinary he appeared,
the less Lucian relaxed.
People who had truly received training
were best at making themselves look ordinary.
Twenty minutes later,
the young man entered a large commercial center.
The automatic doors slowly opened.
People constantly entered and exited.
Lucian did not immediately follow him inside.
Instead, he stood outside.
He looked up at the layout of the building.
The glass curtain walls reflected the entire street.
The main hall connected to multiple areas.
If he entered recklessly,
he might expose himself instead.
A few seconds later,
Lucian entered the building through another entrance.
The hall was brightly lit.
Soft music played over the public address system.
There were many shoppers.
The young man had already disappeared into the crowd.
Lucian did not search around.
Instead, he slowly walked toward the center of the hall.
Using his superior field of vision,
he calmly observed his surroundings.
Soon,
his gaze locked onto the target again.
The young man was standing in front of an escalator.
He gradually ascended with the flow of people.
He did not look back.
Nor did he stop.
Lucian did not choose the same escalator.
Instead, he walked toward another one,
maintaining a distance of roughly two floors.
This way, he would neither completely lose sight of the target
nor attract attention by getting too close.
The young man reached the third floor.
He continued forward.
He passed a bookstore.
Then a restaurant.
Then several clothing stores.
He did not enter any of them.
He simply kept moving.
Lucian maintained the same pace.
Using the constantly shifting crowd,
he allowed his presence to blend completely into the commercial center.
The entire process lasted more than twenty minutes.
The young man eventually reached another exit.
He left the commercial center
and returned to the street.
The cold winter wind blew against him.
The young man adjusted his scarf
and continued toward the residential district.
The number of pedestrians on the street gradually decreased.
The noise of the commercial district was slowly left behind.
There were more residential buildings here.
Convenience stores.
And various community facilities.
The young man still did not stop.
He did not interact with anyone.
Nor did he enter any building.
He seemed to be doing nothing more than taking an ordinary walk.
Another dozen minutes passed.
The young man reached an intersection.
The light turned red.
Many pedestrians stopped to wait.
Several students ran over while laughing.
A few elderly people slowly passed by with shopping carts.
The crowd briefly gathered at the intersection.
The moment the light turned green,
everyone moved forward at the same time.
In only a few seconds,
the young man disappeared into the crowd.
Lucian immediately changed direction.
He quickly crossed the crosswalk
and arrived at the position where the young man had just been.
Ahead was a straight road.
There were no alleys on either side.
Within the visible range,
there was only the constantly moving crowd.
Yet the young man was already gone.
Lucian stopped.
He slowly scanned his surroundings.
There were no running footsteps.
No sound of a door closing.
No vehicle suddenly starting.
No unusual movement of any kind.
It was as though the man from moments ago
had simply been an ordinary passerby on the street
who had naturally disappeared into the flow of people.
But Lucian knew very well.
Things could not possibly be that simple.
He did not continue searching.
Instead, he stood silently where he was.
He replayed every detail of the pursuit in his mind.
The young man had left behind no recognizable pattern.
His route had no fixed direction.
Along the way, he had repeatedly used complicated surroundings to change his pace.
The commercial center.
The crowds.
The intersection.
Every location
had been enough to break the line of sight of anyone following him.
None of this could have been improvised.
It was a habit formed through countless repetitions of training.
A moment later,
Lucian slowly exhaled.
His expression remained calm.
But his judgment had become even clearer than it had been yesterday.
These people
were not ordinary observers.
They had a complete set of operating procedures.
They knew how to conceal themselves.
They also knew how to shake off anyone following them.
More importantly,
it seemed that from the very beginning,
they had already accounted for the possibility of being followed themselves.
Lucian took one last look at the quiet street.
He did not remain there any longer.
He turned and left.
The winter wind blew through the street again,
lifting fine snow from the ground.
The entire Northveil continued operating as usual.
As if nothing had happened.
Yet on the other side of the street,
behind a piece of reflective glass,
a pair of eyes quietly watched Lucian's departing figure.
Only after his silhouette had completely disappeared into the crowd
did that gaze slowly withdraw.
There were no words.
No movement.
As though it had never been there at all.