After Tristan and I split up, I immediately began to track the six-horse carriage the crown prince had entered. From where we split up, the tracks led directly to the wall. The carriage seemed to have gone all the way out of the capital. Summer had passed, and it was now something that could be called late autumn, so the sun had nearly set already. The cities of the empire were closed to entry at night, unless circumstances were extreme. However, unlike other cities where access was blocked when the sun went down, the capital allowed entry through inspection until midnight to accommodate the many trades and distributions. The gate would still be open, so it was okay to just pass through, but if I was discovered to have passed the gate despite being the last person to have been with the crown prince, things could become troublesome. Therefore, I tried to pass through the gate with a perception-disrupting magic so that I wouldn’t be recognized, but a noisy voice from the gate disrupted me. People who appeared to be knights were shouting something at the soldiers, pushing what looked like identification cards towards them.

"We're closing all gates...