The rookies gathered and set out to make their very first trade as Entrants as today, was the sixth day after the Day of the Red Zenith.

The caravan was loud in the way only a group of tired teenagers could be loud.

After six days in the Badlands, the rookies had seen enough monsters, enough close calls, and enough of each other to last a lifetime. But somehow, crammed into the same wooden caravan with wheels that groaned every time they hit a bump, they still had energy to burn.

Some were arguing over who had gotten the best drop. Others were counting their items quietly, trying to look casual about it. A few were asleep against the walls, heads rolling with every jolt of the road.

Master Norman sat near the front, arms folded, watching all of them with the calm expression of a man who had done this a hundred times and was fully prepared to do it a hundred more.

Six days in the Badlands meant almost six days of hunting for some. That meant everyone had something. Even the weakest rookie in the group had at least scraped together a few monster drops worth selling.

Tomorrow was Privilege Day, and nobody wanted to walk into that with empty pockets. The market would be open today, and Master Norman had gathered them all that morning with a simple announcement.

"We are going to Citadel City. Sell what you want to sell. Keep what you want to keep. Be ready for tomorrow."

That was all he said, and the caravan left Blood Trial Outpost twenty minutes later.

Roman was at the back.

He had chosen the spot because it was less crowded, and Rena had followed without being asked. They sat side by side, backs against the wooden wall, watching the rest of the group from a quiet distance.

Arnold and his boys were somewhere in the middle of the caravan, loud as usual but keeping to themselves. They had not had a single real clash with Roman’s side since the other day, and Roman was fairly sure that was entirely because of Master Norman’s hand in things. The man had a way of making coordination feel natural, like conflict simply had no room to grow.

Roman didn’t mind. He had enough on his mind already.

He looked at Rena for a moment, watching her stare at the passing trees through the small gap in the caravan’s side. She looked relaxed. Unbothered, but he had been wanting to ask her something for a few days now.

"Hey," he said.

She glanced at him. "What?"

"That day. When the Head called you over." He kept his voice low, easy. "What was that about?"

Rena blinked once. Then she shrugged, turning back to the trees.

"He just wanted to talk about being careful in the valley. Since we were planning to hunt that night, he wanted to make sure I wasn’t being reckless about it." She paused and sighed. "I think it’s because I’m a First Class. People like that tend to pay extra attention to you whether you want them to or not." She made a face, subtle but visible.

"I don’t really like it."

Roman nodded slowly. That made sense. It also matched what little he knew about how the Head operated. First Class rookies carried weight, and people with authority noticed weight.

"Fair enough," he nodded and said.

Rena turned to look at him. "What about you? He called you over too."

"Rankings," Roman said simply. "He said I was doing well. Told me to keep pushing." He leaned his head back against the wall. "The kind of thing someone says when they want to see if you slow down after a compliment."

Rena smiled a little at that. "And will you?"

"Slow down?"

"Yeah."

Roman thought about it for exactly one second and then shook his head effortlessly.

"Nah..."

She nodded like that was the only answer she had expected. They both went quiet after that, not the uncomfortable kind of quiet but the kind that settled between two people who had spent enough time near each other that silence no longer needed to be filled.

The caravan rolled on towards the distance.

And soon... After many hours...

Roman noticed it before anyone announced it.

The trees began to thin. The road widened. The ground on either side flattened out and the horizon opened up, and then it was just there, sitting in the distance like it had always been waiting for them to arrive.

Citadel City.

Roman hadn’t gotten to see it before, but he knew it was surely it.

He had heard the name plenty of times. Had seen it on maps, heard other people describe it, had imagined it in whatever way his mind thought "large city" should look. But imagination had not been enough...

The city stretched wide and far, buildings packed together in a dense, organized sprawl, with roads cutting through it like veins. Walls surrounded the outer edge, tall and solid, built the way things were built when the people building them were serious. Banners hung from watchtowers. People moved along the roads leading into the gates, merchants and hunters and travelers all blending together in the distance.

And in the center of it all, rising above everything else like it had been placed there by someone who wanted the point to be unmistakable, was the fortress.

It was massive, the exact kind of structure that did not just occupy space but commanded it. Stone walls that looked like they had been standing for centuries, towers that caught the light in the late afternoon and threw it back in every direction. Roman stared at it for a long moment...

And unknowingly, Rena was staring too.

The caravan slowed after a while, and Master Norman rose from his seat near the front, steadying himself with one hand as the wheels hit a rough patch of road. He turned to face all of them, scanning the group once from left to right, and then looked ahead at the city beyond the opening gap in the caravan’s side panels.

His voice came out the way it always did. Calm, even, and carrying just enough weight to make everyone pay attention without him having to raise it.

"We have arrived at the great Citadel City."

Nobody spoke for a second, and just stared around, observing from the small openings.

"Finally!" Then someone said from nowhere, in a tone that was three parts relief and one part awe, and the caravan broke into noise again, everyone leaning forward, craning their necks, trying to get a better look.

Roman didn’t lean forward.

He just kept looking through the gap, watching the fortress in the distance as not just getting to sell his items were on his mind, but also... He was really looking forward to the next day.

Privilege Day.

He couldn’t wait to get home...

He couldn’t wait to meet his family again.

******

A caravan moved at a steady pace along the wide road that cut through the outer edges of the Frontier, its wheels humming against the smooth stone surface that the major routes were known for.

Inside, three figures sat across from each other in the cushioned compartment, the kind of caravan that only people with serious money or serious authority travelled in.

Two men and a woman.

The older of the two men, Crest, was broad shouldered and unhurried in everything he did, including the way he spoke. He had a thick scar running from his left jaw to his collarbone that he had never once explained to anyone, and he carried himself with the specific calm of someone who had done difficult things many times and expected to do them again.

Across from him sat the younger man, Dax, who was leaner and considerably less patient. He had been tapping his knee with two fingers since they left the last checkpoint, a habit that Crest had already told him twice to stop.

Between them sat the woman, Sera Vane, who was by a considerable distance the most dangerous person in the compartment and also the quietest. She had her arms folded and her eyes on the window, watching the passing terrain with the focused attention of someone who was always working even when they appeared to be doing nothing.

All three of them worked directly under Emperor Jonah Ironcrown of the Steel Empire.

And all three of them had one assignment.

"He sent over a hundred of us," Dax said, breaking a silence that had lasted the better part of an hour. "Hundred! For one girl."

"She is not just one girl," Crest said without looking up from the document in his hands. "She is the Emperor’s only daughter, the heir to the Steel Empire, and she has been missing for many days. Hundred is actually a modest number considering how he reacted when the first search came back empty."

"I heard he sent fifty the first time," Dax said.

"Fifty-eight," Sera said from the window, still not turning her head. "And none of them came back with anything useful."

Dax was quiet for a moment.

"Fifty-eight A rankers and not one of them found a trace of her?"

"She planned this carefully," Sera said. "She did not simply run. She dismantled every trail she left behind before she left it. Whoever taught her to do that did an excellent job."

"The Emperor taught her himself," Crest said, setting his document down. "Which is precisely why he is so frustrated. He trained her to be exceptional and she used everything he gave her to disappear from him."

Dax shook his head slowly. "So what makes him think we are going to do any better than the first group?"

"Because we are not looking for someone who does not want to be found," Sera said, finally turning from the window. "We are looking for someone who, based on the latest BSP activity we pulled, has been hunting in the Frontier. Actively. Consistently. And performing well enough to appear in public rankings."

"She is not hiding anymore," Crest said. "She is living. And that means she is leaving a trail whether she intends to or not."

The caravan rolled on for another few minutes in silence.

"The Emperor wants her back by any means necessary," Dax said eventually, his voice carrying less of its earlier lightness. "What does that mean exactly? What are we authorised to do if she refuses?"

Neither Crest nor Sera answered that immediately.

Crest looked at the document in his hands again.

Sera looked back out the window.

"It means we bring her back," Sera said finally. "The method is at our discretion."

Dax nodded slowly and said nothing more.

The caravan began to slow as the road curved upward and the terrain opened into a wider view, and through the window the horizon changed.

What came into sight was massive. A sprawling city sitting behind walls that were built to make a statement rather than simply provide defense, towers rising at measured intervals, the outer market district already visible from a distance as a dense cluster of movement and colour.

"That is Citadel City," Crest said, leaning slightly toward the window.

"Trade Day in the Reach," Sera said, her eyes moving across the distant walls with practiced assessment. "Every rookie community in this region sends their new Entrants to the market on Trade Day. The outposts and refuges from across different parts of the Frontier will have people here today."

"Which means if she is stationed anywhere in the Frontier," Dax said, sitting forward, "she could be in that market right now."

Sera was already nodding before he even finished talking.

"Then we do not waste time," she said.

The caravan rolled through the outer gate of Citadel City and was immediately absorbed into the organised noise of Trade Day, vendors and buyers and Entrants moving in every direction, the kind of crowd that was very good for hiding in and equally good for finding people who thought they were hidden.

Crest straightened his jacket and stood as the caravan came to a stop. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"We split up," he said. "Cover the market from three points. If she is here, we will know within the hour."