"Should we go look for him now?" After hearing everything, Rorschach realized the severity of the situation. Something must have happened.

They first returned to the nearby Alchemy Department to investigate, but Snow told them Andre wasn’t in today.

Snow shook his head. "I was about to ask you."

"Is there any way to locate Andre? This is the Alchemy Department, after all. Maybe we can find him directly?"

"Unfortunately, if he had taken any documents or items from the Alchemy Department home, we could definitely lock onto him. But your good student has high morals and clean hands."

After coming up empty, Rorschach decided to go to Andre’s home.

Pascal, who managed the night school, had the students’ addresses. He had already looked for it once and could lead the way. "Let’s borrow horses. It’ll be faster." Compared to a carriage, the advantage of riding a horse was that there was no speed limit, though of course, there was the risk of being hassled by the Security Team.

Night had fallen, and the two rode through the darkness. A sphere of light floated ahead of them, and the passing pedestrians and carriages, realizing the two were Casters, consciously made way.

Pascal led Rorschach across most of the city to Andre’s new home. His father had once had a respectable job; although illiterate, he had worked steadily as a printer for a small tabloid.

After the "News Truth Act" was passed, the tabloids, which were accustomed to sensationalist fabrications to grab attention, became much more restrained. This also meant a sharp drop in sales, and Andre’s father was, unsurprisingly, laid off.

With the family’s income reduced, they had moved into a house near the East Suburb, where both the living conditions and public safety were much worse. When Rorschach arrived, he ran into two members of the Security Team at the door.

"My son went missing the night before last. He said he was going to school and then never came back..." The haggard woman must be Andre’s mother. She was now pinning her hopes on the Security Team to help find him.

"At night? A night school?" The Security Team members, who had originally just planned to give a perfunctory response, exchanged a look, latching onto the keywords. "Ma’am, you must tell us exactly which night school. Are there other young people involved?"

Andre’s mother hadn’t yet realized why the Security Team members were so interested in a school that operated at night. "I don’t know... He just said it was next to a textile factory..."

"Alright, a textile factory... You haven’t heard your son talk about anything else related? Think again. The more details you give, the better we can help him return to your side."

"Ma’am, please ask these gentlemen from the Security Team to leave." Rorschach cut into the conversation, preventing the woman from revealing any more.

"And who are you?" Hearing a young voice interrupt their questioning, the Security Team members thought an easy score had just fallen into their laps. ’Perhaps he’s a friend of that unstable element, an accomplice, or just some punk. In any case, we’ll just take him in and sort it out later...’

However, both he and the person behind him were wearing Mage Robes, with a brilliant sphere of light floating beside them. They might as well have had "Caster" written on their faces.

"Gentlemen, we are Mages from the Tower of Stars. Since the missing person is my own assistant, please allow us to handle this case ourselves."

"An assistant from the Magic Tower would live here?" The Sheriff was skeptical, but since the esteemed Mage had spoken, they were already planning to withdraw. Besides, they had never intended to actually look for that young man named Andrew.

This was territory bordering the East Suburb! In Valuva, especially outside the high-end residential areas, no one knew how many people disappeared or died each day, just as no one knew how many were born here crying or entered the city dreaming of a better life.

"He won’t be living here for long." Rorschach and Pascal entered the house and unceremoniously shut the dilapidated door. The two Sheriffs stood outside, shrugged, and left.

"Ma’am, forgive my bluntness, but I suggest your family move to a better place. I believe Andre’s salary should be able to support a better living environment. If rent is an issue, I can give him a raise."

It was an old apartment building, predominantly of wooden construction. No consideration had been given to lighting, and the stuffy hallways were filled with the stench of mold and sweat. The floorboards creaked under their feet, and their attire attracted wary, xenophobic gazes from the cracks of other doors.

"Generous lord, you are right, but Andre is missing now..."

"And that is precisely why we are here."

"Yes, it’s... darling, it’s me..." The woman knocked on a door. A scruffy, bearded man opened it. He stared at Rorschach and Pascal for a moment, stunned, before opening the door all the way.

"You didn’t say..."

"The two esteemed Mages came in person to help us find Andre." Rorschach and Pascal entered the small dining-room-cum-living-room. A large wooden basin filled with clothes being washed sat inside.

The lighting inside the house, provided by candles and oil lamps, was extremely dim. The magical glow that followed them in illuminated every squalid detail: unwashed plates, leftover bean soup, and a trail of dirty little handprints on the wall.

"Mama!" "Mama!" Two small children ran for a hug, then noticed the sphere of light. They wanted to touch it out of curiosity but hesitated, not daring to move forward upon seeing the two strangers.

"Go on, go." Andre’s father shooed the children into a small room, shutting himself in with them.

"I’m sorry, our family are believers in the Lord. Andre and the children’s father had a huge fight recently..." The father could never understand how his own son, who went to a Church school, could end up in the Mages’ territory. Despite the large salary his son brought home, the stubborn "head of the household" still insisted that Andre "return to the righteous path."

’Run away from home? But he had no reason not to come to the Alchemy Department.’ Rorschach had Pascal continue questioning the mother, but aside from the tense father-son relationship, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

Andre had always hoped to move back to a wealthier neighborhood with better security; he didn’t even dare let his younger siblings attend the Church school here.

His mother had to work as a cleaner by the hour for others, and his father now did odd manual labor jobs. With Andre working and studying part-time, he had no time to escort his younger siblings and thus couldn’t guarantee their safety.

"I never thought he’d be the one to disappear. Andre is such a good boy..." The woman’s words flowed like water from an open floodgate, and her eyes grew moist. Pascal offered some comforting words, but Rorschach remained silent.

’This is just wasting time.’ The anxious mother wasn’t revealing much useful information.

"Could you give me a few pieces of Andre’s worn clothing or things he uses daily?"

"Of course." In this home, Andre had a small wooden desk. Its shelf and surface were cluttered with messy scratch paper and a few textbooks, and his odds and ends were in the drawer.

Rorschach took a shirt and a charcoal pencil Andre had used. The pencil was already very short, but its owner had been reluctant to throw it away. The two then took their leave of Andre’s residence.

"Back to the Tower of Stars."

"You have a way? The Investigation Skill?" Pascal asked. "That’s a Fifth Ring Prophetic Magic. The casting difficulty for the Prophetic System has always been high. Very few in the Tower of Stars have mastered it. Perhaps only a Great Mage could guarantee a successful casting."

"I can’t cast it myself, but I thought of a similar method." Rorschach was a little annoyed. ’Everything happened so suddenly. In my rush to go find Andre with my senior brother, I forgot a method that was very likely to work.’

After returning to the Tower of Stars, Rorschach had Pascal go to the cafeteria to get some food first, while he went to his own dorm and took out the small wooden box containing Balan’s Pearl.

"I need to find someone. Can you help?" Rorschach asked the pearl. ’Balan was known as the Prophet, and Quilimo held the divine portfolio of commerce and the protection of travelers. This glass marble should be able to find Andre.’