The Insane Regressor: Throne of Pride

He hadn’t needed any complicated plan to shake them off.

From the moment he left the tavern, he had been able to pinpoint their positions through the sound of their footsteps and the reflections of their figures in the shop windows. When he reached the alley, he maintained the exact same walking pace until he slipped out of their sight, then pushed off the ground with both feet and leapt toward the drainpipe.

He caught it with one hand, used one of the stone ledges to propel himself upward, and reached the rooftop within seconds.

He hadn’t used soul energy. He hadn’t needed it in the first place.

After being rebuilt, his body was far stronger than a Tenth-Rank Awakened’s had any right to be, while Void Shadow concealed his presence entirely from the two men’s senses.

Once he sat motionless atop the roof, there was nothing left for them to detect.

’But Robert will figure it out.’

Ravian didn’t believe the two men would discover what he had done, but the veteran detective wouldn’t need long to deduce that Ravian had gone upward rather than continuing through the alley.

That was why he didn’t move immediately.

He waited until the two guards were far away, then rose and headed toward the other side of the roof.

’He’ll analyze what happened, then send them back to search—or send someone better.’

He had only a few minutes before remaining in the area became an unnecessary risk.

He leapt to the neighboring building’s roof, then crossed to a third, moving away from the street onto which the tavern opened. His movements weren’t perfect yet, but with every jump, he was beginning to understand the limits of his new body more clearly.

He no longer needed to judge whether his legs could withstand the force of a landing.

The real problem was controlling how much force he used so that he wouldn’t smash through the roof beneath him.

’It would be embarrassing to shake off surveillance only to fall through someone’s ceiling and into their room.’

He slowed when he reached a low rooftop covered with hanging laundry.

His eyes stopped on a long piece of dark cloth.

Then he looked at his white hair, which flowed down behind him and made him recognizable from a great distance.

He took the cloth and wrapped it around his hair and neck, then placed a small coin—one of the few he had taken from Emy’s leather bag earlier—on the ledge of the nearby window.

’I’m buying it, not stealing it.’

He paused for a moment and glanced toward the closed window.

’Even if the owner doesn’t know they sold it.’

’Necessity makes the forbidden permissible.’

He continued moving across the rooftops until he was several streets away, then dropped into one of the back alleys.

He could no longer sense anyone following him.

But that didn’t mean he was safe.

Robert knew the name he was using, his appearance, and his supposed connection to Shmichael. He also knew that Ravian hadn’t booked any lodgings yet. It was only natural that he would order his men to search the nearby hotels and inns.

Therefore, Ravian couldn’t simply walk into the first hotel he saw and register under the name Rayan Veyr.

He moved through the side alleys, putting distance between himself and the central district, until the luxurious buildings gradually thinned out and were replaced by smaller houses and shops.

The capital was still cleaner and more organized than the City of Light, but the difference between its districts was obvious. Here, the lamps grew fewer, the streets narrowed, and cheap inns began to appear—the kind intended for laborers and travelers whose names no one cared to learn.

Ravian chose a small, two-story inn with a faded wooden sign hanging above its door, upon which a sleeping bear had been painted.

He entered.

Behind the reception desk sat a heavyset, middle-aged woman with gray hair, calmly peeling an apple with a small knife.

She raised her eyes toward him.

”A room?”

”A room.”

”One night?”

”Yup.”

”Payment in advance.” She held out her hand without pausing in her peeling.

Ravian placed a silver coin on the desk.

The woman looked at the money, then at the cloth concealing his hair and most of his face.

”Name?” She asked.

He placed another silver coin on top of the first.

The two coins vanished into the woman’s hand. She then pulled a key from a drawer beneath the desk and set it before him.

”Second room on the right, upstairs.”

Ravian took the key and stepped away before turning back toward her.

”Aren’t you going to record my name?”

The woman looked at him for a few moments before returning her attention to the apple.

”Do you want me to record it?”

”No.”

”Then go upstairs.”

A faint smile appeared on Ravian’s face.

’Money really is the best solution to problems, man.’

He climbed to the second floor, turned right, and entered the second room.

It was small and contained nothing more than a narrow bed, a wooden table, a chair, and a washbasin. The window had been shuttered with two wooden boards, with a narrow gap left between them to let in air—and a few rays of sunlight once morning came.

The place was neither comfortable nor attractive, but it was quiet, and no one had asked about his identity.

Ravian closed the door, then remained standing for a while as he activated Absolute Focus across all his senses, particularly his hearing, and quietly listened to his surroundings.

It couldn’t pierce through walls and wasn’t particularly useful on its own, but when he combined Absolute Focus with his new body’s enhanced senses, he could hear footsteps outside—and that was enough for now.

No one had followed him.

He removed the cloth from his hair and set it on the table, then sat on the edge of the bed.

’System.’

The white window with its red veins and dark shadows appeared before him.

[I am listening, Host.]

’Does Void Shadow conceal the physical traces I leave behind?’

[Yes and no.]

[Void Shadow conceals the Host’s soul energy, life force, and presence from ordinary means of detection. It also erases minor traces such as fallen hair, sweat, shed skin, and ordinary footprints. However, it does not remove or restore physical changes to the environment caused by the Host’s movements.]

[In other words, if the Host destroys a rock while running, Void Shadow will neither erase nor reconstruct it. The rock will remain destroyed, although no dust from it will remain on the Host’s feet.]

Ravian nodded slowly.

That matched exactly what he had expected.

The two guards had found no trace of him inside the alley because he had never run across its floor in the first place. The moment he turned into it, he leapt toward the wall and climbed to the rooftop, leaving only a few small scratches on the drainpipe and stone ledge.

Robert would find them if he sent the two men back to search.

’So he’ll know how I escaped.’

[That is probable.]

’Since when do you answer things like that?’

[The Host’s question contained a deduction rather than a request for confirmed information.]

”...”

’You’ve become annoying lately.’

The window didn’t respond.

Ravian lay back on the bed and placed one arm behind his head.

Void Shadow had successfully concealed him from Antonius before, and now from two Tenth-Rank Awakened even while they searched for him directly. Moreover, the doctors had found no clear trace of how the bald man had died.

That meant both functions of the ability were working even better than he had expected.

But Robert had also proven something important to him.

Hiding the evidence didn’t mean hiding the suspicion.

The detective had found no wound, poison, or trace of soul energy, yet he had still singled Ravian out based solely on his words and behavior.

’A perfect crime can collapse because of an imperfect reaction.’

Ravian closed his eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again.

Tomorrow, he had to go to Earl Patrick Viola’s mansion.

It was no longer merely a visit he could postpone whenever he wished. He had told Robert he would appear there, and if he didn’t, the current suspicions would turn into a genuine manhunt.

But that wasn’t entirely a bad thing.

Shmichael had promised him the heart of an Eighth-Rank creature as an initial payment, and Ravian needed that heart more than he needed to avoid the detective.

As for Robert...

He would find a way to deal with him later.

The System window vanished, and darkness settled over the room once more.

’Let them search every hotel in the capital for Rayan Veyr.’

A faint smile traced Ravian’s lips as he closed his eyes.

’They won’t find him here.’

But would the records at the capital’s gates tell a different story?