Beyond the North

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— "Mr. Skokovich and Miss Olde, we have an offer for you."

Young Rejto tried to listen to their conversation, but was unsuccessful. However, for a few seconds, he could sense a reaction of surprise, mixed with concern from his parents.

"When I realized it, my parents were being recruited by the train, which also made me suspicious was the fact that all my mother's research had been confiscated. But moving on... I soon had to live with my aunt. At that time, my parents still kept in touch a lot; it was through them that I received my first computer, and from then on, I started to have a lot of contact with technology. But suddenly, at the age of 15, my parents stopped making any kind of contact. I tried to do something, but since then, I haven't heard anything..."

[Returning to the present]

— "Tel, Cynna... follow me, there's something else..."

His friends found his attitude strange, but seeing that he finally decided to reveal what he was hiding, it left them excited. They then walked to a somewhat isolated place within an alley, the Asian looked around and didn't notice any guards, so he took the paper from his sweater and showed it to his friends.

— "Here, this is it."

The albino and the brown-haired girl looked at each other, then at the letter, and analyzed it thoroughly, as if teasing Rejto.

— "I'm serious, look here!"

They took the letter and quickly glanced at it, immediately showing surprise, each in their own way.

— "It was Kazöt who left this for me... honestly, after this wave of executions happening, I was afraid of how you would react to this..."

— "And how did he manage to get this?" Cynna asked, appearing concerned.

— "Uh, I don't know, he just gave me the letter and didn't say anything else."

— "This looks like Aleksandr's post..." Tel said.

Rejto then showed surprise, his face instinctively giving a slight smile, but it was enough to be noticed.

— "You know, Rejto," Cynna began; "We don't judge you for acting like this. In this place, it's hard to trust anyone."

— "Well, still, thanks for at least trusting us," Tel concluded.

— "Okay... you're welcome," he played with his hair, visibly flattered by the compliment.

— "But have you found out anything yet?" The albino interrupted.

Rejto then looked around again, and again, saw no one.

— "No, apparently there's absolutely nothing, at least not on the normal internet."

— "Could it be just a lost language or something like that...? No, it wouldn't make sense for them to hide something like that," the conflicted white-haired one said, crossing his arms.

— "I think one of my father's relatives also tried to research something about it, but when he was found out, he was actually just taken by the train," the girl commented.

— "!?" Rejto immediately seemed to remember the same thing that happened to his parents; "Wait... did they say something to him?"

— "Well, according to my father, they said something about an 'offer' to him."

The young Asian again put his hand on his chin and thought, for some reason, none of it made sense, but at the same time, it did; he tried to think of possibilities but seemed unable to come up with anything.