Chapter 375: What Happened to the Belfry

Rangar stopped interrupting after the third piece of evidence.

At first, he questioned almost everything. The dark market request, the wording of ancestral right, and why anyone would specifically demand one living Sairren route-keeper instead of simply trying to seize whatever valuables existed inside the Belfry.

Rias answered each question with only the evidence they actually had.

When Rangar asked who had posted the request, she told him the buyer’s identity was protected. When he asked whether Just Die was responsible, her answer remained just as careful.

"No visible Just Die markers appeared during the assault. That does not prove they were uninvolved."

Rangar looked toward Martin. "She always talks like that?"

"Yes."

Rias ignored both of them.

Martin continued with the breach. The mercenary crews had entered carrying capture equipment, portable barriers, and copied route-song devices. They had not charged blindly into the city. They had tested the Sairren’s protections and adapted to every response.

Rangar’s expression darkened when Martin explained the capture seals.

"They marked route-keepers?"

"Yes."

"And Kumoe?"

Alexandra answered. "More than once."

Kumoe’s right head growled quietly.

Rangar looked toward her. "What did the seals actually identify?"

Rias changed the evidence display. "Intelligent bonded targets and route authority were both recognized as valuable. We do not know whether the same seal configuration handled both classifications or whether the devices were adjusted between uses."

"So you don’t know exactly what information the attackers had beforehand."

"No."

"But they knew enough to arrive carrying the tools."

"Yes."

Rangar leaned back. "That is already bad."

"We’re not at the bad part yet," Martin said.

Rangar stared at him.

Martin immediately regretted the wording. "I mean it gets worse."

"That was somehow not reassuring."

Mireva took over before Martin could make it worse again.

She explained the western relay and the copied route-song that split the monster hunger trail. She described the lower network, the old gates, and how the attackers used the Sairren’s own systems to expose roads they should not have known how to reach.

The route-keeper stepped closer when she reached the central junction.

"They broke the shared resonance point beneath the residential district. Once it failed, our concealment pattern collapsed across active spawn zones."

Rangar looked toward him. "Meaning?"

"Our bells do not command Dark Force monsters."

The route-keeper’s tone sharpened slightly.

"They hide us and create a stronger prey trail elsewhere. When the network failed, the monsters stopped receiving that false priority."

"They attacked everyone."

"Yes."

"Your people too."

"Yes."

Rangar looked toward Mireva. "And you evacuated."

"We tried."

The single word carried enough weight that nobody asked whether every part of the evacuation had gone cleanly.

Martin explained the false safe routes next. The east service bridge had presented the wrong physical marker. A copied shelter call later lured six Sairren into a dead-end chamber where Dark Force monsters reached them first.

Rangar’s jaw tightened. "You recovered them?"

"Yes."

"All of them?"

"All six from that shelter."

Rangar nodded once, then returned to the request that had started the entire crisis.

"Why a route-keeper?"

Mireva looked toward Rias.

Rias answered carefully. "We know the market request specifically demanded one living Sairren route-keeper. We know the capture equipment could identify route authority."

"But why keep one alive?"

"We do not know."

"Access?"

"Possible."

"Knowledge of the network?"

"Possible."

"The ability to activate something?"

"Also possible."

Rias closed the evidence window before he could build another theory.

"Those are possibilities. They are not evidence."

Rangar stared at her. "Annoying."

"Yes," Martin said.

"I was talking to her."

"So was I."

Rias ignored them.

Mireva stepped closer to the table. "A route-keeper knows things about our roads that ordinary Sairren do not. That alone is enough reason for us to treat the request as dangerous."

The route-keeper nodded. "But I will not help you guess what the buyer wants."

Rangar looked toward him. "I wasn’t asking you to."

"Good."

That answer seemed to surprise Rangar before he nodded. "Fair."

Rias brought up the next evidence point: the child-route call.

Rangar looked toward Mireva. "That sounds exactly like what I think it is."

"Children learn it young," Mireva said. "It belongs to the route system. It is meant to be recognized outside the home."

"Could someone hear it publicly?"

"Yes."

"So copying it is disturbing, but possible."

Mireva’s wings tightened. "Yes."

Rias moved to the final record, the private domestic gathering pattern.

Rangar stared at the label. "What is that?"

Mireva answered much more slowly. "A signal used inside homes, family shelters, or other private places when young Sairren need to gather around an adult without broadcasting their location through public routes."

Rangar looked directly at her. "That should never have been available through your public network."

"No."

"Could someone have heard it simply by watching the Belfry from outside?"

"No."

"A merchant passing through?"

"No."

"A visiting hunter?"

"We do not have visiting hunters."

Rangar’s expression hardened. "So someone obtained it."

"Yes."

That was when he stopped interrupting.

Martin let the silence remain rather than filling it. There was nothing useful in softening what the evidence already said.

The elderly Sairren woman eventually spoke. "They used it during the second assault."

Rangar looked toward her. "Against children?"

"To make them move."

Kumoe’s curious head growled this time. Alexandra rested a hand against her neck while Rangar looked down at the evidence display.

"And that was when you shut the network down."

Mireva nodded. "All upper resonance."

"Even your concealment?"

"Yes."

"Even knowing Dark Force monsters would stop following the false prey trail?"

"Yes."

Rangar looked toward Rias.

She confirmed it. "The shutdown made the battlefield more dangerous immediately. It also stopped the attackers from using network responses to learn additional routes."

Rangar exhaled slowly. "So the Belfry still exists."

"Yes," Mireva said.

"But you cannot safely use the lower homes."

"Yes."

"And for now, you do not trust your bells."

Mireva’s expression tightened slightly.

"For now."

Rangar noticed and corrected himself. "For now."

That distinction mattered more than it first sounded. The Belfry was damaged and compromised, but the Sairren had not surrendered ownership of their home simply because they could not currently use every part of it.

Rangar looked over the evidence again. "What happened to the attackers?"

"They withdrew," Martin said.

"You let them?"

"Yes."

Martin explained before the question turned into criticism. "Every defense was teaching them something. Once the network went silent, they stopped getting new information. Chasing them into the lower roads would have risked more people and exposed more of how the Sairren fight."

Mireva nodded. "I ordered my wardens to hold."

Rangar accepted that.

"You think they’ll return?"

"Yes," Mireva said.

Rias answered at almost the same time. "Probably."

Rangar looked between them.

Mireva’s ears shifted. "She is more cautious with words."

"She is more annoying with words."

"I heard that," Rias said.

"You were supposed to."

Martin smiled, but Rangar did not.

"If they return, what stops the same thing happening again?"

"The upper network remains silent," Mireva said. "We use physical verification and inspect the lower approaches instead of trusting the old routes."

"And longer term?"

Mireva did not pretend to have an answer.

"That is part of why we are here."

For the first time since the explanation began, Rangar stopped looking at the evidence.

He looked at the Sairren instead.