"Suspicious? I wonder." Kulana frowned in consideration, deciding to entrust the matter to Yuri. "Now that he's here, I should be able to access his file. Maybe there's something I don't know." And she doubted Jaeha would even know about the file's existence to take the appropriate measures to lock it down.

Meanwhile, once Jaeha had managed to make his way toward the gates, he ducked into a nearby alley to pause. The guards at the entrance barely glanced his way. He was sure one of them had even nodded as if to greet him, with neither moving to block his flight or raise their spears.

None of this made sense to him.

He dropped to one knee, shooting a quick glance at either end of the alley to see if he was being watched, then started to tug his trouser leg out of his boot...

And stopped, head still bent, hands stilled. He restuffed the trouser leg and stood to his feet. He hadn't been able to check, and he wasn't about to while there was a witness around, and he was well aware now that he had a tail. "It's been a while since someone took the effort to chase me down," he announced with a lazy smile. "Is your admiration really that great?"

Of course it wasn't, but he wanted to know just what sort of person he was going to be dealing with.