Five Broken Blades

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses suicidal ideation, rape, and enslavement. Scenes of sexual assault and graphic violence are also discussed.

Royo collects his payment from a merchant who recently hired him as a strongman. When he goes to the Butcher and Ale for a pint, the barman, Yuri, tells him that a pretty girl was looking for him by name and wants him to meet her at the Black Shoe Inn—the most expensive inn in town. Royo is wary of the girl and heads home early, but he suddenly notices a flash of red in the crowd. Seeing no one wearing the color, he continues onward, distracted by the memory of a girl he killed.

Prince Euyn walks through Outton’s market, feeling paranoid and hunted. He returns to his heavily booby-trapped room at the inn to find a red letter addressed to him as Prince Euyn, not as Donal, the name he gave himself in exile. Because everyone believes him to be dead, he does not know who could have sent the letter. He feels conflicted about meeting the sender at the rendezvous point but goes anyway. When he meets the sender in the stables, he thinks that he must be about to die.