Max throws the broken glass into the trash, and while Gwenda is about to speak with him, Max stands up and immediately asks her to open the shop so that customers can come in.
Gwenda tenses up a little and listens to his words, then flips the Closed sign to Open and returns to stand beside Max again.
Max smiles and then says:
"I will wipe the tables, and all you have to do is bring the coffee and the food, nothing more, agreed?"
Gwenda's cheeks turn a little red, then she says:
"Agreed"
Many customers come to the coffee shop, and Max begins wiping the tables with great enthusiasm while a beautiful smile appears on his face, suggesting joy and delight.
Gwenda drifts into thought, looking at Max, and says to herself:
"[He is extremely handsome and attractive with his morals too, I wonder, will my brother Azek like him?]"
Gwenda whispers and says:
"He is the quiet type, but I do not think he will have any problem with Max"
Max continues cleaning while Gwenda prepares foods and drinks of various kinds.
The hour arrives and it becomes 12 noon, so Gwenda prepares to close the shop, looking at Max and saying:
"We are done now, what do you think about closing now?"
Max sighs while sweating, so Gwenda brings him a towel so he can wipe his face with it.
Max thanks her, then speaks and says:
"Alright, no problem, let us close today"
Gwenda goes to bring Max's share of the money for today, and Max notices that and stops her, saying:
"I will not take my share now at all, my share will be at the end of the month with you, divide it into two halves at the end of the month only, and then we will see the rest, as for now excuse me for leaving, and it was a pleasure working with you"
Max puts the towel back in its place and makes sure the place is clean, then speaks and says:
"Tomorrow I will not be able to come here at night either, so I hope you will excuse me, alright?"
Gwenda smiles and says:
"No problem at all, take your time, I will wait for you, I know you have other work"
Max smiles, shakes hands with Gwenda, and decides to leave, so Gwenda notices that he has not eaten for hours and asks him to wait.
Gwenda brings a large piece of chocolate cake and asks him to take it with him, and she gets a little nervous and makes sure that it is within his daily share, so there is no problem with taking it.
Max smiles and takes it and leaves in silence.
Gwenda is amazed by Max and her admiration for him grows more and more.
And in the expanse of the Sea of Chaos full of storms and lightning, that enormous sea, a ship loaded with goods sails toward the Middle Continent, while the ship's captain stands at its top watching the situation in that raging sea and shouting, saying:
"Lighten the ship's load immediately and throw some of the goods into the water now"
The crew obeys the captain's words.
The captain looks through a telescope at that Awakened of the Essence pathway, sequence 5, the Artisan, to determine his location in the sea and is shocked, as he sees a city whose land and rocks are black, surrounded by huge walls, encircled by curses from every direction and despair and meaninglessness and rage at the Almighty God who abandoned that land, while in the city's sky there is not even a single star.!
The captain is shocked and shouts, saying:
"This is not the right path, move the ship now"
And suddenly, out of nowhere, a huge wave appears higher than mountains and destroys the ship with everything in it in the open sea, and the wreckage scatters toward that deserted city of the gods.
Max clutches his chest as he feels a strange pain while heading toward his room in the Star Hotel.
After several minutes Max arrives, opens the room, enters, then removes his upper clothes completely and places the handbag aside, the one containing the invitation paper, and throws himself on the bed looking at the ceiling while silence and clouds outside are abundant.
Max places the cake beside him.
"[I am not hungry, indeed, now I feel that the second paper is about to fall, I must save those trump cards for later]"
Max's eyes blink many slow blinks that signify calm and much thinking, then he places his hand on his head and feels a strange and difficult headache.
"[What is this feeling, is it the curse that was placed on me after my modification of the pathway and the extraction of a completely new pathway from it, or is it trying to control me now, I must resist]"
Max thinks to himself and says:
"[Where is the blazing flame of rage? Where are the wedges that carve truth from me? In the depths of darkness I was shouting my name, I was between wonder and breaking, between madness and extinction]"
Then Max whispers and says:
"And with a spark of light I swore to preserve and protect this world that now contains me and bring it out of darkness"
"[Between instigation and delay, have I been sent forth or remained as I am, whether I have fought Shu or Max, the murmurs of mirrors lead my shadow toward the mirage]"
Max closes his eyes and sleeps while the rain outside is abundant.
And in a place a little far from the Star Hotel, where Fifth Street is in the Fourth District, which is called the Cloud District.
A house with red walls and a luxurious, beautiful modern design, from whose inside no light emerges, as the windows are closed and have curtains on them.
Someone is eating his fingers, having closed the door to the room, and feels that he is being controlled by a force and screams extremely loudly.
"[Forgive me, Max, forgive me because I cannot warn you, I cannot help you, it is a catastrophe threatening all existence, a catastrophe like no other]"
The person screams again and his face appears in the mirror extremely distorted while his fingers bleed, and at that moment someone knocks on the room door, so the person opens it quickly, shocked, as he is the only one in the house.
Suddenly a mysterious masked entity with red eyes, its face like void itself, appears. This entity whispers words from everywhere and says:
"Faro, Faro, Faro, Faro"
Faro screams intensely and he and the entity disappear.
And in the morning Max wakes up to the sound of the phone and looks toward it to find that it is Xia, and he answers her.
Xia speaks directly and says:
"Max, the alchemist Faro has disappeared completely. I need you now in Fifth Street, Fourth District, quickly. I am there now and with me is Clarke"
Max is extremely shocked and says to himself:
"[Faro disappeared, my suspicions were correct, that was not just an ordinary illness, there is something hidden, I should have watched him instead of going to the coffee shop yesterday]"
Max eats the cake quickly, then Max puts on his detective clothes, the very long black coat that extends with majesty down to the ankles, the integrated classic black suit, and the classic black straight-cut perfect trousers.
And he takes his smoking pipe and goes down quickly and takes a carriage toward Fifth Street, Fourth District.
Max arrives quickly and sees many police carriages in the place, and Max notices the presence of the boy Ben, so he goes to greet him, and Ben is extremely surprised and smiles, saying:
"Welcome, Mr. Max, how are you, did you come to investigate the disappearance of Mr. Faro?"
Max replies confirming his coming for that, and then Ben, who has high authority in the police, orders the rest of the policemen to clear the way for Mr. Max.
Max enters inside and sees Xia and Clarke, who looks at him shocked and says:
"I was able to get out safely thanks to Miss Xia"
Max does not even look at him and kneels beside the blood immediately while feeling some anger as a result of Xia bringing Clarke out.
Xia speaks directly and says:
"He was fine yesterday, and I had personally taken him home after the end of my shift, I do not know what happened"
Max touches the blood and notices that it is extremely cold, then speaks and says:
"He has already been gone for some time"
Max takes a deep breath from the pipe and exhales the smoke from his mouth, then Xia speaks and says:
"Huh, what did you notice, tell me?"
Max replies, looking at her from the corner of his eye with anger, and says:
"Wait"
Clarke is surprised by Max's treatment of Miss Xia and orders him to be polite and lower his voice.
Xia speaks and asks Clarke to be calm now and let him focus.
Max uses his threads to reveal silver threads tinged with black, filled with black and white stars everywhere, scattered, then Max whispers and says:
"Show me where Faro is"
Suddenly the threads move randomly and become agitated, then they are destroyed.!
Max is shocked and realizes that the danger exceeds his ability by far, so he uses Entity Vision and the same frog that was in the alchemist Faro's room appears.
Max whispers to the frog and says to it:
"You were following me, you little one from the world of chaos, tell me now, do you know where Faro is? Or have you seen him?"
The frog confirms that it did not see him and that it was following Max because his silver aura attracted it, and it was not following Faro, and it confirms to him that it had been on his shoulder moments ago without him feeling it.
Max cancels Entity Vision, then stands and says:
"This is extremely strange, I do not know what I should do"
And at that moment a person with black hair, a hat, and a strange calm enters the place.
Xia looks toward him and is extremely shocked, as are Clarke, and Xia says to herself:
"[It is the captain, the lord of the Blue Stars area himself, it is Lord Azek!]"
Max looks at the blood while Xia's and Clarke's voices disappear, and suddenly he feels a hand on his shoulder, so he turns and is shocked, saying:
"Azek!"
Xia gets angry and says:
"His name is Mr...."
Azek stops Xia from speaking, then Azek smiles in Max's face and says:
"How is the investigation this time? Is everything under control or not?"
Max replies, confirming that there is something here beyond his ability to notice.
Azek speaks and says:
"As I expected, I can enhance your abilities so that you try again to use your observation abilities"
Max is surprised, then says:
"That would be a tremendous service"
Azek raises his finger and green energy appears, entering Max's body, so Max feels that his perception has increased tens of times and says:
"What was that?"
Azek replies, saying:
"That simple trick is what we use to enhance the detectives' abilities so they can reach higher limits temporarily"
Max tries again with the threads, and this time they appear larger and more complex, then he orders them to search for Faro, so the threads scatter again and black energy appears, and Azek notices that disturbance in the energy and immediately moves Max so that the ability stops.
Azek's facial expression changes and becomes more serious, and he asks Max to go home immediately, then looks toward Xia and Clarke and asks them to come.
Max is shocked and asks about the reason for that, and Azek replies:
"This matter exceeds your abilities by far, go to your home and take the rest of the day off"
Max does not speak much and leaves, then Azek orders Xia and Clarke to head with him toward the underworld.
"[That black energy I felt was about to ruin Max and drive him insane. I know which organization is related to Faro's disappearance, the Shadow organization]"
Max arrives at the hotel home and says to himself:
"[That strange black energy was not ordinary at all, I felt that my existence was about to vanish indeed, it is good that Azek intervened in time]"
Max sighs and takes a pen and paper and draws on it the symbol he saw when he was in the abandoned factory, where it was a sun symbol half uncolored and the other half black with a serrated arrow.
Suddenly someone knocks on the door.
"[Who is there? No one knows that place except Xia, indeed]"
Max opens the door and sees a very large person with an invitation paper, then the person speaks and says:
"I am a servant of the wealthy family, the Rafal family, and I have come with a message from Lady Thiubi inviting you to her palace so that she may thank you for your efforts in solving the case concerning her husband who was killed, and she wants to speak with you about something"
Max is shocked and hands the man the letter and walks away.
"[How did they find my place here? It seems that this family has great influence in this city then]"
Max opens the letter and reads it, as it says:
"Mr. Max, we thank you for ending that case and we hope that you will come with love so that we may thank you in the proper manner that should be given to you, and so that we may speak about another extremely important matter and an official mission from me to you"
"[Have I become for sale in the market? An official mission, does that lady not know that I work for the Star Organization? But no matter, I can obtain important information]"
Max does not change his clothes and heads directly toward the address written on the paper.