Chapter 67: Missing professor
For a moment, I thought I’d misheard him.
"...What?"
My hand remained on the doorknob.
On the other end of the call, Noah’s breathing was steady, but there was something beneath it that I’d never heard before.
Urgency.
"Professor Ellis is missing."
"When?"
"I don’t know."
"What happened?"
"He was supposed to meet someone at the city archives tonight."
Noah paused, as if organizing the facts before speaking.
"He never arrived."
"Who told you?"
"The archivist."
"He called Professor Ellis’s office after waiting for almost an hour."
"The office contacted me because I was the last student he spoke to."
I frowned.
"How did they know that?"
"He signed out the Pocket Watch files this afternoon."
Silence settled between us.
The brown envelope containing the newspaper clippings flashed through my mind.
"He signed them out under the Mystery Research Club’s request."
"So naturally..."
"...our names came up."
I tightened my grip on the phone.
"Where are you?"
"Outside the academy."
"I was hoping you hadn’t gone to sleep yet."
"I’ll be there in fifteen minutes."
"I’m waiting."
The call ended.
I didn’t waste another second.
Grabbing my jacket, I locked the apartment behind me and hurried downstairs.
The streets were unusually lively for a weekday evening.
Restaurants overflowed with customers finishing dinner.
Office workers filled the sidewalks.
Traffic lights reflected off rain-soaked pavement left behind by an afternoon drizzle.
Everything looked normal.
Too normal.
Because somewhere in this city...
Professor Ellis had vanished.
And my instincts refused to believe it was a coincidence.
Noah was standing beneath the academy gate when I arrived.
The campus had long since closed.
Only the security lights illuminated the entrance.
He looked up as I approached.
"You came quickly."
"I was still awake."
His eyes immediately drifted toward the street behind me, checking that no one had followed.
"Let’s walk."
Neither of us suggested entering the academy.
Instead, we headed toward the main road.
For several minutes, neither of us spoke.
Finally, Noah broke the silence.
"I don’t think Professor Ellis simply forgot his appointment."
"I don’t either."
"He isn’t the type."
I nodded.
"He always arrives early."
"You noticed too."
Noah slipped both hands into his coat pockets.
"I called him four times."
"No answer."
"I also contacted two other teachers."
"They assumed he’d gone home."
"But..."
"He never did."
A cold breeze swept through the street.
I glanced sideways.
"What about his car?"
"Still parked in the faculty lot."
That made my heartbeat quicken.
"So he left on foot."
"Apparently."
Noah stopped beside a quiet intersection.
"I didn’t tell the others."
I looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because we don’t know anything yet."
"And I don’t want Ryan charging around the city pretending he’s in a detective novel."
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
"That’s fair."
"I thought so."
He reached into his messenger bag.
"I went to Professor Ellis’s office before meeting you."
He handed me a folded sheet of paper.
"It was lying beside his desk."
I unfolded it.
It wasn’t a letter.
It was a photocopy.
A city map.
One location had been circled in red ink.
An abandoned railway depot near the eastern industrial district.
There was no explanation.
No notes.
Just the circle.
"Was this already on his desk?"
"Yes."
"And nobody touched it?"
"The office secretary thought it was part of his research."
Noah looked toward the map.
"I checked."
"The depot closed almost twenty years ago."
"No trains."
"No businesses."
"Nothing."
I stared at the circled location.
The System remained silent.
No warning.
No objective.
Nothing.
That silence bothered me more than anything.
"Let’s not go."
The words left my mouth before I fully realized I’d spoken them.
Noah looked at me.
"You don’t think we should?"
"We don’t know what’s waiting there."
"We aren’t investigators."
"We don’t even know if the map has anything to do with his disappearance."
He didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he folded the map and returned it to his bag.
"I know."
"But if he deliberately marked that location..."
"...and disappeared on the same night..."
"...can we really ignore it?"
I couldn’t.
He knew it.
I knew it.
Still...
Every instinct screamed that walking into the depot would be a mistake.
Almost as if—
A blue window finally appeared.
______
[Main Story Progression]
Objective Updated.
Locate Professor Ellis.
Current Lead:
Eastern Railway Depot.
Warning:
The first witness is always in the greatest danger.
______
I felt my stomach tighten.
First witness?
Witness to what?
The notification disappeared before I could examine it further.
Noah noticed my expression.
"What is it?"
"...Nothing."
He studied me for another second.
"You looked like you’d seen something."
"I was thinking."
It wasn’t technically a lie.
Noah let the subject drop.
"We’ll call the police first."
His tone was firm.
"If they tell us to stay away..."
"We stay away."
I let out a slow breath.
"...Agreed."
The nearest police station was less than ten minutes away.
The duty officer listened patiently as Noah explained the situation.
Professor Ellis.
The missed appointment.
The unanswered calls.
The abandoned car.
The map.
The officer took several notes before looking up.
"How long has he been missing?"
"We don’t know exactly."
"Perhaps two hours."
The officer nodded.
"He’s an adult."
"There isn’t enough evidence to classify this as a disappearance yet."
Noah frowned.
"But—"
"If he doesn’t return by morning, we’ll open a formal case."
The officer’s tone remained professional.
"For tonight..."
"...there isn’t much we can do."
Outside the station, neither of us spoke.
Finally, Noah sighed.
"I expected that answer."
"So did I."
The law had procedures.
Unfortunately, procedures weren’t designed for stories.
---
We stood beneath a flickering streetlamp.
The eastern district lay less than fifteen minutes away by taxi.
The map weighed heavily in Noah’s bag.
"I still think we shouldn’t go," I said quietly.
Noah nodded.
"I know."
He looked toward the distant skyline.
"I also know..."
"...that if Professor Ellis is waiting for help..."
"...every minute matters."
I closed my eyes.
Logic.
Emotion.
Responsibility.
They all pointed in different directions.
Then my phone vibrated.
Not a call.
A message.
Unknown sender.
There were only five words.
He’s already waiting for you.
No number.
No signature.
The message disappeared before I could take another look.
Not deleted.
Gone.
As if it had never existed.
Noah noticed me staring at the screen.
"What happened?"
I slowly lowered the phone.
"...Nothing good."
A taxi turned the corner and stopped at the traffic light.
Neither of us raised a hand.
Neither of us spoke.
Yet somehow...
We both knew the same thing.
Whether we wanted to or not...
The next step in this story waited beyond the eastern railway depot.
And once we crossed that threshold...
There would be no pretending this was only a club investigating old newspaper clippings anymore.