Chapter 1

Break lies under a tree, fell asleep. In his dream he finds himself back in his past, is with Sinclair Ojou-sama. In a wide field full of flowers, the little girl is busy picking. Suddenly a darkness spreads behind her, swallowing her up. "Ojou-sama!"
With a jerk he startles, rubs his face. Under his fingers he can feel the bandage that still covers his left eye.
“Onii-san?” Sharon kneels next to him, confusing them for a moment, puts his arms around her and holds her close. "You are safe."
“Xarx-niii, that hurts.” Sharon tries to free himself from his tight grip. When he hears what she calls him, he quickly lets go of her. "I'm sorry, I ..."
“Xerxes, here you are.” Reim turns the corner, stops in front of him. "Come on, we're going to Pandora headquarters. You have now been assigned your own rooms there and you need uniforms."
“All right.” Break lets himself be pulled to his feet by him. "I just want to get something else."
Shelly meets them on the way to his room. "I've been looking for you, Sharon. Come to me."
"No." Sharon clings to Break's arm. "I want to stay with Xarx-niii."
"Sharon." With a warm smile he leans forward and strokes her head. "Would you go into town and buy me new candy? I don't have any more."
“Onii-san!” Sharon beams at him, nods eagerly. Then she runs to her mother.
In his room, Break goes to the closet, opens it and takes the stick. A week ago, when he had officially become a member of Pandora, he had received it from Shelly.
On the drive to headquarters, Break looks out the window in silence until Reim begins to speak. "I didn't really mean to tell you, but you'll find out anyway. Several murders have occurred in town, it appears to be the work of an illegal contractor. Pandora sent people out to look for him. But last night they have been killed. "
“An illegal contractor?” Break turns his head, looks at Reim.
“This is someone who signs a contract with a Chain but doesn't belong to Pandora.” Reim pushes up his glasses. "Pandora has now sent all available people to search the city. So, we are there." He opens the door, lets Break out of the car, then follows him.
Break takes a few steps, then stops and looks up at the building. Rhyme steps up next to him. “Let's go in.” He leads the way, reaching for the doors as they are pushed open from the other side. A little girl storms out, bumps into Rhyme, and stumbles to one side. Break holds her tight, prevents her from falling. "Be careful."
"D-thanks." The little one looks up at him shyly. He gets down on his knees in front of her, takes out his candy box and holds it out to her. "Do you like?"When she hesitantly reaches for it, a boy comes running, knocks away Break's hand and pushes the girl behind him. "Leave my sister alone!"
Before Break can say anything, he has taken the girl by the hand and runs away with her.
“That's Oz and Ada Bezarius.” Reim helps Break to collect the scattered candies back into the tin. "Then Oscar-sama is probably here. Duke Zai wouldn't bring his children here."
For the second time, Reim reaches for the doors and again they open from the inside. This time Oscar comes out. "Ah, rhyme. I heard from Duke Barma that you wanted to bring him here today. So I thought I'd come and meet him too." He walks up to Break, puts an arm around his shoulders. "So, Xerxes Break. Welcome to Pandora."
"Oscar-sama." Reim looks at the black-haired boy who is clinging anxiously to Oscar's leg.
"This is Gilbert, he was found on our property," explains Oscar. "Just like you, Xerxes, he was in front of the gate to the Abyss."
"Gilbert." Break remembers meeting little Vincent a while ago and telling him about his brother.
“By the way, Oz and Ada walked in that direction a few minutes ago.” Reim points to the right.
"Then I'll catch them both and then we'll go home." Oscar says goodbye.
In the building, Reim Break leads up a flight of stairs and then down a hallway to a door. "This room is at your disposal when you have business here."
Break opens the door, looks around. Then he goes to the closet and takes out one of the uniforms. "You're too big, rhyme-san."
Rhyme sighs. "I already thought so. Well, let's go to Duke Barma now."
Rhyme leads him down another flight of stairs. “Here are the rooms for the dukes of the four big houses.” He stops in front of a double door and knocks. Then they enter the room.
Reim stops two steps in front of the desk, on which documents are piling up. "Rufus-sama, the uniforms for Xerxes Break are too big. We will probably have to have new ones made for him."
“You can take care of it, that's part of your job.” Rufus lets the report sink in, which he is currently reading. “Is that him?” He stands up, walks around the desk and walks towards Break. "All of Pandora was talking about how and where you were found. Quite strange, this thing."
Break returns his gaze in silence, after a few minutes Rufus returns to his chair. "Oh, rhyme. Those documents you brought me contain a lot of information about this illegal contractor 50 years ago. The only one Pandora couldn't take into custody. He's been up to mischief for over a year. Then he is." gone, probably his time was up and he was drawn into the Abyss. "
"Rhyme-san." Break turned to the door. "I'm going back to the Rainsworth mansion now."“Wait, Xerxes.” Rhyme follows him from the room. The door has barely closed behind him when Rufus reaches for the report he had read when she entered. "Kevin Regnard, the red-eyed ghost. This Xerxes Break has red eyes too. And he was found at the gates of the Abyss. Could that be, maybe he is ..."
The sun is already setting when they leave the building. Reim gets into the carriage behind Break. "I'll take you to the Rainsworth Estate and then continue to the Barma family home."
Again, Break looks out the window in silence as they drive through town. Then suddenly, Break jumps out of the moving carriage without warning.
"Xerxes!"
"Stay here, Reim-san," calls Break over his shoulder as he walks into a narrow back alley.
"Stop!" Reim orders the driver, then follows him.
Break has already walked a good way down the alley. When he sees something in front of him, another dead member of Pandora. He kneels down next to the man and examines him quickly. “This wound is from a sword.” He stands up again, draws his sword and walks slowly on, looking around attentively. The alley makes a bend in front of him, and from there he hears a noise like the roar of an animal.
With her back to him, there is a woman, at her side a creature that looks like a lion. A few steps away from her stands a man who is almost twice as tall as the woman. He has a huge sword in his hand. And they both wear red robes.
Carefully, with low steps badly break closer. When the chain lifts its head and turns in its direction.
“Look, Leon, there is food for you.” Lotti puts her hand on her chain's head. The beast lets out another roar, repelling itself. With a quick jump to the side, Break can evade. Then shots fall, Leon howls.
"Lottii-san." Fang approaches Break. "Leave him here to me. You take care of Pandora's up there."
“What?” Break looks over his shoulder, sees rhyme. With a gun in hand. "Get out of here, rhyme-san!" He yells, then has to shift his attention back to the front. Fang charged, sword raised. At the last second, Break can parry the blow.
“Not bad.” Fang strikes again.
Eventually, after a brief fierce fight, Break manages to knock his sword out of his hand.
Without paying any attention to him, Break runs back around the bend. To his horror, he sees his friend lying on the ground. Leon is standing above him, has put a paw on his chest.
“Reim-san!” Break accelerates his pace and rushes towards Lotti. At his scream she turns around and aims Reim's pistol at him. The shot just missed him. Then he is next to her, grabs her arm and holds his sword to her neck. "Call your chain back!" He demands.
"You damn...!"Lotti grinds her teeth." Leon! "The chain obeys, moves away from rhyme.
"Xerxes." Reim sits up and feels for his glasses on the floor. When he has found it and put it on, he gets up. "These are Baskervilles. We have to withdraw, we cannot defeat the Chain."
"Rhyme-san." Break half-turns with Lotti until he can see rhyme. "If I let go of this miss, she'll put her chain on us again. Go and take this with you." He kicks the pistol at him with his foot.
Rhyme picks them up, hurries away. Break follows him with his gaze, so he does not notice what is happening behind him. Suddenly he feels a sharp pain in his back. Then a hand grabs his arm and pulls his sword away from Lotti's neck. Break instinctively blows a sword, but Fang parries.
“That's not good.” Break backs away until his back hits a wall. "If I still had both eyes, he would not have been able to wound me. I have to be prepared to fight with only one eye."
“What should we do with him, Lotti-san?” Fang has his sword on the ground. "He's not wearing a Pandora uniform, he's not one of them."
"But he was with one of them," replies Lotti. "And because of him the guy escaped. Now he'll definitely call for reinforcements. Let's end this thing here quickly." She puts her hand on her chain's head.
Leon takes a step towards Break, then lets out a growl and lifts his head. Lotti and Fang also look up. A horde of flying chains float in the sky above them.
"They are already there. We have to go now, Lotti-san."
Lotti pulls a pout. “When it was just so interesting.” She swings onto Leon's back and rides off on him.
Fang stops for a moment. "You fight well, but you also seem a bit unbalanced," he says to Break, then he walks in the same direction as Lotti
“Xerxes!” Followed by a group of people from Pandora, rhyme comes up. Break has meanwhile sunk to his knees and blood has collected on the floor. "You are