This chapter's epigraph comes from a conversation between the narrator and the teacher. The narrator explains that the teacher is an engraver, a person who can move the body's "circulation paths" at will and "engrave words on them" . In other words, the teacher can see things the narrator can't see. He can even exchange one life for another, which is why he came to this place in the first place. He explains that he's done two "engravings" and one "exchange" , and can still exchange one more "word" or "exchange one more life" in his lifetime. He invites the teacher to his place because he wants to find out what happened to his old friend. He asks the teacher if he'd like to kill the teacher, but the teacher assures him that he won't.