2. Piles of Dust At first, it was his intense curiosity that motivated him. The idea that she’d come from another world was fascinating in itself, but it was the peculiarity of her writing that truly enraptured him. How were the sentences structured? How were the words formed? He wanted to work out the writing system and study it for himself. Yet their relationship had gone past being merely transactional. He’d helped her, impressed by how strong and positive she remained despite the incomprehensible situations she’d been thrown into. She didn’t curl up and cry or give up and abandon everything. Instead, she stayed determined to move forward, even if that meant taking baby steps. She didn’t lose faith in people’s good nature and the decency of the human spirit, and she was also determined to remain sincere. That was what he admired about Shizuku. At times, he wondered if this was how it would feel to have his younger sister by his side, who he hadn’t seen in so long. Perhaps he could have spent days like this with the princess had she survived. But Shizuku was her own person. There was no one like her—the speed with which she grasped new ideas, her earnest attitude toward studying, her consideration for other people, her unwavering warmth. Most importantly, though, she’d become someone who didn’t give up or accept defeat. Although she was powerless, Shizuku refused to surrender, and she valued her dignity more than her life. In that sense, Erik found her stubborn and foolish. He’d once warned her not to lose sight of the bigger picture, but in reality, that wasn’t what she did. She saw the whole picture, then chose the one thing she couldn’t compromise on. Her own free will meant so much to her that she’d reach into flames to grasp it. Her stubbornness also undoubtedly caused her pain. The world and its people weren’t kind enough to meet her expectations. Still, Erik wanted to make sure that he did—even if he was the only one. He knew perfectly well how much she worried and how hard she worked. He wanted to support her through all of that. He enjoyed their time together, so he was also doing this for himself. That was why he’d taken her hand and come on this journey with her. But could he make it to the end without betraying her? “You have cocoa?!” “Of course we do. Those bitter beans, right? You dissolve the powder in water and drink it. They use it a little in the south, but it’s a medicine… Is something wrong with you?” “Y-you mean…you can make chocolate…?!” “What’s that?” Leuticia asked, looking confused. The two of them were enjoying a casual chat after Shizuku had shared her latest report. This topic had come up because, on this particular day, there happened to be a plate of fruit on Leuticia’s desk. The two of them had begun to share the fruit and decided to list plants and animals that were common to both their worlds, leading to the discussion about cocoa. Her boss seemed curious to know what chocolate was, and Shizuku began to think seriously about the topic. Although she knew how to make cakes using baking chocolate, she didn’t know how chocolate itself was made. She often knew the raw ingredients for things, but not the production process. It was the same with miso and soy sauce. “When chocolate’s seventy percent cocoa, it’s bitter… So what’s in the remaining thirty percent? Wait, is it even okay for me to introduce a recipe from another world? If I don’t know what I’m doing, maybe I can experiment…” “Uhm, Shizuku…?” Leuticia was looking at her subordinate—who’d started muttering under her breath to herself—with a puzzled expression. Shizuku raised her head. “I’d like some of those beans so that I can make some sweets! Could you get them for me?!” “I—I should be able to.” For some reason, Shizuku was much more enthusiastic about this than her progress report. Overwhelmed, Leuticia nodded and said, “I’ll send away for some…” Shizuku’s face lit up, but she quickly remembered her manners and bowed subserviently. “I’ll make a start on my next manuscript, then,” Shizuku announced. “Y-yes, please do. Your picture books with the talking animals are very interesting. The children seem to love them.” The new picture book Shizuku had just completed was about a lost child who encounters different animals in the forest and receives their help. The goal was for children to learn the names of the animals that showed up in the story, so Shizuku had put a lot of effort into the illustrations. “It doesn’t seem like anthropomorphized animals are very popular in this world. I’ve looked through a lot of picture books since taking on this job, but I haven’t found any examples.” “In the past, talking animals tended to be mid-ranking demons. That’s probably why.” “Oh. Maybe putting them in picture books isn’t such a good idea.” Shizuku didn’t want her picture book to make children less cautious around demons, but Leuticia just laughed and shook her head. “Such demons are almost nonexistent nowadays. Most were exterminated during the Age of Witches, so it’s rare for humans to encounter them now.” “Oh, I see…” That sounded like a pretty interesting slice of history. If any research had been done on it, Shizuku wanted to see it. Leuticia gently snapped her fingers at Shizuku, who seemed fascinated. “By the way, do you mind if I borrow Erik for a while?” she asked. “Erik? Sure, I don’t mind. Why are you asking me, though?” Leuticia was his boss, not Shizuku. She couldn’t fathom why the princess was asking for her permission, but Shizuku agreed anyway. Her response seemed to come as a relief to Leuticia. “You two really are… No, never mind. We’re leaving the castle city the day after tomorrow. We’ll be gone for a little while, so if there’s anything you want to say to him, now’s your chance.” “Where are you going?” “To the north. There’s been a spate of demonic spirit appearances, so we’ve decided to set up barriers around all towns and villages there. It’ll take about a week, and it’s only a stopgap measure, but it’s better than nothing.” “Yeah…” Shizuku didn’t really understand what these demonic spirits were like, but she was worried about Erik heading off on such a mission. She hadn’t conveyed Lera’s thanks to him yet, so she made a mental note to go and see him before he left. Leuticia gave Shizuku a beguiling smile. “We’ll also do some research into the woman with the red book, since we’re going to be in the north anyway… Oh—and if my brother causes you any trouble while we’re away, report it to Royal Chief Mage Truce. I’ll tell him to expect you.” Shizuku wasn’t sure if Leuticia was giving her a work instruction or not, but she listened with the same serious look the princess was giving her. And with this warning, Shizuku’s meeting with Leuticia came to a close. After leaving Leuticia’s office, Shizuku headed straight to the lab where Erik worked—but he wasn’t there. It seemed Lera’s comment about him not coming to his lab for a while must have been true, so Shizuku decided to head to his room instead. Shortly after knocking on Erik’s door, she received a response. The door was also unlocked. The fact that he was there brought Shizuku a strange degree of relief. “Do you have a moment, Erik?” “Sure. What’s up?” “I heard you’re going away for work, so I wanted to say goodbye.” Erik was acting like his normal self, but his desk, which was usually tidy, was covered with a shocking number of books and notes. Erik began to sort out the mess, creating a set of piles. Thinking it was best not to interfere, Shizuku stayed one step away and watched him work. “You’re headed to the north, then?” “Yeah. Do you remember the border gate we passed through when we entered Farsas from the west? It’s north of there.” “That’s super far away. Is it cold up there?” “Yeah. The area’s really high up, even by Farsas’s standards. It’s probably getting cold.” Erik sounded calm. Knowing him, he’d probably handle the work just as he always did, no matter how cold it was. Shizuku wasn’t particularly worried about that. “I heard there are demonic spirits. Will you be all right?” “Yeah, probably. The princess will be there, and we’ll have guards.” Shizuku couldn’t sense any tension or fear from his monotonous comment. Feeling somewhat reassured, she passed on Lera’s thanks and shared the results of her experiments with Erik. He seemed surprised by how the experiments had progressed. Once Shizuku had finished explaining, Erik asked whether the younger children and the older ones had spoken to one another. Like Shizuku, he’d suspected that that was the source of the kids’ progress. The similarity between them made her chuckle. “I knew you’d suspect the same thing. That’s what I asked her.” “It’s the first thing you need to check… But I see.” Erik pondered to himself. Then he glanced at his pile of notes, looking as if he’d remembered something. “Oh, by the way, don’t touch anything in my room while I’m away.” “Okay. I probably won’t come in here anyway, though. Who goes into somebody else’s room when they’re not there?” “I know, but I thought I should tell you just in case. If I die, leave my belongings to someone else to sort out. There are some dangerous things in here.” “Well, this conversation took a morbid turn all of a sudden.” “It’s just a what-if scenario.” Hypothetical or not, it left an impact. Still, Shizuku grasped that some of his possessions were dangerous to touch. He was probably referring to magic implements. Erik lowered his eyes slightly and flashed Shizuku his signature bittersweet smile. His ordinarily clear voice now held a tinge of melancholy. “If, one day, you find that red book and it is the interlopers’ cursed artifact, but it contains no clues as to how to return home…what would you do?” It was an unexpected question—yet at the same time, it felt overdue. It surprised Shizuku slightly. She wondered why he was asking this question now, of all times. Still, as astonished as she was, the answer was already inside her. Shizuku closed her eyes, as if she was falling asleep, and smiled. “If it turns out that going home truly isn’t a possibility, I’ll draw a line under the issue.” “You’ll carry on with life in this world?” That still wasn’t a future that Shizuku was able to come to terms with. She knew what lay on the other side of that river, but she wasn’t able to cross it. At some point, however, she’d realized that the river was gradually narrowing. She was slowly adjusting to a world that had once seemed so distant, just as her journey had shaped the present version of herself. “…I’m not sure yet,” Shizuku said with a shake of her head. Erik didn’t speak. The silence seemed to weaken and melt away Shizuku’s sorrow, and in its place, her throat began to burn with emotion. Maybe I’d feel better if I verbalized things…especially the things that haven’t taken shape inside me yet. The moment she did that, however, her thoughts would become something else. Something different, no matter how similar or connected it was to now. It was a point of no return. She wouldn’t be able to take it back. So Shizuku decided not to say a word. How much time must have gone by? By the time Shizuku came to her senses, Erik was standing right in front of her. He stretched out his hand and carefully touched her cheek. Her gaze was drawn to the seemingly vast depths of his familiar dark-blue eyes. “Well, you don’t have to give up just yet. The continent is massive. We can go to another country next.” “That would mean so much to me… But at this rate, we’ll be able to write a guidebook.” “What’s that?” “A book full of sightseeing information about different places.” The time they spent together was so enjoyable, Shizuku wished it would last forever. They could travel across countries, learning new things as they went. They could write what they’d learned in a book, then move on to their next destination. Perhaps that was one path Shizuku could choose. She thought about the diary she kept from time to time. Shizuku used it to write about her travels and her day-to-day life, and she planned on swapping it out for a new notebook after a year. As it turned out, however, her journey would come to an end before she replaced her diary—something Shizuku was just about to discover. An icy wind blew through the air. The castle stood on barren land shrouded in an eerie silence, as if it had been forgotten by all. The only sound that could be heard was the wind swirling through the air. This was a place where an ordinary person would freeze within minutes—yet a man and a woman were walking through the castle unperturbed. The man, tall and dressed in black, led a woman with strikingly bright red hair. She didn’t bother hiding her non-human hair color and looked at her limbs in frustration. “Having a body is so awkward. Why did you summon me to such a low-level realm, Elzard?” “I’ve signed a contract with a human. I’d like you to meet her.” “A human?” The woman’s eyebrows shot up. Her words, tinged with disdain, pierced Elzard like a knife. “One of those worthless beings? You summoned me to this lower realm for one of them?” “Yes,” Elzard replied, glancing back at her. The woman’s beauty almost made her look human, but her vibrant hair and eye color gave her true identity away. They were common features of high-ranking demons, a race that often dismissed humans as insignificant—and this demoness harbored a particular disdain for them. Elzard, who was also a high-ranking demon, had summoned her for this exact reason. He smiled, his face angled so she couldn’t see. “You should meet her. I summoned you because you’re the ideal person for the job.” “Ideal in what way?” the woman demanded. “The ideal person for me to choose.” This wasn’t entirely untrue, but neither was he giving her the full picture. Regardless, Elzard’s statement seemed to have aroused her prideful nature. The woman nodded, albeit with a discontented expression on her face. She fiddled with her ruby pendant as she followed after him. Elzard’s comment only kept her quiet for a moment, however. She soon asked another question, an irritated tone in her voice. “What am I supposed to do when I meet this human?” “Nothing,” Elzard replied firmly. The black-clad man looked out of the castle window that was coated in frost. He gazed down at the frozen landscape below. “You don’t need to do anything. It’s Aviella who will make that decision.” The first of the demon’s victims was found in a small village at the northernmost point of Farsas. One day, at the edge of a forest on the outskirts of the village, a young woman was discovered in a peculiar state. She was unconscious, her body frozen from her feet up to her waist. When she was found, her upper body was still warm, and she had a pulse. Despite receiving treatment for her frozen legs, she never regained consciousness and died three days later. The woman’s unusual death sent shockwaves throughout the small village, but it soon faded from conversation when recurrent demon attacks began to occur. The villagers evacuated to a nearby town, but the demons appeared there as well. The string of attacks began to weigh heavily on the people’s hearts, and before long, the woman became just one of a long list of victims. “Northwest Farsas is massive, but the region doesn’t have all that much history. Its climate is unique, and most of the towns are relatively new. Well, I say that, but even the oldest is over two hundred years old.” “After two hundred years, I don’t think it counts as new anymore,” Shizuku replied. Her comment drew a chuckle from Harve, a royal court mage. For the magic kingdom, whose origins stretched back to the beginning of the Dark Age, two hundred years was no time at all. Shizuku glanced at the map beside her as she colored in her sketch. Leuticia had left the castle with Erik the day before, leaving Shizuku behind. Harve had come to check in on her, so Shizuku was asking him about the towns in the north as she carried on with her usual work. Harve was Erik’s friend, and it seemed he would be keeping an eye on Shizuku in Erik’s absence. Harve’s area of expertise was history, so he’d briefly explained the backstory of the northwestern region to her, which, it turned out, had once been inaccessible due to a forbidden curse. “There’s no country above northwest Farsas, then?” “Nope. Just tall mountains that’d be challenging to live in, and in some places, there’s a dense miasma. There used to be a country called Helginis that circumvented the miasma using powerful magic wards, but I doubt anyone lives there now.” This sounded like an incredible story. Shizuku cocked her head in curiosity. “I don’t really get what you mean by ‘demons’ and ‘demonic spirits.’ What are they exactly?” “Hmm. Generally speaking, ‘demonic spirits’ can be largely grouped into two categories. One type meddles with us from the realm below this one…close to the Sea of Negativity. They take shape by imbuing miasma with Negativity or possessing animals in order to change form. That’s what we’re usually talking about when we mention ‘demonic spirits,’ which are also sometimes referred to as ‘low-ranking demons.’” “Oh, I see.” Shizuku nodded, recalling the giant snake she’d encountered at Candela Castle. It probably fit into that category. She really hoped she wouldn’t have to see one again. “The other type resides in the realm above this one, where magic configurations are assembled. These are high-ranking demons. They rarely appear in the human realm or interfere with it.” “Weren’t they revered as gods in the past? Like the water god of Lake Nevys?” Shizuku glanced at the small green bird perched on her desk. “They were. The creator of that bird and Princess Leuticia’s spirit, Silfa, are two such demons. From what I’ve heard, high-ranking demons have their own hierarchy, but I don’t know much about it.” Harve had started patiently stacking the wooden blocks scattered across Shizuku’s desk. As Shizuku watched his tower getting taller and taller, she let out a sigh. “So both types are called ‘demonic spirits,’ but they’re entirely different? Even the place they come from is different?” “Yeah. Basically, all creatures that originate from different realms get lumped together as ‘demons.’ Some people even refer to fairies and magical creatures as demons. It has a pretty vague definition.” “I see…” To ordinary people, any monster they couldn’t quite identify seemed like a “demonic spirit.” When you sorted them based on the world’s realm structure, it became clear that there were significant differences between them. The creatures from the upper realms and those from the lower realms were literally worlds apart. Shizuku stroked Mea’s head and back with her finger. “If high-ranking demons come from the realm above us and low-ranking demons come from the realm below us, does that mean that mid-ranking demons originate from this world?” “Oh. I see your logic, but no. Mid-ranking demons are the most diverse type. Extraordinary low-ranking demons who’ve gained power and knowledge are referred to as mid-ranking demons, as are some low-ranking demons that are created by high-ranking ones. The term has more to do with their strength than from where they originate. Your assistant demon, for example, is a mid-ranking demon created by a high-ranking demon, which is incredibly rare. In the past few hundred years, mid-ranking demons that spawned from low-ranking demons have been exterminated. No one sees them anymore.” “Oh, Princess Leuticia mentioned that, too,” said Shizuku, recalling the “talking animals” the princess had told her about. They must have been mid-ranking demons. It made sense to her now. Harve smiled. “All this talk of demons must be unsettling, since you’re staying here by yourself, but if you ever find yourself in danger, I’m sure Erik would come back immediately. You can communicate with him using magic whenever you like. Do you want to put in a request?” “No, it’s fine. I don’t have any new information to share with him. I wouldn’t want to disturb his work, either.” “…Shizuku.” Harve slumped his shoulders in disappointment—but at that very moment, there was a forceful knock on the laboratory door. “Excuse me! It’s an emergency! We have an injured person, so if there are any mages in there, please come and help!” “Someone’s injured?” Shizuku and Harve exchanged glances, but only for a moment. Harve swiftly rose to his feet and dashed out of the room. Shizuku found herself following him. When Shizuku joined Harve in the treatment room and saw the woman lying on the bed, she was left speechless. She was a young woman, probably around Shizuku’s age, but the color had already drained from her face. Her body looked healthy, and she was wearing the sort of outfit you saw most city girls in. As far as Shizuku could see, she wasn’t bleeding, and she had no external injuries. Instead, frost covered her body from the waist down. “…What’s that?” It was as if her lower half had been put into a freezer. Two mages were touching her legs and chanting spells. Although the frost was gradually melting away, there was no change in her complexion. One of them noticed Shizuku and called out to her. “Oh! A girl? Perfect timing. There’s some hot water over there, so soak a cloth in it and rub her legs!” Shizuku was the only other woman in the room. She hurried over to the basin, took a cloth soaked in hot water, and, as the mage had instructed her, started rubbing the parts of the woman’s legs where the frost had melted. The water was hot, and the woman’s legs were as cold as ice, but she couldn’t worry about things like that right now. Shizuku put all her strength into warming up the woman’s skin. Beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. But no matter how much Shizuku rubbed, the warmth didn’t return to the pale skin. The frost had disappeared, but the woman’s body remained chilled to the core. Shizuku’s hands trembled with anxiety as she wrung out the cloth, and at that moment, she heard Harve’s voice. “Oh…” Everyone’s eyes, including Shizuku’s, turned to Harve. “It’s no use… Her soul has been taken.” He was effectively pronouncing the woman dead. His statement caused the atmosphere in the room to freeze over, dispersing the effort that everyone had put in like tiny bubbles on the wind. About twenty royal court mages had accompanied Leuticia on her journey north, meaning there weren’t many mages left in the castle. Still, even if the king’s sister had stayed behind, there was nothing she could have done. When a soul is stolen from a living being, the body eventually dies unless the soul is recovered. However, since nobody knew who’d taken the woman’s soul, they had no way of dealing with the situation. “So her body was found in an alley in the castle city… Who do you think did it?” Harve frowned, hearing Lars’s question. The king was doing a handstand on the courtyard lawn. Unpacking her lunch nearby, Shizuku found it hard to tell whether Harve was stumped by the king’s question or troubled by his strange behavior, but she figured it was probably the former. Harve had been involved in treating the victim and investigating her case. His brow furrowed deeper. “To tell you the truth, we have no idea who the perpetrator is. Taking a soul from a living person is no easy feat.” “Why? Can’t you just pull it out?” “If it were that easy, we’d have a problem on our hands. There are spells that can do it, but obviously, they’re forbidden curses. Apparently, they don’t work very well if the target struggles, and the soul doesn’t come out neatly if they’re unconscious or dazed… To put it bluntly, it’s easier to kill the person first and then take their soul.” Harve had obtained his knowledge of these forbidden curses via magical communications with Leuticia and Erik. Lars finally righted himself and snatched a pork-wrapped vegetable roll out of Shizuku’s lunchbox. “If it wasn’t a forbidden curse, could it have been the work of demons? It wouldn’t be the first time they’d done such a thing.” “The previous victims were all men, and it was succubi and water spirits extracting their souls… But that hasn’t happened in two hundred years. Besides, demons that target women consume them whole—flesh and blood included. Women are more stable in terms of magic, which makes it more difficult to extract their souls.” “Maybe the victim was actually a man.” “It was a woman.” When the female victim was found unconscious in an alley near the west gate of the castle city, there had been no sign of anyone suspicious in the area and nothing to suggest there’d been a struggle. Her legs had simply been frozen to the road. Lars kept snatching away more of her side dishes, and Shizuku—having initially put up a fight by moving her lunchbox out of his reach—eventually gave in and handed the whole thing to him. His arms were just too long for her to stop him. With her lunch disrupted, Shizuku instead decided to join in the conversation. “Do you think they froze her legs so that they could extract her soul?” “I wondered that, but I suspect it takes a pretty long time to restrain someone with ice. The victim would usually escape before the job was done, wouldn’t they?” “Hmm. Something about this doesn’t sit right with me. What would they even do with the extracted soul?” It was a basic question, yet a pensive look crossed Harve’s face. The man who’d stolen Shizuku’s lunch, on the other hand, sounded unfazed as he gave his response. “If a human did this, it must be for a forbidden spell. You can get more power from a living soul than a dead one. Or maybe it’s just for fun.” “Ugh, I don’t like either of those options,” said Shizuku. “By the way, Your Majesty, if you want a lunchbox, I can make you one of your own. Just don’t take mine.” “But you sneak in carrots when I let you make my food.” “Of course I do. You’ve got to stop being so picky. You’re twenty-seven.” “The food you make has a really interesting flavor.” “Is that supposed to be a compliment?!” The conversation had gone totally off track. Harve let out a sigh, making sure that the other two couldn’t hear it. Neither of them seemed bothered by this mysterious incident. Maybe that was because they had thick skin, or maybe it was because Erik and the princess were due back in a week. The next day, however, both Lars’s and Shizuku’s expressions had turned bitter. In the time between that conversation and the following afternoon, ten more victims were found in the castle city. Eleven victims had now been brought to the castle, including the first one. They were of varying ages, and they all looked different. The only thing that linked them was the fact that they were female. Emergency medical treatment was carried out on their bodies, which were being kept inside the castle, but unless their souls were retrieved within three days, they’d all die anyway. Over ten search parties—four-member teams consisting of both mages and soldiers—had been dispatched since the incidents began to occur, but no perpetrators or stolen souls had been tracked down. “What a creepy story…” Inside the bustling, agitated castle, Shizuku was talking to Mea as she added color to her picture book. There was nothing Shizuku could do about incidents like this. She knew that, but the fact remained that her anxiety was weakening her concentration. Having accidentally dropped her paintbrush on the edge of her paper by its point, she let out a deep sigh. She reached out to the little bird, who was sitting on the table pecking at candies. “Can you extract people’s souls, Mea?” This question prompted Mea to return to her girl form and take a seat opposite her master. “No, I can’t. I have been blessed with a great amount of magical power, but I don’t know complicated spells like human mages do.” Having been created as a type of magical equipment by a high-ranking demon, Mea was powerful when it came to simple attack or defense magic, but complex spells like those required for healing weren’t her strong point. “I see,” Shizuku replied, then after a few moments asked, “Do you think it’d be out of the question for other demons, too?” “I’m not sure. I know there are some female demons who have successfully extracted souls, but I doubt they’d go after women. Female souls are hard, and I’m sure they take a lot of time. I think it’s highly likely that this is the result of a man-made spell.” “Hmm. I guess it really must’ve been a human.” It was easier for Shizuku to imagine this being the result of a human’s evil deeds than the work of a “demon,” a being she didn’t fully understand. The possibility that a person was using a forbidden curse was likely the cause of the unrest within the castle. The magic kingdom of Farsas was famed worldwide for its lack of tolerance toward forbidden curses. The string of incidents that had occurred within its castle city was definitely a test for the country. If they didn’t solve the case before more victims appeared, it would raise doubts about the nation’s competence. Shizuku frowned. “There are five whole days until Leuticia gets back.” The princess and her team had their hands full skirmishing with demons and helping the local residents in the north of Farsas. Shizuku also found herself worrying about Kisk, where the people’s suspicions still hadn’t been completely cleared. Mea noticed her master was distracted and gave her some hard advice. “You should focus on your work for now, Master.” “Ugh, you’re right.” Shizuku could only do what she was capable of. That was how she lived her life in this new world. Following Mea’s advice, she picked up the brush she’d put down and carefully started painting again. That same day, Shizuku ended up having lunch outside the castle. Harve had come to pay her a visit and invited her out. “I’m going back to my parents’ place to pick up some stuff. Want to come and have lunch with me?” he’d asked. Harve’s family ran an inn in the castle city. Shizuku had stayed there before. It was the perfect spot to go for a change of scenery, only a short distance away from the castle. “Sure. Lately, whenever I make my own lunch, the king just steals it from me.” “He only does that because he enjoys winding you up. Just ignore him.” “Easier said than done…” The streets of the castle city were less crowded than usual, presumably because of the ongoing incident. Most of the people around were travelers and merchants, and there weren’t many young women about. Shizuku ran her fingers through her loose hair. Every so often, there was a strong gust of wind, which threatened to tangle it. Harve, walking beside her, suddenly asked a question. “Your assistant demon didn’t want to join you today?” “She said she wanted to do a deep clean of my room. Besides, Mea doesn’t really need regular meals.” “I see. Being a demon, she must be powered by her own natural magical energy.” “You make it sound like she runs on solar power…” It was an overcast day, and the sun was hidden behind the clouds. Shizuku closed her eyes as the wind sent a swirl of dust into the air. Once the familiar inn came into view, Harve cocked his head to one side. “Huh? It’s closed.” “Why’s that?” “Maybe we’re early. I’ll go around the back and open up. Wait here.” Harve left Shizuku at the front of the inn and disappeared around the building. Alone, standing before the door, Shizuku looked up at the sky. The town seemed normal enough, but the criminal who’d been stealing women’s souls was still at large, presumably lying low somewhere. Shizuku glanced back at the door. The curtains were drawn. At that moment, she heard a faint scream. “Huh?” Shizuku looked around, but she couldn’t see where the scream had come from. She knocked gently on the closed door, but there was no response. Just as she was about to call out for Harve, there was another scream, clearer this time. It was the cry of a little girl. Shizuku wavered for a moment—but there was no time to hesitate. She took her notebook out of her pocket, left a note by the door, and started running in the direction the sound had come from. She turned a corner, entering a narrow alley. As she ran down the branching alleyways, Shizuku felt something strange brush against her ears, almost as if the air pressure had changed. She grimaced as she searched for the source of the scream, peering around every corner she went past. “Help…!” It was a feeble cry. If it had sounded more like a grownup’s voice, Shizuku might have been more cautious. When she finally found the person sobbing in a dead end, it turned out to be a girl around the age of five. She had long blond hair and a slender frame. Her small feet and the red shoes covering them were frozen to the cobblestones. The child’s face was contorted in fear. As soon as she saw Shizuku, she started to shriek. “It hurts! It hurts so bad!” “J-just give me a moment!” Shizuku hurried over to the girl and took a closer look at her feet. Her frost-covered calves were icy to the touch, just like the first victim’s had been. Trying to put the girl a little more at ease, Shizuku forced a smile. “You’ll be okay. I’m going to help you.” Shizuku tried to take the girl’s frozen feet out of her shoes, but they wouldn’t budge. She wasn’t fastened very firmly to the ground, though. If Shizuku melted the ice a bit, she would probably be able to yank the shoes free from the cobblestones. “I’m going to go get some hot water… Wait, maybe I should stay here. Can anyone hear me?!” It was dangerous to leave the little girl here by herself. Still, despite Shizuku’s shouts, nobody seemed to be coming to help. Shizuku quickly came up with a new idea and placed her palms on the thin layer of ice covering the ground. It was so cold that it was slightly painful to touch, but nevertheless, Shizuku began to melt the ice with her body heat. She continued to wipe her wet hands on her clothes as she melted the ice. “M-miss…” “It’ll be fine.” The ground itself seemed to be frozen solid, and Shizuku felt a chill gradually seep into her body as she knelt on it. She began to lose feeling in her toes, but this was no time to complain. The little girl’s foot seemed to be getting looser, so she clung onto that hope. Shizuku kept calling for help as she rubbed her hands on the ice, trying to melt it. The dizziness hit just as the girl’s foot was about to come loose. Shizuku placed a hand on the ground to keep herself steady. It was a familiar sensation—one she felt she’d experienced before. Something was writhing around in her body. She looked up at the child, her vision blurred. The young girl wasn’t crying anymore. All traces of fear had disappeared from her face. Instead, she was staring at Shizuku, her eyes crimson and inhuman. Once again, something shifted inside Shizuku. “It’s…like that…huh?” Shizuku was on the verge of collapsing, using her hands to hold herself up. Her lower legs were now covered in multiple layers of frost where they touched the ground, cutting off the sensation. The moment she realized this, an icy pain surged through her veins. How had the women’s souls been extracted? Had a human used a forbidden curse, or was it the work of a demon? The answer was the latter. Shizuku tried to force blood into her frozen legs. Extracting a woman’s soul took a while—so the “child” pretended to be a victim to buy herself time. Fastened to the ground, Shizuku felt nauseous as the force groped around inside her, attempting to extract her soul. She slapped her hands against her legs, which were beginning to go numb from the pain. “You hurt me. You tricked me… Why don’t you just give up?” There was a note of defiance in Shizuku’s voice. The demon’s expression had been blank until that point, but her eyes widened, surprised by her prey’s unexpected shift in attitude. Shizuku gave her a caustic smile. “Having trouble pulling it out? I can’t say I’m surprised—my soul’s a little different from other people’s. Sorry to disappoint.” “…What are you?” “An anomaly. Mea!” An intangible force appeared, ready to fight back in response to Shizuku’s cry. The demon sensed it and leaped away, confused. The small bird hidden in Shizuku’s bosom transformed into a young girl and stood in front of her. “Your orders, Master?” “Capture her, if possible. Do you think you’ll be able to?” “I’ll try.” Mea unleashed her power, not even needing an incantation. The frost covering the ground shattered, and Shizuku staggered back to her feet. Her legs hadn’t completely frozen, and she rubbed them, facing straight ahead. “It’s your job to act as the bait.” That was the concise command Shizuku had been given earlier that day. A person whose soul had been stolen could only survive for about three days, meaning that Farsas needed to catch the perpetrator as soon as possible if they wanted to prevent the victims’ deaths. Lars had made the decision to get Shizuku to walk around as bait. At the same time, he would increase the number of people on patrol and keep ordinary citizens off the streets. It was a dangerous plan, designed to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Harve had been against it, worried it might fail—but after careful consideration, Shizuku had agreed to go along with it. She’d have Mea with her. Since she possessed no magical power of her own, she would seem defenseless. Plus, her soul was unique. If everything went according to plan, she could catch the culprit off-guard. Yet by no means was it a low-stakes gamble. “…When I saw you, I felt the urge to help—but I also suspected it might have been a trap.” And so, Shizuku had tried to save the child on her own, keeping Mea hidden to avoid revealing her trump card to any lurking enemies. “Now this is your chance to surrender. Give back the souls you’ve stolen.” Shizuku’s confident demand made the red-eyed demon step away, grasping the white beaded necklace she’d been hiding beneath her clothes. Shizuku’s eyes were drawn to the murky pearls, which were glowing from the inside. You don’t think… Are they the human souls? This was just a hunch for Shizuku, but Mea seemed certain. She took a big step forward. “I’m going to get them back.” The red-eyed demon turned away and leaped high into the air, landing on a rooftop. Shizuku’s eyes bulged with shock at the girl’s inhuman movements. “Mea! Lift me up onto the roof!” Shizuku was enveloped by a floating sensation, which made her feel as though she were on a roller coaster. By the time she’d instinctively hunched over in a ball, Mea had already let her down on the roof. When the demon saw Shizuku, she leaped onto the next rooftop. I can’t let her get away. Shizuku forced her unsteady legs to move and started running. With Mea’s assistance, she leaped from roof to roof. “Eek, this is scary! Wait up!” There was no way the demon was going to comply with Shizuku’s command. Shizuku took out the knife she’d been given to capture the demon with and hurled the magic implement toward the fleeing demon’s back. The silver blade whizzed gently through the air, homing in on the demon—but just as it was about to pierce her narrow back, the girl dodged to the side, causing the knife to bounce off the roof with a thud. However, dodging the knife had caused the demon to become unsteady on her feet, creating an opening that Mea wasn’t going to miss. “Here I go!” Mea kicked herself off the roof and leaped through the air. She held her right arm up above her head, then cut down her enemy from the side. The small, red-eyed demon was sent flying, crashing into the roof with such force that it made the entire building creak. “Agh…!” She looked just like a human child as she writhed around, letting out pained cries. But Shizuku repressed the swell of sympathy and rushed over to the demon, reaching out for her neck. She located the white pearl necklace and pulled it directly upward. The necklace was too big for a child’s neck, so it slipped off into Shizuku’s hand easily. Before she knew it, Shizuku had started running her eyes across the white pearls, counting them. “Master!” Shizuku heard Mea trying to warn her—but by that point, she was already aware of the threat. The demon whose necklace Shizuku had taken was transforming, her childlike hands changing into giant, reddish-black ones. Shizuku saw it, but she wasn’t going to be able to get away. She instinctively took a step back, but the massive hand came crashing down toward her at an alarming speed. Don’t close your eyes, Shizuku thought to herself—but she didn’t want to see herself getting crushed, either. She closed her eyes and shielded her head with her hands. A huge sound reverberated around her, like something being deflected by the air. The impact made Shizuku lose her balance, and she thumped down on her backside. She couldn’t help but let out a small shriek—but then someone pulled her by the arm. “Well done keeping her pinned down.” Shizuku heard someone speaking to her, their voice familiar and pompous. Shizuku let out a sigh, having realized her work was complete. She opened her eyes to discover two men standing beside her. “Are you all right?” asked Harve, who’d cast the protective barrier around her. The king had also shown up with him. Wielding Akashia, he made a single elegant motion to sever the arm of the demon, who’d penetrated the barrier. “Gyaaahhh!” Still holding the necklace in her hand, Shizuku instinctively covered her ears at the sound of the demon’s shriek. As Lars stepped forward, however, the screaming soon vanished into thin air. The demon turned and fled, seeing the king of Farsas preparing to strike again. “Hey, come on. Don’t run away,” he complained. Nobody would obey an order like that. The demon, still in the form of a little girl, was unsteady due to her missing arm, but she still managed to jump onto the next rooftop. Lars began chasing the demon himself. Harve had been holding Shizuku up, but he quickly hurried after his master. This movement must have acted as a signal, as more mages and soldiers began to appear on the ground. Relieved, Shizuku examined the stolen necklace. “It’s…so warm.” The white beads were warm to the touch. It almost felt as though they were alive. Shizuku counted more than thirty pearls. If the souls were returned to their respective bodies, the people who were being cared for at the castle were sure to wake up. She turned to Mea, who was standing beside her. “Mea, could you take me down to—” But before Shizuku could finish her sentence, Mea suddenly disappeared from sight. “Huh?” Her demon assistant slammed into the glass window of a neighboring house and vanished. With Mea gone, a man reached out toward Shizuku. His hand appeared out of nowhere, grabbing the necklace she was holding. “I’ll be taking that back.” His voice was low. As he tugged hard on the string, Shizuku pulled it back in a panic. “N-no!” Shizuku’s defiance made the man smile. Dressed entirely in black, it wasn’t clear how he’d appeared on the roof. He elegantly raised his empty left hand. “…” Shizuku was instinctively distrustful. The predator’s intense gaze made her cower in fear. Yet, despite this, Shizuku still refused to let go. With a casual snap of his fingers, the air transformed into several blades. Shizuku could hear the king shouting furiously in the distance. “You fool! Let go!” A barrier formed in front of Shizuku’s eyes. Truce, the royal chief mage, shoved her aside. A moment later, he collapsed, fresh blood spurting from his body. The same blade that had sliced his skin started descending toward Shizuku’s right hand—the one she was clutching the necklace in. Time felt like it was passing at a crawl. Shizuku stared at the white beads in her hand. Each of those beads must contain a person’s soul. She couldn’t let someone snatch those lives away. So Shizuku refused to let go. And without a sound, her five fingers were sliced off. “Aaaaaaaaahhh!” Shizuku’s scream echoed throughout that corner of the castle city. Overwhelmed by confusion and agony, her mind went blank. Her fingers had been severed and the string of the necklace had been sliced through, leaving the beads to scatter across the rooftop. The vision of the white balls and her fingers seemed to merge into one. However, only the white beads gradually moved toward the hand of the man in black, as if pulled by invisible threads. Shizuku’s mind was close to breaking point. She was about to pass out from the pain—but her fear of having the beads stolen jolted her into action again. She raised her left hand and stretched out her arm, trying to grab the white beads floating away from her, but her body wasn’t moving the way she wanted it to. Several of the beads collided with her hand and fell to the ground. “What a boring attempt to interfere…” The man looked displeased as another blade formed in his hand. Before he had the chance to use it, however, he leaped out of the way, and Akashia’s blade sliced through the spot where he’d just been standing. Without saying a word, Lars moved a step closer, swinging his sword at a remarkable speed. Having taken a big step back to avoid the weapon, the man looked down at the dozen or so beads he’d drawn into his hand. He flashed a sinister smile. “This is all, huh? Oh well.” The man vanished into thin air, not even using an incantation. All that remained was pain, confusion, and the smell of blood. With that, the inexplicable chain of events that occurred in the castle city drew to a close. “How much damage was done in the end?” Leuticia asked with a sigh. The king, sitting at his office desk with his chin in his hands, couldn’t conceal his bitterness when he heard his sister’s query. He ruffled up the front of his hair with his hand. “Nineteen souls have been retrieved. Of those nineteen, we only saved eight of the bodies. The rest are being searched for in nearby towns, but if these incidents happened in an ordinary town, the victims are likely already dead.” “That’s true. There were some similar cases in the north a while ago, and the victims died within three days.” Through her investigation into the incident in the castle city, Leuticia had discovered that cases involving people having their legs frozen and their souls extracted stretched from the northwest of Farsas all the way to the castle city. In all, there had been a total of about a hundred cases. This major incident hadn’t come to light before now because it had gotten lost amid the chaos of demon attacks in the north, and any other town had only had one or two casualties. The people who discovered the victims were suspicious of the circumstances, but since there were such few cases, they didn’t think it was worth reporting to the castle. Over a dozen people had been attacked in the castle city, but that was probably simply because its population was far larger than that of those other towns. Lars let out a deep sigh, the report lying in front of him. “According to that girl, there were about thirty soul beads. The rest were taken away.” “They probably hired several water spirits for the job. What did the one we captured say?” “Not much. It’s hard to interrogate demons.” “Let’s have Silfa do it, then.” The mention of the royal family’s spirit brought the conversation to a pause. Leuticia shook her head decisively, then picked up a piece of paper. “Putting that aside for the moment…the man who attacked Shizuku is a high-ranking demon, according to everybody’s testimonies. It’s fortunate there were no casualties, whether you were there or not. It’s a shame we couldn’t get all the souls back, but there’s nothing we can do about that now. If a demon like that was serious about escaping, he would be impossible to catch.” “Don’t soften the blow. I’m the one who messed up.” Leuticia looked troubled by her brother’s unusually curt tone. She wasn’t trying to make him feel better—she genuinely believed the situation was inevitable. Even so, Lars probably had his own thoughts on the matter. He was the only one at the scene who could have taken on the high-ranking demon, so he should’ve had his subordinates capture the fleeing demon and focused on retrieving the necklace himself. They’d never expected a high-ranking demon to intervene, however, and he had them completely at his mercy. As a result, Truce and Mea had been severely injured and Shizuku’s fingers had been cut off. While their wounds had been healed with magic, it was far from an ideal outcome. Lars kicked his desk and leaned back in his chair. He rarely let his true feelings surface, but they were coming to the fore now, tinged with self-recrimination. The expression on her brother’s face was one Leuticia hadn’t seen for a long time. She puzzled over what to say to him, but ultimately chose to remain silent. She just waited quietly, neither interfering in the matter nor consoling him. It wasn’t a difficult thing to do. Even if he needed a long time. After all, they’d ignored this distance between them for over twenty years. The curtains in her room were drawn, blocking out the daylight. It was silent. On a small sheet near the window, a little green bird was asleep. The woman to whom the room belonged, meanwhile, sat on the bed clutching her knees against her chest. Her eyes were closed, but she wasn’t sleeping. She only looked up when the door opened. “Shizuku.” The man who’d called her name paid no mind to how dark the room was. He lit the lamp and stood in front of the bed. Then he reached out and took her right hand. There was no sign that her fingers had been sliced off. They were just trembling slightly. Once he’d checked that she was fine, he let go. “Looks like you still have your fingers. That’s a relief.” “Erik…” “I heard what happened. That was way too reckless. You mustn’t underestimate demons.” He was reprimanding her, but his tone was neither warm nor aggressive. His words just showed that he cared. Upon hearing this, Shizuku felt the tension inside her dissipate. She closed her teary eyes and buried her face in her knees. “I—I wanted to get their souls back.” “I know,” Erik replied. “But I couldn’t. So many of them got taken away…” “What’s done is done.” Shizuku hadn’t been able to retrieve the souls of three of the women whose bodies had been kept in the castle. She was relieved to see some of the victims regain consciousness, but she’d also witnessed the ones they couldn’t save being handed back to their families. “Why couldn’t you save her?” a boy had cried as he clung to his mother, who grew colder by the second. That was something that would stay with Shizuku forever. The regret of failing to grab the white beads bothered her much more than the horror of losing her fingers. Erik sat next to Shizuku as she shed silent tears. He lowered his faraway gaze, then gently patted her small head. “If you’re spending time thinking about the lives you couldn’t save, you should think about the ones you did save, too. You need to look at the whole picture if you’re going to learn from the experience.” It was hard to tell whether he was trying to encourage or scold her. This form of consolation was very characteristic of Erik, and Shizuku couldn’t help but bite her lip. After an extended moment of silence, she finally strained a raspy voice from deep down inside her throat. “It’s difficult,” she said. “I know. Well, hopefully you never encounter a high-ranking demon again.” What would she do if there was a next time? Shizuku didn’t know the answer. Still, she was grateful that the pain had dulled a little. And that she wasn’t alone. The corpses were piled high. Their arms were bent. Their legs had turned dark and discolored. Their wings were tattered, and their eyes had clouded over. Countless destroyed bodies were haphazardly tangled together, creating a grotesque scene. Nothing moved. There was no sign of life, no sense of individuality. Occasionally, a cold wind from outside would come through, gently ruffling an unidentifiable person’s hair. The cold space resembled a temple hall. A lone woman gazed down at the atrium of the abandoned castle. The corpses of both humans and demons were piled up inside the room, which stretched across multiple stories. Confronted with the stark reality of death, the woman’s eyes were devoid of emotion. She simply saw the scene for what it was: a mound of dead bodies. “—Aviella.” The man’s calm voice made her turn around. Having returned to the castle, he opened his hands to reveal a dozen white beads. Aviella nodded magnanimously. “Oh. You got them back? I appreciate the effort.” “I don’t mind. But those would-be low-ranking demons are a liability. It was fine to have them roam the towns, but they ended up going all the way to the castle city of Farsas.” “I see. Does that mean the Farsasian royal family has caught on?” “The wielder of Akashia chased after me.” This blunt report made the woman burst out laughing. Sensing there was no danger in her response, the man shrugged his shoulders. “You’re pretty calm. Is it because you’re a witch now?” he teased, peering over the railing at the pile of corpses below. They were the bodies of the summoned demons and the humans who had tried to defeat them. The demons who’d been drawn to power, and the people who’d been abducted. By now, the bodies that formed this small hill were nothing more than a chaotic jumble of broken remains. It was a gruesome yet solemn picture of the end, where the barriers of species were well and truly meaningless. The woman smiled weakly, then looked down at a necklace that had fallen at her feet. The large ruby pendant had a deep crack running through it. “I’m not exactly a witch. I’m no different from you at the end of the day. Just to be clear, though, I had no particular desire for magical power. The woman you brought here simply insulted humans too much, so I decided to trap her within the prison of her own body.”
Chapter 45
48 min read