The map marked the burned areas of Tempe. Most of the land had been reduced to ashes, and soon the Teike Plains would suffer the same fate.

As she quietly calculated their route, Gentian pointed at the map and pressed her for an answer.

“En, you can’t take revenge alone. So stay with us. The demons are stronger than you think.”

The hand covering the map was full of scars, mostly burn marks from clashes with holy power. Every time Vienny saw Gentian’s scars, she couldn’t help but think of someone else.

Flames, the colour blue, purification, the Inquisitor – all these things brought him to mind. And whenever she thought of him, she found herself biting her lip.

The taste of blood in her mouth startled Vienny back to her senses. She moistened her lips with her tongue and spoke in a deliberately calm voice.

“Our partnership has been very useful over the past year. But…”

“Useful, you say?”

“Gentian, my revenge is something beyond what you can even imagine.”

Gentian, about to express his disappointment, stopped at the firm line she had drawn between them.

“So parting ways now is the greatest kindness I can offer you.”

Gentian still looked unconvinced, but Vienny had no intention of changing her mind. In truth, it was for his own good to keep his distance now, as long as Gentian knew nothing.

There was no need to hurt a young man so full of pure revenge and sense of justice. With his innocent trust in her, how great would his sense of betrayal be if he ever discovered that her words had been lies from the beginning?

Vienny looked down at the map again. She had deliberately chosen not to tell Gentian that her revenge was not on Chiron. And she intended to keep it that way.

* * *

After their conversation, Gentian seemed upset and was silent for the rest of their journey. Later that evening, he excused himself, saying he needed to contact his comrades, and left.

With nothing else to do, Vienny sat quietly looking up at the sky. Tonight the sky was perfectly clear and the moon appeared large and bright.

The moonlight was so strong that it hid the stars around it. It seemed almost selfish to her.

The bright moonlight illuminated the world, but that didn’t mean the faint light of the stars was worthless. As the moon’s light gradually consumed each star around it, it would eventually leave only the moon alone, hanging in the vast black sky.

When Chiron had finished purifying everything around him, taking over the entire continent, would that be the salvation of the world, or would it be its end?

Perhaps this whole disaster was the very end that the Great Witch should have foreseen. They had said that her death could prevent the Apocalypse – so if she were to die now, would that be the end of Tempe’s disaster?

If that were the case, Vienny would cling to life until every last part of Tempe was consumed by fire. She had no desire to prevent that end.

“En.”

Vienny, who had been sitting idly, came to her senses. Gentian approached her with a slightly urgent expression.

“It looks like the others are in danger.”

“I thought you said they wouldn’t be active for a while.”

“Looks like they were wrapping things up, but got ambushed instead.”

The demons relied mainly on information from Vienny. She remembered the last piece of information she had given them.

It had been about an Inquisitor camp. She had found a camp near the Iren Crossroads, not far from the Teike Plains, where the Inquisitors had finished a witch hunt and were regrouping to assess their overall situation.

She remembered that she had warned them to avoid that area because she knew the camp was there. And then, a few days later, when she’d linked up with the owl, she’d seen the camp again.

The camp was still there. But…

“…they met him.”

When rumours of his return had just begun to circulate, she had been startled to see him on the scene so soon. The Ifen Crossroads was quite deep in Tempe, a place that would take several days to reach from Raven Castle.

Unless he had ridden day and night without rest, how could he be there already? But it didn’t matter how he got there.

What mattered was that as soon as McClart had returned to Raven Castle, he had wasted no time in closing the gap between them. It was only natural that the moment Vienny awoke, she had decided to leave the hiding place and flee immediately.

“I need to see for myself.”

Vienny instinctively grabbed his arm.

“It’s dangerous.”

Gentian looked at her, surprised at the rare, almost panicked look on her face as she tried to stop him. But he shook his head quickly, his expression becoming serious.

“I have fought many heretic inquisitors in the past year. I will not go down so easily.”

As he hurried to prepare to leave, Gentian paused, noticing Vienny’s tense, hardened expression. Sighing, he scratched the back of his head and spoke in a tone of resignation.

“I am sorry. I insisted we travel together and now I’m leaving you like this.”

He was worried about leaving Vienny alone. Unlike before, he wasn’t leaving her in a safe hiding place, but in the middle of an open plain, and that weighed on him.

Vienny wasn’t feeling well either, but not because she was being left alone. She was more worried about Gentian’s safety – and perhaps her own, should anything lead McClart back to her through Gentian.

The memory of those piercing blue eyes focused intently on the owl made her chest tighten. Had he noticed who was watching through the owl’s eyes?

“Gentian, I have a bad feeling. You shouldn’t go.”

“You’re just worried about me, aren’t you?”

“This isn’t a joke.”

Vienny’s voice rose slightly, but Gentian just grinned and tried to calm her down.

“There’s no place to hide on the plains, so we need to get through quickly. You should keep moving, too.”

Vienny opened her mouth to speak, but ended up pressing her hand to her forehead with a deep sigh. No matter what she said, it was clear that Gentian was determined to get to the camp where McClart was.

The realisation left her feeling drained. After all, they had supported each other over the past year, and now to see him walk straight into obvious danger weighed heavily on her.

A year ago, at the body disposal site, Gentian had escaped harm only because he had been preoccupied with something else, away from the scene. As he watched his comrades face execution, he had vowed to live on and take revenge in their behalf.

Perhaps he saw this as his chance to finally get his revenge. If that was the case, Vienny had no reason to stop him.

“Fine. Do what you want.”

Finally, Vienny nodded and let him go. She also began to pack her things to move on.

As he watched her earnestly organise her belongings, Gentian furrowed his brow, looking conflicted. After a long, thoughtful pause, he spoke just as Vienny finished gathering her things.

“En, if it’s okay… could you wait for me in Hellem Forest? I have something to tell you.”

He only hinted that he had something to tell her, but Vienny already had a feeling what that “something” might be.

Seeing Gentian’s face blush a deep red as he hesitated, it was clear that he was probably imagining some grand return, imagining himself triumphantly confessing his revenge.

It was a fanciful, almost dreamlike notion, completely out of touch with reality. Vienny looked at him with a stern expression.

“No, I…”

At that moment, something as light as a feather touched her lips and disappeared.

“I’m definitely coming back!”

The naive and foolish young man turned away hastily, as if afraid to wait for her answer.

Vienny froze for a moment, caught off guard by the light touch that barely qualified as a kiss. She tried to call out to him, but Gentian hurried away as if someone had pushed him from behind.

His retreating figure exuded the youthful bravado of a young man. The battles he had fought with other demons in Tempe over the past year seemed to have instilled him with confidence.

Vienny watched his back until he was out of sight, then let out a long sigh and turned in the opposite direction. Her steps felt particularly heavy as she limped away.

* * *

The half-burned blanket still bore dried traces of blood. McClart stared at it for a long time.

Though the place and situation were different, that single blanket brought back vivid memories of the past. The day the rain poured down, the smell of blood filling the tent, her pale, drenched face, the blue of her lips, and the cloak slipping from his fingers.

“Looks like she lived here until recently,” the soldier reported.

McClart nodded slowly. The lingering scent alone gave him a clear picture of the situation. This had probably been the Great Witch’s primary hiding place – perhaps even used for the entire past year.

After the fall from the waterfall, she must have been injured, making it too difficult for her to travel far. It was only natural that she would settle nearby.

If only he had realised it then. But seeing her fall before his eyes had left him too shaken to make an objective judgement. In retrospect, the lost year felt like a bitter waste.

Though she had tried to cover her tracks, McClart could easily detect the faint, familiar scent in the air from the entrance to the cave.

He knew from that alone that she was still using her own blood, and now, as he entered the hiding place, he had the proof in front of him.

“And… it looks like she wasn’t alone,” the soldier added cautiously.

McClart’s blue eyes darkened slightly. Standing with his hands clasped behind his back, he turned, expressionless.

The hiding place, already searched by the soldiers, was a complete mess, far from its original state. Walking through the chaotic room, McClart gestured to the soldier.

“Bring me the demon.”

Soon, a bloodied demon was dragged in by two soldiers, barely alive and in such a brutal state that even the nearby soldiers looked unsettled.