The white breath spread over the blue air.

Louise gently wrapped a light scarf around Eve’s neck and tied it firmly.

As if to check if the rough brown scarf was properly tied, Eve grabbed Louise’s hand as she neatly patted it.

“I’m going to learn to count to a hundred.”

Eve said, staring at Louise intently.

At that, Louise’s hands that were tying the scarf stopped.

She looked into her daughter’s eyes for a moment and nodded.

“Alright. Your uncle is good with numbers, so you can count together with him. Right?”

She smiled brightly, trying hard to ignore the lingering disappointment on the child’s face.

Eve still wanted to be with her mother.

Knowing how she felt, Louise had to pretend not to know even more.

“Mom, you have to come back after sleeping for a hundred nights!”

As Eve sniffled, Louise couldn’t bring herself to answer with a lie and nodded faintly.

“You know mommy loves you very much, right?”

Instead of saying ‘yes’, the words she uttered were a bit cowardly.

Perhaps sensing that cowardice implicitly, Eve’s lips trembled.

“I don’t know!”

Eve, who had been clinging tightly to Louise the whole time, angrily pulled her hand away from her mother’s as if upset and ran to Eclas.

Looking at the child’s back, it felt like her heart was melting hotly like molten iron and crumbling.

Seeing Eve who ran to him and grabbed his pant leg, Eclas comforted the child with an embarrassed look on his face.

“Eve, you have to say goodbye to your mother.”

“No. I’m just going to go!”

Eve pulled Eclas and headed towards the carriage first.

“Eve.”

Eclas lifted Eve up to make her look at her mother.

But Eve turned her head and turned away from Louise.

“Eve, are you going to leave without saying goodbye to your mother?”

Eclas asked in a rather stern voice.

It could be a farewell with no promise of when they would meet again.

Ending it like this would not be good for either Eve or Louise.

He hoped that Eve would not regret parting with her mother like this someday.

Then Eve trembled her lips that she had kept tightly shut.

“You said we’ll meet after a hundred nights of sleep! So I’m not saying goodbye!”

Blurting out what she wanted to say, Eve finally burst into tears.

Looking at the child’s face crumpled up, Louise barely held back the tears that were about to burst out.

She eventually ran to Eve, who was being held by Eclas, and took the child into her arms instead.

“Yes, let’s meet after a hundred nights, Eve.”

“Can’t you come tomorrow instead of a hundred nights?”

Eve asked, shedding tears profusely.

Swallowing the emotions that had risen to her chin precariously, Louise wiped the child’s face covered in tears and snot.

“Yes, mommy will come as soon as possible.”

“I like mommy, but…!”

Eve buried her face in Louise’s shoulder and cried.

Louise nodded, patting Eve’s back.

“Mommy loves Eve the most in the world too.”

“I love mommy more!”

At the child’s words spilled out while wailing, a breath that could be laughter or crying burst out.

To think there was someone who loved me unconditionally like this.

It was a happy thing.

“Mommy might love Eve more?”

Louise smiled hard and comforted Eve.

The spot where she held the child in the cold air became warm.

Only after Louise comforted her for a long time did Eve stop crying.

She wiped Eve’s wet face again and looked into Eve’s eyes with a smile.

“Give mommy kisses as much as you love her.”

When Louise asked, Eve gave her a peck on the cheek with her crying face.

As if that wasn’t enough, she kept leaving saliva marks all over her mother’s face like a woodpecker, giving her kisses.

Louise laughed at the endless affection.

“It’s true, Eve loves mommy a lot.”

“Mommy, give me kisses too!”

At Eve’s whining, Louise also kissed Eve’s forehead, bridge of her nose, cheeks, and lips many times.

Then, as if her sad feelings had subsided a little, a faint smile appeared on Eve’s face.

Louise carried Eve to the carriage and personally lifted the child into it.

The small hand that had been clinging to her lapel as if not wanting to let go was detached.

“You have to stay healthy until you see mommy again, Eve.”

Eve nodded.

“Mommy too.”

Louise stroked the head of the child who was bidding farewell to her and hurriedly stepped back.

If she faced Eve any longer, she felt like she wouldn’t be able to control her heart.

“Baron Eclas.”

Clutching her heart that was burning hotly, Louise looked at Eclas.

“…I’ll ask you to take good care of Eve.”

She still wasn’t sure if entrusting Eve to Eclas was the best thing to do.

But one thing was clear: that Eve had to leave this place right now. And the only person who could do that was Eclas.

She couldn’t show Eve the sight of punishment, and also…

“The weather has gotten very cold.”

Yes, winter had come with white breath spreading.

A winter where both cheeks turn red from the cold wind.

The two of them knew what the chill seeping into their collars meant.

When the dragon of the perpetual snow awakens, Paradel would not be safe.

Louise hoped that Eve, who had overcome Dietrich’s crisis, would not be in danger again.

“Take care of yourself.”

As Eclas took off his gloves and held out his hand, a light smile crossed Louise’s two cheeks that had been frozen.

Because his concern for her well-being, which she would not die from, sounded just like a trivial joke. Even though Eclas’s face was endlessly serious.

“Really, I was very grateful.”

Louise lightly grabbed his outstretched hand and smiled.

The fingertips frozen by the cold wind closed.

Louise suddenly thought.

Perhaps even the time given to prepare for farewell was a blessing from God.

Under the frozen gray sky, a mocking smile leaked out.

In a secluded corner of the valley. In the crevices of the monsters’ nests.

Sched stood in front of the small stone gate blocking him, rolling his bloodshot eyes.

“See, it was here…”

The moment his intuition turned into certainty, he muttered like a madman.

The reward for searching day and night for several days made his blood-soaked body shudder.

His red eyes stared at the stone gate in front of him as if to pierce through it.

The stone gate, hidden by the thorny bushes that had grown over many years, was sealed with a sturdy chain.

Cutting the thick chain was nothing to him who used aura, but he couldn’t easily raise his sword in front of the chain.

It was because of the black letters intertwined on the chain.

Although he didn’t know much about black magic spells, having faced black magic several times, he could tell.

That the letters wrapping the chain were traces of old heresy.

“Always the same…”

He spat out the fishy liquid pooled in his mouth and muttered dryly.

Black magic that uses life force as its source. What that spell wanted was obvious.

To open that door, a sacrifice was needed.

A sacrifice of life, in some form.

So he became afraid.

He was not afraid to sacrifice his own life. He was confident he could endure any pain.

He was just afraid that his life would be insufficient to open that door.

That even if he poured all his strength, he might not be able to unlock this seal.

That this might be the end of his limits.

That he might not be able to save Louise.

He looked up at the gray sky again.

It was after daybreak on the fifth day since the archbishops were supposed to arrive.

If Eclas had bought time as he wished, that would be fortunate, but there was no room to find another way.

He wiped his sword that had turned red with blood and put it away.

And looking at his hand with bulging veins, he briefly gauged how much of his life remained.

The hand that had been searching the valley without rest for days was trembling finely regardless of his will.

As if to calm his trembling hand, he clenched it tightly.

May my breath not be shorter than your pain.

He slowly reached out his weakened hand toward the chain sealing the stone gate.

At that moment, the long-starved magic opened its mouth like a huge monster and swallowed him whole.

The glass that had contained wine became empty in an instant and was placed on the table.

Giselle swallowed the sharp taste that went down her throat and looked out the window with a dull expression.

“It feels even more unpleasant than I thought.”

The red liquor filled the glass again.

Eve and Eclas had left. It was an unavoidable measure. Still, after seeing the poignant parting of the mother and daughter, she couldn’t shake off the feeling that she had become a bad person.

After the carriage carrying Eve left, Giselle saw Louise sitting on the ground.

The woman called a demon sat on the cold ground and trembled with her body lowered for a long time.

The trembling body was small and powerless.

The shoulders trying to bear the weight of the given fate seemed like they would shatter at any moment.

Giselle stared at the figure of the woman left alone outside the window for a long time.

The demon was over there, but she felt like she had taken on the role of the villain.

“Honestly, I did as much as I could for them.”

Giselle roughly ran her hand over her face, trying to shake off the terrible afterimage.

She had accommodated Louise and Eve’s convenience to the point where they should be grateful for life.

So there was no reason to feel this unpleasant…

“You’re right, you did everything you could for us.”

Then, a calm voice was heard.

As Giselle frowned and turned her head, Louise walked into the room.

Gone was the peaceful and neat appearance of crying alone during the day.

It wouldn’t be possible to pull oneself together emotionally in just half a day.

She really knew how to wear a solid mask.

How many times did it take to forge such a solid mask?

The contents she had seen in Dietrich’s research journal flashed through her mind for a moment.

Just thinking about those contents made her stomach churn, so she hastily shook off the thoughts.

Just then, Louise’s gaze turned to the wine placed in front of her.

“…May I have a glass too?”

Despite being a sinner, Louise quite brazenly coveted the archbishop’s liquor.

When Giselle stared at her for a moment without answering, Louise spoke again.

“I’m also a little thirsty for a drink today.”

At the nonchalant answer, Giselle let out a snort and pointed to the opposite side with her chin as if to tell her to sit.