The moment the words ended, half of Alice’s clear face crumbled like a mud tower. Laila felt a shiver run down her spine and strengthened her legs.

Alice had seen through all of Laila’s fears. Making a hoarse, chuckling sound like a thrush, she approached Laila and raised her pale fingers to caress around Laila’s neck.

“So I’ve been protecting this child, haven’t I? If it weren’t for me, this poor thing would have died already. Either by her father’s hand or by her own. If I let this child go, she won’t live even a year. Is that what you want?”

Laila stood still with her head held high. Alice’s fingers were as cold as ice, and could grab or pierce her throat at any moment.

“You’re trembling. You must be afraid of me. Of course, you should fear me. I could take your life right now. But I’m more interested in your body. It would be more useful than this child.”

Alice whispered. It was like humming and chirping, but by no means a pleasant sound.

It was a sound one might hear in a nightmare. Laila, who had squeezed her eyes shut feeling her blood run cold, suddenly let out a long breath. Then she slowly moved her eyes, following Alice’s slow movements.

A tree that fears winter will never bear fruit in its lifetime. Laila mentally recited a passage from a book she had once read.

It was unclear why she suddenly thought of it. Was it because this tomb-like landscape full of dust and ashes reminded her of winter? It felt as if a cold wind was blowing through the cracks in the wood grain.

Laila’s tightly closed lips slowly parted.

“…But behold, you wandering sick ones. The tree that willingly exposed itself to the bitter cold and died comes back to life with spring, bearing new flowers and fruits.”

Alice’s eyebrow twitched.

“What are you saying?”

Laila’s red eyes glared at Alice, her chin still raised.

“I’m saying I’m not afraid of you.”

Alice’s distorted face twitched.

At that moment, a thin card silently slipped out from between Laila’s fingers in her pocket. It was the magical tool, ‘Borrowed Night’.

“What is this…”

As Alice stepped back startled, her vision suddenly turned pitch black. Darkness layered upon darkness. A darkness thicker than the bottom of the deepest night enveloped Alice.

There was a growling sound. It was a sound that could only come from a beast’s throat. But Laila didn’t hesitate and ran out of there.

‘I’m at too much of a disadvantage here.’

But how long could she keep her distance? Suppressing the urge to look back, she ran at full speed towards the outside of the mansion. Then she pushed the buckle on the bracelet on one of her arms to the right.

“You think you can run away from me!”

A terrible scream erupted from the pooled darkness. At that moment, Laila’s toes lifted slightly off the ground. As she kicked off the floor, her body slid forward like the wind.

“Come here! I said come here! Where did you go!”

With a creaking sound, Alice’s body seemed to flatten and crumple, then suddenly bent into a spider-like shape.

She moved her hands and feet in different directions, breaking free from the ‘Borrowed Night’ that Laila had spread. The thick darkness had spread quite wide, but Alice moved much faster.

Laila heard Alice crawling down the stairs and kicked the ground once more. As she did so, she recalled what Eustar had told her once again.

—Remember, Laila. You must not use the ‘Runner’ for more than ten minutes at a time. It’s a magical tool, but it consumes the user’s physical abilities. If you use it for more than ten minutes, you’ll become rapidly fatigued and your body will be under great strain. That’s why even knights who use the Runner during chases use it strategically, taking turns.

Unfortunately, I have no comrades to share strategies with, Laila thought. The ‘Runner’ was the very magical tool that Eustar had used when he took Laila and fled from Ridgekirth. The same was true for ‘Borrowed Night’.

It was the first time Laila had used these magical tools alone. She had always been with Eustar, or if Laila did the overlaying, he would take care of the rest, so there was no need for her to use the magical tools herself.

‘But Eustar isn’t here now.’

Alice followed Laila at an unbelievably terrifying speed. She wanted to pause the use of the Runner for a moment, but she couldn’t.

The moment she slowed down, it was clear she would either be caught by Alice and dragged back into the mansion, or die even before that.

—Come here! I said come here! You rat-like witch girl!

The monstrous voice closely following from behind could no longer be called a human voice.

It sounded like thousands, tens of thousands of bees or insects buzzing and hissing all at once. Laila kicked off the ground again and slid forward, but the fork in the road that should have appeared was nowhere to be seen.

“Damn it.”

Laila spat out a short curse as she encountered an unfamiliar forest path. Then she heard a squeaking laughter from behind.

—I told you you can’t escape! I said you can’t escape! Nothing has ever escaped my hands. No one has ever been able to run away! I killed them all! I killed every single one!

Every single one. Laila pondered those words even as she fled. It probably didn’t just mean the villagers. The man from Hoierkhis who had fled with her, the man who had abandoned and betrayed her, had likely lost his life as well…

The paths were tangled and confusing. They went on and on, and when she came to her senses, she found herself back near the square of Bintoskhis.

This is endless. Laila gasped for breath. It didn’t seem close to ten minutes yet, but her knees were shaking and her ankles were aching. She felt fine while running, but if she stopped, her whole body seemed to scream in pain.

‘I need to stop that movement. Or at least slow it down somehow. But how… How should I do it.’

At that moment, Laila looked back at the mansion of Bintoskhis. The huge ash-covered outer wall looked more like a rock than a house.

—I must kill you! I must kill you! I’ll kill you and kill this girl and kill that man who was with you!

Along with the sound of a fairly thick tree breaking entirely, Alice’s monstrous scream struck Laila’s back. She quickly turned her head to see Alice rapidly approaching. Scratches and cuts were visible here and there.

The ‘something’ inside Alice has no physical form, but Alice is a real human being… She bleeds when scratched and her bones break when hit.

Break…

‘It’s okay if it breaks.’

Laila gritted her molars and stepped backwards, then activated the Runner just before the teeth densely growing in her mouth were about to bite her head.

As her body slid away again, Alice twisted her neck this way and that, screaming in rage.

‘Seeing that she doesn’t die even like that, it seems that thing inside Alice is having quite an influence. It doesn’t intend to kill Alice yet… Maybe it can’t exert such power without Alice.’

—Stop right there!

Alice, who had flattened her body, started running, moving her arms and legs like a spider. Laila tried to control the output of the Runner as Eustar had done, but she was still clumsy at such delicate manipulation.

She ran at full speed towards the mansion of Bintoskhis, towards the solid outer wall that seemed like it would never crumble even after a thousand years.

It’s close. Laila thought. The scenery before her eyes changed rapidly, narrowing and darkening.

She heard Alice opening her mouth wide behind her. Just as the longest and sharpest teeth were about to bite into Laila’s nape, Laila, who had been charging straight towards the outer wall, suddenly changed direction.

—Crash!

With a tremendous sound, Laila’s body rolled several times on the hard ground.

“Ugh…!”

Laila, who had hit her back against the sturdy pillar of the well, let out a low scream. Her back, neck, and shoulders were screaming in pain, and her left wrist hurt as if stabbed with a knife. But there was no time to linger.

“Huff, huff…”

Laila, gasping for breath, propped herself up with her right hand, raising her battered body.

Dust was rising thickly from where Alice had collided. Had the wall collapsed? No, probably not. If the wall had collapsed, it wouldn’t be this quiet.

The Runner could no longer be used. Her trembling knees could barely stand. It took all her concentration just to move three steps from where she stood. Otherwise, she was sure to collapse.

Is she dead?

No, probably not.

But if she is…

Laila’s right knee, struggling to support her body that found even breathing difficult, wobbled.

What she wanted was for the thing inside Alice to lose its power. If she could at least reduce its speed, then there would be time to think of a way to overcome the situation.

But what if she had died? ‘That thing’ doesn’t die. Unfortunately, to kill something that has already died once would require Eustar’s power. It was something Laila’s abilities couldn’t do yet.

What would happen to Donovan if Alice died? Laila tried to maintain her composure while considering the worst-case scenario.

It could be true, as it said, that Donovan had intended to kill Alice when she was just born, but he had chosen to raise his daughter for over twenty years, hadn’t he? And…

—She’s a very kind-hearted child.

When talking about Alice, Donovan didn’t seem to be lying. There was a mess of regret, bewilderment, compassion, and guilt, but at the center of it all was clearly love.

There’s no time for this. Laila thought. She kept hearing rustling sounds. It felt like Alice could burst through the dust cloud and pounce on her at any moment.

Laila took out one of the magical tools given to Tentinenella knights. It was something small and smooth, like a dice made of porcelain.

When she put it between her teeth and bit down, with a crunching sound, something like black ink began to flow from beneath her feet, drawing a line.

There was a sound of a beast howling. Through the fading dust cloud, she could see a familiar silhouette writhing. Laila looked at the line at her feet. It would take time for the complex pattern to be fully drawn.

—I’ll kill you.

A chilling voice filled with resentment flew like an arrow through the rattling noise.