Dust rose thickly. Laila, without letting her guard down, anxiously looked at the ground and put strength into her toes. The speed at which the pattern was being drawn felt ridiculously slow.

Shadow. Laila thought. Beyond the dust clouds that gathered and dispersed, she saw a shadow. It was lying flat on the ground. Taut with tension like an arrow before being shot, lurking like a snake just before pouncing.

‘It’s coming.’

In an instant, a roar swept through the empty village like a storm. When Alice leaped from her spot and rushed to pounce on Laila, sharp spear blades rose from the ashen ground just as the ends of the pattern interlocked.

“Aagh—!”

The spear blades intertwined and tangled, trapping Alice’s body without allowing her to move an inch. Her writhing and screaming appearance was like a giant insect doused in pesticide.

“Let me go, undo this—! Undo it right now—!”

Laila, who had been staring with wide eyes, took a couple of steps back.

She had succeeded in capturing Alice, but now she didn’t know what to do. Unless ‘that thing’ occupying Alice’s body and mind revealed itself, Laila couldn’t perform an overlay.

“Undo it! I said undo it! You damn thing! Undo it! Right now!”

The prison made of spear blades moved diagonally with a bang! It wasn’t a force a human could exert. Alice was on the verge of breaking out of the magic prison used to capture magical beasts.

“Come here, you damned thing—!”

Alice’s bent arm stretched out through the bars. With a crack, it elongated as if the bones had come out, trying to grab Laila by the collar.

At that moment, Laila smelled a familiar scent mixed with the murky dust. When she quickly dodged Alice’s hand and stepped back, she saw long platinum blonde hair glinting in the pale sunlight.

Is this what it’s like to meet a god in the midst of hell? Laila momentarily felt as if she had received salvation.

“Eustar!”

When Laila shouted his name, Eustar turned his head to look at her. A faint smile appeared on his lips and… Laila’s steps faltered as she was about to approach him.

Why? While Laila was confused, Eustar approached Alice, who was struggling in the iron cage. She had now completely lost her mind and was howling like a beast with bared teeth.

“Eustar, be careful. If you’re not…”

Just as Laila opened her mouth, Eustar thrust his arm into the iron cage and reached into Alice’s mouth, past her throat filled with sharp teeth. It happened so suddenly that Laila couldn’t even scream.

But it wasn’t Eustar who screamed.

“Aagh—! Cough, gack…!”

Alice’s crumpled body began to convulse. Eustar held Alice’s jaw with one hand, while the other was still thrust deep into her throat, exerting force. It looked as if he was trying to pull out a deeply rooted plant.

“Humans who get caught up in emotions always create troublesome situations.”

At Eustar’s words, Laila’s eyes widened.

She saw flames dancing in his pupils. His platinum hair tips turned red as if burning, then black.

It was Decepter.

Alice’s death throes tore through the hazy gray sky. From deep in her throat, a sticky, black and disgusting lump was pulled out. It writhed in Eustar’s hand, or rather, in Decepter’s hand, as if it were alive.

He said,

“It’s been marinating for a long time, but it doesn’t look particularly delicious.”

Laila watched the scene with bated breath. The huge lump in his hand gradually shrank until it finally became the size of a child’s fist.

Decepter threw it into his mouth and swallowed it with a gulp. Screams and groans could be heard from inside his mouth.

“Alice! My child!”

At that moment, a wailing voice was heard from afar. It was Donovan.

“Alice!”

The spear blade prison had disappeared, and the completely exhausted Alice who had collapsed came into Laila’s view. Donovan embraced Alice’s limp body as if covering her and wept.

She’s dead. Laila thought. Just as a dejected sigh escaped her, Donovan, who had been wailing while holding his daughter, shouted.

“Good heavens!”

Alice’s eyes, which had been closed as if dead, opened slightly. Laila, who was watching the scene, parted her lips in disbelief.

Alice’s face, now conscious, was clear. The hideously distorted features were gone without a trace, clean and pristine without any wounds.

“…Father?”

“Alice! Oh God, how can this be. Sob…”

Alice hugged her father with a face that showed she didn’t know what was going on. As Donovan lowered his head and wept in his daughter’s arms, it was then.

“Laila.”

Laila jumped back startled. Summer-like fresh green eyes were visible.

“…Eustar?”

Eustar grinned with a slightly tired expression.

“It’s me.”

Laila’s eyebrows rose sharply at the reply that sounded almost nonchalant. Just as she was about to burst out in anger, Eustar said,

“I know you’re angry with me, but let’s talk after we deal with the sync first. Look, over there.”

Laila turned her head to look where Eustar was pointing. A black hole that had never been seen before was now clearly visible. It seemed that when Decepter made the thing inside Alice disappear, the curse that had been hiding the sync ended.

Eustar said,

“Let’s close the sync first. Before it absorbs any more energy. The curse has spread throughout this village. It’s seeped in here and there. If it gathers, it will become difficult to handle again.”

Laila, who had been pressing her lips tightly, replied,

“You’ll have to explain everything later, Eustar.”

Laila walked ahead, her clothes fluttering. Seeing her seemingly cold back, Eustar’s eyebrows softened and he wore a weak smile.

Despite their strong refusals, Donovan insisted he couldn’t just let Eustar and Laila go and brought them to his house.

Alice’s body was miraculously intact. It was certain that when ‘that thing’ was inside Alice’s body, the transformation of her body had not affected the real Alice.

She was most surprised by her own face. She screamed in disbelief, shed floods of tears while looking at herself in the mirror.

Donovan, who had barely stopped crying on the way home, embraced his daughter and wept again before the commotion finally ended.

After finishing the meal prepared by Donovan and Alice, Laila called Eustar outside. He looked languid with his hair, which had been tied up, now loose again, but he obediently followed Laila out.

“Should I prepare to be scolded?”

Eustar said when they had walked a few steps away from Donovan’s house. Laila turned around sharply with an angry expression and glared at him.

“How could you think of bringing in a demon?”

Eustar pondered his answer with his lips drawn into a straight line.

“If I hadn’t, we would have had to kill Alice too.”

“No matter how urgent the situation, that’s… You…”

“Are you saying it would have been okay if Alice died?”

“That’s not what I mean! What I’m saying is…!”

Laila’s face contorted even more as her words trailed off.

How should she say it? The moment she heard Eustar’s question, Laila thought, ‘I’d rather Alice die than see you devoured and ruined by a demon.’

It was an instinctive thought that came before she could stop it or even consider it, and it startled Laila.

Laila, who had been breathing heavily, clenched both fists and stomped her foot. She looked like she wanted to scream out loud in frustration, but instead, she gripped her head with all her might.

Eustar said,

“I thought you wouldn’t want Alice to be sacrificed. That’s why I brought in Decepter. In the end, it was quick and clean, wasn’t it? The sync disappeared too.”

His soothing tone was not to her liking. Laila looked away, trying to suppress her rising anger.

The moment she approached the hidden sync, all the memories it held rushed into Laila at once.

The grudges, hatred, and anger entangled between the two villages pierced into her, and some of it seemed to still remain in her body. Like fish bones that couldn’t be spit out.

Perhaps that was why her emotions were fluctuating like this.

“Now no one will get lost and die there. The matter has been resolved well.”

The moment Eustar eliminated the sync, Bintoshis and Hoierhis literally crumbled into dust at once. Everything that had remained unable to fade away due to the curse now finally regained its true form.

It could be called a rest. It could be said that it was well resolved, as Eustar said.

But…

“Even so, I can’t say your judgment was wise.”

At Laila’s words, Eustar smiled bitterly.

“I’ll restrain myself in the future.”

“Restrain?”

Laila turned sharply and glared at Eustar with fierce eyes. The sunset had already disappeared, but her eyes were burning just like summer twilight.

“Never do it again in the future.”

“Laila, I understand your concern, but… Decepter hasn’t caused that much damage. Of course, I think it’s unpleasant too.”

“I don’t think you’re saying this out of ignorance, but I have to say something. Don’t think demons will show consideration, Eustar. It’s been fine so far? No one knows what will happen tomorrow. Demons are not convenient subordinates you can use at your will.”

Laila, who had snapped at him, let out a rough breath.

“I’m going in first.”

She brushed past Eustar, as cold as a north wind in midwinter. As Laila disappeared, black smoke flickered behind Eustar’s shoulder. And in a voice only he could hear, Decepter’s whisper came.

—It’s ridiculous. A witch being so wary of me like that.

Eustar waved his hand in annoyance.

“Stop talking in my ear and disappear.”

A giggling laughter was heard.

—You’ve been quite cold to me lately too. I don’t care if you two are getting along, but you’re not planning anything unnecessary, are you?

For a moment, Eustar recalled the fact that Laila had copied the contract sigil drawn on his back. For the first time, he was glad that Decepter couldn’t read his thoughts.

“Stop talking nonsense and get lost.”

With an unpleasant laugh, the smoke vanished. Eustar sighed as he looked towards the road leading to Bintoshis and Hoierhis.

He and Laila would have to stand at crossroads in the future. Many times.

Would they be able to make wise choices each time? It was impossible to know for now.