Night had deepened, veiling the red earth of the Lasia Plain behind a black curtain.

They said the Kingdom of Belkain was cursed by the constellations, leaving it without even the faintest starlight. Here, however, they were still outside its walls, and a few stars remained visible.

Even so, the night was ominous beyond measure. The scattered stars were far too faint to illuminate the pitch-black darkness, and purple poison mist flowed low over the ground like a river.

CRACKLE, CRACKLE...

The campfire burned through its branches with the last of its strength. Whenever the flames flickered, the shadows surrounding the carriage danced grotesquely.

Yuto sat motionless on the driver's seat, watching the fire. Beside him, Flokiro slept beneath a blanket, while Levian's even breathing drifted from inside the carriage.

It was a peaceful moment, but Yuto's senses were taut as a drawn bowstring. Death was close at hand in this land. The moment the hungry creatures lurking in the darkness sensed the warmth of the living, they would bare their fangs.

"..."

Yuto quietly turned his head. At the same instant, the sleeping Flokiro's ears pricked up. He immediately rose and growled low into the darkness.

Footsteps sounded on the dry ground from every direction. These were not the movements of ordinary beasts. The steady sounds were slowly encircling the carriage. Yuto hopped lightly down from the driver's seat and spoke.

"Levian, wake up."

Yuto's short, sharp call rang through the darkness. The carriage door immediately burst open, and Levian sprang out with her staff in hand. He had been certain she was fast asleep, yet she had reacted quickly. She must have gone to sleep determined to remain alert.

"Wh—what's happening?"

Despite her disheveled appearance, Levian spoke clearly as she tried to assess the situation.

"We have guests."

Yuto surveyed the darkness as he spoke. They had followed public roads all the way here and had encountered neither nighttime attacks nor bandits. From here onward, however, lay a perilous, lawless region beyond the control of the neighboring kingdoms and cities.

Red eyes began lighting up in the darkness. One pair, two... ten... more than twenty pairs.

Wolf-shaped Evomon as large as bears emerged from the shadows. Blood Wolves. They normally lived in the mountains, but apparently they had caught the scent of prey camping outside the walls.

[Grrrr...]

Their fur, dark red like dried blood, bristled. Purple saliva hung in threads from jaws full of sharp teeth, dripping to the ground. Checkpoints restricted passage along most roads leading to Belkain. The Blood Wolves before them were delighted and excited to have found such rare prey as humans.

Watching them, Yuto opened his hand.

WHOOSH!

An obsidian dagger sprang from Void Storage into his grasp.

The closer he drew to Belkain, the more Yuto's heart alternated between icy cold and burning heat. This journey stirred his emotions in all sorts of ways, leaving an unresolved pressure that weighed on him.

In short, Yuto wanted to explode. He wanted to rampage against anything at all, pouring out his frustration, irritation, rage, and hatred. That black sky and the faint stars hanging in it as though mocking him only provoked him further.

These visitors were therefore welcome. His eyes filled with murderous intent, and his lips twisted into a grotesque smile. It was neither pleasure-soaked elation nor the composure of someone certain of victory. It was the product of an emotion closer to a scream: a terrible emptiness and hatred welling up from deep within his chest and bursting forth together.

[Raaagh!]

An enormous Blood Wolf that appeared to be the pack leader kicked off the ground and leaped. Its bear-sized bulk cast a deep shadow over Yuto. Just as the fangs in its gaping jaws were about to swallow him whole, black haze erupted from his back and instantly took the form of a gigantic hand.

CLAMP!

The manifested Void Touch seized the wolf's muzzle. Having forced its foul-smelling jaws shut, Yuto swung the dagger with his own arm.

CRUNCH!

The obsidian dagger split the Blood Wolf's tough hide and hard bones. At Level 9, Yuto's strength exceeded that of a grown man. With aether reinforcing his body as well, slitting the wolf's belly was easy even with his small frame.

Blood and entrails spilled from its gaping abdomen. The Blood Wolf was still alive and struggling, but caught in Void Touch, it could not even howl.

CRASH!

Void Touch hurled it to the ground.

Yuto's shoes squelched through the pool of blood. Levian's mouth fell open at his needlessly brutal, savage behavior.

"Yu..."

Before she could finish his name, Yuto vanished before her eyes. Using Void Step, he plunged boldly into the pack of Blood Wolves.

THUNK!

He drove his dagger down into a nearby wolf's skull.

[Skreeee!]

The Blood Wolf writhed with a grotesque scream as the blade pierced its brain, but Void Touch moved again and crushed its body.

CRUNCH!

Its spine shattered, and it flopped face-first onto the ground.

[Raaawr!]

Another Blood Wolf lunged at Yuto, but he did not use Void Step. Instead, a second Void Touch moved to protect him as he stood stock-still.

THUD!

The blow sent the wolf rolling across the ground.

That was all. Yuto had merely knocked it aside, not killed it. He wanted to wield the dagger and kill it with his own hands.

"Y-Yuto!"

Coming to her senses at last, Levian shouted. Aether flowed into the staff in her hand.

FWOOSH!

A mass of flame formed at its tip, lighting the darkness.

BOOM!

The fireball struck a Blood Wolf trying to attack Yuto from behind. It rolled across the ground, engulfed in flames. Levian did not stop.

WHOOSH!

Sharp blades of wind rose around her.

THUD, THUD, THUD!

They slashed the wolf to pieces as it struggled in the fire.

Her boast about her excellent grades in offensive magic at Maria Academy had not been empty bravado. Though the pressure of real combat made her fingertips tremble, Levian's magic was precise and deadly.

"Yuto! Stop fighting so recklessly!"

Yuto faltered at her shout. At that moment, he had been plunging his obsidian dagger over and over into another Blood Wolf's neck. A shudder ran through him as he looked at his hand. Blood spurting from the wolf's wounds had drenched it.

"..."

His eyes wavered at the sight.

CRUNCH!

A dull sound came from nearby. Flokiro had joined the battle and smashed a Blood Wolf's skull.

Flokiro turned his eyes toward Yuto, who read the emotion within them. They had shared the same failure and despair. Flokiro understood his desire to rampage, yet his gaze rebuked him, telling him it was wrong.

Lashing out like this would only vent his anger for a moment. It would not even leave him feeling better. If he made a habit of venting this way, madness and violence would accumulate in his heart.

Yuto bit his lip. His body, heated by the Blood Wolves' blood and the atmosphere of battle, cooled. His heart, which had been pounding under the sway of murderous intent, regained its normal rhythm.

'This isn't like me.'

A knight who let emotion sweep away his reason was unworthy of the title. Bitter self-reproach washed over him at the realization that the cool judgment he had honed on countless battlefields before his regression had crumbled so easily before mere remnants of the past.

"... Flokiro, Levian. Let's finish off the rest."

Reason had returned to Yuto's voice. Flokiro nodded quietly.

It did not take long to wipe out the remaining Blood Wolves. Yuto was no longer cruel. He used Void Touch to end his enemies' lives efficiently, without bothering to swing his blood-soaked dagger.

Some of the wolves tried to flee in terror, but Flokiro and Levian's magic cut off their escape, and they fell one after another.

The battle was over.

Yuto walked among the corpses, wiping the blood from his dagger. Levian followed with a complicated expression. Her gaze lingered on his bloodstained shoes. Every step he took left a bloody footprint on the wasteland.

"Yuto."

Flokiro, who had returned to sit beside the carriage, spoke first.

"That wasn't like you. You know that, don't you?"

"I know."

Yuto nodded in agreement and looked down at his dagger and hands. He had wiped them clean, but... the stickiness and metallic smell remained, along with red stains that clung like ink.

"I... don't know very much about you."

Levian began haltingly.

"But I could tell you weren't yourself just now. You looked like someone possessed... No, like a monster who hated someone so much he couldn't stand it."

A trace of fear mingled with the concern in her voice.

"What's wrong? The closer we get to Belkain, the more you... seem far more dangerous than when we first met."

Yuto did not answer immediately. Instead, he tossed another log onto the dwindling fire.

"The smell of blood just put me on edge. This place is so grim that I was tense, too."

He answered after a brief silence. It was a painfully feeble excuse to anyone's ears. Levian bit her lip and glared at him, but before she could say anything else, Yuto spoke first.

"Was this your first real battle?"

"Y-yes?"

"Real combat. I imagine it was. A young lady of House Marigold would hardly have experienced a battlefield... and the academy's training probably amounts to nothing more than sparring under a teacher's supervision."

"That's... right. This was my first real battle."

Levian answered hesitantly. Yuto gave a faint smile and looked at her.

"You did wonderfully for your first time. Maria Academy's training wasn't wasted."

"Thank you... for the compliment. Ahem."

She would have liked to beam and boast, but the circumstances did not allow it. The slaughtered Blood Wolves' corpses still lay scattered around the carriage.

"This... smell isn't something I want to get used to. Shouldn't we move the bodies?"

"Leave them. Other Evomon will come and eat them. Then they'll leave us alone."

As he spoke, Yuto opened and closed his sticky hands. Levian sighed at the sight and raised her staff. A globe of water bobbed into existence and floated toward him.

"You fought like someone desperate to bathe in blood. But now that it's on you, you don't like it?"

Yuto gave a rueful smile and washed his hands in the water.

"Thanks."

"No need to thank me. It's hardly difficult."

Despite her words, Levian's eyelids were drooping slightly with fatigue. With the tension of battle gone, exhaustion seemed to have caught up with her all at once.

"I'll take the rest of the watch. Get some more sleep."

"But..."

"No arguing. You need rest to recover your aether, don't you? For a mage, being on a battlefield with no aether is suicide."

Tomorrow, they would pass through Belkain's gates. In the end, Levian relented and nodded.

"All right. Thank you for being considerate."

She nodded and climbed inside the carriage, leaving Yuto and Flokiro alone before the campfire.

"Are you really all right?"

Flokiro asked cautiously. Yuto watched the flames for a while before answering quietly.

"I don't know."

He knew he must not let himself be shaken, yet he could not help it.

Not being shaken would have been inhuman, too.

Swallowing the sigh rising in his chest, Yuto covered his face with his cold hands.