Late at night, in Berens Harbor, West Bayam.
A three-masted sailing ship with a bright red hull lay quietly near the shallows outside the city. A small boat was lowered over its side and rowed onto the beach. Two figures disembarked under cover of darkness and made their way to the boundary between the sand and the woods.
After splitting up to search, they regrouped at the same spot. The taller of the two, wrapped in a hooded cloak, muttered:
"Strange. There's no one around. Are they late?"
Dim moonlight filtered through the clouds, illuminating her face and the tufts of red hair poking out beneath her hood.
She was Helene, captain of the Red Haired Woman.
Her companion, a somewhat petite attendant who also wore a hood, was looking around as well. After a moment, she frowned and said:
"Could we have come to the wrong place?"
"Maybe. The resistance asked us to deliver the goods to a beach outside the city, so there might have been some error in their description. But they should come over once they see the ship here. Let's wait a little..."
As Helene spoke, she turned toward her Red Haired Woman, only to discover, to her astonishment, a pitch-black three-masted sailing ship with white bones painted on its sails racing across the dark sea toward her vessel.
It was the Black Death!
Helene's expression immediately turned grave. Her worst fear had come true. Here on the Southern Continent, far from Backlund and Bayam, with almost no one she could turn to for help, Vice Admiral of Ailment Tracy had come for her!
"Return immediately."
She gave the order to the attendant beside her, then sprinted toward the beached boat. Even as a Sequence 6 Conspirer who could transform into a Flame Spear and