"...An unfamiliar ceiling."
Nero did not know how long she had slept. She lay on the bed and slowly opened her eyes. At the same time, a figure popped out from beside her and gripped Nero's hand tightly. "Thank goodness, you're finally awake!"
Nero turned her head and saw a girl with short orange hair. It was Ritsuka.
And the place where she had been sleeping was the Lord's Mansion. Then the town... should probably count as safe, right?
Nero's last memory stopped at the moment she had attacked those demons with a full-powered strike. She knew nothing of what happened after that.
"How is the situation?"
Having gathered her thoughts, Nero sat up from the bed and turned her head to look outside the window.
The sunlight was just right. Several white doves stood atop the Church's Bell Tower, their necks bobbing in and out.
"It's terrible," another voice in the room answered.
It was a woman in a pitch-black long dress like mourning clothes, her gaze sharp and her face pale.
Ritsuka hurriedly introduced her. "This is Kriemhild, a Berserker-class Heroic Spirit, drawn here by the demons that escaped. She's our companion now."
Nero nodded.
And just as Kriemhild had said, the situation was terrible. Contrary to the peaceful scene outside the window, the demonic aura Nero had sensed before still had not dispersed—and it had grown even denser.
Her heart tightened, and she immediately realized that Doctor Giorgios probably had not managed to return to the town.
Reality was indeed so. Ritsuka told Nero, bit by bit, what had happened on their side.
After breaking the seal on the cave and releasing the horde of demons, Nero, Mephisto, and Miss Okuni had left the place aboard Uesugi Kenshin's War Chariot, while Doctor Giorgios, who had stayed behind