After returning from the temple, everyone rested for the time being in Bania's felt tent. While digesting their new information, they discussed their plans for further exploration of this world. Heiserana wandered aimlessly beside Vivian, fiddling with a tiny ball of blood to amuse herself. Baptiste's incident had ended in an unexpected way, leaving her with the helpless feeling of having punched cotton. Thus, she was waiting for Vivian to decide what they should do next.
Vivian, meanwhile, had been fiddling with that blood crystal ever since they returned, racking her brains over what it could possibly mean. The crystal floated up and down in her hand, but neither infusing it with magic power nor sprinkling it with blood produced any reaction. It was like a beautiful, ordinary, ice-cold stone, guarding all its secrets.
"Still haven't remembered who Beatrice is?" Hao Ren glanced at Vivian. "And you haven't remembered anything about this crystal?"
"You know what my brain is like." Vivian smiled bitterly and shook her head. "I forgot Paul for three hundred years back then. But it seems I forgot this Beatrice even more completely... Even after learning her name, I still can't recall the slightest thing."
"She might have changed her name, or Beatrice might have been merely a title used by the witch," Cassandra suddenly said. "Witches and wizards often gave themselves 'aliases' that fell somewhere between names and titles. They used those aliases to cast spells, preventing demonic powers from backfiring on them or demons from tracking them. But I've heard that this method isn't always effective. More powerful infernal creatures can directly discover someone's true name."
"It's a pity Beatrice is already dead. Even if we brought Izax here now, we probably couldn't find out the witch's true name." Hao Ren shook his head. He