Miss Bayard, a Child of the Moon, stared at the Shadow Fiend for a long while, her gaze drifting toward Iver from time to time.
"...Forget it."
At last, Bayard sighed.
It was as if she had given up on something, or perhaps come to terms with something. Though she felt regret, her whole body relaxed.
"Is there anything you need me to do?"
Bayard no longer looked at No. 14. She spoke coldly. "Go on."
She tidied her hair, which had become somewhat disheveled, then picked up her glasses from the floor and put them back on.
Just as the Shadow Fiend had previously described her to Iver, despite being a Child of the Moon of the Path of Love, Bayard possessed extraordinarily firm reason and humanity.
This was not mere speculation, nor was it simply blind confidence in the personality shaped by her past experiences.
It was because the Shadow Fiend had already met her in another history.
—The Shadow Fiend might have met "No. 14" back then as well. They might have fought fiercely, or perhaps ultimately reached a reconciliation. They might even have briefly become friends or comrades-in-arms. That was why the Shadow Fiend understood her so well.
But in the end, the Shadow Fiend had still eaten her, reclaiming the appearance that had once belonged to her but had been taken away by death.
Several hundred years passed in the blink of an eye, and the Shadow Fiend had already let go of her hatred. She had completely crossed beyond her past, abandoning—or perhaps already settling—the resentment she had carried when she became a demon.
If Bayard, as a Child of the Moon, represented the "past," then the Shadow Fiend, who had let go of everything, represented the "future."
With time as their twin mirror,