Destroying someone else's grave and desecrating their remains was, morally speaking, certainly wrong. After learning Kindel's story with the dragon beast, Shade wanted to do it even less. But whether he wanted to or not had nothing to do with whether it needed to be done. Before Emilia completed the Time War, he had to rack their brains to eliminate the targets corresponding to those four seats:
"No problem. That dragon beast is weaker than both the Demon and the Watcher. If it did not always come from other times, making it impossible to kill permanently in our time, it would have been eliminated long ago.
"But don't act yet. Let's see what The Church discovers in that Black Dragon's Dragon Nest. There must have been a reason it was chosen. After trading with a Demon and losing its intelligence, what exactly did that ancient tree see in it?"
The arrival of the Great Witch of Fate meant that, aside from Audrey and the Megan sisters, all eight Great Witches Shade knew had gathered. Having another highly skilled diviner at their side would be greatly beneficial for what came next.
To welcome Bella's arrival, everyone held another banquet aboard the ship that evening. Even Miss Danist came to meet her.
The Countess had originally planned to arrive last weekend, but someone had spotted a giant dragon off the coast of Moon Bay, prompting The Church to intervene. As Speaker of the City Council, she had needed to help suppress the spread of the news, which delayed them by a day. Besides herself and Matilda, she had brought an entire team of professional diviners, greatly making up for the current group's shortcomings.
However, Shade could not remain at the banquet the whole time. Doctor Schneider planned to begin his ritual at