Shade, who had transformed back into human form amid the firelight, straightened up and swept his eyes across the room. Its layout was extremely similar to the 1022 Demon Room, except all the furniture had been moved against the walls, and the flames came from the room's fireplace.
Before the fireplace, a capable-looking young woman with short black hair was struggling to prop herself up from the floor. The other two had already risen to their feet.
Shade's gaze lingered on the right hand of the young woman who had sat up. The black face of the Demon Hunting Seal ring reflected the fireplace's glow, making it especially conspicuous—sure enough, wherever there were demons, there was this thing.
Charcoal and firewood burned in the fireplace, but the flames were not particularly strong, barely illuminating more than half the room. The shadows of the four people swayed together with the firelight. There appeared to be three companions this time, all of them unfamiliar to Shade. None was dressed like a Fire-Holding Sister, so they truly were all strangers.
All three were witches. The young woman sitting up was around Ninth Order. Of the two standing women, the human witch who had sternly rebuked Shade earlier was only Fifth Order, making her the weakest witch here. The young woman on the other side, with a small bat symbol floating above her head, was a Twelfth Order witch.
Having the weakest witch speak to the stranger entering the room was also one of their methods of protecting themselves. They were not forcing the weak to charge into danger first.
Of course, aside from the red-haired Bloodkin young woman, the other two had human symbols above their heads. This was Shade's first time encountering Bloodkin in the past. A Twelfth Order Bloodkin was powerful