When Larkspur arrived where Yuan was, Yuan was already waiting there at ease.
She had not waited beneath the stone tower. Instead, she had deliberately advanced some distance and intercepted the Fangting City group before they reached the mountaintop.
This mountain forest was rarely visited, so the trees were tall and dense. Heavy darkness shrouded the surroundings, and the ancient, gnarled trees let out low mournful groans in the night wind. Yet every sound was ultimately swallowed by the snow, leaving only dead silence.
A narrow path lay behind her, winding and twisting into the night. Its outline could only barely be made out, seemingly leading straight to the mountaintop. The distant mountains were hidden in dense darkness, as though fused with heaven and earth, impossible to distinguish.
Yuan stood there quietly as powdery snow occasionally fell from the canopy onto her shoulders, staining her black robe with patches of white.
Larkspur and Morning Glory's arrival came as no surprise to her. After all, she had fought these two before and had more or less figured out each other's methods. Thus, setting aside the several clearly more inexperienced children behind them, the most eye-catching figure was the one dressed in gold.
"Looks like this is the new friend who came to this city before."
Her eyes shone as she looked at Margaret and smiled openly. "I thought we might have a chance to sit down and have a proper talk, but I didn't expect our first meeting to be in a situation like this. What a pity."
"If you think it's a pity, then stop picking holidays to stir up trouble, okay?"
Having come here directly in her magical girl form, Asō Madoka—or rather, Margaret—smiled without any warmth. "We'd just brought the hotpot broth to a boil and put in