Everyone after the Battle

There was a town north of Backlund, built at the foot of the Balchis Mountains, whose main business was tourism.

To the west of the town lay the lush forests of the Balchis Mountains... the same woods where Raphael had transformed the day before. However, the town stood at the northern end of the forest, far from the site of last night's battle.

The town had many inns. In a room at one of them, a young man wearing a silver necklace lay on a bed, fast asleep and snoring.

A woman who looked somewhat frail was writing a letter at the desk.

These were the Sickly Lady and her younger brother Jonathan, whom Raphael had encountered the previous night.

After giving it some thought, she picked up a fountain pen with a rounded barrel and wrote on the stationery:

"Dear Father,

Last night, Jonathan and I were hunted down by the Indulgence Faction. Someone exposed our whereabouts. I suspect Old Cohen, as he was the only person within the organization we had contacted recently.

If possible, I would very much like to hang him with his own small intestine.

Fortunately, the forest west of Backlund was bustling last night. Apart from members of the Indulgence Faction, there seemed to be another group there as well.

Most importantly, there was actually a Werewolf who could remain completely rational!

Unfortunately, I was rather weak at the time and couldn't capture him to ask-or interrogate him-about how he retained his reason.

Still, since he appeared there, he should be a Werewolf living in Backlund, and he wasn't a member of the Indulgence Faction.

We'll rest for two days before meeting up with Miss Sharron and Mr. Maric. Perhaps they know about this unusual Werewolf..."

At this point, the Sickly Lady took a sip of black tea and glanced at the forest outside the window.

Her and Jonathan's father was the current leader of the Temperance Faction. A few days earlier, he had received a letter from Sharron.

In her letter, Sharron said that, with a friend's help, she and Maric had dealt a heavy blow to the Indulgence Faction's forces in Backlund and obtained a Wraith characteristic.

Sharron also said she had access to a means of shattering the characteristic, which would make it suitable for the Jonathan Siblings to use for advancement. However, the siblings would have to work in Backlund for two years.

Miss Sharron had been a student of the previous leader of the Temperance Faction and enjoyed considerable prestige within the organization. Even Jonathan's father had to give serious consideration to her "suggestion."

Besides, the Jonathan Siblings could use that Wraith characteristic to advance, which was a tangible benefit. Thus, he had sent the siblings to Backlund to meet Sharron.

At the edge of the forest, three carriages bearing the Mechanical Emblem were traveling back to Backlund at an unhurried pace along a road covered in fallen leaves.

They carried Zed, Ikanser, and the others. Overall, everyone in the carriages was in fairly good spirits.

Although several people had been injured, they had killed three Werewolves and wounded a Devil the day before. It had been a substantial haul.

In the first carriage, however, Zed and Ikanser looked somewhat solemn.

The two remained silent for a while before Zed spoke. "That Werewolf probably never imagined that his unusual anti-divination ability would become the key to finding him... though we can't really say we've found him..."

On the journey back, Ikanser had used the Sealed Artifact Arrodes, the Magic Mirror, to divine where the seemingly rational Werewolf had fled.

To their surprise, however, billowing gray fog had appeared on the mirror's surface.

This immediately reminded them of their earlier investigation into the Rose School's internal conflict. That battle had involved at least two demigods, and they had also found traces of a fight between a Werewolf and a Zombie.

When they had tried to divine that Werewolf's whereabouts, the same billowing gray fog had appeared.

It was precisely to investigate that Werewolf that they had gone hunting in the forest. What they had never expected was just how lively those woods would be last night!

At that thought, Zed glanced at Ikanser, and both gave a bitter smile.

They had suddenly realized that this divination result could only confirm that the Werewolf was in Backlund. It could tell them nothing else about him.

On a long-distance omnibus bound for Backlund sat a man in his thirties. His face was pale, and he stared gloomily out the window.

Long-distance omnibuses were another common means of transportation besides trains.

Although they were slow, their routes were more flexible than those of steam trains, and their fares were cheaper. Thus, even with trains already in widespread use, this form of public transportation had persisted.

At the moment, however, the pale-faced man was the only person inside the carriage.

He was the Devil who had pursued Raphael. Although he had escaped Ikanser's pursuit, he had also taken two bullets.

Both bullets had clearly been very unusual. Despite a Devil's powerful regenerative abilities, the two wounds still had not healed.

More than his injuries, he worried about the punishment awaiting him when he returned to Backlund.

The Devil was now almost certain that the Werewolf who had lured him into a trap the night before was the person his uncle-the Desire Apostle-was searching for.

A savage beating would be inevitable once he returned. He only hoped his uncle wouldn't lock him in the dungeon and torture him.

If he hadn't needed his uncle's connections to continue advancing, he would have left Backlund long ago to strike out on his own.

These worries had brought out his vicious nature, and he had killed everyone riding the long-distance omnibus.

Once they drew close to Backlund, the driver would not escape death either.

Deep in the forest of the Balchis Mountains stood a hunter's thatched cottage.

By now, the hunter, his wife, and their teenage child had all been turned into zombies and stood silently in a corner of the room.

The Zombie who had fought Raphael the day before stood in the center of the room, barely daring to breathe.

On the glass shade of the room's only lantern appeared a somewhat weary-looking man with Southern Continent features. He was the Wraith who had fought Zed, a Senior Deacon of the Machinery Hivemind, the previous night.

He gave a cold laugh. "So you let Jonathan go?"

The Zombie was reporting on his battles with Jonathan and Raphael the previous night. When he reached the part about being ambushed by a troublesome Werewolf who seemed rational, allowing Jonathan to escape, he grew deeply apprehensive, afraid the Wraith wouldn't believe him.

To his surprise, however, the Wraith merely snorted coldly and ordered, "Find the Werewolf you mentioned. Search for Jonathan's trail."

"Yes!" After a moment's thought, the Zombie understood. It seemed the Wraith had also encountered that unusual Werewolf the previous night.

His guess was correct. The day before, the Wraith had seen that Werewolf lure a Devil straight into the Machinery Hivemind's ambush.

The Wraith had been astonished at the time as well. For a while, he had wondered whether the Werewolf was possessed by another Wraith.