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On the outskirts of Empress Borough, aboard a trackless public carriage.
Trissy wore a veiled hat and sat quietly in a corner.
She had not headed straight for the Tussock River to escape downstream, or gone to the nearest railway to climb aboard a train, as others expected.
She had chosen to return to Backlund.
Only this metropolis, with its population of over five million, its various secret factions, and its many Beyonders mingling together, could help her evade the Demoness Sect's pursuit!
At that moment, her nerves were stretched taut, and she remained constantly on guard against the terrifying old butler, Finkel.
Suddenly, her head swam. When her vision returned to normal, she discovered that she had somehow magically left the public carriage and was standing beside a muddy road in the outskirts.
Trissy's pupils contracted sharply, and she surveyed her surroundings warily.
Then she saw a figure wearing classical robes and a black hood, and noticed the black eyes hidden in the shadows.
For some reason, Trissy felt as though she had returned to infancy, so helpless that she had no power to resist at all.
Cold sweat seeped from her forehead, and her legs shook violently, yet she could not move.
This is the most terrifying enemy I've ever faced... Not even the High-Sequence Demoness I met before made me feel anything like this... Am I going to die here... Are my attempts to escape, which I refused to abandon despite failure after failure, finally coming to an end... Intense despair and uncontrollable sorrow filled Trissy's heart, as though she had sunk into the deepest, heaviest nightmare.
Suddenly, a dark blue light flashed before her eyes, lifting the "curse" that had immobilized her.
When Trissy looked ahead again, that utterly terrifying figure was gone. Everything that