621
The evening wind swept endlessly through the Amanda Mountains, carrying snowflakes from the peaks. In days past, the voices of ascetics reciting the Holy Bible and singing hymns could still be heard, but tonight, only cannon fire came with the wind.
Vincent looked at the child sleeping so peacefully in a stranger's arms, trying to find traces of his two old friends in her. But no matter how he looked, apart from her thick-skinned nature resembling her mother's somewhat, he could make out little else in her features.
"Her mother was a Beyonder of the Church, and her father was the town's recorder."
"When they married, I sat in the front row. They once said that when this child was baptized, I would be her godfather..."
His somewhat hysterical laughter gradually stopped. His human memories returned bit by bit, and Vincent slowly straightened his hunched back, but the short, coarse wolf fur covering his face and body did not recede.
Vincent reached out and covered her with the scarf again, then looked earnestly at Edward.
"I don't need your help."
"And I won't help you, either."
Edward blinked, a hint of confusion in his polite smile. "Why? Your mission can end now. You've protected the person you wanted to protect. By any reasonable measure, you can return to the rear and rest."
"No particular reason."
Vincent looked at Edward. "Because you're a Devil. Isn't it only natural not to make deals with Devils?"
Crash. As though something made of glass had shattered, Vincent raised his head, his fearsome foreclaws gouging deep marks into the ground.
He had not returned to human form. Even that last scrap of human will was rapidly being swallowed by frenzied instinct. He remained a terrifying half-wolf, half-human creature, his enormous shadow looming over the