her arms and hmmed. Then she snapped her gaze to the side. The red dragon was lying on its belly there, seemingly unaffected by the cold. Ever since they'd arrived at the World's End, she'd suddenly stopped moving. She was instead dozing off, as though she'd come home for the first time in a long while. Upon hearing what Elisabeth had to say, Jeanne shrugged again. "A good question. Leaving the pathetic mister to freeze to death won't exactly do us any good. Nevertheless, walking about randomly would be foolish. We need to avoid wasting our stamina. Our best option is to await good news from my children. If things go well, it will give us a direction for our next course of action, as well. And if they don't, well, we can just give up and let him die." "D-d-damn, that's harsh." Kaito lamented, his face pale. However, he didn't have any specific objections to Jeanne's proposal. After Deus Ex Machina had rematerialized, it had split up and begun scouting. In accordance with Jeanne's orders, its four parts had gone out to search the vast untrodden land. Waiting for the four to return was the best option they had available to them. After all, there's basically nothing to use as a landmark here. If we started walking, odds are we'd just end up going in circles. Given that the Butcher invited us here, there should be something we can reach before we freeze to death, but... Despite his racing thoughts, Kaito chose to put his trust in the four machines. In other words, the only thing there was to do was wait. They spent the next little while in silence. Sandwiched between the luminescent sky and earth, even Kaito's sense of the passage of time evaporated. Given the fact that he was able to successfully put up with it, the time he spent waiting couldn't have been more than a few minutes, but to him it felt like an eternity. Then, with a start, he looked up. He could hear the crunching sound of something scraping at the frozen earth. A distorted mass of silver approached from the distance, chipping lightly away at the ice as it moved. Bandersnatch, the beast made from nothing but fangs, had returned. It bored holes in the ice as it came to a quick stop. Sitting in front of its master with its feet all lined up together, Bandersnatch let its mouth click open and shut. Apparently, it was using the rattling of its fangs to somehow give its report. Jeanne responded with a theatrical little gesture and covered her mouth with her hand. "My, my, this falls outside my expectations." "Wh-wh-wh-what is it, Jeanne? D-d-d-did something happen?" "I'll praise you for having the grit to ask your question despite your teeth shivering to their roots, mister, if nothing else. Listen and be awed. Bandersnatch found a soldier encampment down the way. Who'da thunk that someone'd beat us to the World's End? Barely even feels real." "What? The Church's goons, then? They must have dragged something out of the Butcher." "That isn't it. The flag they're flying isn't the Church's. I recognize the design, but...describing it would be difficult. Draw it, if you would." Bandersnatch nodded obediently at Jeanne's order. With unhesitating motions, it set its bladed legs to work. It looked something akin to a machine outputting image data. Silver whooshed through the air, carving a delicate, flowing pattern in the ground. The first things it drew were animals. Then flowers. Eventually, the drawing of a white deer, an ancient wolf, and a colossal hawk all wreathed in an extravagant ring of flowers was complete. Kaito's eyes went wide. Momentarily forgetting about the cold, he let out a dumbfounded whisper. "The Forest King and the other two... And wait, the flowers in the crest vary by member of the royal family, and that one is specific to..." "Yes, Master Kaito, I remember it, too." Still nestled beside him, Hina gave an obedient nod. Elisabeth narrowed her eyes in confusion. His tone serious, Kaito stated the flag's owner. "It belongs to the private army of Vyade Ula Forstlast, the Forest King's third imperial princess." With that, a new mystery arose. After all, Kaito and the others were currently at the World's End. Without being told exactly where it was, it was impossible to even reach. So why are the beastfolk here? And what's their goal? No matter how hard he racked his brain, though, Kaito couldn't come up with answers. He didn't even have enough information to come up with a reasonable guess. He scrunched up his face. Elisabeth responded by crossing her arms and puffing out her chest. "When thinking fails, all that's left is to act. And one way or another, we need to figure out the beastfolk's reason and objective in coming to the World's End." "Indeed. We can hardly chalk it up to happenstance. Which leaves us no choice but to find out why." "Yeah...you two are right. Guess we should get moving, then." Jeanne interjected in the affirmative, and Kaito nodded as well. Odds were that the beastfolk weren't their enemies. Kaito didn't think of them as enemies, at any rate, and he chose to believe that they'd feel the same way. And with that, their course of action was set. They were going to head to the beastfolk campsite and make contact with them. Without further delay, they followed Bandersnatch and set off. As they walked, they trampled snowflakes underfoot. But just after they got going, a serious problem reared its head. "E-E-Elisabeth, this isn't g-g-good." "What isn't? Ah. I think I have the gist of it, but go on and say it anyway." "A-a-at this rate, I'm gonna die. Or r-r-rather, freeze stiff." "Hmm. I'm afraid I don't really see the issue. We can merely simmer you in hot water later, I should think." "Wh-wh-whaddaya think I am, f-f-frozen peas? I don't wanna be a s-s-statue." As they were talking, Kaito's body heat was mercilessly fading away. For a moment, the insane thought of burrowing into the Kaiser's fur passed through his mind. After all, the one part of his body that wasn't cold was his left arm, which had been transformed into that of a beast. If he clung to the Kaiser's canine pelt, he was sure it would warm him up. But the Kaiser was a proud demon. Rubbing his soft fur would no doubt incite his rage. And for that matter, Kaito wasn't sure if demons even had body heat. All right, brain, back it up. Let's try to avoid getting ourselves bitten in half. Narrowly coming back to his senses, Kaito began trying to think of a more realistic solution. The plan he ended up going with was trying to get magical tutelage from Elisabeth again. No matter how many times he tried, though, success eluded him. "...N-n-no dice, huh?" "Hmm. How else to go about teaching you, I wonder?" Having already tried out a number of different explanations, Elisabeth tapped a finger against her forehead. Thin beads of smoke were coming up from Kaito's head. Elisabeth frowned as she gazed at his sorry demeanor. "The problem seems to lie in the fact that thermoregulation magic doesn't use pain as its fulcrum. To you, that makes the sensation comparatively hard to grasp. Even so, though, I'm at something of a loss as to how else to explain it." "D-d-don't give up now; you've g-g-got my life in your hands." "Worry not. I've all but dropped it already." "H-h-how the hell's that s-s-supposed to make me feel better?" "It's okay, Master Kaito! Even if you can't move anymore, I will make sure to dutifully carry you!" "Hmm, transporting cargo under our present circumstances seems rather hazardous. Blast it, though! How can it be that a man who birthed a sword on his own strength has so impoverished an imagination?! One. More. Time. First, youâ€”" "May I, my precious daughter?" "I'm sorry, does the charcoal briquette with delusions of grandeur have something to say?" "Ha-ha-ha, as rebellious as always. Worry not, though; I'm a forgiving man." Vlad's interruption was met with Elisabeth's unconcealed scorn. However, he just laughed off her snide comment. He found his face riddled with stakes in reply, but he carried on undiscouraged. "The reason your teachings are so ineffective is because they're designed with a sane pupil in mind. If you want to teach him, then you'd best rethink your methods from the ground up... Now then, my dear successor, I want you to release fire and ice within your body at the same time. Don't try to grasp the sensations. Actually release them. And put enough strength into both of them to kill yourself." "Wait, Vlad, are you mad? I mean, I'm well aware that you're mad, but that'sâ€”" "Each one will offset the other. But of the two, your talent with fire is greater, and the difference should be precisely enough to warm your body." Kaito followed Vlad's instructions and closed his eyes. He focused his mind, then tried burning up and freezing his innards. His mana immediately started flowing freely, as though all the lack of response up until then was but a distant memory. Oh man, this is way nicer. The two contradictory energies were clashing within Kaito's body. It wasn't without a degree of pain, but neither was able to fully take form without being quashed by the other. At the end, the only lasting effect was his body temperature successfully rising. Kaito slowly opened his eyes. He then turned to Vlad, who was beaming triumphantly, and nodded. "Yeah, the cold's manageable now. Thanks, Vlad." "Y-you little... Do something about that irreconcilably twisted nature of yoooooours!" Elisabeth evoked the image of a cat with its hairs standing on end as she screamed. As she did, she leveled a splendid roundhouse kick at Kaito's back. The attack itself was, by all means, no different than his usual treatment. Their location, on the other hand, was anything but usual. As a result, the impact of the kick caused Kaito to lose his footing and slip. "Whâ€”?" "Oh?" The frozen ground was all but devoid of friction. And to compound on Kaito's misfortune, the ground had begun gently sloping up at some point. Without realizing it, they'd climbed up a little white hill. One can imagine, then, what happened to Kaito when he slipped. His black long coat acting as a sled, he began sliding down the hill at an alarming rate. "Ahhhhhhhh, Elisabeeeeeeeeeeeeeth!" "Kaitoooooooooooooooooo!" "My beloved Master Kaitoooooooooooooooo!" "Hmm. I seem to have lost my precious successor." "I don't know if he was really all that precious." While the remaining members clamored among themselves, Kaito continued accelerating with no signs of stopping. He frantically thrust his beastly arm into the ground. However, he was unsuccessful in driving his claws into the ice. So, uh, what exactly am I supposed to do now? Although he wasn't exactly being driven by negative emotions, the absurdity of the situation served to calm him just as effectively. Kaito narrowed his eyes and cast a glance over his surroundings. When he did, he realized something. There were strange furrows in the ground right next to where he was sliding. The snowflakes had been carved up, and the ice had been shaved away. In all likelihood, this was where Bandersnatch had slid down the hill. "Well, it looks like I'm headed in the right direction, so...I guess this is fine?" After all, Kaito's pace had been the slowest among the group. Deciding that continuing to slide was just fine by him, he stopped resisting. Of course, that said, it wasn't like he had any way to stop. Growing slightly desperate, Kaito crossed his arms. Maintaining that posture, he continued sliding away. Eventually, the ground became flat again. Despite that, though, Kaito's speed showed no signs of abating. He merely continued rushing along the