covered in soft, white fur and sported a pad in the middle of its palm. If Kaito was allowed to be completely blunt, it was squishy, and felt kind of nice. "How do you find it?" Vyade gave a small laugh. Taken wholly aback, Kaito raised his face. His gaze was met with a beautiful pair of blue eyes. Vyade showed him a warm smile. "Ah, you finally looked me in the eyes. I really must thank you, you know. You fought for the sake of our people, not even hesitating to receive wounds. And as for you..." Suddenly, she cast her gaze to his side. As she did, Kaito received a shock. Hina was watching Vyade grasp his hand, and the look in her eyes was terrifying. Kaito broke out into a cold sweat. But Vyade just gave a small chuckle, before reaching out her other hand toward Hina. Then she caressed Hina's cheek as one would to comfort a child. "I must thank you as well, Madam Hina. Your efforts were indispensable." "Iâ€”I am my beloved Master Kaito's maid! It was all Master Kaito's doing, so...I am undeserving of your kind words." "Hmhm. Now that the two of you have been kind enough to look at me, let us speak of what is to come." Vyade lightly rose to her feet. Then, with the springy footsteps of a young girl, she returned to the throne. But as soon as she reassumed her rightful seat, she swathed herself once more in majesty and dignity. As he watched her, Kaito found himself dumbfounded. Vyade was a wolfwoman who gave off a strange impression. She seemed like both a teenage girl and a woman over a century old. Humans had difficulty gauging beastfolk's ages in general, but hers was even more of an enigma. Then she looked down on them with gravitas befitting the second imperial princess of the Forest King. "We've carefully removed those sheets of metal from within the block of ice and run some tests on them. However, at the moment, our technology is proving insufficient to determine much, other than the fact that their material seems impossible to reproduce. I find it unlikely that we'll derive much useful information from the remaining specimens going forward, either. And we still have no guarantee that only one of those things exists." "Yeah, I thought of that, too. Even if it can change its form, there's no way it committed all those massacres single-handedly." "Consequently, I wish to ask for your continued sojourn and cooperation until we can definitively state that we've put a stop to the massacres. We need to determine that thing's true nature and, if it has one, who its master is." Upon hearing what Vyade had to say, Kaito narrowed his eyes. That was no doubt the reason she'd used such innocent-seeming methods to demonstrate her affection for them. She'd been very intentionally trying to get Kaito and Hina to feel a bond toward the beastfolk. Depending on what master that thing serves, it might even have intended to start a war between these guys and the humans. After a few seconds of deliberation, Kaito chose his words carefully. "You know, I really do think that thing came from a demon." The Kaiser had declared it had nothing to do with demons. But Kaito was intentionally keeping that fact to himself. He'd decided he needed to do whatever he could to prevent a war from breaking out. Although it seemed she'd guessed at his true intentions, Vyade replied with a calm nod. "No matter what race they originally hail from, a demon's contractor is an enemy of all who live in this world. If our foe truly is a new contractor, we'll need to send notice to the human side as well. Truly, we need to find out what that thing was, and quickly. You yourself may be a contractor as well, but your soul is a proud one. For lending us aid yet harming none, Sir Kaito, you are a great friend to us indeed. We would ask that you continue lending us your strength going forward; what do you say?" Vyade smiled, as though to encourage a favorable response. While it was unclear if the smile itself was genuine or not, the confidence and trust it contained clearly were. Kaito nodded. Genuine or not, his choice was the same. It was all too clear what he needed to do. "I'll stop the killings and find out who our enemy really is. And until we're done, I'll give you all the help you need." "You have our gratitude. For now, that will be more than enough. Once we're finished, depending on how things end, we can negotiate from there. But as for today, I'm sure you're tired. Fia, would you show them the way?" A rabbit-headed lady-in-waiting standing nearby nodded. Her ears flopped as she bowed to Kaito and Hina, after which she gestured for them to stand. The two of them gave Vyade deep bows, then followed after Fia. The imperial princess's soft voice called out to them from behind. "I hope you two will believe in me, Sir Kaito and Madam Hina, when I say I wish for us to be close friends. And we wish to remain good neighbors to the humans as well. That is precisely why we must quell this distressing situation." "Don't worry, Your Highness. We believe you." Kaito gave a courteous response. And in truth, he suspected that everything she'd said had been true. As Fia led them through the building, Kaito thought back to what Lute had told him. Apparently, the second imperial princess was a calm, levelheaded individual. That was in stark contrast to the first imperial princess and third imperial prince, both of whom were allegedly hot-blooded and fixated on expanding the beastfolk territories. Vyade, the second imperial princess, hadn't informed the two of the killings. That was precisely the reason why she'd needed to call in Kaito, a third party, to act as her pawn. The fact of the matter was, she had made stopping the massacres her top priority. In other words, her desire to avoid war was genuine. She had no desire to send the beastfolk to ruin, nor to see the forest desecrated. And Kaito felt the same way. He didn't want to see anyone have to get hurt or suffer. Deus Ex Machina. In order to achieve that, he needed to find out that thing's true nature as quickly as possible. What was the killer secretly hoping to achieve? Or what were they trying to start? "Hey, Kaiser... Kaiser, can you hear me?" After the lady-in-waiting led them to their guest room, Kaito called out to his demon as he sat atop the bed. However, there was no reply. The Kaiser was proud, and fickle to boot. Because Kaito had repeatedly called on him for matters of little importance in recent memory, he seemed to have chosen to completely obscure his form. Kaito probably wouldn't be able to ask him about Deus Ex Machina until the following day, at the earliest. "Seriously, why do you have to be such a pain in the ass?" Undeterred, Kaito tried to play on the Kaiser's emotions. Even so, there was no reply. It would appear the Kaiser had completely blocked out his master's voice. The jewel in Kaito's pocket containing Vlad's soul rattled around, as though expressing its amusement. But Kaito had no business with Vlad, so he completely ignored him in turn. "Dammit, why now?" Sighing, Kaito adjusted his seat on the bed. Then the door to the room opened, and Hina stuck her head in. "How did it go, Master Kaito? Any response?" "Nah, nothing. Doesn't look like he's planning on chatting today." Then Kaito gasped. Hina tilted her head as she stood before him. Her damp silver hair rustled. "Is something the matter?" Her outfit was a complete one-eighty from her usual maid uniform. Before settling down in the guest room, Hina had decided to take a bath. She was an automaton, so she didn't normally need to take baths, but the lady-in-waiting had offered her one anyway, suggesting it might be nice to wipe the dirt from her body and use some of their scented oils. Kaito had been in favor as well, so she'd been away from the room until her return moments ago. Currently, her supple white skin was dressed in a thin, floral-patterned negligee. The exotic garment's soft hem fluttered as Hina did a little twirl. "Ah, did I catch you by surprise? My maid outfit had gotten a bit dirty, so they were kind enough to let me borrow this. Is it unseemly, do you think?" "You're so pretty." "Whâ€”?!" "Ah, sorry. Err, I mean, I'm not sorry. It just kinda slipped out." Kaito pressed down on his quickly reddening face. Hina blinked rapidly. A moment later, her cheeks went bright red as well. She began bashfully fidgeting as she tripped over her words. "M-Master Kaito, y-you really mustn't attack me b-by surprise like that. It's really quite unfair." "I mean, I wasn't trying to attack you by surprise or anything. One minute I was thinking it, and before I knew it, I was saying it." "That's what'sh sho unfair about it... Now I can'p even talg write... Ohhhhh, how embarrashing." Hina crouched and balled herself up like a pill bug. Kaito watched her, finding it adorable. Eventually, after burying her head all the way down in her arms for some reason, Hina whispered softly. ".....................................................................I'm so happy that I could die." "No, wait, don't do that. I'd really rather you kept on liv...ing..." It was at that moment that Kaito realized the important dilemma the two of them were now in. He frantically cast his gaze around the room. Much like the other rooms, the guest room's stone walls were adorned with vegetation. In fact, beastfolk held nature in such regard that they didn't normally build buildings out of stone at all. But due to the climate and their use of fire, they'd searched for an appropriate material and eventually settled on a unique strategy of mixing stone with various other materials. The room they were occupying was simply another one of the fruits of that technique. Its windows were large and arranged so as to allow as much sunlight in as possible. At the moment, though, it was covered by the largest pelt Kaito had ever seen. It looked like it was designed to be rolled up when the weather was nice. A mattress stuffed with hay was placed atop the wooden bed, as were a number of blankets. All of them, along with the carpet on the floors, were decorated with intricate embroidery. And on top of all that, the room was impressively spacious. It would no doubt have been a pleasant place to while away the hours. However, it had an important problem to it as well. Th-there's only one bed. In other words, at this rate, Kaito and Hina would end up sleeping together. In his mind, Kaito could imagine Lute giving a hearty laugh. Upon hearing they were married, Lute had probably thought it the tactful thing to do. But his good deed had, in fact, been gravely unnecessary. Kaito and Hina had slept in the same bed once before. But now that they'd confirmed their feelings for each other, he doubted it'd end at just that, nor did he have faith in his ability to stop there. At a loss for what to do, Kaito looked around the room again. Luckily, the carpet was thick. If he snagged one of the blankets off the bed, it would be more than comfortable enough to sleep on. Nice! I can just sleep on the floor, and then we're all good! As Kaito clenched his fists, having made his decision, though, he noticed something. That's...huh? He'd finally noticed that Hina was