have no objections to that!" "Ma'am...Commander Izabella." "Throw out your chest with pride and shed tears no more! I won't forgive any who hold your actions against you, even if it's you yourselves. And as for you..." "Ma'am, yes, ma'am! My apologies, my deepest apologies! I just, I..." The other paladin leaped to attention, blood dripping down his forehead. He then dropped again to grovel against the stone ground, his voice high and shrill. Peering down at the clearly agitated man, Izabella gave him a stern order. "Go rest at the first aid station. And don't you dare set foot on the battlefield without a healer's permission. Or do you intend to endanger your comrades?" "No, ma'am; understood, ma'am! I will do as you say, Commander!" "Then goâ€”and you have my apologies for not noticing your condition sooner." The prostrate paladin scrambled to his feet. Flustered, the pair apologized repeatedly. Then, realizing they had pressing tasks to attend to, they placed their left arms horizontally against their chests and bowed. After returning their bows, Izabella gave an affirmative nod. The two paladins hastened down the road to return to base. Through his tears, even the paladin who'd needed supporting up until then frantically pulled himself together. Soon, they were gone, leaving behind only a heavy silence. Izabella exhaled briefly and stared up at the sky. After a moment passed, she spoke softly. "Are you going to come out?" "You noticed me?" Surprised, Kaito stepped back onto the road. Izabella turned to face him. Her silver hair fluttered gently in the pale moonlight. Her blue and purple eyes looked like a pair of gemstones as they focused on Kaito. A gentle, somewhat exasperated smile spread across her face. "Hard not to with you so eager to draw blood... Intriguing. At first glance, you seem accustomed to battle yet at times act like a complete amateur. First, let me offer you an apology. My subordinates were quite rude. It must have pained you, hearing your master slighted like that." "I prefer to think of her less as a master and more like a friend." "A friend?" Yet again, Izabella responded to Kaito's words with blank puzzlement. With a childish gesture that seemed to clash with her sagacity and beauty, she tilted her head to the side. Noticing her confusion, Kaito unconsciously began babbling. "She, you know, uh, there's a lot of things people misunderstand about her... I mean, she is the Torture Princess, so some of that stuff isn't really misunderstandings. But she's got good qualities, too. People think she's practically a demon, but she's not. Even now, she's fearlessly fighting on humanity's behalf." Kaito finished by turning a hopeful gaze toward Izabella, one that asked if she understood what he was getting at. For some reason, he felt like she would be sympathetic. Eventually, Izabella gave a slow nod, as though her perception had changed. "That's a surprise. The relationship you two have is much better than I'd anticipated... I apologize for this afternoon as well. Although it's just an excuse, I did have a reason for the counsel I gave." "Uh-huh?" "My younger brother was killed by the Torture Princess. As a result, I harbored doubts about your reliability." Without so much as a pause, Izabella revealed an astonishing truth. Kaito's eyes widened. Brushing back her silver bangs, Izabella covered her pretty blue left eye. She then wove her next words together as though she were telling a tale of old. "Even now, when I see my blue eye, I think of him... He wasn't as skilled at magic as I was. People told him that it would be too hard for him to become a paladin. But his will to live and his sense of justice were strong. I'd braced myself for the day, but I never expected him not to come home from the Plain of Skewers." *** As he listened to Izabella's story, Kaito's thoughts immediately zipped back to a particular demon. They'd fought him almost immediately after Kaito was summoned by the Torture Princess. Down in a village full of slaughtered residents, the Knight had cried out like a madman, his arms and legs strung up in chains. *** His voice was filled not just with pain but with unadulterated fury. The eyes beneath his armored helmet had been startlingly pure and blue and just as beautiful as Izabella's. And the Knight's contractor had been rather young and looked to originally have been quite virtuous. Facing the man, Elisabeth had whispered gently to him. "A survivor of the Plain of Skewers, hmm? It must have been painful. No doubt you detest me." That guy... Could he have been...? No, there's no way. "What's the matter? You bear a strange expression." Izabella frowned as she looked at Kaito quizzically. After internally debating for a few seconds, Kaito swallowed back the words that had been on the tip of his tongue. "...No, it's nothing." Even if my guess is right, telling her would accomplish nothing but bring her pain. Nobody would want to hear there was a possibility their brother had made a contract with a demon. Having made his decision, Kaito elected to stay silent. Wearing a puzzled expression, Izabella went on. "I hear you were summoned as her servant from another world. That being the case, you may not be aware, but ever since the Plain of Skewers, every battle the Royal Knights and we paladins fought has ended in ignoble defeat. We had a duty to protect the people, not just from the Torture Princess but from the army of demons Vlad Le Fanu commanded. But until the Torture Princess defected from the demons and we obtained a temporary reprieve, we were constantly overrun. In order to maintain our fragile line of defense, we had to make many sacrifices, the bulk of which consisted of our most talented and experienced men." "Wait...could that be why...?" "Precisely. As a result, many of our current knights are green and weak to psychological attrition. On top of that, most of our surviving senior members are people who were tasked with guarding the border of the area where the pure-blooded demi-humans and beastfolk live. And ever since the third peace treaty, that region has been the epitome of tranquility. For those soldiers to see such tragedies play out in front of them has no doubt sent them into states of panic." She made her declaration with lonesome eyes. An image of the calamity they'd seen floated back through Kaito's mind. That place had been a hellscape crafted from flesh and blood, a carnival of the cruelest variety. If one wasn't familiar with fighting against demons, it would have been a harsh spectacle to bear. However, not everything Izabella had to say was hopeless. "However, with all our forces combined and with the help of the priests, I believe that we have the power to secure the capital's defense against the encroaching demon. Even though we're suffering attacks from within our lines, just as I advised Godot Deus, it should be possible." "So what you're still saying is that you don't need the Torture Princess's help?" "I withdraw that statement. In fact, telling you that was my main reason for this conversation. Even if we do possess sufficient power to deal with this situation, just as you said, I wish to save the people as soon as possible." This time, it was Kaito's turn to blink. Izabella looked straight at him. Her gaze was so earnest it was almost scary. "I will speak frankly. Even now, I find it difficult to fully trust you two. But between what you said and the fact that the Torture Princess remains on our side in the wake of Godot Deus's death, it's enough." "...Ah!" Oh, right... So that was another significance of Godot Deus's death! Kaito was shocked at Izabella's words, almost as though he'd been slapped in the face. The Torture Princess was bound by the Church's shackles. However, she could cast them off by forming a contract with a demon. If that happened, Godot Deus had agreed to stop her at the cost of his life and all the spiritual power he possessed. But now he was dead. Even so, the Torture Princess hadn't betrayed mankind. Kaito frantically racked his brain over the way Godot Deus's death had changed the situation. As he did, Izabella's voice quickly brought him back to reality. "Please lend us your strength." Izabella's silver hair gently sparkled as though to blend in with the moonlight. As Kaito returned to his senses, he found Izabella bowing her head low. Before his flustered eyes, she made her calm, powerful proclamation. "For the sake of the people." Abasing oneself before a demon is the height of folly. Kaito churned that thought through his mind. He knew that because he was a contractor to one, and the Church possessed enough documents and information on demons that they probably knew as well. The bloody annals of history should have taught them what happened to anyone foolish enough to bow before a demon. In spite of that, Izabella was sincerely bowing to Kaito. In other words, she thought of him as human. When he realized that, Kaito spoke. "I'm...I'm Kaito. Kaito Sena." "Kaito Sena...will you lend us your strength?" "Of course. You were... Commander...uh...?" "Izabella is fine. You may also call me Vicker, if you'd rather." "Izabella, then. That's what I should be asking. Please lend us your strength." About to extend his right arm, Kaito changed his mind and went with his beastly left arm. As if testing her, he purposely extended it. Without a shred of hesitation, Izabella took her gauntleted hand and grasped his, the proof of his demonic contract. Fur and metal came in contact. Looking directly at each other, the two of them spoke in unison. ""Let's take out that demon together."" As they did, a humanlike laugh echoed around in Kaito's eardrums. A low murmur grazed at his ear, one that both threatened and ridiculed him. You are contractor to a demon, the very embodiment of power designed to destroy the world. Yet you save others, receive their gratitude, and feel serenity. Absurdities upon absurdities. Such absurd, unsalvageable contradictions. *** Shame on you, boy. Even so, Kaito continued grasping Izabella's palm. As though saying that if he released it, he would lose something key to his humanity. About ten minutes later, Kaito set back out along the main road with his bowl of gruel in hand. Through some stroke of fortune, despite all the ordeals he'd been through, its contents still hadn't spilled. The fact that it hadn't gotten kicked by the two paladins had been nothing short of a miracle. When he'd gone to retrieve it, Izabella had exasperatedly asked him why he'd put it there. She'd returned to the square just a little bit ago. Apparently, after hearing that the Torture Princess, two paladins, and Kaito had all left the plaza, she'd come after them under the suspicion that a fight might break out. In other words, the moment she found Kaito and the paladins, she'd completed her initial objective. "Hmm, now where'd Elisabeth get off to?" Kaito, now alone, wandered about the wide thoroughfare. Before he'd noticed, the buildings around him had stopped being residences, instead becoming restaurants, shops, inns, and the like. In the distance, he could make out the outer wall surrounding the city's southern gate. But even as the townscape shifted to one suited for travelers, Elisabeth was still nowhere to be seen. Still not here, huh...? Don't tell me she went back already, did she? Then Kaito stopped in his tracks. He could hear a voice singing a beautiful song. The voice responsible for the gentle tune was one he knew well. Flustered, Kaito checked around to see where it was coming from. Then he noticed a bar-slash-eatery replete with shingled roof and copper signboard with its wooden door