In the dead of night… the crowd in the Central Plaza had long since dispersed, and moonlight flowed like water over the stone surfaces of the high-hung covered bridges.
Iyue stood on one of those bridges, holding the two Demon Bullets in her hand.
She had spent the whole day trying to destroy or discard them… damaging, burning the containers that held them, or simply throwing them into a place where she couldn’t possibly know the exact landing point, like she was doing now.
But it was all in vain.
Whenever she thought she had successfully discarded them, they would always return to her side in some inexplicably strange form.
This time, she forcefully threw one of them into the stream that flowed through the Lower District beneath the bridge.
The bullet glowing with purple light traced a long arc through the air before plunging into the darkness.
She closed her eyes, expanding her auditory perception, and waited quietly. But the sound of it hitting the water… never came.
After a moment, she felt a chill in her palm.
She opened her eyes, and the two Demon Bullets still lay in her palm, just as before.
Faced with this expected outcome, she felt a bit tired.
She slowly slid down against the bridge railing, pressing her forehead against it.
She thought back to what had happened this morning.
Even though so much time had passed, that red-haired girl’s body was still as warm and soft as before… and the image of her younger sister standing at the courtyard gate softly greeting her was also branded into her mind.
Her younger sister’s voice and smile were unchanged from the past.
The old clothes she wore were ones Iyue had sewn and mended with her own hands.
Iyue could recall every stitch, every thread on them… as well as every minute, every second she had spent with her sister in that house.
‘Even though I heard her voice, even though I saw her appearance, even though I remembered everything from the past… I ran away from her side.’
‘Could I still hold an inexplicable hatred for her, just like when we first met?’
‘Or was it like when I cruelly drove her away back then, filled with the despair of a dead heart?’
‘No… neither.’ At least that much, Iyue could be sure.
She thought she was afraid of losing again.
She was afraid she would hurt her again like before… afraid that the Demon King’s prophecy-like warning would become reality for her.
And this fear wasn’t born on the day she defeated the Demon King… it had existed many years ago, like a seed buried in the soil, only now taking root and sprouting.
Back then, when she accepted Lian’s invitation to join the journey against the Demon King, she told Lian she was moved by her determination and persistence… and also to protect her homeland, to bring justice and peace back to the Empire.
But only she knew that aside from these lofty reasons, there was another motive.
Father and Mother were both gone… and the last vestiges of her thoughts for them had been burned clean away by her most beloved, most trusted younger sister.
She felt she had nothing left.
Since there was nothing left to lose, what was there to fear in following this man into that hopeless battlefield, charging to the gates of death?
Now that she thought about it, that way of thinking back then was also a form of escape.
She used battle to fill the void in her heart, using physical pain and lofty righteousness to find a reason for her existence.
She had thought that one day she would fall on the battlefield and be freed from it all—but during that journey, she unexpectedly regained something she loved.
She had comrades fighting alongside her, once again had someone she wanted to protect, and formed bonds deeper than familial love and hatred.
Now, she had returned here again… and she suddenly realized that what had been buried by her past self in despair now seemed so dazzlingly brilliant.
Two desires were pulling at her heart.
She wanted to approach Nefi, to hold her, to once again pick up that bond of bloodline love that she had once abandoned; but in contrast, to avoid hurting the ones she loved again, she thought that this time she should probably leave far away… and never come back.
Alone… even the sound of the wind seemed desolate.
In this wind, Iyue once again gazed at the Demon Bullets in her hand.
It wasn’t just Nefi—even Lian and Milin could become targets of these things.
After all the tests today, she was almost certain that these things were probably even more sinister than the Demon King had said.
“Lady Iyue.” A gentle and calm voice came from the other end of the bridge.
Iyue abruptly stood up and looked at the newcomer.
“It’s you… how did you know I was here?”
The newcomer was none other than the butler Yan Wei Fu, who had been providing Iyue with information on relics.
He bowed to Iyue, then showed a bitter expression.
“I used the city’s intelligence network and went through a lot of trouble to find you. Why didn’t you answer the door this morning… ah.”
His gaze suddenly fell upon the bullets in Iyue’s hand.
And his usual sample-like smile changed because of it—”Oh my, oh my… I didn’t expect to see this thing… This is the relic called the ‘Demon Bullet’, right? The one you used to defeat the Demon King.”
“You know about it? But its appearance is different from before.”
Iyue suddenly became alert… the current ‘Demon Bullets’ had been modified by Sage Saifei into a bullet form… not the arrow form she had used to defeat the Demon King in the past.
If he had heard about this relic from the stories of the Brave’s Party, he shouldn’t have been able to recognize the ‘Demon Bullets’ that had now changed into bullet form.
“This thing originally had the ability to grant the holder’s wishes. Changing its shape to fit the device that fires it can be considered a small convenience for the holder.” He smiled slightly. “How about selling it to me? Name your price.”
“You sound like you know a lot about this thing… You want it? You’ve never asked to buy any of the relics I’ve found before.”
“An information broker always needs to have some insight. And this one is different. Because its potential is far broader than other things… As its user, you should know that better than anyone, right?”
“…It can’t be sold.” Iyue hesitated for a moment and said so.
“Do you need some time to appraise it?”
“It’s not a matter of price.” She held the Demon Bullet up to him. “As long as it’s too far from me, it will automatically return to my side. No matter how I discard it, it comes back.”
With that, she again threw the ‘Demon Bullet’ off the bridge… and the result was the same as last time—they quickly returned to her palm.
Yan Wei Fu witnessed the whole process… He propped his chin with his hand, was silent for a moment, then sighed regretfully.
“That’s really a troublesome bond.”
“Do you have any ideas? I want to consume them.”
“Since they’re bullets, why not just shoot them? Even firing at nothing should work, right?”
“I’ve tried… it’s useless. Unless what it hits is a humanoid living thing, it still returns to my hand.”
“Not even demons?”
“Yes. When it hits a demon, it only has the effect of a normal bullet… even if I make a wish. And even if I don’t retrieve it, it comes back to my hand on its own.”
“That’s truly regrettable… Then please pretend I never mentioned it.” Yan Wei Fu’s interest came and went quickly.
His expression immediately returned to normal, and he changed the topic back.
“This morning, why didn’t you open the door? I knew you were home and that you heard my knocking.”
“…”
“But then you opened the door… for that Miss New Hero.”
“…Were you hiding nearby?” Iyue’s expression darkened.
“Yes.” Yan Wei Fu didn’t deny it, instead smiling lightly.
“I also saw you running away from her side, as well as from Miss Nefitalia. I chased after you both for a while, but your footwork was too fast; I couldn’t keep up in the end.”
“Snooping on others is not a good habit.”
“Please forgive me. But breaking one’s word is also not a good habit, is it? Although I can understand that you must have been very scared at the time.”
“You…” Iyue instinctively wanted to retort, but stopped under his calm gaze.
“You saw everything?”
“I don’t know how you and your younger sister were separated in the past, but you delayed going to the Nelf Family because you were afraid of seeing her, right? And even when she stood before you, you didn’t ask her about the relic… What are you afraid of?”
“…I’m not afraid.”
“Could it be related to the ‘Demon Bullet’ in your hand?”
Iyue’s hand went to her gun holster.
“Don’t be nervous, don’t be nervous.” Yan Wei Fu quickly raised his hands. “I just know that using any relic comes with a heavy price. And what could make you, who once defeated the Demon King and saved the world, feel afraid… it shouldn’t be your blood relative sister. Could the price of this thing force you to hurt her?”
“Did you deduce that?”
“As you say.”
Iyue was silent for a long time… then let out a light sigh.
“I’m not sure. I don’t know what the price of using it is besides magic power… but I can’t bring it near my sister anymore.”
“Have you lost control of it?”
“No… I just have a bad feeling.”
“Then I think you don’t need to worry about that. A premonition is just a premonition. Even if they have great power, they are just ammunition that needs a firing mechanism. If you don’t load them, can they fly out and hurt someone on their own? In my opinion, this problem can be solved by simply disassembling your gun.”
“Disassemble the gun…?”
This was a solution Iyue had never considered.
Normally, she would have thought this idea was stupid, but at this moment, she seriously began to consider the feasibility of this idea.
“Well? I await your decision. After that, we need to head to the Nelf Family as soon as possible. Whether it’s negotiating with your sister or directly stealing the relic, we need to act as quickly as possible.”
“I need a little more time.” Iyue’s tone was no longer as stiff as before. “I need to think it over.”
Yan Wei Fu looked at her, seeming unsurprised by this answer.
“Then I will come again tomorrow morning. But tomorrow morning will truly be the last time… If you still haven’t made up your mind, then after that, I will have nothing to do with the matter.”
“…Sorry.” Iyue nodded lightly to him.
Then she turned and left the bridge, her figure gradually disappearing into the night of the wind forest.
Only Yan Wei Fu remained on the bridge.
He raised his hand to adjust his cuffs, his eyes sweeping over the shadows of buildings and trees on both sides of the bridge.
The quiet and tranquility of the night continued—
He softly called out, “How long are you all going to hide?”
As his words fell, several figures emerged from the shadows.
A few members of the Ranger Corps had their bowstrings already taut, arrowheads aimed directly at Yan Wei Fu’s brow.
The leader’s tone was cold… That person was Se La, one of the three small captains of the Stillwind Forest Realm Patrol Team.
Following Nefitalia’s orders, she had handed the magic hairpin with monitoring and eavesdropping functions to Iyue.
“Don’t resist. Come with us. Otherwise, we will kill you on the spot.”
“…I recall that the Ranger Corps doesn’t have the authority to execute suspects without a trial?” Yan Wei Fu, who had already lowered his hands, raised them again.