Fifteen minutes later, in the shrine's guest building…

The priestess leads Straf and his split group to a collection of dusty rooms with folded futons within.

「…If you need something, I will be sweeping the main shrine building. Do not enter… Knock.」

The girl says to the group, mostly directing her words to Straf, and bows before heading down the wooden hallway with a gloomy face and her shoulders slumped.

「Well, at this rate we're going to be up north by the next month. Some vacation this is turning out to be…」

Straf shrugs, spreading his arms before returning them to his pockets. He turns towards his open room.

「I'll be heading to sleep early…」

Stripe declares lethargically and enters her room, sliding the wooden door shut behind herself.

「That's a good idea. It's what, a little past noon? If they don't get here by sunrise, we're moving on.」

Straf shrugs and glances over his shoulder at Lily, Cycelia and Nona as he grabs onto his door.

「But I'll be boooored…」

Nona moans out with her brows furrowed. Lily peeks at her with her arms crossed, then shrugs her shoulders.

「Indeed, it's a little too early to sleep… Do you mind if I come in to talk, Straf? We haven't had a simple conversation in a while.」

Lily nods in agreement, then turns her scarlet eyes up to Straf.

「Can I come too!?」

Nona excitedly perks up with a growing grin on her face.

「…Suure? If Lily doesn't mind.」

He replies in a vaguely hesitant tone with his brows raised towards Lily's pale face. The two look at each other.

「Though I'd prefer a talk alone, I'm not a boor. I don't mind company.」

Lily sighs out and shrugs, then slips past Straf while he stands in the doorway. Nona hops right in after her.

「What about you, Lia? Are you going to join us?」

Straf asks with a nod of his head towards his room.

「Ah… No, I'm going to Stripe's room for a moment.」

Cycelia returns a light shake of her chestnut head and takes a tentative step towards Stripe's door.

「The cat?… Whatever. Stop by if you feel like it.」

「Right…」

Clack.

Straf's brows rise, and he shrugs with a nonchalant, bored face as he slides his door shut. Cycelia nods, then walks up to Stripe's room.

Knock knock knock…

She turns her knuckles towards the door and knocks softly.

「Huh?… Who's there?」

Stripe asks through the door, sounding audibly surprised.

「It's just me… Do you mind if I come in?」

Cycelia replies quietly and waits for a response.

「…Not really. Go ahead.」

Stripe says with a muffled voice, and Cycelia slides the door open.

Cycelia finds Stripe sitting up on her futon and partially covered by its blanket. Her woolly hat is on the mat floor right next to her.

「Sorry if I'm a bother…」

Cycelia says with a light, awkward smile, and slides the door shut as she walks in.

「I just lain down, it's not a big deal… But what do you want?」

Stripe asks, furrowing her brows in confusion at Cycelia as she walks up and sits down.

「Nothing… But I thought you seemed a little down all of a sudden. What happened?」

She shrugs in response, smiling softly with her head inquisitively tilted.

「Ah… No, it's just…」

Stripe turns her gaze down and away, letting out a troubled sigh.

「Stripe, tell me. If something is bothering you… I don't really know how to help Straf, but maybe I can at least help you somehow.」

Cycelia leans in a little with an insistent nod of her chestnut head. She adds a helpless shrug with a concerned expression on her face.

「…It's not something you can help with.」

Stripe sighs out, spreading her hands with her mouth scrunched to the side.

「Was it something she said? What was it?」

「It's… Tsk…」

Cycelia continues asking, and Stripe turns her gaze away again. She clicks her tongue while awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck.

「…It's nothing that she said, specifically. She didn't insult me or anything, in fact, I feel like she was warmest to me specifically.」

「Nothing that she said?… Is it some cultural thing that I've missed, then?」

Stripe explains with a resigned shrug. Cycelia echoes her words, furrowing her brows in confusion with her head askew.

「No… I mean… It's a little complicated and lengthy to explain.」

Troubled and with an awkward grimace on her face, Stripe clarifies.

「…I'm here to listen, if you want to tell me about it.」

Cycelia nods, staring at her intently. Stripe lets out a quiet sigh.

「Alright… You already know I'm an infiltrator, right? A spy, essentially. I don't know how many us there are, but there ought to be at least a thousand scattered everywhere…」

Stripe asks as she crosses her arms, and Cycelia nods along.

「…Right. I don't know my parents. I was abandoned as a child. One of the infiltrators just like me came across me when I'd been thrown out into a forest…」

Stripe nods back and casually continues. Cycelia's brows furrow as her face becomes a little sullen.

「…He pretty much adopted me to use me as a cover story. Now, aside from being abandoned, I don't remember my childhood being bad or anything… His mission ended, and he returned…」

「He's your father, almost?」

Cycelia asks, tilting her head.

「Nhhh… Nnnnooo, not exactly… He strictly said he's not my father, but raised me as if he were. He's a nice old man. Later, still as a child, he handed me over to another old man…」

Stripe grimaces a little as she thinks, then shrugs her head and shoulders and continues.

「…He was from the palace. He and others trained me in all sorts of stuff. Everything I know, basically… I already mostly knew two languages, so they taught me yours-」

「You know three languages!?」

Cycelia perks up in surprise, blinking her amazed emerald eyes at Stripe.

「Well, yeah… Ours, yours, and what they call now「beastman standardized」in their polity, I guess…」

Significantly less impressed by the fact, Stripe simply returns a casual shrug with a neutral grimace.

「Tsk… Ours, huh?…」

She lowers her head and clicks her tongue, briefly grumbling to herself under her breath.

「…Anyway, I was very young when they took me into the palace, and they kept putting me through horrible training until adulthood. I met Oleander and a bunch of others there, too.」

Stripe adds with a brief shrug of her hands before crossing her arms again.

「Then they started treating you poorly?…」

Cycelia asks as her brows furrow in concern again.

「No, actually… Aside from being exhausted every day, the old man and everyone else were nice. Really, my childhood wasn't that bad… Everyone was always kind from top to bottom.」

Stripe replies with a light shake of her head, adding a small shrug of her shoulders as she explains with her idle gaze turned down towards her feet.

「Then, why?…」

Cycelia tilts her head while fidgeting with her medallion.

「…I'm getting to that…」

With a large, slightly disappointed sigh, Stripe returns her golden eyes back to Cycelia's.

「…Eventually I grew up, so it was time for me to serve her Divine Embodiment. Naturally, I grew up here, so I've always wanted to do something for the people who were kind to me…」

Stripe continues, slowly growing more gloomy and losing her enthusiasm to tell the story.

「…I was sent here and there, do this and that… Sometimes kill someone, sometimes steal something, sometimes just watch and report… The Beastman Polity, your neighbors, so on…」

She says with her arms still crossed, tilting her head left and right for the emphasis, slowly lowering her gaze down to her lap with a sullen look on her face.

「…I figured that I was being useful to my homeland. They could send me anywhere, and I could pass off either as a beastman or a human, so I fit in just about anywhere…」

Cycelia quietly nods along while Stripe continues.

「…Well, long story short, the mess from not too long ago happened and I got caught. Now I'm finally back home, I talk to the priestess who represents her Divine Embodiment…」

Stripe says with a shrug, then lets out a long sigh.

「…And she says that I speak of this land as if it were my home.」

She adds after a lengthy pause, turning her sullen eyes to Cycelia with another shrug before quickly turning them back down, blinking down at her lap.

「She doesn't know that it is?」

Cycelia asks quietly with a deeply troubled face.

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「It's less about knowing, and more that she obviously doesn't see me as someone from around here. It doesn't matter if I feel like this is my home, or I grew up near her Divine Embodiment…」

Stripe sighs again, grimacing heavily while blinking at her futon's cover.

「…I mean, can you blame her? Look, the easterners don't sprout furry ears out of their heads.」

She scoffs, flicking the tips of her ears with a pained, facetiously amused smirk.

「But… Wouldn't telling her solve it?-」

「Nah. It's not about informing her, your majesty… It's just the fact that she doesn't see me as her own.」

Cycelia asks, but Stripe quickly replies with a shake of her head.

「That's… That's really unfair. You've risked your life and have spent most of it here… What about the Beastman Polity?」

Clutching onto her skirt in frustration, Cycelia asks with sad emerald eyes and furrowed brows.

「What about 'em? I barely have anything to do with the beastmen. See, I'm am an infiltrator… Where I am is not my home. I could have my ears out, but I never felt at home there…」

Stripe lets out another long sigh as her gaze drifts upwards towards the ceiling, grimacing heavily and gritting her teeth somewhat.

「…I'm starting to wonder if I even have a home to begin with. Maybe I'm just rootless. Like a piece of driftwood floating around…」

She remarks with her mouth aslant, blinking idly up at the ceiling. Cycelia lowers her head.

「…Anyway, I'm both amazed and sickened by Oleander. She couldn't learn any language, but they've figured she'll be more useful at home. I blend into the crowd and sneak around…」

Stripe changes the topic, audibly perking up as she shrugs her arms. Cycelia lifts her still gloomy emerald eyes up to hers.

「…I really don't get how she can just talk to people, earn their trust, make friends with them, even… And then just feed them poison. I can't do that… Shit, maybe she was right.」

She adds, briefly grumbling to herself before letting out another sigh with her arms crossed.

「Um, Stripe…」

Cycelia meekly calls out while Stripe is shaking her head at her own lap.

「Yeah?」

Stripe raises a brow at Cycelia, tilting her rounded, striped animal ears.

「…It's not true that you don't have a home. You're always welcome in my palace, and you've done a lot for the empire. I think you can safely call it your home.」

Cycelia declares with her brows furrowed while looking into Stripe's golden eyes. They widen in response as she perks up.

「…Huh?」

「Ah! I mean, if you want to! I'm not forcing you to, or anything, but!…」

Stripe utters out with a confused gaze, to which Cycelia quickly flaps her hands in front of herself with an awkward smile.

「…But, if you don't have place where you belong, why not there? No one will look twice at your ears. I mean, the capital's full of vampires…」

Cycelia clarifies, spreading her hands with a smile. Stripe stares and blinks at her silently with her mouth ajar.

「…And Straf kind of made animal-eared girls popular, so… If you're a piece of driftwood, maybe we're your beach?」

She adds with a warm smile and a tilted head, shrugging her shoulders. Stripe lets out an amused huff and shakes her head.

「I know it's a little silly, but-」

「Nah… Thanks. I feel a little better now.」

Stripe interrupts Cycelia with a shake of her head and a light smile on her face.

「I'm glad. I'll let you sleep, then.」

「Right. Goodnight.」

Brightening up, Cycelia nods and stands up while Stripe lies back down.

Sliding the door open, Cycelia nods her head with a smile on her face and makes her way out into the hallway…

…

In the evening, in the palace on a mountain, in Willow's tea room…

「Where!? When!?」

Willow exclaims with his eyes wide open at the kneeling palace guard.

「Just west of the palace, a little north of the hot springs. It happened a few hours ago. The onlookers distinctly describe witnessing divine powers in use. The area confirms it.」

The guard replies with his head lowered.

「…Where are they now?」

The old mage calms a little, blinking at the man every few moments with large eyes.

「Unknown, Master Willow, but some people reported seeing a strange carriage on the road to the palace.」

「A strange carriage?…」

The guard replies, and Willow echoes his words, furrowing his bushy brows at the table.

「Yes, Master Willow. The priestess is nowhere to be found. We are unsure whether she perished in battle, or escaped.」

The guard nods, and continues his report.

「…What about that… Mass of metal? What is it? How did it even get there?」

The old man asks, raising his eyes back up to the man.

「…We don't know, Master Willow. It has wheels as if a wagon, or a carriage, but it's far too heavy to move. It's impossible that it was pulled there by horses.」

The man in black replies after a prolonged and awkward pause.

「How did it get there?… Magic?… Teleportation, maybe?… But…」

Willow lowers his pensive gaze down to the table, stroking his short beard as he mumbles to himself.

「…No matter. Is the mage ready? Send him to the western road and tell him to wait.」

He turns his weary eyes to the kneeling man.

「Yes, Master Willow.」

「Additionally, recall Falcon. I'm going to deal with him myself. Tomorrow, or whenever I find him. I'm heading to bed, wake me if they're spotted nearby.」

Willow stands up and turns for the sliding paper door inside the room.

「Er… Recall Master Falcon?… But Master Willow…」

With a troubled gaze on his masked face, the guard raises his head in surprise.

「I know what it might lead to. This man is worse than any demon, and I want Falcon here in case I don't make it. I'll take responsibility for anything that might happen…」

With his hand on the door, Willow stops and glances at the guard with a gravely serious gaze.

「…If I even live to that. I don't have much time left. I'm intent on killing him even if it kills me. I knew he would be a problem, I just wish I handled it myself then. Do it.」

He adds with a shrug of his robed shoulders, and opens the door to his bedroom.

「Yes, Master Willow!…」

The guard nods and slides the door to the hallway shut…

…

Late at night, in a forest…

Greaves and his party are wandering through the knee deep snow with only an orb of light to provide them with vision in the darkness cast by the trees' shadows. Oleander trails behind them, using the path in the snow that they've already tread. Alicia is visibly weary, and there is no civilization in sight – only trees.

「Good job, Will! See!? You can get us lost as well!」

Greaves exclaims in frustration with his arms spread, gingerly hopping through the snow after Will.

「Do you think I know where this temple is!? Do you remember their directions!? In a forest by the road! That's it! We're wandering through this damn roadside forest for hours!」

Will shouts back, and angrily kicks some snow apart. He turns his eyes to Oleander, pulls his translation sheet out of his pack, and approaches her while looking at it.

「Where?… Uh… Where road to?… Of course I forgot to ask this one…」

He tries asking, then lets out a frustrated sigh as he realizes there is no translation for shrine or temple written down. Oleander tilts her head, expectantly blinking her frigid eyes at him.

「Church? Prayer? Temple? Goddess? Mercia?」

Helpless, Will clasps his hands and acts out a prayer in lieu of words.

「Mercia?… Do you mean her Divine Embodiment?」

Oleander asks with her brows gently furrowed. Will's head perks up at the vaguely familiar word, and he consults his translation sheet. His eyes widen.

「…Where road to Divine Embodiment!? Divine Embodiment? Road?」

He asks, once again desperately acting out a prayer. Oleander's brows furrow further.

「…Do you mean a road to a shrine?」

「Shrine! Where road to shrine!?」

Will perks up with his eyes wide open, pointing at Oleander as he picks out a word Stripe used. Oleander lets out a long, exasperated sigh while he quickly scribbles it down.

「I don't know.」

She bluntly replies in a mildly annoyed tone, staring at Will with a cold expression on her face. He blinks at her, then consults his sheet again.

「Tsk…」

Will clicks his tongue and returns back to Greaves at the front of the party.

「And? What did she say?」

Greaves asks with his fists on his hips and his mouth aslant.

「That she doesn't know…」

「Does she really?」

Will replies, and Greaves asks. The two look at Oleander's frigid face with wary eyes.

「…I don't know. But realistically, would she really choose to wade through snow at night just to spite us?」

Will sighs, adjusting his glasses as he shrugs. He briefly points his hand at her before his shoulders slump.

「Good job, Will. Guess it's more wading through snow for us, genius.」

Greaves scoffs, taking the lead and shaking his spiky orange head. Will glances at Alicia's weary face and gestures his head towards Greaves. Lian helps Alicia keep her footing as they carry on.

The forest becomes marginally brighter as the moon emerges from the clouds, and takes a slightly pink hue. Will adjusts his glasses and looks up.

「…I don't like this.」

He utters out under his breath as some of the pink-toned moon peeks through the leafless treetops above them…