Matyos headed to the restroom, leaving Ofilienne alone in the spacious compartment with her thoughts.
She sat still for a moment before her mind began to drift. And at the end of every drift, there was always Matyos.
She drew an old photo album from inside her coat and turned through it, page by careful page.
The edges were worn and frayed from years of handling.
In the photographs, a young Matyos and a young her stood together.
Two faces that knew nothing of the world, holding each other, laughing.
"…."
Ofilienne studied the photos without expression.
Each one summoned the memory of that moment.
The time he climbed a tree and refused to come down.
The time he hugged a stuffed bear nearly as big as himself.
The moment he pressed his lips to her cheek for no reason at all.
The air of that day, the smell of it, the sensation against her skin — all of it rose up and layered over the present.
That day. That scene. Those feelings, surfacing now.
Thud.
She closed the album and set it on the table.
"Hah… what on earth am I doing."
The spell broke.
She exhaled the words like a murmur to herself.
She leaned back against the seat and covered her eyes with her arm.
*Rummaging through the past is one of the ugliest things a person can do. Forget it cleanly, my dear.*
Her mother's words came to her.
To Ofilienne, her mother's words were scripture. The guiding text for the life she was meant to live.
They were excellent guidance, all of it.
From how to tame people, to how to be loved, to how to bring an enemy to ruin.
Every lesson too valuable to discard.
*Forget it.*
She lowered her arm.
The scattered look in her eyes settled back into order.
Cold again. Clear again.
She looked at reality.
*Because he's nothing more than my rival now.*
The past was only ever an obstacle to the present.
*…So why isn't he back yet?*
She glanced at the clock on the wall. Ten minutes had passed since Matyos left for the restroom. It wasn't as though he was taking a bath — why was it taking this long?
She wondered if the wall clock was wrong and checked against the pocket watch crafted by a master horologist. It confirmed the same: Matyos was late.
She picked up her book.
*He'll be back soon.*
Ten minutes later.
*Is his stomach bothering him?*
Another ten minutes.
She pressed her lower lip between her teeth.
Unable to make the words on the page mean anything, Ofilienne closed the book and stood.
She would go to the restroom herself.
She stepped out of the compartment and went looking for Matyos.
She checked the restroom first — he wasn't there.
She went to the dining car — he wasn't there either.
Searching for him, she walked until she found herself at Car Four.
Thud!
Just as her irritation at his whereabouts was beginning to sharpen into something worse, something changed.
The train, which had been running smoothly, lurched with a violent shudder.
Screams erupted from every direction.
She felt it immediately — something was wrong. She spread her mana wide, sweeping across the entire length of the train.
What she found was a dark, malevolent energy. *Demonic Energy.* Multiple sources, scattered throughout the cars. The tremors of combat rippling alongside it.
*…An ambush.*
The moment that word crystallized in her mind, Matyos — still not back — flashed through her thoughts like a bolt of lightning.
She gathered her mana.
The ring seated firmly at the center of her heart began to rotate. She wrapped a barrier around herself.
*Where in the world is he right now.*
She pressed her lips shut and spread her mana again, thin as a spider's web.
She searched through it until she found him.
*…There.*
Car Six.
Right nearby.
Crash!
At that moment, a figure burst through the train window in a shower of glass.
The assailant, body wrapped entirely in black, looked around — and found Ofilienne.
"Die!"
Without a word of preamble, he drew his blade and charged.
Ofilienne watched him come, then raised one finger.
A streak of grey lightning shot out and struck him dead center.
Crack!
The man's body burst apart.
Ofilienne stepped past the bloodstain without a glance.
She moved through the cars at a swift, measured pace.
With every step closer to Car Six, her heartbeat quickened in proportion.
*What if something has happened to him.*
*Please be safe. Please. Mati.*
Creak.
She opened the door to Car Six.
The first thing her eyes found was a figure collapsed on the floor.
"Cough…."
Matyos was coughing up blood, still breathing.
He looked up at her through clouded eyes.
Ofilienne stopped where she stood.
Something inside her chest began to burn.
Hot, unfamiliar, and entirely beyond her control.
She had never felt it before.
* * *
Leopold's gaze locked onto her.
The lion's pupils narrowed to slits.
The beast's face had hardened into open, undisguised killing intent.
"Hmm."
Leopold tilted his head.
"I've been feeling it for a while now."
He muttered.
"You're a little different, aren't you."
At his words, Ofilienne slowly raised her head and fixed her eyes on him.
Heavy, dry, grey eyes.
Leopold swung his axe idly as he advanced.
The instant he took a single step forward, ash-white lightning flooded his vision.
Crack!!
Leopold's shoulder exploded.
Muscle tore. Bone was laid bare. Blood sprayed like a fountain.
But he did not stop.
"Kh."
Leopold laughed.
Not a laugh of pain — something closer to excitement.
"Now this is worth enjoying!"
He twisted his body without a thought for his shattered arm.
His tail whipped around. It lashed at Ofilienne's side like a cracking whip.
Clang!
It slammed into the thick barrier she had raised and stopped dead. Ofilienne detonated a bolt of lightning directly into Leopold's face, inches from her own.
Ash-white lightning filled the compartment.
"Aaagh!!"
Leopold screamed at the searing agony. Every muscle in his body seized and refused to move.
"You little—"
Leopold unleashed his Demonic Energy.
The malevolent force spread through his body. Tremendous power surged up through him.
In an instant, his wounds closed. He hurled himself at Ofilienne and brought the axe down with everything he had.
"Die!"
The massive axe was so brutish it looked less like it would cut her and more like it would simply tear her apart.
The air buckled under the swing, and it seemed she would be next — yet Ofilienne's expression remained utterly serene.
Crackle….
Lightning leapt upward. A flash shot out like an arrow.
It pierced clean through the arm Leopold was driving down with, as though carving it away.
The bolt tore through the ceiling and vanished into the sky.
"Gkh…!"
Losing one arm, Leopold lost his balance with it and crumpled awkwardly to the floor.
*This woman, what the hell—!*
Crack!
As Leopold tried to rise, ash-white lightning came down on him again.
His lion's mane burned away entirely in the blaze. The relentless bolts made his body convulse.
The Demonic Energy wrapped around him, but it did not make him invincible.
Ofilienne's lightning shattered through it and struck his body directly.
Crack!
His remaining left arm burst apart in the lightning.
Ofilienne did not stop there — she drove a bolt straight into the face of Leopold as he writhed in agony.
Leopold clutched his face and crumpled in a graceless heap.
"Gaaah!!"
For every step Leopold was driven back, Ofilienne took one forward.
Eyes with a strange, absent light looked down at him.
"…W-wait."
Crack!
"Gah! Wait—!"
Crack!
"P-please, stop—!"
Crackcrackcrack!!!
Whatever Leopold said, however wretched the expression he made — Ofilienne kept firing.
With the detached indifference of someone who felt nothing at all.
Under the unrelenting lightning, Leopold convulsed.
His high stats and the Demonic Energy coating his body kept him from dying easily — which only meant he suffered all the more for it.
Ofilienne did not stop until she had reduced Leopold to a lump of charcoal.
Even she was not unaffected by sustaining that level of magic without pause — sweat ran down her neck, leaving it faintly glistening.
"Mati, it's all over now—"
She swept her damp fringe back and turned around — then stopped.
Matyos was cradled in the arms of a woman she had never seen before. Leaning against the woman's chest, as though he found it comfortable.
"Mati, Mati! Stay with me. Oh no… you're bleeding from your chest—! I'll give you a blessing right now! Our Father in heaven…."
The blessing she bestowed settled over Matyos, and some color returned to his face.
Ofilienne stepped in front of them.
Her shadow fell long across the floor.
The woman with light brown hair had been absorbed in tending to him, but she finally noticed Ofilienne and dipped her head.
"Oh — thank you. Thank you so much. You saved us. If you hadn't come, Mati would have been in real danger."
The name that came out of her mouth grated.
Mati.
That name was one only she was supposed to use.
But she could not fault someone who had just treated Matyos's wounds.
Ofilienne suppressed the discomfort rising in her and studied Matyos's color.
He was still conscious, thankfully.
She let out a quiet breath of relief. Knowing he was safe made her chest feel remarkably lighter.
Without quite meaning to, she reached toward Matyos's cheek — then stopped, and drew her hand back before it could touch him.
"It seems it's all over."
A voice came from behind her.
She turned to find an older woman holding a sword.
The elderly swordswoman looked down at the thoroughly charred Leopold with something like curiosity.
"You really did a number on him. Miss Moretti — was this your doing?"
Tiana turned her head.
"Is… is that the Sword Saint?"
Tiana's eyes went wide.