The door closed and the sound of slightly hurried footsteps became distant.

As the signs of people moved away, a cold wind blew in the room even though the windows were closed.

The fire in the fireplace, with its lingering magical energy, was extinguished, and perfect silence came over the room.

The shadows screamed beneath the ground and from the ceiling as they climbed toward Joshua.

[Joshua is a liar.]

[Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies!]

[Cut off the head of that girl who thinks you’re some kind of experiment, and show the Rosteliers a lesson!] 

[Joshua, Joshua. They are just a small piece of a dirty, hypocritical group.]

“…….”

[Let’s kill her*! Let’s call Ramia! Let’s dig her guts out and feed them to her!] Let’s kill them! Let’s call in Seiren and have him remove her vocal chords! Let’s kill her! Let’s kill her! We’ll kill her!] (*her=Rosha)

[That’s right! Let’s kill her, let’s kill her, let’s kill her!]

[The bones of the horrible wizard of light will be piled up in our tower along with many other remains!]

[Then we will celebrate at the top of the tower, squeezing out fresh blood!]

[Let’s give it to those useless Rosteliers!]

“Be quiet.”

At the sound of Joshua’s low voice, the noisy shadows fell silent at once.

“I’m not going to kill Rosha.”

Joshua hugged the blanket that Rosha had covered him and buried his face in it, his cheeks reddening as he grimaced.

“Go away.”

The shadows scattered without a trace at the command of the small boy buried in the blanket. 

Joshua was really the only one left in the room.

***

“Ha ……”

As she stood in front of the Angel Orphanage, Rosha let out a long breath, taking a deep breath of tension. The Angel Orphanage was not far from Count Baldwin’s house, so it was a quick walk. 

‘Lily must be in there…’

There was a possibility that there wasn’t, but for now, there was a good chance that Lily was in this orphanage. Rosha stepped into the entrance of the orphanage with a trembling heart.

Fortunately, she was able to quickly find someone at the entrance of the orphanage with poor facilities. She saw children making snowmen and a woman playing with them. It seemed to be the director of the orphanage. Rosha deliberately approached them. As she approached them a few steps ahead, the director, who was focusing only on the children, belatedly discovered Rosha.

“Excuse me, who are you?”

It was strange that a girl who looked young to be adopted had visited an orphanage by herself. Rosha placed her hand on her chest and bowed lightly.

“I’m Rosha Rostelier. I understand that the Golden Dawn Society had contacted you in advance.”

“Oh, I see. I am Susan Leilletra, the director of this orphanage. I heard about you. But I didn’t expect you to be here today.”

Rosha felt her conscience squirm at the mention of this.

It was because Noah’s words about not neglecting the mission in exchange for finding her sister came to mind.

‘It’s a bit like being on my own from day one.’

But Rosha quickly reconsidered. She wanted to come from the Angel Orphanage as soon as she arrived in this country, but she held back.

The reason why Rosha had joined the Golden Dawn Society was to defeat Barbel, who was using demons to disrupt the world after she had swept away all the demons in the world, but the first reason was to find her sister.

The most important person to Rosha was Lily.

“I’m Lily Lewen’s older sister. Can I see my sister right away?”

She tried to stay calm, but she couldn’t help talking a little faster.

“Um, that’s …….”

But somehow, the Director slurred her words.

“Lily disappeared yesterday.”

Soon, the shocking words flowed from the Director’s mouth.

“What?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what to say.”

“What the hell is this….”

This was the moment she had been waiting for the most. Rosha’s legs weakened.

She couldn’t believe Lily disappeared…. yesterday…. If she had come one day earlier, she could have met her….

“What’s wrong with Lily…”

The Director rushed to support Rosha’s arm. Before Rosha knew it, her legs had lost their strength and she was about to collapse.

“If you don’t mind, it’s going to be a long conversation, so come inside. I’ll explain everything slowly.”

Rosha’s first instinct was to immediately grab the Director by the chest and shake her. She was the one who was responsible for the children while managing this orphanage, how could she have lost the child while doing that?

However, Rosha had no energy to get angry because her whole body trembled so much that it was hard to even move her fingers.

Lily had gone missing. With that one word, Rosha lost all motivation.

Rosha had a long talk with the director of the orphanage in the counseling room.

The Director told her that Lily, who had snuck out of the orphanage in the middle of the night, had not yet returned and that they were also looking for her.

She even said that she would definitely contact Rosha when Lily returned.

“Can I see some recent pictures of Lily?”

“I’m sorry, but Lily hates taking pictures, so I don’t have any.”

“Lily hated having her picture taken…?”

“Yes.”

It was strange. It’d be understandable If she was afraid of something related to demons, why would she be afraid of taking pictures?

Lily, whom Rosha knew, wasn’t afraid of such things.

“I’m sorry I can’t be of any help.”

The Director bowed her head slightly to apologize.

Rosha’s heart stirred with sorrow, injustice, and resentment.

‘Why didn’t you wait one more day, Lily?’

‘If you had waited for just one day, I would have come to pick you up.’

‘Lily, where the hell are you in this land?’

“I’m staying at Count Baldwin’s residence, so if you find Lily, please contact me.”

The Director was surprised to hear Rosha was staying at the Count’s residence, but the Director just nodded with a sad expression. Rosha doubted that the Director had listened to her properly, but Rosha decided to keep her words to herself. In any case, she was going to wait a little longer to see if she could find Lily, and if she would contact her after she did. If she couldn’t find Lily after some time, it wouldn’t be too late to sit here and cause a ruckus then.

Rosha walked languidly through the entrance of the orphanage, not bothering to hide her feeling of emptiness. She felt like she was going to fall down at any moment, so she put all her strength into her body and concentrated on taking one step at a time.

In the yard of the orphanage, she could see the children gathered as they had been earlier. As she walked, Rosha couldn’t take her eyes off the children who were around the same age as her sister.

At that time, she saw the golden hair among the children. She didn’t think there were any blondes among the children. …… Now she saw only one child who had blond hair.

Blonde was a common hair color. But blonde hair without any other color mixed in, like Lily’s, was rare.

Before she knew it, Rosha’s legs were heading for the children. The blond haired girl wore a red dotted dress with a black headband over her short hair…….

“Li, Lily…….”

The children scattered quickly, probably at play. The child with the blonde hair also ran off somewhere.

“Lily ……!”

Rosha ran after Lily.

“Wait, Lily!”

Rosha saw Lily enter through the entrance of the orphanage building and quickly followed her.

“Lily, please……”

Rosha went inside the building, but Lily was not seen. Rosha whirled around in place, looking in the direction the blonde haired girl seemed to be headed.

That was when it happened.

Whoosh.

She felt the presence of a passerby.

She glanced sideways at the figure at the other end of the hallway.

Rosha quickly ran down the hallway. Just as she turned the corner of the hallway, she heard a voice ask,

“What’s going on?”

“Oh…”

She met not a child, but the director of the orphanage.

“This is a children’s only rest area. You can’t go any further.”

“I saw Lily.”

“What are you talking about…….”

“It’s the girl in the black headband and the red dotted dress!”

“…….”

“You said Lily left the orphanage. Maybe she came back again. I saw her pass this way…….”

“I think you must be looking at something wrong. There isn’t any Lily with blond hair…..”

“I saw her!”

Rosha ended up raising her voice.

The Director lifted her glasses and gave Rosha a puzzled look, as if she was confused by Rosha’s outcry.

“Director…….”

At that moment, she heard a child’s voice from behind the Director. Rosha pushed the Director to confirm the child’s appearance.

“……..”

Short blond hair. A black headband and a red dotted dress.

…… But it wasn’t Lily.

The director was right, it was just a blonde haired child who looked like Lily.

“I know that you are heartbroken about losing you sister.”

“…….”

“Please don’t be too disappointed, we’ll be looking for Lily as hard as we can.”

The Director comforted Rosha.

However, no words could reach her heart.

***

Returning to Count Baldwin’s residence, Rosha went into her room without seeing Joshua, who was alone. It was fortunate to be able to rest without anyone’s attention on a day like today, when her mood was down….

It was good for Rosha that the servants were too scared of Joshua and stayed away.

It was hard to explain what kind of spirit she had. However, Rosha managed to wash up and lie down in bed. 

‘Lily ……’

Actually, sometimes Rosha was tired of looking for Lily.

No, actually, she was always tired.

She thought she could endure it only if she believed Lily was alive, but sometimes…….

She wanted to think that Lily was dead and forget about it.

However, Rosha still couldn’t give up the search for her sister. No matter how hard it  was, it was the one thing she couldn’t give up.

But at times like today……..

She thought she could find Lily this time, but she missed it in vain.

Rosha felt more mentally exhausted than usual. She resented the orphanage director, but what she resented more was that she couldn’t come sooner. She also resented Noah for not telling her about Lily sooner.

But what good does it do to hold a grudge against everything in the world? She had already lost Lily.

On the way back, she asked people about the blonde girl, but she couldn’t find a clue about Lily.

Rosha was almost in tears, angry with herself for not finding Lily again this time. Eventually, she buried her face on the pillow and cried. While repeatedly telling herself that she wasn’t crying because she wasn’t crying out loud. 

With her exhausted body and mind, Rosha cried for a long time and eventually fell into a deep, dreamless sleep in the darkness.