Sure, there are plenty of unknown things in this world—but these creatures definitely didn’t appear naturally!

The more Juxi thought about it, the more something felt off. He quickly asked Yu Nai, “Yu Nai, have you ever been scratched by one of those mutants?”

“Hm?” Yu Nai looked confused for a moment, then said, “No... Why? Are you worried about me?”

“If you know that, then why are you so against praying? What are you afraid of? That I’ll make you kneel in front of the Divine Lord’s statue and order you to sing ‘Conquer’? Juxi, my friend, we’re just going to sit quietly for a while. Just you and me. We’ll sit and clear our heads, then have something good to eat... Maybe it’ll help you remember something important. Maybe you won’t learn anything at all. But it might help you calm down, don’t you think?”

“Because it’s completely pointless. There’s no vortex of fate around me. And even if there were, why go poking around in it for no reason?”

“...There’s something wrong with you.”

“If you mean I’m hurt, then you guessed right!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?! You make it sound like it’s my fault. Is there something wrong with me?!”

“It doesn’t mean anything. I just get the feeling there’s something off about you. Besides, I’ve known you for more than a day or two. The first time I met you, your intelligence was... questionable. But now, I can feel you spinning around in some kind of terrifying vortex, just like me. We’re both tangled up in fragments of the past. I need someone I can trust to help me. That’s why I need Yuanhui’s help.”

Juxi hadn’t had anything resembling a decent life in a long time. It was all because he was searching for the truth—and the life he was living now was the price he had to pay for it!

My ancestors used to say that what set humanity apart from all other living things, making us the wisest of them all, was that we pursued the truth while willingly enduring the pain we were meant to endure.

It’s awful, isn’t it...? No matter how you look at it, we humans made it this far one step at a time through our own wisdom. Complaining about it won’t change a thing.

Juxi had always been troubled by his past. He snapped at Yu Nai, “Don’t you think you’re making this whole thing way too mysterious? Why get caught up in all this metaphysical stuff? If you want, I can tell you about it. I can spend every night talking about my adventures over the past few years. We could even start tonight. But I’m afraid you’ll find it boring, because there’s no knot at the center of it—no story about my fate.”

“I’d love to hear about them. But I’ll say it again: praying won’t hurt you.”

“Don’t you think,” Juxi said with a smile as he drew his sword, “that my doubts about prayer decided its fate from the very beginning?”

“No, I don’t. Do you know why?”

“I don’t. This isn’t something I can change on my own, after all.”

Yu Nai suddenly moved closer to Juxi and looked him in the eyes, an odd smile playing on her pale lips.

“I’d really like to see how one person could change an idea that’s been passed down for thousands of years.”

There’s no end to the truth hidden in fairy tales. Like waking from a nightmare, I often jerk awake from my dreams and see a man... A burly man, cutting down everyone around me with his own hands.

He once said, “The disasters that befall you someday are the retribution for the times you acted rashly.”

But it couldn’t possibly be that simple, could it? None of us knows where our next choice will lead. And yet, somehow, I think I’ve learned something... about the meaning of our existence.

What’s meant to happen will happen in the end. No matter how we try to make things right, we can’t change that—just as we can’t escape death, no matter how long we extend our lives.

That was the end of today’s notes. Afterward, there was an added line: Every time I look back at this notebook, that guy Yuanhui says I’m always writing down pointless nonsense.

...

A cloud of countless tiny black specks stirred restlessly in the smoky daylight, catching Juxi’s attention.

Countless birds circled slowly in the sky, then suddenly swooped down before beating their wings and soaring back up. They repeated the same pattern several times.

Juxi watched the flock’s movements for a long time, calculating how long it would take to reach their destination.

He took the terrain, the density of the forest, and the course of the canyon into account. If his guess was right, the route would pass through a small village. If Yuanhui really was heading to the palace of Harlian, he’d probably stop there to rest.

Thinking this over, Juxi took off his coat and tightened the sword strap across his chest.

“This still isn’t cautious enough. I should add some protection to the front of my body.” The hilt of a sword and the sharp point of a spear stuck out behind Juxi’s right shoulder.

“Let’s take a detour, brave lady.”

“Huh?” Yu Nai cried in surprise, her mouth falling open. “Boss, the paths here are eighty percent longer than the main road! Are you trying to wear me to death?!”

He said to Yu Nai, who was following close behind him, “We’re taking the trail. In my opinion, that flock looks like it’s been spooked by something. There must be a reason.”

Of course, Yu Nai didn’t argue. She obediently followed Juxi and started walking.

“Who knows? Maybe a pheasant just died,” Juxi said, spreading his hands helplessly. “Maybe not. Who can say?”

Just as he’d expected, there was a village there. Juxi looked down at it from above, but trees crowded all around it, and the path was incredibly steep. The place was littered with rotten logs and deadwood. Juxi and Yu Nai had to struggle with all their might to make it along the winding trail. On the other side lay a vast forest, where wind-felled trees were scattered across the ground, their roots and branches jutting in every direction toward the sky.

The birds grew uneasy at the strangers’ arrival. They flew high into the air, letting out one shrill cry after another.

With Yu Nai carefully showing him the way, Juxi soon spotted a corpse—a woman’s, and particularly conspicuous.

Soon, Juxi spotted a second corpse. He sniffed carefully, and a sharp stench immediately wafted from the village they were about to pass.

They held their breath as much as they could and approached the two bodies on the ground.

As if he’d noticed something, Juxi silently turned his gaze toward the forest.

“I really don’t want to, but I’d like you to come take a look with me,” Juxi said, inviting Yu Nai along.

“...But...”

Yu Nai looked as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t. After all, it was still broad daylight, and the woman’s face and throat were so mangled that they’d attracted countless bugs. Most of her body had been eaten away, too.

Juxi didn’t even want to look at her. He walked straight past without stopping to examine the body.

The second body they found was a man lying facedown. They didn’t turn him over, but there wasn’t much left of him anyway. Crows or vultures had eaten most of the body.

There was no need to look closely. A streak of dried black blood on the man’s clothes looked as though he’d been bitten by a human.

“It’s obvious. His fatal wound is on his neck, and it’s directly connected to those mutants.”

Juxi drew a dagger from his belt and carefully made a quick examination of the man’s body.

There were plenty of things about the man that didn’t add up. He had a wooden sword sheath and, beside it, a leather pouch. The witcher took it off and pulled out its contents one by one, dropping them on the ground: a flint, chalk, sealing wax, a handful of silver coins, and a chain with something like a bone knife handle attached.

There was nothing else... Huh?!

My heart pounding, I turned to the next page. What I saw there left me stunned.

“Oh... Why am I so unlucky...?”

I picked up the page, more than half of it burned away, completely baffled.

There were two letters written on cloth, soaked through with rain and dew, their words blurred beyond recognition. Another letter was written on a sheet of white paper. It was soaked, too, but at least I could read it. It was meant to make up for the part of the page that had burned away.

“Seriously... I finally found it...”

Juxi bent down and lifted the man’s right hand.

Sorry about that... He left, disappointed.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and muttered to himself, “Is this all? Ah... well, maybe it’s enough.”

He returned to the woman’s body. When he turned it over, his fingers brushed against something: a rose pinned to her dress. It had wilted, but its color was still clear.

This was the first time Juxi had ever seen anything like it. Driven by curiosity, he decided to examine the body himself.

When he had turned the body all the way over, he couldn’t help shivering.

Bite marks were clearly visible on the woman’s exposed, deformed nape. Juxi knew they couldn’t have come from any animal, so he carefully backed away to Yu Nai’s side.

He kept his eyes fixed on the forest as he led Yu Nai around the area twice, carefully searching the ground for any trace of what had happened.

“How could—there’s nothing at all!” He stopped Yu Nai and lowered his voice. “It’s obvious what happened. Those two rode here from the place we’re heading to. Something must have happened there. Nobody rides around holding a hunting rifle in their hands for no reason. Who knows why they weren’t taking the main road? Then the two of them got off their horses—or rather, fell off. The man was knocked down and killed on the spot. The woman only managed to run a short distance before her throat was bitten through.”

Terrified, Yu Nai naturally didn’t answer. She breathed uneasily, responding again and again to that familiar voice.

“...Y-yeah... Th-then should we go around?”

“Whatever killed them—” Juxi said, glancing toward the village now and then. “I’m certain it was an Evil Entity. An animal wouldn’t leave so many corpses for other beasts to feed on.”