"It's... Red Rose."

"Figured..."

One look at the girl's red clothes and Yue Liuyi felt it—like catching a rose's scent without a single petal. No rose pattern, sure, but her height and flame-red hair matched Dixue's portrait of the Red Rose little witch.

"Woof? Red Rose... wasn't she the little witch Sister Dixue once captured? Why is she here?"

"That's past tense now. After she served her sentence, she turned over a new leaf and works for the Rangers Lodge."

Dixue studied the scars striping the little witch, her face severe as winter snow, her thoughts buried deep like ice under a lake.

"She works for the Rangers Lodge?"

"Mm. I gave her a clean, public identity—apprentice ranger—so she and Little Dessert didn’t have to skulk in the dark. I didn’t expect..."

The silver-haired girl clenched her left fist; her green eyes surged like a spring about to break its banks.

"B-but! Those people—"

"Whoa! LittleSnow, don’t get mad!"

Afraid anger would feed her wounds like wind on a flame, Yue Liuyi hurried up and took her hand—soft as willow, cool like river jade, soothing to hold.

"A girl's revenge can wait ten years. We bank the fire now, heal first, and plan when we're whole."

"Mm... sorry. I rushed it..."

Hearing Yue Liuyi, Dixue shook her head; the cold creeping through her ebbed like frost at dawn.

"Don’t rush. Little Rose needs time, too—treatment before she can bloom back."

"Mm..."

Dixue forced Yue Liuyi a smile. Then her gaze dropped like a stone into deep water. She looked at neither Yue Liuyi nor Little Rose, lost somewhere only she could see.

The room's breath went still, a pond in sudden lull.

"R-right! LittleSnow! Little Rose had a bamboo tube on her. It looks important."

"A bamboo tube?!"

"Yeah, this one..."

Yue Liuyi picked the tube off the floor and handed it to LittleSnow.

"This is... top-grade secret dispatch from the Rangers Lodge. The seal’s pristine—no one opened it en route."

"Huh? A s-secret letter?"

The silver-haired girl nodded. Long, slender fingers drew a scroll from the tube. She read fast; then fire bloomed on her fingertips and ate the page to clean ash.

Yue Dier’s expression went odd. Her green pupils slid to Xiao Yue, then to the rainstorm drumming the world outside.

"Huh? LittleSnow, is there anything you need me to do?"

"N-no... I just..."

Yue Dier hesitated, then let the words spill. "Xiao Yue, if we can, let’s not take revenge. These waters are too muddy... I’m not confident I can keep everyone safe."

"Huh?"

"The Dragon Emperor’s illness... got worse again."

With a soft sigh, Yue Dier set the bamboo tube on the bedside cabinet.

...

...

...

The storm’s back half of the night weighed on every girl like wet stone.

Dixue lay on the sickbed, eyes closed, yet Yue Liuyi knew she wasn’t asleep—the silver-haired girl’s thoughts were a restless flock that wouldn’t roost.

Kaka gave up her bed to Little Rose, then cocooned herself in a blanket and slept on the desk, peaceful as a rock in rain.

Yue Liuyi kept watch with Little Rose, weathering the hard stretch together. The wounds had stopped worsening, but infections and fevers pricked like thorns and burned like low coals.

Bacteria or virus, they’re life all the same, not breaking life’s own rules. So Yue Liuyi’s healing magic slid off the infections and the fever like rain off oil.

So she gave Little Rose antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, set out cool water and towels, and kept drawing the heat from the little girl’s body, wave after wave.

"Th-thank you..."

The redheaded little girl drifted in and out, eyes hazy. Weak as a moth, she could only whisper those few words.

"Don’t mention it..."

Staying up to nurse someone is heavy work, but watching the little one not die, watching health creep back like dawn, filled Yue Liuyi with simple, fierce joy.

"Can I... still... live?"

"Of course. You’re fine. Your injuries have stabilized."

"T-that’s great... Little Dessert... won’t have to cry..."

Thinking of that lovesick, dangerous girl? Before dying, everyone has threads they can’t cut. Till we tie them off, we can’t die—we have to live, stubborn as weeds.

"Mm... she won’t cry, I’m sure. So rest now."

"Mm..."

As Yue Liuyi laid a hand on her brow, the redheaded little girl drifted into sleep, like a small boat slipping into fog.

...