Something about her body felt... strange.

Leticia looked a little dazed. She instinctively touched her forehead. “My hand’s so cold...”

It shouldn’t be anything as serious as a cold or a fever...

After a brief pause, Leticia hoisted the large bundle Ye Mi'ai had tossed her back onto her shoulders. Wrapped in the night, she followed the Black-Clad Lady, who carried nothing at all.

“Why did you stop just now?”

Ye Mi'ai asked casually, and Leticia instantly snapped to attention.

The Black-Clad Lady said she wouldn’t kill her, over and over—but actually spending time with her was a nerve-racking, tightrope walk. You couldn’t understand it unless you’d faced her yourself.

You never knew which of Ye Mi'ai’s questions might conceal malice—and a trap that meant death.

In less than a month, Leticia hadn’t exactly been beaten black and blue, but she’d already lost count of how many times she’d been hit.

“N-no, it’s nothing!”

Leticia shrank her neck and spoke cautiously. “Miss, I don’t feel quite right...”

“You don’t feel right?”

Ye Mi'ai gave a cold laugh. “What, now that you know you can go to the town and think you might have a chance to escape, are you so excited you’ve lost your head?”

“No, that’s not it...”

Leticia shook her head helplessly and clasped her cold hands. “Miss, I think I might be sick...”

“Sick?”

Ye Mi'ai glanced at Leticia, looking a little puzzled. After a moment, she beckoned her closer. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“It seems to have started in the last couple of days.”

Leticia blinked hard. “I feel kind of weak. If I exert myself at all, my head starts spinning, and everything in front of me gets blurry.”

She was sure it wasn’t a cold or a fever, because the symptoms of an ordinary illness wouldn’t show up only after she exerted herself. But if it was something more serious...

What could there be in the forest? Malaria? Some kind of viral flu? She didn’t know much about diseases, but Leticia knew that in a world with such a backward level of technology, catching something like that would be as good as a death sentence.

And there could be other plagues lurking here, like the Black Death—a terrifying plague that had ravaged Europe again and again over the course of a century.

No, if she thought about it that way, any illness would be dangerous...

She’d heard that if some colds went untreated for too long, they could develop into pneumonia or something. In this day and age, that would be a death sentence too—especially for a penniless pauper like her.

Uncle John’s illness had come from years of overwork. In theory, all he needed was plenty of rest, but he’d still come close to dying. If he hadn’t had some money saved up and received help from the Church, he probably...

So whenever Leticia felt unwell, she panicked. And the more she panicked, the dizzier and foggier her head seemed to get.

“Hm. I see...”

After thinking it over, Ye Mi'ai took a small bottle from inside her clothes. She pulled out the wooden stopper, poured a drop of liquid onto her fingertip, and made Leticia swallow it.

“Mmph...”

It felt cool going down, but the sensation quickly turned fiery. Leticia felt as if she’d swallowed a drop of blazing hot oil. Her insides began to burn!

“Cough... C-cough, cough, cough... What is this?! Cough!”

“Weren’t you worried you might be sick?”

Ye Mi'ai said calmly. “This is the quickest way to check.”

They waited right there on the path, nearly swallowed up by the forest, for ten minutes. Only after Leticia showed no further reaction did Ye Mi'ai clap her hands. “All right. Congratulations, you’re not sick. It should just be psychological.”

“Is that so...”

Leticia gave a bitter smile. Her throat still felt as if it had been scorched by flames. She took two deep breaths and felt her mind clear a little. “Thank you, Miss.”

“Don’t mention it. I finally managed to get my hands on a rather rare little maid. I’d be heartbroken if I lost you just like that.”

Ye Mi'ai shrugged. “But tell me, you get dizzy and weak after exerting yourself, right?”

“Ah, yes...”

Leticia nodded. “That’s why I wondered if I might be sick or something.”

“Sick, huh...”

Leaning against a tree, Ye Mi'ai gently touched her face, her expression somewhere between a smile and a smirk. “What was the identity of that boy who formed a bond with you again?”

Since it was night and Stano’s consciousness wasn’t lingering around, they could talk freely.

“Um, he’s the son of a general from another country.”

“Then I have a few guesses. If they’re true, they’ll be very regrettable guesses.”

Ye Mi'ai looked at Leticia. “Would you like to hear them?”

“...Yes!”

Stano?

What would he do?

Why did the Black-Clad Lady think her strange symptoms had something to do with him?

“I’ve heard a few rumors before.”

Ye Mi'ai’s hoarse voice echoed through the dark forest. “An army needs excellent equipment, good training, and a full complement of soldiers. Along with those preparations, it also needs battle tactics, the taboos of combat, and a final, desperate measure.”

“The first four are easy to understand. The taboos of combat are military fighting techniques passed down through the ranks, created specifically to kill the enemy. They can have terrible effects, and the price their users pay is unacceptable, so they’re considered taboo and aren’t used lightly.”

“And a final, desperate measure is exactly what it sounds like: a last resort that leads to death.”

The corner of Ye Mi'ai’s mouth curled beneath the black veil. She rubbed her neck, as if giving her damaged throat a chance to rest. “Once someone uses a final measure, they unleash every last bit of their body’s potential, wielding ten or even a hundred times their usual strength. It’s a true fight to the death.”

“Most of those who use such measures die on the battlefield. The few lucky ones who survive quickly grow weaker, and die within a year or two.”

Ye Mi'ai smiled at Leticia. “Would you like to know what happens to those adorable little things as their life burns away and they grow weaker?”

“D-don’t tell me...”

Leticia’s pupils shrank. A possibility crossed her mind, and her heart suddenly raced. Blood surged through her body.

Along with it came that dizzying sensation that had only recently begun to plague her, leaving her weak and her vision dark.

“At first, they just feel like they’re recovering from a long illness.”

Ye Mi'ai said with a wicked grin. “Then they realize their bodies are growing weaker and wasting away. Gradually, they can’t walk by themselves or exert themselves, and they can’t get worked up either. Any of that can make them pass out, and they might never wake up. And that’s only the early stage. Later, they gradually lose their senses and become living corpses. Their hair falls out, their bodies age, and they enter old age before their time. Then, lost and terrified, they grow weaker and weaker until they die.”

“So, Leticia, what stage are you at now?”

Impossible...

That couldn’t be!

Leticia suddenly flew into a panic and shouted, “I never used anything like that! And Stano didn’t...!”

Wait...

She suddenly remembered. When she’d reached that city, exhausted and with no strength left to escape, Stano had somehow drawn an incredible amount of power from her—and helped her get away...

Could that have been it? That one time, right when she lost consciousness?!

Stano!

Stano!!

Stano!!!

The sound of her heartbeat suddenly became a thunderclap.

Along with the sudden clarity came the sound of a string snapping in her mind.

The dizziness seemed to take on a physical form. It crashed down, stronger than ever, and swallowed Leticia’s consciousness in an instant.

“A collapse brought on by physical exertion—or a powerful emotional upheaval? I haven’t seen this kind of life-force drain in a long time...”

Ye Mi'ai gently caught Leticia’s little body as she fell forward, then casually picked up the large bundle. With a mixture of mockery and affection, she wiped the sweat from Leticia’s face. “And it’s happening to a Bridal Garment who wants to live. This is getting more and more interesting. Heh...”