As I caught sight of the small girl, the flames rising from my hands flared up with even greater intensity.

The sound of the flames roaring was akin to a whisper.

It echoed ceaselessly in my mind, like a voice that never fell silent.

Burn it down.

The flames whispered to me to set fire to the girl right before my eyes.

It was also a kind of impulse.

The whisper telling me to burn everything would always provoke an urge to act on those words.

Usually, I struggled tremendously to withstand it…

I didn’t quite understand.

Why had I bothered to resist this impulse so fiercely all this time?

Anyway, the important thing was that there was a reason to burn the girl standing in front of me.

It would be troublesome if I got caught.

Thus, I had to burn her.

At this moment, there was no reason to endure this impulse.

The flames flickered in my hands.

Feeling the whispers of the flames, I took a step towards the small girl.

In that moment, the girl looked at me with a puzzled expression and asked.

“Um, Scarlet? Did you set fire to that lesser demonic beast corpse over there?”

From her question, I realized she hadn’t witnessed me directly inhaling the magical energy.

Was that a relief?

At least she hadn’t seen an irretrievable scene.

Of course, it wouldn’t have mattered even if she had.

After all, the important thing was that something had happened that could raise suspicion in the girl.

Suspicion, no matter how small, would tend to swell swiftly.

Even if I felt wronged, simply being suspected could lead to being burnt at the stake in this world.

If I wanted to avoid experiencing that again, I had to burn her before she suspected me.

I glanced backward.

The corpse of the ignited lesser demonic beast had completely vanished without leaving a trace.

Seeing that, I chuckled softly.

If I burned it, it would disappear just like that.

The suspicions she might have held would also be erased completely.

So let’s burn her.

I turned my head back and moved toward the girl again.

But she continued to speak as I approached.

“Is it really dangerous? If you burn it, the smoke could spread magical energy around. And you’re not wearing protective gear right now, Scarlet.”

It made me think that she was really chatty.

If she kept being this noisy without being burned, she would probably go around town blabbering about what she had seen.

So, burning her was necessary.

I had resolved to that, yet one concern arose.

Being burned alive is incredibly painful.

But if I were to set this noisy girl on fire while she was still alive, how loudly would she scream?

For sure, people nearby would come running after hearing that scream.

That would be troublesome…

It was evident that imagining such a situation would lead to troublesome consequences.

Then, I’d have no choice but to burn everyone else too.

To avoid creating such a scenario, it was best to turn her into a corpse first and then burn her, just like the lesser demonic beast from earlier.

Before burning her, let’s first make her a corpse.

Finishing that thought, I extinguished the flames from my hands.

In that state, I placed my hands on the girl’s shoulders, who was now standing right in front of me.

Between my hands lay the girl’s neck.

With a little pressure, that fragile neck would snap like a twig.

That sound wouldn’t be loud enough to be heard by anyone nearby.

As I thought this and was about to move my hands towards her neck, the small girl looked up at me and murmured.

“Scarlet, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

Her worried gaze made me chuckle involuntarily.

How ironic it was that she was more concerned about me without even knowing what kind of situation she was in.

Seeing that, I felt a stronger conviction that it would be better to kill her first and then burn her.

Being burned alive is painful.

Therefore, I shouldn’t burn the girl while she was still alive, no.

Burning is painful.

I couldn’t let her endure that pain.

After all, the girl was…

Jessie was my precious friend.

She was my friend.

I saw her two hands resting on her shoulders.

With those hands, what was I going to do?

Ah,

For a moment, I just stared blankly at my hands as if I had malfunctioned.

At the moment of realization, I withdrew my hands from Jessie’s shoulders as if I had burned them.

My hands trembled as though I had a seizure.

Upon seeing the delicate neck I had aimed for, the image of what I had just almost done flashed through my mind like a panorama, making my breath quicken.

If Jessie hadn’t been there with that expression as if something was happening right before her eyes, I might have just collapsed and vomited on the spot.

“…Scarlet?”

Jessie tilted her head, calling my name.

Startled by her call, my mouth opened as the words died in my throat.

“Ah, that is…”

In that moment, the thought that came to me almost made me feel nauseous.

To think that I, who had just tried to kill my friend, was now concerned about making up an excuse to avoid her suspicion.

“It’s fine; I’m okay, so you don’t need to worry. I just thought if I burn the corpse, maybe I could eliminate the magical energy too, but I see it was a pointless endeavor. Aha…”

While I desperately squeezed out an explanation in my mind, the image of myself acting like nothing was wrong appeared before me, grinning in a silly manner.

I had no choice but to feel self-deprecating.

What a truly disgusting being I was.

Yet despite that, my body acted out of a primal survival instinct.

I was doing everything I could to act as my usual self without revealing my agitation.

Fortunately, it seemed my efforts paid off, as Jessie giggled and playfully said,

“Ahaha, so… Scarlet. You shouldn’t do that since it could be dangerous. From now on, make sure to ask around!”

I nodded at her words.

I felt so pathetic to find a bit of relief in that one remark.

Gradually, a surge of self-hatred swelled within me, and it felt like that feeling would only grow the longer I stayed.

Just as I was trying to escape from the alley where I had almost committed a terrible deed, I heard Jessie’s voice from behind.

“Um, Scarlet? Just to confirm, you weren’t planning on doing something bad, right?”

At those words, I froze in shock.

I sensed a hint of suspicion laced in her voice.

This wasn’t good.

That thought crossed my mind first.

Jessie had an overwhelming hostility toward witches.

If she started to suspect me, it wouldn’t be surprising if my true identity was revealed at any moment.

So I needed to come up with some countermeasures…

But the moment I thought of that, the memory of what I had just considered doing to her resurfaced, and my expression crumpled.

So what if I suspected her?

Am I really supposed to kill Jessie simply because I’m facing suspicion?

That was absolutely nonsensical.

Just the thought of it made me feel sick, enough to bring tears to my eyes.

Perhaps due to the recent incident, my thought processes were short-circuiting, spiral into extreme directions.

I felt that if Jessie were to die, it would be better for me to die instead.

That thought lingered in my mind.

So I was beginning to consider the idea of just coming clean and facing execution instead. Just as I was about to turn to Jessie to confess the truth…

“No, please forget what I just said.”

Jessie’s voice rang out.

“Hehe, I too have been through quite a lot of bad experiences lately, so I think my mind is a little twisted. It’s not like you, Scarlet, could be a bad person.”

At her words, my heart ached.

Without meaning to, I found myself asking her,

“Why do you think that?”

From my perspective, that question was one I shouldn’t have asked.

It was a dangerous question that could possibly accelerate her suspicions.

But Jessie answered my question with a voice full of certainty.

“Because Scarlet has saved my life countless times and is always kind to everyone. I have no choice but to trust you. Plus, you and I are friends, right?”

I stopped trying to turn my head away.

Looking at Jessie’s face, I felt I wouldn’t be able to mask my expression.

Ironically, it was her trust in me that dispelled her suspicions.

It was something that should undoubtedly bring joy, yet I couldn’t find the happiness in it.

Now, I couldn’t even trust myself.

Her words pierced me deeply.

The words of trust and friendship seemed to crush my insides.

I wanted to shake my head.

The thought of what I was about to do to her kept circling in my mind.

Yet, even so, I couldn’t bring myself to tell her not to believe in me.

“…Yeah.”

I forced that single word out with tremendous difficulty.

At my response, Jessie came bounding over, gripping my hand and grinning widely.

I raised my head slightly, just to ensure that Jessie’s neck wouldn’t be visible as she clung to me.

Until we returned to the place where people were and donned our protective gear.

And only after putting on the full-face helmet could I finally allow some of the pain I had been holding back to show.

Within the confines of the helmet, hidden from people’s eyes, tears of pain began to fall.