Campfire talk

Raiko and Shizune stopped at the side of a road and established a campfire there. It was already night, the weather was calm and the stars illuminated the sky.

Shizune managed to make a stew with rice, canned sauces and some jerky she had salvaged. They weren't the finest ingredients nor was she the brightest chef, but it was decent enough to be edible.

After a much needed bath Raiko seemed to be back in high spirits, even though all of them knew what came next, she still felt the need to express it in words.

“So… now we need to find a way to destroy that thing.”

“But we have no clue about where it is.”

“W-What?!” Iblis did not seem to agree on their new plan. “The apparition that attacked your village was clearly a city destroyer, even veteran purifiers form large hunting parties to fight them and-“

“Fine, I’ll do that.”

“Then our destination should be Byzantium.” Shizune pointed.

“You mentioned Elsa.”

“No, no, you have a long way to go before you can take on the apparition, and you, gray haired one, don’t encourage her!”

Both girls gave the contractor a rather annoyed glare. Even though he was pointing at basic common sense, neither Raiko nor Shizune had the intention of just moving on with it. Sure, taking on a city destroyer was not the work of a rookie purifier, but they were not supposed to show up at small villages either.

“I have a name, it’s Shizune.”

“Are you scared, Iblis?”

“I am not, I am concerned for your safety!”

“Well, we are following your suggestion of gathering more purifiers, it should be fine once we find them.”

“Either way.” Shizune returned to Raiko. “First we need to go to Elsa, then we can take a train to Byzantium.”

“The purifier that visited me last month was from there, how is it?”

“Eh…” Shizune just took a bite of her food to think. “It’s larger than our village, but I don’t know, there’s a purifier there and whatnot.”

“Two, she has a sister, so we’ll recruit her.”

“Don’t be silly, most purifiers never leave their hometowns, that’s why we’re heading to the city.”

“What matters is that we have a plan.” Raiko said, looking at the red jewel she

obtained after making her contract. “We will find a way.”