Scorin and I walked toward the room Belzagus had been moved to by my father’s order.

The hallway stretched ahead of us.

Same as always.

Dark walls.

Soft purple light.

A little too much movement now.

Father had hired more demon scholars while I was gone. Some had a knack for first aid. Others knew surgery. A few were already brewing potions, as if this were normal.

They all waved at me like I was their boss.

I kind of was.

They nodded and greeted me as I passed, acting like my returning safely from the battlefield and going straight back to work was some kind of sitcom.

“Already eager to work, I see?”

I rolled my eyes and walked past one of the demon surgeons.

“Sophia, do you need more coffee?”

I scoffed and walked past Jessica, my new secretary, whom my father had brought in.

“Do you need Noxx to be walked?”

I shook my head and patted the young demon boy holding a broom.

Scorin handed him two gold coins as he kept up with me.

“Like, why does my father always have to act all high and mighty?”

Scorin slowed his pace as he watched me complain.

I was starting to use more violent words than usual.

“Like, if I were as strong as Nira, I would wipe that smirk off his face.”

I reached the door, then noticed Scorin wasn’t beside me anymore.

I turned around.

He was watching me.

Not judging.

Examining.

Like he was starting to notice I was changing.

“Something wrong, dragon boy?”

Scorin blinked twice.

Then he smiled as he caught up to me.

“No. I just noticed something interesting.”

I sighed and shrugged my shoulders.

Right now, there was a bigger issue.

I turned toward the sign on the door.

The label couldn’t be any more ominous.

[ V.I.P PATIENT ROOM 13 ]

The pressure coming from inside the room told me to run away.

But the nurse inside me pushed back.

Because my brother—

the one I was actually starting to think he is more cooler than Riku—

was right behind that door.

“Feels like I’m about to be pulled into another world.”

Scorin grabbed the handle and pushed the door open.

“No more backing out of this now, right?”

For a moment, it felt like I was talking to myself.

The door opened—

[ WHOOOSH ]

Black smoke rushed out of the room.

It wasn’t just smoke.

It was heavy.

It hit my shoulders and almost forced me back.

Pain twisted across my face as I pushed forward.

Inside—

Madina was already there, trying to wake him.

“Wake up, Bel! You’re letting the Abyss out too much!”

Her long silver hair reached down her back.

Sharp wolf ears twitched under the tiara my father had given her.

She wore a black-and-blue ninja suit, her tail flicking behind her.

She didn’t look like someone ready to run.

She looked like someone refusing to leave.

“Awwwwww, Bel, wake up!”

Madina leaned over him and started pinching his cheeks.

I walked up to her.

As I got closer, Belzagus slowly opened his eyes.

His face twisted in pain.

Sweat ran down the side of his face.

His horns looked like my father’s, curving around his head like a crown.

“So what happened between you and Ragalia?”

Belzagus tried to sit up, his tall, muscular frame straining against the bed.

“He got one over on me…”

He groaned as Madina helped him sit upright.

“…and got away.”

As I stepped away from him, Scorin sat down in a chair in the corner, watching me take care of my brother.

Belzagus caught his gaze and gave him a painful smirk.

“You think I’m cute or something?”

Scorin looked insulted.

He stood up and raised his hand as gold particles began gathering around it.

I pushed him back down into the chair and shoved a plate of food from the mini-fridge into his hand.

“You must be hungry, right? Too bad I don’t have a Snickers. Anyway, sit there for now. Let me change real quick.”

I walked into the V.I.P bathroom, where Jessica was already waiting for me with my uniform.

I groaned as I stepped inside with her.

“BLECK!”

Bel spat black blood onto the floor.

He looked down at it.

Then he smiled.

“Man… it hurts dying.”

Madina grabbed him by the horn and yanked him toward her.

“What did you say? I need you to repeat that.”

Bel closed his eyes like he had suddenly gone to sleep, even while Madina was still holding him.

[ THUMP ]

She pushed his head back into the pillow and sat back in her seat with her arms crossed.

“You really are annoying.”

Scorin laughed quietly from the corner after witnessing the whole thing.

Madina looked at Scorin like she didn’t care who he was.

And he felt that.

“You think this is funny?” she said. “I’m not the one who chose the Demon side over dragon instincts.”

Her claws slid toward the armrest.

They dug into the brand-new oak wood.

The wood was clearly expensive.

[ CRACK ]

Her face turned feral.

Her teeth showed.

Her tail began thumping across Bel’s sleeping face, waking him up.

Belzagus opened his eyes with a dull expression.

Like he had seen this happen a billion times already.

He kind of had.

Madina lunged at Scorin so fast he couldn’t react.

Belzagus sat up.

He grabbed her tail and snapped her back.

Madina yelped.

“AH—!”

Her ears shot straight up.

The feral look on her face cracked instantly as Bel dragged her backward by the tail.

She landed on top of him with a heavy thump.

For a second, she just froze.

Then her cheeks flushed.

“…Bel.”

Belzagus stared up at her with tired eyes.

“You were about to bite the prince.”

Madina’s ears slowly lowered.

Her claws slipped out of the armrest.

“…I was not.”

Scorin looked at the broken wood.

Belzagus blinked.

Madina looked away.

“…Okay, maybe a little.”

I came out of the luxurious bathroom with Jessica.

Then I saw the aftermath of what happened.

“Enough already, all three of you. Or get the hell out, Madina and Scorin.”

Madina looked at me like I forgot who she was.

Scorin kept his mouth shut and finally let me work.

Bel helped Madina stand back on the floor from his bed.

Then he looked at me with those black obsidian eyes.

“I’m ready to get examined, doctor.”

He coughed once, trying to hide the blood with his hand.

I already saw the blood on the floor before my assistant cleaned it up.

I grabbed my stethoscope, placed it in my ears, and began checking Bel’s heartbeat.

Ba-dump.

Ba-dump.

Nira floated near my ear.

She couldn’t help being nosy.

The Abyss made her feel a cold chill down her spine, even from inside Noxx’s lantern.

“It feels like something wants to take control of him.”

Bel smiled and shook his head.

Then his face twisted in pain.

He gripped his chest with his bare hands.

“GUAAAH!”

Madina stayed calm.

Like she had seen this happen before.

Meanwhile, I was freaking out like something was about to kill my brother right in front of me.

And his betrothed—

his “anchor”—

was sitting in the chair beside him, watching like this was normal.

“I don’t know why you’re so calm, but I need you to move to the side, Madina.”

She gave me a nasty look.

Bel grabbed her hand and looked at her with one eye open, his face covered in sweat and pain.

The vital sign monitor started beeping faster.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Madina moved to the side.

Their hands slipped apart.

I walked closer to Bel with his chart in my hands.

Everything on it said he was physically fine.

But clearly, he wasn’t.

Dude looked like he was about to keel over.

“Let me try healing you, Bel.”

He nodded, pain twisting across his face.

I raised my hand and began pouring dark Umbral Grace from my palm.

It helped stabilize his temperature.

But the pain in his heart didn’t stop.

“What the hell is happening to you?”

Jessica stepped out when the young demon boy with the broom called for her with an urgent look on his face.

I didn’t pay attention to it.

I continued my examination.

I checked his pulse.

Too fast.

Not erratic.

Forced.

Of course, it was abnormally fast, like other demon patients I had treated.

“Face me, Bel. And don’t blink.”

I shined a light into his eyes with my ophthalmoscope.

His eyes didn’t dilate.

He didn’t flinch from the light.

Nothing on his face reacted at all.

Scorin watched me closely as I continued examining Bel.

Then he heard a loud sound.

The floor vibrated beneath his feet.

“What the hell is that?”

I didn’t notice.

I was in full nurse mode, trying to find the cause.

Until I realized—

I couldn’t heal this.

My hands started to shake from the strain of the Umbral Grace I was using.

Bel grabbed my right hand and broke my concentration.

“It’s clearly not something you can heal, little sister.”

I pulled my hand away and ignored what he said.

Then Scorin opened the door.

Jessica was running toward him.

She stopped, composed herself, then stepped into the room.

My father really did pick dedicated people.

She approached me as I continued examining Bel’s ear with my otoscope.

She cleared her throat and spoke in a calm, quiet tone.

“Sophia, something just came from the sky and landed near the east wing.”

I stopped my examination and looked at her like it was somehow my problem.

Like—

I was just a doctor.

“So what does that have to do with me?”

Before she could continue…

The Ledger appeared in front of me.

I raised one finger in Jessica’s face.

Not because I was being rude.

Well—

not fully.

I was looking at something floating in thin air.

Everyone in the room knew not to interrupt me.

Nira hovered beside my face and read the Ledger with me.

[ LEDGER OF MERCY ]

A black document unfolded before me, outlined in purple light.

[ NOTE FROM E.G ]

[ Not a gift. ]

[ Not a miracle. ]

[ Go to the meteor. ]

[ Others are already moving. ]

[ You have very little time. ]

[ Choose. ]

I stared at the Ledger.

Then at Bel.

Then at the door.

…

I sighed.

“Guess I won’t be able to take my thirty-minute lunch break.”