That face! Impossible! You were the one who… But why, Amelia!? She was your mother!

I know! Isn’t that grand? Don’t you just hate me down to your bone marrows old man? Don’t you want to tear apart the barrier and rip my heart out? I know I would!

Amelia…

The duke is collapsing!

Master, please get a hold of yourself!

Tch! Weakling.

That word again—hate. Does she actually feed off hatred? How does that even work?

Didn’t she gain that ability from the experiment?

No. She said she’s been trying to get Bailey to hate her from the beginning. How old would she have been? Two? Three?

Then where did she… How did she…

Em, guys, are we going to skip the fact that the devil… is a woman!?

Sounds about right to me.

A-ha.

Yup, females are naturally inclined toward evil.

That’s sexist!

Yeah, so?

… Nevermind.

Amelia is walking through the woods with the baby in her arms.

I can feel mana in that child. Strange… it feels familiar, somehow…

Now that you mention it…

Wait, the devil still doesn’t have mana!

You’re right! And after all that? Did the experiment really have no effect on her?

Look at her. You call that… thing, no effect?

The sun rises above the horizon. She stops to observe the surrounding area.

“With this weather and plants, I should be somewhere in the Blue Hills region. Hmm, following the river should lead me to a settlement. But…”

She looks at her red arms, then at the rest of her body.

“Maybe I can pass as a burned victim. Maybe… But gotta get some clothes and—”

The baby starts crying.

“Yeah, yeah, food, I know. Now shut up won’t you stinky brat?”

Amelia comforts the child and searches for food. Four hours later, she obtains berries and bird eggs. She mixes them together and feeds the flavourful yolk to the kid. She takes a few bites herself but wraps the rest with leaves and keeps it for later.

She cleans herself and the baby at a creek and uses a hollow bark to collect water. She’s shaking. The wind blows and blood drips out of her nose.

“Shit. I still have to deal with this?”

She probs under a tree. She looks like she’s about to faint, but the baby’s cries keep her up.

“I hear you, brat. What do you want now? Hungry? Want to take a shit?

“Burp!”

“Huh… Good job.”

She pats the child’s back. A few minutes later the kid really does need to poop.

It’s a boy.

The devil is… an angel so far, right? She did everything she could to rescue the kidnapped children and tried to sacrifice herself for Bailey and the baby.

Amelia…

She travels south while taking care of the child. The temperate environment isn’t too bad for her sickly body — at least during the day. She doesn’t have any clothes, so she covers herself with soil and leaves, but it irritates her blood red skin.

“I need… hatred… I need somebody to…”

Amelia…

“What about you, stinky brat? Should I raise you to hate me? Just gotta plays the role of an evil stepmother and abuses you a bit. Make you starve. Spank you without telling you why. Make you do all the chores and work, work, work all day. Doesn’t that sound good, hmm?

She playfully pinches the kid’s nose, and he laughs in her arms.

“Yeah, that’ll take too long. I’ll dump you on the first doorstep I see and go create chaos somewhere else.”

She hugs him tightly and falls asleep.

She wakes up to the sound of growling. Wolves surround her!

“Fan-fucking-tastic! Never a dull moment with you, brat!”

Amelia growls back at the wolves. She creates sharp claws on one hand and the rest of her body becomes unstable.

“I’m digging into my reserve fuel here. Some of you mangy mutt better hate me quick!”

One wolf pounces at her! She twists her body to keep the baby out of harm’s way and slashes at the wolf. Her craws draw blood and the wolf jumps back.

“Come on, hate me, you stupid dogs! Hate me!”

She roars and steps forward and the packs of wolves back off. She picks up a stone and throws it at the largest wolf. It yelps and runs away. The rest follow suit.

“Cowards! Damn cowards!”

Amelia drops to her knees and breathes heavily. She wheezes and coughs as the baby cries in her arms.

“Shut up, brat. You’re making me… dizzy…”

She uses her remaining strength to climb up a tree and feeds the boy until he falls asleep. She doesn’t get a wink of sleep until dawn.