The meeting ended quickly, and everyone was free to leave.
"Why don't the two of you get married?" the President said completely seriously once only Natasha and Levi remained. He was also the only one who didn't find the idea strange.
"That marriage would last a week at most," Natasha said, trying to hold back her laughter.
"Why do you think that?" the President asked curiously.
"That's the longest I could go without killing him," she replied, wondering if she would even last that long.
"I wouldn't last even that long," Levi said coldly.
"Besides, it's illegal." He reminded him that marriage between the founding families was forbidden.
It was banned mainly to prevent one family from possessing multiple weapons.
When Natasha's father had been President, he changed that law and married her mother. It cost him a huge number of supporters, and everything started going downhill for him after that.
"You already have my vote. Do you also want my weapon in your bloodline?" Natasha snapped when she realized the President was serious.
The President wanted to say something in his defense, but she didn't want to listen. She stood up immediately and left.
They were supposed to have training together soon, so she headed toward the center to meet Azra and Ash. Even though it was still early, people were already walking through the streets.
The crowd didn't bother her.
She was thinking about how every person she saw had their own life, and somehow that felt strange to her.
"Mom! Sis!"
A small child's shout caught her attention.
A few meters away, she saw her half-brother and his mother, whose eyes filled with fear the moment she saw Natasha.
"Sis!" the boy cried again, this time in tears. He tried to run toward her, but his mother held him back.
"Tch," Natasha hissed.
"Can I have just one peaceful day?" she muttered quietly, frowning as she turned and walked in the opposite direction.
.
.
.
In the end, she didn't meet them. She went to the cabin alone.
"What happened? Were you attacked?" Natasha started running toward Azra when she noticed the bandage around her arm.
"No, no. I fell," Azra said awkwardly, laughing despite herself.
"Funny, right? I never broke my arm in any battle, but I trip once and—bam." She kept laughing even though it clearly hurt while Natasha watched her suspiciously.
"Did you do it on purpose?" Natasha asked without thinking.
She had noticed something wasn't right with Azra.
She knew Azra had never really wanted to become a Guardian, but she hadn't had a choice.
Her brother wanted to be a doctor, not a weapon, so their parents forced Azra to take that role.
Azra's expression changed when she heard that. Natasha's words hurt her.
"I know I'm not as strong as you, but I would never hurt myself just to avoid battle," she said angrily, giving Natasha a disgusted look for even thinking something like that.
It was true that she had always been afraid—and now she was even more afraid—but she had never run away.
"Wait," Natasha said as Azra started walking away. She realized she shouldn't have said that.
"Pack your things. We have a mission."
Levi walked in at that moment, and Natasha immediately shifted her attention to him. She would apologize to Azra later.
"Ash! You're coming with us," Levi shouted as he opened the door to Ash's room.
"Azra injured her arm," Natasha informed him.
"Alright. You, me, and Ash will be enough. Leonardo can rest a bit longer," Levi said while grabbing things from his room and talking at the same time.
"The plane is about to leave," he added irritably as he practically dragged Ash out of his room.
Natasha and Ash were confused but didn't ask anything. They just followed him.
"Are we going far?" Natasha asked only after they were seated on the plane. She hadn't brought anything except her weapon.
"Did we really have to take a plane?" Ash muttered, his hands trembling as he held a bag.
"I hope we're there in half an hour," Levi said, glancing at his phone. He hoped they would make it in time.
He suddenly started laughing as he filmed Ash shaking in fear before he began vomiting into the bag.
Natasha, who had been sitting next to him, quickly stood up and moved to sit beside Levi.
"I'll head to another location after I drop you off. Once you finish, someone will show you where we're staying tonight," Levi said calmly, giving her instructions.
She listened carefully and nodded.
As soon as they arrived, Levi left them just like he said he would. Ash was feeling better now.
"Let's go," he said, hurrying toward the direction the noise was coming from.
"Oh," Natasha muttered when they saw about ten demons.
She wasn't scared—just surprised. She had never encountered that many at once.
While Ash analyzed the situation—checking how many people were injured and where help was needed first—he heard Natasha laughing as she excitedly charged toward the demons.
With her left hand, she gripped the blade of her sword, letting her blood run down it.
As the blood slid along the steel, she felt tingles spread through her body. Power surged through her veins, making her much faster than usual.
She jumped and sliced through one demon, which instantly disintegrated.
Then she dashed to the right and killed another.
Ash watched her speed and fighting style with admiration.
In just a few seconds, she eliminated three demons.
He snapped out of it and ran toward a demon that had grabbed a child.
Realizing he wouldn't reach them in time, he pulled out a knife, cut himself slightly with it, and threw it at the demon.
It wasn't enough to kill it, but it stopped the creature long enough for Ash to reach it and finish it off.
The child was crying, but Ash didn't have time to move them to safety. Instead, he attacked another demon just to keep it away.
Natasha easily defeated the fourth demon, turned, and sliced the fifth in half.
She enjoyed watching the demons disappear.
For a moment, she stopped to catch her breath and looked around for the next target.
One was approaching her.
Just as she swung her sword, ready to strike, she suddenly felt something grab her leg.
Startled, she looked down.
An injured woman, barely conscious, was clutching her leg.
The demon in front of her took advantage of her distraction and grabbed her by the throat.
Natasha screamed when its claws dug into her neck and turned back toward it.
Ash immediately looked over when he heard the scream.
His heart jumped when he saw the demon holding Natasha by the throat, and he began killing the remaining demons faster to reach her.
Natasha drove her sword into the demon, and although the creature vanished, the poison it had released into her body remained, burning painfully.
She could feel herself losing speed—and strength.
Ash mercilessly killed the remaining demons and rushed to her side.
"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly, grabbing her with both hands.
"Yeah," she groaned, frowning.
The pain wasn't unbearable, but it was awful.
Soon, help arrived. They assisted the civilians attacked by the demons and escorted Natasha and Ash to the apartment where they would stay.
They gave Natasha something for the pain and bandaged the wounds on her neck.
The medicine made her feel even weaker, and she could barely keep her eyes open.
"You're mad at me," she mumbled quietly while watching Ash sit beside her.
"I'm not," he said, gently stroking her hair, trying to hide it with a smile.
"You're disappointed," she said, trying to read his expression.
"Maybe," he replied uncertainly, looking away.
"On one hand, I admire you. You're strong, smart, brave, and incredibly skilled," he began.
"But on the other hand… you worry me."
After a short pause, he continued.
"All of us do this to help people who can't protect themselves."
He had opened his heart completely, deciding to be honest.
"But you… you do this to kill demons. You don't think about the people. You didn't even notice them earlier."
It wasn't the first time Ash had thought about it, but this time he had to say it.
He didn't know what was going on in her head, but he wanted to understand.
When he finished, he looked at her.
She just stared back at him helplessly. She couldn't deny a single word.
"It's the same," she said weakly, barely able to speak.
She truly believed it.
"It's not," Ash said, a little angrily before stopping himself. He was always careful with her.
"Earlier, one of the demons had a child in its hands. If I hadn't been there, that child would be dead now… because you didn't even notice."
He tried to explain calmly, hoping she would understand.
Natasha knew he was right, but she had no answer.
So she simply closed her eyes and fell asleep.
His words haunted her from that night on.
Over time, it was as if she limited her emotions only to the people close to her—perhaps because of everything she had seen on the battlefield.
She had to teach herself not to take the deaths of civilians too personally, or it would destroy her focus and rationality in battle.
All demons had to disappear.
Her priority was the extermination of demons—not necessarily the saving of lives.