Because both the village and the forest had had their layouts wrecked, resetting the barriers that kept Witchbeasts from intruding took quite some time.
Two Sin Archbishops had died outright, and no one could say what kind of fallout the news would cause—nobody had recognized Regulus, and Subaru had gone and called himself the Sin Archbishop of Greed on top of it.
Still, in outsiders' eyes, Yimi's slaying of Capella would also be credited to the Emilia Camp. So long as it was all explained clearly, things should still develop in a favorable direction overall.
"Meili, I'm so glad you're all right! I kept thinking—you're such a scaredy-cat, you'd surely burst into tears."
Petra, changed back from a giant caterpillar to human form, came running over to Meili.
Meili met her embrace with a smile that never reached her eyes.
This was the very little girl who'd sold her out in a handful of words—and now here she came, running over to put on a show.
"You really are brave. The other kids who went through this all cried from the fright once they'd changed back."
Being turned into an ugly monster unable to communicate, with no guarantee of ever changing back—that kind of fear and despair would surely leave a lifelong shadow on the mind.
Beatrice was using magic to carry the books out of the Forbidden Library. The Forbidden Library wasn't, on a spatial level, any particular room—but since there was no longer even a reason to make use of this place, she might as well take everything she needed.
Most were the ones she was fond of, or ones a child might take an interest in. Back when she was still at her mother's side, Geuse used to give her books too—those, she would take as well.
"I got such a fright at the time that I just fainted, and when I came to I found I'd already changed back," Petra answered awkwardly.
"Before I passed out, though, I really had meant to come check on Meili. I didn't get to see you last time either—and then right as the attack began, I saw Meili emerge from the stairwell."
Petra thought for a couple of seconds, then pointed at Meili in astonishment. "Subaru-nii said before that Meili had been locked up—so does that mean back then, you were actually trying to run away…"
"Bonk!"
Meili smashed her forehead hard into Petra's.
Paying the two little girls' private feud no mind, Beatrice stacked the books together and hauled Yimi—who was sitting flat on the ground—up to her feet.
"You're about old enough to start being aware that you're a girl, aren't you? Come to think of it, you don't seem to have changed out of that outfit even once."
Beatrice grabbed Yimi's collar and sniffed it—no strange smell.
"Mnn." Yimi leaned back away from her.
Beatrice bent down and patted the dust off her skirt. "Betty's moving the books from the Forbidden Library. Do you want to come see if there's anything you like?"
Yimi shook her head. "Nope. Your books. Boring."
"That's only because a child like you can't understand them, hmph. Even now you still make plenty of spelling mistakes when you write—all because you never read properly."
Beatrice looked at the thing Yimi had just been staring at.
Nothing remarkable—just a chicken raised for meat in the village, apparently trampled to death by a panicked villager after they'd been transformed into a monster.
Because D4C Love Train had dragged the village near, you could see plenty of the village's things the moment you stepped out the door. Yesterday, after this chicken's owner had changed back, they'd stood staring at it and sighing—it had been mangled so badly it couldn't even be disposed of safely.
Suppressing her distaste, Beatrice gave the dead chicken a light nudge with her foot, and only breathed easier once she'd confirmed there were no Yimi tooth-marks on it.
Just last night Yimi had been batting around the ball of yarn Ram gave her; her feline instincts were even more pronounced than Puck's.
Yimi crouched down again and had The World Over Heaven reach out and touch it, wanting to test whether the power of Reality Overwrite could bring it back to life.
But just as she was about to, a hand that clearly didn't belong to Beatrice pressed down and patted the top of her head—yet the strands of hair sticking up from her having just woken weren't flattened in the least.
The kitten turned her face, puzzled. There was no one behind her but Beatrice.
"What is it?" Beatrice asked.
Yimi pouted, and simply had The World make the chicken meat a little less mangled, then set it aside to keep as spare ingredients.
"You really are strangely thrifty when it comes to food." Beatrice cupped Yimi's bottom to help her up onto the Dragon Carriage and handed her a picture book.
"Are you all moving away? Will it be far from the village?" Petra asked with concern, rubbing her forehead.
"That's for the house's true owner to decide." Subaru patted her head.
His face darkened again. "Struck by the Witch Cult twice running, and Roswaal still hasn't come back—it's almost as if he's deliberately keeping out of the way."
And that was putting it gently—he was half-tempted, going full conspiracy theory, to suggest the Witch Cult might have been lured here by Roswaal himself.
It was about time to settle matters, too—even if today's Subaru wasn't really much different from yesterday's.
The only person so far to have killed him once and walked away untouched—Subaru had that man ranked number one on his danger scale.
"Meili, why don't you ride with Yimi? …Hey?"
There were too many people, and some cargo besides; one carriage clearly couldn't haul it all. Subaru had figured Meili could ride with Yimi, whom she got along with—but to his surprise, the moment Meili heard the suggestion she dove straight into Emilia's carriage instead, not sparing Yimi a single glance.
"Did they have some kind of falling-out?" Subaru didn't quite follow.
"The Sanctuary, huh."
Beatrice sat down beside Yimi, gazing out past the carriage, lost in thoughts of old times.
That place was something her mother had built four hundred years ago to fend off the pursuit of the Warlock of Melancholy, gathering many half-blood demi-humans within it. The Warlock of Melancholy was a being much like the Witches—only he was a man.
It wasn't all that far from here; as somewhere the successive Roswaals had been charged with managing, its location naturally lay within his domain.
Since she hadn't set foot outside her home in four hundred years, she wasn't too clear on exactly what the place was like now.
"Mm."
Yimi lay flat on her back, pillowing her head on Beatrice's lap, ready to while away the tedium of the journey by sleeping—having made a point of tucking into her pocket the green pepper she'd asked a villager for.
"Betty."
"What is it?"
"Once I beat Diego, I'm leaving." Since she had the chance, Yimi wanted to give them a heads-up beforehand—even though, to them, she wouldn't really be gone all that long.
"Diego… you're still thinking about that?"
Beatrice kneaded Yimi's face like a lump of dough. "That fellow's a bit strange, sure, but he shouldn't be a bad person. And where do you plan to go afterward? Honestly—you're only a child, and yet you've traveled all alone until now?"
"I'm going… to leave this world."
"…"
The hand holding Yimi's face loosened a little, and began to tremble. "What are you saying?"
"I mean I'm leaving this world," Yimi said, sitting up, not understanding.
"What do you mean, leave this world—explain it to Betty properly!" Beatrice seized her by the collar, tears the size of beans tumbling down.
Yimi, startled by her, fidgeted with her fingers. "I mean… I'll be gone a week."
The last time she had returned to Gensokyo, she had spent a week there.