Westminster Bank

The battle ended. Isabella retracted the Red Spear she held to Baron’s throat.

"You win." Baron raised his hands and tossed his spear aside, surrendering.

"A draw," Isabella said. "You dodged the Dragon-Deficient Spear on pure combat instinct. Once you’re familiar with it, my spear techniques will be no match for you."

’Truth is, your spear technique is already no match for mine.’

Baron grumbled inwardly.

During the battle, he was astonished to discover that the Beowulf Family’s ancestral "Dragon-Deficient Spear" was actually just a few Chapters from the "Dragon Spear" technique Gawain had given him.

Though it’s said that techniques are never static and forms are always in flux, he recognized direct counterparts for many of its variations in the moves he’d practiced with the Shepherdess in his dreams.

Logically, there was no way Baron could lose a contest of pure spear skill. However, he considered that Isabella was probably getting heated after he’d neutralized her attacks several times, and a woman that heated had a tendency to flip out and pretend she didn’t know you.

So after a few more exchanges, Baron feigned carelessness, pretending he was too slow to react. He deliberately gave an opening to this battle-crazed woman who was always ready to throw down at a moment’s notice.

However, Isabella didn’t seem to appreciate his "gift" of a victory. She just silently picked up her spear from the ground, put it away, and sat back down in her original spot. She then opened that girlish-looking notebook and began writing in it, stroke by stroke.

Baron breathed a sigh of relief at the sight. He wanted to take out his Secret Notes but was afraid Isabella might play dirty.

He thought about sleeping to enter his dreamscape and train with the Shepherdess, but the Chain of the Imitator was still on cooldown. He was afraid that the moment he closed his eyes, Isabella would come and rip off his mask. Even though they were childhood friends, she might just be like his ex-fiancée—the type to turn on you in an instant. Then it’d be game over.

After weighing his options, he resorted to drawing circles in the dirt with a stick. He couldn’t help but think about how this blasted notebook had eaten his one million pounds, yet it didn’t even have the most basic privacy feature...

’Wait, if I tear out a page, will the message still be on it? Is it like that famous notebook from the stories, where a single scrap of paper retains all the powers of the whole book?’

Baron’s spirits lifted. He suddenly realized the Secret Notes might have functions he hadn’t discovered yet.

He made another excuse to go behind the eucalyptus tree, pulled the Secret Notes from his coat, and shot a wary glance at Isabella. He turned to the page with Yelena’s letter, tore it out, crumpled it into a ball, and stuffed it in his pocket.

He had just sat back down on his rock when Isabella threw something at him. He caught it instinctively. It was a pen.

"You’re going to write in your journal too, right?" Isabella said coolly. "I know you don’t trust me, but I’ve been thinking. I’ll need your Perception Power to help me collect Dragon Scales for the next two days, so it’s probably better if we have a little more trust between us."

After saying this, she turned around, giving Baron her back as she went back to writing in her own journal.

Baron found her behavior baffling. But looking at what was clearly an expensive Montblanc fountain pen in his hand, he was true to his instincts and tucked it away in his ring.

’Can’t help it. Poverty’s left its mark on me.’

He then unfolded the page with Yelena’s letter and froze. The paper was completely blank.

He flipped it over. The back was blank, too.

’Well, what can I say? The anti-theft feature is damn good.’

Baron glanced at Isabella’s back, illuminated by the firelight. His gaze lingered for a second or two on her rounded rear before he confirmed she wasn’t paying attention to him. He then took out his spare pen and wrote a line of text on the paper.

Then he tossed it into the fire to burn.

This wasn’t performance art; Baron just had a sudden idea that he could use this opportunity to test.

Sure enough, after only a minute or so, the familiar pulsing sensation returned.

Baron thought Yelena had actually received his message, so he opened the Secret Notes to check. Not only had the page with Yelena’s message that he’d torn out returned...

After he tapped on a new Chapter in the table of contents titled "Notifications," the pages quickly flipped to the end of the book. There, displayed prominently, were the words Baron had just written:

"Eagle’s Eye, the Fire lives on."

He vaguely sensed a gaze other than his own sweep across the page. He looked up. Isabella still had her back to him, her figure graceful.

Baron glanced around again. Other than a crow perched in the eucalyptus tree overhead, there was nothing.

’Am I just imagining things?’

Even though he thought this, Baron still chose to spread his Dragon Guide’s cloak as wide as possible, covering both the page and the notebook. Although the firelight couldn’t reach inside, thanks to his status as a Blood Hunter, this wasn’t a major issue.

It did look a bit suspicious, though.

He quickly scanned the message Yelena had sent him. First was a flurry of reassurances and warnings, the gist of which was to tell Baron to focus on escaping and not to worry about her and their brother, Edward. They were being well-protected by Westminster Cathedral, and Secretary Stella had even visited them not long ago.

Following that, Yelena addressed the memory problems Baron was suffering from due to the Law of Oblivion. She had meticulously and clearly summarized some of his behavioral changes and habits, comparing his life on the Inner Side to his new one on the Outer Side.

It wasn’t too different from what Baron had recalled and sorted through himself, and it wasn’t very long. This was likely because Yelena had also forgotten some of her memories of the Inner Side due to the effects of the Law of Oblivion. Furthermore, after coming to the Outer Side, Baron had only gone to school for a year or two before getting a job, so the siblings hadn’t spent much time together.

Moreover, halfway through writing, Yelena mentioned that she had run out of money and would have to wait until she saved up enough to open the Secret Notes again.