"Forget it. I don’t care if you’re Carmen or KK. The point is, I’ve fulfilled our agreement. I didn’t reveal your existence to that Wizard Fei.

According to our deal, give me your blood."

He drew his Spear Sword and extended the blade. "Are you going to do it yourself, or should I ’assist’?"

KK said, "Carmen has the Red Dragon’s Soul. Only her blood will work."

"Aren’t you two the same person?" Baron raised an eyebrow.

’Is this Witch taking me for an idiot? I’m no longer the naive greenhorn I was when I first transmigrated—so timid and cautious, walking on thin ice because I couldn’t grasp my new identity, the one who ended up thrown in prison.’

’The Baron of today knew when to run.’

"Don’t point that blade at me! It’s scary, Mr. L. If you accidentally kill me, how will I ever eat or admire flowers again...? I still have lots of contracted followers waiting to take me out for pizza."

But KK simply pushed the blade away with her finger and blinked her wide, innocent eyes at Baron. "Carmen and I are indeed the same person. Or rather, a single person who doesn’t even have what you’d call Dissociative Identity Disorder."

"But I guess I didn’t explain it to you in detail before."

KK fiddled with the tulips Baron had put in a vase on the corner of the table—one yellow bouquet, one white.

They hadn’t withered yet and bloomed with an elegant grace. Their petals were unfurled, revealing bright yellow pistils that looked like a veil drifting through the clouds.

KK plucked the petals off one by one, twirling them in her hand. "I am Carmen, and she is Carmen," she said. "It’s just that she is the Red Dragon’s Carmen... Our spirits are the same, but because our souls are different, our personalities have some subtle differences. But ultimately, we’re the same person."

"Just like these two bouquets. On the surface, they look like two completely separate bunches of tulips, but on the inside, they’re really the same."

She pulled the two bunches of tulips, now stripped of their petals, from the vase. Her fingers slid down the stems, and only then did Baron notice that both bunches shared the same stem.

"It’s just that their pistils are different, which is why they bloomed in different colors," KK said. "I’m still me, really."

’It was philosophical and abstract, but Baron basically understood.’

Baron said, "So you’re saying the Red Dragon’s Blood I need has to be Carmen’s, and yours won’t do."

"Pretty much," KK said, tilting her head in thought before nodding. "But if you don’t believe me, you can try my blood."

With that said, she pressed her palm against the Spear Sword’s blade, slicing it open. Blood immediately began to drip.

"There, Mr. L. Go on, drink up. Think of it as my apology, and my thanks... The Dragon Fever has been torturing Carmen something awful. She might not wake up for a while..."

KK held up her arm, signaling for Baron to come closer.

The Demon Hunter hesitated, but KK said, "It’s okay, you can drink it straight from the source... After all, you’re the only Dragon Knight I have a contract with... Carmen said the Red Dragon chose you. You’re number one on the Witch’s follower-importance-ranking-chart now, you know."

The Demon Hunter nodded, took a goblet from his ring, and gestured for KK to hold her hand over it.

KK: "..."

But she did as he asked. With one hand dripping blood and the other propping up her chin, she began to ramble:

"Carmen won’t be waking up anytime soon because of the Dragon Fever. She’s been forcing herself to keep going these past few days just to avoid Wizard Fei...

I’m leaving tomorrow. The Azure Fire Dragon shouldn’t be too far away; I’ll catch a ride with him out of Fude City...

I haven’t decided on my next stop. There’s no news from Prole about the Red Dragon Scale, so I’ll probably find somewhere far away from Wizard Fei to recover...

The London Tower in Inner London has joined the hunt for me, too. Golden Wizard Newton is a terrifying guy. I don’t want to go up against him..."

She suddenly turned to look at Baron. "Have you ever thought about it?"

"Thought about what?"

Baron set down the goblet of the Witch’s blood, used his Spear Sword to slice off a strip of the bedsheet, and tied it around KK’s wound.

KK stared at the makeshift bandage on her hand, momentarily stunned, but then said, "You’re being hunted on the Inner Side anyway, so why not come with me? It wouldn’t be so lonely on the run with some company. It’s just... you’d probably have a lot more people after you..."

"Because I’m the Dragon Witch. You know what that means, right?"

KK did her best to mimic Carmen’s serious tone. "On the Inner Side, anything connected to a Witch is a source of misfortune."

"Carmen would kill me."

’Baron always found women difficult to deal with, and Witches were undoubtedly the most difficult of all.’

’Whether it was the reserved and elegant Carmen or the giggling, mischievous KK before him now, he could always see a chill in their unguarded glances—a coldness that was indifferent to everything.’

’Like a lake that had been frozen for many years; anyone who tried to probe its depths would only end up drowning.’

"But I *am* Carmen. So if I’m saying it, it’s because I mean it."

KK said, "I fled west with one of my followers once. Back then, not only were we blocked by Law Enforcers from Europe, but even Exorcists from the United States joined the pursuit. I nearly died..."

"But you survived."

"That’s because my follower died," KK said, her tone devoid of any sadness. "Like you, he made a pact with the Red Dragon through me. But he wasn’t a Knight; he was a Silver Demon Hunter... more like a Silver Demon Hunter merely touched by the Red Dragon Aura, since the Red Dragon never truly acknowledged him."

"He had a wife, a daughter, and a son. It was about twenty years ago, I think. I told him I wanted to go to the United States and see the Statue of Liberty, so he took me and left."

"Abandoning his wife and kids. What kind of man does that?"

’Racial Knight Baron sneered. ’Makes him no different from those blacks, then.’’

"But he did save my life, so I’m grateful. If I ever run into his descendants hunting me on the Inner Side, I’ll try my best to leave a complete corpse."

’A complete corpse... That’s not something a Witch would do. That’s more in the territory of a Demon King.’

Baron wanted to say, "I’m not going to die for you, just like you wouldn’t die for me. What’s between us is just a deal, Witch."

But in the end, looking at the blood-soaked strip of bedsheet on KK’s hand, he said, "Where to?"

"The East! I’ve never been to the East. I want to go to a place there called Kunming. I hear it’s always like a warm spring, with flowers and trees and grass."

"But you can find a place with flowers, trees, and grass anywhere. Fude City fits that description, too."

"But Fude City doesn’t have Peking duck or Changsha stinky tofu."

’It’s not like you can definitely find those in Kunming, either.’

Baron grumbled inwardly, but outwardly he said, "If you really want to go, I could make a deal with you..."

"Then I don’t want to go anymore," KK said.

Baron froze. "Why?"

"Because I just *want* to go. Going and *wanting* to go are two different things. As long as I never go, I can always hold on to my fantasy of the East..."

KK said, "I’m sure you feel the same way. A place you’ve never been is always more exciting to think about than a place you’ve actually visited..."

"Okay, my hand doesn’t hurt anymore. I bet you can’t wait. You can drink my blood now, but I’d recommend pairing it with red wine. It tastes better that way, you know."

Baron was taken aback and saw the Witch pull the bedsheet over her head.

After a moment of silence, he downed the blood in the goblet. Smacking his lips, he found it didn’t have much of a taste—just the ordinary taste of blood.

’Just like the day the Witch had bitten his lip and stolen his first kiss.’

’The same taste.’

"KK."

He remembered his deal with Carmen. Honoring the spirit of their contract, he spoke to the girl on the bed, who had wrapped herself in the sheets like a caterpillar. "About the dual-classing..."

"Don’t talk to me about that, I don’t want to hear it right now..." KK’s head poked out from under the sheet. "What I want to hear right now is a simple ’Sleep well.’ Tell me to sleep well, Mr. L."

Baron opened his mouth. Looking into the girl’s clear, rose-gold eyes, he suddenly understood why Witches held such a fatal attraction for ordinary people.

’Two personalities, two different personas. One of them was bound to get you.’

"Sleep well," he said.

KK muttered, "I’m not sleeping, I’m meditating. Besides drawing on external sources, Wizards can also restore their Spiritual Power through meditation..."

"But still, good night."

She paused, then closed her eyes after saying that last word. Moonlight streamed through the window, illuminating her face. It was just as beautiful as Carmen’s, yet somehow more childlike in comparison—pure and serene in the pale light.