I was dreaming.
It was a sweet and loving dream.
But I let my folly consume me. I let it lead me astray.
I forgot my mission. I forgot my sadness. I forgot my sin.
But I must never forget my promise.
And so, this dream is over.
This happy dream…is over.
This is the end, Leon Crossheart.
This is the end, Alice Campbell.
Leon stirred. He opened his eyes…to see the ceiling of his own home. He was lying in his own bed.
“Master!”
Turning his head, he saw the girl place her hand to her breast and breathe a sigh of relief. He loved her. Or at least, that was the impression he had been under. But right now she represented something else entirely.
“Give your report, Leon.”
It was Emilia, standing in a corner of the room, who spoke next. She looked furiously impatient.
“It’s Rheina. He’s back,” the ghoul replied.
The ire in Emilia’s eyes at that moment could not be described even with a thousand words.
“…I see, I see.”
Whatever hope she may yet have harbored had been demolished. With hollow eyes, she spoke.
“Come to my workshop tomorrow. We’ll finish the job there.”
Then she staggered over to the door and left the room.
“Master,” spoke Alice, and her eyes said, “Tell me everything.”
There was nothing left to hide. Leon was no longer fit to be the girl’s teacher, but at least he could teach her one last thing: the secret he had planned to take to the grave.
“Let me tell you about the disaster that occurred here, in this city, on the day of the Festival of the Holy Spirit,” Leon explained. “The people say that I started it, but that’s not completely true. It all began with the infamous serial killer, Night Walker.”
Leon’s words made Alice remember something. Something Emilia had mentioned when the two of them first met.
Namely, that Night Walker possessed the power to turn humans into fiends.
“You don’t mean…,” she muttered. “Rheinhardt was…!”
Leon nodded. As he spoke, he clenched his fists.
“We succeeded in tracking him down…and defeating him. But in the fight, Rheina…”
He recalled only fragments. His fellow apprentice charging the enemy. Night Walker falling, and…
“I should have saved him…! I should have died, not him…!”
But he was too scared. He was too cowardly.
He was just a spoiled little child.
“I was selfish, and for that I watched him die! I watched as my best friend was killed!”
He howled. Leon cried without weeping.
“If only I had done the right thing, then Rheina wouldn’t have been turned into a fiend! My master wouldn’t have had to die!”
What exactly had led to that tragic state of affairs? Alice still didn’t have all the answers, but she intended to pry no further. She didn’t need to know, and Leon didn’t need to reopen his old wounds just for her sake.
I want to heal him. I want to soothe his wounded heart. But how? Perhaps it’s already too late…
As Alice racked her brain, Leon continued talking.
“When a human becomes a fiend, it calls upon their most powerful emotions and their darkest memories. Those become what drives the fiend forward. For Rheina…that’s hate.”
Hate toward those that left his sister to die, and…
“Hate toward me, who did the same thing to him. I betrayed his trust to save my own skin. There’s no way he doesn’t hate me after that.”
Alice said nothing. She couldn’t just say, “He would never think of you that way,” as though she knew anything about him. She had no choice but to stay silent.
“…What happened to those two is all my fault. I stole the light from their lives. My foolish ideas brought ruin upon us all. So that’s why…”
He had to be punished. He had to live an awful life. That was why he told everyone that it was him. That he had slain his own friends. It was his punishment. It was what he wanted.
“This way, I protect their memory. That’s what I live for, and one day, it’s what I’ll die for. One day, very soon now.”
There was little doubt that Rheinhardt was planning an assault on Yugosland. Karna Village and the Village of the Kin-Eaters were just precursors. A trial run.
“The next time we meet, I’ll atone for my sin. I’ll save Rheina, no matter what it takes. I won’t break my promise to him.”
For that, he was willing to throw it all away. Alice looked into his burning, crimson eyes. They looked different now. There was none of the light she had brought him, only a deep, furious conviction.
“…You don’t have to do this,” she said, even as she knew her words were a waste of breath. “You can’t defeat someone like that. You’ll just be walking to your death. What’s the point in that? Why would you throw your life away when you could live here with me?!”
But she knew. No matter what she said of love, he would not listen.
“I don’t have a choice. I have to be the one to stop him.”
Leon could not entertain any other possibility. The only choice in his mind was to go on walking into his own destruction.
“If all I cared about was killing him, then you’d be right. There’s no reason for me to risk my life. But that’s not what I’m after. I don’t want to kill him; I want to save him.”
Ah, now it all made sense. That was why he wouldn’t be deterred. That was why he couldn’t be deterred.