She scooped up the wounded Leon in her arms and dashed off without even slowing down. Rheinhardt stood no chance of catching up to her. Instead, he shouted, “I’ll freakin’ kill her!”
He glared after her, his violet eyes staring daggers into the girl’s back. But on his face, he wore a smile. The snarl of a growling beast, perhaps. Or…
Maybe some small part of him still felt joy.
Alice sprinted all the way back to Emilia’s workshop with Leon in her arms. However, she found it completely deserted, with the forge mistress nowhere to be found. Alice laid her master down on the bed, then fell to one knee, grunting.
“Urgh…grgh…”
Her crimson armor dissipated into motes of light…and reassembled into a bracelet around her left wrist.
“Haah…haah…urgh!”
Blood spilled from her lips and clogged her throat. Leon looked at her, and somewhere in her pitiful appearance was a spark of warmth.
“I didn’t think you’d go so far,” he said.
Using custom equipment designed for someone else was a serious affair. Especially when that equipment belonged to Claire, one of the most hardy and resilient adventurers to ever walk the realm. No ordinary person could even walk in it, much less run and fight as Alice had done.
He was impressed, but his words came more from a place of concern than anything else. Still, it was Leon’s own fault that she had needed to rush in and save him, so he couldn’t much complain. Instead, he asked her a question.
“…Did Emilia give you that? The bracelet.”
Alice was too weary to speak and only managed a nod.
I guess I misread that woman, Leon thought to himself. I thought she was planning on keeping Alice safe. Perhaps she saw a bit of herself in the girl. Perhaps the bracelet was a mercy, to let her die alongside her master. Or perhaps…she was hoping Alice could show us all a different path.
“Pheeew…”
While Leon still tried to figure out what it all meant, Alice let out a deep, long breath, and rose to her feet. She walked across the workshop to a crate at one end and pulled out a leather bag. It contained Leon’s Source reserves, used to replenish his own supply. “This’ll sting,” she said as she produced a needle from the bag and stuck it into Leon’s skin. Soon, the ghoul found his energy returning, and his superhuman regeneration kicked in, closing his wounds.
After seeing that her master was fully healed, Alice collapsed.
“Hrh…!”
Leon leaped out of bed and caught her in his arms.
“Master,” she said, “Do you remember what I swore to you in the Kin-Eater Village?”
Leon answered. “You said that one day you’d be the one protecting me.”
“Yes… I may have cheated a little, but I kept my promise, didn’t I, Master?”
She managed a weak smile. Leon had to let her know how he felt.
“You did a great job, Alice. I’m truly proud of you.”
“Ehehehehe…”
Leon couldn’t help but be charmed by her smile as he held her in his arms and patted her head.
“There’s just no separating us, is there?”
Alice nodded.
“You said this was the end of us, Master… But that’s not true, is it? Our story is only just beginning.”
Her smile was tinged with sadness. As she went on, she stared into the ghoul’s crimson eyes.
“I want you to see who I’ll become. And I want to see who you’ll become. I still have a dream I want us to fulfill together. So, Master, this isn’t the end. It’s only the beginning.”
For once, Leon said nothing to deter her. For the first time, he felt exactly the same way.
“I thought I threw everything away,” he said. “I thought I could keep my promise at last. But no matter how hard I tried…I couldn’t forget you.”
Alice smiled. “Even if you had forgotten me, I wouldn’t ever leave you, Master.”
Alice’s words left a deep impression. Leon closed his eyes and spoke.
“…Let’s take down Rheina. Together.”
Alice nodded. But there was doubt in her eyes. After all, why not run away together? Leon shook his head and said, “We have three choices. We take refuge in the emergency shelter, we leave the city, or we stand and fight. Let me explain why we have to pick the third.”
Alice stared right into Leon’s eyes, listening to him speak.
“First, the underground shelter. We can hide out there until things blow over. However, that’s not a smart move. If we leave Rheina unchecked, he’ll find us sooner or later. When that happens, we’ll have to fight him anyway.”
It wasn’t hard to imagine. Both Alice and Leon could see that any solution along these lines would be fleeting at best.
“We stand no chance if we fight him underground. All the panicked townspeople will be there, and it’ll be chaos. The only possible outcome is tragic death, not just for us, but for everyone else as well.”
And so one option was struck off the list.
“Second, fleeing the city. This is another bad idea. Even if we manage to escape, I’ll be a wanted man for abandoning my duty and betraying the church. They’ll be after me, and once Rheina’s finished destroying the Holy City, he will too. All we’ll have succeeded in doing is making ourselves another enemy.”
And so the second option was eliminated as well, leaving only one.
“We fight Rheina here. It’s the only way to secure our future. In order to look ahead, we have to stop looking to the past. We’re only ever going to be happy if we can pass this trial. At least, that’s what I think.”
He glanced at Alice, as if to say, “What about you?” but the girl said nothing. Instead, she asked, “So, how are we going to do this?”
“One thing before I get to that. Let me ask you a question… What did you do with the holy sword?”
Leon had placed it on Alice’s unconscious body the last time they spoke. But now Leon could see it nowhere on her person.
“Um, about that… When I woke up, I found a note.”
“What?”
“Yes, from Emilia. I think it said something like… Have this bracelet. Save Leon, or don’t, see if I care. I’m taking the sword, though. Have fun being dead together.”
“Right. I guess that makes sense. The sword means a great deal to her, after all. She couldn’t risk it being lost, especially knowing you’d almost certainly go running after me once you woke up.”
Still, the sword possessed a will of its own. If it had wanted to take part in the battle, it could have done so with or without Emilia’s permission. Did that mean the sword had turned its back on them?
“Either way, we can’t expect Calit Gelius to solve our problems for us,” said Leon.
“Couldn’t we meet up with Emilia and ask for it back?” asked Alice.
“Rheina will get to us before that happens,” Leon replied. “He may be after the sword as well. We should expect to run into him if we go after it.”
The sword could have made a formidable ally in the upcoming battle, but it seemed it was not to be.
“The point is, we have to deal with Rheina one way or another. As for how to do that…”
Leon walked over to a corner of the workshop and began rummaging around in a toolbox. Retrieving something from it, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Phew. I was wondering what to do if Emilia hadn’t left this.”
“Maybe she knew you would need it?” offered Alice.
“Knew? I doubt it. Hoped, maybe.”
Emilia’s last hope. Leon secured it in his waist pouch, then turned to Alice.
“There are only two possible outcomes to this plan. Either we live together or we die together.”
Alice could see the question in his eyes. “Are you ready?”
“Let’s go,” she said with a smile and a nod. “Together.”
A story that continued long after the curtains fell. A future unattainable alone. Alice looked at Leon, her eyes brimming with hope.
“Yeah,” he replied. And then, “Let’s do this, Alice.”
“Yes, Master.”
The pair left the workshop, walked through the weapons store, and exited onto the street.
Unbreakable. The name seemed extra poignant today.
Why Emilia named the store that way was now lost to time. Yet as the two walked side by side, Leon thought of Alice.
He would protect her. At all costs.
“Huh. Well, what should I do now? Decisions, decisions…”
Rheinhardt had flown into a rage after Alice escaped with Leon. Every building in the vicinity became a target for his anger, and when he finally calmed down, he sat atop the rubble and thought to himself.
“Option one: Track them down and kill them. Ooor, option two: Go find Emilia and take the sword off her. What should I do?”
Leon hadn’t been carrying it when the two fought. Nor had that girl. Which meant that it was reasonable to assume he handed it off to Emilia.
The sword was a relic of his Master. Becoming a fiend had not dulled his attachment; if anything, he was more obsessed than ever with getting it back.
“Hmm, I guess I gotta go get it. Killing those two can wait.”
As if to strengthen that decision, a new idea formed in his mind.
“Imagine their faces when I bring them her freshly severed head.”
His decision made up, Rheinhardt spread his three sets of wings and took off into the sky. The city below was like a portrait of hell itself. The townspeople who had turned into ghouls attacked the others, turning them as well. Mothers ate their children, men slew their lovers, their eyes streaked with tears as brothers and sisters feasted on human flesh. Rheinhardt cracked a grin at the sight. Then…
“Hm? What’s this?”
A single tear descended from his violet eye.
“How odd,” he said. “I didn’t think the wind was that—”