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The golden Knights had now all left the country for Pascantin with Schneiser in the lead leaving Toa, Nem and Sufilia in the care of Leonardo as they waited for Masamune.
“He’s late.”
It had already been almost an hour since he’d left for Fishnatica but Masamune still hadn’t returned.
“It’s okay, he’ll be back.”
Unlike Toa, Sufilia was just calmly sitting in a chair. New was sitting next to her with a bored look as she swung her legs back and forth.
“Master is taking a long time.”
Nem had said this quite a bit actually so Leonardo didn’t feel the need to comment as he just continued to watch over them like he was told too. But at that time the large door to the hall opened.
“Dad! Is my dad here!?”
It was Schneisers son, Christophe.
“Oh, Leonardo! Have you seen my dad? Where is he?”
" "His voice was unnecessarily loud and even if he was attempting to look dignified the way he puffed his chest out only succeeded in making him look stupid.
“Prince Christophe-”
Leonardo bowed, after all Christophe was still the prince so this much was to be expected.
“That’s enough, where’s my dad?”
Christophe just disregarded the respect that Leonardo was showing him but then he caught sight of Toa as she lounged in a chair.
“Oh, if it isn’t the beautiful girl from earlier. Is that annoying guy she was with earlier not here? Hey, how about you come have some fun with me? I’m a prince, you know, I can give you whatever you want.”
He tried to get closer to Toa and persuade her.
“Pass.”
However, Toa wasn’t interested in him at all and was just waiting for Masamune to return.
“What?”
Christophe’s face changed completely when he heard what Toa had to say.
“You’re declining the invitation from a prince!? You’re just a commoner!”
Christophe grabbed Toa by the arm but Leonardo stepped in immediately to stop him.
“Prince Christophe! Toa is a guest and companion to the great mage Nito who was invited here by King Schneiser!”
“Shut up!”
But Christophe just glared at Leonardo and shouted.
“Leonardo do you know who you’re talking to? I’m the prince, as the captain of the golden knights you take your orders from me so shut up and back off!”
“But…..”
Leonardo choked on his words. The person in front of him was a prince after all, his position was in fact superior to Leonardo’s. However he knelt down and continued to speak.
“Prince Christophe, please. This person is not just a guest but she is companion to the great mage Nito who we just formed an alliance with. If you do something profane it could cause a war.”
“What? A war!? What have you even been talking about!? Who is this Nito person, I’ve never heard of such a stupid name!”
Christophe wasn’t even interested in what was going on in his own country let alone the world. The only things he cared about was his own wants, women, booze and a life of luxury. His daily routine consisted of partying with his friends and nothing else.
“Stop, let me go!”
Toa was swinging her arm trying to break his grip.
" "“Let go of Toa!”
Nem stood up from her chair and turned a threatening look on Christophe.
“What!? Who is this brat? A beastman thinks they can oppose me!? You’re nothing but slaves for humans so be good and sit!”
“I won’t continue to listen to this.”
Sufilia was angered by what Christophe had said and stood up, Saint’s wrath already in her hand. When the prince noticed the staff in her hand he turned a hostile smile on her.
“What? You want to do it with me too? Looking at you, you’re up there in the look department as well. Tell you what, why don’t you come along and I’ll play with you as well. What do you think? I’ll be gentle.”
Christophe gave Sufilia a dirty look with his hand still on Toa’s arm.
“Fine…..Come on, it looks like it will just be you today. Let’s go and have some fun!”
“Let go!”
Toa tried to pry Christophe’s hand off of her but.
“Stop pulling away you bitch!”
Toa was slapped hard across the face.
Toa lost her balance and fell, why didn’t she fight back even though she was a demon?
“Toa!”
Nem called out Toa’s name as anger rose inside her.
“Prince Christophe! What are you doing!”
Christophe noticed that Leonardo’s hand was touching the sword hilt that hung at his waist.
“What are you doing Leonardo!? Are you going to disobey your prince!? What are you trying to start a rebellion!?”
Christophe shouted before he grinned at him.
“Stand up!”
Christophe went to grab Toa by the arm again but..”
“What?”
A red black shadow suddenly appeared out of the ring on Toa’s left hand.
“Uwah! Wha! What is that!?”
The shadow created a wall between Toa and the prince. As the shadow stopped moving Christophe just stood there with a stupid look on his face.
“T, This….”
Leonardo was fascinated for a moment but that all stopped when countless white arms popped out of the circle and grabbed the prince.
“U, Uwaaaaa!”
The arms grabbed ahold of Christophe holding him firmly in place until the only thing that he could move freely was his fingers. After all the arms was in place a black vortex appeared right next to Toa.
“Eh…..Nito?”
Toa was staring up at the vortex in a daze from her place on the floor. Nito had appeared there in his brown robe.
“…….”
As soon as Masamune appeared and saw Toa his eyes began to shine brightly. He cast healing magic on her, it seemed like he had some understanding of what happened thanks to the ring on Toa’s hand. The ring that was now glowing bright red just like Masamune’s eyes.
“Toa, what happened to your face?”
Toa didn’t answer the question but instead just looked over at the prince.
“…..I see, so it was him huh?”
“Nito! I am very sorry!”
Leonardo was bowing his head deeply but Nito’s gaze never left the prince.
“Shneisers kid huh….”
In the next moment Christophe’s right arm popped up without warning.
“Gyaaaaaaa!”
Christophe screamed in pain but he couldn’t move as blood began to drip down from his armless shoulder.
“Now you can’t hit anyone with that arm ever again.”
The reason behind what Masamune did was simple, he saw the red mark on Toa’s left cheek. It being on her left cheek meant that it was highly likely that Christophe used his right arm to hit her so he simply tore it off at the shoulder.
“It’s….my fault.”
Nito crouched down next to Toa and touched her cheek. His eyes were still red as he looked into Toa’s.
“…..Nito?”
Toa was confused but looked back into his eyes. She was unaware but he was currently disappointed in himself and feeling all sorts of emotions born from the constant risk that Toa was being put in.
(If this keeps happening ……..one day Toa is going to die.)
Nito’s disappointment in himself turned into fear as he thought of losing Toa. Whenever he thought about Toa dying and wondering if he could save her his thoughts always went back to when he’d accidentally erased Ichijo’s arm. But he pushed it from his mind and reached out to Toa.
“…It’s okay now.”
Nito thought that as a demon Toa shouldn’t have been in anyway inferior in strength to the prince but she had still been knocked on her butt. However Masamune couldn’t ask why she didn’t resist. Although he himself couldn’t just go wild and kill Christophe.
(Revenge is taking back what was taken from you and causing the other person to feel the same pain or even worse pain. Making them regret what they did to you, that’s revenge. If i just killed him out of anger that wouldn’t be any different from what I did to Aries. I killed her out of anger and can no longer properly get my revenge on her.)
Masamune regret killing Koizumi and his friends as well for the same reason. Although he didn’t really know Kyogoku all that well and didn’t consider his as a target for revenge in the first place.
“Can you stand?”
“…….Yeah.”
Toa was staring into Nito’s red eyes, she felt sorry for him a little. There was another pard of her deep down that told her she was the one that helped push him deeper towards the abyss. In a sense both of them felt guilty for reasons that no one else knew about.
Masamune turned to stare at Christophe but where he was looking was a little strange as he seemed to be looking over his head.
“You…..Did you oppress a beastman or something?”
He asked a strange question.
“What? Oppress?”
Christophe had previously discriminated against Nem because she was a beastman but he wasn’t here at the time so why was he asking such a thing?
“I know…I can see your shadow clearly.”
The shadow he was talking about was the same one that he had become able to see at the tournament. The same shadow that he had seen coming from all of the people there was now fluttering over Christophe’s head.
“It would seem like you’re compatible with this world. Maybe I should take your left arm as well just to avoid any risk that might come with you having it.”
Nito helped Toa up before looking back at the prince just in time to watch his left arm go flying off as well.
“Nito!”
“Gyaaaaa!”
Leonardo called out to try and stop him but the prince’s cries still echoed out in the hall drowning out Leonardo’s voice.
“Hmm?”
Nito was expressionless and responded to Leonardo calling his name without ever turning around.
“Please forgive him! I apologize for his actions, please forgive the prince.”
Leonardo was kneeling but Nito’s expression never changed, he never even turned to look at Leonardo. He just smiled as he watched Christophe cry in pain. His whole expression showed just how unstable he was, if it wasn’t for the fact that Christophe’s cries were helping to alleviate his anger some it could have easily ended with the entire castle being destroyed.
“Leonardo, the country or his life. I don’t care which one but, you should choose.”
Leonardo looked up when he heard this.
“The..country or…..Prince Christophe?”
“The answer is pretty simple right? After all how can the life of one guy compare to an entire country? Personally I would just let me kill this guy but what do you want to do? Since Schneiser isn’t here you’ll have to choose, are you going to throw away the entire country for the life of one idiot?”
“Nito…Please.. Don’t kill him.”
Leonardo just wanted him to stop. However Nito was so angry that it appeared he’d forgotten how to make facial expressions. When he looked back at Leonardo the knight was shocked by the glowing red eyes.
“Those eyes….”
“Shouldn’t you worry about your country? I even asked you to watch over these three, that was my mistake. Hahahaahaha, what are you doing? Are you trying to get Toa hurt again?”
Nito was now talking to himself as if he had completely lost his mind now.
“Nito? What is it, I’m right here?”
Toa grabbed Nito’s hand with a worried expression on her face.
“Toa….”
Nito was staring at Toa, she was the only thing he could see now.
“Gaha!”
That’s why he would not allow anyone to get away with hurting her. Suddenly Christophe’s stomach had hollowed out and was now a giant hole.
“Gofu…Gaha!”
Christophe was coughing blood up onto the floor feeling as though he was about to die.
“Prince Christophe!”
Leonardo was worried about the prince but it couldn’t be helped, it was his superior after all.
“Nito….”
Toa grabbed Masamune by the arm to try and tell him to stop but his mind was already made up.
“It’s already been decided. The last time I listened to you, you got hurt. So now I won’t listen to what anyone else says. I’ll protect Toa my own way.”
“Nito? What are you talking about?”
Masamune was not longer even talking to Toa but was talking to himself now instead. In the past he had listened to Toa and chose to let the demon go.
“Choices are important.”
Nito knew that depending on the choices he made he might one day lose Toa. He thought he found the magic but he could be wrong so he was still worried.
“This guy is going to die here today so that he can’t hurt anyone anymore. This is the best choice, is it not Leonardo?”
“Nito…..”
However the only thing Leonardo was thinking about was how to deal with the mad man in front of him.
“I could have destroyed the entire country you know? So tell Schneiser that at the cost of his idiot son’s life you have been forgiven.”
“{The birth of regret}”
Masamune cast more magic although at this point it was unnecessary. Christophe was already dying but his mouth was pried open to the point his head burst open and in it’s place was a white child.
“I was born! I was born! Hmm? ……Hmm?….Ah! Master!”
“Fuhahahahaha! Since I was going to kill him anyway why shouldn’t I use him as a magical energy source!?”
Of course Masamune wasn’t actually motivated to create something out of Christophe’s life he only wanted to demean and taunt him even in death.
“Now then. Toa, Nem, Sufilia, let’s go.”
Nem and Sufilia ran up to him despite being confused by the entire situation.
“Clean this up for me will you Leonardo? Oh and tell Schneiser that if he sends someone after me I’ll consider it a breach of the alliance. I’m sure he doesn’t want a war right?”
Masamune left while holding Toa’s hand. Leonardo should have been the only one left in the room with the corpse but, he wasn’t alone.
“Even I was told to stay here…what do I do?”
The child was looking around, apparently he had stayed behind according to Masamune’s will.
“What?”
Leonardo was wary of the child and afraid that he might be next on the list to die. But after a while one of the childs arms began to melt as though it was made of wax.
“This is so boring! I should have been born! I shouldn’t have been born! I..shouldn’t have been……”
The child slowly melted into a puddle and disappeared.
“What….was that?”
Leonardo just sat there for a while not understanding anything that had just happened. He held his head in his hands as he tried to make sense of what he’d seen.
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The golden Knights had now all left the country for Pascantin with Schneiser in the lead leaving Toa, Nem and Sufilia in the care of Leonardo as they waited for Masamune.
“He’s late.”
It had already been almost an hour since he’d left for Fishnatica but Masamune still hadn’t returned.
“It’s okay, he’ll be back.”
Unlike Toa, Sufilia was just calmly sitting in a chair. New was sitting next to her with a bored look as she swung her legs back and forth.
“Master is taking a long time.”
Nem had said this quite a bit actually so Leonardo didn’t feel the need to comment as he just continued to watch over them like he was told too. But at that time the large door to the hall opened.
“Dad! Is my dad here!?”
It was Schneisers son, Christophe.
“Oh, Leonardo! Have you seen my dad? Where is he?”
" "His voice was unnecessarily loud and even if he was attempting to look dignified the way he puffed his chest out only succeeded in making him look stupid.
“Prince Christophe-”
Leonardo bowed, after all Christophe was still the prince so this much was to be expected.
“That’s enough, where’s my dad?”
Christophe just disregarded the respect that Leonardo was showing him but then he caught sight of Toa as she lounged in a chair.
“Oh, if it isn’t the beautiful girl from earlier. Is that annoying guy she was with earlier not here? Hey, how about you come have some fun with me? I’m a prince, you know, I can give you whatever you want.”
He tried to get closer to Toa and persuade her.
“Pass.”
However, Toa wasn’t interested in him at all and was just waiting for Masamune to return.
“What?”
Christophe’s face changed completely when he heard what Toa had to say.
“You’re declining the invitation from a prince!? You’re just a commoner!”
Christophe grabbed Toa by the arm but Leonardo stepped in immediately to stop him.
“Prince Christophe! Toa is a guest and companion to the great mage Nito who was invited here by King Schneiser!”
“Shut up!”
But Christophe just glared at Leonardo and shouted.
“Leonardo do you know who you’re talking to? I’m the prince, as the captain of the golden knights you take your orders from me so shut up and back off!”
“But…..”
Leonardo choked on his words. The person in front of him was a prince after all, his position was in fact superior to Leonardo’s. However he knelt down and continued to speak.
“Prince Christophe, please. This person is not just a guest but she is companion to the great mage Nito who we just formed an alliance with. If you do something profane it could cause a war.”
“What? A war!? What have you even been talking about!? Who is this Nito person, I’ve never heard of such a stupid name!”
Christophe wasn’t even interested in what was going on in his own country let alone the world. The only things he cared about was his own wants, women, booze and a life of luxury. His daily routine consisted of partying with his friends and nothing else.
“Stop, let me go!”
Toa was swinging her arm trying to break his grip.
" "“Let go of Toa!”
Nem stood up from her chair and turned a threatening look on Christophe.
“What!? Who is this brat? A beastman thinks they can oppose me!? You’re nothing but slaves for humans so be good and sit!”
“I won’t continue to listen to this.”
Sufilia was angered by what Christophe had said and stood up, Saint’s wrath already in her hand. When the prince noticed the staff in her hand he turned a hostile smile on her.
“What? You want to do it with me too? Looking at you, you’re up there in the look department as well. Tell you what, why don’t you come along and I’ll play with you as well. What do you think? I’ll be gentle.”
Christophe gave Sufilia a dirty look with his hand still on Toa’s arm.
“Fine…..Come on, it looks like it will just be you today. Let’s go and have some fun!”
“Let go!”
Toa tried to pry Christophe’s hand off of her but.
“Stop pulling away you bitch!”
Toa was slapped hard across the face.
Toa lost her balance and fell, why didn’t she fight back even though she was a demon?
“Toa!”
Nem called out Toa’s name as anger rose inside her.
“Prince Christophe! What are you doing!”
Christophe noticed that Leonardo’s hand was touching the sword hilt that hung at his waist.
“What are you doing Leonardo!? Are you going to disobey your prince!? What are you trying to start a rebellion!?”
Christophe shouted before he grinned at him.
“Stand up!”
Christophe went to grab Toa by the arm again but..”
“What?”
A red black shadow suddenly appeared out of the ring on Toa’s left hand.
“Uwah! Wha! What is that!?”
The shadow created a wall between Toa and the prince. As the shadow stopped moving Christophe just stood there with a stupid look on his face.
“T, This….”
Leonardo was fascinated for a moment but that all stopped when countless white arms popped out of the circle and grabbed the prince.
“U, Uwaaaaa!”
The arms grabbed ahold of Christophe holding him firmly in place until the only thing that he could move freely was his fingers. After all the arms was in place a black vortex appeared right next to Toa.
“Eh…..Nito?”
Toa was staring up at the vortex in a daze from her place on the floor. Nito had appeared there in his brown robe.
“…….”
As soon as Masamune appeared and saw Toa his eyes began to shine brightly. He cast healing magic on her, it seemed like he had some understanding of what happened thanks to the ring on Toa’s hand. The ring that was now glowing bright red just like Masamune’s eyes.
“Toa, what happened to your face?”
Toa didn’t answer the question but instead just looked over at the prince.
“…..I see, so it was him huh?”
“Nito! I am very sorry!”
Leonardo was bowing his head deeply but Nito’s gaze never left the prince.
“Shneisers kid huh….”
In the next moment Christophe’s right arm popped up without warning.
“Gyaaaaaaa!”
Christophe screamed in pain but he couldn’t move as blood began to drip down from his armless shoulder.
“Now you can’t hit anyone with that arm ever again.”
The reason behind what Masamune did was simple, he saw the red mark on Toa’s left cheek. It being on her left cheek meant that it was highly likely that Christophe used his right arm to hit her so he simply tore it off at the shoulder.
“It’s….my fault.”
Nito crouched down next to Toa and touched her cheek. His eyes were still red as he looked into Toa’s.
“…..Nito?”
Toa was confused but looked back into his eyes. She was unaware but he was currently disappointed in himself and feeling all sorts of emotions born from the constant risk that Toa was being put in.
(If this keeps happening ……..one day Toa is going to die.)
Nito’s disappointment in himself turned into fear as he thought of losing Toa. Whenever he thought about Toa dying and wondering if he could save her his thoughts always went back to when he’d accidentally erased Ichijo’s arm. But he pushed it from his mind and reached out to Toa.
“…It’s okay now.”
Nito thought that as a demon Toa shouldn’t have been in anyway inferior in strength to the prince but she had still been knocked on her butt. However Masamune couldn’t ask why she didn’t resist. Although he himself couldn’t just go wild and kill Christophe.
(Revenge is taking back what was taken from you and causing the other person to feel the same pain or even worse pain. Making them regret what they did to you, that’s revenge. If i just killed him out of anger that wouldn’t be any different from what I did to Aries. I killed her out of anger and can no longer properly get my revenge on her.)
Masamune regret killing Koizumi and his friends as well for the same reason. Although he didn’t really know Kyogoku all that well and didn’t consider his as a target for revenge in the first place.
“Can you stand?”
“…….Yeah.”
Toa was staring into Nito’s red eyes, she felt sorry for him a little. There was another pard of her deep down that told her she was the one that helped push him deeper towards the abyss. In a sense both of them felt guilty for reasons that no one else knew about.
Masamune turned to stare at Christophe but where he was looking was a little strange as he seemed to be looking over his head.
“You…..Did you oppress a beastman or something?”
He asked a strange question.
“What? Oppress?”
Christophe had previously discriminated against Nem because she was a beastman but he wasn’t here at the time so why was he asking such a thing?
“I know…I can see your shadow clearly.”
The shadow he was talking about was the same one that he had become able to see at the tournament. The same shadow that he had seen coming from all of the people there was now fluttering over Christophe’s head.
“It would seem like you’re compatible with this world. Maybe I should take your left arm as well just to avoid any risk that might come with you having it.”
Nito helped Toa up before looking back at the prince just in time to watch his left arm go flying off as well.
“Nito!”
“Gyaaaaa!”
Leonardo called out to try and stop him but the prince’s cries still echoed out in the hall drowning out Leonardo’s voice.
“Hmm?”
Nito was expressionless and responded to Leonardo calling his name without ever turning around.
“Please forgive him! I apologize for his actions, please forgive the prince.”
Leonardo was kneeling but Nito’s expression never changed, he never even turned to look at Leonardo. He just smiled as he watched Christophe cry in pain. His whole expression showed just how unstable he was, if it wasn’t for the fact that Christophe’s cries were helping to alleviate his anger some it could have easily ended with the entire castle being destroyed.
“Leonardo, the country or his life. I don’t care which one but, you should choose.”
Leonardo looked up when he heard this.
“The..country or…..Prince Christophe?”
“The answer is pretty simple right? After all how can the life of one guy compare to an entire country? Personally I would just let me kill this guy but what do you want to do? Since Schneiser isn’t here you’ll have to choose, are you going to throw away the entire country for the life of one idiot?”
“Nito…Please.. Don’t kill him.”
Leonardo just wanted him to stop. However Nito was so angry that it appeared he’d forgotten how to make facial expressions. When he looked back at Leonardo the knight was shocked by the glowing red eyes.
“Those eyes….”
“Shouldn’t you worry about your country? I even asked you to watch over these three, that was my mistake. Hahahaahaha, what are you doing? Are you trying to get Toa hurt again?”
Nito was now talking to himself as if he had completely lost his mind now.
“Nito? What is it, I’m right here?”
Toa grabbed Nito’s hand with a worried expression on her face.
“Toa….”
Nito was staring at Toa, she was the only thing he could see now.
“Gaha!”
That’s why he would not allow anyone to get away with hurting her. Suddenly Christophe’s stomach had hollowed out and was now a giant hole.
“Gofu…Gaha!”
Christophe was coughing blood up onto the floor feeling as though he was about to die.
“Prince Christophe!”
Leonardo was worried about the prince but it couldn’t be helped, it was his superior after all.
“Nito….”
Toa grabbed Masamune by the arm to try and tell him to stop but his mind was already made up.
“It’s already been decided. The last time I listened to you, you got hurt. So now I won’t listen to what anyone else says. I’ll protect Toa my own way.”
“Nito? What are you talking about?”
Masamune was not longer even talking to Toa but was talking to himself now instead. In the past he had listened to Toa and chose to let the demon go.
“Choices are important.”
Nito knew that depending on the choices he made he might one day lose Toa. He thought he found the magic but he could be wrong so he was still worried.
“This guy is going to die here today so that he can’t hurt anyone anymore. This is the best choice, is it not Leonardo?”
“Nito…..”
However the only thing Leonardo was thinking about was how to deal with the mad man in front of him.
“I could have destroyed the entire country you know? So tell Schneiser that at the cost of his idiot son’s life you have been forgiven.”
“{The birth of regret}”
Masamune cast more magic although at this point it was unnecessary. Christophe was already dying but his mouth was pried open to the point his head burst open and in it’s place was a white child.
“I was born! I was born! Hmm? ……Hmm?….Ah! Master!”
“Fuhahahahaha! Since I was going to kill him anyway why shouldn’t I use him as a magical energy source!?”
Of course Masamune wasn’t actually motivated to create something out of Christophe’s life he only wanted to demean and taunt him even in death.
“Now then. Toa, Nem, Sufilia, let’s go.”
Nem and Sufilia ran up to him despite being confused by the entire situation.
“Clean this up for me will you Leonardo? Oh and tell Schneiser that if he sends someone after me I’ll consider it a breach of the alliance. I’m sure he doesn’t want a war right?”
Masamune left while holding Toa’s hand. Leonardo should have been the only one left in the room with the corpse but, he wasn’t alone.
“Even I was told to stay here…what do I do?”
The child was looking around, apparently he had stayed behind according to Masamune’s will.
“What?”
Leonardo was wary of the child and afraid that he might be next on the list to die. But after a while one of the childs arms began to melt as though it was made of wax.
“This is so boring! I should have been born! I shouldn’t have been born! I..shouldn’t have been……”
The child slowly melted into a puddle and disappeared.
“What….was that?”
Leonardo just sat there for a while not understanding anything that had just happened. He held his head in his hands as he tried to make sense of what he’d seen.
