“Awaken, my angel.”

“I have chosen you as my soldier.”

“You must find the pieces of the weapon that destroyed the world.”

“I have given you the information you need to know.”

“There’s not much time, you must find the other one connected to you.”

“Good luck.”

“…”

“Hey! Come over here!”

“Someone just fell from the sky!”

“There’re wings on her back. You don’t think…”

“What’s your name?”

“…”

“An?”

“She doesn’t seem to be a threat.”

“Bring her to the medic! Now!”

“…”

“A penny for your thoughts.”

“Huh?”

Anten snapped out of her thoughts and looked around in confusion.

She was sitting on a bed in a small room, and a bespectacled man with a cane was standing right beside her.

“…oh, that’s right.”

Suddenly, the reality caught back up to her, and she remembered.

After parting with her devil companion Dauma on slightly bad terms, she had moved back to the mansion in the upper city to protect Aleby, the other chief of the Silver Foxes, and the man who was currently watching her with a gentle smile, while the rest were off doing their underground temple mission.

As soon as the realization hit her, she began to panic.

“I’m sorry, Chief Aleby,” she quickly mumbled as she stood up, “I was supposed to… I’ll get back to my job now!”

“It is alright, my dear angel.”

He raised up his hand to stop her before gesturing for her to sit back down again.

“Sit.”

“But…”

Tap.

With one tap from his cane, she promptly and obediently sat back down. That single tap had contained a certain strictness yet also gentleness at the same time, which made it feel very commanding, so she immediately knew that she had to comply to him.

“…”

As she looked away in embarrassment, he sat down beside her without any hesitation and proceeded to talk again.

“You seem fine now.”

“What?”

“The first time I met you, you would not take no for an answer. However, now I think that you would. You have become much softer.”

She continued to look away from him, but this time she lowered her head as well, deliberately not letting him see the awkwardness she was feeling at that moment.

“It’s just been a rough few weeks,” she explained, “once things go back to normal, maybe I’ll get better. That’s all there is. I’m… sorry if my attitude towards you or the Foxes has not been the best. I was quite rude when we first met. I’ll get over this, I promise. I just can’t deal with these problems all at once.”

“Hmm,” he tapped his cane and mused, “I guess that is why you are lost in your thoughts, dear angel.”

“Hm?”

“I figured there were things that burdened you. In addition, I believe that what you have just elaborated on has proved my theory correctly.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing in particular. However, on a related note,” he turned and looked at her, “I do realize that I have your dear devil companion’s story from my advisor, but I do not have the one from you yet. Perhaps, that might be worth looking into for both you and me.”

“Um… I…”

“There is no need to be so secretive. Nothing in this room that you do not want to reveal will be let outside. You can tell me.”

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She glanced at him for a moment before turning away again.

“It’s… I don’t know… it’s quite personal for me. And I don’t really know if I should seek help from the person I’m supposed to be protecting.”

“Is that not precisely why I am asking?”

“…I guess you’re right.”

She heaved a deep sigh.

“I just want to ask you a question first, if that’s okay with you.”

“Go ahead, my dear.”

“Back when we first met, I said some things to you. About throwing away your comrades’ lives to fulfil your goals.”

“That you did.”

“And I haven’t gotten an answer from that yet.”

“That happened as well.”

Her fists clenched up and she took a deep breath before continuing.

“So, why?”

“By why, am I correct to presume that means why I wish to do this?”

“…in a way, yes.”

In response, he smirked and looked up at the ceiling.

“You believe that I am a murderer? That I willingly kill people by my orders?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see her panic again.

“W-what? No! Of course not! I never meant that!” she replied with a flustered expression.

“You must relax, dear angel. I knew what you meant from the start,” he laughed softly, “but I know where you are coming from. My advisor told me everything about Mahu Village after all.”

“I… I see.”

“However, I must elaborate, it is not my choice to send my friends to their deaths.”

“Huh?” she remarked in confusion once again.

“My dear, everyone has a choice to make in deciding their own lives. It is not my responsibility to make that choice for them, nor was it yours. It is their own, and I will accept whatever their choices bring.”

“But… that will… what if they make the wrong choice?” she protested.

“I will still accept it.”

“That doesn’t make sense!”

Her anger seemed to have returned as she slammed her foot down onto the ground and raised her voice.

“You are the leader! Whatever choices these Foxes make can affect the whole group badly, even themselves! Why do you still let them do whatever they want?”

“That is a good point, dear angel,” he nodded, “however, you are still missing my perspective. For me to show that to you, I must tell you about my brother.”

“…if it’s about the ‘curse’, he told us. But even so, that’s no excuse. What about your brother? You wanted to stop him before, but now you just let him do what he wants to do, even though you already know he’s putting himself at risk! Don’t you want to protect him? Aren’t you upset?”

“Of course.”

“What?”

“Of course, I wish to protect my brother. Of course, I am upset. In fact, I do believe that the next time I see him, I will beat him up,” he nonchalantly added, as though he had done the deed before, “but even so, I will not stop him.”

“Why?!”

“It is because even though I am the chief, I will not let anyone lose their motivation because of me. I am not a controller or a manipulator, and what you are describing, my dear, is nothing but that.”

However, she was still not pleased with his answer.

“You have the power to make them stay out of danger! It’s basic survival, it’s not controlling!”

“…even if making sure their survival is against their very wishes?”

“Yes!”

“So, you believe you have the power to do that, is that correct?”

“I…”

She was silent for a moment, and he took this time to probe her further.

“Do you believe that your power as an angel is to tell people what they should and should not do, to keep them out of danger, to protect them?”

“…of course! That is my job!”

“Therefore, you are upset that you failed at doing so with the Mahu villagers.”

“I guess so!”

Finally, the thing that had been weighing on her mind for the past few weeks. Her inability, her failure. He had finally gotten her to admit it herself.

“You share a special connection with them, do you not?”

“…yes,” she replied in a low tone.

“More than simple acquaintances?”

“More than that. They were the first ones to take me in after I woke up. If not for them, I would have most likely been lost from the start.”

“I see.”

He quietly processed the information for a few moments before he asked his next question.

“Has my brother told you about what happened to the two of us? The incident that shaped our lives?”

“Huh? No.”

“I will not go into detail either way, that would be too long. However, you can say that I occupy the same role that you did for them. No matter what, I will always protect him.”

“Doesn’t seem that way, considering that—”

“I was not finished,” he calmly interrupted, “without giving any offence, I am sure you believe that protecting a close family member is much more personal and also more important than protecting a group of friends, but also that I am not doing so right now.”

“S… so what?”

“I am saying you are wrong, my dear angel. I am still protecting him in my own way, even if I let him do his own thing. Not only do I have my advisor who will stop him if things go awry, I also ultimately gave him my blessing for the mission in the end.”

“How does that work? Didn’t you tell him not to do it?”

“I could certainly have stopped him with force if I wanted to, but…”

He looked up at the ceiling again.

“…ultimately, I do not want him to stop because of me. I might disapprove of the mission, I might be extremely worried about his current safety, and I might discourage him to do it, but keep in mind, dear angel, I still did not stop him. I merely asked him to reconsider, hence why I gave him that suggestion in the first place.”

“But…”

“I might not be as powerful as you, dear angel, and maybe you can protect people better than I ever could. However, that does not mean you cannot let them do what they want to do. Again, it is ultimately their choice. Even if their choice is to throw themselves into the fire, you must protect them by accepting what they do. If you force them to do things your way, you may be protecting them by your standards, but they will not think so. They will think that you are just an obstacle, and no matter what you say, it is not until it is often too late that they realize your intentions for them were good and regret their choices. That is how we all are, that is in our nature. Therefore, we must all accept that we are all on different paths. Listen to what they want and support them. This is because, sometimes, our paths may intersect with one another, but sooner or later, they will all diverge. It all depends on what is beyond our control, fate. That is all there is to it.”

“…so, you’re asking me to just accept it?”

“In an extremely longwinded way, that is correct,” he confirmed.

“But… I can’t just do that,” she stubbornly insisted, “all of them… they had hopes for me… and I let them down…”

“It always hurts, no matter how many times you do it,” he gently reassured her, “however, we must always move forward and focus on the path that lies ahead of us. I do not want you to forget about them, but I want you to instead think of them in another way.”

“What is that?”

“That they are the hands that push you ahead on your path. That they guide you to your inevitable destination, no matter what that may be. That they will support you to the very end, even if you suffer through more failures. You have to use their support to protect the ones you can.”

“The hands that push me ahead…”

She had calmed down by now, and this time she seemed less conflicted. Since she had inadvertently revealed her struggles, she had seemed more relaxed, more confident, and now that he had given her some valuable advice, her entire demeanor seemed to have lightened, even though her doubtful expression still remained as she tried to process and understand all his ramblings at once.

“Just one more thing,” she asked him, “have you ever felt the same way I have before? That you should have saved your friends but couldn’t? That you felt like giving up on everything?”

“More times than you can believe, my dear.”

“Right,” she slowly smiled as she finally accepted the truth.

“…”

“…”

The two continued to smile and look at each other for about a minute, with an awkward silence very quickly emerging between the two of them before he patted his lap and stood up, tapping his cane again.

“That is all the advice I have for you, my dear angel. I hope you can take it to heart, although I mean it as merely a suggestion, it is not as though I want to force you to accept it. As I said before, it is all up to you.”

“T… thank you!”

She continued to smile at him, but suddenly she stopped, her face instantly shifting to a serious expression as she slowly stood up and looked down at the floor.

“Rmbbbbbbbbbbbb”

Tremors, coming from below the room. She felt the minor rumbling first before he did, but very soon it was strong enough for the both of them to feel it.

“An earthquake?”

“I don’t know.”

“I need to—”

Before she could even finish her sentence, the room began to tilt.