“Ungh… mmm…”

When Kara opened her eyes, she saw a familiar face staring back at her.

“I told you I’ll come back.”

Judging by the sensation that she felt below her, she knew that she was no longer lying on her messy bed in the middle of a battlefield, but instead another much softer bed in a completely different room.

“You alright?”

Sitting beside her on a chair and looking at her with a relieved expression was the devil who had saved her. As she slowly began to sit up, he stood up as well, laying a hand on her shoulder and pushing her back down.

“The thing’s gone now.”

“…huh.”

Unsurprisingly, she had many questions she wanted to ask as soon as she learnt of the development, but she decided to save them as she looked over at the other people who were also in the room.

“… hi…”

On a chair next to Dauma’s sat the quiet spirit girl Yuu, seemingly physically unchanged since the last time she saw her, but this time, she could feel a different energy coming off of her, like a burst of confidence had suddenly hit and changed her.

“Kara…”

And standing by the foot of her bed, with his hands slightly trembling and a worried look in his eyes, was her teacher Claine. He bit his lip and looked away as soon as they locked eyes with each other, and she unashamedly smirked at him.

“Well, well, well…” she drawled as she addressed him, forcing him to immediately respond to her prompt.

“Look, Kara…”

“Oh? I’m not your apprentice anymore? Perhaps you want to disown me after my weak performance during the fight?”

“… never mind.”

Goaded by her taunts, he cracked a smile as well, and began to fire back at her with sarcastic replies.

“You talk a big game, apprentice. Who was the one who tried to play the hero and got injured as a result?”

“I’m playing the hero? Better look in a mirror yourself, because the only person who had their selfless act backfire on them was you, you poser!”

“Huh????? Then what was all that nonsense you spouted before? ‘You’re my Teach, Teach’? So lame!”

“Um… excuse me…”

As they traded back and forth blows with one another, Dauma and Yuu quickly began to feel like they were the odd ones out. They had originally planned to share the events that happened with her, but now that option was out of the window, it seemed like leaving the two alone for now was the best choice.

“Maybe later then, have fun doing whatever… this is,” Dauma mumbled as he motioned for Yuu to stand up as well. The two of them swiftly walked towards the door and exited the room, closing the door softly behind them.

“I thought that was a cool line! Wouldn’t you have wanted to say it too?”

“Hah! As if I would want to say such a cringy thing! The only people who would say that line are all those self-righteous wannabes!”

“That doesn’t even make any sense!”

“You…”

As Claine opened his mouth to retort again, he suddenly paused and looked at the empty chairs, realizing that they were alone.

“… oops…”

“Ha ha! See what happens when you lose sight of your main goal?”

She looked over at the chairs as well before laughing loudly and obnoxiously, clutching her already recovered but still bandaged stomach as she rolled around the bed in mirth.

“… you sure do find humor in everything, don’t you?” he asked with a confused but still amused smile.

“Yeah. Thing about humor is, even the simplest, most inane things can be funny. You don’t have to understand it, you just have to feel it,” she stopped laughing and explained.

“I guess that is one thing I never taught you.”

“Yup.”

“…”

“…”

As the mood slowly wore off, the cheerful joy of the teacher and student was soon replaced by a more quiet and serious mood, the one that he had originally meant to start with in the first place.

“Apprentice…”

“… I already know what you want to say, Teach.”

She turned back forward and sat up again, speaking reassuringly to him.

“I forgive you.”

“What?”

“I said, I forgive you. For what you wanted to do,” she took a deep breath and clarified, her eyes shifting up to the ceiling.

“But…”

“You don’t have to explain anything. In the end, I know you the most, even counting Mister Aleby. I can read you like a book.”

“Then,” he sighed and asked, “you’re not angry?”

“Of course I’m angry. You placed your trust in that revenge-filled bastard instead of me, your beloved apprentice. Shame on you, by the way.”

“… I’m not proud of that either, if it makes you feel any better. He played all of us for fools.”

“You were fooled more than anyone though. You believed in his dumb ideology and tried to attack my dear devil friend for no reason.”

“Yes yes, keep rubbing it in.”

There was another brief silence before Claine spoke again.

“… you were right.”

Stolen story; please report.

“Hm?”

“He really helped us a lot, and so did the angel. Seems like you were right to trust them.”

“…”

She gave an awkward, sheepish smile in response to his admission.

“… what is it?”

“Well,” she mumbled as she pressed her fingertips together, “the truth is, I never trusted them at all the first time I met them.”

“Really? But you kept telling me…”

“You really forgot, Teach? Just because I act tough doesn’t mean I can’t still be scared, you know. And the first few days I spent alone with Mister Dauma were absolutely terrifying. I felt like I could die if I crossed him the wrong way.”

“That’s a surprise.”

“Not really,” she drily remarked, “I mean, the dude’s a devil. How can anyone not get scared by that sort of thing the first time they meet him?”

“Well,” Claine proceeded to ask as he glanced back at the door, “surely you don’t feel that way about him now, do you?”

This time, she paused for a longer period of time before responding.

“I’m not so sure about that. Didn’t you notice how strange he sounded when he spoke to me earlier?”

“I don’t recall hearing anything different.”

She shook her head in disappointment at his answer.

“What I’m saying is, both he and Miss Yuu have changed, I can feel it. She seems to have become more confident, and as for him… I’m not sure. It’s like all my progress in reading his character has all been reset, and I need to try again.”

“It’s that different?”

“Regardless,” she continued, casually putting her arms behind her head, “I’m sure I’ll find out more about him again soon. It’s too bad we drove him away. Maybe I should go find him later.”

“… I think you should rest first. That’s your priority.”

“Hey! I’m already all healed up! You can’t keep me here!”

“Sorry, you’re still my apprentice, so you follow my rules.”

“Come on! That’s so unfair!”

And just like that, the pair’s petty and meaningless bickering continued with no end in sight.

**********************

“Hey.”

Anten was waiting by the corridor outside as Dauma and Yuu exited the room together. Leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and a reluctant expression on her face, she called out to them.

“Nngh…”

As soon as she heard her voice, Yuu quickly stepped backwards and stared at her suspiciously. Noticing her action, Anten silently turned away, wringing her hands together.

“Anten, what are you doing here? Having trouble with the healing?” Dauma asked bluntly as he watched the two of them try their best to avoid eye contact with each other.

“No, it’s not that. I… need to tell you something.”

“Hm?”

“And Yuu too,” she hastily added, “I just want to say—”

“Ha ha!”

A sudden loud laugh from Kara inside the room interrupted her flow, immediately causing her to clam up and refuse to continue.

“… I think we should move to a quieter place,” Dauma promptly suggested. She quickly nodded in agreement and began to walk away from them at a brisk pace with her back facing them.

So antsy…

The two of them followed her. Eventually, she turned towards another open door and entered the room behind it, and as they entered, she immediately shut the door behind them before continuing in a breathless voice.

“Ummm… uhhh…”

Despite having more privacy now, she still seemed like a nervous wreck, having difficulty even starting what she wanted to say again as the two unflinchingly stared at her, waiting for her to properly speak.

“Wow…”

Yuu quickly commented on the situation with a single exclamation before going silent once again, but deep down, Dauma knew what she wanted to say.

Just like her, huh?

“Take your time.”

“Ok… alright…”

The angel took a deep breath before trying again.

“I just wanted to say… I’m sorry for the way I behaved. To the both of you. I… was wrong.”

“…”

There was a long pause between the three of them before he let out a loud snort.

“That’s it? That’s the big thing you wanted to say? Seriously?” he laughed as her face slowly turned red with embarrassment.

“I… I…”

“And here I thought you were going to announce our disbandment! You had me worried there!”

“… s… shut up!” she stammered, “it’s my first time admitting that I was wrong, alright! I’ve never done this before, so excuse me if I wanted to find the right words to say before saying it!”

Dauma continued to laugh a little more before he cleared his throat and casually spoke again.

“I don’t think you did anything wrong.”

“Huh?”

“You were in the right.”

She shot him with a disturbed look.

“Is that supposed to be a lie? Do you want to spare my feelings? Is that your new nature or what? What is happening?”

“Nothing is happening,” he replied as he shot a genuine expression back at her, “you were right. I should not have helped them after all. Doing that released that thing, and we all had to fight tooth and nail to stop it, so I would say I should have listened to you.”

“…”

Anten was completely speechless. From her silence, it was clear to him that his response had derailed her train of thought, and that she was trying to come up with a good way to counter his point. As such, he focused on the other female in the room.

“Well… Yuu, you have anything to say?”

“Huh? Erm… no…”

“Do you forgive her for treating you badly?”

“… I… don’t know…”

Being put on the spot, the spirit girl was thoroughly conflicted as she tried to come to terms with the apology herself.

“Maybe you should try to convince her too, Anten.”

“… I see. Yuu…”

At his order, Anten recovered from her blank state and began to directly approach her, causing her to instinctively take a step backwards. Seeing this, the angel quickly stopped and remained at where she currently was before continuing.

“… I’m sorry for trying to kill you—"

“Smooth.”

“I mean… I’m sorry for trying to send you to your death!” she loudly corrected herself before returning to her normal tone, “I just… treated you as a replacement for the Mahu villagers this whole time… and well… I shouldn’t have done that. You deserve to live just like everyone else, and I regret having taken so long to come to that decision. I hope… you can forgive me.”

“…”

After silently ruminating on it for a while, Yuu finally stepped forward and slowly nodded her head.

“R… Really?”

“… I… guess…”

“That’s great news!” Anten brightened up, “I truly feel bad about this, so as long as I can gain your trust, that’s good enough for me.”

“…”

Yuu shrugged indifferently before turning to Dauma again, where he had been sporting a smug smirk throughout the whole exchange.

“… I guess that makes me on par with Kara now.”

“Yeah, no,” Anten immediately rebutted him, “she’s still way better than you would ever be, sorry.”

“Ouch.”

The three of them shared a short and quick laugh together. However, even as their problems with each other had been resolved for now, there was still one big issue they had to address, and Dauma was the one to bring it up first.

“The Particles…”

“Right. I’m sorry about that too.”

Now that the awkward forgiving was over, it was time to focus back on their original objective.

“I did get a little sidetracked when I threw my little tantrum, but regardless, I believe we should get back to gathering these Particles.”

“Umm… what… is…?”

“We’ll explain more later, Yuu. For now, we need to get some things straight.”

Standing in front of both girls, Dauma began to announce his plans in a serious and commanding tone, causing the both of them to involuntarily flinch.

“Firstly,” he said, raising one of his fingers up from his closed fist, “as it is still our goal, we must put all our focus into securing the Particles. That means no detours, no side stops and no distractions.”

“… ok.”

“Secondly,” another finger went up, “we must protect the Particles we have, such as Yuu. We cannot send them out for dangerous missions like this again, and even so, we must always look out for them at all times.”

“Umm…”

“Hm?”

“No… nothing,” Yuu quickly mumbled.

“Alright then. Lastly,” he continued, bringing his third finger up, “for the people we find that have somehow gotten a hold of the Particles, we must either convince them to hand them over to us, or… we have to take them by force.”

“Wait, force?” Anten blinked.

“Of course. Why do you sound surprised? Isn’t it the only alternative?”

“Well… I mean…” she looked away and mumbled, “I just assumed… we would find the other Particles by themselves… not by taking them off of other people…”

“Anten.”

He walked and stopped in front of her before looking into her eyes with a determined conviction.

“You’ve seen what happened with Mahu Village. That person, that soldier… I think it’s safe to assume that many of the other Particles we have to find are with people who intend to use them for selfish intentions. And you know they won’t give them up willingly in that case.”

“I know, but…”

“We cannot put our faith in those people. If we try to reason with them, we end up wasting our time. If they are willing to part with them, so be it, but if not… we have to do what we must.”

“…”

Anten did not respond, so to try and convince her, he placed his hands on her shoulders and rocked her gently back and forth, all while keeping his strong gaze on her.

“Anten. That is the only way to deal with them, like it or not.”

“… you’re right.”

She sighed and reluctantly agreed. As much as she was still uncomfortable in accepting that fact, she knew that he was completely in the right.

“I just thought… things would be different after the end. That the people… would have changed,” she muttered in a low tone.

“… no… they won’t…”

Yuu chimed into the conversation with her own opinion, and Dauma grimly nodded in agreement.

“She’s right. They won’t change. That’s why we cannot help them.”

“But…”

She clenched her fist tightly, and her voice began to crack.

“It’s so unfair… even though I’m an angel… damn it…”

As her body trembled, Anten began to shed tears of anger as she softly cursed. Dauma continued to pat her shoulder to try and calm her down, and after a while, Yuu also stepped in and silently put her hand on her back.

“… why can’t I…”

Her sobbing continued as she finally let all her regrets and emotions that she had been holding in for the past few weeks out, and it did not stop until then.