The servants of the Teirah residence warmly received the two, who were soaked wet. Wiping their body with a towel, they warmed themselves at the fireplace, which brilliantly burned. They drank a whole cup of warm stew. After finis.h.i.+ng warming up themselves, the two parted ways.

One went to her room in order to make clothes for her friends.

The other one went to the room he was borrowing.

“Hey, Willian-kun. Could we talk for a bit?”

“Yes, of course.”

Willian was at his room. Louran Von Teirah was standing outside the room. Without any intentions of entering inside it, he was leaning onto the door.

“Let me give my thanks for having helped Lutogarde today. Thank you.”

“No, by thinking of how I am being looked after by you, doing this is only the obvious.”

“Ahaha, is that so?”

“Yes.”

The two fell in silence for a moment. In situations like that, Willian couldn´t carelessly open his mouth. Silence was golden; it wasn´t good for the [weaker side] to be the first to open the mouth.

“Lutogarde is smart, isn´t she? With how smart she is, she would have been useful if she was a man.”

Louran´s mood suddenly changed.

“Most of what that girl said is correct. I also won´t deny that. You are being used by the Teirah family, and you are using the Teirah family. It is a win-win situation that is extremely easy to understand. A wonderful interrelation. Let´s leave our emotions outside this. This is business. As long as it remains true, I will be [expecting] from you. I definitely want you to answer my [expectations].”

Even the very gentle Louran was like this under the cover of his pretense. Now that Willian knew about it, hiding it was unnecessary. Without his facade, Louran was much bigger and much more twisted than Willian had imagined.

“I understand.”

Willian could only say that. Because of many reasons, he couldn´t win right now. It was fine even if he was caught into a fight he couldn´t win. As long as he didn´t fight, he wouldn´t lose.

It was because of the mask. To the point of surprise, Willian was able to hold himself back in a collected manner and avoid fighting a war he couldn´t win. He was able to define the situation with composure. Without even noticing, Willian, whose mind had been chaotic these last few days, had gone back to clarity.

“”It is fine if I win another day. If I win in the end, it will be my win.””

Willian was showing a very dark smile. Louran, who was at the other side of the door, was probably having the same expression on his face. It was a relations.h.i.+p which both ate each other in their own interest.

Who was going to be the one eaten in the end?

At this night which Willian used a mask for the first time, he had a dream.

A black haired boy was hugging his legs and crying. There was a crowd of corpses in his surroundings calling for him in voices of resentment, and their hands would try to strangle him. Filled with malice, their bodies burned in hate. In the midst of that eternity of hate, the boy cried.

And only a single person, only a single corpse protected him.

“It´s alright, you are not wrong. It is not your fault.”

The girl spoke to him in a gentle voice. She had the same hair and the same eyes the boy had.

“Really? Is it really not my fault?”

The dead girl nodded with a smile. The surroundings booed. Even though the voices filled with resentment felt like they would crush them, the black haired girl protected the boy from everything.

Willian, who was wearing his mask, was simply watching the spectacle. At first glance, it looked like a love themed play, but…

“…glare*” (ギリィ)

But to Willian Rivius… to Al, which of the two was the salvation? Which of them was appropriate to him? Was it the corpses? Was it the girl? Was it destruction? Was it salvation? Was it hatred, was it love?

“Stop kidding me!”

Willian extended his hand. The black haired girl glanced at him and smiled. The corpses at the surroundings noticed that and charged at Willian as if he had become the target in the place of the boy.

“Gh!? I-I…!”

The wave of dead people engulfed Willian. When he was about to have his consciousness blown away, at the very last moment, the black haired girl embraced Willian. Just like she protected the boy, she was protecting Willian from the cl.u.s.ter of malice; she protected him from the crowd of corpses filled with hatred that burned his body.

“…”

The girl didn´t talk. She wouldn´t say words of comfort just like she was saying to the boy. Even though he wanted her to say something, even though he wanted to talk with her, no words came from her mouth. All she would give him was her smile and nothing more.

“Nee-san!”

At that instant, Willian´s world turned upside down.

“Hah, hah, hah, hah…”

A nightmare. It was a strange dream he didn´t even know if it was really a nightmare.

Willian got out of the bed. He could see from the reflection of the mirror that his whole body was covered in sweat and his appearance was very unsightly.

“Gulp*”

Willian gulped. He didn´t know what happened, or what meaning it had, and neither did he understand any of it. All he could feel was a feeling of happiness that was difficult to resist from and discomfort mixed up in a complex way.

“… What a wretched appearance.”

Willian moved his hand to his mask. There was no way he could show this face in front of people. Because he is performing as Willian Rivius, it definitely couldn´t be said that his current situation was fine.

“…”

Willian saw the world through the mask. His sight was being limited; with the outside world being covered in darkness and his view being restricted by the thin boundary, Willian was able to return to normal.

“..Fuh.”

Willian regained his calmness. He needed to go through his daily routine. Moving his heavy body, he stood up.

“Really, what has been happening to me recently.”

Being amazed at how his mental state was unstable, he shook his head, saying “good grief”. Then, he left his room in order to partake his routinely training.

Right now, Willian didn´t know that from now on he would have to convive with this nightmare for the eternity. (TL note: I don´t know if “eternity” would be in its literal meaning or that it was about him having to convive with that for the rest of his days. The word used is eternity, so I used it.)