“Why the hell……!!”
Why had she come here?
How had she come here?
Why, of all times, had she come now?
The questions chained endlessly together, wrapping around her brain like the serpent Ouroboros. As it devoured its own body and grew from itself, the scales of emotion falling away in the process had become so mangled in shape that even their colors were impossible to distinguish.
“Why now……!”
If only you hadn’t come.
If only the girl hadn’t appeared right now, I wouldn’t have had to give up.
If only you hadn’t come at this exact moment, then I—
“…Great… Warrior.”
I……
“…Piper.”
I wouldn’t have done anything.
Only moments ago, she had tried to wait for someone else to choose because she no longer wanted to make choices herself.
Cowardly.
Weak.
“Ah… It really is you, Great Warrior…….”
And yet, in the end, she had made the decision herself.
Instead of protecting the remains of the family she had yearned for so desperately, she had chosen to hold on to a girl she had known for barely any time at all.
It was truly strange.
There was no way a bond not even two weeks old could outweigh someone she had waited nearly thirty years for.
The existence that proved her entire life could not possibly be so light as to lose against…