“Hide…?”
Giovanni lifted her head.
“I don’t want to live hiding…”
She said it straight.
“I don’t want that.”
Tears gathered and fell, but she didn’t look away; she delivered her will head-on.
“I don’t want to be pointed at as a monster. I want to live among people, together with people. Where there’s sunlight—feeling the sun with my whole body, feeling the wind—living proudly and freely.
By your side…!”
“By your side, standing with you.”
At a time when the Church was on the rise, she had spent decades crouching in the shadows, dodging the public gaze, terrified of the day her true nature would be exposed.
Jioh had thought about it countless times.
When will I be free?
When, exactly?
A monster past its rapid infant growth grows excruciatingly slowly. A body that would not…