6.6.

“Master, let’s go,” Reese was dragging Sequencee along the new interlocking-brick streets.

“Reese, the hell are you doing?”

While Reese and Schwii were bickering, Sequencee dragged his luggage into a random room which he chose to be his own. Of course, the main intent was to escape from the fight between the girls. Carnage hath cometh– and he hadn’t the energy or mind to deal with it.

Sure, it was a petty option to chose to flee, but if he got involved, he was sure to make things worse.

Just.. who would’ve thought that the moment he finished laying out his clothes on the bed, a shadow swallowed him whole. The next thing he knew it, he was out somewhere in an alley.

“A night walk.”

“I don’t think it’s really a good idea to go on a stroll when you’re obviously trying to antagonize my fiances’.”

“Not my intention. Let’s go.”

“Reese, let’s go back.”

“Master, can’t you spare some time so that it’s just the two of us?”

“Should I order you to stop acting like you like me by default? Is this some kind of side effect from becoming a homunculus?”

‘There’s no way she’s going to just say she now likes me right?’

Sequencee never really understood Reese. If he had to give a quick impression of her, it would be somewhere along the lines of a female philanderer.

“It’s part of it. We’re not going to the grave site, just a quick walk around the block.. actually, hold on, let’s go somewhere farther away.”

“What if Schwii and Leticia gets lost trying to find me? What are we going to do then?”

“You can push the blame on me. There’s a good reason why I’m dragging you out like this.”

“What good reason? Your timing is off. Can’t you tell me about it some other day?”

“Just follow me.”

They came to a spot where the streets met a construction zone. Only the foundation had been laid, the rest was hollowed.

“No better opportunity to change your mind when you’re weak, right?” Reese muttered.

Sequencee stopped following her. She turned around to meet his change.

“Reese. I order you to stop what you’re trying to.. “ he found the words stuck in his throat.

“There are many ways one can go against their own masters.”

Her golden eyes riveted Sequencee in place.

‘What the hell are you trying to do..’

===

“Do you think Reese has a thing for Sequencee? Like really? Of all people?”

Rushing down the streets, Leticia complained.

“Then she must die here.”

“S-Schwii?! There’s no way that’s a viable solution right?”

“I’m joking– but that’s a good representation of how I feel about her right now. Just.. what the hell are those two up to! Why can’t Sequencee do something about this!”

‘Schwii has really lost it..’

It was the first time seeing Schwii in this sort of disarrayed state. Normally, she would be able to keep her cool and speak in rethorics.

‘Maybe I’ve lost it too..’

Leticia should’ve paid more attention to Sequencee. If she hadn’t left him alone, then perhaps this wouldn’t have happened.

If Schwii could act in this way towards a girl trying to get close to Sequencee, what would be Leticia’s reaction if the intent happened to be directed at her in the future?

‘A lot of trouble..’

Trust and understanding is without a doubt, an essential ingredient to keep their relationship in harmony. Her future was going to be a storm– as the weakest one among the three girls, her only advantage was being pitied for.

‘That’s just.. depressing.’

“But it’s the truth.. isn’t it?”

“Come again?”

“Ah, no. I was just talking to myself,” Leticia panicked.

“Should we split up?” Schwii looked into one of the dim alleys.

“Split up? That.. then how do we let each other know that we found him?”

Conveniently, Sequencee happened to pass Evelyn his own pendant, the one which allowed communication between him and Schwii. To rub salt onto the wound, Iona wasn’t around.

Schwii realized just how significant Iona was to her life.

Both of them kept racking their brains to come up with a solution when a pillar of lightning shot into the sky.

The sparse crowd paused and turned to look.

“”THERE!””

===

“What if I said I knew the black knight personally?” Her golden eyes were like the sun in the darkness, yet contained within it was an eeriness that couldn’t be put into words.

“...”

The intensity of the lightning in his hands grew. There was no way Reese hadn’t noticed, she just didn’t think of it as a threat.

“I didn’t even know I was being manipulated, silly, right?”

“So what are you trying to get at?”

‘She’s manipulating me.. is she? How did I even come to trust someone like her?’

How much of it was from himself, how much of it was from her? All this time, she had been this enigmatic existence on the tightrope of light and dark.

“You probably don’t remember, but you’re being manipulated too. Or.. should I say, was.”

“Reese, be concise. Don’t drag things and make it confusing for me.”

“Sure. You lost your memories, simple as that. Ever wonder why you can’t remember the time period right after Estia got destroyed and when you entered the children’s welfare home.. what was it? Mane’s Home?”

Trauma had been the excuse Sequencee gave himself for the memory lost. All that he remembered back then was his depthless loathing of himself. Self-incrimination for being a demon lord, the existence that brought death and misery to people everywhere– that was the existence he was– the existence he believed himself to be.

“So you’re saying it’s your doing?”

“I think it is, I can’t be too sure myself.”

“What do you even mean by that?”

“My memories have also been scrambled. After I was reborn as a homunculus, these fragments started to bubble up to my consciousness and hey, I’ve met you before. The ‘true one’, which you know as the black knight, told me to take care of you.”

‘Did that ever happen?’

There was nothing familiar about this girl in front of him. As someone so consequential, no part in his mind did he remember having met her.

“So you’re saying that you can erase memories?”

“I can’t. The most I can do is turn the memories into detached pieces. But even then, it’s not like you forget, because our memories would become fragments in the natural course of time. I don’t know how the ‘true one’ did it, it’s not supposed to work.”

“Why are you telling me this now?”

“Just letting my master know who I am,” Reese smiled.

“You said you know the black knight personally.”

“She’s the founder of the Savior’s religion.”

‘She? The black knight is a ‘she’? The founder?’

“But it’s been years since I last saw her. She hasn’t made an appearance at the yearly gathering since two years ago. Before that, she hung out at our headquarters,” Reese said, her black hair swaying to the night breeze. “As for how she was able to become the founder, or for what purpose, that I don’t know. All I was taught from the religion was to treat humans, demons and beastkins as equals.”

Sequencee took in a deep breath. He found himself free from her cognitive restraint, he lowered his eyes to look at the ground.

“You know I’m quite mad right now.”

“Yup.”

“Of all times, you just had to tell me about it now? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“It’s completely up to your interpretation master–” Reese twisted her body.

A fist was thrown in her direction, an explosive gust created a shockwave in the air.

Lightning crackled, a lightning spear manifested.

A fact like this should’ve been revealed when they were together with the heroes. Not when Sequencee was preparing himself to face his mother’s grave.

The lightning spear spun diagonally.

Reese, again, swivered her body to dodge. Connecting the chain of momentum, Sequencee brought it down. The lightning charge of the spear crackled, electrical spark hit her body, her movements dulled.

Sequenccee turned his spear around.

Black shadow globs shot up from the black puddle below, sacrificing itself to block the attack.

He retreated a few steps backwards. The blob melted back into the shadow, Reese stood there unscathed.

“I hate you.”

Reese smiled. “So be it master. If that’s what it takes for your happiness, I’ll gladly oblige by that.”

A blinding white thunderbolt struck down from the sky. He charged in with his spear ready..

Reese, completely immobile from the after effects of electrocution fell forward with smoking rising from her body.

Sequencee stabbed the spear into her chest. Another wave of strong current coursed through her body, blood poured from her mouth like an overflowing vase.

Sequencee reigned victorious, Reese dangling before his spear. The battle had ended yet..

The spear of condensed lightning faded into nothing, Reese flopped to the floor, unmoving.

‘What..’

This scent of ripe blood, the victorious puddle of bright red, his hands and clothes dripping in her blood.

“Ah.”

An inexplicable sense of regret swallowed his consciousness.

It was at this point he realized–

He had killed someone.

Right?

No.

It was true he overreacted. It was true that he could’ve settled it in a less than violent manner. Reese told him that because she had something to share, because she trusted him.

“Reese..”

There was no response from the corpse, the blood continued to spread.

“Reese! Stop fooling around!”

‘She’s not dead, she can’t be dead..’

There were no signs of a soul sublimating from her body, that meant that she was still within her own body.

Sequencee stood there, hesitant, confused. Every second that passed, he could feel the crushing pain in his heart expand.

He waited, and waited some more– hoping that time would reverse and she would hope back to life– after all, she was a homunculus, right?

–But had anyone said that a homunculus was an immortal existence?

After shocking her with over a thousand volts of electricity, could he be certain that she was alive?

‘Think.’

Reese was a blob. A blood slime.

‘There’s no way she’d die so easily.’

Time compressed to an eternity, analyzing the situation and comparing it to whatever memory he knew–

‘Why.. at this time would she even tell me something so important?’