Qualia simply analyzed in great detail how the beast people siblings had no more doubts on their faces as they faced each other.
“…Ina. Are you really Ina?”
“…Yes.”
Ina also believed the being in front of her was her brother, and tried to get closer.
The knights and Spirito stopped her, so she could not advance any further, but her eyes stayed on Liebe.
Those were definitely the eyes of his little sister. The little sister that cared for her big brother when she was little.
“I never thought I would speak to you again, big brother. But there’s so much I can tell you… I write in my diary every day too.”
“…There’s one thing I want to know first.”
But Liebe smiled slightly, as if convinced from the start.
“Ina, you escaped that cage and survived, right?”
“…Yes. I wish I escaped with you.”
Qualia turned to the knights blocking Ina’s path.
“Request that you release your protection. Ina making contact with Liebe will be beneficial.”
“But…”
From the knights’ point of view, the being in front of them was still the most wicked hatred. Telling them not to mind it was impossible.
But as he looked at the knights guarding Ina, Liebe was not disappointed, he was relieved.
“…I never thought I’d see humans protecting Ina.”
Humans were always the enemies of Ina and Liebe.
Any time there were humans around Ina, they were violent, took her away from Liebe, and took her freedom.
But what about the humans Liebe was seeing?
They pointed their swords at him to protect Ina. None of them were hurting her.
Not to mention the one closest to him, Qualia, who jumped into the fire by getting inside the ghost. There was never a human who would do that before.
As Liebe saw these humans, the ice inside him melted.
But of course, even if it did not…
“Big brother, your body…”
Liebe’s body gradually turned transparent.
The courtyard behind him was visible, as if seen through a filter that was Liebe.
“…My strength is slipping… Am I close to disappearing?”
“Is he… Leaving this world?”
Qualia also reached the same conjecture as Kernel.
To begin with, ghosts were masses of distorted magic energy, mutated by boundless emotions of hatred. Liebe became a ghost due to his sadness and despair over his sister’s supposed death.
Now that the despair that was at its source was gone, the existence of the ghost that was Liebe was beginning to weaken.
But not all doubts were gone from Liebe.
Even if he crossed through that despair, there were still enough misgivings about the future to hold the form of the ghost.
“…But I will still kill humans. I won’t stop the holy war.”
Liebe then began to turn transparent faster, as those ominous words hung a little heavy in the air.
“I’m the leader of Azure Skies. I carry the hatred of the scattered beast people… I can’t turn back by myself at this point.”
“Is it the fate of spirits to be attracted to the souls of the dead?”
Said Kernel sarcastically, and next to him, Spirito spoke angrily like the point of a spear.
“You better realize it already! That terrorism just worsens the position of beast people! Do you have any idea how much suffering that has caused Ina!?”
“That’s what a human who doesn’t know beast people says.”
Liebe’s anguished face faintly shook. The being called a ghost was starting to become unstable.
“In this world where people like the ones from the Truly Wonderful Fair Skies Church exist… For people like us to face tomorrow without worries… For Ina to live in a fair world… Humans need to be yanked from the throne atop the food chain…!”
Said Liebe, as he mustered up his voice and glared at the humans crowded in front of him.
Even if Ina was alive, humans were still Liebe’s natural enemies.
He could not leave his dear sister alone in that rotten world.
“…Big brother, it’s all right.”
Ina’s words, as she did her best to speak up, were like a light on Liebe’s anguished face.
“When… You were gone, and I was lucky to escape the Fair Skies Church… I thought the same as you… Humans were like demons that took everything away from us.”
For a moment, Liebe pictured the young Ina that was in his memories.
He saw Ina when they were captured by the Fair Skies Church, with wounds and bruises on her body, and the sunken eyes of a dead person.
But that lasted only a moment. Her smile that was like a morning sun erased that shadow.
“But now… I feel like trusting humans more. I’ve met people like that after I got separated from you, big brother…!”
“…”
Ina and Liebe’s eyes pointed at one person. The boy named Qualia.
“…Big brother, we only looked at bad humans… Surely.”
“But still, this world is filled with bad humans. They might catch you and cause you pain again. And you might be the one losing your head next time.”
“Maybe… Living can be this painful… But I still want to live among these people.”
She cried like that day when she tended to his wounds, but also smiled like when he told her the food she made was tasty.
“…Big brother, come this way… You’ll stop thinking about killing all humans…”
“…I can’t do that.”
After a moment of silence, Liebe took distance from Ina.
The body shaped by the ghost was turning transparent, and the dark matter behind it was becoming unstable.
It seemed distant, as if going somewhere.
“Big brother… Where are you going!?”
“…In a not too distant future, I’ll disappear… I’ll reach a conclusion before then. Will I kill humans until the final moment of my existence, or…”
“Liebe, request understanding.”
Qualia detected something in Liebe’s paranoid expression. A smile that could not make its way out of the darkness of his doubts.
“Qualia will create Ina’s ‘tasty’.”
“…”
“There is no need for you to take that sort of action.”
Qualia’s words gave just a little bit of comfort to Liebe.
And finally, no one could see Liebe anymore. It was not Stealth, he was truly gone from that place.
And as he went, he left one true thought behind.
“To think I would hear Ina say she wants to live with humans…”
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