Cristo Agersia (End)

[24 February 774/Backstory]

After Dorothy left the table leaving Cristo and Azrael alone, Cristo couldn't help but feel ironic for sitting across from Azrael, the one who had to lead his father figure's death.

Azrael gazed face to face at Cristo as the latter also stared back impassively.

Cristo, who had encountered many obstacles alongside Dorothy, had already accepted her as his master but would never accept Azrael as his ally.

"Hey, Cristo,"

Azrael's voice was different from when Dorothy was here.

The tone he uses was more demanding and ruthless, as if it was like a warning for Cristo.

The latter quickly noticed Azrael's change of tone and turned his head upwards as he bravely met Azrael's gaze.

There was something serious about Azrael in which that could cause unnerved towards Cristo.  

".. If you-- by any chance, try to betray Dorothy or defy her..."

It was as if they were bound to be enemies that the tension between them began rising hastily.

Azrael's gaze sharpened. It was like his eyes represented the way he felt towards the only underling Dorothy had.

His tone sounds more and more threatening when he finally exclaimed in his last sentence,

"--I won't hesitate to kill you."

Despite the threatening atmosphere around him, Cristo didn't express anxiety or fear as he outwardly looked at Azrael with the same nonchalant expression.

'Ha...'

But in his mind, he feels the urge to laugh in a ridiculing manner at Azrael's behavior.

'Oh? Now you're really siding with my master?'

He thought bitterly while looking at Azrael's dark eyes.

Cristo was not at the slightest surprised by Azrael's threat because he somehow knew that Azrael had a deep connection/relationship with Dorothy.

Cristo sighed deeply while focusing on the conversation he had and turned his head towards Azrael as he met the deep dark eyes that held no life.

".. It depends."

Cristo responded to him bravely and Azrael's eyebrows twitched with a slight frown at the answer.

Cristo knows better than anyone that, he, himself, would not betray Dorothy by no means.

But the reason he was saying that was because he would like to play around with Azrael's attention and emotion.

Azrael's glaring expression slowly turned into a disdainful expression.

"... Dorothy and I saved you, and this is what we get? Quite a surprise."

Azrael smiled, ridiculing Cristo's presence while exclaiming his sentence sarcastically.

Cristo subconsciously slightly widens his eyes as he was surprised by the fake loyalty Azrael shows that he put much effort into it.

The stunning impression he had was to the point that it sounds foolish to be true.

While holding back those thoughts, he looked at Azrael and say,

".. It's not like I'm asking to be saved."

Much to Azrael's dismay, what Cristo said was completely true and Cristo also admits that.

Azrael looked quite annoyed at Cristo's disrespectful behavior towards him.

"... Just so you know, you could die anytime if it were not for Dorothy going to the Central Directive just to fetch you. I don't know exactly what your current condition is though."

Azrael reasoned with him logically as he was oblivious to Cristo's true intention.

Cristo just silently rolled his eyes with Azrael's gaze piercing towards him.

"She's one of the good masters out there that actually cares for their vassals. So be grateful. Because if I became your master and you were my underling, I wouldn't be that forgiving and soft."

Azrael warned about the consequences as he glared at the underling slightly.

Cristo just stayed silent and didn't want to involve himself more in such a pointless conversation.

He already knew that too well as he was aware of that fact.

It was too laughable that Cristo just had to choose the silence as he was like the audience that was watching a play.

' .. It's not me who's going to betray her. It's the other way around.'

He thought while gazing downwards.

-

[8 March 774/Backstory]

When Dorothy explained everything that had happened to Cristo with another information about Azrael being a Directive Special Knight, Cristo didn't hesitate to confess his hatred.

"I don't want to bring that Azrael to the outside world with us. Let's just leave him here or kill him when the time comes and with that woman too that has the name Althea whatsoever."

Dorothy slightly widened her eyes as she was shocked to realize that Cristo deeply poured his emotions into the sentences that were only full of hatred.

At first, she could only listen to what Cristo was exclaiming.

Cristo even said that he had the urge to kill Althea when they fought each other, but he somehow couldn't bring himself to do it for an unknown reason.

With the explanation, Dorothy tries to ask him,

"Then Cristo.."

Dorothy could only give him an apologetic smile as she was also finding the right words to reply to Cristo's statement.

"Let's see... Why can't you kill Althea when you fight her? I'm sure that wasn't because of her being too strong for you, right? If you do want to kill her, you might try your hardest to kill her. But you didn't. With that in mind, can you think of something related to your reason?"

Dorothy asked him carefully.

Cristo averts his eye contact from her after listening to her statement and later sighed deeply when a piece of memories came by through his head.

"The red flowers."

Cristo simply stated.

Dorothy raises a brow as she remembered something the Directive Knight once stated to her.

"... The red flowers?"

Dorothy asked curiously while looking at Cristo who later nods.

"... We were fighting in the garden. I wanted to kill her but... something bothers me."

Dorothy tilted her head with her full attention towards Cristo.

"What is it that bothers you?"

"... She fought me while protecting the flowers. It doesn't make any sense and it made me uncomfortable. I don't like that feeling."

She looked at him in a concerned manner as she carefully asks,

"... Do you still hate Althea?"

With only hearing Althea's name, Cristo quickly grits his teeth in anger and clenches his fist at the frustration.

"I do. I absolutely do."

In his voice, there was only determination and hatred that he gathered.

What makes Dorothy worried the most was that Cristo's indifferent behavior when he's with someone.

When Althea or Azrael was around, he minded the situation so casually and his expression didn't even indicate that he cares about them.

But who would have thought that there are hate and enmity welled up in his heart, fury itself burning him up.

"... I'm ashamed of myself to feel this way."

Cristo muttered bitterly with his hand clenched harder as he was blaming himself for hating someone for what they did long ago.

Cristo couldn't forget about what has happened in the past even though he tries his best to forget it.

It wasn't easy to forgive someone that took the people you cared for away.

"... I think it's alright to hate someone."

Dorothy exclaimed with a friendly smile while looking lightly at Cristo.

Cristo can only look up at her questioningly with a raised eyebrow.

"Why?"

He asked as he was curious about Dorothy's sudden confident statement with this regard.

She smiled tenderly with a spec of confidence.

"Because we're humans."

That simple answer made Cristo realized that humanity is not perfect.

In which if we are all perfect with no struggles then there is no meaning of why we had live.

His lips parted later on form a small smile while looking at Dorothy.

Dorothy's tender smile slowly returned to an apologetic smile as she gazes at the blue sky through the window beside their seats.

"However Cristo,"

She started her statement as Cristo pays full attention to what would she say next.

She just laughs awkwardly.

"... I think I still want to bring Azrael with us."

Cristo's eyes grew wide with the sentence as he looks at Dorothy with open-mouthed and in disbelief.

"Why are you siding him now when our plan is almost complete, Master!?"

Cristo raises his voice a bit to Dorothy. She wasn't bothered by his statement as she still put her apologetic expression.

"... To me, Azrael is like a close friend that I never had. He also good at giving me pieces of advice."

Cristo even thought that Dorothy had turned insane when he heard those sentences.

He gazed deep into her eyes as he was absolutely against the idea and start to think she's crazy.

"... Master, he's going to betray you sooner or later."

Dorothy forms a toothy smile as she raised her hand and gives him a thumb up.

"When he betrays me, that's when we will execute our plan. I assume that they would execute me as well. But we are going to escape that day. I don't want to die and grow old here."

He was taken aback by Dorothy's confident statement.

"If I were to die, then the place where I pass on from this world has to be in the outside world from this kingdom!"

-

[10 April 774/Present Day]

The day of Dorothy's execution and the day where everything will end.

Cristo finally arrived at the basement after running away from his cell and searched through his desk inside his old room as he can only take one thing with him that could make the plan works.

It was a necklace that was given to him when he was still a baby. He slightly clenches gingerly.

"... Let's escape from this rotten Kingdom."

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