Volume 3 Chapter 40 ACT.75 Leone／Origin (III)
That evening...
The usual family dinner, with all 5 members gathered around.
But Leone seems off.
Her hands, which always out-eat the adults, have come to a stop.
"Leone, what's wrong?"
Her father, worried by her unusual demeanor, speaks up.
Despite being a rare business talent who achieved wealth at a young age, at home, he's just a gentle father.
He strokes his neatly trimmed beard unconsciously as he asks, and Leone forces a smile in response.
"I'm totally fine, Papa."
"You don't have an appetite. Are you feeling unwell?"
Joining their conversation is Leone's mother.
A bit older than her husband, she's a composed woman.
She leans in close to her daughter, placing her right hand on Leone's forehead.
"You don't seem to have a fever..."
Checking Leone's temperature, she tilts her head──it's no different from her normal body heat.
Feeling her mother's concern, Leone gently removes the hand from her forehead.
"I think I just overdid it with the snacks."
"Is it because Dad gave you too much allowance?"
Leone's older brother, 5 years her senior, chuckles at her answer.
"Well, not really, right?"
He mumbles his retort, his words slurred as if the uncomfortable situation is his fault.
He looks to his sister for help, but Leone doesn't have the bandwidth to assist.
"Uhm, no. Thank you for the meal."
With that, Leone quickly gets up from the table.
Before heading back to her room, she whispers to her brother sitting next to her.
"Abel, wait a sec."
Abel, in contrast to Leone, is calmly eating his dinner as usual.
Or so it seems.
Normally a well-behaved child, right now he seems overly calm──unnaturally so, for his age.
"Abel?"
Calling his name again when he doesn't respond, Leone watches as Abel suddenly seems to realize something.
"Ah, oh, Abel... *that's me*..."
"──Ugh!"
At those words, Leone felt an overwhelming sense of dread.
She roughly grabbed Abel's hand and dashed toward her room──the child's room assigned to the two of them.
"Leone!?"
Ignoring her mother's attempts to stop her, she pulled Abel inside the room and slammed the door shut.
Then, she grasped both of Abel's shoulders, staring deeply into his face.
"──Abel, is that really you?"
* * *
"Somebody, help! Help me, *God*!"
As she cried out, something strange began to happen to Abel, who was cradled in Leone's arms.
The gash on his forehead, previously deep and angry, began to heal before her eyes, flesh knitting itself together.
"Huh, what?"
──It was an eerie sight.
She felt a chill run down her spine at the horrifying miracle unfolding right in front of her, one she had hoped would be *divine*.
"Abel?"
Trembling, she called out to her brother, whose wounds were now gone.
"──Oh, hey, sis?"
And just like that, Abel awoke──woke up as if nothing had happened.
Leone's eyes went wide in shock.
She recognized the grotesque form of this miracle.
The Godwin family was pious, and she had heard stories about such wonders from her parents long ago.
They had told her of the Apostle of the God of Truth and Chaos, an enemy to the goddess of hope and order who protected them, possessing a dark, twisted miracle.
This uninvited curse in their world──the existence of the Reincarnator.
And she understood that Reincarnators were *not meant to exist*.
"──It's okay."
In that moment, Leone made a firm resolve.
She would hide the fact that Abel was a Reincarnator.
"Don't worry, I'll protect you, Abel."
She hugged her brother tightly.
No matter what form it took, she had managed to keep him safe.
Leone vowed strongly that she would never let him die again.
"──Abel. I'm Abel, Abel Godwin. Is that right?"
──So she pretended not to hear the whisper that tickled her ear.
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