Volume 3 Chapter 42 ACT.77 Leone／Origin (V)
"Haa, haa, haa!"
Leone finally reached home just as the day was on the brink of vanishing.
Avoiding that shortcut had made the journey longer than she'd ever anticipated.
"Mama, is she mad?"
Leone, who was always scolded by her mother to return before sunset, felt a bit nervous about the impending lecture.
But as she turned the corner and her house came into view, she abruptly halted.
──The lights in the house were off.
She scanned her surroundings.
The town street, mostly shrouded in darkness as the sun had set, began to glow with various lights spilling from homes.
Yet, not a single light shone from her house.
A deep, dark night had firmly settled over it.
Her heart thudded in her chest, thump, with a sense of dread.
Something felt wrong.
Her instincts were ringing like an alarm, warning her not to go inside.
──But still.
"Mama, Papa, big brother"
That was her home.
The place where her family was waiting.
"──Abel"
That's why she had to go──or rather, she had to return.
For now, she had no other place to be but with her family.
With trembling steps, she approached the house and reached for the door.
She quietly opened it without making a sound.
The remaining rays of the setting sun cast a dim light behind her into the dark house, piercing the darkness with a streak of vermillion.
"Ma...ma?"
She called out in a small voice, but there was no reply.
Taking a step, Leone entered the house.
"Papa?"
She called out for her father, who should have been home from work, but her words echoed back empty.
She walked through the dark entrance and made her way to the dining room.
She believed that there, as always, her mother would be preparing dinner and her father would be waiting at the table.
"Big brother?"
She called for her brother who should have been waiting for her, but there was no sign of him.
A bit of a tease, yet always gentle and shy, he should have been there waiting.
Trusting this, she stood at the entrance to the dining room.
──Inside, something made a sound.
Someone was in the dining room.
Leone slowly opened the door, calling out the name of her last family member.
"Abe──"
The first thing that reached her ears was the sound of water.
But this wasn't just any water sound.
It was the refreshing, squelching noise that hinted at devouring juicy fruit.
And when her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, the scene that unfolded before her was...
"────l?"
──Red.
Red. Red. Red. Red. Red.
Red. Red. Red. Red. Red.
Red. Red. Red. Red. Red.
Red. Red. Red. Red. Red.
Red. Red. Red. Red. Red.
Red. Red. Red. Red. Red.
Red. Red. Red. Red. Red.
Red. Red. Red. Red. Red.
In a room where the crimson evening sunlight failed to penetrate, a vivid and sinister red still thrived.
And at the center of that red sat...
"Welcome home."
Abel was gnawing on something with a crisp, squelching sound.
"I've been waiting, but I got so hungry I just couldn't hold back!"
Squelch.
As he munched on what looked like a round, oversized fruit, he continued with a smile.
"Ah, Abel?"
"I'm sorry, I tried really hard, but it seems like I just can't be *Abel* after all..."
Next to him was another pair of something that looked just like what he was eating.
The truth of those items──
"My name is not Abel, it's *Shigi*."
The moment she realized they were the heads of her beloved family, her consciousness flickered and faded away.
"I was the Reincarnator, Asamine Shigi, *Leone*."
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