A day had passed, and Dante allowed events to unfold as he simply relaxed. He learned, through Morgana, that there would be a school-wide festival - a winter festival not only to celebrate the first semester but also to "Honor the Departed."
Yes, they were organizing a festival to honor the dead from the Dungeon, who, in this case, were very much alive.
In summary, the festival was orchestrated by the rulers' children, who coincidentally suggested a festival at the end of the semester to "mark the evolution of the youth." Quite convenient, isn't it?
Dante viewed it as one thing: celebrating his death.
So, he decided to embrace the event. Since it was to celebrate death, they would celebrate it in grand style.
In the morning, he handed Morgana all the wolf skins he had managed to acquire, and he gave Valentina Lilith's Horn for her to take to the Dwarf King to make a spear for him. In this case, she would use one of the favors she had saved for the protection of the Dwarven Kingdom.
Yes, Valentina had officially been the protector of the Dwarves for many years. In return, they would offer their services, and she would offer her labor, with Hellsing and herself, if necessary. Of course, no one knew about this agreement. After all, if they knew, Valentina would be associated with the Dwarven Kingdom, which would limit her freedom.
Not that she cared, but now that she had Dante, she didn't want to hear rumors that she and the Dwarf King were "more than friends." There were other reasons, but she didn't bother to mention them to Dante. In fact, he didn't even care. He just wanted a new spear since he didn't have one of his own.
While all this unfolded, a little girl was in her room getting ready. For the past four, almost five months, since Dante had left, she had been trying to go through the days without dwelling too much on what had happened. The contract with Durandal broke in the last month, and then her hopes died.
She heard that the searches had stopped and that Morgana had been completely absent from the Tower for the last month.
She was now getting ready for Herbology class, but she had almost no enthusiasm. She would rather stay in bed all day and not give life to her thoughts. She just wanted to cease to exist.
Sara had already gone through several stages of grief. First, she denied it, using every possible excuse to create a reality in which Dante returned alive. She honestly thought he would open the door at any moment, appear with his gentle smile on his face, and hug her. Sara dreamt about it for weeks, but soon her reality started to crumble with the passing of the first month.
This led to extreme anger. She began to take it out on the people around her, especially Akiko, who became the target of her rudeness, with dubious remarks that didn't truly reflect who she was. This was too much for Akiko, who ended up distancing herself for a few days, but eventually returned.
After all, she couldn't let her childhood friend go through this alone, even when she lost her mother, Sara was by her side, and she decided to do the same.
With that, almost two months later, she began visiting the temples of the church in the City of Kryoris. She became friends with one of the bishops and went every week to "bargain" with God, asking him to bring Dante back, to provide energy to Durandal, and even to show her what she should do.
She would be more devout than ever, but the Heavenly Father never answered her because she had lost her humility when she became completely angry with Elizabeth and now with Akiko. Her punishment was to no longer have a strong connection with God until she redeemed herself for her actions.
Sara didn't go a day without thinking about Dante. Every day, her first thoughts were about Dante. She asked him how he was, if he was okay. Her last thoughts were also about him. She wondered where he was, if he was able to sleep. This brought extreme depression upon her shoulders.
She fell into a deep pit and spent almost the entire third month in bed, barely eating and neglecting her chores. The teachers even talked to the Director to speak with her, but nothing helped.
Lyriana Vortex, Sara's mother, constantly visited her daughter and took care of her health since she didn't listen to anyone. Lyriana didn't understand. She couldn't understand why such a reaction came from her daughter. Love? What was love? She didn't really know, but she couldn't comprehend what Dante had done to make her daughter turn into that.
Did she feel anger towards Dante? Yes, of course she did, but at the same time, she felt a slight sorrow for his death. If Sara's sadness was like this when he wasn't around, what about her happiness? Lyriana wondered for a long time. If Dante were here, would Sara be happy? And what would the level of that happiness be?
Lyriana wasn't an ordinary woman. Her life had always been about ruling, and perhaps her temperament caused the problems she daily avoided with her daughter. She was a good mother, but she couldn't be a good Empress when her daughter was like this. She tried to get information from Morgana, but all she received was her witches responding with one sentence: "She's grieving."
When the contract with Durandal was gone, Sara... Accepted Dante's death. There was still longing or pain, but yes, when Durandal was gone, the feeling of loss quieted down. Her emotions broke completely, and not a single tear fell. Nothing, not even a drop.
Had she moved on? No, on the contrary... Now, she intended to kill anyone who simply mentioned Dante. Anyone who mocked him would die. Anyone who demonized him would die. Anyone who spouted fallacies and lies would also die.
Jeanne tried to bring her back, but concluded that until Dante returned, she wouldn't return to normal. Sara refused to listen to her master in every way and began to act almost like a different person. She trained more and more, and now, she killed anyone in her way coldly, without looking back.
It's scary to think that a girl would come to this point just because of a childhood love, but no one knew what it really was.
Sara was in her room, finishing getting ready in front of a mirror. She looked at her face. She was fine, or at least she seemed so.
Seeing her reflection, she felt slightly bad, remembering that the mirror could catch a view of Dante's bed, where she always got ready and saw him there.
"It sucks to miss you," she commented and looked back at the mirror, adjusting the makeup under her eyes, trying to minimize the dark circles as much as possible.
While focused, she heard knocks on the door and stored her makeup, quickly putting it in a bag and started heading towards the door, opening it and coming face to face with a human girl. She had long black hair cascading down to the middle of her back and a school uniform.
"Akiko, good morning," Sara said with a crooked smile. Every day, Akiko woke up early and went to see how Sara was. She helped her make breakfast and cheered her up.
"Good morning," she said, making a V with her fingers, then entering the apartment.
"You know, using makeup to hide the dark circles isn't working," Akiko teased Sara and held her hand, pulling her and grabbing the bag Sara ended up bringing along and pulling out a sponge.
"Come here, let me fix that," she ordered with a smile, and Sara followed her. She didn't have much of a choice.
"Your mother contacted me," Akiko commented while fixing Sara's dark circles. "What did she say?" She questioned.
"Morgana returned to the tower, with no apparent success," Akiko said with sorrow, and Sara had no reaction. "I figured, Durandal disconnected a while ago."
"It wasn't just Morgana who returned," Akiko said a bit lower, she knew what it meant to mention that woman's name in vain and thought it better not to mention it, as many problems would soon arise.
"What happened?" Sara asked. "The Grand Duchess Scarlet... Cut off the Director's arm, she almost killed him actually. He went into a coma," Akiko reported with sorrow.
"Good for him," Sara said, without remorse or emotion, just pure gratitude. "The cause of this incident was his irresponsibility. Unfortunately, he's still alive," she added, showing zero empathy for the Director. Not that she was wrong, but this was something even Akiko knew was hard for Sara to say.
"Are you sure that's how you feel?" Akiko questioned, but got nothing but "It's still too early to feel happy about an arm being chopped off. If she already knows what happened, get ready for a mass genocide, and I will personally go to her to tell her what I know," Sara said and looked at Akiko firmly.
"They must die, no matter the cost," Sara said, her gaze seemed like an abyss. Akiko was scared, as if she was seeing a demon in front of her. She felt a chill down her spine.
"Sara, what's so great about that boy that you're like this? You're possessed, it's like you're someone else, I hardly recognize you," Akiko said.
"I loved someone, that's what happened. I decided to give myself to someone who gave me what I wanted, gave me something to strive for, gave me a reason to continue. My life was irrelevant until I met him. I had a will to live when I was with him, and that was for a short time, and I'm like this now. You'll never understand, you'll never understand because this is the fault of My Virtue.
Let me be, I'll never get better and I'll only feel good when the guilty are exterminated," Sara said with sorrow and looked into Akiko's eyes.
Sara's possessiveness was starting to get out of control.