"And here we are, back in the moment our fight began," after seeing all of Haruki's core memories play out one after the other, Rose stood unmoving with her nails digging into her sides. "You may not like what I've done, but I have no plans on stopping until I avenge my past."
To her, he was no tyrant, neither was he the saint she'd taken Snow to have been. Instead, watching him be executed for crimes he'd never committed squeezed her heart of all the malice she harbored towards him.
"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Biting down on her lips, she was in the same dubious situation as Haruki once was. "Why would I trust a demon who has done nothing but lie to me so far?"
Knowing full well that convincing her would be no easy task, Haruki snapped his fingers and put them into the seats of a dining table in the abyss. Laid in front of them on a white cloth were two steaming cups of tea and a plate of jellied biscuits.
"You're gonna trust me because I'm asking nothing from you," sliding the cup in front of her, Haruki picked up his own and began sipping on the bitter tea.
'As tasteless as always.' He thought, placing the cup down.
"I'll help you get rid of the curse, and in return, you'll leave me alone," his promise, although inviting, stormed a turmoil of emotions inside her heart.
'He reminds me of the emperor.' Peering at him unblinking, Rose was truly caught with an impossible choice. 'But, if what he's shown me is true, then he's just as tortured by Atlas as me and my brother.'
The land had never been too welcoming of her kind, and the moment a dragon was spotted they were greeted with the killer lance of Michael Arc. Although Haruki wasn't the kindest or the most just, so long as his tyranny was restricted to humans, then why should she really care? After all, they'd taken her freedom, her wings, her body, and soon enough even her brother, then what fidelity did they deserve from her?
"My brother…" Gulping her sorrow, she clutched her heart. "He's dying."
The numbness in her eyes conveyed what she wanted to speak better than her words. Glancing down at the steaming cups, she wrapped her hands around it to warm herself in the freezing cold of the dark abyss.
"I can save him," affected by one of Asmodia's passive abilities, Haruki offered an irrefusable bargain. "But in return, I expect the willing aid of the dragons."
At first, Rose couldn't believe what she'd heard, but as she thought things through, one hitch in the offer pervaded all her thoughts.
"My brother he says he'd rather die than live shackled under a master, be it the Frosts or you, Haruki shin," expecting that response, Haruki already knew what he had to say.
"I said willing aid, didn't I? You won't be bound by a curse or a contract, so long as you don't go against me you'd have absolute say in whether you want to do any tasks I assign you or the rest of your family."
"How would you even save him?" She asked, wasting not a single breath to answer. "He's grown too weak to even breathe properly, it breaks my heart but I see the reaper lying in wait around him."
Looking into her troubled eyes, Haruki could see her imploring her brother to hold onto life. The longer he watched the more of her memories unfolded before his eyes, in the interest of saving time, he offered his hand forward for Roselia to hasten the exchange of memories.
"What?" She uttered, reluctantly offering him her hand.
The moment her skin touched his, a burst of lighting ran through them both. Sharing instantly in a second they knew everything to know about each other. Feeling heavy in the throat from witnessing her disastrous past, Haruki's cheeks were drenched in tears.
"They kill everyone? Eve-"
"Even the children…the emperor's army has relentlessly expanded Atlas's domain, we just so happened to be nesting in their path," drawing her hand away, Rose wrapped them back around the cup for comfort.
"You're not so different Roselia, they used you for war, and kept your brother as a hostage," feeling kinship towards the dragoness, Haruki felt compelled to help her. "Who knows what they would've made you do if you didn't defect on the emperor temporarily."
"Don't scrape the past, I don't wanna remember it," reminded of her crimes, she could once again see blood trailing through her arms.
Having defected against the emperor's army she'd burned them all alive before being forced to stay locked inside the Frost castle. There, being so close to her brother, she was more accepting of the binds holding them in place, but even then if it weren't for the fact that her life was tangled up with the Frost bloodline, she would've killed the dukes and escaped the accursed place.
"How do I know you'll keep your word?" Roselia asked, her mind still scanning through hers and Haruki's memories. "I do not care what you do to the humans, but I do not like defectors despite what my past may entail."
"As I said, I wouldn't make you sign a covenant, a promise is all I can offer," holding his hand forward, Haruki waited for her response.
Although still a bit reluctant, left with no other possible choice to save her brother, she shook his hand as a sign of the promise.
"Don't make me regret this," she mumbled.
"You have my word," Haruki replied.
Consumed by a wave of light emitting from their joined hands, both of them were blinded for a second before their vision went completely dark. Mumbling incoherently to themselves, they both slowly opened their eyes to the light of the sun creaking on them through the window. Laying in two parallel single beds, they turned their head toward each other and found themselves covered in bandages and tucked under warm blankets.
"Are we back?" Asked Rose.
"Depends on what you mean by back, I guess," replied Riley, standing at the edge of their beds. "So, did it work?"
"I think so," Haruki replied, closing his eyes to rest a little.
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