✔ from this unending abyss (The Assassin and the Trial)「 karmagisa 」

Resolute: Promise of Eternity

“I-Iʼm sorry!”

The three of them was taken-aback by the intruderʼs response. Turns out, the one who was watching them was a child— a scarlet haired and azure eyed orphan who resided in the small alleyway beside Melancholia.

“I didnʼt mean to go near your place! Please donʼt hurt me, ojou-sama!” the little girl spoke in hushed tones, her knees trembling as she looked down as if she had done an unforgivable sin. “I promise Iʼll work for you! Iʼll work hard everyday! Please donʼt hate me anymore! Please donʼt send me back to Tai Hen-sama!”

“Hush dear. Weʼll never hurt you, okay?” Shin caressed her hair in a soothing manner, while Alice and Naru embraced her from behind. “It looks like youʼve been to a horrible place. Donʼt worry, youʼll never go back there again.”

“Really, ojou-sama?” the redhead asked with a hopeful expression.

“Yep! Now stop crying, okay?” the girl nodded, wiping her tears.

“My name is Alice,” Alistair started as he broke the hug. “That one over there is Naru, and Iʼm his new best friend.”

Nakaru crossed his arms and glared playfully at the latter. “Who said I agreed to that?”

“Eh~”

Needless to say, Shin was perplexed. Aside from the fact that the girl clearly ran away from an orphanage and got sold to a pervert pedophile, the girl resembles a lot like Karma and Nagisa. She might have to let them know about this phenomenon. Seriously though, sometimes she doesnʼt know what was happening to her life anymore eversince she met the gang. But one thingʼs for sure, she wonʼt ever trade it for the world.

“Now, we never knew your name.”

The small girl looked up shyly and muttered, “Karuna.”

“Ne, Naru.” the said boy looked at Shin, who was wearing a euphoric expression. “Remember when I said maybe you could find a little sister too while you were at it?”

“Yes?”

“Well you might have just got one.”

—・—

Three months later ;
Akabane Manor ;

KARMA

“Akabane Nakaru, you come back here this instance!”

I could hear their bickering going on from upstairs to the kitchen.

“Papa, help me! Naru clearly lost the game, so he must do the dare!”

“But 'pa! I donʼt want my face to become Runaʼs personal sketchpad!”

I just shook my head in disbelief while proceeding on cooking breakfast. True enough, the house couldnʼt get any livelier ever since we took young Karuna into our home.

If we didnʼt know any better, Karuna could have easily been our lost child due to the uncanny resemblance to Nagisa and I. But that didnʼt hinder the fact that we loved her as one of our own, and we would do anything for her to have her best life, especially Naru.

“Now now, what is the matter?” a gentle voice emerged from the living room.

The two immediately behaved themselves. “Nothing, mama.”

“Come on, you two. Could you kindly prepare the table for breakfast?” Nagisa smiled as the two obliged.

My wife is really unique. She could use her charm to make everyone do what she wants them to do and nobody would suspect a thing.

“And you,” she muttered in disbelief, facing me as she dropped her calm facade. “I canʼt believe you just let them bicker like that so early in the morning! Their voices could wake up the whole neighborhood! And youʼre supposed to be the father of this family.”

Scratch that. Sheʼs terrifyingly unique. And thatʼs exactly why I love her.

I flashed a lopsided smile while pulling her for an embrace, my chin resting on her shoulder. “Iʼm sorry, Nagi-Nagi. Forgive me?”

She sighed in frustration. “Ugh, why canʼt I ever say no to you?”

“Because you love me, of course,” I said, smiling triumphantly. Nagisa just rolled her eyes in response, but an amused smile rested on her porcelain face.

Just then, a rustling of utensils interrupted the moment.

“Can I be the first to say, EW?! Why were we blessed with such cheesy parents again, Runa?”

“Hey, I actually find them very sweet, Naru.”

Kids.

One moment theyʼre shouting their lungs out, then the next thing you know, theyʼre conspiring against you.

“My naughty beloved children, clean up,”

But unknowingly, they became my pillars. The light in the darkness that kept me from being happy with Nagisa. The reason for my endless triumph against my misery. And the ones who saved me from that unending abyss.

I will give them everything I never had when I was all alone.

I will keep them safe from our past rendezvous,

even if it meant keeping things from them.

I will never trade them for anything.

I will love them unconditionally,

and keep them from going into the darkness I once belonged.

And I promise this, even after death.

【 e n d. 】