The sun still burned low in the sky, as if refusing to die out. Its heat lingered — stifling, clinging to the skin.
But this was no longer an ordinary afternoon.
Before them, the Mathers estate garden had become a field of corpses.
Cultists.
Shirtless, hoods torn off, limbs broken.
Scattered across the paving stones, the bushes, the flowers — all now splattered in red.
Rem and Guts kept moving.
Slowly.
Then, in the center of the courtyard, Rem suddenly stopped.
Guts continued on for a few steps before noticing.
She wasn't moving anymore.
Frozen.
Hands trembling. Eyes vacant.
He turned his head.
There, off to the side… a shape.
A familiar silhouette.
Guts stopped too.
Ram.
Lying face down.
Her maid uniform torn in places.
Several knives stabbed into her back.
Her body didn't move.
Her pink hair, tangled, trailed in the warm dust of the stones.
No sign of struggle.
No scream.
She was just there.
Like a doll drained of its voice.
Rem stepped forward.
One step.
Then another.
And suddenly… her legs gave out.
She fell to her knees.
Breath shallow.
Hands to the ground.
Her eyes were wide open, but saw nothing.
Ram's lifeless figure stood just a few meters away.
Rem reached out, as if she could still touch her.
As if that one gesture could bring back what had been taken.
No tears came.
Not right away.
Just a breath.
Broken.
Then a whimper.
A ragged murmur.
A name, repeated, trembling, unable to pierce the silence.
— "Ram…"
Her forehead touched the earth.
And finally… the tears came.
Guts stood behind her, unmoving.
Watching.
Saying nothing.
He had seen this scene before.
Too many times.
A body on the ground.
A scream too late.
Tears that changed nothing.
He remained still, a massive shadow before the world's injustice.
He didn't know Ram.
But he knew that pain.
So he let her cry.
Without shame.
Without comment.
The way you let someone mourn the dead.
Rem collapsed to her knees. Her cry, muffled at first, finally tore through the air like a wound.
Rem (screaming):
"WHY?! WHY HER?!"
She threw herself onto Ram's body, shaking her as if refusing to believe.
Rem:
"Ram! Ram, answer me! Wake up! It's me… it's Rem!"
Nothing.
Ram's face stayed frozen. A look of shock etched into her features forever.
Dust in her pink hair. Blood pooled in the folds of her uniform.
Rem (shattered):
"You promised me… You said you'd always be there…"
(Pause, then a scream)
"YOU PROMISED, RAM!"
She suddenly stood. Her eyes turned to Guts — and something in her changed.
Rem (voice harder):
"Ever since you came… nothing's been right."
Guts said nothing. He looked at her. Calm. Grim.
Rem (stepping forward, trembling with anger):
"The day you set foot in that mansion, everything changed!"
(Pause)
"You brought her here, didn't you? That thing… that Whale… that Cult! It's because of you they came!"
She screamed. Her voice cut the air.
Rem:
"You brought war with you! Blood! Death!"
Guts still didn't move. He listened.
Rem:
"We had a life! It was simple, it was fragile, but it existed! And you… YOU came, and now look!"
She pointed at Ram's corpse.
Rem (crying, roaring):
"SHE'S DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!"
Silence.
She hit him. Weakly. Then again. And again. Blows of despair.
And Guts, as he felt her fists, remembered. Another hand. Another scream. Another world.
He endured it. Without a word.
Rem (exhausted, voice hollow):
"I've lost everything… So why am I still here? Why wasn't it me?"
A long silence. Only her ragged breathing. Her trembling body.
Guts finally raised his eyes.
Guts (deep, rough voice):
"You're not wrong."
He stepped forward. Slowly. Not toward her. Toward the mansion door.
Guts:
"Since I came, nothing's gone right. But it's not over."
He stopped. Didn't turn around.
Guts:
"So do what you want, Rem. Stay. Scream. Hate me. That's fine."
(Pause)
"But me — I'm opening that damn door."
He placed his hand on the handle.
Guts:
"Because I want to see what's left to save."