Bang!

Roland Rapha Holfort couldn't quite hide the grin on his face as he once again barely dodged the shot from the Saintess Candidate that his old Master found. Though, merely calling her candidate was pretty worthless at this point since it seemed that she already acquired two of the three Saint Relics. Her usually friendly and cute expression had been replaced with a snarl that he had not seen on a woman in quite a long time.

It was obvious to him that the poor girl was no longer in control of her actions and needed a hero like himself to save her!

"Anne! Please stop this! Masked Knight is not your enemy!" And based on the yells from her lovers, they seem to be quite familiar with the change as well. Anne huh? So that was the name of the previous Saint. But why was she so adamant in killing him?

He scoffed at how the Bartfort boy that Mylene had taken as her secret lover stepped between them, as if Roland was too weak to protect himself from a crazed girl with a gun. He chose instead to move away from the child and keep the possessed girl's attention on him. It wasn't like she would ever be able to hi–

"STAND STILL, HOLFORT!" Roland's breath caught in his throat as his body suddenly froze up. He willed himself to move and was almost successful, but the delay in his movement was long enough that the girl was able to line up a shot. He grit his teeth in preparation to catch the round on his arm, but he was saved from having to bother by the Atlee girl.

"Anne! Listen to us!" She called out to the spirit even while deflecting the shots with her armored gauntlets. "This isn't you!"

"HOW DARE YOU ASSUME THAT YOU KNOW ME!" The ghost yelled out. She grunted when the blue haired girl grabbed her from behind and attempted to restrain her. "LET GO OF ME!"

The girl winced and instantly complied to her own shock. The boy then called out to everyone as he and the Atlee girl continued to try to keep themselves between him and the Saintess. "She's using Compelling Voice! Don't listen to her!"

"Not a very easy thing to do, my Lord!" The blue haired girl complained as she tried to find another angle to restrain the enraged girl.

"Anne please! Don't do this! We all love you! Don't let your fury consume you!" Angelica uselessly tried to convince the enraged ghost even as she used her sword whip to throw off the girl's aim.

"LIES! ONLY LEA EVER LOVED ME! ALL OTHERS ARE BETRAYERS!" It didn't seem that anyone knew exactly what she was talking about, based on the way they were glancing at each other. It didn't really matter to him either way.

"HOLFORT, FIELD, SEBERG, MARMORIA, AND ARCLIGHT!" Oho? She has a grudge with his family as well as the other original great houses? Now this is more interesting than just going into an old dungeon! He couldn't help but laugh in excitement when the girl formed a magic sigil on her hand and ran it across the handgun in her other hand, causing it to spark brightly. "ALL FIVE WILL DIE BY MY HANDS!"

"Try it if you can, specter of my ancestor's past!" This was what he wanted! Facing the unknown and prevailing! Saving an innocent maiden from the evil spirit possessing her body! This was what adventuring was all about! "You will not be the one to end my adventures!"

"You're not helping, you masked moron!" He ignored the boy's yells in favor of running headlong into the barrage of magic bullets that now started coming out of the handgun. The bullet came out of the gun like normal but then exploded into a spread of white hot metal after a short distance. The girl really put a spell on the gun's ammunition that changed the way they behaved? Brilliant!

Roland was absolutely having the time of his life! He knew that joining the boy's party was a good idea! As expected of himself!

…

Olivia clutched her head as the empty void around her shrieked and pulsed red. This was not the same thing that happened whenever Anne would take over her body. The usual warmth and love she would feel was completely absent. There was so much anger and sorrow coming from every direction that it was almost choking her.

"Livia, can you perceive me?" Olivia looked around when she heard Anne's voice, the one that she recognized. A platform materialized at her feet and Olivia felt gravity taking hold of her to be able to stand on it. Countless small sparks of blue light suddenly appeared in front of her and coalesced into a girl who looked exactly like her. She was wearing a very ornate white dress that looked like it was ceremonial in nature. The most prominent part of her outfit was the very familiar necklace that she was wearing.

"Anne? What is going on?" From the wince that the other girl gave her, it wasn't anything good.

"I'm afraid that the fragment of myself that is in the bracelet still remembers the betrayal of the others too freshly." Betrayal? By who? When she put on the bracelet, all she remembered happening was a loud scream in her head followed by her blacking out and ending up in this void. She then noticed the spiraling angry red clouds in the far distance.

"Is that her over there?" She pointed at it before quickly holding Anne by the shoulders when she suddenly grimaced and looked like she was about to collapse.

"Yes, her anger. My anger against the ancestors of the ones you now call great houses has not diminished at all." Anne explained with great effort. She raised her hand in the direction of the red clouds and a brick walkway suddenly started forming in front of them. Olivia took the hint and started helping Anne walk across the newly created path.

"What happened, Anne?" She asked as the two of them walked, which was a very strange experience as she knew that this was all literally inside her own mind. "Between them and your Lea?"

"They betrayed us." The identical girl, who was leaning on her shoulder as they walked, bitterly stated. She could feel the emotional pain coming from Anne, but it felt more muted than the one coming from the distance. It was still there, but it didn't hurt as much as it probably did with the other part of her. "After everything we all went through, the adventures, the hardships, the triumphs. Once we united everyone into the Kingdom you see now, they betrayed and killed Lea. And they even banish–they banished me?"

"Anne?" Olivia asked when Anne stopped walking. She narrowed her eyes and pressed her palm on her forehead.

"What did they do to me again?" She muttered to herself, struggling with a memory. "What happened to me afterwards? Why can't I remember?"

"Deep breaths, Anne." She ignored how silly it was to ask a ghost in her mind to perform breathing exercises. Surprisingly, Anne followed her instructions and it actually seemed to work. Was it all mental then?

"Why can't I remember what happened to me after their betrayal?" Anne said in pained confusion.

"Do you think the other parts of you have the rest of the memories?" Olivia asked her. If the Anne they know was only one-third of a whole, then the other two parts may have something that their Anne did not.

"There is one way to find out." The spirit of the Saint's Necklace said in determination. "Come, we go together."

Olivia nodded and promised to herself that she would do her best to help both Annes. "Yes, together."

…

For fucks sake! When the hell did Livia learn how to turn a handgun into a shotgun?! Who even gave her the idea in the first place?!

None of us could get close to Livia's entire frontal area as the threat of getting hit by the tiny molten buckshot she made was too real. That left King Roland, who was laughing, on his own to defend himself from the assaults.

"So, anyone want to talk about how Anne called Masked Knight 'Holfort'?" Clarice asked while inspecting her gauntlets for any major damage. No one seemed to have an answer, so I sighed and decided to let them in on the secret.

"Masked Knight is King Roland in disguise." I told them and nodded at their shocked expressions. "Yeah, I know."

"Why does Anne want to kill the king?!" Clara asked in clear alarm. Control floated towards us and got our attention.

From the context clues Anne had provided from this and other conversations, it would appear that she and her lover were wronged by the ancestors of Prince Julius and his friends. She is now seeking revenge by proxy.

That certainly sounded like it. Jeez, was I ever glad that Julius and the boys were all the way out in Alzer with Marie. Who knew what would have happened if Anne was exposed to them for an extended period of time?

"What do we do now? We can't stop Livia without hurting her." Clara went back to the main issue at hand. We were all equipped to kill monsters, not to subdue someone non-lethally. Clarice might be able to, but I doubt that she would be willing to beat up Livia and Anne.

"No! Don't hurt her!" Hertrude yelled out, getting our attention. We all turned back to the fight and saw that Roland finally decided to take the situation into his own hands.

The bastard tried to slash at her, but Anne used her handgun's butt to block it. She then weaved beneath Roland's arm and got in his face. Anne proceeded to reach out with her other hand and grabbed the king by the throat. With a vicious smile, she chokeslammed him into the stone floor. Far from being incapacitated, Roland just got back up and headbutted her along the way. Anne was disoriented from the hit and the king took advantage by raising his sword for another swing. I was about to throw one of my tomahawks at him when someone else beat me to it.

"Don't you dare!" Clarice roared out as she became an orange blur and parried the sword swing with her gauntlets.

"Away with you!" Angie then followed up by wrapping her sword whip around Roland and throwing him to the far end of the room. I took that chance to run up behind Anne and wrap my arms around her, making sure that her arms were restrained. There was one chance for me to be able to stop her, something that Anne told us about herself a while back.

"Anne! Look at me!" I yelled at her, moving my head over her shoulder. She struggled against me with a growl, trying to get free.

"HOW DARE YOU TRY TO STO–" The words died in her throat when she turned and finally got a good look. "Lea?"

"Do you see me, Anne?" I asked, as she didn't seem to properly notice me earlier.

"Lea." She whispered in disbelief. Anne then grimaced and her expression completely changed.

"Leon!" I blinked at the sudden change in how she spoke.

"Livia?!" I yelled out in surprise, slowly starting to let her go. She managed to take back control? What about Anne?

"Anne and I are trying to calm the other part of her in the bracelet!" She began explaining but looked like she was under great strain. Livia shook her head and held herself against me. "Please buy us time to–NO! YOU WILL NOT STOP MY VENGEANCE!"

Shit! I tried to tighten my grip around her again but Anne slammed the back of her head against my face. I recoiled in pain and that was enough for her to kick me away.

Please keep her in place. I may have a way to restrain her.

Following Control's words, we all moved to surround Anne. Unfortunately, our wonderful ruler had other ideas.

"You all had your chance! I shall be the one to expel this evil out of this innocent maiden!" He yelled out while dashing towards Anne. Innocent maiden? That term didn't apply to either Anne or Livia at all.

"Hertrude! Clara! Angie! We have to keep Masked Knight off Anne!" I called out to the others before glancing at Anne. "Clarice! Stay on Anne and keep her still for Control!"

"You children really think that you are a match for me?" He mocked while easily dodging our attacks. Even between the four of us, we couldn't fight him head on. That was fine, we just had to buy time for Livia and our Anne to snap the other one out of her insanity.

"You won't hurt my love!" Angie roared, her sword being engulfed in fire. I guess she didn't have any qualm against raising her blade against her king if it was for Livia. The heat didn't seem to bother Roland as he defended against both Angie and Clara.

"I knew that there was something wrong with Holfort's king!" Hertrude yelled out while taking pot shots at Roland. As she didn't have as much combat experience as the rest of us, she took on the role of distraction. "Do you really prance around like a child in costume instead of ruling your country? I feel sorry for Queen Mylene."

"Ha! Nice try! Mylene put that all on herself! If she would only let herself fail so I could swoop in and fix everything, then she wouldn't be so overworked!" The mocking tone of his voice woke up something in me that I hadn't felt since the party when Angie challenged Marie to a duel.

"You did that to her on purpose?!" I roared out, Angie and Clara moving aside so I could cross blades with the king. I could see his smile clear as day and I gripped my tomahawks tighter. "So you can make yourself look good if she messes up?!"

"I think that my Lord wants to kill the king now as well." I ignored Clara's jab in favor of chasing Roland after he tried to disengage from me.

"As long as he keeps distracting him, then it's fine!" I heard Hertrude say, but the only thing I could see was the bastard that caused so much sorrow to Mylene.

"Then by all means, come! I will show you the difference between us!" Far from being offended by my words and actions, the shitlord king just spread his arms out in challenge. Fine! Then I was going to make him regret it.

…

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Clarice Fia Atlee winced as she barely blocked another shot from Anne's handgun with her gauntlets. The spell she used against the king was swapped out to one that made the bullets she fired far heavier than they should have been. The downside that she saw was that Anne could not fire as frequently as she normally would without any magical augmentations to her weapon.

It was just good luck that she was so blinded with rage that she didn't seem to remember that she also had a rifle strapped to her back.

"On my love for you and Livia, I shall not let you pass and make this mistake." She declared while keeping herself between Anne and the sounds of combat behind her. She was curious as to why Leon sounded like he wanted to kill King Roland instead, but she assumed that it had something to do with the Queen.

She saw Control's yellow drone fly up behind Anne and smiled. With a swift chop of her hand, Clarice forced the gun to point down onto the floor.

Target locked. Deploying net.

The boxes on the drone's side opened up and a pair of nets shot out to wrap themselves around Anne. "WHAT IS THIS?! I CANNOT MOVE!"

Please do not struggle. That net is made of materials that can withstand forces far beyond you.

"Leon! We got her!" Clarice called out with a smile that became awkward when she saw what her beloved was doing. "You can stop trying to kill the king now."

"Hahahaha! You need years more training to even try to hit me, boy!"

"Fuck you, Shitlord King!"

…

Olivia and Anne reached the source of the red clouds and saw that it was indeed another Anne. She was identical to the girl at her side, save for having a bracelet on her wrist instead of the necklace around her neck. She smiled at the strained look on her face, knowing that the people she loved were keeping her from making a terrible mistake.

"What do we do?" She asked her Anne in worry.

"This is still your mind, Livia." Anne said confidently, not taking her eyes off her other self. "Imagine something that can restrain her."

Oh, is that all? That was pretty easy then.

Olivia closed her eyes and solidified the image from her memory. A moment later, a large black hand reached out to wrap itself around the other Anne. The angry Anne yelled out in surprise as the rest of Olivia's Black Bunny materialized behind her.

"DO YOU BELIEVE THAT YOUR HATRED COULD EVER MATCH MINE?!" She challenged after finally noticing her and their Anne below her.

"No," Olivia said with a smile. "but my love can."

Anne floated up to where her other self was now completely trapped. She could faintly see the two of them stare at each other, like a strange mirror.

"I am you, you are me." Despite the distance, Olivia could still hear their words very clearly. "We are one in the same. Come back, so we can be whole again."

"WITH YOU?! YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN BROKEN LOVE!" Olivia grimaced as she felt the hurt those words caused.

"Yes, I understand it now. Our purpose and what we represent." Her Anne responded, looking back down at her.

"What do you mean?" Anne closed her eyes at Olivia's question before placing a hand on her necklace.

"My necklace holds Anne's love." She started as she turned to the snarling face of the other Anne. "Her bracelet holds Anne's rage."

"Then, what about the staff?" Olivia asked as there was one more saint relic, according to Leon.

Anne gave her a sad smile before looking up to the reddened sky of her mind. "The staff holds Anne's sorrow."

Olivia frowned at that knowledge. If this was how her rage behaved, then she was not looking forward to knowing what her sorrow was going to be like.

"NO! STAY AWAY FROM ME!" The other Anne screamed out in anger and panic as her Anne reached out to cup her face.

"We exist to do two things. To seek justice for what happened to Lea and to find him in this life." Anne said, making Olivia shake her head.

"But Lea is gone!" What good would it do when it all happened so long ago? Even Leon said that he was not Lea.

"If you were in our situation, with even a sliver of a chance to be reunited with Leon, would you take it?" Olivia looked away in shame as she knew the answer to that question immediately. She would have been willing to do just about anything to be with Leon again.

"There has to be a better way." She weakly said.

"There was, but Anne didn't choose it." Anne then closed her eyes as both versions of her were engulfed in a bright light that forced Olivia to close her eyes. Once it finally dissipated, all that was left was her, her Black Bunny, and Anne who now had both the necklace and bracelet.

"What do we do now?" She asked as the newly combined Anne floated back down. The girl who looked just like her took a deep breath and seemed like she was about to say something that she didn't want to.

"Get the staff and find the truth about the betrayals."

…

I glared at the smirking shitlord king after the girls managed to calm me down. Once Anne was restrained by Control, everyone focused on getting Roland and I away from each other. They were pretty successful as I was absolutely not going to fight them just to get to him.

Anne had stopped struggling a little bit ago. Olivia may have been successful in what she was attempting. We all saw her close her eyes for a few moments, the rest of us waited with bated breath. We all tensed up when she finally opened her eyes and spoke out.

"It's over. We managed to calm the other Anne down." Livia! The net around her immediately fell apart and she was quickly wrapped up in the embrace of my fiancées, with Clara and Hertrude walking up to her with relieved smiles. I was about to join in on the group hug when I saw Livia's expression change again.

"We all have much to talk about." I couldn't help but sigh with the way Anne said those words.

Of course we did.

…

"I suppose our only recourse in the matter is to keep each other's secrets." The shitlord king said with a smirk after we managed to exit the dungeon. He then looked between me and Livia, with Clarice and Angie standing protectively at her sides. "You stay quiet about me, I stay quiet about her."

"How do we even know that you would keep your word?" Hertrude challenged him, making the manchild laugh.

"Because it's far more interesting to have her free and running around in the wild." Before I could even react, he reached out and pulled me close to him. I was about to push him away or knee his nuts when he started whispering.

"Don't use Mylene's office too often for your trysts. It's becoming obvious. As a reward for entertaining me so much, I'll hand her a list of manors that I use whenever I want to meet my mistresses." My eyes widened at what he was suggesting. Was he actually helping me have an affair with his wife?! This guy is nuts! "That should let her be as loud as she wants. You can even bring your other lovers there as well, see how long you can last under the onslaught. Maybe even try your luck with the Fanoss Princess."

"Thank you all for the unforgettable adventure!" He yelled out after roughly pushing my stunned self away from him. He then waved to the others with a big smile. "Till next time!"

"Is it too late for me to shoot him in the back of the head?" Anne asked as we watched him walk away.

God, I hated him so much.

…

Marie Fou Lafan kept her face completely neutral as she watched Jean be brought down from where he was strung up on a tree in the middle of campus. She and Chris stumbled into the commotion when they saw people running to this location. The young man looked to have extensive injuries from beatings. Marie was very familiar with how those kinds of things looked like.

"He was targeted by them, wasn't he?"

"But what did he do to piss off a noble?"

"If it was Feivel and his goons, it could have been anything."

"Is such behavior allowed here without consequence?" Chris asked as he looked at the boy being taken away on a stretcher by the school staff.

"If you are one of their six great houses, then yes." Marie muttered to herself after overhearing what the other onlookers were saying.

It was a few days since she started coming up with situations where Jean and Noelle would interact more and more. She even made sure to be present in some of them to make them talk about each other in positive lights. Marie had not used her intuition in matchmaking as much as she did on Earth, but she got back into the hustle and flow of it like putting on a favorite glove.

The current situation was strange to her as she was sure that Pierre Io Feivel wasn't interested in Noelle. Was he provoked into doing this by another party? The only one that sprung to mind was Loic Leta Barielle.

She looked around but didn't see Noelle in the crowd, did she not know?

"I'm going to my classroom. Make sure that Greg behaves in your classes." She told Chris, not even waiting for his response before marching to the classroom she shared with Noelle and Brad.

"Whoa, what's with the intensity there?" The blonde gyaru asked jokingly. Brad caught her eye and she shook her head when he moved to stand from his seat. Like the good boy that he was, Brad immediately nodded and sat back down.

"Jean was attacked and was taken to the infirmary." She quietly said, making Noelle freeze. The so-called heroine immediately stood from her seat and sprinted out of the classroom. Marie followed her as it was a convenient way to find out where the infirmary was anyway.

"Who did this to him? Why?" Noelle asked as the both of them looked at the unconscious boy on the bed. He had bandages all over him, but he still looked rather banged up. The doctor said that they would need to move him to a proper hospital for further treatment.

"The rumors say that it is probably Feivel and his friends." Noelle looked at her like she was insane.

"What? That's crazy, we haven't even talked to him all year!" Well, that confirmed her thought that Pierre did this of his own volition.

"Then it could be someone else." She narrowed her eyes when Noelle suddenly looked evasive. "Do you have an idea?"

"I'd rather not say." Marie hummed, not saying that the girl pretty much confirmed that Loic was probably involved. Noelle opted to stroke the boy's hair instead. "Jean…"

The girl took a deep breath and shook her head. "His injuries. How can he afford the treatment and rehabilitation?"

"Ah, you don't need to worry about his injuries." Marie told her, seeing the opportunity for what it was.

"What are you–" Not waiting for Noelle to finish her question, Marie reached out and did what she did best. After a moment, Jean started glowing in a faint yellow light.

"Is that healing magic?" Marie couldn't help but preen at the obvious awe that Noelle was showing.

"I am quite good at it." She confirmed, barring certain crazy monsters that were drunk on her brother's love.

Noelle looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Why are you doing so much for us?"

"Partly because I think you two look cute together, partly because I hate men like Pierre, partly because my brother would be disappointed if I didn't." She grinned at the way the other girl blushed and looked away.

"Noelle?" Jean called out after regaining consciousness from the healing.

"Jean!" Marie moved away once she was sure that most of the boy's injuries were fully healed. "Are you okay?"

"I feel a lot better now. What happened?" Jean looked at her in equal awe after Noelle explained what she did. Marie just basked in the moment. "Thank you so much. I don't even know how to begin to repay you."

She was suddenly surprised when Noelle enveloped her in an embrace. "Thank you, Marie! You are the best!"

"Yeah, I'm pretty awesome." She bragged as both Noelle and Jean started laughing.

Marie grinned to herself. In one fell swoop, Pierre just helped make sure that both Noelle and Jean are firmly in her pocket out of gratitude. A blessing in disguise, as it were.

As for Pierre and Loic?

Well, Marie decided that it was time to invite Miss Rault to a Tea Party. If she was lucky, she might even meet her younger brother.