"Escanor...are you sure?"

The other Sins were looking at him in surprise.

"I...I t-think it would be f-for the b-better."

The Lion answered, passing a hand behind his head, scraping it in embarrassment, he didn't like to be at the center of attention, not in this form.

Merlin had decided to come back down and discuss everything with the others, maybe together they could find a solution.

"But...you would have to go away, we would never see you again!"

At Diane's words she stopped at the beginning of the stairs, frozen.

"W-well… I would be s-sad, but in this w-way I could p-protect everyone, make a real d-difference. She doesn't seem like a b-bad person."

She Heard him chuckle to defuse the tension and elude other arguments.

It didn't matter, she didn't want to hear more.

With a great weight inside her chest and a lump in her throat, she quickly turned around and went back to her room.

She suddenly felt like crying.

The Sins were looking at each other, not knowing how to answer Escanor's statement. He wasn't wrong, and the terms of Camila's proposition were to their favour, but in the end they would have to say goodbye to their comrade and friend.

"Well, we better wait and see, who knows, she could change her mind once she starts knowing you!"

Said Meliodas grinning, trying to lift up the atmosphere.

"Captain! That's not nice!"

Shouted both Diane and King, and the Lion really didn't know how to take that.

It was true that he didn't know the werebeast and she didn't know him, and while he would tend to think that she may come to her senses and not like him anymore, the other way around could also be true, she could come to like him more, and he…

His eyes instinctively rose up, as if he could see the Mage through the various floors of the Boar Hat. He would always love her, she was his sun, his everything! He has always known that he could never be with her romantically, and that sooner, rather than later, he would have to leave her side, he was just human after all.

...at least this way he could be useful to her, he could protect her, one last time.

"Anyway we'll have to wait and see what happens."

Concluded Meliodas, and the others nodded, but everyone was thinking the same thing: who would tell Merlin?

Elizabeth knocked and opened the Mage's door without waiting for her to welcome her in, and then closed it back behind her.

She had volunteered to go talk with the raven haired woman, she was her Big Sis-Sis, and was worried about her.

Walking inside she found her in front of her cauldron, meshing something inside with a lack of energy that was unusual for the Boar when she was in her lab doing some experiments.

"Ehi."

She made herself known, but didn't get any response from the other woman, she sighed mentally and came to stand a few paces behind her.

"We talked about Escanor's situation…"

She began, hoping for a reaction but there was none.

"...he decided to give it a try, to give Camila a chance, to help us."

There was silence, and the continued meshing in the cauldron.

"He's doing it just for us, I think he sees himself as expendable, and he really just wants to be of help."

The goddess rushed out, she was trying to reassure the Mage, maybe, she wasn't sure, she wasn't seeing her face and she didn't know what the other woman was thinking.

There was another long silence.

When it seemed like Elizabeth would try to say something else, the Boar interrupted her.

"I…"

She swallowed and then continued.

"...I heard."

It was true, but it wasn't enough.

"Merlin…"

"He's free to do what he wants, what he thinks is right."

The goddess caught something in her voice that she couldn't place, but she didn't like it.

She took a couple of steps to put a comforting hand on the other's shoulder, trying to persuade her to turn around so that she could see her face, but the Mage didn't move a muscle.

"Merlin, we're not sure what will happen, we could find another way, or she could find out that she doesn't like him after all, everything can still happen, there's still hope!"

She had the sensation that her words had bounced off on an invisible wall.

The goddess sighed, squeezed lightly the other woman's shoulder, then turned to leave, closing the door.

Once alone Merlin sighed, stopped meshing, put her hands on the table and leaned heavily on them, and let the tears flow again, whispering to herself.

"She would be a fool to not like him."

Or to like him and let him go.

Like me.

The next day Camila came back, wanting to know if they had reached an agreement.

The Boar had teleported in the main room just as she was beginning to greet them, she was sitting in the back, not looking at anyone, specifically not at Escanor, if she was to lock eyes with him she may break down again; so she put on a mask of indifference and listened to all the conversation, no matter how much she was hurting inside.

"I'm happy that you decided to give us a chance!"

The deity was delighted that Escanor had accepted the offer to get to know each other better, and was smiling brilliantly.

Her happiness and words just soured the Mage's mood.

After that she couldn't wait to run away from them soon enough.

They agreed on more terms for their outings and other things that she didn't really care about anymore.

She was already back in her lab when the werebeast closed the door of the Boar Hat behind her.

The next couple of weeks were pure hell for the Mage. She didn't want to know what they were doing or seeing them together, but at the same time she couldn't seem to be able to not listen or to take her eyes away from them.

They seemed to get along well, they talked and even laughed together, and the deity was very forward with her gestures of affection.

It was torture.

And she could only thank herself and her lack of action and courage for it.

The Boar found herself more and more secluded in her lab or room, alone, wallowing in self pity and dark thoughts, while the pain in her chest had become a constant in her life.

She knew it, she should have been prepared for it… everyone she cared about had left her at one point, and Escanor wasn't an exception. If she really thought about it, he would have always been the first one to leave her, considering his short mortal nature. She knew it, but she had always tried to not think about it; she enjoyed his company so much that had subconsciously decided to not think about it. She should have never let him near her, she should have never let him become someone important to her, it had been stupid!

...but she didn't know if she could have ever resisted him, he was able to find a way around her walls and create a place for himself in her heart, without her consciously knowing it; maybe his sweetness and gentleness had been able to make her lower her defenses, his wit and humor had made her feel comfortable around him, and then his courage, selflessness and devotion had made her fall for him, hard, harder than she would have ever thought possible.

And she had taken him for granted.

How stupid could she be?!

Evidently more than enough, given that she was alone in her room, trying to get drunk; and that was really stupid.

She had already emptied five bottles of whatever it was that they had contained, it wasn't important, and she was feeling just a little tipsy; no matter, she had many more bottles to help her to not think.

She reached for another bottle, taking it directly to her lips.

It was a few hours later when someone knocked on her door, waited a moment, and not hearing anything, slowly opened the door and entered the room.

Escanor found her soon enough, stopping shocked at the sight: her upper body was sprawled on the couch, while she was sitting on the floor, an almost empty bottle of something alcoholic in her hand.

He could see the others empty bottles, many of them, lying around, and sighed, worried for the woman and the state she was in. He took off his glasses, it was near sundown but there was still enough light to let him get strong enough to take her in his arms, and carry her to bed.

The Lion didn't know if he had woken her, putting her down on the mattress, but he could distinctly hear that she was muttering something under her breath.

Looking closely he also saw the tracks of dried tears on her cheeks, and fresh ones ready to spill; instinctively he reached out to her, but she turned the other way, never opening her eyes.

"Go away."

It was just a whisper, but it froze him and his hand in mid air. He was unsure of what to do, he had never seen her like this, he was worried and wanted to help her, but she wasn't letting him, she didn't want him here.

He hadn't liked the tone of her voice but he couldn't do anything if she didn't want him to.

He sighed and straightened up.

"Good night Merlin, I hope you'll be able to sleep and have sweet dreams."

He felt awful seeing her like this, but as usual he could do nothing.

He slowly turned around and left her room, closing the door.

Maybe his departure would really be for the best.

He never heard her sobbing through the door.

After the desperation and sadness came the anger.

Merlin was angry, at herself, at him, at everyone and everything!

It wasn't fair, nothing in this world was right.

The Mage had too much repressed fury inside, and her experiments weren't helping in calming her down, in this state of mind she wasn't able to really concentrate on them, she wasn't getting any results, this was frustrating and only helped in fomenting her ire.

She decided to change pattern, and began putting herself fully in all the missions that came their way, she took all the possible and impossible ones, trying to vent her frustrations and anger in some other way.

But she was beginning to be ruthless in her tasks, not caring for the purpose of the mission and pushing things too far, and Meliodas had to ask her to stay back and not to take any missions on her own, until he had to put her on an indefinite leave from active duty.

The Boar was slumped on the floor of her room, she felt awful and lost, she didn't know what she was doing anymore.

She missed him terribly, and didn't know how to make all the feelings go away, she wasn't sure how she could ever fill the dark hole that was inside her at this point.

She should have been more careful, she should have never fallen in love! She didn't need love! Love was just a hindrance, it was because of love that she was in this mess! She wasn't even thinking straight anymore.

Even if they were able to put an end to Lillia's schemes, it wouldn't do any good, Escanor would leave her and go away to another world with Camila, and evidently she wasn't a good enough person to just be happy for him and go on with her life anyway; she could go on, mind you, but she didn't know how she would become in order to continue living like that.

She was scared.

She would give anything to make it all become just a very bad nightmare.

I'm evil, I know! "^^

But please, stay with me until the end! x_x

There's just another chapter to wrap everything up!