"Merry Christmas..." Was what the both of them said to each other before the spent the night talking and enjoying the remainder of the celebration. The couple had made their feelings known to the other party. Xwart was enjoying the atmosphere with Sarah leaning closely against him.

"Shall we return?" Xwart asked Sarah in a gently voice.

"I want to stay here longer…"

"It's going to be dawn soon. If we do not hurry, the maids are going to find out that you're not in bed."

"I guess so…" Sarah sighed and gave in.

With that, Xwart piggybacked her and hurried to her room. As he leaped over roof to roof, Sarah fell asleep. Smiling to himself, he tried his best not to wake up her up from her slumber. The time that he had spent with her during the night, was one that he enjoyed and treasured the most. Soon, they reached her room. Placing Sarah onto her bed, Xwart looked at her sleeping face. It was as pure and as innocent as an angel. Deciding that it was best that she changed her clothes to further avoid being found out, he gave her a light peck onto her cheek to wake her up.

Tossing on the bed from the kiss, Sarah rubbed her eyes to show that she had woken up. When she opened her eyes, she saw Xwart's smiling face directly in front of her. Letting a yelp of shock, she blushed. Xwart laughed. Hitting Xwart on his arm, she got out of bed and changed into her negligee. Xwart turned away to avoid any misunderstanding.

"I'm done." Sarah called out to him.

"All right." Xwart turned around.

"Xwart, I have a question…"

"What is it?"

"Will you protect me… No matter what? Can you promise that?"

"I promise you." He promised her. "What kind of question is that?"

"A question…" Sarah winked.

"Right… Very well then."

Sarah then made her way to her bed and laid on it.

"I want you to tuck me in."

"No… You're big enough already."

"No. No. No. I want you to tuck me in…" Sarah pouted.

"All right. All right. I'll tuck you in." Xwart gave in and went over to tuck Sarah in.

Sarah smiled widely as he tucked her in. Just as he was about to move away from the bed, Sarah hugged him tightly and kissed him on his cheek. She whispered a word of thanks into his ear before lying back onto her bed and falling asleep almost immediately. Xwart made his way to the window and took one last look at Sarah before he left.

"She's still such a child." Xwart mumbled under his breath as he made his way home.

Soon, it was dawn and the Christmas celebrations were over. However, Christmas had arrived and another round of celebration was on the way. People can be seen exchanging gifts with one another, and Christmas carols singing on the streets.

The sun's rays made their way into Sarah's room and shone onto her face. Using her pillow to cover her face, Sarah tossed in her bed. Just then, one of her maids knocked onto her door and came in.

"Miss. It's time to wake up." The maid called out.

"Let me sleep in for another 5 more minutes."

"I'm sorry. I can't. You have a busy schedule to keep…"

"All right. Just let me prepare, I'll be there in a minute." Sarah interrupted the maid and got up. The maid nodded her head and left the room.

Sarah got out of bed and looked at the window, it was certainly a beautiful day. The streets were covered with white snow which reflected the sun's rays to form a little sparkle. She smiled and went on to get ready for her schedule. She started to wonder if Xwart had seen the same sight as her. With these thoughts in her mind, she continued her day.

Just as dawn had arrived, Xwart was busy sleeping. He could not careless about day. However in actual fact, he did not want to think about the day itself. It was time that he had to assassinate Sarah's father, Ras. He had not told her about it and he certainly did not want to see Sarah's tear-stained face when he finally did kill her father. But if he does not kill Ras, Chronos will certainly take action. Torn between the choices that he had to make and consequences that he had to face, Xwart was worn out mentally. He decided that everything will be settled during the night, he drifted further into sleep.

Soon, night arrived and he got ready. He did not know what he was going to say to Sarah but he decided he would visit her before he carried out the assassination. He left as soon as he was done preparing.

Arriving at Sarah's house, he leaped into the room from the window as he usually would and saw Sarah sleeping soundly. It was the first time that he met her and she was sleeping. He looked around the room and saw a letter addressed to him. He opened it and read it. Inside, it wrote…

"Dear Xwart,

I'm sorry that I decide to sleep early. I think by the time you're reading this, I'm already sound asleep. Thank you for showing me the place yesterday, I really appreciated it. Also, thank you for confessing your feelings to me… That was the first time anyone had confessed their feelings to me. I feel so blessed when you did it. I didn't know anyone who actually loved me that much to say it in front of me. Let alone kiss me… But still, thanks for everything.

I'm sorry again for the trouble I've caused you for sleeping. Probably you had made a wasted trip because of me. I'm sorry. See you tomorrow night ok? I love you!

Sarah."

That was what the letter wrote. After reading it, Xwart turned to look at Sarah. He walked over to her bed and beside her. He kissed her cheek lightly before leaving the room by the door. Sarah stirred a little.

Xwart who had just got out of Sarah's room, looked around. The corridor was dark and anyone could barely notice him. It was an advantageous to him. He moved silently to the edge of the corridor and to his surprise, everywhere was either dimly lit or dark. He was suspicious at first but shook it off as he continued to search for Ras.

It took him quite awhile but Xwart managed to find a room that was brightly lit. He opened the door and peaked in a little. Inside the room, were cupboards full of book and there was a table in the middle of the room. Sitting at the table was someone. Xwart took a closer look at the person and noticed that the person had short yellow hair. Thinking at it was Ras on impulse, Xwart drew his katars and charged towards that person. Within seconds, Xwart reached his target and stabbed him in the back. However, as the katars connected with the person, sand flew everyone. Widening his eyes, Xwart pulled out his katars and kicked the chair. To his horror, the "person" that he had just stabbed was a fake. It was a doll filled with sand and a wig that had the same hairstyle as Ras was placed on top. Just as he realized that it was a trap, the sound of the door closing could be heard behind him.

Xwart turned around and saw that someone had closed the room from the inside. It was Ras.

"I've been expecting you…"

"…" Xwart remained silent.

"It was quite obvious that the Assassin Guild was going to send someone to kill me. After all that I've done, I'm expecting someone but I didn't know that it would take them this long. What have they been doing? Celebrating Christmas?" Ras mocked.

"Let's cut to the chase shall we? Are you going to die easily or do I have to take your life the hard way?" Xwart regained his composure and challenged Ras.

"You should very well know my answer."

With that, both of them rushed toward each other. Metal hitting metal was heard. Ras drew his sword and met with Xwart's katars. Xwart did a sweep kick but Ras back-flipped to evade it and counterattacked almost immediately with a slash Xwart. Xwart leaned back to let his blade eat air and back-flipped out of harm's way. However, Ras had already seen through Xwart's movements. He did a silding kick just as Xwart landed on the ground, knocking him off balance forward. Following that, Ras did a spinning kick and sent Xwart flying towards the wall while using the momentum to get himself back up. Xwart crashed through many cupboards and finally crashed into the wall which spider-webbed into fine cracks.

The room was in a mess. Books, papers and loose pages were strewn all over the place and some were still floating and drifting in the air. Ras and Xwart were just at the beginning of their fight. Xwart picked himself up and waited for Ras to attack.

"What's wrong? Too injured to fight?" Ras mocked at Xwart whiled rushing towards him.

Xwart let out a smile and dodged Ras attack easily while doing a back-flip kick which connected with Ras' chin which sent him back to the original spot that he rushed from.

"Nope. Still have more to go." Xwart shot back.

Both of them smiled at each other and continued fighting.

The noise of their clashing rang throughout the night. It was not long that it reached Sarah's ears and waking her up. Sarah was reluctant to get out of bed at first and decided to shrug it off as the fact that some inconsiderate people were sparring with each other. However, as it happened more often, she finally managed to confirm that it was coming from somewhere in her house. She immediately got up and burst out of her room and followed where the noise was coming from. It was from the library. She quickly banged open the door and was just in time to see what was happening.

Xwart had Ras cornered on the ground with his katars raised and was about to bring it down on him. Sarah screamed at the top of her voice.

"Xwart! Stop!"

Hearing that, Xwart stopped and turned around. He saw Sarah at the door and her tear-stained face.

"Sarah…"

Xwart was speechless. He could not do anything but watch as Sarah ran in between Ras and Xwart and spread her arms.

"Why are you doing this?"

"It's my job." Xwart turned his face away. He could not face Sarah.

"You were sent here to assassinate my father? From the very beginning?"

"Yes."

"Then why you didn't…"

"Because I love you…"

"Even so. Don't kill my father."

"Why? It's my job. Besides, you hated him so much…"

"Even so. He is still my father. You should know how is it like to not have any parents since you've experienced it before." Sarah said it with a sad tone.

"…" Xwart kept silent. He knew that she was right. He was an orphan. He had no one to turn to. He knew all the hardships and pain that was about to befall Sarah if he killed Ras. He, of all people, did not want her to feel that way. He clutched his katars tightly.

"Please… I beg of you… Do not kill my father…" Sarah begged.

Xwart clutched katars tighter and looked down to the floor.

"Very well… I won't…" Xwart lowered his katars and turned around.

Ras, seeing that this is a good chance, picked up his sword and thrust it forward with all his strength he had left. It stabbed through Sarah and was going for Xwart. Xwart turned around just in time for the sword to pierce into his left shoulder and was pushed quite a distance away from Ras. In reflex, Xwart tossed his katar towards Ras which stabbed him right through the heart, killing him instantly. Xwart then quickly plucked the sword out of Sarah and him and threw it onto the ground.

"Sarah! Sarah! Are you all right?" He called out to her.

"I'm fine… Don't worry."

"I'll get you to a hospital as soon as possible…"

"I'm fine… You don't have to…"

"But…"

"No buts…"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I let this happened to you…" Xwart apologized to Sarah with tears filling up in his eyes.

"It's not your fault… No one would have known this would happen… Not even me…"

"But… I've broken my promise to protect you no matter what…"

"No you didn't. No one knew that this was going to happen. If you do not know, you cannot protect me right? Don't blame yourself for this. You did hold your promise to me. You really did…"

Xwart could not say anything but just look at Sarah. He was devastated but he held back his tears.

"Xwart, can you do something for me?" Sarah asked.

"What is it?"

"Come closer."

Xwart did as she requested and went closer to her. Once he did, Sarah lifted her hand and touched his face.

"Merry Christmas, Xwart… Merry Christmas…" Sarah whispered in Xwart's ear and kissed him lightly on his cheek before dying peacefully.

"Merry Christmas, Sarah… Merry Christmas…" Xwart whispered before lowering his head and tears started to fall.

Xwart held Sarah's body close to him and cried…

"Oh my gosh! That was so saddening!" – Claire

"Here's a box of tissue." – Xwart

"I really feel like crying after hearing that…" – Claire

"Go ahead… Let it all out.." – Xwart

"Next Chapter! Final Chapter – Conclusion!" Bwaaaa… It's so sad…- Claire