章 538: Ominous Butterflies Fluttering

"I know it's a bit late to say this, but we didn't have to go along with this mission, Ren…I'm sure Mother would've come up with something else if you–"

He interrupted her with a shake of his head, "I have to do this. At least…I feel like I do. The entire reason I threw myself into Purgatory was so that I'd be strong enough–that exact reason changed; "Strong enough to handle myself" "Strong enough not to let anybody else die for me" "Strong enough to protect everybody" "Strong enough"...It's all for the same reason. Mastorn is always sitting at the back of my mind, reminding me that I'm still not strong enough."

"Ren, is this about what happened…?" Iris lingered her question quietly, knowing it was a sensitive topic. 

"At the Althaus estate?"

"--"

"Don't worry," he put on a small smile, "I'd be pretty bad if I was still too big of a baby to even talk about it, right?"