"I accept your invitation," Qiu said.
She had learned the truth.
Diwein was not the person she had imagined him to be. He never had been. She now knew what she meant to Diwein, and what all her companions in the Arcadia Movement meant to him.
They were nothing more than pawns—no, they did not even qualify as pawns. They were weapons, the disposable kind. Diwein would squeeze every last bit of value from them without a second thought, then casually dispose of them once they had been used up.
Qiu had cried all night. Her world had collapsed.
But fortunately, the day before she discovered the truth, her world had already come to include more than just Diwein and the Shangri-La Movement. That was why she had not broken down immediately, and why she had come here, standing before Kira once more.
The man before her, Officer Godwin, reminded her of the path she had first wanted to take—the dream she had thought she would never have another chance to pursue.
But Godwin and the Security Maintenance Bureau truly could give her that chance: the chance to walk the path of a shining duelist once again.
And through their previous duel, she had realized that he was powerful—unfathomably so. Her instincts told her that getting closer to him might help her grow stronger more quickly, and learn to control her abilities.
Yes, for the first time in many years, Aki Izayoi no longer felt only simple loathing toward her own power. After hearing Fudo Yusei and Godwin speak at the Fortune Cup, she had begun seriously reflecting on herself for the first time, considering whether she could completely master this power and use it to become a better person.
"Oh? You've made up your mind?" Kira chuckled. "You don't