"Madeline and I were both powerful Supernatural Beings back then, and the God of Love Church always arranged for us to act together. During an ordinary mission, we suspected that everyone in an Orphanage some distance from the settlement had been infected by terrifying evil spirits, so we were assigned to kill everyone there. For that era, it was a very ordinary mission."
Shade glanced sideways at the Orphanage atop the distant hill.
"Let me guess. You let someone go?"
"Not me. Madeline."
Richard spoke calmly, as though he were not recounting his own story. The river splashed and murmured, and the atmosphere was indeed suited for storytelling.
"It was a child only seven years old. Madeline was certain he had not been infected, but her certainty was useless. For the safety of the entire settlement, he could not be spared. But Madeline spared him anyway. She only told me afterward, so I rebuked her."
"Madeline's judgment was wrong?"
"No, her judgment was correct. The child was indeed still normal at the time.
"But afterward, in order to take revenge on us 'bad guys' who had killed his entire family, he threw himself into the Great Sin of Wrath. About three years later, on the eve of Madeline's and my wedding, he appeared again and killed most of the families of everyone who had participated in that operation. I was an orphan with no relatives to die, while Madeline only had her mother, who survived because she came to visit her that night."
"Well... another one of those stories. Go on. Though it was a Tragedy, you two wouldn't have turned against each other over something like that, would you? Besides, it wasn't your fault."
He asked, and Richard shook his head slightly. His body had become even more transparent