Marianne and the Forbidden Codex: A Fire Emblem Three Houses story

Invasion

Marianne kept walking. She thought she needed to know if Leonard also felt the same... Or if he was no longer looking at her. She wanted to cry but felt it was better to get to her room first. Turning to the hallway leading to her room, she saw Leonard stop at one edge.

She was in no condition to even greet him. A strange mix of emotions overwhelmed her. It wasn't just sadness; it was also anger and jealousy. She already knew jealousy, the slight jealousy caused by the presence of other women near him. But this jealousy surpassed all the others and the desire to get angry with that guy grew more and more, for loving him and having felt that she had opened up to him.

She watched Leonard; he was severe but crestfallen. She didn't want to respond to his presence since she would still be weak to some outburst and would end up accepting it. She preferred to be strong, although she fell into a proud attitude. Leonard didn't want to get in her way, nor did he want to say anything to stop her.

"Marianne... I want to talk to you," Leonard looked up to meet the girl's eyes.

"No... I don't want to," Marianne showed an expression of indifference, despite the nervousness and confusion she felt inside. "I'm not able to talk to you today."

"I didn't mean..."

"Maybe..." Marianne avoided looking at the boy. "The problem is that I... I don't know what I want now."

Marianne started to open the door to her room. At that moment, Leonard was startled. He had heard footsteps. They came from inside that room. Before the girl herself could react, Leonard pushed her to the side. She sat down, managing to steady herself with her hands. She didn't understand his partner's surprising and disproportionate reaction. She didn't want to imagine it was a backlash towards her out of spite.

To tell the truth, what Leonard intended was far from wanting to attack her. He looked at Leonard, who had a dagger gripped on its edge. When she entered, someone was waiting for her in her room to kill her. Without further ado, Leonard hurled the Lúin Relic at his rival, instantly piercing his heart.

The boy approached Marianne and offered her his hand to get up. She would not have wanted to accept it, but the situation seemed somewhat critical.

"What just happened?" Marianne couldn't help but ask, although she wanted to give the boy the silent treatment.

"He's... A murderer," Leonard spoke with a harsh but somewhat shaky voice. "It surely comes from Almyra; I will examine it."

Leonard approached the murderer's corpse. He knelt to examine it. Just looking at her body left him paralyzed. Her face was covered with a veil, which she withdrew. It was definitive: it was a woman. He froze for a while with a pale face. Marianne didn't understand why he would stand there for so long, staring at a body, something he didn't usually do when he was defeating someone. She thought it was because of the importance of confirming its origin, but her intuition told him something else was happening.

"What... It's what happens, Leonard," Marianne walked over and stood to the side. "Are you worried about something?"

She got no response. She also knelt to observe; she could see that the body belonged to a woman. She turned his gaze to wait for some reaction from Leonard. He was still paralyzed, looking at the body of the person he had just murdered. Marianne could see her companion keep a look of shock and horror on his face.

"What is it, Leonard?" Marianne took the boy's shoulder, who still didn't react. "Didn't you expect the assassin to be a woman?"

"No... why?" Leonard didn't seem to be talking to Marianne.

Suddenly, he got up to go to another part of the room. Once there, he crouched down and repeatedly hit his head against the floor. Marianne was distraught. She didn't expect this to happen. She didn't understand his reasons, but surely this scene had awakened a horrible trauma in him.