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

True intentions

Marianne had gone out for a walk. She had not been able to fall asleep. She had no idea what time it could be. She walked the floor where the rooms were in a leisurely and silent way. She remembered the idea of escaping with Dimitri. She dared to try, but something held her back. It was Leonard. Although he had been ungrateful to her, the truth is that she wanted to hear his true intentions and understand better his terrible actions of that same day.

When she returned to her room, she found him on the side of the hallway and a few steps from the bedroom door. He was looking at the ground, which didn't stop her from seeing, between that supposedly serious adult expression, that funny grimace he made with his mouth when they blamed him for something he hadn't done. It was then that the woman's countenance changed. She began to cry in the middle of the hallway and in front of Leonard.

The boy went to take her, but she refused. She pushed him a little and ran to lock herself in what must have been her room. Leonard didn't feel like forcing the door. He just stood still as she went to close it. That didn't happen, as Marianne tugged at his arm to go inside with her. He looked at her, stunned. He had never seen her cry with such intensity. He didn't know that such a calm, upright woman could cry profusely and furiously.

"Why, why did you do it?!" she yelled, slamming both fists into Leonard's chest.

"I do not know... I do not know, Marianne," he replied, his eyes reddening with misery.

"I know you don't know!" she replied, still tearful. "What horrendous things did you have to go through to stop being the boy I knew and become this unrecognizable animal!?"

After crying some more, Marianne had exhausted herself. She felt that she had no more voice left within herself. She was silent for a while, watching Leonard keep that grimace on his face as he cried. The beast and the child were at last one.

She took a chair and moved it to the side of the door to sit on it. Leonard dropped to his knees on the ground. She tried to make him stop; she didn't want to see him this humiliated. He, paying attention to her, sat down on a stool that he found near him.

"I will tell you what I lived through, then," Leonard whispered, looking up at the girl. "The invading waves from Almyra did not only consist of hordes of warrior men: women of various ages and children could also be found among their ranks, as you could see firsthand. I... I didn't know, but one of the traditions of some Monks in the monastery after winning was to claim all the beautiful girls as a trophy."

Leonard hesitated to continue counting due to the expression of despair on the girl's face.

"And I mean a trophy sexually. The monks drank a potion to resist as long as possible and claim as many victims as possible after the battles. It was a concoction that altered the consciousness of whoever took it and made him exceed the physical limits of that person as if it were a " berserk " state. This, while the Bishop and his clergy played dumb."

Leonard paused a bit. He examined the room. Then he looked at Marianne again. She was pale. It seems that she already knew where this story was going.

"Once, possibly two years ago, I defeated a soldier from Almyra, the last remaining of a small wave that attacked us. I thought it was a young man somewhat younger than me, so I reduced it not to hurt him. When I removed his helmet, I could see it was a woman, probably my age. I told my colleagues that I would take care of her. They offered me some water. Without knowing it, the damned put that potion on me,"

The man stopped his story momentarily while his face filled with hate.

"I can't remember anything...Until I see myself standing over her, paralyzed, terrified and outraged. No one else had touched her, just me. According to the bastards, it was my "rite of passage." The worst thing was hearing that I had done it about three times when I had come to my senses."