"I hate everything about heroes because I'm the final form they will all ultimately take."
Leon could hear those words coming out of his mouth. His brain registered their sound and the feeling of the air carrying them out from his lungs through his vocal cords and then past his lips.
And yet, he fully understood what he just did once it was too late to bring those words back.
His body froze as the prospect of the girl babbling his secret out to anyone appeared before his eyes.
And yet, Sarah simply continued to sob into his stomach, unable to care any less about what he said.
'She's like an animal that listens to the tone of one's voice rather than to what a person actually says...' Leon thought, taking a long breath only to then release it as a sigh of deep relief.
"So it's heroes," Sarah mumbled right into Leon's shirt a few moments later, "not me that you hate."
The girl refused to move even an inch away. As such, her voice was muffled by the very fact she was pressing her face against Leon's waist, making it as hard to register as when she was on the other side of the door.
"I'm sorry for reacting as strongly as I did back then." Leon eagerly took the opportunity to push the conversation as far away from his recent blunder as he could. And if the cost of doing so was to apologize?
Then there was no price to doing so whatsoever.
"When I heard about your... situation, all I could hear were the part about... what you can do," he said, making sure not to say anything vital out loud.
Even though Leon was quite sure there were no ears trying to pick on their conversation, he couldn't say with full confidence that it was indeed the case.
And if he could avoid potential trouble just by modeling his words a little, then it was all the more reason to do so.
"So you won't push me aside?" Sarah asked through her tears, finally gathering enough courage to push her head up and look up at Leon's face.
Leon stared down into the girl's wide-open eyes. The sight of her tears made his heart ache... All the more because how he was the one responsible for them.
"I can't promise you that," Leon replied, averting his eyes. "Not because of what happened before. But if you want to pursue your talent, then our path will soon diverge."
The reason why Leon was unable to teach Sarah anything else about magic was mostly because it would mean preconditioning her talent to work in the circumstances he was used to.
This world, however, was different. And for Sarah to fully develop her talent, she had to seek how to exploit the abundance of mana in the air rather than researching ways how to make do with only the tiniest amounts of it.
"That's now what I mean!" the girl curled her fingers into fists before striking both of her hands against Leon's chest. "I would be just a burden for you now, I understand that!" she said decisively, lowering her face before burying it back into Leon's stomach.
The next several seconds passed in silence as Leon struggled to figure out what to talk about next while the girl took her time to gather her thoughts.
"Can you promise me that you won't cast me aside?" she finally said, pushing out her very first request.
"I don't know what you mean by that," Leon replied, torn between actual ignorance of the girl's true wishes and the reluctance to take on any obligations.
'Magic can be a scary thing. And now that she got a taste of it, who knows whether she wouldn't unconsciously create a binding contract,' Leon thought, wary of the potential quirks of this strange world.
'It's a stretch to think something so weird could happen... But weren't heroic spirits just a legend of the ancient times?' he then recalled his unpleasant encounter with what he thought he left in his old world. 'Then why should I believe other stories about the distant past would be any different here?'
"You said that you are only interested in girls that are willing to beg you to be dicked," Sarah suddenly said, taking Leon by surprise with the vulgar wording she unexpectedly proved to know off. "Do you want me to beg you now?!" she then asked, raising her face up again.
Yet, rather than causing Leon to get excited, her words only made his expression darken.
"Didn't you say..."
"I get it," Sarah spat out her words only to strike her forehead against Leon's chest. "Then, if I find out how to stop my... from acting up, will you, please, take me with you?"
This time, Sarah didn't raise her head after posing her question. Instead, she only pressed her face into Leon even harder, as if scared to hear his response.
"Are you sure that's what you want?" Leon asked, the darkness vanishing from his face as his expression turned weird.
"Yes!" Sarah shouted. Her shoulders trembled a little.
"Then..." Leon muttered, squinting his eyes as he moved his right hand away from the back of the girl's head.
With a single thought, a small slit appeared on the tip of his forefinger, only for a tiny drop of blood to squeeze out of it the moment after.
"Are you willing to beg, overcome torment and tribulation, keep yourself through the passage of time for it?" he asked, his voice turning strangely official.
Sarah's body twitched when she noticed the change in the atmosphere.
And yet, without any hesitation, she brought her face up and uttered, "yes."
"Then," Leon locked his eyes on the tiny drop of blood on his finger before bringing his hand down. Then, to the girl's elation, he snuck it under her clothes, reaching down towards her crotch.
"Ah!" Sarah moaned when Leon's hand simply brushed past her stomach and then slid down her abdomen. "Yes!" she moaned a bit louder. Her cheeks turned crimson while her breath hastened.
"I claim you to be mine," Leon said. His hand then reached its destination, only for his forefinger to curl up before sliding right into Sarah's welcoming insides. "And upon you, I bestow a curse to all those who will dare to lay hands on what's mine," Leon finished.
And then, the blood at the top of his finger activated.