OF WHAT BEFELL DULCINEA THE BEAUTIFUL AND DON QUIXOTE (before battle)
... The highlight of the Parade must be near. The song changes once again.
♬And we built it♬ ♬Our very own♬ (Happy kingdom!)
♬Say goodbye♬ ♬to pain♬(Rest well, O Father!)
♬All be jolly now♬ ♬At this kingdom of joy♬
♬At La Manchaland♬ (Come one, come all!)
<Is she... Dulcinea...?>
Underneath the garish, violet parasol she stood.
And under her feet squirmed someone, slowly dying, ensnared in this bizarre spectacle.
... It's that Bloodfiend Hunter we met back at the empty lot.
... Even the Hunters...?
HARK!!! Cease thy villainy this instant!!!
…….
The Bloodfiend leading the Parade in a beautiful, extravagant dress...
... she quietly regarded us from behind her mask, from under her parasol.
Then speak.
Why must we stop?
'Tis a question with an answer most simple. And obvious.
Because thy villainy is unjust!
We are come to rain destruction upon this den of villainy, La Manchaland.
Thus speak plainly of thy founder's whereabouts and accept thy rightful punishment!
I see.
So you're still playing that childish make-believe.
'Tis no make-believe! 'Tis a part of mine hallowed adventure.
Oh, your eyes...
I have always hated them.
That look of arrogant disinterest as though nothing before you was worth your concern. As though you were not a part of the world, but only a detached observer.
Long did I wonder to see when your eyes would twinkle so vividly again...
... and now that I finally see them... I find myself hating them still.
Still as foul, revolting... and hateful, for all that glimmer.
... Every day we paraded in a circle, in the very same route, with the very same heart.
Wishing for a new day to begin...
Though Cassetti, who played the Prince of the Parade, has left us to build his own kingdom...
... a lone Princess should be enough to rouse our guests.
... Was it you who hypnotized people with this music?
Wrong question. Because I was also charmed by an illusion.
All seem to mistake that I am the mistress of this parade, that I lead the path, only because I stand at the forefront of it.
Because I am Dulcinea, the most beautiful... the most noble... I was given the role of the Carnival's Lady.
I do not lead it; I am but another attraction of the Parade.
Hah, I see now.
This is a parade of broken things, biting one after another in a cycle of infinity.
…….
Do you see now?
That La Manchaland is where we relive our beginnings and ends.
Because it was said that amusement parks have no place for what isn't happy...
Fated to repeat our beginnings and ends ad infinitum, the times when we were still happy... When we were still... us.
Because only then shall our memories become tainted by happiness.
... The Fixers who were assigned to this Area... They're all dead, then?
Gnnnnhhhh...
... Hah... ha... funny, isn't it? The other Fixer who was assigned to the same Area as us... stabbed us in the back...
... and doomed... us all.
How... pathetic... All that posturing... just to die here... from some knife in my back...
Dead? No, they have but joined the Parade. For they were not worthy to have a part in our ending.
Humans, devoured and driven by hatred, seeking no betterment nor happiness.
With no other purpose or direction in life other than to slaughter as many of us as possible.
So hideous, yet so pitiful.
We had only wished to relive our memories.
I can hardly contain my disgust at thine excuses.
Don Quixote boisterously cut through Dulcinea's despondent musings.
We need not mire ourselves in discussions of worthiness to bring thy deserved judgment!
Bloodfiends! From what I have heard, it is said that thy kind slay humans and commit all kinds of depraved, heinous immoralities just for a drop of blood.
Is that all there is to it? For so paltry a reason?
For something so puerile, so insignificant and trivial?
How darest thou seek to deprive humans of their right to live, for such trifling gluttony!
Dulcinea remained silent.
She looks away into the distance, staring into the times of the far past, then closes her eyes.
Now that I muse upon it, perhaps this feeling of mine toward you is envy.
You have everything we've ever wanted... just for claiming that name as your own.
Those twinkling, innocent eyes.
I hate them still.