‘…Looks like it’s going to rain.’
Sitting in the driver’s seat, Carmondorf glanced at the sky outside the window.
– Grumble…
Dark clouds moved busily across the sky, stirring ominously. Noticing the unusual sight, Carmondorf got out of the driver’s seat and approached the trunk of the car.
“Hm…”
He was searching for an umbrella. Watching the sky, which seemed ready to unleash heavy rain at any moment, he felt a strong instinct to protect his master from getting wet. Carmondorf’s hands moved quickly as he rummaged around for the umbrella.
– Thud!
Finally, pulling out two umbrellas, Carmondorf closed the trunk with a casual motion. Gripping one of the umbrellas tightly in one hand, his gaze turned toward the roof of the Academy Main Building where his master, the Adelhaid Duke, would be.
Perhaps due to the gloomy weather, faint shouts from someone on the roof had been audible for some time.
Thanks to that, Carmondorf vaguely gathered that the Adelhaid Duke was confronting someone on the roof.
It would be best to bring an umbrella to the Adelhaid Duke before the rain started to fall.
With that thought, Carmondorf briefly looked at the roof before moving toward the Academy Main Building, where several agents were taking away captured terrorists.
– Then why are you standing over there—!!
No, he intended to go.
“……”
Carmondorf stopped in his tracks. He was barely a step away from the vehicle he had exited. His eyes began to tremble uncontrollably.
He didn’t understand why. There had been no omen, and there was no reason for it in the first place.
Carmondorf was inexplicably overwhelmed with extreme anxiety.
This feeling stemmed from remnants of a past deeply buried within him. He did not know what it was.
“Damn it…”
Carmondorf muttered that curse, chewing on the discomfort brought by the sticky summer air heralding the rainy season.
His feet, which had hesitated in place, began to move again.
This occurred long after that.
– Grumble…
The sky trembled. It seemed likely to rain, but no raindrops had yet fallen.
“Answer me, Lucio…”
The weather appeared to reflect Cesar’s mood.
“You know just how much of a scum that guy is…”
Like water barely maintaining surface tension in a cup, ready to spill over with just a single drop. Even the ominous clouds hanging heavily above looked as though they would pour down rain at any moment, and Cesar’s only remaining eye was glaring at me with bloodshot intensity.
“As we are drained on the battlefield, he sits back comfortably and makes cruel decisions… declaring it a national resolution, offering up a sacrifice while shedding tears… flaunting all his despicable pretenses!!”
“……”
“And on top of that, he has the gall to take on the title of a war hero! Enjoying all the glory and accolades born from our sacrifices! While disregarding our suffering, he doesn’t even raise his voice for the compensation we are due—!!”
Cesar’s eyes reddened. The muzzle of the handgun in my hand slowly began to lower.
“That bastard, Adelhaid… You know very well that he has put me in this situation… He is most aware of the injustices we suffered….”
“……”
“Why are you standing next to Adelhaid…? What the hell is that all about…”
Cesar’s voice started to tremble violently. Hot tears fell from his only remaining eye, like flames engulfing him.
Even while Cesar’s tears drenched the barren rooftop.
“……”
I couldn’t respond. Cesar shouted as his body quaked.
“Answer me—!!”
“C-Cesar… I…”
I… I…
…I am.
“Lucio. If you haven’t lost our friendship yet… If you haven’t forgotten the camaraderie we shared with our fallen comrades… If you haven’t forgotten what you lost on the battlefield.”
Cesar pointed somewhere with his chin. I numbly turned my head in that direction.
“Turn the barrel around. Aim at that devil of a man beside you, who’s alive and well.”
Where my gaze met Cesar’s, and everyone else’s.
There stood Maximilian von Adelheit, the Adelhaid Duke, looking bewildered as he watched Cesar.
“I have lost my things…”
What have I lost?
‘I lost everything.’
Helena, I lost you. You were everything to me.
On that day, my world crumbled.
In order for a person to forget a fleeting memory, a more intense impression must cover it.
It was unfortunate. No matter what happened, nothing remained as intense as losing Helena. Thus, I carried it with me for a lifetime.
I had to live my entire life with that one moment in memory. Therefore, even I became collateral.
I lost everything. All of my everything…
My hand, holding the handgun, slowly lowered.
“…Lucio, Professor?”
“Professor Antorelli?”
Professor Esther and Chief Curbin looked at me with anxious expressions. There was trembling in their eyes.
I shifted my gaze back to Cesar. He looked at me, as I was pointing the gun to the floor, trying to force a trembling smile at the corners of his lips.
“Yes, Lucio… We are of the same kind.”
“Of the same kind…”
“You must have been living your life as you saw fit. It’s a way to forget your pain. But, Lucio… You overlooked one thing.”
Cesar’s following words cut sharply.
“Hatred comes back.”
It struck my ears.
“No matter how hard you try to live a new life, no matter how desperately you try to forget the horrific memories of the battlefield…! The hatred that you have postponed will eventually return.”
It just happened to be now.
Cesar’s mouth fell shut. I did the same. Unlike before when Cesar and I shouted at each other while pointing our guns at each other, now no words were exchanged.
I looked down at the floor of the rooftop. I could feel emotions outside my will raging inside my heart.
“Lucio. Think again about where the barrel of the handgun you hold is meant to point….”
Where my barrel should point.
– The deaths of the 858th Magic Engineering Infantry Battalion were sacrifices that stemmed from their noble and honorable hearts, not casualties of someone pushing them to fall like leaves.
Where my barrel should point.
– So, I won’t apologize.
…My postponed hatred must rightly find its target.
– Well, I won’t be apologizing. Who’s that supposed to be, anyway? I don’t know that person.
That place is none other than…
“……”
Suddenly, that thought crossed my mind.
– Priest Lucio. I… I hold my students very dear.
With my words shackled by hatred, the right usage of that barrel would be to shoot the Adelhaid Duke.
– So, Priest Lucio. Please promise me one thing.
While that thought filled my mind, the memories of you, who proudly hold your ground in that place.
– If the war ends and I can’t return, I want you to take over the Theology Department for me.
The promise I must protect with all that remains of my life, to you…
Is that a coincidence?
“Cesar.”
“Lucio.”
I lifted my head.
– Click.
As the muzzle that had been pointing at the floor moved as well.
As I lifted the handgun again, Cesar glowered at me with eyes that had instantaneously changed.
“Lucio… you’ve chosen to become the enemy’s dog, haven’t you.”
“Cesar. I’m sorry, but I cannot abandon the precious student I promised to protect. If you truly wish for the end… then yes.”
The one I shared life-and-death with, the one I shared purpose with, Cesar.
And the one who was everything to me, Helena.
I had to choose between the two, and I made my choice.
“If you really want the end… if you cannot release my student…!”
“You…”
“I will gladly shoot you.”
Silence enveloped us. Like the wind blowing through a barren desert, the searing heat swirled through my head.
And what the wind brought was not just warm heat.
“P-Professor…”
A voice reached me. A thin and trembling voice. I turned my gaze toward the source of the sound.
“A-Antorelli Professor…”
It was Laura. With tears welling in her eyes, Laura moved her trembling lips to speak to me.
“Is what he’s saying true…?”
“…Adelhaid student.”
“Is what he’s saying really true…? Did you really go through that because of my father…?”
“……”
“Please answer me… Please…”
Tears rolling down Laura’s cheeks fell onto her white skin. I stared at her blankly.
“Professor Antorelli…”
Laura’s sobbing voice pierced my ears.
My hand holding the handgun began to tremble slightly. I struggled to strengthen my grip, fearful that I might drop the gun.
“Please answer me…”
“…Laura, Laura von Adelheit.”
It was a truth she would eventually need to know. Even if she had to know it, there was a time I foolishly believed I could prevent it.
Of course, it was foolish thinking that was revealed at last. I took a slow breath, calming my trembling breath.
And then, looking at Laura.
“What Cesar said… about the things your father did…”
Perhaps, I might be able to tell a lie. Perhaps I could deceive both Laura and myself, thinking about the big wounds she would have to carry, and we could live like that.
And I knew better than anyone that it was almost a fantasy. I knew that if I were to postpone hatred here, it would come back like a boomerang, creating even greater hatred.
So, that was it.
“It’s all true.”
I had to choose the lesser evil to avoid the worst.
“It’s all true.”
The moment those words reached her, Laura von Adelheit barely managed to gather her hazy thoughts.
It was her instinctive sense to not lose her mind due to Professor Antorelli’s words, rather than a reason that had been paralyzed.
Laura trembled as she opened her lips repeatedly.
Nothing came out of that pitiable mouth.
“Ah, a…”
Only foolish words came forth.
Laura’s eyes, which had been shaking uncontrollably, finally shifted to the side of Professor Antorelli.
Her gaze, trembling and desperately rolling, finally stopped moving at one place.
“…Father.”
There stood Maximilian von Adelheit, her father, whom Laura loved as family and deeply respected as a proud father.
Hearing Laura’s call, the Adelhaid Duke gazed at her with a dazed expression. The hand that held his cane drooped down, and his gaze, now vacant, looked at her in bewilderment.
At that sight of the Adelhaid Duke, Laura opened her mouth.
“Why… why did you do such a thing?”
The Adelhaid Duke was at a loss for words. It was not because he had nothing to say to Laura.
“Why do you look at me… your father… with such eyes?”
There was clearly a thick layer of hatred and betrayal in the way Laura looked at him.
Faced with that gaze, the Adelhaid Duke, the 7th-circle Archmage and hero of the Great War, simply felt…
“Father… what you did is truly the worst…”
He was only a father who was assaulted by an extreme sense of betrayal and humiliation from his precious daughter, receiving a loathsome gaze from the daughter he cherished more than anything else in the world.
It was unimaginably painful, to a degree he had never imagined.
“L-Laura…”
The Adelhaid Duke felt a pain in his heart for the first time in his life. He felt the agony of losing his daughter’s respect and love, something he could never trade for anything in this world.
A desire to cut out his own heart, such pain.
