A dazed look from the woman stared at me.
“So you intentionally provoke others and repeat actions that will earn you hatred. Am I wrong?”
“What do you mean…?”
“Because you were betrayed.”
The woman could no longer even raise her disjointed questions.
She just stared at me blankly. At that moment, I finished my reasoning with a sigh.
“In everything you believed… I mean, you probably no longer want to believe anymore. I understand.”
Unable to open her mouth, the woman carefully observed my expression.
After some time,
The woman, turning her head silently, took another drink. I didn’t add any more words.
“…Are you the same?”
Now it was my turn to be taken aback.
My body trembled lightly, and my dazed gaze turned to the woman. She wasn’t even looking at me.
“You’re scared too. That’s why you act like an emotionally worn-out human… Why is that?”
Only then could I meet the woman’s gaze.
In front of her serious, light pink eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to speak a lie.
My gaze slightly turned to the side.
“…Because I received too much love.”
The woman simply continued to gaze at me quietly.
I gasped, needing to finish my words somehow.
“I’m afraid. Afraid of losing another person I love… because they were so precious to me.”
Only the wind brushed past my ears.
The sound of grass lying down and then rising tickled my eardrums. The somewhat heavy, humid air settled between the woman and me. Only the moon and stars in the sky were watching over us.
After a long silence, the woman’s hand moved.
With a snap, I accidentally caught the flask that flew toward me. It was the liquor bottle that the Lady Virgin Saint always kept at her lips.
It was before I could even ask what it meant.
“…We resemble each other, don’t we?”
The solitary murmuring of the woman was painfully beautiful.
Forgetful of the fact that she was looking up at the moon, I only imagined that the moon was rising on the ground. I was even embarrassed by my own self, which I had called forth, swallowing the sentiment with a cough.
There was only one way to hide my flushed face.
The flask tipped, and the liquid slid down my throat.
How much time had passed in that manner?
On the very slope where we had shared our pasts, the woman and I drew close to each other and kissed.
“This too will have to be ‘obedience.’”
With those incomprehensible words, she wore a tender smile.
“Fairly, so as not to avert our eyes from fate.”
I was in love, like a firefly at the end of spring, opening a brief festival of light.
*
I opened my eyes with heavy breathing.
How much time had passed? By feeling alone it wouldn’t be strange if several days had gone by.
But in reality, very little time had passed outside.
Clang, clang, clang!
Every time Yulen swung her sword, flames burst forth. Celin’s axe sliced through the waist of one of the faceless monsters, while the downpour of lightning from the sky was holding back the blood-red whip.
In the meantime, my body was drenched in cold sweat.
“I-an oppa, I can’t hold on any longer…!”
“Uh, uh-oh.”
I picked up my sword and hand axe with a dazed mind.
What should I do?
I couldn’t grasp it yet. Only my instincts whispered to me.
Run.
And face them fairly.
So as not to avert my eyes from fate.
Boom! The explosion knocked against my eardrums just then.
“I-an, what…!”
My reflection appeared in Yulen’s shocked eyes.
I couldn’t see. It was too fast.
But even this felt slow.
Time was flowing more slowly.
The blood-red whip flew toward Senior Elsi like a snake. Without hesitation, I threw the hand axe I was holding.
Following its trajectory, the silver Milky Way scattered.
With a thud, a silver explosion erupted around the hand axe that dug into the ground. The blood-red whips flailed chaotically, adjusting their trajectories.
The gaze of the girl, who had been composed, first showed signs of cracks.
As if the power of the hand axe stuck right in front of us was beyond their calculations.
Confusion, surprise, and anxiety.
Yes, that’s how it should be.
The attitude of a merchant facing variables should always be like that. I gathered all my strength and shouted.
“Senior Elsi, get back!”
“Yes, four!”
Then, the blood-red threads danced with a rustling sound.
Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of threads moved as if to surround me. I had already been subdued so that I couldn’t budge against this technique.
I couldn’t afford to fail twice.
Gritting my teeth, my jaw trembled. The silver aura that burned like a wildfire began to grow even larger.
This was different from before.
I had already spent enough time gathering aura into the sword. The space created with the assistance of Yulen, Celin, and Senior Elsi was my final opportunity.
The momentum was terrifying enough that even the girl couldn’t afford to ignore it.
The girl’s gesture pointed at me. Then, dozens of faceless figures simultaneously sprang from the ground toward me. A shout erupted from my mouth once again.
“Celin!”
Boom! The explosion roared across the ground.
As the faceless monster’s attention was directed toward me, it was Celin’s full-powered strike, having stored her magic. The ground cracked open, and the cries of the monsters filled the air.
Creeeek!
Had they been grounded, the majority of the monsters would have leapt to attack me. Those who couldn’t withstand the aftershock were scattered like leaves in a storm.
Even amidst it all, the blood-red threads were gradually closing in on me.
As I took a step forward,
The silver waterfall poured down, crossing the blood-red threads. For an instant, the blood-red threads that seemed to be holding on were cut and bounced away without resistance.
Release.
It was a spell created by the Master, of which there were only three on the continent. Even if the opponent was one of the Seven Deadly Sins of the Dark Cult, it could be countered as long as I had enough aura.
One, two.
Every time my sword sprinkled the Milky Way, the blood-red threads snapped and fell away. The girl now screamed with an utterly panicked face.
“Stop, stop… stop it now!”
The blood-red sun began to stretch its tentacles.
In an instant, hundreds of tentacles split and targeted me, raining down a torrent of blood. But the distance between me and the girl was already close.
Just as my sword was about to reach the girl,
Wham! The girl’s kick dug into my gut. As high as I had raised my sword, there were many openings in my body, and the strike accurately hit those gaps.
There was no time to adjust my posture. I had no choice but to take that blow.
With a splutter, blood spilled from my mouth, and my stance faltered.
Not letting that gap go, hundreds of blood-red threads ensnared me. Victory was right in front of me, but the aura I carried within my sword had tantalizingly reached its limit.
With blood still in my mouth, my body staggered as I tried to regain my balance.
My arms were already bound and could not move. The girl, while scanning the surroundings with an unguarded gaze, finally broke into a smile.
“Pfft, ah, hahaha!”
Of course, that laughter didn’t last long.
As the girl gritted her teeth, her golden eyes burned again with feelings of hatred and contempt.
Did she like me, or hate me?
She was a woman I couldn’t fathom at all. Perhaps both feelings were sincere.
“Is this all you have?! You squeezed your strength dry, but how unfortunate! I don’t know how you refined your aura in such a short time, but… it’s my victory.”
It was a blatantly accusatory comment.
The girl had every right to say that. I was a criminal in front of her and a knight facing defeat.
At that moment, the girl’s foot stomped down hard on the top of my foot.
I inadvertently held back a groan that threatened to spill out. Despite that, seeing my twisted expression, the girl beamed an adorably bright smile.
“I told you to give up sooner, didn’t I? I wished you had listened to me earlier, okay? And what’s this foot? What are you stomping on? Anyway, the aura bound to the sword has already been exhausted…”
As she spoke, the girl’s gaze slowly shifted to beneath my feet.
Suddenly, she froze.
A faint silver light was burning beneath my feet, like remnants of a flame.
Dazed, the girl’s eyes were on me. Only then did I cough up blood and laugh.
“…A surprise gift for my little sister.”
Suddenly, it felt like an explosion was erupting, and my vision turned entirely white.
No sound could be heard. The ringing in my ears testified to the strain on my eardrums. However, there was still a sight I couldn’t take my eyes off of.
The hand axe bouncing and twirling through the sky.
This was the source of the explosion. I realized during the last battle with the Archmage that I could channel aura into the hand axe through my feet.
It was that application.
The blood-red threads that could not withstand the world of white light were vanishing. The girl, biting her lips, desperately swatted at my wrist.
With a snap, my wrist twisted.
It was alright. My weapon wasn’t limited to just that.
My remaining hand quickly snagged the hand axe, which was gliding through the air.
“…Ah.”
With the girl’s mix of admiration and lament, in that world stained white.
The blood painted a rainbow.
The axe blade pierced the girl’s shoulder.
