Two figures stood side by side over the horizon.
The world at dusk was breathtakingly quiet. As the boundary between light and darkness blurred, all objects turned to shadows.
Countless corpses strewn across the ground, the rock the man sat on, my own battered body.
It was a peculiar sensation.
In the midst of a landscape painting coloring my retina, I existed. It felt as if I was observing the place I stood from beyond.
It was a brief illusion.
As I staggered and turned my body, my vision soon returned to normal.
Those brutally indifferent golden eyes were fixed on me—a gaze entangled with no hint of doubt or anxiety.
Certainty, or perhaps an assertion.
The man told me he would bring me victory. It was a promise he had never broken until now, and today, I could not help but harbor questions as well.
Wasn’t he the Master who had protected the Holy Kingdom for centuries?
The power to wield life and death seemed to edge on divine authority. No matter how strong the man was, it was uncertain whether we could truly fight back.
That was a story separate from skill.
My body, having repeated death hundreds of times, no longer heeded the brain’s commands. Furthermore, my magic had been exhausted to the point of nearly running dry.
Was he really confident in victory under such unfavorable conditions?
It was a judgment I found hard to understand.
Yet, on the other hand, I also felt I could glimpse the man’s intent.
Since the arrival of the sixth letter, he had been notably absent. Even when I was pushed to the brink by ‘greed,’ this remained true.
For this very moment.
From the very beginning, he had been contemplating the confrontation with the Saint. Unlike in the past, he must have concluded that it was worth a try against my now evolved body.
Upon realizing this, a bitter chuckle spilled from my innards.
He was reassuring, after all. The man had never spoken in vain; if left to him, everything would be resolved.
There was no need to experience countless deaths anymore.
Nor was there a reason to fight the anxiety of possibly losing the Lady Virgin Saint, nor to deliberately clutch a mind that was already worn down.
All I had to do was close my eyes and faint.
Lying there, holding my breath as I awaited the conclusion of all events—that was all.
How long had I yearned for this?
It had been so painfully exhausting. My mind had become so shattered that I could no longer distinguish between dreams and reality.
I, too, was human.
The burden suddenly placed on my shoulders was bound to be heavy and cumbersome. Each time I heard about saving the world or that the lives of those dear to me were at risk, I was plagued by an overpowering anxiety.
Yes, enough already.
I wanted to rest.
And so I—
“……You fool.”
As I turned my head again, taking a step forward.
A cold voice soaked my eardrums. An indifferent gaze jabbed into my back like a needle.
“Don’t be stubborn… I told you it’s too early for this opponent.”
My vision blurred. My trembling legs shivered, and as I stepped again, my entire body tilted precariously.
Yet I gritted my teeth and stood straight once more.
Between ragged breaths, the questions I had repeated countless times boiled up like smoke.
Why me?
“Don’t you already know? It’s impossible for you.”
Why did it have to be me?
“Entrusting it to me is the best option. I told you, sometimes you need to know when to give up.”
And why, of all things, was I insisting on this path?
“Are you really thinking of betting her life on this hopeless gamble?”
“……I will.”
There was no one to answer the repeating questions.
Only a sudden recollection surfaced, and my lips involuntarily moved.
The man’s brow furrowed slightly.
“What…?”
“I won’t run away!”
With a bang, I slammed my hands down on the ground.
I cried out like a beast.
Was it a cry, or a scream?
Hundreds of deaths had pushed my sanity to its limit. The words I could wring out with my broken mind were limited to this.
My pathetic cries erupted from my throat.
“Stop being a coward! I… will not give up on anything… I swear…!”
It was a sob-soaked wail.
The sound of my cries overflowed and raced past my throat. The screams I had suppressed for so long showed no signs of fading.
A human, nearly drowning beneath the weight of destiny, cried out in that place.
For the first time, a faint crack appeared in the man’s expression. A flicker of confusion crossed those once indifferent eyes.
As if to say he never expected this from me.
“……You promised, you promised!”
With a sharp crack, my hand hit the ground again, devoid of power.
Only rough gravel gathered in my tightly clenched fist. A dry sound echoed through the world of silence.
A drizzle soaked the earth.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that it was my tears.
“Honestly, I’m struggling. I want to quit now….”
“Then why are you being stubborn?”
The man’s response to my sobbing was as cold as ice.
But I knew. I could see a faint hint of question beginning to bloom in his golden eyes as he looked down at me.
It could be called instinct.
Because that was also ‘me.’
The man pressed further.
“You can give up. Just leave it to me… What difference does it make to rely on others for a path you can’t walk anyway?”
“……It’s my path.”
Through my ragged breaths, a gentle heat escaped.
Even with tears streaming down, I squirmed and screamed.
The world of sunset and shadows bellowed back my cries.
“I must choose! If I keep giving up one by one, how much path will remain that I can choose?”
“……It’s the best path.”
“And it’s your path…!”
Finally, my eyes locked with the man’s.
He remained expressionless, as if his heart had been worn down to the point of being a lifeless marionette.
Yet still, my anguished cries continued.
“Weren’t you scared?!”
No, perhaps it was a lament.
The questions I had bottled up inside burst forth like a scream.
“Didn’t it hurt? Wasn’t it hard? Did you never feel it was unreasonable?! Why, why me…!”
With the sound of tears falling, my head drooped.
Once again my gaze turned downward, shimmering with moisture.
“Why me…?”
My drained body struggled to even squeeze out the effort to apply pressure to my core. Only droplets of tears fell, leaving traces of overflowing emotions behind.
“I’m… I’m just the second son of a little-known rural lord… I was nothing! So why me?! Why must I bear all this suffering alone?!”
“Don’t ponder it.”
In a dry voice, the man spoke.
“Don’t deceive yourself into thinking it’s your burden alone. Everyone asks that question at least once in their lives. ‘Why me?’ Yet there are many things that happen in this world for which no reason exists. You can only think of it as fate….”
“So you accepted that?”
The man’s voice suddenly trailed off.
In the depths of his golden eyes, my image reflected.
With eyes reddened to the point of bursting, and a trickle of blood trailing from my bitten lips.
I was in a pitiful state.
“So it doesn’t hurt?”
A desperate question followed.
Please say it does.
Please say it doesn’t hurt anymore. That it’s because I’ve become used to it and now it doesn’t matter.
Hoping for those words, the man finally sighed.
“……You fool.”
“How on earth did you endure it?! How could you stand here so calmly…!”
It was almost a runaway outburst.
The man maintained his usual calm demeanor. At least until I started clawing at my chest and screaming.
“How did you do it?!”
At my child-like wail, the man’s gaze stiffened.
His eyes showed clear signs of bewilderment. This was the first time I had seen such an emotion since we met.
“Please….”
As I sobbed, I weakly begged.
“Please, tell me… how you manage not to run away.”
The man remained silent for a while.
He opened his mouth, then closed it, fidgeting a few times.
He seemed unusually hesitant.
In fact, this was the first time I had directly sought help from the man. Perhaps because of it, a flurry of emotions crossed his face.
Conflict, anger, regret, and resignation.
With a heavy sigh, the man ultimately turned his gaze from me.
“……I’m different from you. I’ve sustained so many wounds that there’s no place left for pain. Losing a few more people now doesn’t particularly impact me.”
“Then….”
Just before I could show a despondent expression.
He murmured in a voice lost in recollection.
“But, yes… I think there was a time when I thought like you.”
With that, the man slowly lifted his finger.
In a world where even light and darkness could not be distinguished, his finger pointed to beyond the horizon.
It was the direction I had been walking toward.
“If you want that much, go there… There will be memories you longed for.”
I stood vacantly, alternating my gaze between the man’s finger and beyond.
Stumbling, I stood up.
I nearly fell several times. In reality, I did topple over a couple of times, with my whole body screaming.
I could have given up, could have crumbled.
I heard a voice as if reprimanding me for being so stubborn.
Yet, I resolutely stood firm on my two feet.
As I began to take another wobbly step, the man’s low warning followed.
“……You will hurt.”
Those were words I had heard somewhere before.
My gaze flicked back. There was the man, with a more serious expression than ever.
“You’re challenging the world… On that path, the boundary will inevitably wait on the other side.”
My hazy focus straightened.
It was a daunting road. Beyond that horizon, where I could not yet see the end, my fate awaited.
“Can you avoid being swept away?”
I did not answer.
I merely took a breath and took a step forward.
One step, then another.
Dragging my feet along, I walked and walked until thick fog enveloped my surroundings.
At the edge of that pure light.
An unfamiliar man was crying like a child.
Blaming the whole world.
