Ch.133Final Battle (2)

“Miss, isn’t the moon red?”

“…Yes, it is.”

Irene’s gaze turned toward the sky. She had heard that the total lunar eclipse was supposed to be tomorrow, yet why was the moon in the sky so red now? The light from the moon overlapping with the sun was crimson.

The cycle of total lunar eclipses that came once every three years had never been wrong before, but this time, it was certain that the cycle had been disrupted.

“Will everything be alright?”

“I’m not sure. But it will be fine. Evan is there.”

She wanted to give a definite answer that everything would be fine, but she couldn’t bring herself to lie due to the anxiety lingering in a corner of her heart.

How could she not be afraid? She had just found a place to call home, and now she might become a widow overnight.

It was a ridiculous thought. Something she wouldn’t want to experience even in a dream. Irene didn’t show these feelings outwardly.

With a somewhat relaxed expression, she simply brought the Darjeeling tea—something she rarely drank—to her lips.

It had a fragrant aroma that reminded her of when she first met Evan.

Wasn’t it amusing? To think she would develop feelings from just a simple “are you okay?”

No one can predict human affairs. Thinking about how no one would believe the story of how she came to harbor feelings from such a simple encounter made her laugh involuntarily.

No one knows what the future holds. While everyone denied that a knight would kill the great dragon Mabeth, Irene decided to believe in Evan.

Just like when he saved her from dying at Biltaine’s hands, this time too… he would return.

“Lobelia would think so too, wouldn’t she?”

As Irene murmured while caressing her swollen belly, Rofena tilted her head at the unfamiliar name.

Lobelia? She asked again, having never heard such a name before. Irene smiled slightly and moved her lips softly.

“It’s the name for our baby. If it’s a girl, Lobelia… for a boy, we haven’t decided yet.”

“That’s a pretty name. I think she’ll be a very kind child.”

“I hope she doesn’t take after my personality, but after Evan’s instead.”

“…Wouldn’t that be a problem in its own way if she takes after the knight?”

If one woman were to charm multiple men… Rofena, thinking about the future of the soon-to-be-born child,

eventually shrugged her shoulders and looked back at the sky. The moon, much larger than usual, covered the sky.

What kind of day would begin after that moon sets and the sun rises again?

Strangely unable to sleep that night, Rofena’s gaze was directed toward the distant void.

#

-Everyone hits a wall at some point in their life.

It was something his father had said once. No matter how special a person is,

even someone with the strength to fly high in the sky while others merely run.

It meant that eventually, everyone encounters their limits. Kaisel remembered those words.

But he never thought that wall would come to him. Because he was special. The imperial crown prince, and later, the emperor.

However, as time passed, his thoughts changed. He no longer felt like a special person.

When he realized he was just an ordinary person with nothing special about him,

that’s when humans truly face the wall. A wall too high to climb, too solid to break.

Kaisel gripped his sword. With the blade thrust between impenetrable scales, he wiped away the blood flowing from his head.

What escaped his mouth was a clot of black blood, and he squeezed his eyes shut as he exhaled a heavy breath.

Every moment he thought about it. Every moment he fought this dragon, the thought that crossed his mind was

whether he should just give up and fall to the ground below.

He was exhausted. His hand holding the sword trembled and shook, and his lungs, barely squeezing out breath, had been torn for a long time.

After just a few fights, his body, unable to inflict even a single wound, was already broken. The sky, yes. It was the sky.

Humans cannot reach the sky. His raised fist aimed toward those purple eyes.

No matter how much mana he drew to leap, no matter how long a sword beam he shot.

In the end, he couldn’t reach it.

Is this all? Is this really all there is? He asked himself.

Whether there was any strength left to squeeze out, as he somehow deflected the approaching claws with his tattered arm,

as he thrust his sword into the gaps between the scales to prevent the winged dragon from flying higher into the sky.

What he could see with his still somewhat intact vision was a woman.

So he was still haunted by ghosts. Kaisel smiled bitterly.

His face was drenched in blood, his focus already lost. His trembling arm barely held the sword to support his body,

clinging to the dragon’s body with a frame that seemed like it would collapse with the slightest breeze.

“Give up.”

“…I can’t do that. Father told me never to give up.”

Though he didn’t think he had ever listened to his father before,

Kaisel chuckled as he readjusted his grip on the sword. Was it because his time was near?

He suddenly felt a strong desire to be filial.

His once clean clothes were now soaked in blood, and he was barely maintaining his domain with what little mana remained. He had only one attack left.

One strike, he needed to drive this into those eyes. Would that even be possible? Kaisel shook his head.

Without having tried anything yet… it was too early to give up. Hadn’t his father said?

That everyone faces a wall someday. He thought that the crisis facing him now was that wall.

That dragon was the wall, the unreachable sky. The wall and limit that had come to him after 20 years of life.

“I am the end. Even Alarr, whom you all praise so highly, could not kill me. Yet you still continue to fight? Was that woman who abandoned you so important to you?”

“…It means nothing.”

Just a passing connection. Someone he met by chance. They had little interaction, and even when they met, he never treated her sincerely. A pawn of extinction, he had only met her to use her.

If he could meet her and bring her to his side, it might help the country a little.

That’s how he treated her as the crown prince. But how should Kaisel, the individual, have treated her?

He now realized what he hadn’t understood then. Even knowing it was too late, he regretted it now.

Humans are foolish creatures. They only realize their true feelings after learning they cannot turn back time.

Wiping away the transparent stream that flowed with his blood, Kaisel smiled. She was nothing to him.

Just a woman he met by chance, a passing connection.

“And everything.”

Yet the reason he was fighting this dragon now, no matter how he looked at it, was because of the woman named Scarlet.

Kaisel didn’t deny his feelings. If he could see her face again, at the banquet hall where they first met.

On the street where they met next. In the library where they met after that. If he could face her and talk again.

He vowed that he would speak honestly then.

“How foolish.”

“You’re right. I answered earlier that I wasn’t a fool… but thinking about it now, that seems incorrect.”

The vertically slit pupil narrowed. The dragon was angered by the fact that it couldn’t read any fear in the eyes of the human facing it.

Was it only worth this much? Mabeth was extinction incarnate.

A walking end, existing annihilation. Even Alarr was tense when facing it,

yet this person, who was merely an inferior descendant, showed no fear.

Continuous flames cut through the dragon’s fire and slashed through the void. They didn’t reach the scales.

But the dragon’s flames didn’t hit Kaisel precisely either. This was why the battle was so drawn out.

Though it was an attack drawing upon magic, Kaisel was a Master.

No matter how great a dragon might be, it couldn’t easily break through the defense of a Master using all their strength.

This insect-like human clinging to its body was irritating.

It wanted to shake him off immediately, but Kaisel wouldn’t fall easily.

Not only would falling from here be problematic due to injury, but he also needed to prepare for one final attack.

The fight continued. Kaisel believed that even if he fell, someone would take his place and continue the battle.

He reflected on the sword he had wielded throughout his life.

In Kaisel’s eyes, he saw a winding path. A path stretching toward an invisible end amidst darkness.

Standing on that path was himself. The sword he always wielded, repeating motions and moving forward somewhere.

Smoothly, taking one more step forward. Shoulders slightly hunched,

the tip of the sword always aimed at the opponent’s heart. The sword that swung like flowing water was thrust again like a storm.

The sword was held in both hands. Because hands are the most freely movable parts of the human body, a sword can become anything.

If there is will, if there is heart. Humans can become the sword themselves.

Wind follows the thrust fist. Sharp and pointed wind tore through leaves. But the sword doesn’t tear anything.

In the unconscious, illusory space, Kaisel continuously checked his movements.

Sharper, faster. Watching his own movements, he found points to improve again.

The wind blew. He saw the path between. Among the countless sword paths where the sword swung, Kaisel saw one path.

A sword swung thousands, tens of thousands of times eventually finds the optimal path.

There is no sword that can cut anything. Humans eventually hit their limits.

But when hitting that limit, to surpass it and cut through something. Isn’t it about becoming one with the sword?

It was called unity of body and sword.

Kaisel no longer fixated on the sword.

The sword was merely a means to execute will; if one wanted to cut, one simply swung.

Kwagagagak-! A great flame rose from Kaisel’s body, infused with his last strand of mana.

The flame called forth a gale. Confusion clouded Mabeth’s eyes at the sudden anomaly as it was creating magic.

The sudden surge of mana, momentarily reminiscent of Alarr’s power, disrupted the balance.

Hwararuk, black flames burned in the void.

Containing part of Mabeth’s magic, the essence of black magic and flames that would destroy everything,

Kaisel didn’t flee at the sight of the flames. If his sword couldn’t pierce even those flames,

his entire life would have been a lie. He believed in himself.

Even if reality meant nothing could be trusted, the sword he had wielded until now would not lie.

The sky.

Kaisel extended his sword instead of his fist. Even if he couldn’t reach it, shouldn’t he at least try?

His skin burned. His clothes melted in the flames, enveloping the surroundings with intense heat.

Despite gritting his teeth at the pain felt with each step, he didn’t let go of the sword.

All the blue flames rising from his body were channeled into the sword. Kaisel walked again.

Kwaaaaaa-! Despite its scales melting, Mabeth didn’t stop breathing fire.

It had to melt this insect before its body was damaged. But Kaisel didn’t fall,

and seeing him continue to walk toward it while engulfed in flames, Mabeth saw Alarr in Kaisel.

That cursed warrior! Even his descendant resembled his temperament, making Mabeth sigh.

“…Scarlet.”

The sword raised to the sky drew out a blue pillar.

Clouds parted, and brilliant light poured down beneath the bisected darkness.

The last name he called, of course this strike wouldn’t kill the dragon.

But Kaisel had no doubt this attack would be the cornerstone for killing Mabeth. Please, don’t die.

Giek-

A quietly drawn line cut through the flames. A straight line, drawn without the slightest wavering, scattered the flames,

and when the black flames completely disappeared in the ensuing gale.

In the sky, a very small solid line was drawn.

“…Damn it.”

Chwaaak, seeing blood spray from the line drawn across its eye, Mabeth quietly looked at Kaisel.

The sight of him fainting in the posture of having swung down his sword, with red eyes floating amidst the burning flames, was enough to evoke memories from a thousand years ago.

The vision from the cut eye was blurry. Having shot its breath at its own body, quite a few scales had melted.

To struggle this much against just one Master, hadn’t it taken too long?

But with this, it could kill Alarr’s descendant. Mabeth’s claw moved toward Kaisel.

Slowly yet not slowly.

Shiiik- The extending claw aimed at Kaisel’s stomach.

Anise’s hand slashed through the void, but nothing changed.

Theorad dropped his sword as he blankly watched Kaisel’s body being pierced.

Bbudeudeuk, blood splattered as the claw dug in, and Mabeth tried to withdraw its hand with a satisfied expression.

However, at the same time, it felt something strange.

What it felt in its fingers was distinct pain. How could this be?

It had clearly pierced a defenseless insect, so why was it feeling such pain?

Hwararuk, what resolved this question was a single flame.

In the pitch-black darkness where nothing could be seen, a pure white flame rose on the dark scales.

Brilliant light that dyed the darkened sky with dawn again, and within that light, golden eyes glimmered.

“…Was it enough?”

To Kaisel’s question, Evan smiled faintly. If asked whether it was enough, the answer was obvious.

“More than enough. Now, you can rest.”

What had been pierced was not Kaisel’s body.

Mabeth, with its finger cut off, blankly stared at the knight standing before it.

What stood before Mabeth was a great mountain, a knight standing at its peak emitting pure white light.

It made Mabeth feel the same as when it first met Alarr. An inexplicable chill,

the instinct throughout its body screaming that it must kill this person immediately.

“Who are you?”

It had been a long time since he heard that question. When was the first time he heard it?

Tracing back through past memories, Evan quietly looked into Mabeth’s eyes.

Instead of answering, he raised his sword. Mabeth’s eyes widened upon recognizing Ascalon,

but Evan pointed with the tip of his sword to the emblem on his chest.

Thorns surrounding a shield, those thorns signifying the shield of the empire.

To the question of who he was, Evan recalled one answer.

He was… probably for the woman waiting for him at the duke’s residence,

and for that woman. For Irene Yuris,

“A guard knight.”

Just a guard knight.

Having answered thus, Evan then smiled faintly.

As if not afraid in the slightest, very leisurely.