Chapter 159: I Lost – 3
by admin
How many has it been?
The commander of the 4th Knights Order, Vergor, watched as Kailo continued to fight and pondered.
Just how many has it been, Kailo?
He remembered the day Kailo first set foot in the Punishment Unit.
For Vergor, who harbored resentment toward Jade Alan, Kailo was never someone he could view favorably.
Yet, as time passed, he had no choice but to acknowledge Kailo.
And now, looking back, he realized too late just how much suffering these young ones had endured due to the affairs of adults.
The 4th Knights Order had always followed Vergor’s orders, but he was no fool.
At some point, Kailo had become the center of the 4th Knights Order—an undeniable truth.
Vergor, who had no desire for unnecessary power struggles, didn’t bother to challenge it.
After all, respect wasn’t something that could be forced—it had to be earned.
The soldiers of the 4th Knights Order respected Vergor, but in front of Kailo, their admiration was insignificant.
And now, that same Kailo was fighting over there.
A mountain of Paladin’s corpses lay beneath the platform, and Kailo himself was drenched in blood, no longer able to hide his exhaustion.
Yet, he did not give up.
As a knight, as a human being, his figure was nothing short of awe-inspiring.
People applaud small achievements.
For greater achievements, they cheer.
When someone accomplishes something incredible, rumors spread like wildfire.
But when faced with an overwhelming feat—no one dares to make a sound.
Vergor gazed at the pile of corpses.
Could this truly be the work of a single person?
The scene was as if a small battle had erupted.
At a glance, over fifty bodies lay scattered.
The only sound echoing in the vast square was the clash of swords.
—Thud!!
Vergor frowned.
A small dagger once again lodged itself into Kailo’s abdomen.
“…Shit…”
Before he knew it, even a curse slipped from his lips.
He had never particularly liked Kailo Alan, but watching him walk into certain death—this was not something he could simply stand by and witness.
Is this really okay, Kailo?
You fought so desperately to survive. You endured so much to return to the North.
…And now, after all that, you’re walking toward death again without hesitation?
As the dagger stabbed into him, Kailo lashed out like a wild beast.
With a sudden burst of power, another knight before him collapsed.
“…Next.”
Kailo spoke, his voice trembling for the first time.
When he spat, a mixture of blood splattered onto the ground.
Even he could feel himself reaching his limit.
Vergor clenched his teeth.
On the day Vivian was taken, there was no justification.
The Las Order, who branded her a witch, and even Vivian herself had willingly surrendered to them.
Looking back now, it was a sacrifice.
She had given herself up to prevent meaningless bloodshed.
But back then, they hadn’t understood.
Vergor had assumed that Vivian Rondor must have had her own reasons for surrendering.
And deep inside, the coward within him had lacked the courage to act.
Did he dare to defy his lord’s orders and step into battle?
What if she really was a witch—was it worth throwing away his life for?
If he just closed his eyes… couldn’t he let this incident pass?
But now, he understood.
Watching Kailo fight, he finally understood.
This was what it meant to be a knight.
The boldness to walk into death for one’s lord.
The will to stand by one’s convictions.
“…Ha.”
Vergor let out a small laugh.
Kailo’s words from long ago had been right.
The South was left with nothing but pathetic knights.
That was why they had lost the war against the Alan family.
Not that it meant he could step forward now.
Kailo had accepted the judicial duel.
Intervening now would only bring harm to him.
Kailo had to claim an honorable victory—only then could Vivian Rondor be freed from the false accusation of being a witch.
…And looking at the countless Paladins Kailo had already slain, it was clear.
The God Las had already chosen to side with Kailo.
But that wasn’t the wager Kailo had made.
He had challenged them—demanding they verify Vivian’s innocence through combat.
And the Archbishop, taking Kailo at his word, had ordered duel after duel to confirm it.
Regret washed over Vergor.
He should have protected Vivian Rondor that day.
No matter what she said, he should not have let her be taken.
As a knight commander, he was only realizing this now.
Just then, his lieutenant, Coleman, came rushing toward him.
“Commander, a battle has broken out at the North Gate!”
“What?”
“Valon, Duran, and Yanes, along with some soldiers, are fighting the Paladins.”
Vergor’s eyes widened in shock, but Coleman’s expression was grave.
Vergor turned his gaze back to Kailo.
Could this, too, be part of the storm he had stirred?
Vergor had to think quickly.
If he led his soldiers into battle now, it would escalate into a full-fledged war.
And in such a scenario, there would be no guarantee for Kailo and Vivian’s survival.
…But the fact that a battle had broken out wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
No matter how strong Kailo was, he couldn’t escape his current situation.
He was destined to die here.
To change that fate, he needed an opening.
And the fight Valon had started—it was exactly that.
But who would he choose to protect?
Vivian, who might be a witch?
Kailo, who might be under her influence?
Or the Las Order, who had long terrorized Loctana?
“…Ha.”
A hollow chuckle escaped him.
In the end, the truth didn’t matter.
That Northern man had taught him that.
He had to act on his heart.
“…Coleman. Take your unit and Yanes’ unit—head to the North Gate.”
“Commander, are you really not going to stop this battle—”
“Subdue them. If you can’t subdue them, kill them.”
For the first time, Vergor truly saw it.
The Paladins heading toward the North Gate.
This meant the Las Order was already aware of the fight.
Yet, they weren’t making a big move—likely trying to suppress it quietly.
“The battle has begun. If we lose here, we’ll all be branded as heretics.”
Vergor’s voice was firm.
“Coleman, gradually expand the battlefield. You understand what I mean, don’t you?”
Coleman hesitated for a moment, but then, as if making up his mind, he nodded resolutely.
“Understood.”
***
“Kill them!!”
Valon roared at the top of his lungs.
His body, too, was covered in blood.
What had started as a fight to free Kailo had long since escalated.
Valon, as if venting years of frustration, had thrown away his hesitation and swung his sword with abandon.
He cut down the fanatics who had taken Vivian Rondor.
He struck down the invaders trampling over his homeland.
Among those slain by the Las Order, many had been the very people he respected—elderly women who had treated him with kindness.
Now, he was finally avenging them.
And the relief he felt was overwhelming.
The battle that had begun at the North Gate was slowly spreading toward the square.
If he adjusted his angle just right, he could see Kailo from between the buildings.
Even now, Kailo bled atop the platform, guarding Vivian Rondor.
Vallon felt tears threatening to well up.
…That’s right, Kailo.
That’s who you are.
Guilt over leading his friend into this war gnawed at him.
But Valon had made up his mind.
Even if he died today, he would fight to the end.
That was the least he could do—to show Kailo his friendship.
And at last, he understood.
Why Kailo had never hesitated to risk his life.
Where he had found the courage, time and time again.
When one has a clear purpose, staking one’s life on it is liberating.
Fear and hesitation only weigh you down.
Casting them aside—there was nothing more freeing.
“Valon!!”
A familiar voice rang out in the distance.
At the same time, Martin drew his sword and joined the battle, pushing past the people in his way.
Without hesitation, he swung his blade, as if pouring out all the pent-up emotions he had been holding back.
Valon also fought his way through the battlefield to reach him.
As Martin approached, his voice trembled as he spoke.
“Kailo…! Kailo…!!”
Valon immediately understood what Martin was afraid of.
Even from a distance, it was clear that Kailo was not in his right state.
His entire body was soaked in blood, and his stance was unsteady, barely holding itself together.
Even as he was pushed to his absolute limits, he continued to fight.
“…Let’s go to Kailo.”
Valon pushed aside his thoughts about Kailo and addressed Martin.
Martin’s face was filled with countless worries, but he forcefully suppressed them.
A resolute determination settled in his eyes.
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
***
—Thud!!
There was no pain anymore.
A sword pierced through his stomach once more.
His mind felt hazy.
Even this grievous wound didn’t seem like a big deal anymore.
His only goal was to cut down the enemy in front of him.
He swung his sword, slicing through the eyes of a knight whose helmet had already been knocked off.
“Arghhh!!”
As the knight screamed, Kailo pulled a dagger from his waist and shoved it into the knight’s open mouth.
—Thud!!
Another fleeting moment of rest.
Only then did he finally look down at his own body.
His clothes were already tattered, ripped to shreds.
His exposed body was covered in scars.
His stomach had multiple stab wounds, and his pants were soaked in blood, making them heavy.
Why was he like this again?
“Hic… Ugh…!”
Ah, right.
That sobbing sound.
Vivian.
When he turned to look at her, her face was a complete mess.
Tears, snot, and even his splattered blood had dirtied her face.
He had never seen her in so much pain before.
Seeing her like that, he found himself chuckling involuntarily.
He looked down at his own body again.
He wanted to tell her not to cry, but now that he saw himself, he had no right to say that.
If he didn’t want this, he should have avoided ending up like this.
He had never been this injured before.
Not even when he fought against the Eight Knights.
That alone was enough for him to realize it.
Death was approaching.
“…Huh?”
Suddenly, the ground beneath him rose.
Realizing that he had lost his balance, he quickly tried to steady himself—
But his left knee, already bent, refused to straighten.
“…Ah, damn.”
He muttered to himself.
What would Kayla say if she saw him like this?
She had cried and protested so much when he told her he was coming back to this land.
Eleanor had shed tears behind him, too.
Would she resent him now?
Reginald, Ragon—same for them.
He regretted not being a better older brother to them.
He really had been a fool.
His mind told him otherwise, but his body always followed his emotions.
Perhaps this contradiction, this foolishness he could feel within himself… was something he had been trying to rationalize as a curse all this time.
But now, he understood.
“…Vivian.”
He turned back to look at her.
Even as she cried, she looked so unbearably lovely.
Yeah.
He could admit it now.
At first, he had been drawn to her.
Maybe it was her beauty, or maybe it was her helplessness.
He had been drawn to her.
But being drawn to someone and falling in love were two different things.
When had he started loving her?
When he saw her struggling desperately?
When he saw her rise up again and again?
When she, once crushed by her vassals, refused to back down and kept fighting?
When her growth filled him with pride?
…When trust, as deep as their past hatred, had formed between them?
He didn’t know.
But he knew now that she was important to him.
“I-I beg you, Kailo… I-I’ll plead like this… Just, please, stop…!”
He listened to her words in silence before pressing his weight onto his sword and pushing himself back up.
“…Vivian. You seem to be forgetting something…”
“Stop…! Please, just stop getting up…!!”
“…I’ve never listened to a single thing you’ve said. You… never listened to me either, did you?”
Moments like these made their past conflicts oddly convenient.
When he didn’t want to listen to her, all he had to do was bring up their past fights.
Vivian took a deep breath and shouted.
“Even if you protect me!!”
Her voice had long since become hoarse.
“…If you’re not there, what does it even matter!!”
“I… If you die… I’ll die too.”
He laughed at her again.
“…If you don’t escape from this situation, you’re going to die anyway.”
“…That’s not a threat, Vivian. I’m going to save you first, no matter what.”
Once again, he turned to face the Archbishop
“…Next?”
Beside the Archbishop, Baristan continued muttering something under his breath.
The priest’s expression twisted as he fell silent for a long moment.
Kailo pressed him again.
“Will you surrender now?”
“Will you surrender now?”
Watching Kailo refuse to give in, Vivian finally realized—she had been trying to persuade the wrong person.
Instead, she turned toward the crowd watching them and cried out.
“How much more!!”
The people, focused on Kailo’s actions, flinched in surprise.
“How much more proof do you need to believe me!!”
The murmurs among the crowd grew louder.
“I confessed to being a witch only because I was forced by the Las Order!! But I cannot stay silent any longer!! How much longer must I suffer for you to accept my innocence!!”
Vivian knew she was not innocent.
She was a witch.
But if it was for Kailo, she would tell any lie.
She had to pressure the Order into backing down.
“You cowards have lived in fear, letting them trample over your families, even though I gave everything to protect Loctana!! And in return, they tell me to die!!”
Vivian finally let out what had always festered within her heart.
“…You pathetic cowards…!! How much longer will you abandon your own humanity… How much longer will you cower in fear…?”
As a ruler, those were words she should never have spoken.
“Even the filthy witches… would be less selfish than you.”
The people’s gazes slowly shifted toward the mountain of corpses Kailo had built.
Murmurs of doubt and unrest began to spread.
Somewhere, the sound of clashing swords could be heard.
Loctana was growing more chaotic—slowly, but surely.
“…The witch is making her last desperate cry.”
At that moment, a familiar knight stepped onto the platform.
Leopold.
He was a knight under the Las Church’s Loctana branch, serving as Baristan’s protector.
“The God is merely granting Kailo a slow death. His sins are too great for a clean death.”
Kailo silently pulled his greatsword from the ground.
Leopold spoke.
“This ends here. I will grant you peace. Your suffering ends now.”
“…That sounds nice. I don’t… want to be in pain anymore either.”
Kailo responded.
Another duel, one he could not stop, was about to unfold.
At the same time, an overwhelming sense of dread seized Vivian.
Leopold was not an opponent to be taken lightly.
But then—
“Kailo!!!”
From the distance, someone shouted his name.
Vivian turned toward the sound.
A regiment of soldiers was marching into the square.
She knew who they were.
It was the Fourth Knights.
They were fighting against the paladins, advancing toward Kailo.
People, terrified by the battle, scrambled in confusion, having nowhere to escape.
Yet, as the soldiers struck back against the paladins, a spark of determination seemed to ignite in their eyes.
Martin, the owner of the voice, shouted once more.
“Kailo!! You idiot!! Fight back!!”
Such an insult was something Kailo had often hurled at the trio.
Whenever he taught them swordsmanship, he always had curses on the tip of his tongue.
—Bang!!
“Ugh!”
Perhaps those words helped—Kailo took a step forward.
Leopold’s fierce presence wavered for a moment.
Seizing the opportunity, Kailo spoke to Vivian once more.
“…I wonder if you remember.”
His voice was hazy, almost dreamlike.
Even in the midst of this intense battle, his thoughts seemed to be elsewhere.
“I told you to watch.”
His voice was already lost in the past.
“…I don’t waver over things like this.”
“…Kailo…”
“…Torment me all you want. I’ll endure it all. I’ll show you that I can withstand everything. To prove… that you were weak.”
Vivian hadn’t forgotten.
After losing her mother, when she could only hide in bed and cry, Kailo had come to her one day.
And he had said those exact words.
That he would prove she was weak.
That she should watch how strong he was.
Perhaps from that day on, Vivian had burned with a sense of rivalry toward him.
She had struggled desperately, unwilling to lose to him—again and again.
“…You do cry an awful lot…”
Kailo muttered.
“…But I think… you were stronger than I thought.”
Her throat tightened.
She really had struggled.
Becoming a witch was part of that struggle.
Eliminating her vassals had been for that same reason.
She had refused to kneel before her political enemies, had never given up—all because of Kailo.
She had never imagined he would see that as strength.
After all, in her eyes, no one was stronger than Kailo.
—Bang!!
While Kailo was lost in thought, Leopold charged at him again… but Kailo’s brutal sword strike forced him to retreat once more.
“Where… is this strength coming from…?”
Kailo answered, as if speaking to both of them.
“…Because I can’t lose either.”
“You risked your life for me… If I give up now… then I lose, don’t I?”
Vivian had no reply.
She knew that no words could sway Kailo at this moment.
The Archbishop, who had been watching the battle in the square, suddenly stood up and shouted.
“Leopold! Why can’t you finish him off quickly?! Isn’t he as good as a corpse?!”
“Ugh…!”
Feeling the pressure from those words, Leopold glanced at the square before rushing at Kailo with full force.
“Kailo!!”
Vivian also cried out his name.
At that moment, Kailo, who had been staggering, steadied his stance.
“…Hup!”
And with a single battle cry, his body soared into the air.
Vivian could only stare blankly.
She had no idea where he was drawing out this last ounce of strength.
In an instant, Kailo closed the distance and slammed his sword down in a fierce vertical strike.
Leopold, caught off guard while preparing his own attack, instinctively raised his weapon to defend.
But he couldn’t withstand the power behind it.
His sword twisted under the force, and Kailo swiftly recovered his own weapon, spinning with the momentum.
—Slash!
Kailo’s sword pierced through Leopold’s heavy armor.
Crimson blood immediately gushed from Leopold’s abdomen.
Yet Kailo’s swift movements didn’t stop there.
“W-Wait!”
Leopold cried out, but Kailo, as if lost in a trance, adjusted his stance once more.
“Kailo!! Finish it!!”
From afar, Martin shouted.
“Raise your sword!!”
Even Vergor gave his command.
“Kailo, please!!”
Vivian cried out as well.
…But at that moment, a strange pain spread through her lower abdomen.
—Snap.
Something disappeared.
“…Huh?”
Vivian suddenly felt the sensation returning to her left hand.
…No.
At that same moment, Kailo’s sword slipped from his grasp.
—Thud!!!
Leopold seized the opening.
A crimson bloom of blood erupted from Kailo’s back.
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