episode_0000

The castle crumbles.

Red dust swirls around the once magnificent palace of the princess.

As the smoke disperses, the broken outer walls are revealed.

Deep sword marks mar the walls as if a giant beast had clawed at them.

Beneath this sight lie the bodies of countless knights.

A shattered sword is impaled upon one of the corpses.

I know that sword.

It’s the dagger the princess, Irina, gave me.

I swore to protect her with that dagger for life.

And today,

that oath has been fulfilled.

When Prince Seon fell, the bloodbath began.

I bought time for her by holding off the prince’s army alone.

In the end, I may have fallen pitifully to the ground, but it doesn’t matter.

I bought enough time.

By now, she must have escaped the castle as well.

To protect one’s lord and die in the process.

Perhaps the most honorable death a knight could ask for.

Thinking so humbly, I close my eyes.

“….”

However, my barely closed eyelids start to twitch slightly.

A faint vibration reaches my previously closed ears.

Surely it’s a sentry trying to confirm my demise.

A thick spear will pierce my body.

Thinking this, my heart, which had stopped, starts beating again.

But the vibration wasn’t from the heavy footsteps of a sentry.

It was much lighter.

Gentler.

More precarious.

With an uneasy premonition, I reluctantly open my eyes.

In that moment, what I see is my battered palm.

My hand, worn down like a rag from all the hardships.

Above it descends a familiar hand.

How could I forget?

The hand that I barely saved with my life.

Silver strands of hair cascade over my dented armor.

Between each strand, a subtle fruity scent wafts through.

Eventually, a warm breath descends upon my hardened face.

“Vale….”

A tired voice.

But no matter how tired, how could I not recognize it?

I was glad.

And resentful.

Thus, the fate of the empire is sealed.

The last noble opposing the prince on the northern front has surrendered.

“Why on earth have you returned…?”

I ask her with a tender voice.

In my heart, I wanted to ask her dozens, no, hundreds of times.

But even my dying body wouldn’t allow it.

I just manage to lift my gaze to Irina’s face.

Thanks to the looming shadow, her emerald eyes sparkle even more.

She gently whispers in a composed voice as she rests my head on her lap.

“I’ve thought about it countless times while fleeing.”

She was clearly trying to smile.

Yet, tears welled up in her reddened eyes.

“But in the world I envisioned creating… ”

Finally, tears stream down her cheeks.

Those tears fall like raindrops onto my frozen face.

“I don’t think I can do it without you….”

I fought on the northern front for years.

Then, I served as the weak princess’s guard for a year.

In the end, I gained nothing.

Just a miserable death and the emptiness of failing to protect my lord.

The once dusty palace stood before us.

The wind blew away the dust, revealing the broken outer walls.

Underneath those walls, brilliant sunlight poured in.

The sunlight enveloped the two of us.

Thanks to it, I could clearly see her final appearance.

The princess wore a pure white dress.

But red blood seeped from her abdomen.

“….!”

Irina’s dress turned crimson.

Amidst the flowing blood, a dagger lodged in her belly catches my eye.

That dagger was neither the prince’s nor his soldiers’.

It was the dagger I had gifted her in the past for self-defense.

“Why…, why on earth…!”

I shouted endlessly.

My blood boiling.

Consciousness fades.

Yet, I still couldn’t understand her choice.

“How did I fail to protect you….”

In the final moments of my life,

my last words changed.

No longer were they honorable phrases like ‘Please survive.’

Even that was not allowed for me.