episode_0022

000

Cleon opened his eyes.

A fluffy and soft sensation enveloped his entire body.

He immediately knew that the place he was lying was not his usual lodging or the servant’s room.

If he turned his head or gaze, he could see Sasha sleeping next to him on the bed, her face buried in it.

Where is this place? The smell of medicine stings his nose. He had smelled it somewhere before.

The silver moonlight pouring in through the open window sufficiently brightened the room where the lamp was not lit.

His body doesn’t move properly.

The sensation of ‘pain’, which wasn’t numbed, was screaming from all over his body.

“… …”

──He slowly organizes his thoughts.

Clearly, he─ fought Albein on the ruins.

And at the last moment─ he used the core of the sword to stop the rampaging Holy Sword─

─He destroyed the Holy Sword Caliburn.

As soon as those thoughts reached him, Cleon abruptly raised his upper body.

Thud! A sound is heard, and Cleon sees something colliding with his forehead.

It was the board that doctors used to write prescriptions and other documents.

“You mustn’t. Please rest.”

A voice with almost no emotion.

It was a voice he had heard just a while ago.

When Cleon shifts his gaze there, ‘Perdia’ is standing, revealing herself from the shadows.

In the ‘nurse’ outfit he had seen before.

However, it was certain that this place was not a doctor’s office.

A large room, dilapidated furniture, yet luxurious interior.

It was the mansion of ‘Count Gordian’, where Cleon was temporarily staying─ It was the count’s room.

“…Perdia. What on earth is this…”

Cleon, who was laid back on the bed by her, demands a detailed explanation of the situation.

As if understanding that, Perdia quietly took out a syringe and injected it into Cleon’s arm.

“Fractures all over the body. Bruises, lacerations, fractures. Even burns. Cleon-sama is now… truly a walking general hospital.”

Cleon is silent at Perdia’s merciless words. No, clearly, the angelic magic that Albein released at the end was so intense that it burned his entire body.

That’s why he covered his entire body with magic to temporarily use it like armor to withstand the impact.

Could it be that the attack that seeped into his body through magic without him knowing damaged his body that much?

“…Don’t you remember?”

“─What are you talking about?”

Perdia wears a slightly mystical expression and brings something leaning against the window closer to Cleon.

─Galatea.

However, unlike before, golden parts have been added to various parts of the handle and cross guard.

It was a decoration that reminded one of Albein’s Holy Sword.

“What is it…”

However, Cleon, who doesn’t know the cause of it, quietly tilts his head.

Then, Perdia has a troubled expression for a moment─

“Hey-. I made medicine.”

A red-haired girl who throws open the door of the count’s room and enters.

Lyla Flamewatch, holding medicine that shines in various colors that looks dangerous to even look at, in her hand.

Her face is gaunt, as if she hasn’t slept for days.

“Lyla.”

“─Cleon. You’re awake.”

Lyla looks at Cleon like that and briefly makes eye contact, as if she has no energy.

She puts the medicine bottle on the table and lowers her heavy butt onto the chair next to it.

“Hoo-oo.”

Lyla sighs.

She might have looked good if she had a cigarette in her hand.

“─How many days has it been?”

Cleon asked Lyla like that.

The surrounding situation was so different from what he remembered.

“5 days. You were sleeping soundly.”

“To be exact, you slept for 115 hours.”

After hearing the two people’s answers, his thoughts stop for a moment. Then he tries to raise his body again─

Creak-! With that sound, his entire body screams in pain.

“…Keuk…”

He tried his best to minimize the sound coming from his mouth, but even Cleon couldn’t move his body while enduring that pain, and eventually his body falls onto the bed.

Perdia, who watched the scene, looked at a loss with a pitiful expression.

Lyla, on the other hand, burst out laughing while clutching her stomach.

For a while, the sound of a woman’s crying echoed in the moonlit room.

─After laughing like that for a long time. Lyla wiped the tears from her eyes and continued talking.

“Albein was caught. By the ‘Guild’… no, the ‘Kingdom’.”

“──I see.”

It was somewhat expected. According to his promise with Quon, not killing him was both the mercy and the punishment he could give.

However, in the case of Albein, a hero who disgraced the Guild and the Kingdom—no, the former hero Albein now.

What price will he pay?

“And─Ruti Sions is also stepping down from the position of Guild Master.”

“──….”

When Cleon doesn’t react. Lyla conveys the detailed story.

“It seems to be because of the responsibility for the situation where she couldn’t stop Albein. The adventurers protested, but it’s already been decided.”

Cleon listens to Lyla’s story while lying still. Perdia’s figure, preparing medicine and meals next to him, gradually comes into view, but.

Is that medicine the type you have to drink─? That kind of uneasy premonition pops into his head.

Lyla, seeing that reaction, puts her hands on her hips and looks at Cleon.

“You don’t seem to care much about her?”

Cleon quietly looks at Lyla and answers.

“I don’t need to worry about Ruti. She’s worked too hard for the past 10 years.”

It may be the only positive impact Albein had on the city.

“The fact that you’re here… what about Quon?”

“She’s in the kitchen. She said she’s been waiting for you to wake up and keeps making side dishes. I wish she would stop using me like a freezer.”

Silence flows between the two people for a moment. Without the essence of the story being grasped, Lyla seemed to be hiding something.

Cleon couldn’t bear it and asked.

“What happened? Exactly.”

“… Haa. I have no choice.”

Lyla sits back in her chair and opens her mouth again.

Immediately after the hero Albein was defeated by the Magic Swordsman Cleon─

001

“Haa… haa…”

The area had been completely ruined by the aftermath of the fight.

The area near the floor was burned black by the pillar of light.

Cleon was the only one standing there, supporting himself.

Cleon, with his exhausted body, pulled out Galatea, which was stuck in the ground.

The rain had already stopped, but the weight of the water that had soaked his entire body felt so heavy.

Just like Albein, who had created a blade of magic a while ago.

His whole body was burned by the rampaging Holy Sword, and in order to get close to Albein, who was emitting sacred magic after becoming one with an angel.

Cleon poured out all his magic to create armor to protect himself.

Even so, the armor was being shaved off little by little.

It was so damaged that it was impossible to protect its advancing master.

To simply compare, it was sacred magic and dark magic.

Moreover, since it was being emitted from an angel, not a human, it couldn’t be helped that Cleon’s dark magic was pushed back due to compatibility.

That’s why he desperately drew out and used magic to protect his body even a little.

It was a natural course for magic exhaustion and exhaustion to occur.

Cleon sighed and knelt down on one knee, which was trembling while he was holding it, and it was all he could do to support his body without falling over.

“Hoo-oo…”

─It’s over.

Various thoughts filled his mind, but the first thing that came to his mind was this.

What will happen to Albein after this?

What should he do?

There were so many things to think about.

But to do that, Cleon was too tired. He was too exhausted both physically and mentally to think about everything.

At that moment- there was something touching his hand.

Rolling on the ground, what he grabbed was the ‘core of the sword’.

“… …”

Cleon looks down at his hand.

If it was the ‘core of the sword’ that he and Lyla found in the abandoned mine and activated- it should have already disappeared due to the actions of the previous time.

That was- another core─ Caliburn’s core.

As his mind suddenly became clear, he looked at Albein’s Holy Sword, and he could see it gradually disappearing and its existence being absorbed into the bead that was the core.

─The hero’s notes found in the Count’s house.

Cleon naturally recalls the contents and wonders what to do with this core.

Maybe he’ll run into the user of the Holy Sword again. Because he doesn’t know what will happen in the future.

─Remembering his own iron rule about preparation that he always told Albein. The moment he tries to grab the core─

“Cleon!”

A voice calls out to Cleon like that. A kind and mature girl’s voice.

In that moment, Cleon’s mind- his focus shifts away from the core of the sword.

Then, as if waiting for it, the figure that popped out of his sword─

Devours the ‘core of the sword’, which is like a jewel.

“… …”

Just now─ what happened?

─Thump.

Cleon is embarrassed by his partner’s actions, which he had never seen before. The next moment. He writhes in pain from the pain that rises all over his body.

Should it be called a rejection? A sensation like inserting a red-hot iron rod into his body.

He will never feel this kind of pain before or after this.

In the end. Cleon, the winner of the fight, also loses consciousness on the spot.

002

“It was quite spectacular. Cleon, spouting blood from every hole in his body.”

Lyla smiles, but Perdia sighs as if she hates Lyla like that and puts her hand on Cleon’s forehead.

Cleon also felt that Lyla’s tongue was too long. He wanted to cut it a little.

Perdia continues the story as if to appease Cleon like that.

“A black magic domain has been deployed all over your body. Quon was sad because healing magic didn’t work.”

Indeed. That’s why Perdia, who could heal him with medicine, was here.

He doesn’t know whose consideration it was, but he thinks he took a breather. To be frank, Lyla’s bandage-wrapping skills were not something to be praised.

“After that, your magic sword and you fell asleep as if you were dead. I wish you would have woken up and told us what happened.”

Lyla shrugs. She expresses her dissatisfaction with Cleon, who fell asleep without telling her anything, as if there were many things she didn’t know either.

“I’m sorry about that…”

Cleon was a little doubtful whether it was his fault, but he decided to apologize first because he couldn’t move his body.

Perhaps his body was recovering to this point thanks to the medicine she made.

When he quietly looks at Lyla. She averts her gaze, as if she’s a little embarrassed.

And, hesitatingly, she shows a slight blush.

“──Cleon. When your body is completely healed─”

Quietly, when Lyla brings up the topic of the future, a girl kicks down the door and enters.

“Cleon woke up!?”

A priest with emerald hair. Quon, runs straight to Cleon and jumps at him.

A voluptuous and soft marshmallow-like chest is the first thing that comes into contact with Quon’s upper body.

Next is the slightly stiff part of the limbs.

Squeeze.

“Ah.”

Moment. The air in the room stops. The next moment, Cleon didn’t scream.

Lyla and Perdia say it’s a ‘moment of superhuman overcoming’. They couldn’t help but applaud.

003

[Defendant. Regarding the hero Albein. Due to his cruel nature and act of betrayal against the kingdom, he is stripped of his position as a hero and sentenced to ‘permanent labor’].

──The wind of happiness. The Kingdom Knights’ sentence, read aloud by Ruti Sions on his behalf.

What was handed down to Albein, who was kneeling, his body tied with ropes, and not saying a word, was a punishment of having to serve the rest of his life in a ‘labor facility’ managed by the kingdom.

Currently, under the kingdom’s law, it is the most severe punishment after the death penalty.

It was virtually the same as life imprisonment.

“Hey, hey. Isn’t it the death penalty?”

“Damn it. I definitely thought it was the death penalty.”

However. The guild’s adventurers, laughing and talking without thinking as if they didn’t care about such things.

Originally, in this place where many people live each day thinking that other people’s misfortune is happiness for them.

In the case of ‘Albein’, who had always acted arrogantly and appealed that he was different from others─

Once he falls, he is only used as a snack to talk about.

Ruti felt a little complicated looking at those adventurers. But soon, she signs the last document she has to review.

The fact that she didn’t think she was fit to be the guild master─ wasn’t just this time.

Rather, Albein’s rampage had finished what she had been thinking about for 10 years.

When her resignation was announced, the guild’s male members were in tears.

They said things like, “Our idol~!”, but Ruti is not an idol, but a master. Guild Master.

The kingdom will soon dispatch a new guild master.

That person will be a fair person who can avoid hurting people even if they are caught with a weakness like herself.

Saying goodbye to the guild building, where she had spent many years, Ruti walked out onto the street.

“… …”

What was waiting for Ruti like that was a black-haired, black-eyed ‘female’ adventurer standing in the square.

Wearing a rapier that had slightly changed its shape around her waist, she was waiting for the Guild Master’s arrival.

“Cl─ hmm. Leona!”

“… … What’s with that name?”

Cleon looks at Ruti with a slightly strange expression at Ruti’s actions, which are awkwardly changing course.

Ruti looks at Cleon like that and hesitates to answer.

“No. Why. You need a name, right?”

“Don’t you think you need to think about it a little more properly?”

Ruti was worried that this man was starting to enjoy cross-dressing, looking at Cleon, who added that.

The two people looked at each other for a while, and then laughed at the awkward feeling, as if the energy had been sapped out of them, and walked away.

“I saw Albein’s sentence being read.”

“Yeah. The reason why the death penalty didn’t come out is still─”

Ruti shrugs with a dark face. After moving, she continues the story.

“Even if he doesn’t have the Holy Sword, he still has the experience he’s gained as a hero. Well. I don’t know how much power Albein will have without the Holy Sword.”

“You can’t expect anything.”

Cleon frowns at that situation. Of course, it’s a good thing for Quon that the death penalty didn’t come out.

Maybe. It would have been a better ending for Albein if he had finished it off on the spot.

“Ah. Another dark face.”

“… …”

Before he knew it, his expression frowned. Ruti points that out.

“Since everything has been resolved, let’s smile a little more. We’re about to leave the city. Come on. Come on. Smiling face.”

The index fingers of both hands lift Cleon’s lips up. If you look at it from the side, they are beautiful women playing around with each other.

In reality, it was a picture of a woman teasing a man who was like her younger brother.

Cleon leaves Ruti like that for a while, and before he knows it, he arrives at the ‘gate’, which is both the entrance and the exit of the city.

─When he was a child. He remembers coming to this city with Ruti and another person.

He still remembers her face clearly. Was he able to live without being ashamed?

Ruti also quietly looks back at the city as she feels the wind.

“Let’s go. Ruti.”

“Yeah.”

The two people left the city behind.

It was a farewell to the place he and she loved.

004

Deepest in the living forest. In a place designated as a danger zone─

There is an abandoned mansion where no one lives now.

‘Gordian’s mansion’. However, according to adventurers, recently in this place─ a succubus-like incubus and its owner have taken up residence.

The story that they extract essence from victims all night long─

For some reason, it had spread like a romance among the city’s adventurers.

“Taking advantage of the fact that my body couldn’t move. You were clinging to me all day long…”

Cleon scratches his head. He was sitting on the bed with his body hanging off it.

The story above was what he heard from Ruti while welcoming her and bringing her here.

He had a guess.

Perdia brought up the story of a suspicious healing technique called ‘bedroom arts’.

A theory that promotes healing through the physical relationship between men and women.

Lyla said that the logic itself wasn’t wrong.

She immediately took off her clothes and ran at him to experiment.

After that, Sasha and Quon, who woke up from their sleep. Even Galatea, who had recovered her function.

They took turns mixing their bodies with him. The moans never stopped inside and outside the mansion.

He doesn’t know if it’s thanks to that, but his body recovered faster than he thought, so he was able to watch Albein’s last moments.

─Albein.

If he had done things differently, would this situation have not happened?

If the boy could have remained a boy.

If the girl hadn’t seen the oracle.

If the young man hadn’t encouraged the two.

─Wouldn’t a better story have come out?

That’s right, the hero’s adventures that the boy admired but didn’t finish.

“… …”

Cleon closes the book he was reading and closes his eyes.

‘The Empire’s Dragon Rutios and the Hero’

The story of a hero who hunted a dragon that Albein had once told him.

It is a children’s fairy tale about a hero raising his sword high and flying into the sky to punish a dragon that was tormenting the world.

Cleon himself didn’t dislike this story.

─He didn’t like the hero who defeated the enemy in a cool way.

A story about sharing hearts with the hero. Even though they clashed with each other, in the end. A story of understanding each other.

Many people think that the hero killed the evil empire’s dragon and saved the world, but that’s not actually the case.

“Hehe…”

Something was slowly crawling up from the blanket on his lower body.

When Cleon turns his gaze there and lifts the blanket. Pink hair reveals its figure.

“… …”

He himself is alive and well like this.

“Ruti. What are you doing.”

“No. I was also called to this mansion. I was wondering if it was about time I did something like that.”

Ruti’s face is slightly flushed, but she smiles and presses her body against Cleon.

Ruti, who wraps her arms around him and hugs him, sees the title of the book Cleon is holding and smiles, throwing it into the corner of the room.

“Just a little more.”

Cleon quietly muttered to Ruti, who was acting spoiled and rubbing her cheeks against him.

“… … Haa. Who did you take after to be so much trouble?”

“You’re the one to talk. Who did you take after to have that cynical personality?”

Who did they think of at the same time? Quietly, the two people’s eyes meet. Their faces grew closer.

“Cleon-sama. I will be in charge of the night’s service today. ─Ah.”

Perdia, who opens the door and enters. Just like always. Cleon and Ruti’s bodies stop.

Perdia stops for a moment when she sees that scene, then quietly closes the door and comes inside.

Ruti also looks at Perdia like that. She purses her lips, then steals Cleon’s lips as they are.

“Was I interrupting?”

“Not this time.”

─The night began.