episode_0065

Decades passed, but.

I still couldn’t forget the memory of that day.

Hundreds, thousands of Fallen citizens massacred overnight.

And mountains of burning corpses.

Even the scene of the Prophet, known as the continent’s guardian, and the knights following him, shaking off the blood from their swords as if it were filth.

And above all.

“Sob… H-huh… sob…”

Agapé, collapsed and covered in blood, looking as if his breath would stop at any moment.

I wished all of this was just a nightmare.

A very, very terrible and malicious nightmare.

But the warm sensation of blood seeping from Agapé’s sword-cut body sharply struck my mind.

Agapé’s ragged breathing and the gradually cooling warmth of his body made my sobbing mind turn as cold as ice.

Yes.

This wasn’t a dream.

It wasn’t some malicious, terribly horrible dream.

All of this was reality.

My peaceful daily life, my precious daily life, had been stained with despair overnight.

“No… I don’t want to…”

“Kara…”

When Roland said he wanted to speak with Agapé alone, I immediately understood.

Roland intended to separate Agapé and me.

How could I not know, seeing his tormented expression and voice, when he was family we’d lived with for almost ten years, practically my own brother?

So I hugged Agapé even tighter, trying to prevent anyone from taking him.

His body was growing colder, and I felt my beloved slowly dying, but even with his blood staining my hands, cheeks, and mouth, I couldn’t let go of him.

And Roland, who was watching this.

“……”

Wore an incredibly terrifying expression.

It wasn’t just that he looked scary.

His brown eyes contained Agapé and me.

His large, wide-open eyes showed determination, but his gaze was incredibly unfocused.

And his lips were bitten until they burst, blood flowing like a stream, dripping from his chin.

His face, already pale from lung disease, turned even bluer and darker, as if it perfectly embodied the despair and guilt a person could hold.

Yes.

Only endless despair was felt.

As if it was ‘predicting’ how despairing our future would be.

With a face stained by guilt, he honestly confessed what he had done.

“…I called them.”

“What…?”

“I called them. Those people.”

It felt like being hit in the back of the head with a hammer.

My mind was already hazy from the overwhelming despair of reality, but hearing that, my consciousness instantly sharpened.

“You… called them…?”

“Yes.”

Hearing his confirmation once more, my gaze naturally shifted towards the burning pile of corpses.

*Whoosh—*

The monstrous fire, devouring the countless human corpses as if insane.

The thick blood, the disgusting stench of filth, and the smell of corpses accumulated, causing dizziness.

And…

‘Ah, Agapé.’

I looked down at Agapé.

Agapé, who had wielded his sword to protect me, to protect us.

The fact that Agapé, who had sacrificed his entire life, wearing himself down to protect us, ended up like this was because of Roland, his own family.

“Ugh…”

Finally, unable to hold it in, a wave of nausea overcame me, and I vomited onto the ground.

Because if I didn’t get something out of my system, I felt like I would lose my mind too.

“Haa… Haa… Haa…”

After retching for a long time, I asked him for his reason, my voice hoarse from stomach acid.

Not as family, but with eyes that saw him as a monster.

“Why… Why on earth, for what reason did you do this, Roland?”

“I am the Moon Prophet.”

“…What?”

It wasn’t that I didn’t know.

It was because I knew too well. Because I had heard from Agapé what the Moon Prophet was.

There was no time to ask what he meant, or why he hadn’t told me.

Before I could open my mouth to say anything again, Roland interrupted me, explaining the reason like a rapid-fire speech, as if trying to justify the sin he had committed.

It was true that he was the Moon Prophet.

He had constantly looked into the future through prophecies, seeing tens of thousands of possible futures that would occur over the next ten years.

And in every single one of those countless futures, if Agapé and I remained together, there would only be catastrophe.

All because I was destined to become a hero.

“The constellation tattoo on my right arm is the proof.”

Roland, whose breath had returned a little after his rapid-fire speech, said that.

At the same time, my gaze naturally shifted towards it for a moment, but that wasn’t what was important to me right now.

The reason Roland made this choice.

That was more important to me.

“You did all this for just that reason?”

It seemed his claim of foresight was true, as he silently nodded, as if he had anticipated I would say this.

“So, because all the futures you saw were like that, you had no choice but to pick a future where everyone could live?”

“…Yes.”

Separating you and Agapé was the only way to avoid a future where everyone dies.

“That is…”

If that’s the only way, would such a life truly be meaningful to live?

It meant I wouldn’t be able to meet Agapé, who was my entire life, no different from light to me.

And Agapé also wouldn’t be able to meet me.

We were beings who were each other’s meaning and sustenance in life, but to push countless people to their deaths and separate us just to prolong our lives…

Could that truly be a meaningful life for Agapé and me?

“…Trust me, Kara.”

During the long silence, Roland spoke to me.

He asked me to trust him.

“I promise you, I’ll stake everything on it, that only happiness will be at the end of this story.”

So.

“So…”

“……”

“…Me, no. Go with those people and become a hero. And build up your strength until I find a solution.”

“…Then what about you?”

“I’ll undergo training to become a true Prophet.”

Even if he was the Moon Prophet and possessed exceptional talent, he was still just an unpolished gem.

He claimed he could even read the futures of other Prophets, but without proper training, the number of possible futures he could see was limited, and the time into the future he could see was only about ten years, making him insufficient as a Prophet.

Yet, he claimed he hadn’t done this with a foolish idea, and that if both Agapé and I remained alive, he would eventually put everything back in its place.

‘Roland.’

Roland’s gaze, earnestly fixed on me, looked like a plea for me to accept his words.

‘…Roland.’

The eldest son among our family, the most rational and brilliant of the three.

Roland’s eyes had always held certainty when he overcame numerous difficulties with rational judgment, but the current Roland seemed to lack conviction.

Yes, he seemed to lack conviction.

In Roland’s eyes, who had committed an absurd act by relying on irrationality, the opposite of reason, there was, above all, no conviction.

That’s why I couldn’t trust him even more.

Looking at his earnestly pleading eyes made my heart waver, but seeing the dying Agapé, I steeled myself.

Because neither Agapé nor I could even imagine a life without each other anymore.

So.

“I’m sorry.”

I refused him outright.

And as if he had expected it, Roland’s clenched hand relaxed, and he hung his head low.

“……”

His appearance looked incredibly lonely and desolate, but there was nothing I could do.

Because if there was only a future where Agapé died because he was with me, then conversely, if Agapé wasn’t by my side, I too wouldn’t have the confidence to live.

So, just when I was thinking there was nothing else to do, that if we were going to die, we should die together.

*Splat!*

The Prophet of Light approached and slapped my cheek.

*Biiii—*

Suddenly, my ears rang, and my vision blurred.

*Splat!*

As if determined not to give me a moment’s rest, the Prophet of Light relentlessly slapped my cheek.

For a long time.

Until my lips burst and the taste of blood filled my mouth.

After hitting me for so long that my cheek swelled and bruised, Roland, unable to watch any longer, grabbed his arm and stopped him.

“Isn’t that enough already!”

“Do you know the biggest difference between commoners and the ignorant Fallen?”

He said, wiping his blood-stained hands with a handkerchief.

“The former are well-trained livestock, so they at least listen. But the ignorant Fallen are untrained wild beasts, so they cannot be reasoned with. They are rude, violent, and won’t stop barking like animals until you give them what they want.”

The face behind the pure white mask turned towards Roland.