episode_0205

“I know it’s no use…” Marie said. Something seemed to be rising in her throat. She was filled with something she couldn’t spit out, but even so, she spoke clearly, exerting herself.

“…Still, I want to say it.”

“You can say it, Marie.”

“Let’s go back, together…” The grip that snatched my sleeve was strong. It was so strong that I wondered how such power could come from her small body. It was a strength so immense that it wouldn’t be strange if my clothes tore.

Has anyone ever seen it? I swear, not even Ruyef would know. That Marie’s earnestness was this strong.

“Let’s go back together. To Breezedon… with my brother, and Ritsu Oppa. All of us… let’s live.”

I placed my hand on her small fingers. Her trembling fingers were like a castle made of sand. At first glance, they seemed firm, but they had a fragility that suggested they would crumble if lightly touched.

Marie was forcibly suppressing her surging sobs. Her twitching chest was not a lie.

“Please…” I knew this plea was by no means light. Marie chose to accompany me not to hold me back, but to help me. To follow my will to defeat Fosao and bring Tia back. This far. Even now. She had silently stayed by my side.

However, unlike when we first left Breezedon, the situation was clearly different now. Tia had become Queen. This was something Marie and I had not expected at all. At the same time, the plans I had vaguely set had all fallen apart.

Everything had changed. Reality. Circumstance. Thoughts. The future. Uncle Joseph. Marie. As I walked this long journey, everything I knew was different from ‘back then’. It was an undeniable truth.

The only thing that hadn’t changed was my resolve. Even if the end of this path was nothing but death. This will, that the world would never make me bend my back.

“I’m sorry, Marie.” I gently stroked her soft golden hair. Marie, burying her face, finally burst into the tears she had held back in my arms.

Sobs…

“I’ve already walked too far to go back now.” If I had considered another future like Marie, I wouldn’t have chosen this path in the first place. I would have quietly returned to Breezedon, forgotten Tia, and lived a muted life, continuing the village elder’s legacy. But I… couldn’t give up. My memories with Tia. And my love. Denying her, who was everything and my whole childhood, was the same as erasing my own existence.

“Thank you for being with me. Thanks to you, I could come this far.” My chest grew warm. Marie’s quick inhalations and exhalations mingled, creating a ragged sound.

“Don’t go… please…”

I wondered if Marie, had she known the end of this journey was my death, would have desperately tried to stop me like Uncle Joseph. But she had vaguely sensed it and yet still helped me to the very end.

Firmly. I gently exerted force and held Marie’s arm. Then, I politely detached her from me. Our entangled bodies separated with an almost hollow lightness.

Suddenly, I wondered what words to leave, but soon concluded that nothing else was needed. The only thing I had always wanted to say to Marie was ‘thank you’. Since I had just thanked her, our farewell ended here.

Marie looked up at me with a tearful face. Her blue eyes were bloodshot. I wiped the tear streaks from her cheeks and stood up.

“Goodbye, then.” I turned my back and walked away. Marie’s voice wasn’t heard. Even that, I was grateful for. Thanks to that, I could walk with unyielding steps.

***

Walking down the road in a daze, I found myself arriving at that inn. The door, always tightly shut. And a single guard sitting in front of it, keeping watch. The reason I had returned here was to keep the promise I had made to the royal physician. I walked straight towards it.

As always, the soldier, who had been sitting indifferently, glanced at me, then quickly lost interest. However, when he realized I was coming straight for the inn without stopping, he looked at me carefully again.

The soldier’s suspicious eyebrows contorted into certainty. He slowly moved his right hand to the scabbard at his waist.

Thud, thud. It was good timing. There were no carriages or people passing by. The wind sweeping across the dry dirt ground made the hem of my robe flutter gently.

Thud. I stopped walking seven steps away.

“…” Only then did the opponent stand up and take a stance to draw his sword.

“What is it?” Swish! Without a word, I drew the Rose Sabre from my waist.

“!” Just as the opponent was about to draw his sword. My body, already powerfully leaping, was right before his nose.

Thunk! The sharp tip of the Rose Sabre plunged into the soldier’s shoulder. I drove the blade into that weak point, unprotected by armor, and put all my weight into it.

“Ugh!” The staggering soldier fell to the ground. As soon as I pinned him down, I pulled out the Rose Sabre embedded in his shoulder. Hot, crimson blood splattered.

I flipped the sword I was holding and powerfully struck his head with the hilt. Thwack! His head snapped back, and the soldier instantly fainted.

“Hoo…” I grabbed the unconscious soldier by both shoulders and dragged him with all my strength up the stairs. I found a key in his pocket, opened the inn room door on the second floor, and pushed him inside. After finishing that, I headed towards the room where the royal physician was imprisoned.

“Physician-nim.” She, who had been confined, rushed over in surprise.

“Ritsu?”

“Yes. The time has come. It’s time to leave now.”

“Ritsu…” The physician saw the soldier lying beside me and took a short breath.

“That person… did you knock him down?”

“Yes.”

“Did you meet the rebels?”

“I did, but they weren’t much help.” I briefly answered her question while stripping the soldier of his armor. It was mostly light leather armor, so it wasn’t difficult.

“So what do you plan to do now?”

“I’ve secured a boat passage to Taildon. Physician-nim, please take it and leave Deseo.”

“And you?”

“Me—” I tightly secured the straps of the greaves to my legs. “I have to go do my job.”

The physician didn’t ask what ‘job’ I was referring to. She must have already known. Seeing Tia become Queen, me having knocked down a soldier of the Piolo family, and now changing into that soldier’s armor, she could easily guess what I was about to do.

As I slipped the leather straps over my shoulders to put on the armor, my clothes rode up, exposing my stomach. Seeing the scar torn by a bear’s claw, the royal physician said softly.

“That scar…”

“Yes. Physician-nim, you stitched it up for me.”

She looked at the wound with a somber gaze.

“Ritsu… perhaps you’ve suffered a greater wound than this.”

I covered the scar with the armor and fastened the shoulder straps tightly. Finally, putting on the dangling helmet, I had, in an instant, become a mere soldier of the Piolo family.

“Let’s go now.” I led the royal physician down from the inn. Carriages stood parked and resting along the road. I stopped the nearest one. I handed a generous amount of gold coins to the coachman and told him the destination was the harbor.

Lastly, I helped the royal physician onto the carriage.

“Marie will be waiting at the harbor. You saw her through the window back then, didn’t you? That child.”

“…Yes. I know. Thank you, Ritsu.”

“You’re my savior, so I should be the one thanking you.”

“‘Savior’?” The physician’s voice was subdued.

“Sending you off to your death, I don’t feel much joy hearing the word ‘savior’.”

“Is that so?”

“I have no right to say anything about your choice. But I didn’t save you to see you like this.”

“…”

“Ritsu. Is it really… the only way?” Hearing the royal physician’s words, the paradox that had long lingered in my mind resurfaced. What if the physician hadn’t used ‘Enbus’ to save me? And what if Tia hadn’t begun her journey to Deseo to find D’Enbus? In that case, would this world I inhabit, breathing, inevitably have to meet such an end? If this end was the only option, then did I truly have no answer but death? If that truly was the correct fate, what difference would it make if I walked into the royal palace now, killed Fosao, and died as a traitor myself?

I had pondered in silence all this time—. And I had already found the answer to that question. I placed a hand over my heart and bowed my head. And with respect, I politely answered the benefactor who had revived me.

“Yes.” Clunk! I closed the carriage door for her.

As I nodded to the coachman sitting in the front, he shook the reins and moved the carriage forward. Her hollow gaze swept past me. But soon, just like when I sent Marie away, she was gone from sight entirely. Facing the carriage departing towards the sea, I offered my final farewell.

“Thank you, Physician-nim.”

***

I walked on. Every step seemed to carry an emptiness. Marie, who had always been by my side, was gone. Only after seeing my stumbling steps did I realize how much comfort that small presence had brought me. Anxiety slowly crept in, but I couldn’t stop walking.

Before I knew it, the shadow of Deseo Castle was close enough to be seen in the distance. At the same time, the surroundings also began to grow chaotic. Soldiers’ shouts echoed from everywhere, and the sound of horse hooves running busily through the streets could be heard.

“Has it begun?”

Marie, as I had instructed her, reported the ‘location of the rebel hideout’ to the royal palace. With Joseph, one of the Queen’s closest confidants, suddenly missing, Tia, who had been anxiously searching for her uncle’s whereabouts, must have immediately issued a royal command to send soldiers upon receiving the report. Uncle Joseph was one of the few people Tia could rely on, so it must have been difficult for her to maintain her composure.

At the sudden royal command, nobles also dispatched troops one by one, and the castle was filled with armed soldiers. Furthermore, most of them had already been sent to the rebel hideout, so the vigilance was much looser than usual.

This was exactly the situation I wanted.

“…” I placed my left hand on my helmet, pulled it down deep, and walked confidently towards the main gate of the royal palace. There were about six guards protecting the entrance, but so many soldiers were coming and going that they didn’t bother to stop me. Moreover, seeing the crest of the Piolo family engraved on my armor, they let me pass without a word.

By the time I reached the garden blooming with irises, I took off my helmet and slowly raised my head. A tall tower stood directly in front of me. Its peak was bathed in the red glow of the setting sun. ‘Red Castle’. I vaguely remembered hearing a story that it shone red because it was made of rubies, symbolizing the royal family. I didn’t know if it was true. I would find out for myself anyway. Whether it was ruby-red, or blood-red.