Hyung, I’m Okay.
The physician gulped down the words caught in his throat and nodded.
It didn’t mean he was convinced, just that he understood. What could he do—how could a mere little physician dare object to a Hero’s words? Even now his legs were trembling like this!
“Princess.”
“Take this.”
Despite having fractures all over her body, Coco waved off Hugh who tried to support her with her eyes and stood up.
Then she unfastened the pendant she was wearing around her neck and held it out to Ruman.
A small pendant dangling on a gold chain.
The pendant’s lid was embedded with the emblem symbolizing Duke Ganien’s household and a bright red ruby. On the back of the pendant, Princess Coco’s initials were written.
“This will serve as proof.”
“Will showing just this be enough?”
“Hey, do you have paper?”
When the pondering Coco called the physician, the physician busily rummaged through his bag.
With trembling hands, he barely pulled out cheap paper and an ink pen, and Princess Coco, though displeased, endured and snatched the paper and ink as if seizing them.
She pressed the paper against her palm, scrawled writing, and left her signature.
“This together should do it.”
Those words weren’t particularly directed at Ruman.
Ruman firmly placed the paper and pendant in the inner pocket of his chest.
“Hey.”
“Yes! I, I’m s-sorry. Such worthless paper….”
“…You did well.”
Coco said that and tossed him the remaining paper and ink pen.
Roll roll, the sound of the pen rolling echoed in the cavity.
The physician picked up the paper with a grateful heart.
I thought she’d throw it at my face!
She doesn’t seem to have as bad a temper as I thought!
Ruman combined his torn cloak and Temarr’s cloak to wrap Ren’s body tightly.
Ren’s body was hot like a ball of fire.
As if having some dream, his small mouth was mumbling something, but it couldn’t be heard properly.
Ruman couldn’t understand.
The heart of one who pushed a sword into his own chest in place of another.
He wanted to curse him for being foolish, but that too would only be possible once Ren opened his eyes.
Lifting his body that felt like it would shatter without showing it, Ruman picked up Ren.
Normally, he would be light as a feather, his whole body would be overflowing with energy as if holding nothing, and it would be difficult to stay still…… But with his current body, cut up and reattached by anti-Hero resistance weapons… in truth, it wouldn’t be strange if he collapsed at any moment. No. It wouldn’t be strange if he died like this.
A Hero’s lifespan is originally short.
Just as things break and shatter when used frequently.
After all, a Hero’s vitality and energy weren’t much different.
However, dying too could only be done after completing a mission.
Ruman didn’t realize that his mission had become ‘saving Ren first.’
“Ah, you need to be careful when going to a place you haven’t been.”
Coco, who somehow understood, approached and put her hand into the chest of Ruman who was holding Ren.
“What are you doing….”
Even when Ruman flinched, Coco didn’t bat an eye.
She opened the pendant she had given him and showed it to Ruman.
Unlike the thought that there would be a portrait inside the pendant, there was a beautiful and magnificent mansion. The shadows expressed in deep green were probably the direct lineage of the Duke’s family—that was likely a certain guess. When the moonlight shone, the picture seemed to change for a moment.
“You’ve probably glimpsed it while coming to the capital. You’re not going to say you don’t know the capital, right?”
“That’s sufficient.”
Coco, who had been glaring at Ruman with purple eyes, put the pendant back precisely into his inner chest pocket.
This Princess’s touch is extraordinary.
She hides that tearful face so well….
“Temarr!”
Ruman’s voice resonated deeply.
Rather than hurting the ears, it was a voice like striking the head with a hammer.
“Temarr!”
“……”
Just as he had collapsed when treating Ren, Temarr was sitting on the floor as if collapsed. His hand clutching his chest was also the same. The physician, who had checked on everyone else once but couldn’t approach him, didn’t even speak to Temarr.
“Collect the corpse and sword. Contact the King with the Crystal Orb….”
Ruman stopped speaking.
He recalled the fact that Del Belkerman had smashed the communication Crystal Orb first.
‘A Hero without authority is like a weak beast. It’s really true. Kekeke….’
Ruman remembered Del Belkerman’s mockery and chuckled.
Had anti-Hero resistance weapons become commercialized enough for assassins like him to use them? Was this the reason for the Hero conscription order? Was this the something that neighboring countries were stirring and searching for?
Anti-Hero resistance weapons.
He had dismissed them thinking they wouldn’t be developed in this century. Who knew that what had only been rumors would appear before his eyes?
Perhaps this wouldn’t end with a simple investigation.
The situation might be more serious than expected.
He should have captured Del Belkerman alive and tortured him, but what good was regretting someone whose head had already fallen off? Ruman looked at Del Belkerman’s head that had rolled to the corner of the stone wall. The physician’s gaze followed him and… seeing the cleanly cut neck, he shrieked and sat down.
Hyeoeeo!
He barely covered his own mouth and suppressed his scream, though.
“Temarr. Collect the corpse and sword, and protect the Princess’s party safely.”
With Temarr’s ability, he couldn’t move Ren to the capital, and for Ruman currently, moving to the capital together with Temarr was impossible.
The arm holding Ren hurt as if it would fall off, so he didn’t know what would happen if he exhausted his ability.
I just need to arrive. If I collapse or die, they’ll search my body.
Then they’ll discover the pendant and paper, so there won’t be a problem.
I just need to enter Duke Ganien’s mansion.
Having finished his calculations, Ruman drew in a breath.
“Temarr.”
Woom woom!
He didn’t have energy to waste like this, but he should wake up Temarr’s mental state before going.
Te ma rr
At Ruman’s voice that resonated and gripped his hair, Temarr awoke from his thoughts.
When he blinked, the floor was wet.
When Temarr didn’t see Ren where he was looking, he hurriedly stood up. He mistepped and had to brace himself again, and with a loud boom! the floor cracked.
For a moment, the cavity shook as if it would collapse, and dust and small stones fell haphazardly from the ceiling.
Temarr, who had made a deep hole in the floor, calmed down after discovering Ren cradled in Ruman’s arms.
“……”
Suppressed breath came from Temarr’s mouth.
“Collect Del Belkerman’s head and sword. Protect the Princess’s party well.”
“No. I’ll go.”
“What are you doing.”
Ruman growled.
Temarr, who approached with large strides, reached out his hand toward Ren.
The one who grabbed that hand was Hugh.
He was barely standing, biting his lips to swallow his groan, stopping the Hero.
“Do you want to die?”
Temarr’s voice was calm.
It wasn’t particularly threatening, nor was it a threatening tone.
However, his emotionless dark brown eyes were chillingly quiet, clearly showing that he regarded the lives of one or two humans as less than dust… those were the eyes of a slaughterer.
“Let go, Temarr. There’s no time for this.”
“Isn’t Ruman-nim the one who can move….”
Blood flowed from Hugh’s mouth as he spoke. As if he’d bitten his tongue, it continued flowing. Coco’s face turned deathly pale at the grotesque sight.
She wanted to tell him to stop talking, but she couldn’t! If that foolish Hero Temarr didn’t back down, Ren would die right here!
Coco clenched both fists tightly.
If it came to it, she would throw her body like before.
Because she’s a Princess, she has nothing to fear?
No. Just as Ren pushed his heart into the blade in place of her, Coco could also lend her life for Ren.
Because she can’t live even if she dies while in debt.
“Temarr. Pointless stubbornness….”
“No. I’ll….”
“……Ugh….”
Temarr didn’t care at all about the hand grabbing him.
As if warning Ruman who wouldn’t let go of Ren, as if he wouldn’t hesitate to fight, he was quietly drawing up his depleted energy.
A hair-trigger situation.
Perhaps everyone in this cavity might die.
If Coco threw her body this time too, unlike before when she was lucky, her head would surely fly off.
Temarr had forgotten that he was a Hero.
The only thing he was remembering now was just Ren.
What was embedded in him was Ren.
Ren who had always been by his side.
Only Ren.
All of Temarr’s thoughts had stopped.
“Ugh……”
The two who had stopped as if it were an auditory hallucination and were about to continue speaking realized that the owner of the moaning sound was Ren.
Ren was still mumbling with his lips.
If there was anything different from before, it was that Ren’s voice could be faintly heard.
As if he definitely wanted to say something, Ren kept twitching his lips.
Moaning sounds, shallow breaths, with a face struggling to swallow pain that seemed to burn hotly—what could this child who couldn’t even breathe properly be trying to say?
Unable to sleep easily, what he was trying to say…….
“H, yung… uh….”
Unable to sleep easily, at death’s threshold, what he was saying,
“…I… m o… kay……”
Hyung.
I’m okay.
The child who couldn’t even open his eyes properly, through the thin stream of tears, stubbornly whispered ‘Hyung. I’m okay.’ His lips, seeming to smile faintly, seemed to stab deep into the heart.
Temarr crumbled.
“Luvien!”
Ruman, who shouted strongly, wrapped his entire body in strong light as if burning his life and disappeared instantly with Ren. In the place he disappeared, an afterimage resembling a fox remained.
“Ren.”
“Ren……”
“Ren――!”
The one crying out looking at the place where they disappeared was not Ren, but Temarr.
