A Single Handful of Life Force
A flash-like light swallowed Ren and Ruman.
As they passed through space with light, Ruman’s skin burst open as he endured the force. Blood that burst from his already severed limbs soaked his entire body and flowed to soak Ren, who he held in his arms.
His cloak was dyed red and the hands holding Ren trembled.
He’d been like this before.
In that accursed battlefield, the feeling that all abilities had hit rock bottom and only a single handful of life remained, rippling at the very bottom.
When that single handful ran out, naturally he wouldn’t be able to open his eyes again.
Ruman ran following the light. Capillaries burst and blood flowed wetly from his nose and ears. Blood burst out from every opening in his body. Ruman endured the sensation of thousands of needles piercing his skin and recalled only the warmth in his arms, only the warmth.
Strength kept draining away. Tinnitus rang and the sensation in his hands and feet dulled. Even his golden eyes that had flashed brightly as if burning blue gradually lost their light.
Being trapped and dying between the spaces he had torn through and crossed countless times. Perhaps it was a fitting end for the King’s Third Star who had sought paths while illuminating the darkness.
His light, the Hero’s light, was slowly going out. Perhaps the time had come. Ruman’s last mission had only been delivering a message.
‘Well, this is enough.’
If he had been alone, he would have gladly accepted such a death. Nothing regrettable or disappointing could remain as any lingering attachment to Ruman.
However, right now he was not alone.
In his arms, there was something precious he had never possessed…….
It was fine for him to die. If he could dedicate everything down to the last ray to save Ren.
For the first time since ‘he’ died, Ruman prayed to god.
Please. Please let him endure.
Let him save the boy.
Let him…… save this boy.
Light gathered again to Ruman, who had been blurring and scattering into tens of thousands, hundreds of millions of thorn-like light rays.
It was a special sensation. When his torn limbs reattached…… the sensation of when he met the ‘Hero’s miracle’. No, it was more special than that. Not the reconstruction of his body… but as if the light that formed him, the Hero’s crystal bestowed upon him, was being reconstructed…….
The light that had spread faintly like fireflies and was gradually going out dot by dot slowly swelled, then brightened the darkness as if starlight had poured down, and flowed like the Milky Way guiding Ruman. Ruman didn’t need to cut through the darkness. Because that light pulled him. A sensation like going back in time, as if the streams of blood he had vomited were entering back into him dot by dot.
Cutting through the space of darkness and light, the place they fell was not the mansion in the capital, but a castle.
A fortress-like old castle standing tall on a cliff, forming high walls. Towers sharp like spires were so high they seemed to pierce the sky, and it was where ‘Lacus’ was located in the densely formed forest.
As if knowing they had come and welcoming them, the surface of the lake trembled. The Milky Way embroidering the sky seemed about to pour down, filling the lake and creating a mystical sight.
Clearly, it was a sight that couldn’t be seen, yet Ruman felt as if he could see ‘Lacus’.
A momentary light drove out the darkness of the old castle.
Ren and Ruman swallowed by the darkness that surged back.
It was darker than before. Suffocating darkness pressed down on Ruman.
It was strange, as the Duke’s house’s night couldn’t be this dark. However, Ruman didn’t have time to think that far. His eyes flashed like a beast. The Milky Way was still flowing in his golden eyes.
Breath pounding at his ears. A sound ringing dully.
Now he couldn’t even distinguish whether the hot breath was Ren’s or Ruman’s own.
The limit of physical strength. As if his mind and thoughts had stopped, Ruman straightened his knees like a machine moving as programmed.
Ruman’s eyes cut through the darkness. It wasn’t the grand mansion he had seen. It was a castle he was seeing for the first time.
All the castle’s windows had their lights out.
Not even a single handful of light leaked out.
Ruman headed toward where there was even denser darkness.
“It’s okay.”
Looking at Ren’s face, pale as the moon and shining vividly, Ruman returned the words Ren had said earlier.
We’ve arrived.
Since he had followed the guidance of light, it would be okay. Someone will help. He could still go inside there. Ren could live. He was still warm, and his breath was touching his chest.
Ruman smiled faintly without realizing it and took a step.
The castle was right before his eyes! If he just used his ability once!
It was when he took half a step toward the castle where dense darkness lingered. When white light manifested as if burning from his toes.
Without even the sound of footsteps, a blade wrapped in blue light aimed at Ruman.
“Who are you?”
“……!”
That sword pushed in toward Ruman’s heart.
One by one, flames rose and the forms of those hidden in darkness were revealed.
Knights wearing armor surrounded Ruman in a circle, pointing their spears.
Spears were densely aimed at Ruman’s limbs, neck, chest, eyes, everything. Several places had already been stabbed and were bleeding.
Quiet murderous intent.
The identity of the darkness filling the garden belonged to the private soldiers guarding Duke Ganien’s castle.
As the surroundings brightened, the gleaming eyes of those whose faces couldn’t be seen because they wore helmets aimed at Ruman like well-sharpened swords.
Ruman didn’t even groan.
Not blinking an eye, when the person who saw the handsome face revealed by torchlight approached with large steps, the private soldiers made that much space.
“Who are you? I won’t ask three times.”
A gray-haired man.
A strangely familiar face.
His overwhelmingly cold gaze held neither hesitation nor sympathy about killing.
As if he couldn’t even see the boy held in his arms, his eyes were directed at Ruman, the intruder.
When the man stepped forward, the knight who had been stabbing Ruman’s heart moved aside.
“……”
When not on official duty, a Hero must not reveal their identity.
Ruman’s eyes were calm.
Kill me if you’re going to.
The pendant that would be found in his arms after he died would guarantee Ren’s life.
The gray-haired man pushed in the sword he received with an emotionless face.
Without a battle cry or warning.
As if performing a natural task.
When a stream of blood flowed from Ruman’s mouth and the blade tip was about to seize his heart, something caught on the twisted blade tip.
The feeling of a foreign object coming through his fingertips.
The gray-haired man gestured and pulled out the sword stuck in his heart.
They didn’t blink an eye at the stream of blood spurting up with a whoosh.
One private soldier approached and searched Ruman’s arms.
“This is!”
“……”
The man’s face who confirmed the pendant stiffened slightly.
The man who put the pendant in his pocket pulled out the paper stuck on the sword.
Hastily written letters and a signature.
Concise content.
Handwriting clearly belonging to Princess Coco.
The gray-haired man glanced at Ruman.
“Move these people inside and treat them. The Second Knight Order will protect these people and thoroughly guard the castle! The First Knight Order will go to the Princess with me. Call the mage!”
“Yes! Commander!”
At the man’s order, the knights moved in perfect unison.
All the spears that had been aimed at Ruman and Ren were withdrawn, and soldiers brought a stretcher to move them.
Only after confirming that the man unfolded the paper did Ruman close his eyes.
Even as his body collapsed, Ruman didn’t release the strength in his hands holding Ren.
“He’s not letting go?”
“Let’s move them as is for now and separate them after we go.”
“Should we call a priest?”
“Commander!”
“Save them without aftereffects. It’s the Princess’s order.”
“Yes!”
“Hurry.”
“Bring a priest.”
“Yes!”
Servants holding torches ran toward the castle and the First Knight Order finished their deployment.
The sound of hoofbeats quietly pounded the darkness as they headed toward the mountain where Princess Coco and the remaining party were.
The note Princess Coco left read as follows:
<Save ‘them’ without fail. Come rescue ‘us’. Location is the cavity below the cliff in the middle of Mt. Kelon. P.S. Know that your head will fly if you’re late.>
Moonlight illuminated the pendant. The picture of the magnificent mansion changed to the appearance of an old castle embracing ‘Lacus’ when light shone on it.
***
Temarr’s hand swept through the air but the light had already disappeared.
As if it had never been there.
It disappeared like a dream.
Temarr’s blank brown eyes traced the traces of Ren who had been there just moments ago.
After the blinding light disappeared in an instant, the darkness sitting in the cavity was thicker and blacker than before.
“Ren……”
A distressed voice.
As if not knowing how to handle the surging anger, Temarr’s energy dyed the cavity as if to swallow it.
“Hey…!”
He said it’s okay.
What on earth is okay?
He wasn’t unaware of what the blood soaking his chest meant.
If they were even a little late, if something happened along the way, he would die just like that.
“Hey!”
Ren, dying?
How could someone who had always been naturally at his side, die?
Thud. Thuduk.
Something hit his body.
“Hey—!”
“Princess!”
“Let go! He can’t come to his senses!”
When the darkness became familiar to his eyes, Temarr turned his head at the stones flying at his thighs and chest.
It was a somehow eerie sight, like an old stone statue moving.
Muscles that didn’t seem human and a build that seemed twice as large as when they’d been together. A figure that didn’t care at all about the scars crossing his body and the blood dripping down.
A human for whom blood and slaughter were daily life.
Eyes as indifferent and solid as a rock wall to the point where the screaming figure from earlier couldn’t be recalled. From which no clue to any thought could be read.
This was the true form of a Hero.
This was the form of Hero Temarr, the King’s Seventh Sword, who burned battlefields and made enemies retreat with just his appearance.
Coco, with a terrified face, acknowledged the fear she felt toward Temarr.
It was a fear difficult to endure not as a young girl but as a human being.
Even without a sword aimed at her neck, if Temarr just moved a finger, everyone here would die.
Hugh grabbed her arm to stop the Princess, and the physician who had fainted earlier had come to but turned his head pretending to faint again at the suffocating energy.
By chance, there was a cleanly severed head where he turned his head, so whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, he really did faint.
It was full of the smell of blood to the point where his nose hurt.
It felt like flesh rotting and aching, but Princess Coco endured the pain and widened her eyes.
The fear I feel is natural.
That person is a Hero and I’m just a human.
But that person is also Ren’s hyung.
So— it would be troublesome if he lost his humanity.
Then Ren would be pitiful.
“Ren’s not dead yet and we’ll be going back soon too.”
“……”
“Come to your senses! Don’t make a living person into a dead person!”
His thick eyelashes blinked as if fluttering.
Temarr didn’t answer.
He only input Princess Coco’s words like a machine.
Coco’s resolute words were input to Temarr like a command.
Amazingly, the calmed Temarr had a clean face as if he had swept away and forgotten all the storm-like emotions and anxiety that had blown through his heart.
His swollen body subsided and his wounds slowly began to heal, and the flowing blood began to stop. As if absorbing even the energy that had threatened the cavity, the atmosphere that had been slowly choking them gradually faded.
“Are you alright? Is there anywhere uncomfortable?”
Temarr was calm, just like when he first rescued Coco.
As if nothing had happened. It was the appearance of an immaculate Hero.
He became so excessively immaculate… it was frightening.
Coco wanted to curse for a moment but held back and just shook her head.
Coco changed her mind.
Heroes might not be… human to begin with.
“That’s enough.”
Moonlight illuminated the cavity and the cavity with the darkness gone became much brighter.
Exhaling the breath she’d been holding, Princess Coco unknowingly gripped Hugh’s hand tightly.
Coco’s body was trembling.
But only her face was clean.
Her purple eyes shone vividly.
As if the words she had just uttered contained not a trace of falsehood.
However, that all of this was just an act, was something everyone failed to notice only because they didn’t want to know.
Coco herself too.
Hero Temarr too.
How much time had passed?
When they thought everything had been swallowed by the darkness that clung stickily.
Perhaps something had gone wrong. When the thoughts they’d turned away from were creepily eating away at their minds.
It seemed like a voice was heard from somewhere.
Something like a faint echo.
And only then did they realize.
That the bright shining moon was illuminating the inside of the cave brightly.
