“Marshal! Where the hell have you been this—?”
“You can scold me later, so shut up and listen! I need you to contact every single Liberator village.”
“I know the world’s gone to shit, but—”
“It’s not just that! Everyone needs to be told that there are fanatics within the Liberators’ ranks as well!”
Badd went as white as a sheet, which prompted Marshal to grab him by the shoulders.
“Listen up. They got Tony and Abe! I’m the only survivor from the Angriff branch! They knew exactly where our village was! The traitor was—”
One of the messengers interrupted Marshal, thinking he was bringing good news.
“Marshal-dono! Shushu’s safe! She’s at the main gates right now and—”
“Wait, don’t let her in!”
“Huh? But—”
“She’s fallen into the enemy’s hands. Shushu’s the one who told the church the location of our village!”
Badd paled, while the messenger hurriedly told the guards at the gate to close it. Unfortunately, it was too late. There was a huge explosion, and everyone rushed toward the terrace. In the distance, they could see smoke rising from the main gate.
A deafening war cry resounded throughout the city. For the first time in the Haltina Republic’s history, human invaders had breached the capital’s gates...and it had happened almost comically easily.
Soldiers and civilians from the federation rushed through the gates, and the screams of beastmen filled the air. A bewildered voice called out to Shushu—who was still standing in front of the demolished gates—from behind.
“What...are you doing?”
Shushu looked over her shoulder to see Valf. There was no madness in her gaze, but it was cold as ice.
“I asked you a question. Answer me, Shushuuuuuu!” he roared as he charged forward, intending to incapacitate her. However, he was blown back by a powerful shock wave.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m getting revenge.”
“Shushu, you...”
The federation soldiers charged mercilessly at the dumbfounded Valf. His men desperately held back the assault, while Valf thought back to what Shushu had said during the banquet before the decisive battle. She’d said that she’d let go of her grudge toward her homeland, that she’d change herself so that she could change the world. After their long discussion, that was what she’d told Valf. And yet—
“They used your feelings for their own twisted ends, didn’t they?”
Rage welled up within Valf. Someone had taken advantage of Shushu’s hatred, the very feeling she’d been working so hard to let go of. Even if whatever magic that had transformed regular people hadn’t been able to turn Shushu into a fervent believer in Ehit, it had still been enough to amplify her desire for revenge to the point where she’d turned on her own comrades.
“Shushu, open your eyes!” Valf shouted.
Shushu looked at him like he was trash and blasted him with another shock wave, but this time, it didn’t blow him back. He used his special magic, Float Field, to increase his own gravity, and then strengthened his body as much as possible and crossed his arms in front of him to block.
“Remember what I told you? I’m never gonna abandon you again.”
Shushu fired yet another shock wave at him, but Valf refused to fall. Coughing up blood, he walked toward Shushu. Shushu’s lips twitched, and she fired a fourth shock wave at him.
“Gah...right now, I’m one of the republic’s generals. I’m not a powerless nobody like I was back then.”
During their talk, Valf had confessed something to Shushu. He’d told her that he’d been part of the unit that had turned Shushu away when she’d finally managed to return to the forest. Back then, he hadn’t been a general...or even a captain.
“Our laws are important. We need them to protect our brethren! But—gah—I should have still tried to save you! If I couldn’t have let you back into the country, I should have at least left it with you!”
“Tch. Shut up...” Shushu mumbled as she fired blast after blast at Valf, to the point where the air around him started to warp from the consecutive shock waves.
Valf’s bones shattered, his internal organs ruptured, and his vision began to grow blurry, but he never stopped moving forward.
“Even a human brat was able to take you in, but I—”
From the moment that Miledi had stepped foot into the republic, Valf had known that Shushu was the girl he’d turned away way back when. It was then that he’d realized the difference between his resolve to protect his people and Miledi’s. That was why Meiru’s words had rankled him so much. But now he’d grown, so he truly did want to protect his fellow beastmen with every fiber of that being, and he was going to prove that to Shushu.
“I’m sorry I didn’t save you back then. I’m sorry I turned my back on you.”
“I told you to shut up!”
“Neither I, nor this country, will reject you ever again. I promise.”
“Ah—”
Valf’s unwavering stride struck a chord with Shushu despite her burning desire for revenge, so her thoughts grew muddled. Thoughts of a much younger Miledi flashed through Shushu’s mind. Miledi had completely overwhelmed Shushu, while Valf looked like was about to drop dead any minute now, and yet, in this moment, he reminded Shushu of the Miledi from back then.
A searing pain lanced through Shushu’s head, and emotions that had been dulled suddenly welled up within her once more. The first thing Shushu felt was guilt.
“A-Ahhh! No...what have I done?!”
“Shushu!”
Valf finally reached Shushu, who was still firing off shock waves in a panic. Yet more blood spilled from his mouth as he embraced her, so Shushu let out a small gasp.
“It’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay,” Valf said as Shushu completely dispelled her Repulse. However, that also meant the two of them were wide open to an attack.
“Commander!” one of Valf’s men shouted just as a javelin pierced through both his and Shushu’s hearts, connecting the two of them together. The two of them then fell to their knees, their foreheads touching.
“I’m sorry... I’m sorry... I’m sorry...”
“It’s okay. Let’s just rest for a while, okay?”
Valf’s subordinates were swallowed up by the endless tide of people, but they left Valf and Shushu behind, presumably because they had no interest in corpses. And yet, despite the utter hopelessness of the situation, Shushu and Valf died with smiles on their faces.
Meanwhile, Marshal, Badd, and the beastmen warriors were fighting desperately to keep the invaders from reaching the palace.
“No killing this time—Egxess!” Badd exclaimed as he whirled his scythe over his head, shooting out small crescent-shaped jet-black pulses with each spin. He fired off a hundred a second, each pulse draining a regular commoner of all their mana and knocking them unconscious. Unfortunately, the federation’s soldiers weren’t quite as weak. Moreover, the majority of the republic’s warriors hadn’t returned yet, so Badd and the others were severely outnumbered.
Badd deflected hundreds upon hundreds of arrows, but eventually, one of them slipped past and struck his side. No matter how skilled he was, he couldn’t keep this up indefinitely, so slowly but surely, more arrows started hitting him.
“Marshal! You’ve got a girlfriend, so you better not die before I do!”
“Shut up! I don’t wanna hear that from a loser who can’t even confess to the woman he loves!”
The two of them bantered with each other mostly to confirm that they were alive. The battle was too fierce for them to take their eyes off their opponents for even a second, after all. Plus, if they fell, the people hiding in the palace would die. Craid and the other royal guards were with them as a last line of defense, but it was just a matter of time before they were overwhelmed, which was why Marshal and Badd fought and fought and fought.
They didn’t even know how long they’d been fighting for anymore. Maybe it’d just been an hour or two, or maybe it’d been five or six. Badd couldn’t tell if he was even breathing anymore. Still, despite his injuries, he pressed on through sheer force of will. The woman he loved’s precious home was behind him, so he couldn’t afford to fall now. And yet, even though he was still burning with fighting spirit, his body felt cold.
“Hey, Miledi, did you find a way to kill Ehit?” Badd started mumbling to himself as he fought. Not because he’d gone insane, mind you, but because he expected Meiru to use restoration magic to see what had happened here and he wanted to leave his final words behind.