She’d seen as they’d fought on desperately, and after realizing that they couldn’t survive, sacrificed themselves to let at least Diene escape.
Meiru would never forget the half-crying, half-smiling face Kyaty had made when she’d accepted Chris’s orders and slung a kicking and screaming Diene over her shoulder. Ignoring Diene’s protests that she was a member of the same pirate crew and that they would all die together, Kyaty had rushed through the hordes of soldiers to ferry her to safety.
“Sorry, Captain. But, it looks like I’ll be dying ahead of you. I’ll make sure to protect our princess though, so I hope you’ll forgive me.”
That had been the last thing Chris had said. And indeed, the Melusine pirate crew had successfully protected Diene.
Meiru had found Kyaty and Diene in a cave behind a waterfall near the summit of one of the mountains. Kyaty had been slumped on the ground, with numerous arrows in her back. Even after taking numerous fatal injuries, however, she’d continued running until she’d managed to bring Diene somewhere safe. She’d protected her best friend’s, Meiru’s, precious sister until the moment of her death.
Diene, who’d been underneath Kyaty’s body, had been completely unhurt. She’d tried desperately to bring Kyaty back with renewal magic to the point that she’d exhausted herself to the soul. Luckily, though, there hadn’t been a scratch on her body.
After Meiru and Laus had healed her, the first thing Diene had said upon waking up was, “I’m sorry, Nee-sama. I couldn’t protect everyone.”
She’d apologized over and over, crying all the while. And once she’d cried her heart out, she’d fallen back asleep, and though a day had passed, she still hadn’t woken back up.
“None of the corpses belonged to the dukedom’s soldiers,” Meiru said in a small voice. Despite their predicament, her pirate crew had stayed true to their beliefs as Liberators and refused to kill anyone not directly associated with the church.
“They really were a bunch of idiots.”
Meiru couldn’t help but wonder why a group of outlaws had stuck so hard to their principles. She couldn’t help but wish they’d abandoned their lofty ideals and chosen to fight to survive instead.
If only they were still alive...
“Now that they’re dead, I can’t even punish them for leaving me behind.”
“Meru-nee...”
It was the Liberators’ creed that had killed Melusine’s crew. And so, seeing Meiru bury her face in Diene’s hair, Miledi couldn’t think of anything to say. All she could do was bite her lip again, drawing blood.
“I’m sorry, Miledi-chan. I’m a failure of a Liberator.”
“No, that’s not true! I’m the one who—!”
Miledi flew over to Meiru’s side, but Meiru brushed Miledi’s bloodied lips with her fingers to cut her off.
Meiru’s sunset-orange mana, which seemed oddly distinct from the color of the ongoing sunset, bathed Miledi’s lips, healing the cuts.
“Laus-kun is right. I’m proud of them.”
Chris and the others had given their lives for a dream bigger than themselves. If Meiru—their captain—couldn’t be proud of them, then who would?
Meiru smiled sadly, and Miledi took the girl’s hand and pressed it against her cheek. She then squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth as hard as she could.
“We need to hurry, Miledi. We can mourn and reminisce once all of this is over,” Laus said.
“He’s right. First, we’ll need to rendezvous at the Pale Forest.”
The Liberators needed a new base of operations from which to decide whether to continue their rescue efforts or focus their resources elsewhere.
The few sane dragonmen they’d managed to rescue were set to reach the forest in a few days as well. They’d told Miledi and the others to go on ahead because they knew they’d just slow her down.
Miledi had agreed mostly because if the Dragon Kingdom was in such a sorry state, there was no guarantee the republic was any safer, so she wanted to make sure it was before bringing refugees there.
Lyutillis had headed back to the forest ahead of everyone else, since she was nigh-invincible with the sacred tree’s strength behind her, but even with that, Miledi couldn’t be sure the republic was safe.
The situation was growing worse by the minute as well, with more and more of the Liberators being hunted down even as Miledi rushed to and fro to save who she could. She couldn’t help but wish the compass would show her what the situation was like where she wanted to go, on top of pointing her in the right direction.
“Please be safe, guys,” Miledi said, praying for the safety of those still alive as she sped toward the forest at the speed of sound.
Miledi, Meiru, and Laus reached the republic that same night. As they passed over the White Scarred Plains, they saw millions upon millions of campfires. Even more people were streaming toward the plains from the west as well.
“Well, at least it looks like Lyu managed to kick them out with her barrier,” Miledi muttered.
There were so many fires that the sky was bright even in the middle of the night. Soldiers kept trying to push into the forest, only to find themselves walking back out, confused. The Pale Forest was once again successfully misdirecting all those who entered.
Miledi and the others breathed a small sigh of relief upon seeing that. It was short-lived, however. The moment Miledi flew into the capital, she saw the destroyed houses, the rows of dead covered by traditional funeral leaves, and the burned-down trees. Rescue workers were still coming back with more corpses too.