“Gaius, hold him down! Don’t let him see my Father!”
Gaius moved to follow the prince’s orders with a terrifying look on his face. Though the Vice-Commander was rather fit for someone who kept off the front lines, he didn’t stand a chance against Gaius’s physical strength.
“Celestino.”
The sword dropped from my hand with a thud as His Highness offered me the brown bundle. All the strength left my body as I took the last piece of her.
Lucia.
Her hair was still just as soft as it had been when I touched it over the course of our journey. It even smelled nice. Her blushing face. Her lovely smile. Her angry face. Her crying face. My memories of her ran through my mind.
“I’m okay with you too. I don’t want anyone else but you. If you’re alright with me, can I stay beside you?”
Yeah, I want you too. Not anyone else, you.
“I don’t want you to leave me.”
I don’t want you to leave me either.
“I’m afraid that you’ll disappear.”
Lucia. I never knew how terrifying it was to lose someone you loved. I didn’t know how heartrendingly sad it was to be left behind. I never realized how hard it was to lose your world.
“Ugh... Uraaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”
I gripped her hair.
I’d promised to protect you. I’d promised that I wouldn’t leave you alone. I wanted to make you happy. I wanted to be happy with you.
“You do not suit each other.”
Something on my chest jingled. I flew into a rage at the sight of my knight’s emblem.
“What’s a hero... What’s a knight!” I yelled, tearing my emblem off my chest, and throwing it on the floor. “I didn’t want any of this!”
If I hadn’t been a knight, I never would have met you. If I hadn’t been called a hero, you never would have died. I was the reason you lost everything.
“Astorga, where is her body?” His Highness questioned.
“I cannot say... I do not believe I need to tell you. I serve the King. You are not the King yet.”
“So you’ll tell me once I take the throne?”
“I won’t speak on possibilities. I serve the King. I will have you let me report to His Majesty.”
“I see,” the prince’s voice dropped to a freezing tone. “Then I will just have to become the King. Gaius...take him away. Do not let him meet my father.”
“Understood.”
As Gaius marched the Vice-Commander away, Prince Edoardo ordered the Commander to come with him, still looking enraged, “Fernando, come with me. Reynard, stay with Maria.”
The only things you could hear in the room were the Sacred Maiden and Eric sobbing.
“Where are you going?” Eric asked.
I only realized that I’d stood up when he called out to me. I didn’t know where I would go. I tried to wrack my slow brain for an answer, but— There’s only one place I can go.
“I’m going to find Lucia.”
“Find her? Lucia...is gone!” Eric hesitated, staring at the bundle of her hair in my hand.
“Don’t die. Captain, you can’t die! Lucia wouldn’t want that!”
“I won’t die until I find her.”
“But you’re still planning on dying! Stop!” Eric moved forward and clung to me.
“What use do I have for a world without her?” I muttered.
“Celes.” The Sacred Maiden slowly got to her feet. “Is Lucia really gone? No doubts?”
“Sacred Maiden...!”
“Eri-kun, tell me. All he brought back was her hair. He said she was dead, but he was lying, right? Tell me he was lying.” She powerlessly hobbled over to us, and her tears started again as she touched Lucia’s hair. “Tell me he was lying. I haven’t seen anything. I won’t believe anything I don’t see. I don’t want to. What did she do? She did her best to protect everything around her. This has to be a lie. Tell me I’m dreaming!”
“Sacred Maiden, please don’t make me say it again! The only times a woman’s hair is cut in our world is when she dies or is widowed! And since we have her hair... S-She’s...”
“That’s just her hair! No one dies by having their hair cut! Everyone cut their hair in my world!”
“This... This isn’t your world!” Eric yelled at her as she sobbed, pain written on his face.
“Ah!”
“I’m sorry for being mean — I’m so sorry. But Sacred Maiden, here, a woman’s hair being cut means the same thing as dying.” Eric tried to explain, tears running down his cheeks. “It’s really important...Don’t make me say it again!”
The Sacred Maiden wouldn’t listen. She shook her head, messing up her hair even more. “It might be important, but she wouldn’t die! You don’t die when your hair gets cut! I don’t believe she’s dead! No, she’s alive! She promised she’d see me off!”
You don’t die when your hair gets cut... I looked at the bundle of hair in my hand. Cutting a woman’s hair was directly related to death. Whether true death, or death in society, a woman with cut hair is “dead.” That’s just how our world works.
But none of us had seen her body.
What if the Vice-Commander was lying? I didn’t think he would disobey the King by lying, but the spark of doubt that lit in my heart wouldn’t disappear. What if that man had gone against His Majesty and his family’s orders and wanted to protect Lucia? That would mean that there was a chance she was still alive. These thoughts were like a flicker of light in the darkness of despair.
I held her hair close. I won’t give up. I can’t give up. I swore I’d protect her.
Picking up my sword from the floor and, putting it back in the scabbard, I turned, walking purposefully towards the door.
Lucia. Even If I have to search the entire world, I’ll definitely find you.