Lucas was yelling.
“Go, Your Highness! Go after him!”
“But I can’t leave you…!”
The outer fortress was under enemy control. Gravis hesitated for a moment, concerned about the safety of his three companions, but Lucas offered him an undaunted smile.
“We’ll be fine. We don’t plan on dying here!”
“Lucas…!”
“Go save Leorino. I can’t do it. Your Highness…you’re the only one who can!”
His words contained eighteen years’ worth of anguish that only the two of them could understand.
Then a slender young man stepped forward.
“I will protect the lieutenant general.”
Josef implored Gravis and Lucas with his eyes, startling the men with his words.
“No one can beat me in a sword fight. I won’t let him die here. So…General, please save Master Leorino.”
“I can fight, too! I will avenge my father.” Gehman also stepped up.
Having made up his mind, Gravis nodded.
“Give me two… No, give me one hour to send reinforcements from the main camp… I need you all to come out of this alive.”
The three men nodded in reassurance.
“Go on, Your Highness!”
In the next instant, Gravis leaped into the skies above Zweilink, where he could see the entire fortress.
He had to rely on his instincts.
Smirnov’s pallid features were proof that his life had been sapped to its limit. In which case, he could not have gone far. He must have been somewhere within this fortress.
The man threatened to throw Leorino off the fortress walls. That told him where he must have gone. But did he mean the outer or inner fortress? That, Gravis didn’t know.
As he was about to fall, he leaped again to his previous height. Over and over.
He strained his eyes from high above, desperately searching for the two of them. He could feel his life draining away in real time.
Leorino…! Leorino, call me just one more time!
At that moment, the sun emerged from beyond the horizon.
Dawn had come.
Then, at the top of the inner fortress walls, something glinted in the morning sun.
“There…!”
Gravis leaped toward that platinum gleam.
Leorino suddenly regained consciousness. He thought he had heard Gravis’s voice.
“Ah…”
“You’re awake.”
He was on the walls of the inner fortress. The crisp predawn wind crawled up the fortress walls, whipping against him and his captor.
The winter winds were relentless against his soaked skin, sapping away what remained of his body heat. Leorino could no longer stand on his own without Smirnov’s support.
“…Ngh.”
Smirnov also struggled to stay upright. He had already used up all his strength. Their bodies swayed unsteadily on the fortress walls. They were enemies, but now, of all times, they were forced to lean against each other for support.
“Smirnov…”
“It appears that…this is as far as I can go.”
Leorino’s foggy mind raced as best it could.
Smirnov couldn’t leap anywhere anymore.
His ability could rival Gravis’s, but as long as he continued to use his Power at the cost of his life, he would eventually reach his limits.
“…Now, shall I leave you here and make my escape, or shall I push you off and let that man taste despair?”
“…S…mir…”
“You can barely even speak… I suppose you’ll die one way or another.”
Leorino suddenly focused on his stomach. Something hard was pressed against him. Smirnov’s hand was holding Leorino’s dagger, the same blade he had dropped earlier.
Forgetting the pain and the cold, his mind became strangely clear. The proximity of death filled Leorino’s chest. It was a familiar feeling.
This man had no intention of letting Leorino go. Leorino knew it. His wet and wounded body was losing blood and warmth. His life wouldn’t last much longer.
But…I will not lose. Even if I can’t win, I refuse to lose…
Leorino slowly placed his hand on the man’s fist pressed against his stomach and weakly wrapped his hand around it.
“…What is it?”
The man, his face bereft of color from the overuse of his Power, looked down at Leorino in confusion.
Leorino looked up to the heavens.
The sky was bright at its edges. Dawn was near. The stars overhead would soon be out of sight.
…I’m sorry, Vi.
He put the last of his strength into his fist. Leorino gripped Smirnov’s hand and jerked his own body toward the fixed dagger.
“What…?!”
Leorino felt the dagger pierce his flesh.
He felt no fear. His freezing numb body registered no pain at all.
He had been stabbed in the stomach with a much thicker sword in the past.
“You… Have you lost your mind?!”
Startled, Smirnov loosened his hand in a panic. He was about to kill him, but now, it all felt so laughable.
But Leorino had been waiting for that moment.
He gripped the hilt of the dagger in his stomach and pulled it out.
The next moment, Leorino thrust the blood-soaked blade into Smirnov’s chest, putting all of his weight into the blow.
“What…?”
Smirnov’s eyes widened in shock. He looked down at the dagger in his chest in disbelief.
“…You have chosen…the wrong path.”
Leorino caught the wretched man’s gaze and smiled with misty eyes. Smirnov gaped back.
“Your master, the Marquis of Lagarea, chose…the wrong path…”
Smirnov’s lips quivered at the name.
Leorino had been raised by a family that loved and protected him, and would never know the extent of the hell this man had seen. Smirnov hardly needed Leorino’s sympathy either.
But there was one thing Leorino did know.
These men had not been loved by those who should have loved them.
The solitude and wails of such men became a flame of vindictiveness that eventually took the lives of many, mass-producing more miserable people who had been deprived of their loved ones.
He wanted that vicious cycle to stop for good.
Oh… That’s why Ionia gave his life for Vi back then.
He felt like he truly understood Ionia’s feelings for the first time.
Who should be held responsible for the loss of someone’s love?
Who had been paying the price for it all along?
It had been the same that day. He didn’t want to burden Gravis any further. This wound was the price for the loss of love.
His eyes met Smirnov’s.
Peering into them up close, the man’s eyes were a soft brown like Amancera’s. He had been hurt so many times that little could be learned from them by now. They were the eyes of a child left behind.
Oh, poor thing. You poor, poor, lonely, wounded soul.
“Smi… Your suffering…ends here…with me…”
“You…”
If only he could make up for this man’s loneliness and suffering with his life.
Leorino put more weight on Smirnov, who looked down at him in a daze. Their powerless bodies slowly pitched together beyond the walls.
In his fading consciousness, he could see the sky getting brighter. He thought he heard the voice of the man he loved.
His limbs entangled with Smirnov’s, Leorino plummeted from the fortress walls.
Right before Gravis’s eyes, a slender body was falling, taking Smirnov with him. Leorino seemed to have placed his weight on the man.
“Why?! Leorino!!”
He had no time to hesitate. Gravis kicked the wall and leaped toward the earth.
Reach him…!
Gravis accelerated to close in on the two falling men, but his timing was off. He leaped through the air, further gaining speed. His life drained away with every second.
A few moments before they hit the ground. All sound had stopped.
A few inches more, a lunge, and he would be there. The ground was closing in.
…Come back…!
Come back to me, back into my arms.
With the wind piercing his entire body, Gravis’s hand closed around something.
Almost unconsciously, he pulled it close with all his might, and at that moment, he screamed from the bottom of his lungs.
“Gaaaahhhh!”
Gravis burned through his life with reckless abandon.
Just before they hit the ground, the three men suddenly vanished.
A star flickered brightly in his mind. Aiming for that spot, Gravis leaped again.
When his vision returned, the ground was right in front of him. He was unable to adjust his position. It was all he could do to protect the thin body he held in his arms from the impact of the fall.
The other man he had grabbed fell by the wayside.
Gravis could only think about protecting the life in his arms. Holding on with both arms and legs, he twisted his body to place himself underneath and plunged into the middle of the Royal Army encampment.
Leorino…! Endure…!
Violently slamming into the ground, Gravis prayed in his heart for the safety of his beloved.
A large mass suddenly appeared in the camp of the Royal Army of Fanoren.
The suddenness of the event flustered the Fanoren army.
It landed with a loud noise. Rolling across the ground with great force, the mass finally stopped.
Emerging from the dust was General Gravis.
“…General?!”
His muscular body was breathing erratically. He remained where he fell, holding something in his arms. Perhaps it was the impact of hitting the ground, but he seemed unable to get up.
The first to understand the situation was Dirk, his second-in-command. While the soldiers stared at the man dumbfounded, Dirk rushed to the general’s side.
“Your Excellency!”
Gravis finally got up at the sound of his voice. Then he rushed to examine the thin body in his arms.