How many days had passed since Temar left?
Outside, not even a single breath of wind stirred.
It was the hottest day of summer, when even the massive blocks of ice the attendants had brought in melted helplessly.
All the glass began to tremble with a shudder, as if resonating.
“Guh, cough!”
It was then that Ragniel’s seizure began, though he had only been lying still as if asleep until now.
“Giselle!”
“......!”
“Ragniel! Ragniel! Damn it!”
Geloman hurriedly lifted Ragniel’s body into his arms.
Ragniel shook all over and could not keep his arms and legs still.
“Do something!”
Luman shouted and rushed over, only to stagger and buckle to one knee.
A horrifying sensation, as if authority were draining out of him all at once, raced through his nerves.
“Surely not.”
His eyes, swallowing the words, shook mercilessly.
“Giselle! Come to your senses! Are you planning to let his breath stop like this?”
With one hand, Geloman held Ragniel’s body against him, and with the other, he grabbed Giselle by the collar and yanked him close.
Giselle, looking like a skeleton, was dragged over. His empty eyes held Ragniel for three seconds, and then Giselle’s eyes opened wide.
What his eyes were looking at was not the phenomenon before him.
It was the scene he had seen on the watchtower several days ago.
The golden button breaking apart, Ragniel’s form suddenly appearing.
The sound of running footsteps and the presence quickly vanished, and the blood that had soaked his arms came to mind.
That hot, sticky, fishy scent, and Ragniel, looking at him and asking.
The faint light breaking apart beside him.
Realization devoured him.
“--selle!”
Giselle’s face twisted. Geloman, who had been gripping his shoulders hard, startled and let go. When he pulled aside the clothes over Giselle’s pained face.......
“What is this.......”
Bluish bruises were rising.
A Hero’s body should not have been injured by something like this.......
“There is somewhere I must go.”
He quickly composed his expression.
At the beastlike screaming voice, the chandelier trembled.
“Where do you think you are going with that body? Giselle, are you planning to start something alone again? If you start something, we will be the ones cleaning it up. I do not think I can close my eyes and let it pass this time.”
Sssssst.
The hot summer light gathered and created a dazzling golden spear.
But as if it might break apart at any moment, the golden spear was faint and thin.
“Luman!”
When Geloman seized Luman’s spear, flames flared around it as if the spear would disappear at any moment.
Ragniel’s screams did not stop.
“Now is not the time for us to be doing this among ourselves. You feel it too, do you not?”
“.......”
Tears that seemed they would never dry fell sorrowfully.
The tears he had been unable to stop since the day he regained his memories gathered at the end of his chin.
“Ragniel does not have much breath left.”
Flash!
The golden spear vanished without leaving even its form. The scattering motes of light were the same as what they had seen on the watchtower.
Giselle’s eyes followed the motes of light.
Ragniel’s screams stopped and burst out again and again. Strength entered Geloman’s arms as he held him.
“Giselle, is there a way? A way for us to save Ragniel.”
An unwavering, stubborn gaze sought an answer from Giselle.
Blue eyes, a huge body that overwhelmed the other person.
Veins stood out on his narrow, straight forehead.
His angular jaw, clenched tight, showed that he [N O V E L I G H T] too was exhausted by this situation.
And yet the blue light in his eyes, like the hottest flame, was only as fierce as it had been on the day they first met.
“Giselle Ergensia.”
Toward him, who gave no answer, Geloman’s mouth moved once more.
The heavy low voice called his former name. The name buried beneath his feet. The name that had ended up stirring a certain pity in him.
Whether everything had gone awry because of that pity.
Or whether a chance at salvation had been born because of it.
That seemed to belong to the realm of fate, something he could not judge.
Giselle closed his eyes deeply, then opened them and stared at Geloman.
“If I say it is possible, would you even offer your own life? King’s Second Star, Lord Geloman.”
Geloman let out a short breath. Only then did anger settle over his blunt face.
“Giselle. You had better stop while you can. I am angry at your actions as well. You are smart enough to know that. So why do you keep provoking me?”
Geloman rolled his eyes slowly.
“You are conflicted. Is that it?”
“.......”
“Conflicted?”
The one who asked back was Luman. His expression said he did not understand.
“You are conflicted over a way to save Ragniel?”
Luman, reading the words between the silence, lifted his head sharply.
His face seemed to be asking why.
Ragniel’s breathing was still violent. It seemed as if it would stop at any moment.
There was no way to revive him through ordinary treatment.
It was a wound even a high-ranking priest would find difficult to do anything about.
If this much authority had been poured into him, he ought to have lived.
Yet as if he were being newly wounded every day, Ragniel’s wounds only deepened.
The bleeding had only barely stopped.
“Was the one who wounded him another Hero?”
Giselle did not react at all, but Geloman was certain.
He was weak at inference and logic, but his animal instincts were outstanding.
“So that was it. Was it Verdi?”
A blade-sharp voice searched for the culprit.
“That cannot be.”
Luman immediately denied it and glared at Giselle.
“Can you please open that mouth of yours? Even now, in this situation, are you trying to swing everything around however you like? Look at what you have done! Everyone has been torn to pieces! And yet we are still staying beside him and carrying out our duty. And even now, you cannot explain?”
Luman’s chest rose and fell heavily. The resentment he had suppressed as much as possible tried to burst out. His voice was almost desperate.
He wanted to abandon everything.
Like Temar, he wanted to leave and search for Ren.
But because he could not stand before Ren with an unsettled heart, reduced to rags, he had been enduring it.
But there was also a feeling that existed before that.
Something that came before personal desire.
Something placed in the same place as the heart that wanted to pass on the old wish he had longed for.
Something accumulated through old and sincere time.
It was trust.
If he had not met Ren. Perhaps he would never have known even the name of this feeling.
Giselle ended up letting out an exclamation.
They were truly shining. Like honorable Heroes, like stars protecting the kingdom.
The light filling the space seemed to whisper to Giselle.
In that moment, Giselle finally realized.
That he too had come to have a personal heart.
The sword he had swung indifferently beneath blade-like reason, placing the king of this kingdom at the highest point.
He could no longer swing it that way.
He looked at Ragniel, trembling in Geloman’s arms.
He could faintly feel the energy remaining inside him. A fragment of authority, gasping with his breath as if it would go out at any moment.
And his own body breaking apart.
At last, Giselle made up his mind.
His expression took on a smile softer than ever before.
As if noticing the change, Geloman’s thick brows furrowed. Luman stared at him with a suspicious expression.
After meeting both their eyes, Giselle carefully brushed Ragniel’s forehead and opened his mouth.
“Can you forgive me just once, without asking anything?”
After a brief silence.
Luman exhaled a hollow breath.
“You really are too much.”
“I agree. You refuse to share anything to the very end. I did not know you had such a rigid and stubborn personality.”
Giselle had not known either.
That the things that had existed between their years of time had, at some point, collapsed, and that he had regained his heart.
The face of the one who had left first, the one who had been especially frightened, tried to rise faintly in his mind.
A face he had not even dared to remember, as though it were taboo.
‘□□□’ Would he be able to remember that name now, too?
Swallowing something bitter, Giselle calmly met the gazes staring at him.
“Forgive you. Just how great a wrong are you about to commit?”
“It will probably be a very great wrong. I will bear it forever.”
“That is a terribly frightening thing to say.”
“Is it something that will save Ragniel?”
Following Luman’s words, Geloman asked.
Geloman’s questions were particularly sharp today.
“Yes. It is something that will save our king, Ragniel.”
“Let me ask just one thing.”
Neatly ignoring Giselle’s request not to ask anything, Luman opened his mouth.
Anxiety and fear briefly crossed his face.
“You are not trying to take someone’s life, are you?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Swear it. That you will not take another person’s life. That there will be no harm done to that child. In any way.”
At Giselle’s firm answer, Luman pressed him.
If your words are true, swear it in blood.
Geloman did not look pleased by Luman’s demand that he swear, but he did not stop him.
He too had Ren’s safety in mind.
“Gladly.”
Giselle formed a sign with his fingers and lifted his hand slightly toward the sky.
It would be the final oath he offered.
The first oath to his king, Ragniel.
The final oath to the star of kings.
It was proper and fitting.
“I swear in the name of the goddess Miteo.”
Miteo, goddess of fortune, love, and forgiveness.
The only goddess in myth who holds a lamp.
There is a tale that the red sun illuminating the earth is that very goddess’s lamp.
A calm prayer of oath flowed from Giselle’s mouth.
The reason the goddess Miteo of myth has preserved her name in honor until now
is because she is a merciful god who looks down upon humans,
but also because she brings terrible punishment upon those who break an oath.
“If you break the oath, you will.”
Luman stopped after saying only that much. Because it was a punishment too horrible even to put into words.
“You know best, I am sure. Keep the oath. That is all I have to say. When you come back, I will annoy you with tens of thousands of questions, so you had better prepare yourself, Giselle. I think I am going to develop a hobby of asking questions.”
“The same goes for me, Giselle. So keep the oath. Do not abandon us.”
Luman looked slightly appalled. Do not abandon us, of all things. He had never thought he would hear such a disgusting phrase come out of Geloman’s mouth.
The heavy atmosphere was driven away for a while, and silence returned once more.
Ragniel’s seizure had subsided, but even in this moment, the end was drawing near.
Moment by moment.
Tightening his breath and scattering his life.
“I have one request for you.”
After hearing Giselle’s story, Luman sighed.
“That is two.”
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