Chapter 243: An Old Prophecy

A huge body blocked the way. Giselle gazed calmly at Geloman, who had stepped in front of him.

He wore a suspicious expression.

It seemed Temar was not the only one who had sensed something strange in today’s events.

“I was going to get some air.”

“I’ll go with you.”

Geloman’s heavy gaze swept over Giselle.

There was not a trace of vitality to be found in his face. It could not have been easy for him even to move his body, yet there was no discomfort to be found on Giselle’s face.

“Stubborn bastard.”

Tsk, Geloman clicked his tongue.

Even without being told, he could tell how much authority Giselle had poured out to save Ragniel’s life.

He was drenched in authority. To the point that when Giselle and Ragniel were side by side, they could not be distinguished by their energy.

Giselle passed right by Geloman, who was blocking his way, and went out. He did not seem to care that Geloman was following him. Steps carrying heavy weight followed behind Giselle.

The two who remained after they left were each looking somewhere different.

“Hey, Temar.”

“.......”

“Hey, when a person calls you, you’re supposed to answer.”

Luman frowned.

“What.”

“......Can I ask one slightly strange question?”

“What is it.”

He hesitated for a moment. Because it truly was a strange question.

“Did I like someone? No...... did I love someone?”

Did I have someone I loved?

Luman suddenly muttered with a serious expression, then looked at Temar as if seeking an answer. It was a painfully earnest gaze.

“What?”

It was inevitable that Temar, who had been lost in thought, turned his head.

“......Are you spouting nonsense in a situation this important?”

Looking at Luman, who wore an expression of tension unlike him, Temar sighed. His voice sounded as though he found him pathetic, but the corner of his mouth that had risen as if in a sneer quickly lowered.

Perhaps because he had heard nonsense, his insides felt uncomfortable. He pressed down on his head, which felt as though a headache might begin. No matter how immature he was, how light he was about everything, and how much he wanted to quit being a Hero....... Temar, who had been continuing the thought, flinched at the unnaturalness.

“Didn’t you quit being a Hero?”

“Me?”

Luman chuckled.

“Looks like you gained the talent to read minds. Right, I don’t know why I’m here doing this either.”

Luman swept back his hair and exhaled with an, ah.

He had taken it as a joke, but Luman was swept up in a subtle feeling.

For some reason, it felt as though there were gaps scattered through his memory. Even though there was not a single part he could not remember.

Luman lowered his gaze. He did not have a hobby of dwelling on things he could not remember, but...... it seemed he should ask Giselle once.

Swallowing the vague feeling, Luman grinned.

“More importantly, Temar. You have to answer my question.”

“You were seriously asking?”

“When have you ever seen me joke?”

At Luman’s joke, Temar’s mouth loosened slightly.

Yes, what they, who hovered between life and death, needed was a joke that let them breathe for a moment.

“Who knows. Whether someone like you could love anyone sincerely.”

“You’re cursing me.”

“If there’s something that shines brighter than gold coins, maybe you liked that.”

“That’s true.”

The two exchanged useless words, then closed their mouths.

Ragniel did not even groan. The breath barely held in place by authority was continuing with difficulty.

They did not speak of Ragniel’s recovery. Because how far his breath would continue was not within their domain.

They could only pray that authority would lead Ragniel as well to a miracle.

***

It was an especially deep night.

A chill unlike a summer night seemed to drift through the royal palace.

“.......”

Walking while looking at the back of Giselle’s head, Geloman’s mouth hardened firmly.

His straight back and every step did not waver, but he was precarious. Geloman could feel it.

That the handful of authority left was opening its jaws to swallow Giselle.

If he slipped even slightly, he might run wild like Temar before. The end would probably be ruin.

When Giselle stopped, Geloman also stopped two or three steps away.

Geloman’s enormous shadow swallowed Giselle’s comparatively thin body.

Beyond his body, a faintly glowing orb could be seen.

It was a communication orb.

“A communication orb?”

Geloman’s eyes narrowed. But the light soon disappeared into Giselle’s arms.

“Who are you contacting? Is it related to Ragniel?”

Geloman strode up to Giselle. His blue eyes stared at him persistently.

“This is not the time to handle things alone. Is it something you cannot even tell us?”

Until now, they had left every decision to Giselle.

But Geloman thought they could not do so even at a time like this.

“Do not try to bear everything alone.”

Giselle, who had been silently listening to his words, smiled loosely. But that smile soon disappeared.

“I knew you were kind, but this is new.”

“Is it?”

Beneath hair that had grown down to his eyebrows, Geloman’s eyes shone bright blue.

In the dark night, they were eyes as bright as torches. In the eyes shining intelligently, there was no light of suspicion.

Looking at those eyes shining like flames, Giselle kept silent for a moment.

“Yes. In the end, it is something all of us must bear.”

Giselle’s voice sounded sorrowful at first glance.

But his expression was no different from before.

“We will bear it together anyway.”

Even so, he could not tell all the truth. There would be no failure in the great ritual, and in the end, everyone would lose their memories, so Giselle alone would have to pay the price of the ritual.

Geloman silently nodded. Within the consideration of not asking in detail, Geloman also swallowed one question he had wanted to ask.

***

The Heroes stayed by Ragniel’s side all night.

But even after one day passed, then two days passed, Ragniel showed no sign of waking.

“Giselle. Isn’t it about time you told us now? You aren’t planning to move after holding Ragniel’s funeral, are you?”

Luman asked, rubbing around his eyes.

Staying still inside a room did not suit his temperament. Luman thought he had waited quite a long time.

“I understand hiding Ragniel’s injury. But there’s no need to do that even to us.”

“Giselle. How long are we supposed to wait?”

Following Luman’s words, Temar asked.

Giselle withdrew the hand he had placed against Ragniel’s body. Silver thread was still flowing from his hand.

Without turning around, he said,

“Until everything is finished.”

It was an utterly evasive answer. Without any explanation, merely until everything was finished.

If it had been Luman as usual, he might have accepted his words calmly.

But since yesterday, he had been suffering from neurosis that was hard to endure. Irritation and impatience gnawed at him so badly he could not tolerate even the smallest sound or sensation.

Something was definitely going wrong. But he could not, no matter what, figure out “what” was going wrong.

Suppressing his blocked breath, Luman rose. He leaned forward in front of Giselle, who did not turn around, and smiled.

“What do you mean by that?”

After regulating his breath once more, Luman continued.

“You need to tell us what matter you mean. The culprit who harmed Ragniel? Or if not that, the one behind the scheme?”

Giselle had no answer.

“Hey, Giselle.”

When Luman grabbed his shoulder, Giselle obediently turned his head.

And the moment his eyes met Giselle’s, Luman lost his words.

Because he remembered Giselle’s gaze, which had from time to time rushed into him as though blaming him.

Giselle glanced at Luman’s hand. Luman lowered the hand gripping his shoulder.

It was then that Temar, who had been watching the confrontation between the two, opened his mouth.

“I agree too. Giselle, I would like you to tell us something we can accept. Have we ever gone against your will?”

Dark brown eyes stared straight at Giselle. Gazes with unknowable meanings tangled together.

A sneer slowly brushed past Giselle’s mouth. There was no need to listen seriously to words spoken by one who did not remember, but he could not help finding it funny.

But they too had lost what was precious to them, so there was no need to be harsh.

Giselle opened his mouth while measuring the time of the life he had barely kept hold of.

“It is something the king ordered. There was an order to keep silent until the matter is completed.”

“There’s nothing you can tell us?”

Luman lifted his head. Blond hair fell loose over his forehead, and his two eyes shining gold caught Giselle’s gaze. His flashing eyes held his authority.

All the Heroes gathered in the room were holding Ragniel’s life.

Unless something like a miracle happened, they would probably all have to hold hands and enter the coffin together.

“You aren’t telling us to sit still and watch death, are you?”

Do not think I do not know your authority is wearing away, Luman muttered.

“Are you afraid of death?”

A sudden question flew into his ears. Luman frowned and asked back.

“What?”

“I asked whether you are afraid of death.”

“As if I would be.”

Luman answered shortly.

No matter which Hero he asked, the same answer would come back. Giselle nodded with a face that said this was natural.

“It is something the king ordered. There is no other answer. I am not afraid of death.”

Luman let out a hollow laugh.

Without a word, he approached Geloman, who was watching this situation, and draped an arm over his shoulder.

“Geloman, aren’t you curious either?”

Geloman glanced at Luman’s face as he tilted his head and smiled crookedly, then nodded.

“As always, we simply follow the command. All of us. Is that not so?”

Geloman’s bright blue eyes turned toward Ragniel lying there, then toward Temar, Luman, and Giselle.

Luman scratched his cheek.

“If you say it like that, then I look way too childish for complaining. Isn’t that too harsh? Let’s say I was the one who said that last line.”

“That will not do.”

Geloman smiled faintly.

The conversation was settled for the moment.

A low sigh rang through the quiet room.

Luman leaned back on the sofa and placed a hand on his forehead. Giselle went out to the terrace, and Temar stood alone, glaring into empty air. Geloman sat in a chair, laced his fingers together, and quietly kept silent.

A sigh flowed from Luman’s mouth. He stared blankly at the ceiling. His lips twitched repeatedly as if he wanted to say something, then stopped each time.

“Am I the only one feeling this way?”

An anxiety and thirst whose origin he could not know boiled up from the bottom of his chest. The things he had forced himself to swallow also felt precarious, as though they might be vomited out in an instant. He covered his eyes, which were growing hot for no reason, with his hand and swallowed his breath.

Geloman was staring at his own shadow.

He wanted to ruminate on some pleasant and good memory, but what came to mind was an unrelated face. Surely, there seemed to be someone with whom he had a relationship other than that of superior and subordinate.

Had he not looked at someone and smiled with a blush? Had he not whistled and clearly admired them too...?

Geloman’s forehead creased faintly.

And Temar, standing motionlessly, was absorbed in “death.”

Death.

A word always at the side of him, a warrior and Hero.

Even if one feared death, it was not an unfamiliar word.

But the moment Temar heard the word “death,” he felt a chilling fear, as though he was facing it for the first time in his life.

A feeling that an old nightmare was about to come wrapped around him.

The Heroes, each immersed in their own thoughts, did not think to ask anyone about the whereabouts of “Verdi,” who had disappeared after the final battle.

***

A waterfall was pouring down beneath a sheer cliff.

Below the waterfall, pale mist wrapped around the rocks, and the stream moved forward, violently digging through the stones.

In the middle of the waterfall, there was a girl being struck by water cold as ice even in midsummer.

Her body was slender enough that it seemed she could not endure the stream for even a moment, but the girl did not move.

Her long hair, reaching down to her waist, wrapped around her body.

The girl, who had been enduring the stream pouring down from the crown of her head as though it would split her body apart, suddenly opened her eyes.

The water passed around her abundant eyelashes.

Eyes filled with radiance stared at a point in the air. The girl’s lips moved slowly.

“An old prophecy.......”

The girl rose from where she had been kneeling and walked through the waterfall, rough enough to knock her over. The other girls who had been waiting for her brought a large towel and wrapped it around her body.

“Lady Sasha. Where shall we escort you?”

The girls asked softly.

“To the altar.”