The ceiling collapsed, and the walls crumbled into pieces. The ground sank, magic stones shattered, and violet light scattered like fireflies.
Moonlight poured in through the broken places.
Peruan narrowed his eyes against the suddenly brightened view and forced himself to adjust.
Thud!
“Young master! This way!”
“Young master!”
“Lord Peruan!”
Tom screamed Peruan’s name until his throat nearly tore.
“Young count! Come to your senses!”
“Tom, let go of me. I think I need to go over there.”
“Leave that to the Hero!”
“Ah.......”
The corners of Peruan’s eyes trembled as he smiled.
“I see.”
He could see Luman lifting Ren into his arms. He could also see Ren blinking blankly, then flinching in surprise and curling in on himself.
Peruan swallowed hard and smiled with a bloodless face.
“Tom, then shall we take care of the others a little?”
Kaaaang—!
Kiiiiiiiiiiik.
Peruan lightly poked Tom, who was too busy knocking away falling debris to think, then added,
“I think I need to score a few points. Otherwise, I may not even have the smallest chance.”
“Is that really what you should be saying right now?!”
Tom’s face crumpled.
“This way!”
Tom gathered Seka, Cedric, Beta, Kenta, and the slaves around them.
“Ah, we should take one of the masked figures with us. As for this elf—”
Peruan slung one of the masked figures over his shoulder to uncover whoever was behind this.
“Someone take this man—”
“I’ll do it.”
“Brother! Hurry!”
The elf, who was staring straight ahead as though he might faint, was hoisted onto Seka’s back.
With Tom at the lead, they protected the slaves who did not know how to use swords and cleared away the falling stones. Screams burst out from the audience seats.
“I’ll break through the entrance!”
Tom was just taking an artifact out from inside his clothes.
Wooooooo—
With a strange sound, the falling stones stopped.
No, they had not stopped......
They turned to dust.
Ruuuumble.
What appeared through the massive cloud of dust was the rescue force they had waited for so desperately.
Inside the settling dust, two humans as large as houses—no, two Heroes—revealed themselves. Blue and red energies circled around them.
The sound of people dropping to their knees rang out from all around.
A blood-red cloak snapped violently in the wind.
Bloodshot eyes seemed to be searching for someone.
Dust and stone powder hung in the air, and the light of shattered magic stones drifted through the space. A strange energy that seemed to flow through the very air brushed across human faces like a god’s blessing.
At last, just as the Hero was about to step forward, just as that wild energy spread out in a circle around him—
A voice that could not have been more welcome rang out.
“Temar, you’re late.”
An unbearably light voice.
And—
“Brother?”
The voice he had been searching for so desperately.
***
‘Strange.’
I was definitely swallowed by light and shadow......
‘Was my instinct wrong?’
As Ren broke through the pattern about to be completed and drove the spear deep into the ground, he had thought that moment would be his last.
A force worthy of that had passed through him.
And even if he survived, he had been certain he would lose consciousness for a long time.
So what I did must not have been that impressive after all!
It was strange.
As light and shadow swallowed him, Ren had definitely felt a great deal of time sweep past him. No, as if all that time had passed through him.
‘Was it my imagination?’
The sky revealed through the collapsed ceiling of the bunker was still black, still the blue of dawn,
and Luman was exactly as Ren had last seen him.
He was holding Ren tightly.
His chest was pounding hard.
‘Ah, is that not my heart?’
Their bodies were pressed together, so he could not tell whose heartbeat it was.
He only knew that the hard, healthy thud of it—so strong that merely hearing it made him breathless—sounded good. Though he did feel a little seasick and dizzy.
When he quietly shifted, Luman patted him.
Kaaaang—!
Kiiiiiiiiiiik.
White smoke rose around them, and the sound of enormous stones falling from the bunker shook the ground.
‘Luman.......’
Ren grabbed the hem of Luman’s clothes.
‘You’re all right...... right?’
Belated relief and joy surged in.
He had done it. He had saved Luman.
Thank God he’s alive.
Ren smiled brightly. Though the smile was hidden by dust, unseen by anyone.
Wooooooo—
Ruuuumble.
‘Huh......?’
A familiar energy spread from the center of the bunker in a circle.
Whoosh—a wind so fierce he could not even open his eyes rushed over them.
The strange violet light and the dust settled cleanly, as though beaten down by heavy rain, and when Ren turned his head at Luman’s voice, he was left genuinely bewildered.
“Temar, you’re late.”
“Brother?”
The brother he had dreamed of was standing right before his eyes.
***
Deep, dark dawn. Just before the blue light brightened.
Moonlight shone over the shattered underground bunker.
It was a scene out of myth.
A Hero standing tall in the ruins, red cloak whipping in the wind.
The sight of a single light driving away a suffocating darkness seemed burned into everyone’s retinas.
In the chilling silence, Luman’s and Ren’s voices were quiet, but clear.
“Ren!”
The one who came running was Cedric. He ran so hard that dust and stone powder flew up behind him.
Reaching Ren in an instant, Cedric seemed not to see the Hero at all and shouted at Ren.
“A-are you okay?!”
Cedric’s voice had gone hoarse. His sharp eyes, fixed anxiously on Ren, had softened completely.
“Huh? Uh.......”
Ren, looking painfully awkward, nodded clumsily.
He heard short breaths from behind him. When Cedric turned his head, the nobleman who had helped them was standing there.
“Ren. I should have been the first to run to you, yet I arrived this late...... Surely you aren’t hurt anywhere.”
Peruan’s thick gaze examined Ren obsessively. Ren answered Peruan’s words, but his eyes remained fixed on Temar.
“Is that man Ren’s brother?”
At Peruan’s question, Luman tilted his head in a slight nod.
After seeing his expression, Peruan took a quiet breath and whispered low enough for only Luman to hear.
“You asked me to pull the nails out, yet now you drive one into my own chest. How truly cruel of you.”
His voice was soaked in sorrow.
Luman’s and Peruan’s eyes collided in midair.
“Hey. Hey, are you okay......?”
The one who swallowed hard and asked in a stammer was Kenta.
“Yeah.......”
Seka and Tom, who had come closer, also checked his unharmed face and looked around the unnaturally silent bunker.
How strange. Brother.
He had left on a mission, so how had he come all the way here?
Ah! This must be a mission too. Like the king’s command Peruan was carrying out, his brother must have received a similar order.
Heavy footsteps rang out.
Temar, who had been staring at Ren without moving like a statue, had finally moved.
As Temar approached, the people standing near Ren flinched. The force coming off him was far from ordinary.
Before anyone knew it, Temar stood in front of Ren. A massive shadow fell over Luman, who was holding Ren in his arms.
“...Brother?”
Ren called him awkwardly.
Gulp. Ren swallowed without realizing it.
Even when they had spent years apart, Temar had never felt awkward to him.
This time, they had only been separated for a little over ten days, yet Ren found him unfamiliar.
Why?
Ren studied Temar’s face as he silently stared back at him, then swallowed a small sound of realization.
Ah. He knew what was different.
That was...... Temar’s eyes as he looked at him were hotter than they had ever been before.
Ren lowered his gaze beneath that stare, which was embarrassing just to face.
‘Brother seems a little... strange.......’
His eyes were like a wildfire burning through a downpour, as if he were desperately holding a searing flame inside him.
Rough skin, eyes burning even though they were wet, hair grown long enough to cover his face.
Seeing him like that, enough to guess how he had come here, made Ren’s chest ache.
It was all right. He had missed him, but he had not meant to cling to him the way he had before.
It would have been all right if he had not come.
Ah, he came because it was a mission.
Ren remembered what he had thought at first.
‘Still, Brother is here. I shouldn’t be acting like this!’
Temar was watching Ren without the slightest movement. Ren lifted his head and met his eyes directly, then smiled. He had meant to pull up the corners of his mouth with some measure of happiness, but what came out was a terribly awkward smile.
Temar quietly stared at his younger brother’s bewildered, awkward face, then reached out.
Ren flinched unconsciously at the approaching hand. The hand stopped ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ and hovered in the air for a long time before carefully drawing closer.
Temar’s hand gently touched his cheek.
Thick and rough, covered in wounds,
with a body heat so hot it startled him, Temar’s palm cupped Ren’s cheek.
‘Brother...... are you trembling?’
Ren’s expression shifted strangely.
It was the face of someone who had no idea how to react.
Then Geloman, who had been standing nearby and looking around, came over and grabbed Temar’s shoulder.
“Temar. You’ve seen your brother’s face, so handle the aftermath first.”
“......Ah. Right. I should. I forgot.”
The eyes that seemed to hold burning ore swept over Ren with a heated gaze, then over Luman holding him, then over the faces of the people standing nearby. Those who received that stare jolted as though burned and looked away.
Inside Temar’s gentle brown eyes, an unquenchable flame seemed to burn.
Temar barely managed to remove his hand from Ren’s cheek, then clenched it into a fist. So tightly the blue veins stood out.
Why?
A heavy question settled in Temar’s chest.
Why?
Why was Ren not glad to see him?
Why was he not running into his arms?
Had something gone wrong?
His mouth felt dry and gritty, as if he had chewed sand.
Geloman’s gaze followed Temar as he moved to clean up the situation.
And Ren, still wearing a bewildered expression, watched his back.
***
The area where the slave auction had been held had completely collapsed.
At the audience seats, near the exits on either side of the stage, and behind them, people had been crushed to death in droves, and most of the survivors were unconscious. Fortunately, the ceiling above the audience seats had sturdy structures that blocked the falling rocks, so there were few people who had died directly from being struck by debris.
Peruan, who had been following Temar’s back with his eyes, asked,
“More support is coming, I assume?”
“They should be outside. They’re probably working to get in.”
“Hm. I see. Then I should rest a little while we wait for them. Ah, could you let me know right before they arrive?”
His gaze lingered on Ren, who was sleeping sweetly with soft little breaths in Luman’s arms.
His pale face and the bruises that had now faded still seemed vivid in Peruan’s eyes.
Luman glanced crookedly at Peruan, as though asking why.
Peruan pointed to his own trembling arm.
His arm, abused for quite some time, throbbed stiffly with pain.
“After working this hard, wouldn’t I lose face if I were sitting still when the soldiers storm in? So I would appreciate a little warning. Would that be difficult?”
“Young master, why don’t you simply work diligently from now on? Hm?”
Tom spoke in a weepy voice. Despite looking utterly exhausted, he kept cutting the chains of the captured people while insisting that the young count was helping them. Cedric and Seka also lent a hand.
“Don’t be absurd, Tom. If I waste all my strength now, I’ll hardly be able to stand on my own two feet later. Would you like me to stagger and fall disgracefully in front of them?”
Tom stared at his young master with an incredulous face.
Then Luman’s answer came.
“Very well.”
“Oh, thank you.”
Peruan smiled calmly, folding his eyes. Looking at those quietly sunken violet eyes, Luman continued.
“It seems you looked after Ren all this time. For that, I should be thanking you.”
It was a dry thanks, but Peruan read the sincerity in it.
And the warning as well.
The words seemed to draw a line, declaring that Ren’s guardian was him.
‘Well.’
Shouldn’t his guardian be his brother?
Peruan’s eyes watched Temar moving throughout the interior.
Those who had slowly realized that all the threats were gone began to burst into tears.
“A-are we...... Are we alive now?”
Beta asked Kenta blankly. When Kenta nodded, Beta flung herself into his arms and sobbed.
Tears gathered in Cedric’s eyes as he helped Seka cut the chains.
“You did well.”
“I’m sorry, Brother. I was stupid enough to be tricked......”
“Don’t say that. Once we’re out, will you tell me what happened?”
“Yeah. I will.”
Cedric, who had steadied himself through his emotions, nodded.
