For a moment, the pain came crashing in like my shoulder blade was being crushed to pieces, and my mind went blank—but my stomach twisted so violently it dragged me back to my senses.
"Anyway, I’m sorry it came to this. It would’ve been better if we hadn’t crossed paths... but now that we have, I can’t exactly let you go, can I? While I’m at it, I may as well check whether those rumors are true. You’ll make a pretty decent piece of bait. You don’t seem that close to your brother, but that man Luman seems to care about you quite a lot. Ah! And this is a perfect chance to test whether a so-called Hero really will put the king’s command first and uphold the greater good—or whether he’s nothing more than a mere human who values blood ties. You’re curious too, aren’t you?"
Why.......
"You don’t have to make a face like that. How close could you possibly be with Lady Coco to look at her like that? Luman was right—kids these days really are strange!"
Was it because of me?
If I—if I hadn’t jumped after them...
then maybe, if the gray-haired man had really been trying to save Coco, the two of them could’ve escaped.
"Run."
What Coco meant by that was Dell Belkerman. The man right in front of me.
And stupid me, I misunderstood her....
All I wanted was not to leave Coco alone—to do my part.
But I was the one who stole her chance to run.
The reason that gray-haired man had coughed up blood and collapsed—was because of me.
Blergh. Urrghh.
My whole body twisted.
Something rose from the tips of my toes and flipped my insides over.
I vomited up something green.
It poured out of me in a flood, my throat stretched open so wide I couldn’t even breathe between heaves.
"Oh dear. How filthy."
While my guts twisted themselves inside out, another pain entirely—something different, but no less savage—pounded through my whole body and blurred my thoughts.
Aaaahhh.
I didn’t even have the strength to scream.
I wanted to pretend I didn’t know.
Coco’s words about not having a family she could trust had made my chest ache.
Even so, I’d believed Dell—her last remaining escort knight—would protect her.
A traitor.
He was a traitor. I didn’t want to believe it.
"Still, I’m surprised. I thought you’d ask what happened to the Hero first."
He let go of my shoulder, which he’d been gripping hard enough to shatter it, and stood up.
I couldn’t even feel the pain in it anymore.
The second he let go, my body pitched sideways. Even so, I forced my head up stiffly. I had to buy time. My brother was a Hero who had never failed a mission. He would definitely come save Coco.
As the sun dipped lower, Dell’s face came back into view.
"Aren’t you curious?"
That vivid scar across his cheek.
His face, holding that cruel smile, looked like he was having the time of his life, and on the sword in his hand...
there was blood. Blood I hadn’t noticed before, running down the blade in thick drops and spotting the ground.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
"......!"
Ah....
And... Dell Belkerman wasn’t wearing black clothes.
He hadn’t changed into black.
He was soaked in blood.
The blood draped over him looked black in the dark.
Was it my brother’s and Luman’s blood?
Urrgghhh.
No. No way.
"Pitiful.... Ahh, what an exquisite taste. I’d wanted to try it. Hah."
What surged up out of me wasn’t vomit.
What spread over the green mess was blood.
Tears, the kind your body forces out on its own, ran down my face.
"Ren...."
...! Coco.
Coco—Coco was okay. She’d come to.
I wanted to turn and look at her.
But the pain ripping through my belly was so bad I couldn’t even straighten my body.
"Aaaagh!!"
A pain like I was being wrung out. Like every joint in my body was being pulled apart and snapped back into place.
It was another seizure. Worse than any before it.
Pain so bad it felt like my consciousness was being ripped right out of me.
Like it was draining every bit of strength I had.
I twisted and screamed and crawled across the ground.
"Did you know? These Hero types are no different from broken machines once you take away their orders, Ren. Ahh, how helpless they are!"
Dell’s ecstatic whisper clawed through my head.
"Ren...!"
Coco’s faint voice didn’t reach me.
"My lady, you’re finally awake."
Dell greeted the lady with a rapturous expression.
"What are you trying to do...? That boy... has nothing to do with this...!"
Coco’s shrill voice trembled violently.
Coco, who was always shouting and glaring with those sharp eyes of hers, was trembling in fear now.
"Nothing to do with it? Don’t you know witnesses have to be dealt with too?"
"You only have to deal with me...! What did you do? Don’t hurt Ren! Just «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» leave him alone—!"
"I heard something, you see. Valuable information. I couldn’t very well just let it go. Since we met anyway, isn’t that fate? I was planning to give you a little shove off the cliff and make it look like an accident... but why do you have to make this so troublesome? If you’d just gone quietly while asleep, wouldn’t this all have been peaceful? Then this child wouldn’t have had to watch you die, either."
His voice was calm and gentle, like he was softly scolding a child for misbehaving.
"And that man isn’t very bright either. Why bother coming back at all? However he faked being a corpse, if he managed to survive, he should’ve just left quietly. Tch."
Thud! Something got kicked.
"My lady."
Dell called to Coco in a voice so gentle it made my skin crawl.
"Ah...."
"Hhk... hhk... Coco...!"
I have to... get it together. It’s okay. It’s okay....
After the horrible pain, calm always comes.
After that soul-ripping agony... it always gets a little better....
Sweat dripped down in streams. I forced strength into the hand braced against the ground.
I heard something dragging across the floor.
With a blank expression, Dell grabbed Lady Coco by her long hair and dragged her all the way to the edge of the hollow.
To where I was.
"Co, Co...."
I barely managed to say her name.
Her eyes had been fixed on the gray-haired man—Hugh—who’d coughed up blood and passed out, and then they returned to me.
Coco’s lips trembled.
I’m sorry.
That was what it looked like she was saying.
"Hm."
Dell let go of the lady’s hair.
Her purple hair spilled down all at once.
He rubbed his chin like he was thinking, then looked at me.
"Ah! Perfect. Want to choose?"
"Choose... what."
The seizure had passed over me like lightning and subsided, but my body still felt as heavy as if rocks were tied to it.
My hands and feet were freezing cold, and my blood was pounding so hard through me I felt like I might faint.
If I coughed up blood one more time, I’d black out on the spot.
And if another seizure came...
I might not survive this one.
No. I have to stall somehow.
I’m dead either way.
But Coco isn’t.
"How should I kill her? Push her off the cliff, or stab her with the sword?"
"......."
Dell’s eyes folded in satisfaction.
"You know, when I look at people who struggle so hard to live, I feel something like reverence. Maybe it’s because it’s funny—watching them resist even when they know they’re going to die. So...."
As he searched for the right word, his eyes lit up.
"Think of this as a reward. Since you squirmed around so hard trying to survive, I’ll at least let you choose how she dies. My final act of generosity, so choose carefully."
He was the kind of person who would casually crush a bug crawling on the floor under his foot.
Right now, that bug on the floor was me and Coco.
The kind of person who delighted in watching a bug he thought was dead keep writhing to live, even with its limbs torn off.
Ah! This man isn’t some escort knight.
He’s an assassin.
But not the kind who kills for money.
The kind who enjoys the killing itself.
I bit the inside of my cheek.
It felt awful, like tearing flesh loose.
Swallowing the blood filling my mouth, I glared at him.
That would be his mistake.
"There. Go on. Tell me. Which will it be...? I can’t wait."
Dell grinned. His long tongue slid over his lips like a snake’s.
Coco. It’ll be okay.
The distance between him and Coco was exactly the same as the distance between me and Coco.
Only a handspan apart, with the cliff just outside.
"Say it. Hurry!"
"The sword."
"Sword! Good. Heh heh heh. Yes, much better than smashing against the rocks on the way down. A clean sword suits this better. You really do know something, being the Hero’s younger brother. A refined young lady deserves a death like this."
Dell Belkerman looked sincerely delighted.
He grabbed Coco by the arm and tried to haul her to her feet, but she collapsed limply instead.
"Tch."
Dell looked annoyed.
Like he had something so entertaining right in front of him, and why was she making him wait?
"Coco...."
I shook my head.
Because it looked like Coco was about to say she was sorry.
Since she’d fallen toward me, I was able to grab her hand.
It was slick with sweat.
That pale white face, those vividly shining purple eyes, were full of guilt.
No, Coco.
If I hadn’t barged in for no reason, maybe you could’ve escaped with that man.
But because of me...
because I stuck my nose in even though I couldn’t do anything...
everything got twisted.
Even if I’d fallen off the cliff, I would’ve been fine anyway.
With this body, there was no telling whether I’d die from this seizure or the next one.
It would’ve been better if I’d died and you’d gritted your teeth and run.
"Come now, my lady. It’s time for you to be on your way."
Dell put on that sickeningly gentle voice.
With an exaggerated knight’s bow.
Coco’s face twisted at his deception.
"Wh-what are you going to do with Ren."
"He has another use. Just as your death has a use for me."
With a face glowing in sheer pleasure, Dell raised the shining blade.
He approached—neither fast nor slow—with flawless form.
The sword drove straight toward Coco’s throat in one clean thrust.
And the one it pierced was...
not Coco, but me.
