Chapter 14 (Part 3)

The long-postponed expedition, its end… was as expected.

But, contrary to the royal family’s expectations, Edarson’s army held out for seven years. Overcoming unfamiliar climates, inadequate support, and disadvantageous terrain.

“Huff, huff…”

“Brother, our bad fate ends here.”

“…Shut up.”

Spitting phlegm mixed thickly with blood, Edarson stood his ground with the iron sword he had wielded for nearly 20 years since the war with the duchy, surveying the surrounding foreign soldiers.

The great general of the foreign army he had fought against dozens of times in the past seven years. Beside him were two high-ranking knights.

And he, struck down by betrayal, with his waist severed.

Here, I cannot fall here. Both she and I have endured for a long time…

In the letters from his wife, which barely arrived once or twice a year, the butler’s message was added, stating that her health was deteriorating year by year. Edarson’s molars ground together, producing a heavy friction sound.

His eyes were so intense that the great commander’s mouth let out a sigh.

“…If you were born in Nordiac, you would have become a great chieftain.”

It was seven years ago when the theocratic kingdom of the south, believing in the one true god, dared to send their army to subdue them. The reputation of that commander, who they called a warrior or something, was not something the warriors of Nordiac, protected by the starlight, needed to worry about.

‘The southern dogs are jumping into their graves again!’

Kuhaha, among the comrades who laughed like that seven years ago, who is left now? 

In the final, final battle, the general of the foreign tribe reflected on the prolonged war with the southern hero.

Finally, it’s over. Now, if only I can find the chieftain’s son…

“Hyaaah!”

With a shout, Edarson’s iron sword slashed through the sky. Clang! The swords of the knights protecting the great commander quickly blocked its path, but Edarson twisted his sword’s trajectory a little faster.

“Ugh…”

“In the kingdom, ‘brother’ is a term used between companions on the way to the afterlife.”

Muttering like that, Edarson’s eyes gleamed with a ghostly light. The eyes of the great commander, whose nose was twitching with blood vessels bulging, soon became unfocused.

Turning his body with the sword embedded in the great commander’s chest, he kicked one knight and pulled out the sword to slash another knight’s chest with the momentum. Then, thud! He plunged his sword one last time into the heart of the knight he had kicked.

The fountain of blood spurting out seemed like the life seeping out of him.

Once again, Edarson stood leaning on his sword. He was barely holding on.

Cough, with a single cough, blood gushed from his throat. His side, torn for a long time, had long since lost all feeling. The shadowed cheers of soldiers and the powerless clash of swords echoed distantly.

Edarson’s gaze was fixed on a distant place.

The spot where his tent had been. And the blond boy trembling as he walked out from there.

In his hand was a sword taken from a fallen warrior. It was a double-edged sword of the kingdom.

Heh… Seeing the boy’s pale face, Edarson laughed quietly.

He had prepared for such a situation, but it had indeed come to this.

In the scene where his worst imagination had finally become reality, Edarson briefly pondered whether his laughter was self-mocking or satisfaction.

The boy started running from afar.

“Dieeee…! Die!”

With an arm raised high in youthful revenge, it allowed Edarson to easily slash his chest. The boy, who had been harmless on the battlefield for hours, had a red line drawn on his shoulder.

“Ugh, ugh…”

The boy, who had fallen, tried to move his trembling hand holding the sword, but his shoulder was already too tattered to obey. The face of the boy, caught between youth and adulthood, was mixed with anger and fear. His green eyes trembled thinly.

Capturing the chieftain’s son, who had clumsily led the foreign army two years ago, was truly a stroke of luck.

‘Shall we send his head?’

The war had been going on for five years. After the first harsh winter, the morale of the troops, who thought they would die, soared to the sky, but that was only for a year or two. The never-ending war, with poor supplies, had long crushed morale.

The foreign army was in the same situation, so the chieftain’s son had taken the lead, but his youthful recklessness had overcome his superior blood, leading to this mess with a clumsy strategy.

Beheading and displaying him would have greatly boosted morale. While assessing his usefulness, Edarson was surprised by the enemy.

‘How old are you?’

‘…Ptooey!’

As Edarson grabbed and turned the boy’s chin, he was suddenly spat on. The brave boy, who looked about fifteen, had burning green eyes.

Eyes of the same shade as his own. Regardless of gender, it was natural for leaders to take beauties, so his appearance was also handsome. Judging by his long limbs and broad shoulders, he would grow into a fine physique.

‘The great chieftain’s son’s life will be a weakness for them. Lock him up.’

‘Yes!’

Adding another mouth to feed in a supply-strapped battlefield was not an easy decision, but the great chieftain’s son was a valuable bargaining chip. Only Edarson knew that the soldiers’ praises of their leader’s strategy were aimed at a very different place.

‘Don’t forget. It was I who humiliated you.’

Even though he was a prisoner of high status, Edarson treated the boy quite harshly. He shackled him, made him do dirty work, forced him to eat discarded food, and let the soldiers hunt the mountain cats or rabbits he grew fond of.

‘Does the lord have a cruel side too…?’

‘Isn’t he showing us something?’

The soldiers from Tarnu, tasked with closely managing the boy, would gossip like that in small groups.

As a result, the boy was here. Instead of running away when he could, he came seeking revenge, handing his leash to Edarson.

Beyond the small thrill, an abyss-like despair loomed.

Heh, laughing quietly, Edarson drove his sword right next to the boy’s neck. It was, in fact, a last desperate effort to avoid collapsing miserably. With the weight of his life on it, Edarson collapsed right there.

“Kill me. Kill me, you bastard…”

“Don’t whine.”

Sitting on the boy’s chest, Edarson smiled grimly. Between the dirty face, smeared with battlefield grime and unknown blood, his green eyes were chilling.

Creepy bastard.

Even while trying to make him hate him with grotesque acts, Edarson’s hands were occasionally merciful. His gaze, scanning his body, was almost mistaken for a lover’s admiration rather than a soldier’s.

“Kill me, you crazy bastard.”

The man laughed briefly. 

Crazy, huh.

Believing in the family’s mystery was seen as the cunning of a non-believer in his homeland, and now, it was an eccentricity.

And seven years since that vow.

It was time for the last gamble…

Fixing his gaze on the face he hoped to use, Edarson began to remove his armor.

Would she place lilies in that dark blond hair, saying it makes it look whiter? Would she play with that hair with her white, slender fingers? Would she glare at me with that delicate face?

No, none of that mattered. If he could see that face one last time…

The boy’s eyes filled with questions as he watched each piece of armor fall from Edarson’s body.

Finally, the br*astplate fell, revealing the dagger hanging at his waist. Wrapped in a leather sheath instead of the jeweled metal one, the handle was studded with rubies and diamonds.

Thud. As Edarson’s weary hand let the sheath fall away, a cold, blue blade appeared.

Does this crazy bastard carry a separate knife for slitting throats?

Watching each of Edarson’s nonsensical actions, the boy gradually forgot his own predicament. Suddenly, Edarson’s eyes met his.

Damn, those chilling eyes. 

Eyes that seemed to be plotting something. Thanks to that, he had survived, but thinking about what this bastard had done to him…

“…!”

At that moment, the boy noticed Edarson’s other hand pointing a sword at him. The same sword he had grabbed and charged at Edarson with. He hadn’t even realized it, as the nerves connecting to his arm had been severed.

Blood flowed from the hand gripping the blade as if trying to hold it short.

What does that mean?

The boy’s face turned pale. Edarson placed the hand holding the sword’s hilt on the ground, pointing the blade upwards.

Under Edarson’s gaze, which brushed the boy’s face for the last time, a fleeting tear welled up.

With all his remaining strength, Edarson fell onto the sword. 

Crazy bastard…! 

The moment he thought that, the sword was already embedded in his neck.

When the boy opened his eyes, the battlefield was already silent.

In the twilight hour, neither night nor day. In that space filled with the corpses of the dead and the groans of the dying, the boy stood alone, unscathed.

Caw, caw. Hearing the crows cawing in the distant sky, the boy slowly got up. Edarson’s corpse, which had been pressing on him, rolled to the side.

A face stained with the battlefield’s grime. Green eyes with pupils fully contracted. Black hair grown haphazardly. Near the cleanly healed chest, a sword with a jeweled hilt lay on the ground.

Looking at his fallen body, the boy who had become Edarson cried for a long time.

It’s over. It’s really over.

Now… I can go back. Even with this body.

As long as my lovely, pitiful wife is still waiting for me.

***

The final lovemaking was full of tears. Edan couldn’t take even a bit of her strength, but Ellenia insisted that it wouldn’t be so bad to die in his arms.

Seeing her thin body, a testament to the ten years she endured alone, made him feel helplessly sorry, but looking at her face, gazing at him with utmost happiness… it felt like it would be okay to die together like this.

As she moved slowly, impaled on him, Ellenia laughed happily. Edan licked away the tears that flowed down her gently folded eyes, and when she coughed up blood in her ecstasy, he wiped her clean with a wet towel.

In a state of lovemaking that didn’t aim for cl*max or ej*culation, the lovers swayed together for a long time. The tears flowing down Edan’s chin moistened Ellenia’s lips.

“When will I be able to come back?”

“I’ll wait as long as it takes. I’ll love you in any form.”

“Even if I’m an eighty-year-old granny?”

“…In that case, at least send me a letter telling me not to wait.”

Ellenia chuckled. Tears were thickly gathered at the corners of her eyes. 

This girl, this woman who was once a girl, my wife, was always like this.

That laughter turned into a cough, causing her to suffer for quite a while.

After wiping her mouth with a towel, he wiped the corners of her eyes with his fingertips and also cleaned what was hanging on the tip of her nose. His vision blurred and cleared several times.

Haah… A breath filled with the essence of life trembled out of Ellenia’s mouth.

“Wait somewhere comfortable. What if you die away from home? If you just send me a letter, I can come find you.”

As if satisfied with that answer, a faint smile appeared on Ellenia’s lips.

Another bout of violent coughing followed.

She laughed a few words, then coughed as if she would die, barely squeezed out a few more words, then coughed as if she would spill her guts.

Each time, seeing Edan’s face twist as if his lungs were being shattered, Ellenia forced a smile. Her smile was red due to the blood that wasn’t properly wiped from her lips.

“It’s getting hard now…”

Knowing what that meant, Edan’s vision blurred again.

“Now, I really… feel like I’ve become an irredeemable witch…”

“The moment you stepped out of the carriage, from that moment on, it was irreversible.”

Smiling, Edan’s face twisted in pain. Even knowing and experiencing that mystery firsthand, watching the breaths of a loved one come to an end was more agonizing than he had imagined.

Every moment of leaving her and meeting her again had been like that.

More heartbreaking and overwhelming than he had imagined.

“…I loved you. From the moment you carried my bag.”

From that pale smile, Edarson recalled his young fiancée from 13 years ago. The girl who was all hunched up, wearing a stark white dress.

The woman he had to protect, the woman for whom he had to continue his life…

“So did I.”

Edan, or Edarson’s trembling hand, grasped the jeweled sword placed on the side table.

“Looking back, there wasn’t a single moment… when I didn’t love you.”