Chapter 103. Damn it
Ruined ground.
With only silence hanging in the air, a single thread of wind blew in and tickled the skin.
“……Ah.”
Oberon, who had been slowly blinking, fully opened his eyes and blankly took in the scenery ahead.
What had happened while he was covering his ears and keeping his eyes shut? The land was a wreck, like the very middle of a battlefield.
And on top of it, something colorless was squirming.
<Th-this…… body, I…… only…….>
The collapsed ice wall.
On the debris, a being that could not possibly be called human kept writhing its body.
As if caught on invisible strings. No—like a broken doll, it jerked and reached out with its hands.
Just one step.
With one step, it should have been able to seize the Archduchess’s and Oberon’s throats, and yet it only staggered, twisting and swaying.
That was when it happened.
Sak—
A sharp cutting sound, as keen as thin paper slicing past skin.
<……AAAAAAAH!>
Destrow screamed at that very moment.
At the sight, Oberon unconsciously tried to cover his ears again, but the Archduchess’s indifferent voice rang by his ear.
“You may rest easy. All impure energy has vanished.”
Was that sentence the signal?
Sseureureuk.
Destrow’s body split along a diagonal line. The upper half slid down along the crack as if gliding over a smooth sheet of ice.
And then—
Thud!
There was no movement. The instant the upper half hit the ground, it didn’t twitch even once, as though all biological activity had ceased.
Sararakh……
That impure—no, once-impure body scattered like sand on the wind and melted away into nothing.
That was when Oberon came back to himself.
“D-Death Knight-nim. How could Death Knight-nim……!”
“…….”
The Archduchess said nothing. She only stared ahead with deep blue eyes.
‘Death Knight-nim? Dea—’
Oberon tried calling Shine through his spirit, but the spirit did not carry. It only circled through his mind as an empty soliloquy.
“Boy, that dead one has reached annihilation.”
The Archduchess said something as if she couldn’t stand watching, but Oberon didn’t hear her.
‘Death Knight-nim is annihilated? That can’t be…… You never said anything like that.’
She had. Oberon, too, knew it well.
On their way back to the ancient ruins to save Aster, Oberon and Shine had painted every future scenario in their minds.
How to save Aster. Whether they could run from Destrow. Or, if they fought back, what they should do.
Every situation that awaited them would be a perilous moment where they could not hesitate even for an instant.
Shine had drilled the worst-case scenario into Oberon again and again.
- Saennim, you must never hesitate. Huh? If you hesitate even for a second, I’ll take your neck too.
- But if that happens, Death Knight-nim will……
- Well, at worst, what—die, is all? But……
‘But.’ Saying that, Shine stared at Oberon with burning eyes.
- The living have to live.
“……Ah.”
Oberon dropped to the ground with a flop and covered his face with his small hands.
It was something he had steeled himself for the moment he used Overclock. He had prepared his heart. Loss. To brace for it, he had held poisonous resolve (毒氣) inside himself.
He persuaded himself it couldn’t be helped. He swallowed patience down, telling himself it was something he had to endure.
But when the reality actually arrived…… the emptiness that loss brought was far too immense.
“Boy, is it truly that difficult?”
“…….”
The Archduchess looked down at the sobbing Oberon with languid eyes. A listless, uninterested tone, as if nothing in the world mattered to her. Yet, a flicker of emotion passed across her retina.
“Boy, lift your head and look at me.”
The Archduchess’s hand settled on Oberon’s shoulder. For a woman, it was a fairly large hand, pressing firmly down. The warmth was gentle, but the strength within it was somehow heavy.
When Oberon raised his head under that weight, the Archduchess—matching his eye level—spoke.
“Smile.”
“…….”
“Was it not a battle you won?”
“…….”
“Then you must smile. Smile bigger, and sing. Clink cups, make it loud, and savor victory with all your strength. That is……. the courtesy you owe a comrade-in-arms.”
The Archduchess’s gaze fixed on Oberon. Clear light lived inside her languid eyes. As Oberon was overwhelmed by that gaze, the Archduchess bared a grin.
“…….”
Oberon forced the corners of his mouth upward.
His shoulders shook as a sound spilled out. No—it was a sound he couldn’t tell was laughter or crying.
But only for a moment.
“Keuk, kkeu-euk……!”
A strangled voice. Tears beaded and fell from Oberon’s eyes.
He couldn’t smile at all.
At the sight of him failing to swallow the sobs that forced their way out, wailing as though the world might crumble, the Archduchess quietly closed her eyes. She erased her presence, as though she weren’t there at all.
So that Oberon could pour out every last bit of his emotion—her own way of showing consideration.
After a long time had passed, Oberon wiped away his tears with a somewhat calmer face.
“I…… showed you something pathetic.”
“It is only natural. How many can endure the loss of someone close with composure? So—do you feel a bit relieved inside?”
“……Ha-ha.”
Oberon glanced toward where Shine had been standing.
It was only an awkward laugh, but the Archduchess could read the emotion contained in it.
“Yes. If it were a loss that could be shaken off with a single cry, you wouldn’t even be able to cry. That aside…….”
The Archduchess glanced at Aster.
“That impudent disciple of mine—I wish to look him over a bit. Would that be alright?”
“Pardon? That is…….”
Oberon hesitated to answer. He remembered Shine blocking the Archduchess from Aster.
They hadn’t spent a long time together, and he hadn’t learned her identity to the very end.
But the time they had shared was short, yet dense enough to grasp what kind of person each of them was.
Quietly, Oberon stepped in front of Aster.
The Archduchess laughed, as if amused.
“Heh—so you cannot trust me?”
“That is…….”
“The sin of inheriting Sakwol (朔月) in my place deserves death, but I will judge right and wrong after meeting my teacher. And above all…….”
The Archduchess glanced toward where Shine had been standing.
“Is he not the one your comrade-in-arms (戰友) tried to protect?”
“…….”
At those words, Oberon pressed his lips together.
Because he knew Shine’s temperament—he could imagine exactly what Shine would have said if she were here.
Probably……
‘You crazy bitch. What did you do that makes him a comrade-in-arms? A comrade-in-arms. You barged in at the end and just latched on…….’
She would’ve grumbled and scolded for no reason.
Even while secretly pleased by the single word “comrade-in-arms,” she would’ve hidden it out of embarrassment.
Thinking of her, Oberon tightened his eyes against the sting that surged back up.
“Shouldn’t that disciple at least say goodbye, too?”
In the end, Oberon stepped aside.
That one phrase—“goodbye”—hit him in the chest.
Because Death Knight Shine von Lehmann—she had left nothing behind.
Before Oberon even opened his eyes, the armor scattered like smoke with the being that vanished, and the sword, too, shared its master’s fate.
Without leaving behind even a single common sword.
“Then…….”
“If I can wake him, I will try.”
Saying that, the Archduchess pressed her fingers to Aster’s pulse.
‘Hoh, indeed……. An ordinary fellow he is not?’
Aster’s insides were quite wrecked.
And yet, it was endlessly interesting.
Like looking at stone worn down by time.
Usually, if a core has a problem, it develops cracks, but there wasn’t a single crack—only an immaculate smoothness.
It was only that the membrane had become endlessly thin. As though someone had polished and polished until it thinned to this extent.
The other circuits were the same.
But that wasn’t what surprised the Archduchess.
‘He has…… rather unusual magical power, does he?’
His magical power was clear. No—so pure that the word “clear” couldn’t even contain it.
Magical power without a single speck of impurity, like someone who had devoted an entire lifetime to refinement.
And its attribute……
She didn’t know.
‘A disciple who hides quite a lot.’
The magical power she sensed was nothingness (無). It carried no color whatsoever.
From that pillar of fire earlier, she’d assumed he must possess fire (火)-aspected magical power, yet she couldn’t grasp it.
Still, it wasn’t as though secret arts to conceal one’s attribute didn’t exist at all……
So, even unconsciously, the Archduchess simply assumed Aster was hiding his attribute. Her thoughts did not reach as far as House Deculan’s Thousand Origin Art.
In any case—
“Hm. I think I can wake him soon.”
After diagnosing Aster’s condition, the Archduchess immediately began treatment by breathing magical power into him.
In truth, there wasn’t much that could even be called “treatment.”
All she had to do was speed up, a little, the flow of magical power that crawled slowly through his circuits.
Of course, that was easy to say—yet with a core and circuits thinned like Aster’s, trying carelessly could harm the patient.
But the Archduchess carried out the process with ease.
So, how long had it been?
When the Archduchess withdrew her hand from his pulse, Aster stirred with a faint groan.
“Uhm…….”
“S-senior. Are you coming to?”
“You are…….”
Sitting up, Aster stared blankly at Oberon’s face, quietly studying him.
“……Oberon?”
When focus returned to his unfocused pupils and the name slipped out of his mouth, Oberon nodded.
He was glad.
But only for a moment.
“Yes. I-I’m Oberon, senior. How did you recognize me—”
“You were a man with a lot of sins, too.”
“……Pardon?”
“They say the quiet ones are worse. Looks like you committed plenty of sins, not much less than me.”
“What are you—”
As Oberon tilted his head in confusion—
“But if you’re dead too…… urk!”
Smack!
A thunderous impact rang out in every direction.
Aster’s vision flashed, and a stinging pain bloomed at the back of his head.
“Y-you parasite…… what—?”
Aster, of course, thought it was Shine, so he whipped around—only for his eyes to go wide.
“Who the hell are you?”
“I am your senior disciple. Did you not hear of me from teacher?”
“Senior disciple? What senior disciple. Did I have a teacher? It hurts, so it’s not a dream.”
Aster rubbed the back of his head, still tingling.
This vivid pain—of course it couldn’t be a dream. And likewise, he wasn’t dead.
‘Then…… this isn’t hell.’
Which meant Oberon hadn’t fallen into hell either.
“No matter how mad teacher is, I cannot let that remark from a disciple pass—”
“Shh. Quiet.”
Aster quieted the Archduchess, then calmly groped through the gray tangle of his memory.
Was it because he’d lost consciousness? The events from before drifted around in his mind, all mixed together. But only for a moment.
“Oberon, why are you here again?”
“That is…….”
“Tsk, never mind. Obviously the parasite dragged you here. Pointlessly quick to catch on, that one.”
Oberon was not that quick to catch on.
Clearly, Shine must have found a hole in Aster’s words, or noticed something and come back.
But then……
“Where is Destrow?”
“That…… was stopped.”
“…….”
A sudden premonition brushed through his mind. Aster stood and lightly looked around.
After sweeping his gaze across the devastated land once, he looked at Oberon and asked—
“The parasite?”
“…….”
Oberon didn’t answer. No—he tried to, but his throat tightened and no voice would come out.
Instead, the Archduchess spoke.
“He reached annihilation.”
“……Annihilation?”
“Yes. To save you, he drove Destrow back. And then he vanished.”
Aster stared at the Archduchess.
He didn’t know who she was. The blue eyes and the high-handed tone were especially irritating. But setting that irritation aside, her gaze was cold enough to sting.
“……Damn it.”
Aster’s hollow voice rang out into the air.
A red sunset was falling.
