Things the Dead Shouldn't Do (3)
The roaring wind sliced through the air, ringing in my ears so loudly that I could barely hear anything else.
Conversation was impossible.
But words weren’t necessary anyway.
Even through the armor, simply touching her filled every empty corner of my heart.
Squeeze—
I pressed her as tightly as I could into my embrace and held her firm so she wouldn’t slip away.
At this range, the scent of her hair reached the tip of my nose without me even trying. It wasn’t the light, pleasant fragrance I caught during quiet moments. This was her scent—the one I knew by heart.
And the face I hadn’t seen in what felt like forever remained as breathtaking as ever.
The added pallor, the sharper hollows beneath her eyes—those were only natural after everything she had endured.
Yet despite it all, Lady Karalin showed no fear.
Her eyes burned with iron resolve and a thirst for vengeance as she stayed in my arms, determined to hunt Vankite to the end.
After hearing the plan to perfectly fake her death, she must have been tormented by the thought that something could still go wrong. But she had stood firm, supporting me in every way, exactly as I had hoped and prayed she would.
“Haa…”
The battle raged around us, yet the sight of her made my chest burn with fierce emotion.
“I’m so glad to see you again. You have no idea how worried I was. You—the one I love most in this world…”
The tearing roar of the wind swallowed every sound, so I buried my face against the nape of her neck and whispered the words.
Perhaps I had unconsciously let my guard down.
But it was all right.
With two riders, the Jabberwock’s back left little room to move. She would surely assume I was only adjusting my posture for a moment.
No harm done.
Though the thought was a little shameless, once everything ended I even found myself wishing we could ride the Jabberwock together like this from time to time—holding her in a perfectly legitimate way.
And then—
Grrrrk—!!
The Jabberwock shook its mane, signaling me. I looked down toward the forest that seemed like a perfect hiding place.
There was Yagnus, wings flapping desperately as he fled with Vankite.
The Six Swords shared the ability to transform their bodies into iron dust for movement. If he had used it, Yagnus could have escaped alone without trouble.
The reason he hadn’t was obvious: the extra weight of the crown prince clinging to his back in a posture almost identical to Lady Karalin’s.
“……! ……! ………!”
Though I couldn’t make out the words, Lady Karalin seemed to have spotted them too. She shouted something to me.
I read the situation instantly and sent the Jabberwock into a steep dive above them.
A descent using gravitational potential energy—the fundamentals of aerial combat.
Kwaaaaaang—!!
It was a tactic I had shown several times before, but even a member of the Six Swords could not match a dragon’s speed.
Yagnus and Vankite slammed into the ground together.
“Khaaaak…!”
“Got you—!!”
“Maaasteeeeer…! Maaasteeeeer─! It’s finally here! A big one, a huuuge oneee─!!”
Can you eat it?
“If it’s made of iron, no matter who it is, once it falls into my hands—crunchcrunch munchmunch grindgrind cracklecrackle─!! Burga, who even devoured the Iron Giant, is now in maximum mode─!!”
The moment she said it, a powerful intuition struck me like a lightning bolt.
Yagnus was undoubtedly a terrifying existence—one of the Six Swords, beings close to the strongest in the world aside from the Demon King and an awakened Hero.
But if I faced him with everything I had in this situation, finishing him might not be as difficult as I feared.
Even though many conditions had been met before, I had watched Burga tear apart the dreaded Iron Giant without breaking a sweat.
The same feeling told me I could end him in a single breath.
“Don’t get cocky, you lowly human!”
Having crashed to the ground, he did what he always did.
Just as he had when he brutally murdered Hilken’s comrades.
The instant he saw us, he unleashed the unique iron storm of the Six Swords, intending to turn the entire area into a wasteland.
Kwaaaa—
“—You monstrous bastard!!”
“…Haa? What the hell? Why is this edible?”
Strangely, the iron shards he emitted from his body were sucked toward my arm as if drawn by magnetism, then reduced to ash and scattered.
“Juicy─!!”
Did eating the Iron Giant upgrade Burga? Or was the intuition that struck me moments ago simply correct?
The reason this was possible hovered at the edge of my mind, but I couldn’t quite grasp it.
Still, the important thing was clear.
With this ability, Yagnus could no longer cheat.
It must have been convenient when he slaughtered everyone around him with those absurd powers.
But from now on, that was impossible.
He would have to face me with nothing but his own strength.
They called it the Yaksha Rule, or something like that.
At that moment, Lady Karalin spoke to me.
“Yohan, I’ll handle Vankite. Can you deal with that monster?”
“If my lady desires someone’s head, I must bring it to her—no matter whose it is. I will see you again alive. I won’t die anymore.”
“…Understood!”
I sent my precious lady off to reap her fruit and charged straight toward Yagnus’s wings.
Whether I could keep that promise, however, I did not know.
Considering the nature of the Six Swords…
This might be a path of no return.
Even so.
Right now, I had to clash with my full power.
If that was the way to save my lady.
If that was the way to save everyone.
“This can’t be. Everything was perfect. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go!”
He clutched at his ears and crawled across the dirt like a worm.
The agonizing slowness of his movement—like a turtle dragging itself forward—was clear proof of how badly he refused to accept the situation and how deeply he was panicking.
“Karaliiin! Karaliiiiin─!! Yohan, you son of a bitch─!!”
But Karalin had no intention of granting Vankite even the mercy of an easy death.
She unleashed the full extent of her frost magic, freezing the ground around her as she approached him with graceful, unhurried steps.
Kugooooooo—
In her hands was the black sword Yohan had once wielded—the one she had received from him.
The area around her was dyed in the colors of winter. Dense leaves were swept away. Trees died in an instant. The cold was so intense it felt as though one’s entire body would freeze solid.
This was the exact measure of her rage—she refused to let him die comfortably.
“Haaak…. Haaak…!”
Vankite’s eyes filled with her majestic figure.
To someone who had always wanted to cling to her side, her approach would normally have been a welcome sight.
But now it must have felt exactly like death itself walking toward him.
She spoke in a voice as cold as the frost surrounding her.
“You truly acted without restraint. You caused everyone around you endless suffering, all while enjoying the spectacle from outside the stage like some twisted pervert.”
“How much do you know…?! How in the world did you learn all of this…?”
There was no reason to answer him.
The girl-shaped death approaching him showed no sign of halting her steps.
At that moment, the shallow, pathetic thought that rose in Vankite’s mind was simple.
I don’t want to die.
No. It couldn’t end like this.
What had all the suffering been for? Why had he worked so hard to solidify his position as crown prince?
He had turned his father—who only ever spouted nonsense about kindness and fairly dividing the empire—into a vegetative emperor.
He had killed every rising sibling and their maternal relatives.
He had smashed the heads of opposing ministers and nobles with a wooden bat.
All of it had been to firmly seize the Karlank Empire—the strongest in the world, which belonged to his blood—and to wield the power of a sage god over the fate of the world and everyone in it.
So how could this be happening?
Someone like me dying here? The world cannot work that way…?
If God had truly wanted this, why had He granted him nothing but victory until now?
Had every fierce moment he had clutched in his hands been meaningless? Had they all been leading to this pointless conclusion?
It felt as though the lab rats that were supposed to dance only in the palm of his hand were now devouring him alive.
Of course, the countless people who had died at his hands must have felt exactly the same.
But he was not a man capable of that kind of empathy.
Vankite could not accept this reality.
So, as he always had, he tried to negotiate.
What could the crown prince—or rather, the emperor—of the empire not do?
At least until now, there had been nothing beyond his reach.
“…Karalin, aren’t you disappointed to have been driven from the position of grand duke’s daughter?”
“……….”
“I lost. So if you keep quiet about everything you’ve seen today and turn a blind eye, I’ll help you become the successor again. I’ll return the position that should have been yours by right. No losses. How about it? Tempting, isn’t it?”
He pleaded in a servile voice.
She gave no answer.
“…Aha, you’re suspicious? Don’t worry. I’m fully capable of doing it. I am the eternal and unchanging crown prince of the Karlank Empire—its emperor—”
Still, Karalin remained silent.
“…Come on, you can at least pretend to fall for it, can’t you? Now that everything’s been exposed, you can ruin my reputation however you like. That’s obviously a fatal weakness for my regime, right?”
“……….”
“That’s only natural! You could threaten me, hold my life in your hands, and control me forever…! Killing me now would be completely boring, wouldn’t it?!”
Did he truly believe the entire world thought the same way he did?
Once again, her silence continued.
Even someone as quick-witted as Vankite could no longer deny it.
There was no room left for negotiation.
Suddenly, veins bulged in his neck as he screamed.
“Reclaiming my position is something I will do together with my one and only Yohan. I would rather bite my tongue and die than borrow the hand of a king of flies like you, groveling and begging for your life.”
“Fuuuuuck—!! Forget it!
Butler, if you’re listening, release Gorgo right now—!!”
Kachang—!
But Karalin’s sword swung with indifferent grace.
His limbs were severed.
Each time the blade drew its circle and passed through his body, parts of him were sliced apart like soft tofu.
“Kk, kkyaaaak—!!”
Feet. Legs. Hands. Arms. Waist. Torso. Neck.
Slice—
Slice. Slice—!
How many dozens of pieces would satisfy her?
The force behind a girl’s sword swing should have been limited, and carving through bone so cleanly should not have been easy.
Yet she carried the blood of Vitagarte.
She possessed true power.
If she had only wanted his head, she would have granted him a clean death.
But Karalin remembered despair and rage.
Because of him, she had nearly suffered a wound that could never be healed.
The girl who had lost her memories was gone now.
But the scar he left behind remained perfectly intact.
The moment her heart had come closest to complete collapse.
The hatred that had nearly turned her into a demon.
All of it was because of him.
Everything had been resolved only because her attendant was exceptional. Without him, it could have become reality.
Not only that—if the man who had tried so hard to drag her loved ones into ruin were allowed to die comfortably, it would be an insult to them.
“St-stop—!!”
Slice—!!
So Karalin erased him from the world without mercy, inflicting every possible pain.
Plop—
The hollow corpse of what had once shone with golden light was reduced to nothing but minced meat.
Looking down at the repulsive sight, she offered a short verdict.
“…How vulgarly he died. Let us never see him again. May you rot in hell for all eternity.”
She had once felt guilty for her own inadequacy compared to her ancestors.
She had even been afraid to look at the portrait of Lady Gorgo, who had entered the academy before her and achieved feats worthy of comparison.
But now she had accomplished something even her ancestors had not.
The greatest enemy of the Vitagarte bloodline.
The Karlank family.
The first of her line to cut off the head of their eldest son.
Only now had Karalin truly been reborn.
And with all tension finally released, she could at last focus on the final voice she had heard.
“Wait… at the very end, that man…?”
…Whose name had he called?