The White Wind Howls (2)
The White Wind Howls (2)
#77
"Do-yun, Do-yun— wake up!"
Was this a dream?
Smack—
"I said wake up!!!!"
The chill of the wet tile, the muscle pain that came belatedly flooding in—
Somewhere, the afterglow of mana that seemed to be burning away blended together, pressing down on my body like a mountain.
What just happened?
An endless stone staircase, blood, and a house. And lastly—
"Do-yun."
The voice was far more urgent than before.
I was shaken hard by the shoulders.
Only then did my eyes open—
The first thing I saw was Lily's face. Her white hair clung to her cheeks, soaked with moisture, and sweat beaded on her pale skin.
Her blue eyes were still as beautiful as stars, but what lay within them was neither mischief nor seduction. It was fear.
"Wh-what is it?"
"Do-yun, listen carefully."
"Yes?"
"I can sense at least thirty souls. We're surrounded."
"Didn't you say this was a safe house?"
"I don't think it is anymore. When Do-yun suddenly collapsed, a huge surge of mana leaked out— the pursuers must have tracked it here."
The blood drained from my face.
Fuck.
So the remaining twenty hours or so weren't going to be 『chewy-dense-sticky-boob-licking-wallalala-pussy-back-pussy-thrust-thrust-sex-time』 with Lily after all?
"So, who do you think it is? Is it the Hunter?"
"No. It's the worst— judging by the mana I'm sensing, it's probably Etchellan. One of the Six Masters of Arcanum."
Etchellan? I thought I'd heard that name somewhere before.
"Etchellan of the Void. A master of spatial magic. If we don't get out of here fast, we're finished. Can you stand?"
............ Of course.
For some reason I didn't understand, my body felt overflowing with life energy. If I had to run, I felt like I could chase anyone to the ends of the earth.
"Do-yun, listen carefully from now on. The enemy is the assassins of a Count House. Don't leave my side, no matter what. I'm going to carve a path with full force, so cut straight across this forest and run toward the collapsed watchtower."
"What about you, Lady Lily?"
"I'll meet up with you at the collapsed watchtower. Understood?"
............... I understood, but.
Would it really be possible for Lily to stay here alone and hold them off?
Presumably, a fully grown Lily, having inherited the name of Rosenheim, would be a Countess-level combatant. But think about it carefully.
The opponent was also a Countess. More than that, it was a Countess leading the assassins of her house.
If I thought about it more deeply—
House Rosenheim specialized in medical arts.
Normally, a doctor wouldn't be all that great at fighting.
The martial prowess Lily had shown before was undoubtedly powerful... but was that power enough to hold its own against an opponent of equal rank?
A roar cut through the useless pondering.
—BOOM!!!!
Lily's voice came through, as if she had steeled her resolve.
"Do-yun, we're truly out of time now. Those bitches came here to eliminate you. Count to three in your head, then run the opposite way."
—Gugugugugu
I felt the air around the safe house vibrate.
Somehow, Lily's goddamn awesome full incantation was beginning—
'Three.'
『Sicut vesper devorat ultimum lumen caeli—』
As Dusk Devours the Sky’s Last Light—
'Two.'
『Sic ferrum meum devoret animam tuam—』
May my blade devour your soul—
Hummm——————
'One.'
『Ultima Sectio!!!!!!!!!!』
RIIIIIING—————
The protective barrier around the safe house shattered, and beyond it, the forms of the enemies wielding violet magic came into view.
However, they were too late.
A blue slash, faster than light.
A trajectory invisible to the eye stretched out toward the assassins, space itself screamed, and a delayed explosion of pressure burst forth.
I didn't know what came next.
Because I ran like a madman in the opposite direction.
So anyway, I really didn't know what happened after that.
Behind me, the sounds of Lily cutting through the night rang out one after another.
—WHOOOOM!!!!!
—CRUNCH!!!!!!
The ground shook violently with a roar that seemed to tear my eardrums. The soil under my feet as I fled through the dark forest thrashed like mad, and my body, which had nearly lost its balance for an instant, barely managed to throw itself forward and stay upright.
"Haah—— Haaak——"
My breath caught in my throat.
But I couldn't stop. Because the moment I looked back, it felt as if I would waste even that brief opening Lily had created for me.
I gritted my teeth and ran harder, faster.
The forest's branches whipped my shoulders, sharp blades of grass cut my bare body, and gnarled roots jutting from the ground tried to trip my ankles.
Ah— come to think of it, fuck, I hadn't even managed to put on clothes.
If anyone saw, I'd just be a madman running around with his cock flapping.
But you know what? I was just about to die anyway.
Still, with a cock at least this size, didn't I have the right to run around with it hanging out? Hmm, maybe not?
Even then, the night behind me kept being torn apart as if it knew no limits.
Flashes of blue and violet light mixed together illuminated the spaces between the trees, and delayed shockwaves, two at a time, slammed against my back.
Ah— I couldn't see that goddamn awesome magical fight.
Even just the light shining from behind me was enough to know.
This was a battle between the Masters of Arcanum.
It was a battle between those who cut stars from the night sky.
***
***
#78
......... Had Do-yun gotten away safely...? Though if that was how things were, it was a failure. Maybe that was as far as it went that time.
Half my vision was gone.
Because blood filled my right eye, half of the world was invisible.
Had my eye been struck...
It was a fatal injury for a swordswoman.
The white-haired woman gritted her teeth.
The slash of blue soul that carried everything of her being should have taken the lives of all the enemies.
But it had returned empty.
The hunting hounds of Etchellan, who held no title, could never defend against a Countess's Unique Magic, least of all the highest-ranking offensive magic.
Which meant—
That there was indeed a Countess on the other side as well.
Violet locks fluttered as the star of the stage appeared.
"Lily, our cute Lily. Why couldn't you just live quietly—"
Etchellan of the Void.
More precisely—the successor of Etchellan,
Mariel Etchellan.
"I let you live. Why did you have to step up and cause trouble?"
"............"
"Do you want to follow your mother? I don't particularly want to send you there myself— so hand over that man. I'll at least let the lineage of Rosenheim continue."
That fucking bitch.
Daughter of a whore.
The one who killed Sione Rosenheim in the 「War of the Deviants」—
Mariel Etchellan.
The successor of Etchellan had appeared before me.
"Shut up......... I'm going to kill you."
Mariel's lips twisted into an odd smile.
"Good, that's the eye. I'll gouge out that eyeball and display it in my house for eternity—as for you, just die. I'll find that man, castrate him, and raise him myself."
Her violet hair fluttered lightly in the night breeze.
Mariel Etchellan swept her fingertips once across the empty air.
For prey already in hand, no incantation was needed. The air around them shifted with just that one gesture from Mariel.
The trees of the dark forest and their roots all aligned along an invisible line—and space began to compress.
Compression of space.
And when the pressure was released—the overwhelming explosion that followed.
That was Mariel's most basic offensive spell.
As if a black hole in some distant night sky were spewing out everything it had swallowed.
The harbinger of the attack shimmered before her eyes.
Hah— Do-yun must have gotten away safely.
Was this lifetime just a little too soon?
The problem was, even so, I knew too well that expecting everything from Do-yun was a fool's errand. Whatever happened, I really did want to kill this bitch for sure—it was just such a shame.
I shut my single remaining eye tight and traced my memories of my late mother.
What suddenly surfaced was a memory from very long ago.
The back garden of the Rosenheim mansion, as the evening glow was setting.
A warm hand that had, countless times, wordlessly and gently held the hand of a young me who couldn't even properly grip a single sword.
My mother's hand, which had helped me up every time I fell—
Sione Rosenheim's...
Tap.
A gentle pressure against my back, a sensation I could never forget.
That it was okay to move forward.
That it was okay to fall any number of times.
In the last moment when she had steadied my back like that—
had too much time passed?
The face of my beloved mother was far too blurry.
......... When I opened my tightly shut left eye,
in the spot where Mariel's attack should have detonated—
It was not my mother,
but the back of a man standing there blankly.
***
***
***
#79
"Useless bastard."
?
"You worthless insect."
Excuse me?
A stranger's voice—
Where had I heard this voice before?
I lifted my head to look ahead, and a man whose face was hidden in shadow was endlessly berating me.
Fucking annoying.
What's the most goddamn infuriating insult in the world?
It was neither profanity that slandered my character nor insults that cursed my mother. Though I didn't know who my mother was, anyway.
Anyway.
The most goddamn infuriating thing is pointless, unprompted insults.
"You fucking bastard. Can you do anything at all?"
"No, who the hell are you to suddenly start insulting me?"
"Shallow thinking. Still living without a thought in your head, I see. If I were your enemy— if I were another Deviant, what were you planning to do by talking back to me like that?"
"......"
He had a point.
But for some reason— I didn't feel at all like this man would harm me.
"Are you going to leave Lily abandoned?"
At those words, my breath caught in my throat. Yet separately from that, my innermost thoughts leaked out of my mouth like water seeping through a cracked water bottle.
"......The only reason I got this far was because of Lily's sacrifice. Don't spout that bullshit when you don't know anything. What do you know? What could I have done back there? If anything, I'd become dead weight and Lily would———"
"You."
Yeah.
"Are simply a runaway."
I knew that.
"You must have thought that if you survived, there would be a next time. That if you survived for now, there would be a next time— that you could do better later."
No more words came out of my mouth.
No—
I couldn't.
Because he was right, every single word, and that made it even more goddamn infuriating.
"Shut up."
"Am I wrong?"
"I said shut up."
"Lily's probably dead by now. You go on living for a long, long time."
"......"
"In the most critical moment— you lacked the courage to take a single step forward. You call it rational judgment, but in the end, the essence doesn't change."
The man's voice lowered.
"You're just a coward."
A moment of silence.
"You don't have the guts to stake everything. All you have is a smooth tongue."
Dried tears ran down my eyes.
Lily—
Was she really dead?
"If things go as they're supposed to, it's not too late yet."
?
"Run."
......... Still, that's impossible.
I'd run all this way. Even if I went back now—
Thump.
My body pulsed.
Thump.
In sync with the pulse, my vision changed.
The dark forest grew bright as broad daylight, and the gaps between fallen branches, broken stems, the footprints of a man dug into the earth, even the afterglow of violet mana spreading from afar—
Everything in the world poured into my eyes.
"Don't live so disgracefully from now on."
What?
Before I could ask the man again, a shiver ran down my spine.
I was running.
My legs were moving!
The soggy soil burst apart with explosive noise, and the cold night air flowed into my lungs.
There was only one thing in my head.
Lily—
Please, be safe.........
No more thoughts followed.
When I came to my senses, Lily was before me.
The wounded skylark was collapsed on the ground, awaiting her end.
That purple-haired one on the other side was probably the enemy.
Cowardly bastard.
Just how many people had she brought with her.
But—
It didn't matter.
Because I would kill them all.
"—Don't touch my woman."
Mariel Etchellan's expression distorted.
