Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 0. The End
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The fortress crumbles.
Red dust swirls through the once-splendid halls of the princess's palace.
As the smoke clears, the shattered outer walls come into view.
Deep gashes scar the walls here and there, as if clawed by some massive beast.
Beneath that tragic sight lie the bodies of countless knights, strewn about.
Stuck into one of the corpses is a single broken sword.
I know that sword.
The treasured blade given to me by the princess, Irina.
I swore on that blade to protect her for the rest of my life.
And today...
That oath was fulfilled.
The bloody purge began when the late emperor died.
When she fled from the crown prince's forces, I alone bought her time.
The result? I'm sprawled pathetically on the ground—but it doesn't matter.
I bought enough time.
By now, she should have escaped the castle.
To die protecting one's liege...
It might just be the most honorable death for a knight.
With that thought, my eyes close humbly.
“...”
But the eyelids I'd barely managed to shut crease open again, bit by bit.
A faint vibration reaches my ears, ones I'd thought were sealed shut.
No doubt it's a spearman come to finish me off.
A thick spear will pierce and rend my body.
At the thought, my halted heart begins to pound once more.
But that vibration isn't the heavy footfalls of a spearman.
It's far lighter.
Softer.
Precarious.
An uneasy premonition makes me open my eyes instead.
In that instant, I see my swollen palm.
Ragged and tattered like a filthy rag from all the hardship.
A familiar hand comes down over it.
I know that hand.
How could I ever forget?
The hand I barely saved with my life.
Silver hair cascades over my dented armor.
A faint fruity scent wafts between each strand.
Soon, a warm breath descends upon my stiff face.
“Bale...”
A hoarse voice.
But hoarse or not, how could I fail to recognize it?
Joy surges through me.
And resentment.
For with this, the empire's fate is sealed.
The last imperial who opposed the crown prince has abandoned her escape.
“Why in the world did you come back...”
I ask her in a voice thick with anguish.
In my heart, I want to demand it dozens—no, hundreds of times.
But my body, on the brink of death, won't even allow that much.
I can only barely lift my gaze to Irina's face.
Thanks to the shadow she casts, her emerald eyes sparkle even brighter.
She cradles my face in her lap and whispers in a voice she forces to stay calm.
“I thought about it endlessly while fleeing.”
She's smiling, unmistakably.
Yet her reddened eyes brim with unshed tears.
“But the world I want to create...”
At last, a tear traces down her cheek.
It falls onto my rigid face like a raindrop.
“...can't exist without you.”
I fought for years on the northern front.
Then, for a year, I endured as the bodyguard of a powerless princess.
And what did it bring me in the end? Nothing.
Just a wretched death and the hollow emptiness of failing to protect my liege lord.
Ashen dust choked the imperial palace.
The blowing wind cleared the haze, revealing the shattered outer walls once more.
Golden sunlight poured down beneath those walls.
The light caressed the two of us.
Thanks to it, I could see her final moments clearly.
The princess wore a gown of pure white.
But crimson blood seeped from her abdomen.
“...!”
Irina's dress was staining red.
Through the gushing blood, I spotted the dagger embedded in her stomach.
That dagger wasn't the crown prince's, nor any of his soldiers'.
It was the one I'd given her long ago for self-defense.
“Why... why in the world...!”
I screamed it endlessly.
Until black blood boiled in my throat.
My consciousness fades.
But still, I couldn't understand her choice.
“How... when I protected you...”
In my life's final moments...
My dying words changed.
No longer the honorable “Please survive.”
Not even that was granted to me.