After She Disappeared (3)
After She Disappeared (3)
Instead of answering, Olivia slowly took a deep breath. Whether because of that or because of her title's effect, her pounding heart gradually quieted.
Kiel had not asked who she was. He had asked which side she was on.
Olivia understood the intent behind that question.
'He's asking whether I'm the one who killed him or not.'
This confirmed that Kiel's memories had been newly overwritten. And it also told her that he had died in the original history, killed by Olivia in the Genocide Route.
Facing away, she could not see his face directly, which was the only frustrating part.
...Which side do you mean?
"You would know exactly what I mean, if it's you."
"You speak as if you know me well."
Click.
Kiel's grip tightened slightly. The blade bit a little deeper into Olivia's skin. Tiny red beads of blood ran down the edge.
"Do not test me."
The killing intent was terrifying. It raised goosebumps all over her body.
"Answer within ten seconds."
"And if I don't?"
"I will cut you down."
Kiel began to count. Without panicking, Olivia formulated the optimal response.
Kiel did not know that Olivia possessed memories of the previous Run. If she answered with something like, “I wasn’t the one who killed you,” it would only deepen his suspicion.
Then what was she to do?
‘I should pretend not to remember the previous Run.’
No matter how she considered it, that was the right move.
So what was the intent behind Kiel's question?
'Show me proof that you are not the Olivia who killed me.'
Then how could she pretend not to know the previous Run while still producing an answer that would satisfy Kiel?
Olivia knew the method.
Wheeee.
A cold wind blew. Olivia's hair fluttered toward Kiel.
Sssk.
Olivia turned her body very slowly. A thin red line traced along her neck. Between the parted flesh, beads of blood welled up and trickled downward.
Her clothing gradually began to stain red from the chest down.
'It hurts.'
But maybe because she had just endured horrific pain, it was more bearable than she had expected.
Compared to what came before, this was no more painful than being pricked by a needle.
But would an observer take it that way?
'Probably not.'
Small as the wound was, the throat was an indisputable vital point. Even for injuries of the same size, the amount of blood that flowed from the neck was overwhelmingly greater than from other areas.
And blood agitated the emotions.
Steam rose faintly. She felt a slight dizziness, too.
In the freezing winter, the blood quickly froze. The soaked fabric stiffened, then soaked up the fresh blood that followed, over and over.
She felt a faint trembling through the blade. That tremor had definitely not been there moments before. A swordsman of Kiel's caliber failing to steady his blade was unthinkable.
It was evidence that Kiel had been shaken.
Olivia stood there covered in blood.
"You said you'd cut me down."
She asked in a flat voice.
Twitch.
Kiel's sword tip trembled violently. The aftershock drove the blade a little deeper into Olivia's skin. Startled, Kiel pulled the steel back to its original position, but the wound already made did not heal.
Trickle.
Now there were no beads of blood. Instead, a rivulet ran down. It flowed along her collarbone and dyed her clothing its own color. Even without checking with her eyes, she could feel the stream.
Olivia did not glance at her own wound. Instead she stared into Kiel's pupils.
Kiel's ink-dark eyes were still. The hatred contained within them seemed as though it would never waver.
But Olivia kept staring. Go ahead and try, her gaze seemed to say.
And so an instant that felt like eternity passed.
At last, his hatred wavered.
The moment she saw that, Olivia was certain.
At least right now, Kiel would not be able to swing his sword.
[Kiel Rothschild]
- Level: 93 (Regressor Bonus Active)
- Class: Sword Saint
- Favorability: -100(+68)
- Title: Regressor
Kiel's Favorability was unmistakably minus 100. If Favorability of 90 was blind affection powerful enough to shatter a knight's convictions, then minus 100 was hatred strong enough to kill no matter the cost.
And yet he had not cut her throat.
That meant another emotion outweighed even his killing hatred.
Of course, Olivia had no way of knowing what that emotion was.
...
Kiel had meant to cut her down outright if things went wrong.
But.
Gulp.
The moment he met Olivia's eyes, he could not do it.
"This is going to take a while. How about you put this thing away first?"
Because those eyes belonged to someone he had long forgotten.
That characteristic indifferent way of speaking, too.
And those eyes full of certainty.
It was unmistakably the Olivia he had known.
There was no need even to hear the answer. Her every word, every gesture had already given him the answer.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.
His heart pounded wildly.
Tap.
Olivia's hand pushed the greatsword aside.
"I said put it away."
The greatsword slowly shifted to the side. Kiel's eyes clouded with confusion.
It was not forced back by strength. Olivia's arms had almost nothing that could be called muscle.
The arm holding the greatsword had gone slack without his realizing it.
Kiel could not understand his current emotions.
The Olivia before his eyes was indeed the Olivia he had known.
Not the murderer who had assassinated the Emperor and massacred countless ministers.
Then why...
Why on earth did this loathsome feeling keep welling up?
This hatred should not be directed at Olivia. She had been nothing but a victim.
His head understood that. His heart refused to accept it.
'Have I truly gone mad?'
Thud.
Kiel's sword sank feebly into the ground. But he could not bring himself to let go of the hilt.
His burning hatred would not permit even that much.
This was wrong.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
Kiel's face twisted.
Reuniting with the woman he had thought he would never see again—it was the worst possible reunion.
*****
Plip. Drip.
Beads of blood stained the snowy field red. Ignoring them, Olivia silently wrapped a bandage around her neck.
Kiel watched from beside her. That was the best he could do.
The desire to help her and the desire to kill her coexisted inside him.
He wanted to cradle her throat, and at the same time, he wanted to wring her neck.
It was a truly horrifying emotion.
Having roughly stopped the bleeding, Olivia spoke.
"You know me, don't you?"
Kiel turned his head and looked at her.
The moment he met her blue eyes, the hatred surged again.
But at Olivia's next words, an endless void swallowed him.
"I've never once been told I have a bad memory. But no matter how hard I think, I don't remember a man like you anywhere."
Only then did Kiel understand why his blade had trembled.
The power of that inexplicable hatred was certainly immense. Immense enough that he felt not a shred of guilt for wounding the comrade he had longed to see even as he lay dying.
"Yet you clearly seem to know me."
But that hatred was swallowed up, drowned inside a void of sorrow.
Olivia did not remember.
The days they had eaten together, talked together, laughed and chattered together.
She did not remember any of it.
That fact became a dagger that gouged into his heart.
All of those moments had become something that never even existed for Olivia.
‘Everything had turned to nothing.’
Her noble sacrifice had been made meaningless.
That alone was painful enough. But the truth that was even more painful was this.
The one who had wounded her, when she knew nothing at all, was me.
- You were always like that.
No. He had not remembered, back then.
It was all that bitch's fault. She had scrambled his mind, so he simply had not been able to remember.
- You deceived us at every turn and betrayed our trust.
She had never once deceived us.
Rather, the one whose trust had been betrayed was Olivia.
- And you still expect me to trust you?
He wanted to smile at her. He wanted to apologize, to say he was sorry.
He simply could not.
Hatred.
This foul hatred blocked everything.
Even at this very moment, the urge to draw his sword and cut that throat burned through him.
Kiel turned his body. If he kept staring at her, he felt he would do something irreversible.
"Fine. I didn't expect you to answer anyway."
I had regressed.
"If I had known this would happen, perhaps I should have tortured you for the answer from the start."
I knew you were not that kind of person.
...
Kiel shut his eyes tight and pulled his sword out of the ice.
Wheeee.
The wind blew.
The two of them now stood in the exact opposite positions from the start. Olivia was at Kiel's back, and Kiel was gazing somewhere beyond the snowy field.
"My name is Kiel Rothschild."
Not now.
In this state, I could not even hold a conversation with her.
Reuniting with her must not happen like this.
"When we meet next, be sure to remember it."
Once I had shaken off all this hatred that clouded my mind.
Then.
When that time came, I would return.
Kiel ran.
Without looking back, until the snowy field ended.
He ran and ran.
*****
"...It turned out all right, I guess?"
Olivia stared blankly at Kiel as he shrank to a dot and vanished.
The fact that he had not attacked her alone meant it was half a success.
'Is that the end of Kiel, then?'
Olivia sighed and downed a potion. She also unwrapped the bandage she had put on to play the invalid.
"It'll be fine. Probably."
Trudging, Olivia walked toward the Lair where her disciples were waiting.
One down.
Fourteen to go.
It was not yet time to rest.