Chapter 144: Plaudite! (3)
Chapter 144: Plaudite! (3)
[The Second Young Master... is physically very frail. He is also extremely susceptible to stress. I believe it would be best to create an environment where he is subjected to as little stress as possible.]
[I called for you because the child coughed up blood... Does that mean he coughs up blood even from mere stress?]
[Yes... that is correct.]
[Good heavens.]
[......Did you hear that, Cruel? Our second son made everyone's hearts drop when he was born, and it seems he plans to keep doing so in the future. Though his appearance is peculiar, he is undeniably our child, and your younger brother. You have far more years left to live than we old people do, so please, as his older brother, take good care of him.]
[Yes, Father.]
[Good. The child is said to be sensitive, so do not fuss over him too much or pay him excessive attention, lest our second son come to think of himself as useless and fall into self-loathing. It would be best to maintain an appropriate distance and look after him without his knowing.]
[Brother, I want to go outside the mansion.]
[That's.......]
[Just kidding. I'm too busy reading to even go outside. More importantly, what's that in your hand? It says 'Chess' on it... Don't tell me it's that 'Chess' from the 'Basic Rules of Chess' I read before?]
[Yes, I thought it would be good for us to play together.]
[Oh, of course it's good. I was getting tired of just reading, so this worked out— ah.]
[.......]
[......Br-Brother. So, how's your swordsmanship coming along these days? Is it going well? Last time I sneaked a glance out the window, it was incredible. Show me properly sometime later.]
Yes, but.
How could I ever kill this child?
That the child was serving as the 0th Legion Commander in the Demon Realm could be deduced just by piecing together a few circumstances. They had even created a nonexistent post, the 0th Legion, just to seat him there, so his treatment and life in that place must have been fairly decent. That was precisely why he had deliberately dragged things out to come all the way here.
Rather than staying in the human world, teeming with every imaginable threat, it would be better to lead a safe and peaceful life in the Demon Realm.
His right arm, embedded with the dagger, throbbed with heat.
Because it was all too clear that his actions had been for the child's sake, this time even Deon showed visible agitation. True to his keen nature, the child was already visibly racking his brain, so to cut off his train of thought, Cruel reached out and covered his eyes.
"Don't think."
"......."
"Just do what you've always done— rationalize and turn away."
Perhaps because of the nature of what he was saying, the words tasted bitter leaving his mouth.
The attention he had fixed on him to protect him soon uncovered another truth. Whether it was an aftereffect of the war, the child remembered only what he wanted to remember.
He had been indescribably devastated when he learned that the child had bestowed two personalities upon himself, and that the other personality—the one that remembered everything—was brought out only when needed. He had felt genuinely sorry and deeply regretful. Just how much must he have suffered to resort to such an extreme choice?
It was probably a choice made to protect a body so vulnerable to stress. And so.
Resent me instead.
Don't harbor any doubts. Just think that you feel relieved at my death.
He continued speaking while cutting and slashing down the attackers who revealed themselves openly. A few minor injuries were unavoidable since he was still covering the child's eyes.
"But...."
Since that day, you have never once listened to me, so you'll be stubborn this time too.
And so.
"If you absolutely must open your eyes."
Since I cannot stop you.
"Before you do, make sure you face everything you've done up until now."
This was my arrangement.
To prepare a younger brother vulnerable to stress so that he would not crumble from the shock.
Even this would be too much for you. I would rather you live and die knowing nothing at all.
It was a small selfish wish I harbored only because I had come to realize what a tremendous blessing a peaceful death truly was.
'The choice is Deon's to make.'
As the older brother who loved his one and only younger brother, I intended to support whatever choices you made from here on.
Even if it meant bringing about the world's destruction.
'Deon, my child.'
I would protect you even in death.
"Now, go."
Quickly.
No matter how great a hero, they were helpless before overwhelming numbers.
With countless weapons embedded in his back, Cruel smiled.
.......
He had been forced to watch his younger brother's hands kill their parents,
and to protect his younger brother, he had gone under the Duke's wing and lived like a dog.
With the war over, he had rolled and struggled endlessly to become a hero,
and engaged in a battle of wits with the Duke, filtering out at least some of the Duke's attempts to kill his younger brother before they could reach him.
It might look like a pathetic and shabby life. Some might call it a grim and tragic life.
But Cruel was fairly satisfied.
No matter what, wasn't this a death he met while protecting his younger brother?
'A perfect ending.'
He earnestly hoped that the child was deeply loved in the Demon Realm. If not, he desperately wished that he would be loved from now on.
He didn't care about dying in the least, but he worried that after his death, his brother would be left all alone in a world where no one loved him.
Idiotic Cruel Hart.
Covering his eyes and making him turn his back accomplished nothing—there was no hiding things to the very end. Even now, hadn't Deon pretended to flee only to turn around like this?
With an expressionless face, Deon Hart watched Cruel, who was fighting off the attackers with arrows and throwing knives lodged in his back. They had said it was a force sufficient to kill a single hero, and that was no exaggeration—Cruel was struggling against the numerous enemies.
Arrows and throwing knives flew, and the attackers rushed at him. In a life-or-death situation, absurdly enough, Cruel prioritized blocking the attacks aimed at Deon Hart over protecting his own body.
He stretched out his bandaged left hand to block a throwing knife. His palm was pierced through, but he pulled it out without a care and used it to knock down another throwing knife aimed at Deon. For those charging directly at Deon Hart, the moment they passed him, he threw the small weapons strapped to his thigh, piercing their vital points. Naturally, the priority of those who needed to eliminate him shifted squarely onto Cruel.
Out of consideration for his opponent's sincerity, the footsteps that had been moving busily slowed, and before he knew it, Deon had stopped and tilted his head.
'Does he really have a reason to go that far for me?'
The reason he had been cornered into this situation was because of him.
He found himself recalling it again—hadn't Cruel abandoned him? He had thought that surely, beneath that stony expressionlessness of Cruel's, he must have been hiding feelings of dislike.......
Deon, who had been resuming the thoughts Cruel had cut off, faltered.
[Don't think.]
But.
[If you absolutely must open your eyes.]
[Before you do, make sure you face everything you've done up until now.]
Since when had he ever listened to Cruel's words?
Just as he was about to ignore him and continue his thoughts, he heard a voice he could not ignore.
"He's finally dead."
What?
His head turned reflexively. As if confirming the kill, black-clad humans were each plunging their weapons into the fallen Cruel—the sight pierced his vision.
"A tough bastard. Didn't let out a single groan to the very end. How many did this son of a bitch kill?"
"He was a hero, so let's just find meaning in the fact that we killed him. Though admittedly... we did suffer heavy casualties."
Huh......?
"Anyway, we need to finish the remaining commission."
One of them gestured with his chin toward Deon, who stood at a distance, frozen.
Though he flinched and moved reflexively, Deon still hadn't fully processed what had just happened and merely blinked blankly.
'Is he really... dead?'
He had thought he would feel nothing much if Cruel died. No—he had thought he would actually be glad.
'Huh.......'
Was it because he had questions about Cruel's actions?
His emotions wandered endlessly, as if confused about what to champion. Even his mind, which should have been making cold judgments, refused to work, as if blocked by a blank film. He stared at Cruel's tattered corpse, and when he saw the remaining attackers moving toward him, he turned his back.
Though Cruel had killed many, the remaining number was still threatening. Alone, they were seasoned human hunters who had coordinated with each other, and their confidence had soared from killing a single hero. Moreover, Deon's own condition was poor at the moment, so fighting would only be a loss.
'For now... for now, to the Demon Realm.......'
Right, let's go to the Demon Realm. Whatever anyone said, surviving right now was the priority.
He forced his steps to quicken. The sound of pursuit behind him spurred his feet faster, and soon he was running at full speed.
It seemed they threw weapons from behind, but the distance had widened considerably, and thanks to the snowflakes blowing head-on, few found their mark.
Not that none did.
Clang!
The magic stone necklace that Lirinel had given him long ago shattered. It meant that among the attacks flying from behind, there had been one that was truly threatening.
Deon ignored it and kept running.
It was fortunate that snow was falling. Thanks to the cold snowflakes lashing against his face, his head began to clear somewhat.
──No. It wasn't 'fortunate.'
The moment his mind accepted the earlier situation, his emotions rushed in like a tidal wave.
Only when the cold wind clawed at his face and swept away the liquid streaming down his cheeks did Deon realize that he was crying.
'What... what is this....... What in the world...!'
The snowfall obscured the enemies' vision and covered his tracks, and it had been a long while since he had shaken off his pursuers, but unaware of this, he kept running. Even though his ankles kept sinking deep into the snow, which must have been draining his stamina enormously, Deon didn't even register it and drove his body onward relentlessly.
"Cough!"
Patter, patter.
Blood surged up and poured from his mouth. The rank liquid seeped into the white snow, blooming into dark red flowers.
In a way, it was only natural. Physical shock, combined with psychological shock, and on top of that the bitter cold—it would have been stranger if his physical condition were normal.
Only then did Deon, noticing that the pursuit had ceased, stop in his tracks.
'Why. How.'
Damn you, Cruel. Idiotic Cruel.
If you wanted me to stop thinking, then you shouldn't have acted in ways that invited suspicion in the first place.
Don't think? Rationalize and turn away like I've always done?
"Haha— cough! To think I'd get the words I once said to mad dogs thrown right back at me! Blaargh! Ke-euk!"
Blood dripped steadily from his chin. His two eyes, brimming with clear fluid and severely bloodshot, shook as if about to shatter. He hadn't even blinked, yet for some reason, countless tear tracks scored his cheeks.
You died before my eyes for my sake. The contradiction to everything I had believed to be true was starkly revealed right in front of me—did you really think I was so simple that I could just mindlessly rejoice and move on?
Rationalize? Turn away? There are limits even to that!
'In the first place, whether I rationalize or turn away, I'm the type who knows everything and just buries it.'
Deon raised his trembling lips at the corners.
But... yes, for the sake of what you did, giving your life for me, I intended to at least honor your final words.
If I absolutely must dig into this, you said to face everything I've done up until now beforehand, didn't you? That was an easy thing to do.
In the first place, I already knew everything.
Even without any of this, he had been reaching his limit lately. Now that his mind was ravaged by war, there was a limit even to forcibly ignoring the memories that kept surfacing and pretending not to know.
And so, using Cruel's last words as an excuse, Deon gave up on holding together the cracked, leaking dam.
The moment he gave up on forcibly enduring, what followed was instantaneous.
The dam that had stood for the past ten years came crashing down completely. All manner of memories he had been avoiding came pouring out, and the emotions of those moments flooded in vividly.
He knew that no matter how much he had reached his limit, this was a matter that required serious consideration and deliberation several times over. It had been an act born from the judgment that, though it was tinged with a degree of impulsiveness, unlike back then when he had been immature, he was now long past being an adult, so he would be fine. But—
"Heok, hick, hk, hrrk...."
His breath caught.
His head throbbed as if it were about to split open, and unable to keep his balance, he staggered and collapsed face-first into the snow.
The cold sensation brought his mind sharply awake, but unfortunately, it produced the opposite effect.
"Heu, euk, ah... aah, aaaaah...."
His newly sharpened consciousness replayed the nightmarish scene over and over. His brain felt as though it were being carved up countless times by a sharp dagger. The scenes replayed so vividly before his eyes that he was seriously tempted to gouge them out.
"AAAAAAAGH!!!"
Overwhelmed by emotions so unbearably heavy, he felt as though he might strangle himself. For a long while, he clenched his blue-frozen hands into fists and pounded the ground as if to shatter his bones.
"Demon-nim!"
A young voice reached his ears, and that was the last thing Deon Hart perceived before losing consciousness.