My Villains – Episode 183: The Death Throes (3)
Lying there beneath the red rain, I couldn't shake the sickening stench of blood that clung to everything.
...Hmm, that's strange. Maybe my belly's full from draining Heila's blood?
No, that wasn't it. It had to be the endless battles, the endless slaughter I'd put myself through these past few days.
The setting sun, the crisp autumn wind, the lukewarm blood pooling around me, and the silence that followed it all.
I blinked idly for a moment, then snapped upright. Atalante lay beside me, and Ellen and Heila were injured too. I couldn't afford to sit here daydreaming.
I scrambled over to Ellen where she'd fallen beneath the wreckage of the gate. Aside from a bruised forearm and a scraped shin, she didn't seem badly hurt — but a knock to the head was something you couldn't take chances with.
As I slowly lifted her into my arms, her long lashes fluttered and her eyes opened. Worried she might panic, I hastily absorbed all the blood that had drenched my body.
"...Mmm. Huh?"
She stared blankly for a moment, her vision swimming, then looked up at me with a dazed expression. Her wide sapphire eyes blinked a few times, and I flashed her my warmest smile.
"...Phoi?"
"Yeah, it's me. Are you hurt anywhere?"
Before I'd even finished speaking, she threw herself into me. Her soft, boneless body clung to mine with surprising strength.
"It was so dark in there, I couldn't breathe. She took you away, and I couldn't do anything—"
Ellen mumbled incoherently, her face still buried in my neck. Had she been having nightmares the whole time she was unconscious?
I gently patted her back until her ragged breathing steadied, and she pushed herself up.
Then she just stared up at me. I could feel her grip on the back of my neck tightening.
...What's gotten into her?
"Hey, does your head hurt? Did you hit something when you fell, or— mmph—"
I never got to finish.
Ellen had squeezed her eyes shut, pursed her lips, and yanked my neck down into a sudden, clumsy kiss.
"Whoa, what the—"
Her lips pressed against my front teeth, and I couldn't get another word out.
Soft lips, a sweet breath, the crisp scent of lime — they all hammered away at my heart.
Kim Seung-soo, get a grip! You can't do this right now!
Shouting at myself internally, I peeled Ellen off of me.
"W-wait a second. This really isn't the time for this. Once things settle down, I mean, what I'm trying to say is—"
As I babbled on, she just stared at me with a strangely blank expression.
"Ah... uh."
Then, in an instant, her pale, translucent skin flared red as if it had caught fire. The flush spread from her cheeks down to her neck and ears in the blink of an eye — and Ellen suddenly squeezed her eyes shut and collapsed forward, burying her face in my chest.
"Ellen? Ellen?"
I shook her shoulders a few times, but she didn't respond at all.
Seriously, what is wrong with her? Is she hurt worse than I thought?
Worried, I placed my palm against her back and raised my blood energy. If it were anyone else I couldn't say, but when it came to Ellen's body, nobody alive knew it better than I did. I'd been scanning her with Blood Craft at every opportunity for almost four months now.
Labored breathing. Fingers that twitched occasionally. Blood pooled in her stiff lower back and her face.
It didn't take long to figure out what was going on with her.
She was...
"...Sigh."
Pretending to be unconscious.
I swallowed a laugh and got to my feet.
By the time I'd gently laid the three women down in the shade of the ruined gate, Amias and Steedman had arrived with a company of soldiers.
They approached warily, their faces drained pale at the sight of red rivulets running in every direction.
The bald Steedman had fetched Heila's black horse, and in its saddlebags he'd found not one but three vials of wound-healing potion.
Koll was in critical condition, so I sent one vial his way, deciding to use the other two to treat Heila and Atalante.
"One moment, Lord Phoinix. You're telling me you intend to heal those two?"
Amias, ever the level-headed one, wore a sour expression.
"Why? What's the problem?"
"The one who blew this gate to pieces was Atalante herself. Sir Hrantaka was badly wounded trying to stop her."
"...Utekwai was? Where is he now?"
"At the church. From what I hear, his life is not in danger."
Hmm. So it seemed he'd been unable to use his Seal of Predation, seeing as the only corpses around were human ones.
In the game, he'd torn out and devoured the hearts of monsters and men alike, recovering stamina and receiving buffs regardless of what he killed.
But the real-life Utekwai hadn't done that. Was it because of his faith?
"It isn't just Sir Hrantaka, either — a good number of our own soldiers are dead or wounded. Though to be fair, the Multingham forces took far worse."
"And Heila — forgive me, Lady Heila — abducted Lady Ellen and very nearly killed Koll. And now you're telling me you'll nurse those two back to health?"
As Amias spoke, his voice rising with a hint of agitation, something seemed to occur to him. He scratched the tip of his nose and added, quieter:
"Not that Lady Heila isn't your betrothed, my lord, and we do owe her our lives. And Atalante did save you once before."
He forced his expression back to something composed and pressed on.
"Still, this is too dangerous. These are superhumans who can turn hundreds of soldiers into bloody pulp in the blink of an eye. You need to be more careful, my lord."
Hmm. He wasn't wrong.
Even as I mulled it over, I went ahead and sprinkled some potion onto Heila's abdomen. Her wrists and ankles I could deal with later, but the wound Hrunting had carved across her stomach would send her down the road to hell right quick if I didn't close it now — worry and considerations be damned.
Just then, Ellen stirred beside me and pushed herself up.
"Mmm. Where am I?"
...She sounds like she's reciting from a textbook.
Pfft. As I fought to hold in a laugh, she stretched awkwardly and clambered to her feet.
"Uh, hm. I must have blacked out for a moment after burning through so much mana..."
The deep crimson flowers were still blooming on both of Ellen's cheeks.
Ugh, fine. Just play along and stay quiet. You're cute, so I'll let it slide.
Ellen, playing her part with admirable commitment, offered her opinion straight away.
"What we do with those two needs to be decided very carefully."
Honestly, that caught me off guard. I'd fully expected her to say we should kill Heila and Atalante on the spot.
Her lips twitching, Ellen took a small breath and spoke again.
"If we kill Heila... something could happen that none of us could handle."
"Something we couldn't handle?"
Glancing around at the soldiers nearby, she lowered her voice.
"Heila's brother might raise an army to avenge his sister."
Ah. Right.
Heila was the sole remaining younger sister of Duke Kaisis of Aillant — 'Kaisis of Valuin.'
I scratched my brow and spoke up.
"Still, we can't just let her go, either. Her power and her personality are both dangerous enough that she'd be a lingering threat in more ways than one."
"Then let's hold her as a prisoner."
"A prisoner?"
"Yes. That way we can stop an army from marching on us, and suppressing Heila's magic keeps her from becoming a threat later."
For some reason, a famous line from The Godfather drifted through my mind.
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
It seemed like a decent plan...
"We'll need to keep brewing the mana-suppression potion, though. Can you manage that?"
"That's no problem at all... hm, actually, it would cost quite a bit."
Amias, who had been hanging back quietly, cut in abruptly.
"Money is nothing to worry about, my lord."
"...What?"
"The prisoner is enormously wealthy."
Amias rummaged through the black horse's saddlebags and produced pouch after pouch stuffed with gold coins and jewels. Ellen gauged the amount at a glance and shrugged.
"...That should be more than enough."
Having settled that, she turned to look at Atalante.
Had something crossed her mind? Her blue eyes wavered for a brief moment.
"Whew. Atalante is probably—"
Just as she was about to continue, a group of riders came pounding in from the west.
"...What now?"
"Battle stations! Someone, tell Sir Chester that cavalry is approaching!"
At Amias's barked orders, the soldiers sprang into motion. But before reinforcements could arrive from within Longville, thirty-odd mounted warriors closed to within arm's reach.
Frankly, I wasn't worried in the slightest. One look told me they were no knights.
I stepped forward with my hand resting on Hrunting's pommel.
The warriors wore strips of red cloth bound around their foreheads, their horses decorated here and there with iron rings. Most carried spears, with curved swords hanging at their waists.
In a word: the classic trappings of the Nudein tribes.
And the middle-aged man riding at their head wore a face I knew very well indeed.
"...Lord Phoinix?"
Back when Atalante and I had formed a party, she'd brought along two of her clan's elite warriors.
Vittorio, who wielded the long spear, had died in the dimensional rift, while Agos, the master of the longbow, had made it home to his tribe safely.
The middle-aged man now leading these warriors toward me was that very same Agos.
When he spotted me, Agos swallowed dryly. He raised a hand, and though the warriors behind him wore puzzled looks, they lowered their raised weapons.
Agos gave his reins a light tug and came a little closer.
"Lady Ellen and young Amias are here too. Is Koll with you as well?"
Instead of answering the slippery old archer, I tapped Hrunting's pommel a few times and cut straight to the point.
"Did you come to take Atalante back?"
"No, I—"
"...Yes, my lord."
"You know what Atalante did, don't you?"
When I jerked a thumb at the wreckage behind me, Agos saw the ruins of the gate and his face darkened.
"Yes. We watched from a distance."
His face was still smeared with humiliation when he spoke again.
"But, my lord — Lady Atalante did not act of her own will."
"...What do you mean?"
"The golden pendant. It's an instrument the elders use to bind her."
"From what I saw, I doubt a pendant alone could make someone carry out a massacre."
"...You saw the golden pendant?"
"Well, it's a long story. And that's not what matters right now, is it?"
"No, it is not."
Agos nodded slowly, then forced the words out with great difficulty.
"It was the atrocity of the elder Deloto."
"Deloto?"
"Yes. He swore aloud that he would destroy the gate to appease the wrath of Prince Doyle, second son of Earl Tristan."
"...And that is exactly what happened."
"It was never what Lady Atalante wanted. Deloto used some unnatural sorcery to force her into an awakening."
"An awakening?"
"A mad rite that bores a passage to the Void directly into the mind. As proof of it, she should have opened her third eye — did you not see it?"
I glanced back, and Ellen gave a small nod.
"...That's right. She was channeling the power of her secret art beyond her own limits."
"Lady Atalante was pouring nearly all of her willpower into merely holding that passage open. She was effectively half-asleep. In that state, she could not refuse any command given by whoever held the pendant."
At Agos's explanation, I let out a low murmur.
"So Atalante bears no blame at all, and you want her returned. Is that it?"
"...How could I presume to claim she is blameless? Even if she was manipulated by the elders, she is a warrior of the Alcadaire clan. She cannot stand apart from the clan's responsibility."
Having said his piece, Agos dismounted. He took two steps closer and then threw himself flat on the ground before me.
"...What are you doing?"
"I beg you to show mercy, Lord Phoinix."
The thirty-odd Nudein warriors who had followed Agos dismounted and bowed as well.
"She is the child of a demigod, the prophesied daughter who will deliver the Nudein people. Please, show mercy to our kind. Grant us your grace."
...Good grief. Don't lay it on so thick — you're making this heavy for me.
"Ahem. If I hand Atalante back to you, what's to stop her from becoming the elders' puppet all over again?"
"...That may well be so."
Agos slowly raised his head and looked up at me.
"But Lady Atalante has already undergone the forced awakening. Without the elders' aid, she cannot go on living."
"...What? What are you talking about?"
"Exactly what I said. If Lady Atalante does not return to Ahsun, she will be devoured by the Void. And if that happens, she would become a danger to you as well, my lord."
Ha. What a lovely, thorny predicament this is.
It was the feeling of a social worker being ordered to send an abused child back to the very household that broke her.
I turned to Ellen.
"What do you think?"
She pressed her hands together for a moment, fidgeting with her fingers. On closer look, she was toying with a small handkerchief woven of silk.
"...Let her go."
"What?"
"Let her go."
Ellen lifted her head.
"If that woman gets swallowed by the Void, she might turn into a monster. And then people would get hurt again..."
Her words trailed off into nothing.
I waited a while, but Ellen only kept fussing with the silk handkerchief, saying nothing more.
...Judging by her expression, it's better to leave her be for a moment.
I nodded to Agos.
His face brightened — but only for an instant. Composing himself, he and three or four other warriors carefully helped Atalante onto a horse.
"Thank you, Lord Phoinix."
"...Thank me? Atal — well, Atalante was a good friend to me, that's all."
"And we thank you for it all the same."
He was turning his horse's head when he suddenly pulled up on the reins.
"Is there... any message you would like us to carry to Lady Atalante?"
"...A message?"
"Yes. It felt like something I ought to ask, at least."
I was silent for a moment, then smiled faintly.
I spoke a few words, and Agos gazed at me quietly before bowing his head deeply.
"I will deliver your words. Farewell."
With Agos — Atalante slung across his saddle — at their head, the Nudein warriors wheeled in a wide arc around the farmland and headed west.
I found myself looking up at the sky.
Blue autumn.
It was a season made for peace.