A Single Night's Love
Bleeding from wounds he could no longer feel, he forced himself forward. Even as his vision frayed and the cold certainty of death crept over him, he kept moving, holding her upright against his shoulder.
"Just hold on. All we have to do is make it past those doors."
"Right…"
Dragging their broken, blood-soaked bodies step by agonizing step, Einzel and Sayne finally breached the estate and stumbled out into the open air. Night had already fallen, and above them, the sky was ablaze with an ocean of brilliant stars.
"Look there," Sayne murmured, lifting a trembling hand toward the brightest light in the firmament. "It's the Navigator's Star."
"Yeah. It's beautiful."
The Navigator's Star—the North Star. The timeless guide that sailors watched when setting out on great voyages across treacherous seas. Legends whispered that if one journeyed ever northward toward that star, they would eventually reach the edge of the world, where they could leave the earth behind and embark on an adventure into the boundless cosmos.
"So beautiful…"
"It really is."
Even as blood welled in her throat and spilled past her lips, Sayne refused to look away from the sky. Was this radiant beauty—this endless, shining canopy—the view her mother had yearned for all her life? Had that wondrous horizon enchanted her so deeply that she spent her entire life drowning in regret?
A faint smile touched Sayne's lips. Her whole body shuddered violently, but she held on. She fought with every shred of her being to drive back Death, whose shadow draped over her shoulders like a heavy cloak. She couldn't die yet. Not like this. Not just yet.
From the distant heavens, the North Star cast its gentle radiance over the earth, while the Milky Way unfurled a grand festival of light across the darkness. Sayne drank in the sight, desperate to etch every shimmer into her memory. A profound weight seemed to lift from her chest—even if, in truth, a fatal blow was already torn straight through her abdomen.
"So… this is how it ends," she said softly. Both of them stood on the absolute precipice of death.
"...I'm sorry," Einzel said, his voice raw. "I swore I'd save you. I couldn't."
"Don't apologize. You were already a miracle to me. You were my salvation."
Einzel let out a faint, ragged chuckle. "I'm glad to hear it. That's why a Hero fights, after all."
"Haha…"
They clung to their weak jokes, trying desperately to keep their smiles from fading, but little by little, the light drained from their faces. Sayne's knees buckled, and she collapsed to the ground. Einzel immediately knelt beside her, leaning down close.
Tears welled in her eyes, spilling down her pale cheeks. "I'm sorry. This was all because of me."
"...No. None of it is your fault."
Sayne raised a trembling hand, gently brushing her fingertips across his cheek. "...Thank you. For fighting so hard, going through so much, just for someone like me."
"It's nothing," Einzel whispered. "I'd fight this battle a hundred times more for you."
"Pfft, idiot." A soft, breathless laugh slipped from her lips. To think he would say such a thing after being dragged to death's door just to help her. "There's something I need to say. I want to tell you while my head is still clear."
"Go ahead. I'm listening."
A radiant, unburdened smile spread across her face, and she threw her arms around him, pulling him close. Now, at last, she could speak without fear.
"Thank you."
Her arms and legs wound tightly around him with desperate, aching tenderness.
"I love you."
She pressed her lips to his, kissing him deeply.
"I had to tell you," she breathed against his mouth. Blood was streaming steadily from her abdomen. "Ah… my head is getting so fuzzy." Squeezing out the last remnants of her strength, she offered him one final smile. "Still… I'm happy that you're the last thing I see."
"Hah. And when did you start liking me that much?" Einzel managed a wry, teasing grin.
"It doesn't take long to fall in love with someone. Look at me—I fell for you in an instant."
"...That's pretty wonderful."
"If there's such a thing as a next life… then next time…"
Her voice trailed off, swallowed by the silence of the night. Even as tears slipped down her temples, she simply smiled, swallowing down her very last thought in silence.
Thanks to you, I can die happy.
With her spilled blood as her blanket and her sword as her headstone, Sayne slipped away into eternal rest.
Einzel looked down at her, a bittersweet smile curving his lips. So it had come to this after all.
"Next time… it'll be better. Rest easy, and don't worry."
He spoke with a soft laugh, blood pouring freely from every part of his body. Slowly, his consciousness sank into the dark abyss. He knew he would only swim for a brief moment in the tranquil sea of rest before being cast right back onto the bloody earth of battle.
"I promise. Next time, I'll save you."
Einzel lay down beside her cold body, closed his eyes, and welcomed death.
Einzel smiled. Misinterpreting the gesture as a favorable response to his proposal, Duke Jakov Luderan brightened, nodding approvingly.
"Take some time to think it over, then."
Returning to his quarters, Einzel threw himself onto the bed and slipped into a deep sleep. For now, he simply wanted to rest.
The following morning, he got up and made his way to the Magic Tower. Peria was already there, buried in her work.
"What brings you here?" she snapped, barely glancing up. "I'm right on the verge of a breakthrough in my research. Don't go making a racket."
Right on cue, a chorus of shouting and vulgar curses echoed from the mages arguing on the lower floors. Einzel merely shrugged. Peria let out an exasperated sigh while Einzel offered a bright, knowing smile. He idly wondered if this chaotic environment was where she had developed her cynical streak in the first place.
"Whatever. Why did you really come?"
"I was wondering if you had any concealment spells."
"Of course I do. Though it won't fool anyone of real caliber… Why do you need something like that?"
"I want to learn it. It seems like it'd be pretty handy on the battlefield. Last time when I fought Genom, I used the dust storm to hide my movements, right? I was thinking I could combine it with something like that."
"...Suit yourself."
And so, Einzel spent the day learning stealth magic from her.
A few days later, on the very day Duke Jakov was away from the manor—the same day he and Sayne had previously broken into the underground archives and met their end—Einzel set out toward House Luderan alone.
Infiltrating the ducal estate under cover of darkness, he quietly knocked out the sentries guarding the cellar doors. Shrouding himself in the concealment magic he had just mastered, he slipped deep into the archives where Jakov Luderan hid the records of his clandestine plots.
Without leaving a trace, Einzel retrieved the incriminating documents and slipped out of the estate unnoticed.
Afterward, he invited Beatrice to his lodgings and poured her a cup of tea.
"Why did you summon me, Sir Hero? Is there something you require my assistance with?"
"Oh, nothing too grand… I'm about to go meet with Duke Luderan. If I don't return here by tomorrow morning, please take this to the Imperial Palace. Just make sure you don't read it until then."
"I understand."
Though curious about the mysterious packet, Beatrice accepted it without pressing for details. With his insurance in place, Einzel set off for the Luderan estate once more—this time through the front gates, making an official visit.
"Ah, welcome," Jakov greeted him, his expression subtly strained. "Forgive me if my hospitality seems lacking today. An unexpected situation has arisen…"
"Is that so?" Einzel took a calm sip of his tea, a faint smile playing on his lips.
Jakov stared at him intently, his sharp crimson eyes narrowing. "...Don't tell me. Was it you?"
"Perhaps?"
A suffocating surge of bloodlust erupted from the duke. The air grew needles-sharp, sending a chill prickling across Einzel's skin. Yet to a man who had already died countless agonizing deaths, such killing intent barely registered.
"...You don't strike me as a madman," Jakov murmured, his voice deadly low. "Yet you walk willingly into the lion's den."
Even as the crushing pressure bore down on him, Einzel merely chuckled with casual nonchalance. "A madman? Hardly. If I had to put it in words, I'd say I came here to hunt the lion."
A bead of cold sweat rolled down Jakov's temple.
"To put it plainly, the documents are currently in the hands of the Saintess," Einzel said, laying his cards on the table. "She has instructions to deliver them straight to the Imperial Palace if I don't return tonight. Surely you aren't foolish enough to attempt an attack on the Saintess, are you?"
Jakov couldn't touch Beatrice. Not simply because assassinating her and covering up the crime was politically impossible, but because the Saintess was overwhelmingly powerful. Even if the duke himself—a revered Swordmaster—attacked her directly, he couldn't guarantee victory.
"...What do you want?"
"What do I want? Drop this absurd scheme to force a marriage between Sayne and me. Hole yourself up in your provincial territory until she's ready to inherit the title. Do that, or watch your entire house crumble to ash."
"...I don't know what you stumbled upon, but if you understand enough to hold those documents against me, you must already know what choice I'll make."
"Yes. You could very well choose the total ruin of your family, but—"
"Nonsense. Very well. I will withdraw to the territory."
Einzel blinked, momentarily taken aback by how easily the duke conceded.
"I am merely a single man," Jakov said, his tone turning solemn. "But the name of Luderan is history itself. If I, who became patriarch to preserve that legacy, were to stain its glorious name, with what face could I meet my ancestors in the afterlife? Had you demanded my head, I would have gladly offered it. I should consider myself fortunate that your demands are so lenient."
Einzel stared at him in disbelief, his expression practically screaming: What kind of lunatic is this guy?
"Hah… Well, think of this as a token of goodwill. Go deal with Rupos. He's been conspiring with the demons."
Jakov's eyes widened slightly. "...I have no idea how you came to know that, either… but thank you."
Einzel had no intention of letting Rupos walk away unscathed—not after the man had killed him in the previous timeline.
"By the way, your attitude shifted awfully fast, didn't it?"
"...Even a lion knows better than to provoke a dragon," Jakov replied smoothly. "When faced with an insurmountable force, one can only yield."
A few days later, Rupos Luderan was publicly executed for treason, and Duke Jakov withdrew to the family's provincial estate under the pretext of failing health. In his absence, the governance of House Luderan was temporarily entrusted to Jacques Lucolson.
And then, Einzel finally met Sayne once more.
With the duke gone, all talk of their engagement was swept under the rug as if it had never existed. Einzel looked at her with complicated, lingering eyes, seeing the vivid phantom of the woman who had died in his arms overlapping with the living person standing before him.
"...Why are you staring at me like that?" Sayne asked, frowning slightly with polite confusion. "My father's health deteriorated, so the engagement is completely off, all right?"
Hearing her brisk, detached words, Einzel was pulled back to the cold truth of the present.
Right. None of it ever happened.
The desperate battle they had fought side by side, the tender warmth that still burned vividly in a corner of his chest—all of it had been buried beneath the shifting sands of time. The Sayne standing before him now was not the Sayne who had held him in the dark. He had to remind himself of that.
Even if his memories were erased from the world, treated as though they had never existed at all, he had to keep moving forward. Leaving that single night of love behind as nothing more than a ghost of a memory.
"No," Einzel said softly, offering a faint smile. "It's nothing."