Shadows of Regret and Nightmares
Liana asked, “Senior, are you all right…?”
At her junior's question, Ardena rose from her sickbed, her shoulder wrapped in bandages. “It's nothing.”
She had served as a warrior captain for three hundred years, fighting in countless battlefields as a seasoned pro. So she paid it no mind. Even if her body bore gruesome scars.
The wounds she'd taken protecting the High Priestess were badges of honor. Nothing to be ashamed of.
But Ardena's heart was already in ruins.
“Any word on Yushin?”
At Ardena's question, Liana let out a deep sigh. “He seems to have headed from Maherith Palace to Santander Castle. Then he vanished with his subordinates…”
He distrusts Elfkind completely.
Ardena felt a stabbing pain in her chest at Yushin's act of disappearing with his men. There's no reason for me to stay with you. His words echoed vividly in her ears.
It might have just been something he'd spat out in a fit of anger. But to Ardena, those words cut like a sharp dagger, painful and agonizing.
“Ah.”
Ardena let out a short sigh, brushing her face. She still couldn't believe it. The Shadow Clan, directly under the High Priestess, had ambushed Yushin's subordinates.
But it was true. The Yetzirah Council had held the High Priestess responsible, claiming negotiations with the Diablo Slayer had fallen through due to the dark elves' reckless actions. By presenting the dark elves Bilen Santander had captured at his castle as evidence, Yushin's claims were proven true.
“Has he gone back to Valua Kingdom…?”
“No, I don't think so. To return to Valua, he'd have to cross the Akiteon Mountains, but there's no word from the ranger units there, so probably not.”
But they couldn't rule it out. Because the last place Yushin had been sighted was Santander, the northern port city of Liberia Elf Kingdom.
They couldn't discount the possibility he'd boarded a ship from Santander Harbor to some foreign land. If the head of Santander House was backing Yushin… he could leave Elfkind behind on a ship anytime.
“Then I'll go check Santander Forest myself. Don't worry—detection and scouting are my specialties.”
“Please do.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
Liana left the sickroom. Once she was gone, Ardena lay back on the bed, lost in thought. She placed a hand on her forehead. Covering her eyes, she murmured to herself, recalling the moment Yushin had left.
It's only been a month since we forged our bond in Elf Kingdom…
Sexual love strikes suddenly. Time spent together doesn't matter. Sometimes you fall at a single glance; other times, you stay friends for ten years.
Ardena had fallen for Yushin at first sight—the man who'd defeated her on the battlefield. Asking him to teach her little sister swordsmanship was just an excuse. She wanted him. She wanted to be with him.
That's why she'd gone so far as to personally track down the elves transporting him as a prisoner, showing her obsessive side.
Master said it: An elf loving a human is terribly dangerous. Humans live but a fleeting moment. We elves live eternally… Our lifespans don't align.
Tales of elf women loving human men overflowed. Elves were easily captivated by humans. That's why they favored them over other races.
Human-elf romances burned passionately, but always ended in tragedy. Like firewood consumed by flames, elves melted into the human's timeframe while sharing love.
When their human partner died of old age, the elf couldn't bear the solitude and took her own life.
That's why human-elf romances glossed over the end with “and they lived happily ever after.”
“If I'd known it would end like this… If I'd known, I'd have mustered the courage to approach him somehow.”
Regret seeped in. Like rough raindrops soaking into the earth, melancholy drenched her.
Those who leave don't return. Ardena knew that better than anyone. She'd bid farewell to her most revered master that way.
She'd sworn never to ache from parting again. She'd cursed her master for vanishing without a word, vowing not to hurt anymore.
But…
Again. Again… He's gone. Master and Yushin, both abandoned me.
He won't come back. Her master who'd left her hadn't. Yushin would be the same.
She must disgust him. She'd broken their promise… It was her fault for failing to protect his subordinates from the elves—from the dark elves.
“Everyone… leaves me.”
Ardena buried her face in the pillow. Lying on the sickbed, she sobbed for a long while, unleashing the rage pent up in her chest.
Cry her fill now. No one would hear.
The 12th Warrior Captain was a symbol of strength. Revered and awed by Elf Kingdom's knights. Proud and dutiful as their captain, Ardena refused to show weakness to anyone.
* * *
A knight of Valua Kingdom declared,
"As of today, we end the Tyranny."
He fought valiantly. He stood firm against infamous demons, felled monstrous foes mighty enough to earn him a title from the Holy Empire, and pressed on.
Finally, he reached the Demon King's castle.
But he'd lost many comrades. Because he'd charged ahead blindly, ignoring those who'd fallen behind.
In the end, his comrades became expendable sacrifices to some fool human's ambition to become the Diablo Slayer.
You abandoned me! Us!
What Diablo Slayer? What hero? You're just scum who trampled your comrades' corpses for glory!
Remember that name, Diablo Slayer. Is it glory? No—it's our curse. As the masses hail you, recall how you left us to die like trash.
Ghosts swarmed. Mangled wraiths of flesh and blood groped Yushin's body. Cold and clammy. The touch of death.
A curse drawing the living to death from those who'd perished miserably.
Their hands gripped his throat. A stranglehold, as if to choke him out.
Breathing grew hard. Excruciating pain.
Guilt toward them? Or the vise on his neck?
Surrounded by the dead, enduring curses and vitriol, Yushin suffered their assault on his throat.
“Hah… haa…!!”
Yushin opened his eyes. He bolted upright. Kicking off the covers, he gasped like a madman.
A pathetic scream escaped. Realizing it was all a nightmare, he wiped his face and swallowed dryly.
His throat was parched. He'd sweated coldly through the dream.
So he gulped down the water from the table.
“I thought they were calming down lately.”
Yushin rose from the bed on unsteady feet. He drew back the curtains blocking the window like blackout drapes.
Moonlight flooded in, cooling the room that had hosted his nightmare.
Revealing Yushin's body. “Scarred” was too kind—his was a brutal tapestry. Covered in savage marks, the chest scar bespoke a brush with death.
“Oppa, what's wrong!!”
Allen burst through the door. She locked eyes with shirtless Yushin.
Spotting his bare torso, she slammed the door shut.
“P-put… put… put on some clothes!!”
Too stimulating for a noble virgin, Allen blushed furiously while vividly imagining his naked form in her mind.
“Clothes on.”
“O-okay… coming in now…!”
Face beet red, Allen cautiously entered.
The room reeked of sweat. Yushin's cold sweats from the nightmare.
Filled with his scent. Allen inhaled deeply, blissed out, feeling fulfilled as if it became part of her.
“I felt your mana trembling unstably. What happened? Who messed with you? I'll kick their ass.”
“You planning to wreck Santander Castle…?”
Unlike Bilen Santander's report of Yushin Gilliard's disappearance to Maherith Palace and the Yetzirah Council, Yushin was still at Santander Castle.
After his reckless, irresponsible, ignorant antics at Maherith Palace, he'd come here and reunited with his subordinates.
He'd told them what happened, then informed Bilen Santander he intended to leave Santander Forest.
“How's prep?”
“Everyone's ready. No telling when we'll be back this time.”
Santander Castle had turned into a sea of tears in an instant. The elf maids he'd romanced. The territorial soldiers he'd strictly trained. Even the townsfolk they'd met en route mourned their departure.
“How's your affinity that high? Can outsiders get this tight in a month?”
“Beats me.”
Yushin and Allen, both hopeless with people, envied their subordinates' popularity in Santander.
It smoothed things over. Santander House voluntarily supplied gear for the long journey.
Yushin had expected Bilen, head of the house, to resist freeing family slaves. But he'd accepted readily.
No clue what changed his mind. But clearly, his daughter Leticia had earnestly persuaded him.
“Allen, light up.”
“Got it.”
Allen tugged the cord. The lamp ignited, banishing the moonlight and brightening the room.
Yushin unrolled the map on the table. Allen tilted her head, sidling up.
Gazing at his profile as he pondered the map, her cheeks flushed pink.
“We'll leave Santander before dawn. Slip west in the twilight.”
“Why west? East for Valua. North seas for elsewhere.”
“Hit Liberia Peninsula's west, shake any pursuers.”
The peninsula's west was the perilous “unexplored zone.” Elves had launched conquests to claim it. But centuries later, defiant forces lingered.
That hive was the unexplored zone.
“Red-haired high elf said dragons lurk there.”
“Scared of dragons?”
“Nah. Wanna bag one quick.”
“I hunted dragons with my subordinates once.”
Subordinates.
Muttering that, Yushin smirked bitterly, clenching his fist.
His old crew—those who'd left home for the front lines but never returned—flashed in his mind.
His face twisted in pain at their loss.
============================
Santander House's lady, Leticia Santander. Second in bust size among the heroines (E-cup). Ardena barely clings to D-cup.