Toward a New Dawn (2)
“Ha, haha. Hahahahaha. Karnoa!!!!!!”
“Oh my, you didn’t fall for it. Belcard.”
Lilly burst into shrill laughter before coughing up a thick mouthful of blood.
“I told you not to bring corpses to where I am.”
“You filthy whore!!”
“What, are you going to tear this body to shreds? Then this girl will become a ghost without even a grave! Hahahahaha!”
Lilly’s face twisted into a venomous smile that didn’t belong to her at all.
Lilly—no, Karnoa—took one slow step after another toward Matthew.
“Choose. Either let me leave peacefully, or fight me in this form. If you simply send me away, I promise I’ll return the body unharmed.”
“….”
Seeing Matthew hesitate, she took another step closer.
I clutched my throbbing head and moved on pure, violent instinct.
“Matthew, I…”
“No. No, Lee Han. I can’t allow even you to harm this child!”
Matthew raised his dagger and pointed it at me.
Karnoa cackled with laughter.
“No, Matthew. Trust me.”
I struggled to steady my flickering vision.
I forced my staggering steps to look steady.
I stared at Matthew’s face, still wreathed in flames, though the image was blurry.
“I can do this.”
“….”
Matthew, lips pressed into a thin line, took one step back.
“H-hey! Belcard! You old bastard! You’re not going to protect me? This is your granddaughter! Your granddaughter!”
I gripped the red dagger in my hand.
Was it Matthew’s flame?
Or Karnoa’s darkness?
Ever since the room had been flooded with holy power, I’d felt a strange sensation in every breath.
I had never awakened mana.
More accurately, I had been forbidden from awakening it.
But if I could use mana… would it feel like this?
I separated the holy power mixed into my breath and gathered it in my heart.
Then, slowly, I let that energy flow along my bloodstream, channeling it into the red dagger gripped in both hands.
“Hey! Belcard! You’re just going to let her stab me? Hey! Hey!!”
As I breathed deeply and circulated the power, Matthew approached and placed his hand over mine where it held the dagger.
Just like the first time he had taught me dagger techniques.
“You’re still clumsy.”
The holy power gathering in both hands surged explosively.
The dagger glowed red-hot, like molten iron.
For a moment I thought I saw a faint yellow haze shimmering around it.
“Now.”
Matthew gave the signal.
The red blade sank into the center of Lilly’s chest, but it had no physical effect on her body whatsoever.
Only—
“K-kuaaaaaaaaagh!”
Karnoa, her face flushed crimson within Lilly’s body, screamed. Then, in an instant—
“U-ugh… uuuugh…”
She returned to the shriveled, mummified form she had worn before.
“You— You!!”
Her face was wrinkled and shriveled.
Any trace of elegance was gone.
“What the hell did you do?! I can’t feel any holy power at all!”
I stared silently at her as she howled, then collapsed with a thud.
Or rather, I fell.
A wet sensation trickled from my nose, and soon a stream of nosebleed poured down.
Matthew gently arranged Lilly’s body once more before coming over to me.
He placed his hand on top of my head.
“You did well. And… thank you.”
His hand moved, gently stroking my hair.
I wanted to resist, but I didn’t have the strength.
The Death Knight approached with a much slower, clumsier gait than before, its armor clanking heavily.
“I have neither the intention nor the time to ask how you obtained that dagger. However…”
Matthew stretched out his hand, unleashing an overwhelming burst of holy flame. The creatures staggered and collapsed.
“What is certain is that you have been chosen.”
I caught a glimpse of his back.
The white flames that had been faintly dwindling now blazed brilliantly once more.
The fire spread beyond his body, completely engulfing the surroundings.
“From now on, you are Belcard.”
He discarded the sword from the flames.
Stakes shot up from the shadows.
Chains wrapped tightly around the dazed Karnoa, the two Death Knights, and the Death Priest, binding them to the stakes.
“Watch carefully, Lee Han! This will be my final lesson!”
His dagger danced through the air.
I wiped the blood flowing from my eyes and forced my focus to return.
The dagger art he had taught me—Ramas Numen.
The pinnacle of that martial art tore apart the condemned on the execution ground.
“Kuaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”
Karnoa screamed.
Her death cry made the air itself vibrate.
Horizontal. Vertical. It covered every direction.
The remaining flames left their trails behind.
It blanketed the entire space.
It was a net.
The net constricted their windpipes, and at the very end—
Thud—
It declared an inescapable death.
Kwaaaaang!
The ruined wall collapsed.
Karnoa, who had looked down on all life with arrogance, was torn to shreds with only a single scream, meeting her death.
Perhaps it was more accurate to say she met death once again.
“Don’t worry. She’s definitely dead. That was a flame that extinguishes evil. There is no chance of survival.”
My vision refused to focus, so I simply closed my eyes.
A familiar darkness came over me.
Feeling a small sense of relief, I fumbled for words that wouldn’t come out properly.
“Matthew… how did you… why did you come here?”
“I came to put an end to these bastards.”
“But you said we sold you out… and that you could never betray them.”
“You should have listened to me. You people really are…”
The sound of him sitting down right in front of me reached my ears.
“I planned to send you all out and handle it alone.”
“Then why…”
“Because that was Lilly’s final wish.”
To Grandfather.
Grandfather, I’m so sorry for writing you a letter like this. Your willful granddaughter has only ever brought you sadness.
You always told me, didn’t you? To grow up upright and healthy. In the end, I couldn’t do either. I guess I wasn’t made for it.
But Grandfather… you’re different. You’ve always been so upright. The fact that your convictions were broken… it must have been because of me.
People who dream of the future seem so beautiful. When I saw Lee Han before, he always looked so gloomy. But the Lee Han I met after so long was shining so brightly. Enough to make Rebecca jealous. Maybe… I fell for him a little. You must have shone like that once too. What kind of light made you shine?
Grandfather, I wanted to become a cool hero. Traveling the wide world, protecting the weak—how charming that sounded…. It was a childish thought. Now I know. Someone like me, who is only a burden, can never become a hero. But even so, I still dream. I dream of punishing evil and doing good. I dream of reaching out to those trapped in despair. Because my pitiful, secretly cherished dream is too precious to me. I don’t want to become a powerless being who holds a hero back by the ankles.
Grandfather. My beloved Grandfather. Please don’t forgive this selfish girl who leaves first.
Please be sad for only a short while. Forget someone like me. Live your own life. Throw off the shackles of your worthless granddaughter and fly free…. Do what you must do.
And if I may be a little greedy one last time… if you could bury me in a place where blue streams flow and the blessings of all four seasons shine brightly, I would be happy in the breeze I could never fully enjoy.
I’ll stop here.
—Lilly—
“There was something I had hidden because of the circumstances,” Matthew said quietly.
“It was about her health.”
“So all the time she spent working under Shylock was…”
“Exactly that.”
I heard a deep, exhausted sigh.
“I always thought you should know someday. Somehow it ended up coming out in front of Rebecca while she was sobbing.”
“Rebecca… cried?”
“I… I believed Lilly would be able to endure it. She was always such a bright child. Even though her body was weak, she always worried about me first. She endured those harsh treatments so well.”
“….”
“But the moment her one and only friend glanced at her once and left without a word… her heart must have collapsed.”
Suicide.
I tried to imagine Lilly’s heart.
A burden.
Only someone who has been a burden knows the heart of a burden.
Even if you smile brightly, even if you pretend to be indifferent.
A burden knows they are a burden.
And the moment they realize their burden is heavier than they thought—
That child must have broken.
Thinking of the grandfather who had sacrificed himself for her sake.
Thinking of the people who had suffered because of it.
Thinking of me, waiting for help.
Looking at the tear stains left by her friend who left without being able to voice any resentment.
Resenting the shackles of her own existence.
She must have wanted to disappear.
“Matthew, are you going to die now?”
Matthew kept acting like someone with no future left.
Karnoa had said he couldn’t possibly have any strength remaining.
Taking everything into account…
“Lee Han, I did not come here out of despair.”
Yet unmistakable sorrow seeped into his voice.
“The night before Lilly died, she asked me a favor. To save you. Of course I refused. But since I granted her final wish…”
I heard the sound of him swallowing hard.
“I’m going to bring Lilly back to life.”