The Warm Smile in the Face of Death
Medeia held on with everything she had.
Her arms shook violently.
The gash in her side burned hot with flowing blood.
Hoo— the wolf’s cold breath washed over her.
It felt as chilling as the breath of death itself.
Oppa….
She didn’t even have the strength to speak the word aloud.
She jammed her gun into the wolf’s maw and somehow kept it there, refusing to fall.
Flone had already collapsed in a heap on the ground.
Was she still alive?
There was no way to know.
An eternity—or perhaps only an instant.
The wolf’s jaws drew closer and closer, and doubt began to creep in. What was the point of holding on like this? What could possibly come after?
Would Oppa come for her?
She couldn’t know that either.
Medeia clenched her teeth so hard they creaked.
Any second now the sobs would tear out of her.
She wanted to let go of everything.
Giving up would be so much easier.
She couldn’t even find a reason why she was still fighting.
Amid the fear, the pain, and the chaos, only one face rose in her mind.
That face that smirked like a cheeky bastard, that snorted as if the situation was ridiculous, that smiled with gentle fondness as if she were cute. Without reason, without purpose… just warmly smiling.
It was his face.
—No…!
Was this a hallucination?
One she had conjured herself in her final moments, like a dying flash of life?
Even if it was a hallucination, she didn’t care.
Ending her life together with him would, in its own way, be romantic.
Swish—!
Ash exploded in front of her eyes.
The wolf vanished without a trace, and a single green orb dropped onto her chest.
“Ahh…”
It was beautiful.
Even the dull, worthless ash looked stunning as it scattered through the air.
When the flame called “me” finally went out, would the traces I left behind be this beautiful?
Maybe he would clutch my corpse and sob his heart out.
You should’ve accepted me while I was still alive.
Serves you right.
“Hey, hey! Snap out of it!”
While her thoughts drifted in a daze, something suddenly filled her vision.
It was his face.
That rotten bastard.
“Hey! Kid!”
“…Rotten bastard.”
“What the hell, you little shit?”
He frowned deeply, then let out a shaky laugh that sounded almost like a sob.
“Haa… Thank fuck you’re okay…”
Zeron rummaged through his coat and pulled out potions.
He poured one over the kid’s wounded side, forced another down her throat, and after a moment’s hesitation gave the last one to Flone.
Flone’s chest was caved in like she’d taken a brutal hit, but thankfully she was still breathing.
Once they got out, he was going to wring the dean’s neck until he got a proper explanation.
They had almost gotten fucked for no damn reason.
Zeron let out a long breath of relief and carefully examined the kid’s body.
Luckily the wound on her side probably wouldn’t scar.
“…Pervert.”
Maybe because he had lifted her clothes to check the injury.
With unfocused eyes, the kid grumbled at him.
“Yeah, yeah. Good, you can still talk.”
He lifted her up and pulled her tightly against his chest.
So small. So fragile.
She still looked like a child in his arms.
She wasn’t even his daughter, yet he honestly wasn’t sure he could cherish his own flesh and blood more than this.
The daughter of the woman he had truly loved and the friend he genuinely cared for.
It was only natural he would value her more than something carrying his own cursed blood.
Zeron quietly savored the warmth in his embrace.
But the kid kept squirming and twisting, quickly ruining the moment.
“…Oppa.”
“Yeah.”
She reached up and tugged his cheek.
Of course it didn’t stretch like hers did.
Still, the kid grinned like it was the best thing in the world.
“…Idiot.”
Then—
A sensation like a feather gently settling on his lips, and her head lolled forward.
“…You really only ever do things you’ll regret.”
Zeron tucked both the kid and Flone under his arms and stood.
His battered body screamed in protest, but he no longer cared.
A faint smile touched his lips.
Zeron no longer rushed.
Thud— With a light leap, his body shot forward like a breeze.
There were still plenty of voids, of course.
Both his hands were sealed, but that wasn’t much of a problem.
Thud— He kicked off the ground and closed in. Whack—! He swung his leg in a wide horizontal arc.
Three voids turned to ash and scattered. The remaining three charged straight at him.
Their jaws aimed for both legs, his neck, and his right arm.
He took one step back and pulled his right shoulder away. Crunch—! The voids bit nothing but air.
He swung his leg at the perfect moment and all four of them disintegrated into ash.
“Hmm~.”
For some reason he felt good, so a little hum slipped out.
Zeron crushed every last life orb—his name for the green beads—under his heel as he advanced.
The gentle pleasure of his body recovering made the front of his pants suddenly tighten.
If the kid saw that she’d throw a fit.
Just imagining it gave him a headache, so he manipulated his blood flow and forced it back down.
The location of the exit?
How the hell should he know.
He simply believed that if he kept moving forward, it would eventually appear.
How long had he been walking?
By his estimate, roughly two hours.
Well, calling it “walking” was misleading given the speed, but whatever.
“A door?”
What appeared before Zeron was a door.
Clearly man-made.
Since the voids came from a ruined world, he figured the people who once lived there must have built it.
He kicked the door open.
With a loud creeeak, the scene beyond was revealed, and—
Whoosh—
The refreshing scent of pure mana washed over his entire body.
“Oh…? This is…”
By then Flone seemed to have regained consciousness and let out a groan.
“Ugh… it hurts…”
She squirmed for a moment, then realized she was tucked under his arm and her eyes flew wide.
“Z-Zeron instructor…?”
“Yeah. Go back to sleep. You’re not fully healed yet.”
Potions weren’t all-powerful.
She’d probably need at least another week of rest before she was back to normal.
Of course, that depended on the price of potions, which were fucking expensive.
“Ah… Did you come to save us…? What about Medeia…?”
“She’s on your other side.”
“Ah… Thank goodness…”
Flone’s eyes glistened with tears as her body went limp again.
“I… I shouldn’t have collapsed like that…”
“No shit. When we get out, you’re training with me.”
“Y-Yes…?”
“Looks like you’ll be sticking with the kid a lot. Getting stronger will help.”
Zeron kept walking forward as he spoke.
“Anyway, now’s not the time for chit-chat.”
“Huh?”
“Look at that. Doesn’t it look fucking strong?”
Flone lifted her head with a blank expression.
Given how she was being carried, she looked like a fish flopping on land.
And what appeared before her eyes was…
“A monster…?”
Yes. It could only be called a monster.
The voids they had seen so far resembled animals, but this thing could only be described as a monster.
A massive eyeball.
Hundreds—no, perhaps thousands—of tentacles sprouting from it.
Zeron had never even heard of a creature that consisted solely of an eyeball and tentacles.
“S-Shouldn’t we run…?”
“It’s fine. I’m stronger.”
“But you’re carrying us…”
Flone hesitated, then began to wriggle.
She seemed to want to be put down.
“Hey, stay still. It’s hard to carry you like this.”
“I’ll fight too. I can’t keep being nothing but a burden.”
“You fighting would be even more of a burden, though?”
“Eek.”
Just as Flone’s face crumpled like she was about to cry, the giant eyeball rolled with a wet glorp.
“Wow… fuck, that’s disgusting.”
The enormous eyeball stared down at Zeron.
Flone swallowed her breath, overwhelmed by indescribable terror.
The killing intent pouring from it made her mind go completely white.
“Instructor… we really should run—!?”
Thud— Zeron’s body shot forward.
Countless tentacles surged toward him.
“Kyaa— hup!”
Flone nearly screamed but clapped a hand over her mouth.
She didn’t want to distract him.
Zeron gave a proud little smirk and said,
“Watch closely. This is exactly what I always talk about.”
Thud— He leaped again. The tentacles sliced through the empty space around him.
It almost looked like they were actively avoiding him.
“Avoid what you can avoid.”
But there were too many tentacles.
The rest rose into the air and rushed at the airborne Zeron.
“Deflect what you can’t avoid.”
Zeron lightly shoved the side of an incoming tentacle and used the force to leap forward.
Boom—! One tentacle crashed into another. Zeron advanced.
“Block what you can’t deflect. If you can’t block it, get hit somewhere that hurts less.”
Not a single tentacle touched Zeron’s body.
In less than a minute he stood directly in front of the giant eyeball.
“But since I’m fucking strong, I don’t need to bother with any of that.”
Zeron twisted his waist.
Red energy coiled around his foot.
What he pictured was himself holding a sword.
Body and Sword as One.
The sword is the body. The body is the sword.
So basically, fuck all that—kicking with his foot wasn’t any different from cutting with a blade.
Shiiiiing—!
A massive crimson crescent rose.
That was how it looked to Flone.
She stared with her mouth wide open, burning the sight into her memory.
A red crescent moon.
That mesmerizing slash sliced the giant eyeball cleanly in half.
Then—
Booooom—!
With no regard for power control, the crescent carved a colossal scar into the cavern wall.
Or rather, it was a kick.
No, a sword strike…!
Flone’s wide eyes sparkled like they were filled with stars.
“W-Wow…! That was incredible!”
“Of course. I am pretty incredible.”
“So Medeia really did have high standards!”
“…Was that a backhanded compliment?”
“No! It was genuine praise!”
Zeron chuckled and stomped on the life orb hidden within the ashes.
With a satisfying crunch, pleasure flooded every inch of his body.
“Huuu…”
“Ah…”
“Uh…”
The mood suddenly became awkward.
Zeron swallowed his slight embarrassment and kept walking.
The eyeball monster had been a little weaker than the giant turtle he had crushed before.
It was inevitable that his tent had pitched itself.
Comforting himself with that thought, he approached the area behind where the monster had been.
There stood an altar.
“Hmm…”
The scent of mana that had been flowing out ever since he opened the door.
It was leaking from the blue orb resting on top of the altar.
“What the hell is this…?”
