Bido blinked once.
In that instant,
the world followed one beat late.
There was no sound.
No, it had not yet returned.
What came first was the air.
The air filling the clearing was pressed down once, then rebounded,
and inside her chest it went thud—
collapsing, then filling again.
Bido tried to draw a breath, but it would not pass her throat,
and her ears rang dully.
Only the fibula in her palm was cold and sharply distinct.
Only then did Bido remember that she was holding it.
Bido slowly opened both hands.
The trembling would not stop,
but her eyes remained fixed on the two of them to the very end.
In the middle of the clearing,
two people stood.
Miryeong did not waver, her fist still thrust out,
and Rina still held her sword.
The sword tip had stopped, unable to reach the distance it should have.
As if it had caught on an invisible, thin wall.
And then, very late,
sound began to return.
The sound of grass blades brushing together,
the sound of dust falling,
the sound of a heart beating once, loudly.
Thud.
Only then did Bido draw a breath.
Air passed through her throat.
It was cold,
dry air.
Rina’s legs gave way ever so slightly.
It was not a collapse,
but a loosening in which her body said first, “This is as far as we go.”
Rina did not miss that instant and drove her sword into the ground.
When she gripped the hilt with both hands, her fingers trembled faintly.
One knee struck the ground, but her upper body held straight to the end.
Her lips parted, and a dry breath leaked out.
“Khk…”
Blood spread at the corner of her mouth.
One drop, then another.
Rina raised her head and looked straight at Miryeong.
Not with anger, nor denial,
but with eyes that were strangely composed.
“This is your victory.”
Holding on to her short, broken breath,
Rina added her final words.
“…Miryeong.”
As the name fell, her head slowly bowed.
Her hands did not let go of the sword hilt to the very end.
The wind brushed through her hair,
and the blades of grass swayed lightly once.
After that, Rina did not move.
Miryeong stood with her fist still extended.
She had won—
It was true that she had won,
but that was not what mattered now.
Miryeong’s gaze dropped toward Rina’s chest.
As the dust settled,
there was a hole there.
As if a gigantic spear had pierced clean through her entire body.
Miryeong looked at her own fist.
There was no blood, no blade.
And yet Rina’s chest had been pierced through.
“I used the wind…”
The words did not finish.
Her mind snapped off right at that point.
Miryeong had tried to blow Rina away with wind pressure.
Like on the night of the full moon,
she had meant for it to end with sending her flying and knocking her down.
But what remained before her eyes now was “death.”
That shape was so familiar
that another scene overlapped in Miryeong’s vision.
The moment Melanie had fallen into her arms.
The blood at her chest.
The moment her breath had broken first.
Miryeong tried to open her mouth, but no sound came out.
What had frozen was not her throat, but her heart.
And in that quiet air,
Miryeong realized that the inside of her eyes was still hot like embers.
Orange light.
That color had not yet gone out from her eyes.
Miryeong’s breath grew short.
The more she inhaled, the more the inside of her chest stung as if being scraped.
It did not feel as if air was entering her body,
but as if something inside her body was being burned further.
Miryeong tried to force down the arm she had thrust out.
Her arm did lower.
But in that instant,
the center of her head split open.
The headache did not “come.”
It stabbed in all at once.
Miryeong’s vision shook once.
The light on the hill split briefly into two,
and the outlines of the grass blurred.
Miryeong clenched her teeth.
But the pain did not stop.
Soon, heat welled up inside her body.
The nape of her neck grew hot rapidly,
and strangely, her fingertips turned cold.
Miryeong felt as if her body were no longer her own.
Her vision clouded.
And through that haze, Rina’s figure was fixed in sharp relief.
Miryeong wanted to escape that sight.
She tried to turn her head.
At that instant, her neck failed her.
Miryeong tried to take a step, but her knees buckled.
She did not simply sink down.
Before she could sink, her body pitched forward first.
“Lady Miryeong!”
Only then did Bido’s voice reach Miryeong’s ears clearly.
She was already running toward her.
The sword remained on her back, but her feet were swift and light.
Bido caught Miryeong from the side before she could fall.
She did not pull on her arm.
She did not wrench her shoulder.
She simply pressed her body close and shared Miryeong’s weight.
Miryeong’s body was hotter than she had expected.
Even through her clothes, Bido could feel a strange heat.
For an instant, Bido held her breath.
The heat rising from Miryeong’s skin was not a normal fever.
“Lady Miryeong, are you all right?”
Bido tried to look at Miryeong’s face, but Miryeong could not lift her head.
Miryeong’s eyes were still burning hotly somewhere.
The orange light had not completely gone out.
Miryeong tried to open her mouth, but no words came.
Her tongue was heavy,
and her head hurt too much.
When Bido saw that Miryeong could not speak, she asked no more.
Instead, she took Miryeong’s wrist.
Not to take her pulse,
but as if to stop her hand from trembling.
“Breathe.”
Bido spoke softly.
“Slowly.”
Miryeong’s breath shook once, violently.
At the end of that breath, Miryeong let out a small groan.
The headache stabbed into her once more.
Without letting go of Miryeong’s hand,
Bido supported the back of Miryeong’s head with her other hand.
“Sit here.”
Bido slowly moved Miryeong toward the edge of the clearing, into the shade of a rock.
She did not drag Miryeong along.
Only one step, then another.
Once Miryeong sat leaning against the rock,
Bido immediately knelt.
She saw that Miryeong’s gaze was still fixed on Rina.
Bido did not block that gaze.
Instead, Bido’s body quietly stepped in between Miryeong and Rina.
Not completely hiding her.
“Lady Miryeong…”
Bido only called her name and could say no more.
Because anything she said now felt as if it would be too light.
Miryeong parted her lips.
“I…”
Miryeong’s voice was so quiet it was almost a breath.
Bido lowered her head, trying not to miss that breath.
Miryeong could not finish.
Instead, Miryeong’s body trembled once, hard.
A tremor from heat and pain rising together.
Bido did not hesitate and wrapped an arm around Miryeong’s shoulders.
She did not embrace her tightly.
Only enough to hold her firmly in place and take in the shaking.
At first, Miryeong’s body stiffened.
It was always like that.
Miryeong instinctively rejected leaning on someone.
But this time, she had no strength to refuse.
Miryeong’s forehead briefly touched Bido’s shoulder.
It was hot.
Bido could tell that this heat was not burning Miryeong’s body,
but burning something from within.
Bido spoke softly.
“I’m here.”
It was not some great consolation.
It was simply the sound of stating a fact.
“Lady Miryeong, it’s all right.”
Bido returned the words Miryeong had always said to her, turned the other way around.
Miryeong did not answer.
But as if those words had reached her,
Miryeong’s shoulders sank ever so slightly.
Her breath lengthened once.
Even though it still hurt,
even though she was still hot,
even though her head still felt as if it were splitting apart.
For the first time, Miryeong was not standing alone.
Bido held Miryeong’s hand once more and endured there with her.
So that she could withstand this moment, even if only a little.
Leaving Miryeong leaning in the shade of the rock, Bido looked around the clearing.
One side of the hill.
A low place less exposed to the wind.
Tree roots were shallowly exposed there,
and stones supported it like a backrest.
Bido approached Rina.
Rina remained as she was, leaning on her sword.
At a glance, she looked as though she were merely praying.
Her two hands were still gripping the hilt.
Bido did not force those hands away.
Instead, she carefully pulled up the sword embedded in the ground,
and slowly laid Rina’s body down.
So her posture would not collapse,
so she would not ruin the person who had been “standing” until the very end.
Miryeong came over belatedly.
Her steps were not steady.
When Bido reached out, Miryeong gave a short shake of her head.
“I’m all right now.”
But it was not the face of someone who was all right.
Miryeong knelt beside Rina
and looked once at the hands that had gripped the sword hilt.
The fact that she had not let go until the end
strangely made her throat tighten all the more.
Meanwhile, Bido dug into the ground with her hands.
She could not dig deeply.
The earth, mixed with stones, did not open easily,
and the roots of the hill were stubborn.
Even so, she barely managed to make a shallow place large enough for one person to lie in.
The two of them moved Rina in silence.
Bido supported her shoulders and waist,
and Miryeong lifted her legs.
Miryeong’s face twisted briefly, but she did not let go.
Rina was carefully laid down inside that place.
Bido held out the fibula to Miryeong.
Her hand trembled briefly,
then accepted the silver light.
Miryeong brought her hand to Rina’s chest and set the fibula down.
In a place near her heart.
As if it had originally been there.
For a moment, her hand hesitated, then fell away.
“……”
There was no mourning, no prayer.
Rina was no longer an imperial knight,
nor a noble.
So this was not a ceremony,
but simply a returning.
Bido covered her with earth,
and Miryeong stood beside her until the end.
When the last of the soil was pressed down,
and several stones were placed on top,
only the shape of a small grave remained.
A gust of wind passed over the hill.
The soil on the stones scattered ever so slightly.
Miryeong took one step back.
Bido also quietly stepped back.
Beneath it, the fibula did not shine again.
It simply remained, quietly.