After exchanging a few more words with Hainri, I ended the communication.
The Dullahans who had been blocking the path in case any monsters came rushing this way also began to show signs of moving again, so they approached closer.
[These must be people who voluntarily gathered to follow the Captain!]
[That's what I think as well, certainly.]
Perhaps because we had been completely excluded from that dogfight, the Dullahans observed the situation with considerable leisure. Tristan in particular seemed quite excited as he watched the bustling scene.
[It would be truly wonderful if I could show the Captain the appearance I remember!]
At Tristan's words, Nadav interjected with a sigh mixed into his voice.
[I remember it well. The sight of women grabbing each other's hair over Tristan.]
[The area around that well was certainly wide and good for fighting.]
Even Minte agreed with Nadav. However, Tristan laughed heartily as if his explicit past wasn't embarrassing at all.
[Hahaha! Only the victor wins the beauty! Isn't that the natural order of things?]
Come to think of it, when I first met Tristan, either Jigor or Nadav had earnestly warned me. Not to be swayed by Tristan's appearance.
[Seeing that figure reminds me of those women who fought bloody battles over me!]
Back then I just let it pass thinking that's how it was, but hearing him say this much actually made me curious.
To recall his own romantic entanglements upon seeing that dogfight. Just how powerful was Tristan's popularity?
[Let's go now. If we linger any longer, we might get caught up in that fight for nothing.]
Soana, who had been observing the situation most rationally, suggested gently.
I agreed with those words and turned around after watching the monsters' fight while standing for a brief moment.
According to Samuel earlier, another Dullahan would soon reclaim his head. A knight who couldn't even fight the traitor properly because he was busy blocking enemies.
I was about to climb the uphill path leading to the inner castle, recalling what I had heard from Samuel, when I suddenly stopped walking.
"What's wrong, Lady Anelli?"
[Captain?]
The Dullahans also looked at me with puzzled eyes. Instead of answering their calls, I stared blankly at the uphill path.
"Lady Anelli, are you alright?"
I felt Xenon's worried gaze examining me. However, right now his voice didn't reach my ears. I was....
I was watching the back of a knight walking up ahead, dripping blood with every step.
With each step he took, a handful of thick blood spilled out.
[Captain, Captain's hand!]
Nadav called out to me in a flustered voice. Led by that sound, I lowered my gaze and saw my hand glowing green.
As if responding to something, the light kept growing stronger and weaker repeatedly.
"Why are you suddenly like this? Does it hurt somewhere? Hmm?"
I felt Xenon pouring out words in a flustered voice while stroking my cheek.
Not understanding the reason, I blinked blankly, then belatedly realized my cheek was damp.
The tears wouldn't stop easily. No matter how much Xenon wiped them, it was no use.
I gently pushed him away and slowly took steps. Following exactly along where the blood had dripped, the gate entering the inner castle soon appeared.
"...."
I looked back in front of the tightly closed inner castle gate.
The Dullahans and Xenon, who seemed not to understand what I was doing, stood awkwardly watching this way.
Only Samuel, standing among them, understood this situation.
Samuel knew. Where this place was where I had stopped.
[C-Captain.]
Leaving behind the Dullahans calling me worriedly, I bent my knees. When I swept my glowing hand across the dirt ground, the dust tickled my fingers.
It was soil with lingering moisture from the rain that had fallen overnight.
I scooped up a bit of soil, rolling it in my hand, then took a deep breath. The smell of wet soil pierced my nose.
What soaked this land right now was rainwater. Not blood.
But this place was also where a pool of blood had formed.
The place where a knight, having used all his strength to block enemies who poisoned the well and burned the grain storage, had struggled up and stood his ground.
"You shed so much blood."
I grit my teeth. The smell of blood that wasn't even there dizzyingly clouded my mind.
Tears kept blurring my vision. These tears were not my tears.
They were the tears shed by 'the Captain of the past.'
"Why did you stand in the way with a body like that."
A knight wearing blood-soaked armor stood before my eyes. He was an illusion but not fake. He was a memory remaining in my mind, a scene I had witnessed.
The burning Belladia Castle, the battle filled with screams and shouts, my knight who was supposed to guard the inner castle gate but couldn't ignore the people dying down there and ran to them.
He did his utmost to protect those who had loved him.
Having fought until the well filled with blood, returning to this place with a body in tatters.
I was looking down at him. I watched his final moments from atop this castle wall.
"Tristan."
He, who had been dripping blood while struggling to carry out his orders until the end, had arrived here again.
* * *
Tristan was a notorious playboy even in Belladia Castle.
He wasn't a lecher who leered at this woman and that woman because he was lustful. He was simply a man who was kind, gentle, and cheerful to everyone.
With his handsome appearance and kindness to match, it was common for anyone to easily lose their heart to him.
In the early days, there were even frequent suggestions that Tristan should be excluded from the Round Table Knights.
That was around when more than five women had fought pulling each other's hair over him.
However, Tristan didn't mind.
「Being able to love someone freely is the perfect freedom the Captain bestowed! I am living more in accordance with her will than anyone!」
The Round Table Knights raised both hands in surrender at his praise for free love.
Actually, strangely enough, the women who fought over Tristan would come to form a rapport and bond over time. Thanks to this, it never escalated into long-term problems.
Yes, let's acknowledge the freedom of love. Originally, their rebellion against Tanatos was also for the sake of a free life.
Even after that conclusion, Belladia Castle remained bustling, and occasionally it was noisy with those chasing after Tristan.
Belladia's outer castle was a very lively and noisy neighborhood, and Tristan often volunteered for outer castle patrols.
Tristan showed proper courtesy to all those who had loved him.
That was why he had run to the well when he left his post.
To keep faith until the end with the love he received and the love he gave.
[Are you saying I guarded this place?]
Tristan was bewildered.
Just moments ago he had been chatting with his comrades recalling the past, and he was flustered by his turn that suddenly came upon him.
Tristan looked back at the outer castle they had passed through. The streets were even more messed up from the monsters' noisy fight.
Looking down from here, the familiar layout felt real. However, he, he....
Since the Captain said so, it must be certain. That day he confronted the traitor, he must have been in charge of the inner castle gate.
[So I... with the traitor at this place....]
He would have fought the traitor and been killed by him.
The reason he attached the abstract and uncertain expression 'would have' was because that scene simply wouldn't come to mind clearly.
Tristan approached where the Captain was standing. His empty neck hurt as if burning, and his vision wavered and distorted.
He instinctively realized that all of this was the process of reclaiming his head.
Finally, standing before the Captain with her tear-stained face, Tristan regained his complete head.
"Tristan."
Tristan didn't answer the Captain's call. He just frowned and carefully touched his own cheek.
Then he looked back again. The view of the outer castle visible in the distance. That scenery trampled into a mess.
Even after reclaiming his head, his senses were still not clear. It was vague and bewildering, like floating in deep water.
"I'm sorry, Captain. My... my memories of fighting here... well..."
Well, they don't come to me.
Even after reclaiming his head, what surfaced was only the memory of fighting down there.
The sight of outer castle residents who used to greet him with bright smiles whenever they saw him dying.
Himself who couldn't turn away from the scene below even knowing he should guard the only path leading up to the inner castle.
And thus the moments when he finally drew his sword and cut down enemies.
"But Captain, is it alright to stay like this? The battle down there doesn't seem like it will end soon."
Rather than emotions toward the traitor, rage toward those hobgoblins rampaging in the distance surged more strongly.
Down there were the invaders who had occupied the outer castle and lived there for a long time as if it were their own territory.
"Shouldn't I go help? Soon Minte on the castle wall will come out to support, and if it's Minte, she can hold this place sufficiently on her own."
"Tristan."
"The well and food storage are important. No, since it's always where outer castle residents gather, the damage is too great, so I should...."
"Tristan!"
At the force pulling his arm, Tristan snapped to attention.
"I'm sorry. I should be guarding this place. The Captain trusted me and assigned me here, yet I dared to leave. I will immediately return and block the enemy."
"The fight is over, Tristan."
Tristan, who had been rambling, raised his head with surprised eyes. Tristan's pupils, wandering between past and present, finally focused properly.
Purple eyes that felt very rational despite being soaked with tears were looking straight at Tristan.
"You...."
Anelli parted her lips but ultimately couldn't say anything. Seeing her like that, Tristan realized.
When he left his post to fight protecting the outer castle residents and returned here, his body was already in such a mess he couldn't even think properly.
That he had died in such a state, so destroyed he couldn't even remember the fight with the traitor.