Minte held her breath.
She felt a pain as if someone were squeezing her heart. A constriction, as if she had forgotten something terribly important, surged up and filled her with irritation.
Her head, which would normally judge any situation rationally, was utterly unable to perform its function at this very moment.
At that moment, Minte, who had been anxiously looking back and forth between Bark and Anneli, finally thrust herself between the two.
“I too will recover my head here.”
At that, Anneli’s gaze, which had been fixed on Bark, shifted to Minte.
Anneli parted her lips as if to say something, but Minte continued first in a firm voice.
“Please postpone Bark’s rest a little longer, Captain.”
Bark, who had been looking away from Minte the entire time, finally looked at her. But now, Minte did not give him her gaze.
“I will recover my memories right now.”
Without giving anyone time to stop her, Minte quickly turned around.
“…….”
The wall, it would be at the wall. Even without Tristan’s words, she had a powerful intuition that she would somehow recover her head at the wall.
Minte ran faster than ever before. Leaping over the steps two at a time, she ascended to the top of the watchtower in a single breath.
When she reached the open roofless summit, a cold wind whipped past.
The summit had been untouched for so long that it was filled with nothing but dust.
A few weapons lay scattered on the floor, rusted and corroded to the point where their shapes were barely discernible, but they were useless scraps. Beyond that, there was nothing else particularly noticeable.
Yet, to Minte, it was somehow a familiar space.
Gasping as she looked around, Minte slowly turned in place. The top was so narrow that even her cat’s body did not need many paces to circle it.
How many times had she spun around in the same spot?
Minte’s steps finally stopped. She stood in the center.
The stone floor upon which she stood at this very moment felt terribly familiar.
“It was impossible to save anyone from this place.”
Minte recalled Bark’s words from moments ago.
He had been right. ‘Saving’ was not something that could happen among knights.
The only one who could save the knights was the Captain. All the other knights could choose was the order in which they died.
‘The order of death.’
That was what Bark had chosen.
“It is true that I died before Minte.”
Minte, who had been standing stock-still in the center, slowly approached the railing.
The watchtower was high enough to see both the inner and outer walls. Therefore, it was only natural that the scenery directly below was visible at a glance.
Down below were Anneli and the fellow knights gathered together, and.
“Bark…….”
Even though the distance was considerable, Minte instantly recognized Bark’s gaze staring directly up at her.
A sense of déjà vu washed over her. Without thinking, Minte gripped the railing and leaned her body forward a little more, only then realizing that her field of view had changed slightly.
Ever since waking in a dullahan’s body, she had lived mostly in the form of a cat. Her gaze had always been low.
The current angle was only possible when standing atop the railing.
To be able to stand like this and look down upon them all meant…….
‘I’ve recovered my head.’
She had wandered around this watchtower in a daze and recovered it without anyone noticing. Bewilderment took hold at the situation that had occurred without her awareness.
Minte’s hair whipped about, striking her cheeks. Unlike Bark, who had shed tears and expressed rage the moment he recovered his head, she felt everything with an eerily serene calm.
“…….”
Bark, watching her, moved his lips. His voice could not be heard.
But Minte could read the shape of his mouth. The blood slowly drained from Minte’s face, which had been frozen in confusion.
“Bark.”
It was a familiar composition. She, looking down from atop the watchtower, and he, standing down below against the traitor.
The traitor’s target had been Minte, but he had been pinned down below by Bark’s intervention.
Bark had originally been in the training grounds, and Minte had been guarding the front yard, yet Bark had come all the way here of his own accord.
Minte’s face slowly contorted. Everything was the same as that day. Bark, standing in her way with his whole body as if to buy her even a little time.
His actions had seemed to say, ‘Escort the Captain and flee,’ and ‘Plan for the future.’
“I’m sorry, Minte.”
A soundless apology conveyed by the movement of his lips. Everything was the same.
“That fool…….”
And likewise, Minte’s muttering.
* * *
“Minte…….”
Jigoreu let out a sigh-like murmur and looked up at the watchtower. I too tilted my head back and gazed upward.
I could see Minte leaning precariously against the railing, looking down. Her face was pale and frozen.
Her light brown hair whipped wildly in the wind. Minte could not even think to tidy her hair, and simply looked down at this place with a bloodless face.
“Please grant me rest.”
I, who had been staring blankly up at Minte, turned to Bark, drawn by that voice. There was no wavering in Bark’s eyes as he requested his rest.
“I willingly drew my sword to judge the enemy and extract the due price. If my devotion satisfies you, then…… if you find it lacking, please look upon me with mercy nonetheless.”
Bark’s will was firm. He truly wished to receive his rest this very instant.
I looked up at Minte again. Her face was contorted as if she sensed something.
“Is this really what you want?”
Minte was right there. Though I did not add any implicit words, Bark seemed to understand.
After a brief silence, he lowered his gaze and answered.
“I am a coward.”
His quiet manner of opening his mouth seemed both composed and resigned.
“……Then as now, I do not have the confidence to see Minte close her eyes before I do.”
I swallowed without realizing it. Because I understood the meaning of Bark’s confession clearly in that instant.
My lips parted and I refuted in a suppressed voice.
“You can at least say your goodbyes.”
She had just recovered her head. Didn’t the two of them have things to say to each other, facing one another in their whole forms?
At my words, Bark smiled bitterly.
“If we say our goodbyes, wouldn’t it feel as though we will never meet again? It is fine. We must leave regrets behind so that our longing grows deeper.”
Bark took a deep breath and cleanly wiped away the bitter smile he had momentarily worn. He faced me again with a firm expression.
“Captain, my rest is not an eternal farewell.”
Bark’s voice was full of conviction.
And at that moment, I realized that the subject of the farewell Bark spoke of was not limited to Minte.
Bark desired rest with standards as firm as Dasha’s.
At the same time, his clearly conveyed wish gave me a strange, indescribable feeling.
“I will see you again.”
Bark vowed thus. It was a clear voice, as though he believed it would certainly come to pass.
Furthermore, it was also a demand for the predetermined answer from me.
“Very well.”
I had no certainty about the future. Nevertheless, I uttered the answer he wished for. It was dizzying and hopeless, as though I had been pushed to the edge of a cliff, but I had no choice.
“We’ll meet again.”
Because this was the answer Bark wanted to hear, and the answer I wanted to give.
When I stretched out my hand toward him, who had bowed his head, the power surging in my hand stretched out like a spiderweb as if it had been waiting. Green light enveloped Bark. Bark obediently kept his head bowed.
“……Kuh!”
Just when it seemed Bark was facing his rest without moving, he suddenly turned around.
Minte, who had come down from the watchtower at some point, was running toward them. A faint smile formed on Bark’s lips when he spotted her.
“Bark!”
Bark parted his lips as if to answer that call. But in the end, he could not make a sound.
Before he could speak, the green light swallowed him first.
The surging power vanished, and a faint whirlwind kicked up dust, leaving an afterimage.
Minte’s hurried steps gradually slowed, then stopped completely.
Her gaze was fixed on the spot where Bark had stood. She watched the slowly subsiding wind with vacant eyes.
“Minte.”
At my call, Minte finally came to her senses. She forced herself forward and looked at Samuel with a face twisted in malice. It seemed all her lost emotions had transformed into rage toward the traitor.
But unlike Bark, she did not rush at him. She clenched her fist tightly but did not swing it.
Instead, Minte crouched down and lightly ran her hand over the dirt floor where Bark had stood.
It was a touch brimming with overwhelming emotion. Considering how stingy she had usually been with Bark, her reaction now would have surprised anyone.
‘Bark would have been overjoyed to see this.’
Since Bark had always been on the receiving end of her nagging, he would have leaped for joy at the fact that Minte was showing him such affection.
Had it been the wrong choice to give him rest first after all?
‘Should I have given them even a little time to talk?’
The moment I thought that, Minte calmly rose. Her face as she lifted her head was astonishingly composed.
In an instant, she had gathered all her emotions.
“Captain.”
Minte courteously bent at the waist toward me.
It was a greeting full of formality, the kind one might exchange only when dressed in ceremonial attire.
“Let me introduce myself. I am the fourth knight of the Round Table, your adjutant who has always calmly coordinated the situation no matter the circumstances.”
Her voice, devoid of emotion, had a terrifying lack of inflection.
“I have long awaited the rest granted to me. Now, I request my rest from you.”
It was a clean and simple request. Unlike the other knights who had requested rest until now, not even a speck of lingering attachment could be seen.
“You request your rest.”
“Yes. I wish to correct a life that has strayed from its orbit and obtain a proper life.”
In her unwavering answer, there was a word that captured my ear.
“Life?”
“I do not think this is our end.”
When I murmured in puzzlement, Minte raised her pupils slightly and met my eyes directly.
In a gaze so detached it felt artificial, a faint emotion dwelled.
“Because that fool would never give up on me.”
Minte’s wish, carrying a will as firm as Bark’s, was conveyed.
“I believe I will see you again soon, Captain.”
It was a resolve as terrifyingly firm as Bark’s. I neither affirmed nor denied her words. I simply clenched and unclenched my fist for no reason, staring vacantly at my hand for a moment.
Then I quietly extended my hand. Minte placed her lips upon the back of my hand in a courteous posture.
Until the very moment she received her rest and vanished, she stood before me without a hint of disorder in her posture.
Bark and Minte’s rest was life.