Forcing back words I couldn't bring myself to speak, my insides felt stifled.
It was like swallowing something inedible—nausea surged and my head spun. I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them to see Nadav and Jigor gradually being enveloped in black energy.
'This can't be happening.'
When we first met, Nadav had said:
「The Commander will restore our rest to us.」
Knights wandering in search of their lost heads. Knights of the Round Table who had trusted me without a speck of doubt.
Both Nadav and Jigor had been eager to recover their own heads. So what I had to do was grant them rest with this damned power.
I bit the inside of my cheek hard, barely managing to gather my composure, and looked at Jigor and Nadav.
As the black smoke grew thicker, their figures became obscured until finally they disappeared completely.
Whichever one regained their head, it wouldn't be welcome.
"Ah……."
A low exclamation flowed from within the smoke.
"So that's it."
The voice muttering in a tone of wonder belonged to Jigor. Then the knight who would find rest here was Jigor.
The moment I thought that, a grave voice called out to me.
"Commander."
The black smoke that had been thickly clustered gradually spread to all sides, revealing the figures standing tall.
A man with a solid build, and beside him a smaller, wiry young man.
Seeing the two of them, a helpless breath escaped me before I knew it.
"Why did it have to be……."
It felt like something was stuck in my throat. Blocked for words, I stood there biting my lip hard, eventually lowering my gaze.
I was afraid I might say something unreasonable, demanding to know what was so urgent that they had to disappear all at once.
I clenched my back teeth. Now it was really…….
Truly, it was difficult.
* * *
The first thing Nadav thought upon regaining his head was neither vengeance toward the traitor nor longing and sorrow for the past.
"I won't be able to burn for you any longer."
It was worry for Anelli, who would be left behind after he found rest.
Because he and Jigor had stayed to defend this place. At least one of them should have remained by the Commander's side a little longer.
Seeing Anelli looking at him with a distorted face, that was what Nadav thought.
If only he had at least sent Jigor upstairs to guard the Commander.
"Commander."
Jigor seemed to be thinking something similar. His expression alone was enough to tell what he was thinking.
From long ago, Jigor had been a child who couldn't hide his inner thoughts at all. What would be different now?
"Commander, I got my head back."
"Jigor."
Anelli's gaze shifted to Jigor, then moved to Nadav.
Meeting her eyes, Nadav felt a small joy, childish as it was. Because he could sense the sorrow she couldn't hide from him.
A knight who rejoices at discovering his Commander's sorrow—he deserved to be stripped of his knighthood and would have no defense against criticism.
But knowing it all, he couldn't help feeling glad.
"Thank you for cherishing us so much."
To grieve so deeply at the impending parting. Nadav was simply grateful that Anelli cherished them.
Unlike the past, the knights of the present were clearly special beings to Anelli. Having regained his memories, Nadav knew this even more certainly.
"I didn't understand the feelings of the traitor who wanted to become the only one for the Commander in the past."
Nadav looked at Samuel, who was standing a little apart, watching this side with a somewhat detached attitude.
On the way here, that traitor had shown such lukewarm attitudes toward everything except directly guiding the way.
Even when knights who regained their memories expressed raw rage and wielded those emotions violently.
So even if Nadav poured out any amount of blame and contempt on him now, the scene would be no different from before.
That was why Nadav decided to use this fleeting time given to him as valuably as possible.
"Now that things have come to this, I think I understand what the traitor yearned for."
Samuel's expression hardened. Considering he hadn't batted an eye even when receiving curses and insults from the knights all this time, his current reaction was quite surprising.
Anelli didn't seem to notice Samuel's reaction. Or rather, she didn't pay any attention to him at all.
Seeing that, Nadav understood why the traitor stood in this place.
Having understood, he felt considerably more at ease.
"I am Nadav, the commander who led all under your orders, the ninth Knight of the Round Table. I am endlessly joyful to finally regain my complete form and carry out my final order."
"……Final order?"
Anelli murmured weakly. She looked very exhausted. It was worrying, but there was nothing more Nadav could do.
Instead, Nadav resolved to show her a composed and upright demeanor.
"You told me to guide this unpredictable child well."
Jigor, having regained his head, was weeping openly.
He had always been a tearful one. He used to strut around boldly, declaring he would take up his sword and stand at the vanguard, but in truth, all of that was just a facade to hide his timid nature.
Nadav had watched from the side when he took in Jigor as the last knight of the Round Table. Perhaps because he was around the same age as his younger sibling Mori, he had been fond of the boy.
And so in the end, like this, they met their end in the same place.
"Commander……."
Jigor, who had been sobbing, roughly wiped his eyes.
"The Commander's sword, which bestows the world's most terrible terror upon enemies, pays its respects. I wished to stand wherever the Commander aimed and become a sharp blade."
Perhaps because he was forcing himself to hold back tears, his voice was too low and his pronunciation unclear. But no one present pointed that out.
"But the Commander, I failed to protect the Commander again and ended up like this……."
"Jigor. You have protected me sufficiently until now."
"But I will soon find rest, and the traitor will remain by the Commander's side."
At Jigor's words, Anelli faltered. Nadav looked down at Jigor, who kept wiping away tears, then stepped toward Anelli.
Even seeing Nadav approaching her, Anelli didn't do anything.
The green light wrapped around her hand was also very faint. That the light was so weak meant…….
She didn't want to grant rest to either Jigor or Nadav.
"Commander."
Anelli looked at Nadav with shaken eyes. It was the first time seeing Anelli this shaken.
The Commander of the past had always been one who maintained tranquility, a very strong and steadfast proxy of the goddess.
All the Knights of the Round Table had expected to be led by the Commander rather than worrying about her, and believed it would surely be so.
Anelli was a little different from the Commander of the past. On the surface she appeared colder and more frigid than the past Commander, but on closer inspection, she was a quite affectionate and attentive person.
So Nadav couldn't help but believe. That their newly met Commander would not break the promise of the past.
"It was due to that one's betrayal that I came to see you, Commander. I do not deny that the traitor has merit in that regard."
"Even so, I can't find rest leaving that bastard by the Commander's side!"
"Look. This one is so childish."
At Nadav's words, Jigor glared at him with reddened eyes. Then his lips soon trembled as he turned to Anelli.
"We're about to reach the final destination, so I'll continue on with you like this. I can endure it! It's just climbing some stairs and crossing a bridge!"
If that were true, the other knights who found rest first would have endured too. What was the reason they entered rest as soon as they regained their heads?
Jigor was raising his voice saying he was fine, even as his soul seemed ready to shatter at any moment.
"Commander, most of what this one says is bluster."
Nadav calmly corrected Jigor's words. Jigor glared at Nadav with a choked expression, then spoke to Anelli again.
"I am the knight Jigor who bestows terrible terror upon enemies from the vanguard!"
"I'm sorry. I didn't know he would still act this childishly even after regaining his head. It must be because I didn't raise him enough in the past."
"Nadav, is now the time for nonsense?"
"Jigor, you're the one throwing a tantrum."
At Nadav's calm words, Jigor looked up at him with a gaze full of betrayal.
The light of the power was still faint. Let alone both of them, it seemed unable to properly grant rest even to one.
Nadav didn't bother pointing that out. Anelli herself didn't seem aware of her condition, and he didn't want to step forward and rush her to grant rest.
Of course, he didn't entirely not think that she might not grant them rest.
"I believe the Commander will guide us to the right path. Jigor will comply as well, so please don't worry."
Anelli, who had been alternately looking at Nadav and Jigor, let out a shallow breath. Wiping her face, which showed fatigue, with her hand, she asked in a low voice.
"……Do you trust the rest I grant? Why? You can't even know whether the other knights obtained the rest they hoped for."
Anelli clenched her fist tightly.
"This is a power of death. What if rest merely…… guarantees only your death?"
Such distrust was something the past Commander would never have imagined. She clenched and unclenched her hands a couple of times, then fixed her darkly settled eyes on Nadav.
"Do you want to die?"
At first glance, it was a cold question. At the sudden question, Jigor's eyes went wide and he immediately shook his head. He was so surprised he couldn't even open his mouth.
And Nadav too, without much deliberation, answered.
"That is not the case."
A faint relief brushed past the purple eyes. Thanks to that, Nadav felt it once more.
How specially the current Commander regarded them.
What it was that the traitor had missed.
"I do not trust the power. I trust the Commander."
This time, the final power would succeed.
Therefore, at the end of this road, he would obtain the rest he truly desired.
"I trust you, who stands before me."