Chapter 39
It began as nothing more than a small flame.
The holy fire blooming over Theodora’s sword was not as vast as Matthew’s.
It was only large enough to barely cover a single blade.
Even its heat could not be felt more than a few steps away.
Into that flame flowed magical lightning.
Was it enraged by the lightning trying to steal its place?
The holy fire slowly swelled in size to stand against the lightning.
Then what covered it all was violet sword energy.
The sword energy, reminiscent of her eyes, became a shell that trapped both lightning and flame.
A battle continued beneath that purple shell.
A chain of explosions between lightning and holy fire.
The longer it went on, the more the shell trembled as though it would shatter at any moment.
The wall of sword energy gradually reached its limit.
When it could endure no longer, Theodora swung her sword.
Along with shards of sword energy shattering like glass, a tidal wave made of lightning and holy fire came crashing toward me.
Its range filled my entire field of vision. The time it took to reach me was an instant.
Dodging was impossible. There was no guarantee I could block it without taking damage, either.
Then the choice left to me was only one.
‘I break through!’
No sooner had I made that judgment than the Red Blood within me covered my entire body.
At the same time, my spear and armor were dyed crimson.
Leaving defense to the armor covering my body, I gathered power at the tip of my spear.
From the stake-like spearhead, tendrils like branches of a thornbush stretched out.
Then, as they began to rotate, they turned into a whirlpool of blood-red light.
Having taken the shape of a spinning drill, I stepped forward just like that.
Boom!
The moment we first collided, blood burst from my palms from the tremendous impact.
When I took the next step, my whole body heated up as if it were burning.
It felt as though the pain would crush me at any moment, but I endured it.
There was only one goal.
‘Break through this attack and stop Theodora.’
As if agreeing with my thoughts, the whirlpool spun even faster.
At the same time, the wave of holy fire and lightning slowly began to scatter.
The flames surged, adding more firepower as if insisting they could not be broken.
‘Shut up!’
I drew out as much strength as I could and completely shattered the wave.
When I raised my head, I saw the gazes of the two people looking at me.
As if she could feel no emotion due to the aftermath of the geas, Theodora looked at me with an expressionless face.
Because she had no expression, I could not tell what she was thinking, but the line of blood trickling down from the corner of her mouth plainly showed that Theodora had suffered internal injuries.
Beside her, Matthew was staring at me in shock.
“You disrupted that attack?”
As if unable to believe what I had done, he blinked and stared blankly at me.
He had the face of someone who had forgotten he was in the middle of battle.
‘As expected of this guy.’
He had almost no real combat experience.
Realizing that, I hurled myself toward Matthew before he could come back to his senses.
“Urgh! As the one with command authority, I command you. Theodora, protect me!”
Matthew realized it belatedly and called out to Theodora, but it was already too late.
With my clenched left fist, I struck him in the abdomen.
“Kah!”
For an instant, Matthew’s face twisted terribly from the pain that overtook him.
He had probably never experienced real pain firsthand.
I wanted to finish him off right then, but unfortunately, Theodora had already closed in.
Whoosh!
Her blade, imbued with holy fire, swept through the spot where I had been, and I immediately threw myself back to create distance.
Perhaps because she had been ordered to protect Matthew, Theodora merely stood near him and did not come after me.
I quietly observed Theodora’s condition.
Perhaps because she had overused instant acceleration to reach Matthew in time, blood was flowing from her legs.
The longer this fight dragged on, the more Theodora’s body would break down.
‘I have to subdue her as quickly as possible.’
And to do that, first—
‘I have to deal with him first.’
Looking at Matthew as he barely pushed himself up from the floor, I narrowed my eyes.
‘As long as he has command authority, Theodora will keep fighting whether her body falls apart or not.’
The problem was how to deal with him...
Just as I thought that, Matthew lifted the metal plate in his hand and gave Theodora an order.
“As the one with command authority, I command you. Theodora, kill that man.”
At the same time, Theodora rapidly closed in on me and brought her blade down.
I moved my spear to deflect her blade while chewing over Matthew’s actions from just now.
‘It was the same at the start.’
Matthew always held that metal plate when giving orders.
If I took that metal plate away from him...
‘Could I steal his command authority?’
Of course, it would probably be impossible to completely seize his authority, but I should at least be able to keep Matthew from giving orders.
‘Shall I try it?’
I narrowly dodged Theodora’s relentless blade while watching Matthew’s movements.
Because I had attacked him earlier, he was being cautious, but at most, he had surrounded himself with a defensive wall of holy fire.
‘If it’s a defensive wall of that level...’
It’s possible.
I lowered my posture to dodge Theodora’s sword and, at the same time, threw my spear at Matthew.
The Spear of Blood flew like a crimson flash.
Matthew saw it and strengthened the wall of holy fire, but—
Crack!
The wall shattered to pieces the moment my spear touched it.
‘As expected.’
Compared to Theodora’s wall that I had seen during our sparring, its durability was as soft as pudding.
My spear pierced through the holy fire wall and drove straight through Matthew’s shoulder.
“Aaaargh!”
Matthew’s arm, which had been holding the metal plate, was torn off just like that.
Struck by a pain on an entirely different level from what he had felt earlier, Matthew collapsed to the floor and screamed.
It seemed he would not be able to use healing magic for a while.
“Well then, Miss Theodora.”
I smiled at Theodora, who was looking at me with an indifferent expression.
“Shall the two of us play now?”
And so, the weapons of the two clashed once again.
**
‘What am I doing?’
Theodora stared blankly at the man before her.
She did not remember the man’s face. No, more than not remembering it, she could not even properly recognize it.
He was merely a target to be eliminated according to orders.
That was the entirety of the meaning the man before her held.
And yet, why?
‘Why does it hurt?’
Every time the man’s spear touched her weapon, it felt as though something inside her heart was breaking.
Little by little.
Like a crumbling sandcastle.
Something inside her heart broke apart, and she felt as though tears would fall.
‘Why?’
Was he carrying out a mental attack?
Or had some part of her body broken down?
She did not know.
No, she did not want to know.
If she found out, some part of her heart would surely break.
That was what she felt.
“Do you remember, Miss Theodora?”
The moment sword and spear collided, her opponent spoke to her.
“The two of us sparred quite a lot, didn’t we?”
Sparred? Me, with this man?
For an instant, it felt as though something would come to mind, but it immediately turned to dust and scattered.
Such things were not important. What mattered now was following God’s will.
It felt as though her mind was trying to rearrange itself, but the man continued speaking to her.
“I was surprised when that same Miss Theodora asked me to go on a date. Honestly, it was unexpected.”
“……”
“Do you remember what we talked about at the clock tower?”
The clock tower...?
The moment she heard those words, a scene formed in her mind.
A room at the top of a clock tower with only the two of them inside.
The man before her said something to her, and she cried upon hearing his answer.
She could not remember why she cried, or what answer the man had given.
But the scenery from that time, the sight of the academy the two of them had seen together—
That alone did not vanish. It remained in her memory.
‘What on earth is this?’
Theodora gritted her teeth and swung her sword to suppress the unnecessary residual memory.
But unlike her previously perfect swordsmanship, her sword began to fall apart little by little.
Her breathing slowed.
Her rhythm slipped.
The dance of her blade broke down and turned into a desperate struggle.
‘It’s a lie.’
I never did anything like that.
‘I am a weapon.’
So I have to fight.
I am...
At that moment, Theodora saw something on the man’s chest.
A simple silver brooch in the shape of a tree.
It was hidden by the blood-colored liquid, so she could not see it clearly, but she definitely remembered it.
‘Ah.’
She remembered.
She had gone on a date with that man.
He had promised that he would accept her back as a comrade at any time.
And that man’s name was—
‘Ashen.’
The instant she recalled it, Theodora’s sword accelerated rapidly.
Thud.
Her sword dug into Ashen’s waist.
Surely he could have dodged if he wanted to. But he did not.
“Why?”
Why didn’t you dodge?
The moment she thought that, the crimson liquid covering Ashen caught hold of her sword.
“Got you.”
At the same time, Ashen’s voice pierced her ears.
His spear was approaching Theodora’s heart.
‘Ah.’
In that moment, she understood.
What she had done, and what ending awaited her.
‘So this is how it ends after all.’
If she died here, would it be atonement? She hoped it would.
Theodora gave up defending and waited for Ashen’s spear to pierce her.
But no matter how much time passed, his spear did not run her through.
Shrrrrk.
The tendrils flowing out from the spear wrapped around her body.
Unlike before, when they had spun at high speed, the tendrils only held her in place and did not try to harm her.
“Are you awake now, Miss Theodora?”
“Ashen? Why...?”
Why didn’t you kill me?
She did not say the rest, but her will was conveyed through her eyes.
Seeing that, Ashen smiled and whispered by Theodora’s ear.
“There’s no way I’d kill you, Miss Theodora. And even if you were an enemy I had to kill, I don’t want to kill someone who was made into a puppet.”
“A puppet... I see.”
Hearing Ashen’s words, Theodora smiled bitterly and looked up at the sky.
Outside, perhaps the students who had already finished their exam were playing, because fireworks flashed in the sky.
The fading fireworks looked just like herself after her purpose had been used up, and Theodora watched them in a daze.
“Hey, Ashen.”
“Yes.”
“How should I live from now on?”
“That isn’t for me to choose.”
“Then?”
“You should choose, Miss Theodora.”
Choose? Me?
Could she, who had never had such a thing until now, do it well?
‘I don’t know. But...’
It was another chance Ashen had given her.
Even if she had no confidence, she would have to do it.
With that thought as her last, Theodora slowly fell asleep.
**
‘Urgh! That heretic bastard.’
Gritting his teeth against the pain, Matthew moved toward the place where his severed arm had fallen.
A pure white light lingered at his severed shoulder.
It meant healing magic was taking effect.
Unless one was a high-ranking priest, regenerating a severed arm was impossible, but at least the pain could be reduced.
Matthew moved toward his arm—no, to be precise, toward the metal plate there—while watching Theodora and Ashen.
If he moved now, the two might notice him.
‘If only there were some opportunity.’
The moment he thought that, fireworks burst in the sky.
‘The Light is protecting me!’
Buried beneath the sound of the fireworks, Matthew threw himself toward his severed arm.
The metal plate came before his eyes in an instant.
‘It’s over.’
With this, he would be able to punish that heretic here.
Even if it meant completely breaking God’s tool this time.
Clutching the metal plate with his remaining arm, Matthew shouted loudly.
“As the one with command authority, I command you, Theodora. Devote your entire life and do whatever it takes to kill that heretic!”
His voice was loud enough that he did not care whether the two heard him or not.
With a face filled with rapture, he looked at Theodora.
Now Theodora would move and try to kill that heretic.
With everything she had for the rest of her life.
The moment he thought that—
Gush.
A clot of blood spilled from his mouth.
‘What is this...’
He was clearly using healing magic, so why did it hurt this much?
Without being able to say a word, Matthew collapsed on the spot.
Extreme pain, as if all his organs were melting, flowed along his nerves.
Ashen slowly walked toward him.
“I predicted that you’d use the geas again.”
Unlike when he spoke to Theodora, his voice was cold.
Looking down at the fallen Matthew, Ashen twisted the corner of his mouth.
“So I prepared in advance on my end, too.”
‘What does that mean?’
The moment Matthew coughed up blood and suspicion, the empty sky entered his eyes.
Magical fireworks had definitely exploded just a moment ago, but now the sky was dyed like a blank canvas.
‘Why did they stop?’
If the students were setting off fireworks, they should have kept bursting.
‘Don’t tell me?!’
Had he arranged a signal with his companions outside?
“My friend Cecilia told me something. She said the Republic, unlike its name, was a nation run by a strict hierarchy and a fussy bureaucracy.”
“Wh-what... does... that, gah!”
“That’s why the Republic’s geas has one weakness. If a higher-ranking command authority gives a conflicting order, the order of a lower-ranking authority won’t work. On top of that, the lower-ranking authority receives a severe punishment.”
“Y-you bastard.”
“You’ll probably be an idiot by the time this is all over. So I’ll say goodbye for the last time, Matthew. Let’s never meet again.”
‘Damn it!’
Matthew gritted his teeth and tried to endure, but he could not stop the pain from slowly burning through his brain.
Before long, the last thing he felt was Ashen, who did not even spare him a glance—
“Not bad, Cecilia.”
—and the voice he left behind.