Episode 118
- Wuuung...
As Kania slipped into Frey's arms, the sun that had been shaking precariously as if it might fall at any moment began to gradually settle.
- Kugugugugu!
"Huh?"
"Argh."
At the same time, a faint earthquake began.
Though considerably weak, it was strong enough to make the people standing on the ground collapse to their seats.
"Ow, ow..."
Thanks to that, Clana, who had fallen on her backside, started making a crying face, and Irina, who had been watching her, asked in a quiet voice.
"Clana, can I ask you something?"
"Yes, yes?"
At that, Clana, who had been quietly rubbing her back, started looking at Irina with a stiff expression.
"How do you know about the System?"
Irina asked, looking at her with sharp eyes.
Until now, Clana had barely known the truth about Frey. And even if she recalled memories of the so-called 'Trial' that Frey had mentioned... knowing about the 'System' was unnatural.
"The System, you mean? Hmm... well..."
Clana began to quietly chew on the question that was asked for that reason.
"So... um..."
Clana, who had been pondering the question for quite some time for some reason, soon began to speak haltingly.
"You... told me, didn't you?"
"What?"
"Irina, you grabbed me by the collar and told me everything."
Hearing those words, Irina began to make a bewildered expression.
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
"What?"
"There's no way I would have told you that. If I told you that, Frey would..."
Eventually, Irina, who was speaking in a trembling voice, quietly pointed at Frey.
"...would have ended up like that."
"Ah."
Clana, who had a dazed expression at those words, soon grabbed her head and began to mutter.
"But, definitely... I definitely heard the truth from you."
"What do you..."
"And from Kania too."
Clana, who slightly lifted her head, looked at Kania, who had been quietly pressed against Frey until then, and said.
"While being attacked by the rampaging Kania... I heard the detailed truths."
"...When and where exactly?"
As Clana kept talking about things that didn't make sense, Irina asked with a frustrated expression.
"Um..."
Clana, who had been quietly lost in thought after hearing the question, soon muttered with a face full of guilt.
"That day at Frey's mansion, right after I became Emperor."
Clana's hands were shaking as she said those words.
The unknown symptoms that had tormented Clana for the past few weeks, the symptoms that suddenly started after having a nightmare one day.
The hell whose cause had been unknown for a while had come back to find her.
"It's all my karma..."
But Clana no longer trembled from the unknown symptoms whose cause she didn't know.
The trembling of her hands was because she realized it was the imprint of the sensation transmitted to her hands when she pierced Frey's body with a spear and dagger.
And because she realized it was the result of the oath she had made with Frey, who was her only friend and companion when she was young.
Because she decided to embrace it as just her karma, and as proof that she was connected to Frey through an oath.
"......Hmm."
Irina, who was watching such a Clana, soon asked in a quiet voice.
"Then, you heard everything about the System inside the 'Trial'?"
"Trial... you mean a trial?"
"Yes, if you know what the System is, you must know what the 'Trial' is too."
At those words, Clana, who had been dazed for a moment, soon began to tilt her head.
"No... what I experienced wasn't a trial."
"What?"
"That was, unequivocally, reality."
Hearing those words, Irina frowned and asked.
"Clana. How much of that trial... no, how much of that memory did you receive?"
"...Enough time to graduate from the academy with plenty to spare, so at least a few years must have passed."
"A few years!?"
Irina, who shouted in surprise, soon quietly composed herself and began to sort out the situation.
'According to Clana's words, she learned the truth about Frey by recalling memories of a trial that lasted for several years...'
Frey had said that the second trial was nothing more than a virtual scenario to test himself.
In other words, all the people Frey met in the second trial were fictions and illusions created by the System.
But for some reason, Clana remembers what happened in the second trial.
Furthermore, she says she even learned the truth about the 'System' within that trial.
'...Does that make sense?'
Irina, who was quietly chewing on those facts that were clearly strange to anyone, was about to ask another question in a quiet voice when...
"Cough!!"
At that moment, Frey, who was lying down, began to cough up blood.
""...Ah.""
The two girls, who had been out of it for a while due to the sun suddenly shooting up from the sky and the ground shaking, finally realized.
That right now, such things weren't important.
.
"".........""
Thus, several hours after the incident in the forest where Clana and Frey's memories slept.
"Cough!!"
"F-Frey!!"
Clana and Irina, who had secretly returned to the dormitory with the unconscious Frey and Kania.
"Ugh, uuu..."
"W-why is this happening...?"
They were nursing Frey, who was still unconscious and leaning against the bed while continuously coughing up blood, with anxious expressions.
"I-Irina, why won't Frey's bleeding stop?"
"W-wait. I'm looking for the cause right now."
However, their best efforts at nursing were not very effective.
This was because the vessel receiving his coughed-up blood was already filling the bottom.
- Slither...
"Ah, aah..."
Clana, who had brought a vessel to Frey's lips after sitting him up so his windpipe wouldn't get blocked, began to speak tearfully as he started coughing up blood again.
"Please, please don't die..."
"Cough..."
"Now that I've finally, finally realized everything. Now that I can finally understand you."
"Ugh..."
"Now that I can finally... love you..."
Until just a while ago, Frey had been walking around properly, even if he had a limited time.
But after receiving a penalty because of her, Frey had become so broken that even she, who had little knowledge of medical science, could tell.
"Uuu..."
Thanks to that, Clana, who had fallen into considerable guilt, trembling her hands and sobbing, quietly buried her head in Frey's chest.
"W-wait... something's strange."
"Yes?"
Clana, who had been shedding tears in his arms for a while, lifted her head at Irina's words.
"W-why hasn't Frey's lifespan decreased?"
"W-what... what do you mean?"
Clana, who heard those words, asked, filled with hope.
Because the words that Frey's lifespan hadn't decreased meant that the time she could spend with him had increased.
Because it meant there was still a chance to serve him, and a chance to leave his traces on her body.
"This is... a device that shows Frey's remaining lifespan."
"...G-give it to me!"
Clana, who had been thinking such thoughts, snatched the device from Irina's hand as soon as she heard her words.
"...Huh?"
Clana, who looked at the device with a face full of hope, soon tilted her head and asked Irina.
"Irina, what does this mean?"
"...What do you mean?"
"I mean the date written here. It says a date 2 years and 2 months from now! Where did his remaining lifespan go and why..."
Irina quietly lowered her head at those words.
"Don't tell me, this date is... the date he dies?"
Only then did Clana realize what the date meant.
No, in fact, she had noticed it from the moment she first looked at the device, but she couldn't bring herself to accept the truth she was now facing.
"He's... he's really going to die. Not even living 3 years."
She muttered with a dazed expression.
Of course, she knew well that Frey had a limited time.
But the fact that there was so little time left than she had thought, and that she knew the exact date of his death.
No, the fact that she knew the exact date he could survive the longest mercilessly shook Clana's mind.
"...Anyway, the important thing is that his lifespan hasn't decreased."
"This... this means it didn't decrease?"
"Yes, if his lifespan had decreased... a date 1 year and 1 month from now would have appeared on this device."
Irina, who answered Clana.
"Looking at that, maybe what I and Kania did... no, what Kania did wasn't in vain."
"Cough!!"
She muttered while wiping away the blood Frey had coughed up with a handkerchief, making an expression mixed with wretchedness and helplessness.
"But, seeing him cough up blood like that... it still wasn't perfect."
At the same time, she bit her lip so hard it bled.
"...Someone like me, what kind of Archmage am I."
Thus, only the sound of Frey's coughing lingered in the room for a while.
"Hmm..."
"Kania?"
"Kania!"
And that silence could only be broken after Kania, who was lying on the makeshift bed next to the bed where Frey was lying, slowly opened her eyes and got up.
"Here is... ugh!!"
Kania, who had been staring blankly with her eyes open, soon felt a terrible pain near her chest.
And hurriedly covered her mouth and lowered her head.
"Kania! What's wrong with you?"
"Kania! Are you hurt somewhere?"
When the two girls called out to her, she, who had been covering her mouth and lost in thought for a while, soon...
"I see. In the end, it succeeded."
She smiled and got up from her seat and began to mutter.
"However, looking at the young master's condition... it seems to be quite a troublesome situation."
"Y-yeah..."
At Kania's somehow peaceful words, Irina, who had been diagnosing Frey until now, began to speak.
"As far as I can see, Frey's lifespan is safe, but his life force seems to have taken a hit. Of course, that alone would be something to be grateful for... but for some reason, he's not recovering."
"Naturally, he wouldn't."
Kania, who heard Irina's words, approached Frey, who was still lying on the bed with a smile on her face, and...
- Slide.
""....Ah?""
She naturally lay down next to Frey and hugged him tightly.
"Young master."
She said, looking at Frey with eyes full of love.
"Please rest comfortably now."
When the two girls watching that scene made dazed expressions, Kania began to speak in a quiet voice.
"It seems that side effects occurred during the process of my soul and the young master's soul mixing and then separating."
"Side effects?"
"Yes, since traces of the young master's soul still remain in my body. The young master's body has become unstable, making recovery extremely slow."
Kania, who was gently stroking Frey, who had stopped coughing up blood at some point, said in a quiet voice to the two who had dazed expressions.
"So, until the young master wakes up, I think I need to stay like this, attached to him."
After saying that, Kania hugged Frey tightly and quietly closed her eyes.
Due to the curse placed on her, the 'Curse of One Body, One Heart.'
The pain Frey was feeling not only near his chest but throughout his whole body, the complicated emotions despite being unconscious, and even each of his heartbeats.
She was feeling all of them exactly as they were.
"...Um."
"Kania."
Irina and Clana, who were looking down at Kania who was making a happy smile, began to speak with anxious expressions.
"I... I'm going to make a 'Blood Oath' to Frey. My soul to him..."
"I... I need to make a new oath to his soul... otherwise, I feel like I'll go crazy..."
"You can't do that now."
But Kania quietly shook her head and said.
"Right now, the young master's soul is in a very unstable state. Such magical oaths could cause problems."
"B-but..."
"Please cooperate for the young master's quick recovery."
Kania, who cut off their objections with a cold expression even though she knew very well that souls and magical oaths had nothing to do with each other...
"Hmm..."
She made a happy smile again, pressed her forehead against Frey's face, and began to feel him.
Frey, who had manipulated even his memories to not hate her, and who had gnawed away his own life force to save her.
And Frey, whom she could now finally start repaying little by little.
""...........""
Thus, silence began to flow in the room for a while.
- Creak...
"Frey, are you okay..."
Before Serena, who entered the room with a pale face, could break that silence.
"...Please explain."
"About what?"
Serena, who had somehow stopped by the library before arriving at the academy, was carrying various documents with ancient characters written on them.
And Serena, who had wounds appearing in various places on her body that hadn't been there before, asked with a cold expression, and Kania, who had been hugging Frey tightly until then, asked back.
"About what happened today."
At Serena's words that followed, Kania smiled and began to speak.
"I protected the young master's lifespan."
"...I see."
Serena, who heard those words, quietly nodded.
"Also, I embraced the young master."
But when Kania stroked her stomach and spoke, Serena's expression began to distort.
"And those traces still remain inside me."
"...Ha."
Kania, who continued speaking in a calm voice while looking at such Serena...
"And..."
She drove in the wedge.
"...The young master and I became one until death."
After saying that, Kania glanced at Serena and added.
"As the wise Serena would know, it's all true."
"You should moderate your metaphors."
"Metaphors? I only spoke the truth."
Serena, who slightly bit her lip at Kania's calm reaction, soon raised the corner of her mouth and said.
"...By the way, everyone. I have good news."
At that, everyone's attention focused on Serena.
"I found out the location of the secret lord's base."
Serena, who spoke with a confident expression, finished speaking while looking down coldly at Kania, who was hugging Frey tightly.
"It's really good news, isn't it?"
Thus, as the gazes of the two women intertwined in the air, the time of dawn slowly passed.