Episode 77
"Haa..."
A girl is walking through streets filled with eyes.
Her breath, escaping from her lips, meets the cold air and spreads in all directions.
The girl, who had been blankly watching this scene, suddenly lifts her head to gaze up at the night sky.
"...It's dark."
Until just a few months ago, the moon and stars had shone brightly every night, but recent night skies are nothing like that at all.
Instead of twinkling stars and the gentle moon, only deep darkness exists.
"How did it come to this?"
Muttering coldly as she watched that sight, the girl soon began moving her heavy feet once more.
- Shuuu...
"...Mmm."
But this time, a freezing winter wind blocked the girl's path.
Thanks to that, the girl who had stopped to sigh entered a nearby shop to escape the fiercely blowing wind.
"Welcome..."
Normally, the shop owner would have immediately chased out someone with such a shabby appearance as the girl, but he merely mumbled a greeting with an expression that had lost all motivation.
- Flutter
Thanks to that, the girl, who was warming her body and resting for a moment, picked up a newspaper fluttering nearby and began reading its contents.
- Empire, consecutive defeats. Is the brilliant sun setting like this?
"Mmm..."
But as soon as she read the newspaper headline, the girl closed her eyes quietly and muttered.
"I, I too... am doing my best..."
Of course, there was no one to answer the girl's words in the empty shop with no people, and the same was true for the owner who was soaked in alcohol.
"Hey, kid."
"...Yes?"
Just as the girl, gritting her teeth at this fact, was about to step outside the shop, the owner, soaked in alcohol, began to mutter in a hoarse voice.
"I don't know why you keep wandering in and out of a place like this on such a dark night, but... you should leave this place quickly."
"Yes, that's why I'm leaving now."
"This city... no, this country."
At the owner's continued serious voice, the girl dropped her shoulders powerlessly and muttered.
"The imperial family is still holding on. So, perhaps..."
"Bullshit. If those guys are holding on well... why is there not a single customer in my shop?"
"That's..."
"Just a few years ago, it was bustling with people."
At those words, the girl quietly lowered her gaze, and the man collapsed onto his desk again and muttered.
"Never mind... what's the point of complaining about my situation to a kid like you. I'll just drink my alcohol."
"...Aren't you going to run away?"
"Run away?"
The owner, who heard the words the girl spoke just before leaving the shop, smirked and muttered.
"A good-for-nothing like me will meet the same end wherever I go anyway, so what."
Having said that, the owner soon closed his eyes and began snoring.
"...Grr."
The girl, who had been grinding her teeth for a moment at those words, stepped back out into the harsh winter wind.
- Shuuu...
"...Haa."
Walking for a while against the winter wind, the girl eventually began to look at her frozen hands.
"C, come on... come on...!"
Suddenly, the girl began to strain with all her might, putting strength into her hands.
"Come out... I said come out...!"
Then, a faint light began to rise from her hands, but that was all.
The brilliant light that once melted everything blocking her path could not even melt the snow falling from the sky. It merely shone brightly, nothing more.
"Please... come back..."
Looking at that dim light, the girl began to sob and mutter.
Though many meanings were contained in those words, among those many meanings, there was nothing that could actually happen.
Because the person she wants has been dead for a long time, and the light she wants has long since faded.
".....Ah."
After sobbing for a while, the girl came to her senses only after warm tears running down her cheeks fell onto her hands.
"I don't even... have the right to be sad."
Muttering in a cold voice, the girl forcibly drags her frozen body, walking and walking.
Pushing through the severe cold where the chill exceeded all bounds and turned to pain, and even that pain began to fade, the girl continued to move forward.
"Everyone, I'm here."
She arrived at a quite familiar place.
The place where she had come every weekend for several years to repent, and now where even the footsteps of visitors have become rare.
[Frey Raon Starlight's Birthplace]
"...I'm sorry for coming here without permission."
This is the apology she always makes every time she comes here.
Afraid that by carelessly showing her face, he who is asleep might be angry, she has never once skipped this apology.
"...Haa."
But the guilt that grows stronger each time she makes that apology often exceeds the sense of stability.
Apologizing every day to those who died because of her own mistakes will not bring the dead back to life.
- Creak...
"Oh my... I need to repair..."
The girl, who opened the door leading to the yard where a once elegant and stylish mansion stood, stopped muttering as the door wobbled and made a creaking sound.
"...Right, today was the last day, wasn't it?"
Sighing as she said that, the girl entered the yard with her head deeply bowed like a sinner who had committed a crime.
- The place where Frey Raon Starlight's birthplace once stood.
Heading toward the birthplace where that day's events occurred, as she always did when coming here, the girl lowered her head and began to murmur a prayer.
It was an action she took wondering if Frey's soul, sleeping in the basement of the mansion, might be suffering.
"...Hello."
Emerging from the mansion where only traces remained, the girl approached a gray tombstone far away and bowed politely.
- The hero no one knew, sleeps here.
"I'm truly sorry I haven't been able to visit lately. There were... some difficult matters."
Stroking Frey's grave and speaking thus, the girl removed the robe she was wearing and revealed her appearance.
She, who had cut her long and lush golden hair short into a bob, and had carved countless wounds on her body that once had no scars, was Klana Sol Sunrise, who would probably be called the last Emperor of the Empire.
"...I'm sorry, actually it wasn't just slightly difficult matters."
The Emperor of the Empire, kneeling before a tombstone in a dirty robe and sobbing.
It would be quite a controversial matter, but for the Sunrise Empire, it's not that surprising.
Because the fall of the Sunrise Empire had already become a foregone conclusion.
"At first we won a few times... I thought maybe there was hope... but with the sun's mana disappearing and only harsh winter continuing... now I can't hold on anymore."
Klana, who didn't know how many years had passed since that incident but was quite exhausted, unconsciously began to mutter.
"If only you all had been here... this wouldn't have happened."
Klana turned her gaze to where Serena's grave was located as she spoke.
"........."
Klana, who had been looking at the two graves with her mouth shut for a while, eventually began to speak in a trembling voice.
"The Demon Lord's army has reached the capital. Thanks to that, it seems the only people in the capital now, excluding the imperial army, are the pub owner I met earlier."
Recalling the alcohol-soaked pub owner she had met earlier and muttering, Klana continued in a trembling voice.
"When dawn breaks, I will lead the imperial army and fight to the death against the Demon Lord. Of course, I can't even use the sun's mana... and the imperial army is all sick or exhausted... but it should be enough to buy time for the imperial citizens and Aria who are evacuating to another continent from the port."
Saying that, Klana began to speak while shedding tears.
"So, seeing you all is also for the last time today... by tomorrow, I will..."
- Shuuu...!
"...Heup!"
As if to answer those words, a fierce winter wind pierced through Klana.
Thanks to that, Klana, feeling needle-like pain from wounds all over her body, squeezed her eyes shut and spoke.
"...I'm sorry, for feeling pain in front of you over something like this. The pain you felt... must have been a hundred, a thousand times greater than this..."
Klana, who had been gritting her teeth and enduring the pain felt from wounds all over her body, pulled something out from her bosom.
"...It's a star-catching flower. The one you picked for me in the past."
With difficulty moving her frozen hands, Klana placed the star-catching flower beneath Frey's tombstone, wiped the tears from her eyes, and pulled out something else from her bosom.
"Serena. This is a moon-catching flower. I just... thought I should give one to you too."
Placing the moon-catching flower beneath Serena's tombstone and rising from her spot, Klana spoke with a sad expression as she stood up.
"Then, goodbye. Everyone."
- Shuuu...!
"...Ah!"
But right then, an especially harsh winter wind began to pierce through her.
".......Grr."
Klana, who screamed and collapsed at that wind, soon gritted her teeth and quickly got up.
She couldn't show disgrace to the two people who died because of them.
"...Huh?"
Klana, who was shivering but trying to bow her waist, discovered something twinkling beneath Frey's tombstone.
"......A ring?"
It was a ring with an especially glittering surface.
"I don't know who it is... but someone who once received kindness from Frey must have left it, right?"
Looking at the ring that glittered on the outside but was worn on the inside, Klana muttered with an expression full of guilt.
After Frey died, the good deeds he had secretly performed were revealed to the world long ago.
Among them, what pained Klana's heart the most was that the founder of what was once the largest orphanage in the Empire was none other than Frey.
When she learned that news, she was so sad.
When she visited that orphanage and the children greeted her brightly, she even felt nausea from self-loathing.
"Ah... I'm doing this again."
Klana, who had been lost in such thoughts for a moment, realized that her hands were trembling violently.
"Mmm..."
When she grabbed her right hand with her left, a stinging pain was felt. It seems she had frostbite.
- Thud thud
But Klana paid no attention and left the graveyard. In the Empire where eternal winter has arrived, frostbite is nothing special.
"Cough, cough!"
Also, a cold is nothing special. It's highly contagious, but the fatality rate isn't that high.
What's truly frightening is only the Demon Lord's army with a 100% fatality rate.
- Thud thud
Klana, who had been covering her mouth with her trembling hands and coughing while walking, slipped out of Frey's mansion that had become a graveyard and muttered in a sad voice.
"It feels similar to that time for some reason."
The moment she stepped out of the yard, having received the major mission of fighting the Demon Lord's army at the same time as ascending to the throne, on the day Frey and Serena lost their lives.
Klana still cannot forget that feeling from that time.
"...Before joining the army, I need to warm my body a bit."
Klana, who had been standing still in that spot for a while, only started moving her body while muttering after standing in the wind until the sensation in her whole body disappeared.
"What, you came again?"
"...I needed a place to warm my body."
Of course, there was no other place to warm her body than the shop she had briefly visited earlier, so Klana entered the shop while watching the owner's expression.
"Pfft... what a strange kid."
The owner, who had been glaring at her for a moment, smiled brightly and asked.
"You... do you have money?"
"No."
"Then why come into a pub?"
"I have money to order alcohol."
Hearing those words, the owner smirked, took out a bottle from behind him, and handed it to Klana.
"...Is it okay to give alcohol to a kid?"
"You're planning to die anyway if you keep staying in a place like this... what does it matter if I give you one bottle of alcohol?"
Smirking and answering Klana's question, the shop owner gulped down the alcohol and spoke.
"...Then I'm going to sleep now, you can stay or leave, do as you please."
"What if I steal the money?"
"Like you'd have any money. Well, there's plenty of alcohol though."
Having said that, the shop owner began to hum a tune and go up to the upper floor of the shop.
- Creak...
"...Huh?"
But at that moment, the shop door opened and a person wearing a black robe revealed themselves.
"E, excuse me? A customer came..."
Klana, flustered, shouted to the upper floor, but no answer came back.
"Hmm..."
Klana, who frowned for a moment, began to quietly examine the person who had entered.
"...Perhaps, are you a subordinate of the Demon Lord?"
"No, I'm just a passing traveler."
Klana, who asked in a tired voice, nodded blankly when the man in front of her answered quietly and spoke.
"I see."
And then, silence flowed for a while.
- Gulp gulp
Klana, who had been blankly staring at the alcohol bottle in front of her for a while, suddenly picked up the bottle and began to drink it down.
"...Hwaa."
Klana, who didn't normally enjoy alcohol much, made this choice to forget the fear of the desperate battle tomorrow, the guilt toward Frey and Serena she had just visited, and various other emotions.
"It's all... all my fault..."
But that was just one of her many misjudgments.
The strong and bitter alcohol only helped bring out the dark emotions she had tried to bury.
"If only it wasn't for me... if only it wasn't for me, everything would have gone properly..."
Saying that, Klana began to slam her hands on the desk repeatedly.
"Ah, no... I don't want to remember again... I hate it...!"
Even though it's been quite a long time since she couldn't use the sun's mana, the sensation of tearing apart Frey's corpse that day is still vividly felt in her hands.
The moment when the sunlight beam fired from her fingers pierced through Frey's head, the vibration created when the dagger she summoned stabbed into Frey's heart, it feels like it's continuously felt in her hands.
"...Please stop."
Klana, who had been screaming and slamming her hands down for a while, came to her senses when the man sitting at the table next to her muttered lowly, and looked at her own hands.
"Huuu... uuu..."
Her hands were a complete mess.
"Frey... I was wrong... I'm sorry..."
Still, when the terrible sensation that had tormented her for years didn't leave her hands, Klana eventually collapsed on the desk and burst into tears.
"If only... if only I hadn't done that back then..."
Saying that, what she pulled from her bosom was a letter that had been worn out from being opened so many times.
- I apologize for not keeping the promise from when you were young, Princess. I wanted to make you Emperor with my own hands.
He had never once forgotten the promise he made with her when they were young, and kept it in his heart. Even while going through such terrible hardships and struggles.
- Do you remember the day we first met? The tea party held for you on the day of your debut in high society.
The tea party held at her debutante ball remains an unforgettable memory for Klana to this day. Of course, its meaning has changed several times.
- The appearance of you drinking tea while pretending not to be hurt, at a table where no one but you and I were sitting... ah, I apologize. Did I perhaps upset you?
That tea party was a trap set by the Empress.
It was a kind of show to prevent any young lady or noble son from participating in the third princess's tea party, ruining Klana's debut while also announcing her political position to key figures.
- Back then, you told me to get lost if I was going to show petty pity.
That's actually what happened. She had seen enough people with kind faces on the outside but wicked thoughts on the inside while living in the imperial family.
She had thought that young Frey, who attended the tea party alone where no one came because they were watching the Empress's mood, and smiled brightly at her, was just showing her kindness after thoroughly calculating the pros and cons.
- Do you know? Actually, I was quite hungry back then. So I went and sat where there was a lot of food, and it happened to be your tea party. It was just a happening that occurred because it was also my first debut in high society.
Reading up to there, Klana's faint memories of her conversation with Frey from that time began to surface.
"Will you be my friend?"
"Get lost if you're going to show petty pity."
"Hmm?"
"I hate insincere people terribly... so please get lost from here right now."
"B, but... I want to be friends with you..."
- So when I saw a young lady I'd never seen before and wanted to be friends so I tried to talk to her, I got thoroughly cursed at.
"If you want to be friends with me, at least bring me a star-catching flower."
"...Star-catching flower?"
"Yes, a precious flower that grows on that mountain over there. Unless you give me that flower..."
"I'll be right back!!"
Back then, Klana had acted spitefully to shake off Frey.
She had asked him to bring the star-catching flower that the 1st and 2nd princesses had received as gifts from the Empress and boasted about to her, a flower that twinkles like stars.
Of course, Klana thought that Frey, who approached her calculatingly, wouldn't actually bring it.
He would probably just search the forest briefly and give up while complaining.
For the unfortunate princess who had always been used by others except for her mother, and eventually lost even that mother and closed her heart, that was the natural order of things.
- I never thought it would take three days to find it.
But because of that incident, her debutante ball was turned upside down in a different sense than the Empress had intended.
- Anyway, my conclusion is...
"Excuse me, I really can't bear to watch this."
"Huh?"
As she was slowly reading through Frey's letter that she looked at whenever she fell into trauma, the person next to her shook his head and spoke.
"Could you please stop slamming your hand down like that?"
"Ah... I'm sorry..."
Only then did Klana realize that she had been continuously slamming her hand on the desk while reading the letter.
"I'm sorry. I was so absorbed..."
Looking down at her hand, which was in a much worse condition than before, Klana bowed her head and began to apologize to the man sitting next to her.
"Then, there's no point in writing you a will."
"...Yes?"
But the man sitting next to her started saying strange things.
"Damn, I didn't know the condition was this serious... is this why the system let me see her one last time?"
"Y, you...!"
Klana, who had been blankly staring at him, opened her eyes wide and stood up when he spoke after removing his voice modulation.
"Greetings, Princess."
"F, Frey!!!!!!!!"
When the man wearing the black robe removed his robe and revealed silver hair and eyes, Klana shouted with an expression filled with astonishment and shock.
"...This, this pattern again."
"Frey! Were you alive? You were alive, right!! Right?!!!"
Klana, who filled her expression with joy, rushed toward Frey.
"You!! This isn't the time for this! Right now the Demon Lord is right in front of us!! Quickly escape this place with me... urgh."
"...Haa."
But she, who shed tears of joy for the first time in a long while and rushed toward Frey, passed right through Frey who had a dark expression and slammed into the wall beside her.
"H, huh? What's going on? Frey is definitely here... why..."
Thanks to that, Klana, who was bewildered for a moment, began to grope Frey's body with trembling hands.
".......I figured as much."
Klana, who had been groping Frey's body that couldn't be caught for a while, asked Frey with a despairing expression.
"So, what is this? My illusion? Or a ghost who came for revenge? Personally, I'd prefer the latter. I can pay for my sins to you..."
"At first I wondered why this was a trial..."
And Frey, who looked at Klana with pity, muttered in a low voice.
"......Nothing fits the word 'trial' quite like this."
In front of him, a system window had risen with only the number 1 floating there.