Chapter 207
A cold winter descended upon Rumpard.
Endlessly pure snow piled and piled upon the ruined castle.
Snow accumulated over the blood-stained corpses, transforming it into a place that resembled a snowfield over ruins rather than a battlefield.
An untimely winter.
At the sudden onset of the freezing season, the people of Rumpard trembled with anxiety.
For the entire royal castle was battered by blizzards as if cursed, and the grotesque groans of people echoed every day.
It had been three days since Rumpard's royal castle froze.
Three days had already passed.
Within the blizzard that no one dared enter recklessly. A woman enduring there breathed roughly.
"Huuu..."
A cold that seemed to freeze her lungs white. With every inhale her insides froze, and with every exhale her mouth and nose froze shut.
"S-someone... save me..."
The woman desperately turned away from the death throes of soldiers buried in the snow and unable to move.
Her red hair was frosted and frozen solid, but the holy power she barely maintained throughout her body was the energy of the sword.
It was Valterus's.
She was the paladin who had been with Callias.
Helena of the Bolivian family.
Kwaaaaaaa-!
A booming sound that made her entire body tingle.
The roar of a monstrous beast rang out again.
"...N-no."
Helena embraced herself with both arms and stroked her pounding heart.
She hugged her shoulders and eventually covered both ears, unwilling to hear the grotesque sounds that followed.
Ghostly wails reached her.
The skin-crawling sounds pierced through the blizzard and the biting wind, disturbing her ears.
Before she knew it, her body had shrunk to that of a child.
With tears welling up, she instinctively hid under the bed and covered her ears.
The cries of beasts.
The screams of dying people.
The burning mansion.
The accusations of the residents.
Memories she had forgotten rose up one after another.
"No... Callias."
Her childish mouth called out to him.
She called the name of the one who created this eternal winter. Was he still fighting the dragon?
Did he know that the winter he created was freezing everything?
She could only pray.
That he would hurry and kill the dragon.
And that this winter would end.
* * *
The snowfield was pure white, yet the world was nothing but dark.
White things fluttering in dark places do not make the surroundings bright.
The fire dragon, having stepped onto the snowfield with even its wings folded, narrowed its eyes.
It was a fire dragon.
It cared not for this meager cold.
But it had already been three days.
It had fired its breath countless times, but it was only temporary—this winter would not end.
Since that time, the bastard had disappeared and not shown itself, and fear crept in little by little in this winter that seemed like it would never end.
With the cold seeping into its very bones, its whole body creaked, and its mind kept recalling only the worst scenarios.
But what it feared most was not the cold surrounding it.
[You... old fogies.]
The fire dragon shouted as if in rage at the ones who had repeatedly ignored it.
[That bastard killed my son!! Then why must I endure!]
-A deathless corruption has died.
-He is the one who can destroy corruption.
-This is the time to look at the greater picture, not discuss personal grudges.
-How can you not know that it is proper for the corruption you yourselves created with the chess piece called humans to be caught. Erbiwe.
[Damn you Icarus elders. Would you say the same if your sons died!?]
But the answer that returned was the same.
-We cannot permit your deployment.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaa!
The fire dragon nervously spewed flames and burned away the illusions surrounding it.
But that was only for a moment.
The dragons that appeared again tormented it.
It fought, it ignored, it repeated.
But time had not frozen, and the old things kept flickering before its eyes.
The fire dragon saw memories of the past.
Flickering memories of its son's childhood.
When its son hatched from the egg.
When it gnawed on the eggshell and crawled all over the place.
When it went on its first hunt.
When it succeeded in its first flight.
When it had suddenly grown and crossed the open skies alongside it.
Such memories poured out explosively.
[Aah... my son.]
Before it knew it, tears flowed from the fire dragon's eyes.
But they soon froze solid.
[Son! My son!]
Then color returned to its face.
Its son was beside it before it knew it.
In the memories of its childhood.
The hatchling unchanged.
Erbiwe embraced it just like that.
[It's alright now...]
Amidst the fierce blizzard.
The fire dragon curled its body round and closed its eyes.
Over it, the winter descended.
* * *
"Damn it."
Callias had been on guard.
A sword that cannot be controlled. A sword that tries to devour its master is that dangerous.
The Mad Dragon had been the same, but he had prepared for it, and Sorrow had been the same, but he had corrected it.
But there was one thing he hadn't considered. It was the Sanctuary.
'I can't control it.'
A Sanctuary is a single mental image.
It borrows the sword's mental image through the power of the one wielding the sword.
But Callias had overlooked one thing.
How could Sorrow possess a simple mental image?
The backstory of Sorrow's birth was a weapon made by putting in over a hundred knights' souls.
Since he had unfolded the mental image that was chaos itself, not being able to control it was secondary—the very state of the mental image was abnormal.
"More like a cursed place than a sanctuary."
Thanks to wearing the
But now, three days had passed.
Even that was not enough.
The cold seeping in now was not simply because of the cold.
It was because a power that invades the human heart was imbued within it.
He kept hearing strange things and seeing strange things.
These were memories stored deep within his own heart.
Every single snowflake falling was the memories and hearts of the people trapped here.
-Useless bastard.
The voice that reached him made Callias's heart ache.
-You can't even hold a mere sword. And you call yourself Zervan's son!
-You good-for-nothing bastard. There's a limit to disgracing the family, how are you still alive.
-You still haven't died.
Words spat out like throwing daggers with eyes colder than winter pierced Callias.
'Old memories.'
A familiar voice.
This was Elberton's voice.
-If I had known this would happen, I shouldn't have given birth to you. Your younger brother should have been born as my son instead!
-Just try to be half as good as your younger brother. Have you no shame?
Smaack!
-You laid hands on Viscount Rivang's young lady? Have you truly gone mad!?
-The people of the north are all mine. How dare a thing like you hurt what's mine!! Men, lock him up this instant! Don't give him a single piece of bread or a drop of water until I permit it!
A cheek swollen hot.
Callias, locked in a room in the north, touched his cheek, then stood up and approached the window.
Seeing his reflection in the glass, tears streamed down.
But those tearful eyes soon became calm, as if emotions had disappeared.
"So it's like this."
Crash!
All the glass by the window shattered and broke.
Before he knew it, the north had vanished and the surroundings were filled with only darkness.
Then something black flickered in his vision, and he was startled by the photograph that appeared.
-Oh my...
-What am I supposed to do if you go so soon...
-They say she killed herself? Why did she die?
-How would I know.
Family members dressed in black mourning clothes.
People whispering and chattering.
A photograph with a bright, innocent smile.
It was a funeral.
"...!!"
His heart pounded.
Like a rubber band stretched too far, the scenery changed bizarrely.
The company rooftop.
She approached the bench with both arms spread wide as if doing photosynthesis in the sunlight and said:
-Author! Who is it this time because of?
At her question with a beaming face, I answered with a smile.
Callias.
The character she liked and I liked.
Probably a character the users would hate.
A guy who meddled everywhere and caused trouble or interfered.
A guy full of love and hate.
-Callias von Zervan! Right? right? I like that character too.
-His personality is a bit much, but he does reflect in the end, you know. Becoming a noble who can sacrifice himself for the greater cause and dying... I think that's cool. Ah! And I really liked Callias's younger brother too? But why Callias again?
Chatter chatter.
At her voice chattering away to her heart's content, I found myself smiling.
-Ahh~ Because he's too weak? Well, that's true. But isn't that good? A guy who looks like he'd fall over with one tap but acts cocky is even more annoying, right!
That was also true.
As I agreed and talked about this and that, lunch break had already ended.
Occasionally talking with her like this was my joy.
Today's joy that came after a long time had also ended.
-See you again!
Her figure, seen off with regret, fell from the rooftop.
Crack.
Her body with a broken neck bounced and came straight at me.
-Why didn't you stop me? You saw me die.
At the sight of her approaching covered in blood and speaking, I couldn't say anything.
Even when I tried to say something, my throat felt blocked shut and no sound came out.
-You knew I was going to die.
I shake my head.
No, that's not true.
But at the sight of her shedding tears of blood, I only screamed silently.
-You killed me.
Chatter chatter.
Freezing arms and legs.
Along with the repeatedly shaking head, his curled-up body slowly froze.
-If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have died.
As she looked down at his completely frozen figure.
The corners of her mouth tore long.
Dripping blood, she approached him.
Just as the wraith-like fingers were about to touch his shoulder.
[You worm-like bastard. Enough is enough.]
-...?
The wraith came to a halt.
When the hand about to touch his shoulder didn't move, she looked up in bewilderment.
Beside the frozen man.
There stood a man.
[Rise. Right now.]
At his single word, crack.
The frozen ice split and then shattered with a crash.
-Who are you?
[I don't mingle with insects. Don't speak so familiarly to a lowly ghost. I'll tear your limbs off.]
Freed from the frozen body, standing beside him was a noble among nobles.
His straightened back and raised head were full of confidence, and his eyes and expression filled with arrogance could make anyone bow their head.
The eyes and mouth full of a chosen people's mindset, as if everything besides himself was beneath even insects, spoke to him.
[Rise, worm. I didn't hand over my body for you to collapse at something like this.]
He was Callias von Zervan.
[What a half-chewed filth of a willpower this is.]
At Callias's bitter reproach, his face crumpled involuntarily.