Chapter 145: Practice Match (2)

Krektar, Zagoras, Echis, Albed and…Murka, in front of me.

These are the names of the demons that pursue Aizel.

Of all of them, Murka is the one responsible for many retries, and their leader.

I first learned that Murka encountered Edward during the war but he’s still alive, which means Edward didn’t kill him back then.

“Were there any more humans still alive?”

Murka noticed our presence, hiding among the bushes and darkness.

Can he talk?

Maybe he recognizes Aizel.

I don’t think so.

There’s no way Edward can embody his memories.

Soon, Murka raises his hand toward us and I can feel the magick being pulled from his body so I spoke urgently.

“He’s coming, everyone, take cover. The battle has already begun.”

For a moment, Lucia panics, but the sound of my voice brings her back to her senses and she scrambles out of the bushes so do Amon and Yuri.

But in that split second, Aizel’s foot hasn’t left the ground.

“Spiral.”

Murka’s voice snapped and the trees began to twist around the bush so I quickly snatched Aizel up.

-Wham!!!

The next thing I know, the ground between us is literally crushed.

I could feel her heartbeat in my arms.

I wonder if it’s the same.

Her breathing is ragged, and her racing heart shows no signs of slowing down.

***

A day before my death Zetto asked to go see the sea.

“What do you mean, that. We’re going to the East in two days.”

“Don’t you think Veleshanas is more fun than the East?

“…I don’t think so.”

“Anyway, it’s just a break from the academy…”

I knew full well that I couldn’t go to the East or the sea.

They would come to me so I would head off alone, as I always did, to a place off the beaten path, to reduce casualties.

“Shall we sneak away, just the two of us?”

But Zetto said it with a gentle smile.

It was a suggestion sweeter than any fruit.

He’d done it countless times but the ending was obvious: die faster.

Leaving the safe confines of the Academy would only make the wolf’s lips curl upward so I had no choice but Zetto offered me a choice.

The sound of his voice, the smile on his lips, the look in his eyes, somehow filled me with a sense of trust.

With this man.

With Zetto.

I could run… Maybe I could try.

Break the chains of ‘regression’ that imprison me, and be as free as a bird in the blue sky.

In the end, I agreed with him so Zetto and I left the academy that day.

There were no demons in the academy, so we put everything aside and walked lightly.

Thus began our journey.

I was worried, but at least I had Zetto by my side… and that alone made me happy.

That afternoon the sun was slowly setting.

However, since my journey with Zetto began, I hadn’t encountered a single demon.

This was supposed to be the time when their pursuit would have begun.

After a while of wondering about this, Zetto suggested we stop at an inn to rest. Sitting in the middle of the room, I was not finding it easy to calm down.

I wonder if they’ll track us down.

What if they find us?

No, they would find us.

Would Zetto and I survive them?

I wonder if I’ll end up hurting him.

Maybe it’s better to leave him now and die alone.

It was a time when everything was doubtful and troubling that Zetto brought me a glass of water and spoke softly to me.

“Miss Aizel, everything will be fine. What would happen to the world if we suddenly disappeared, and so far nothing has happened?”

He wasn’t wrong.

Strangely enough, when Zetto and I stepped outside, the world was as calm as the ocean, and nothing was happening.

What’s more, Zetto and I weren’t heroes or anything else indispensable to the world.

We were just a young man and woman, former academy cadets, now wanderers.

Once I settled down, the tension that had kept me on edge for the past few days eased, and drowsiness flooded over me.

“Good night.”

Zetto whispered to me as I lay in bed.

I lifted my heavy eyelids, trying to capture one more moment of him but it wasn’t long before I was asleep.

The dream I had that day was an incredibly relaxing and happy dream, so far removed from my nightmarish reality.

I went to see Zetto, the sea, and Veleshanas.

I was lying in the warm sunshine, whispering my love to him.

I was able to open my eyes.

It’s a strange thing to say, but I could open my eyes.

I hadn’t opened my eyes since that day.

The blinding sunlight that seeped through the cracks in the window made me frown.

There was a strange scent in the room, sweet and vague, yet somehow familiar.

I immediately called out to Zetto but there was no answer.

I turned my head in the direction of his bed, wondering if he had woken up yet and that was the moment when a sweet dream turned into a nightmare.

Zetto wasn’t in the room, he was nowhere to be seen.

A single orchid sits on a table in the center of a silent room, devoid of any sound.

A flower whose name means ‘happy ending’… a contradiction for a flower with such an unhappy story.

It was only then that I realized that Zetto had dosed the water with sleeping pills and put me to sleep on purpose.

He must have realized that the demons chasing me were closing.

I was no longer able to hide my emotions in front of Zetto so he had sensed it in me.

I frantically ran outside and wondered where Zetto was but as soon as I left the inn, I knew.

I opened my eyes and saw peace that had all been created by a single person.

The sweet scent of Obzion in my nostrils masked the foul tang of the demons outside.

The small, sparsely populated town was overrun by the corpses of demons.

Among the countless corpses of demons were familiar faces.

Zagoras, Echis, and Albed, the same ones who slaughtered the Ludwig clan and used me as a test subject…They were after me.

Krektar had been killed before, along with Zetto… All that remained was Murka.

I scoured the village but the villagers found me first.

Apparently, Zetto had evacuated them to safety during the night.

Sadly, I didn’t care about their survival.

What mattered to me was not the nameless villagers, but one person. It was Zetto’s life or death.

I soon found Zetto in the village’s small church with Murka, who had been decapitated.

I met him, still breathing, in the church, just before it was crushed in the aftermath of the battle…

…and we spoke afterward.

I can still hear his voice echoing in my head.

“…Are you okay?”

Yes. His voice was like this.

Not too high, not too low, just the right pitch to be pleasant to listen to.

It didn’t contain a lot of emotion, so it could have been perceived as insensitive, but his words always showed that he cared about people.

“Miss Aizel…?”

“Ah…”

Zetto’s continued call finally breaks me out of the swamp of my past.

As the rain pelted my cheeks, I slowly recalled the current situation.

Now in Edward’s illusionary magic Zetto is flying through the air, carrying me in his arms after nearly falling victim to Murka’s telekinesis.

When I looked down, he was glaring at me and Zetto.

Murka’s red glare bores into me.

“Ugh.”

Fear was slowly eating away at me.

An unstoppable force that always shows up on the same day, at the same time, and takes lives.

The one who killed Zetto, the one who made him die… I could barely bring myself to resist him.

The fear that had been imprinted on my soul over the years took precedence over vengeance.

“Are you afraid?”

Zetto’s voice was as calm as the stillness of the night when he asked me that question.

I barely managed to open my mouth as I hugged Zetto’s body even tighter.

“…Yes.”

“Then I guess we should get rid of it.”

Zetto smiled.

“…I wonder if we can take that thing down…”

He wasn’t referring to Edward’s fake Murka below.

That’s the Murka of the past.

This one is much stronger.

Right down to the color of his horns.

Still, I wanted to hear it.

“Of course.”

His voice is confident.

Zetto’s foot touches the ground.

I followed his movements and lowered my feet to the ground.

“…Why did you save me?”

I asked, taking advantage of the situation.

It was a very strange question.

In fact, it was a question I wanted to ask the previous Zetto.

A question he wouldn’t understand but since he had just saved my life, it was a question I could ask.

“…”

The listener will find it hard to believe…

“…Because I’m a colleague? Because I’m precious? What is precious? Why am I precious to you, Zetto?”

When Zetto couldn’t say anything else, I let out the questions I’d been holding inside.

I let it all out.

I was frustrated.

I didn’t need an answer.

I just wanted to get it off my chest.

I just wanted to get it out.

Zetto spoke next.

“Why is Ms. Aizel important to me…?”

I thought Zetto would say something like, “Because she’s a friend,” or “Does someone you care about need a reason to be important to you?”

But he couldn’t seem to find the words. He looked like he was really thinking about something.

Is this really something to think about?

This was not the usual Zetto.

“…So why are you important to me? I’m…”

Zetto’s silence lasted longer than I expected, and I became a little nervous, so I asked again.

“…Ummm……”

Zetto scratched his head in silence.

***

“…So why are you precious? Because…”

Aizel asks again when I fail to answer.

I can hear her voice clearly over the pounding rain.

“…Ummm……”

I tried to think of an answer, but I couldn’t.

[Why would she ask such a stupid question when a demon is right in front of her…]

Sierra sighs.

Well, she’s right, this isn’t the time to have this conversation, but I’m complicated in my own way.

Why do I care about Aizel?

Why is she important to me?

The premise of “she gave me happiness while I was playing a game…” is hard to understand now that I don’t even know if I was really playing a game or if there was such a thing as a game.

That didn’t mean Aizel wasn’t important.

Losing her would still be painful.

My head felt like it was filled with dark clouds, but then I realized the answer.

Why hadn’t I thought of this before?

“You know…I’m in love with Ms. Aizel, so you’re important to me.”

Finally, it all came together.

I like Aizel, therefore, she is important to me.

When I finished and took a breath, I saw Sierra looking at me wide-eyed and wistful.

‘Wait, so Sierra is…’

Sierra is important to me too.

Does that mean I like her?

No, I think I like her.

Yeah…It’s not a sin to like people…

‘Is it a sin…?’

Just when I think I’ve got it figured out, a new question hits me in the head.

Is this a problem with the ‘crown’ that reduces emotions?

Is it just me?

I was terribly confused and I desperately needed Geppeti’s objective judgment.

“Uh…”

I wonder if Aizel was confused as well since she opened her mouth but couldn’t speak.

Something leaped from the ground and landed in front of Aizel.

The leaper stood up and opened his mouth.

“You sensed the difference in power and decided to flee. Good judgment, but your opponent was too powerful, so accept your death gracefully.”

…For a moment, I forgot about Murka.

In an instant, I was in his range but before I could reach for my sword, a powerful flash of light erupted from Aizel’s hand.

-Bam!!!

Aizel’s powerful blast sends Murka flying into the distance.

She, who nonchalantly sent Murka flying, then rushes over to me.

“…I didn’t hear you correctly because of that demon, repeat it.”