177. Cinders in the Ashes (6)

“It’s unstable.”

It was the night after the formation of the commando team to directly attack Leon Benning. Maxim looked at Christine’s fingers stabbing his left breast. As I slowly looked up along her arm, I saw Christine’s face. As always when she’s dissatisfied with her, her green eyes quiver like glass beads, her cheeks slightly puffed up.

“What is unstable?”

When Maxim asked, Christine looked up and their eyes met. The frowning eyes did not contain the light of self-reproach, but rather the light of self-reproach. Christine quickly opened her mouth before Maxim’s expression turned to embarrassment.

“It is my seal that imprisoned my senior’s curse. You probably didn’t feel it, but I’m a magician and I’m sensitive to mana.”

Christine put down her index finger that had stabbed Maxim in the chest. Feeling the emptiness as if a tiny electric current was flowing, Maxim unconsciously touched the place where his heart was beating. I could feel my heart beating as if it were always there. Christine looked at him and let out a short sigh.

“Has the power of the seal weakened?”

Maxim asked with a tilt of his head, and Christine shook her head.

“It’s not that the seal has weakened, but the power of the curse is getting stronger. If the power of the magician who cast the curse becomes stronger by leaps and bounds, this would happen… . I don’t know what he did to break the seal containing the essence of my mana.”

Christine bit her lip. Maxim was just grateful that she still cared about him. It’s just that now wasn’t the time to indulge in sentimentality.

“Is there a solution?”

“There is only one permanent solution to all curses. killing the sorcerer. It will be useless if the curse suppressed by the seal is released.”

“… Is there a way to temporarily stop the curse that broke through the seal?”

“There can be no such thing… It is.”

Christine froze. What followed was an awkward silence. Christine tried to avoid Maxim’s gaze on her.

“Christine.”

“I do not like it. I can’t possibly tell you.”

“Then you want me to be cursed by Leon Bening and become a puppet that doesn’t even recognize you?”

Christine’s head drooped. If it was a puppy, the grass would have died and let down its ears and tail. Maxim unknowingly raised the corner of his mouth slightly. Christine’s weak fist rested limply on Maxim’s chest. once, twice, three times. Maxim’s heartbeat beat at a different tempo than when Christine’s fists collided.

“Senpai always picks out words that make me uncomfortable. That’s why you hear that it’s petty. I know?”

“If I go crazy with the curse and injure or kill you, the consequences will be much worse than my own death. You know, Christine.”

“… Who said that the senior died? Keep your body guard straight and say it.”

Christine straightened her expression, as if she had decided to stop complaining. It was Maxim, not her, who suffered. It was Maxim who had to draw conclusions. If you can’t even tell the way, that would be a very selfish choice.

“… I don’t want my seniors to get sick. I don’t want to get hurt. But senpai, if you want to end all of this heinous work, you can’t help it, right?”

Saying that, Christine looked at the white child hanging from Maxim’s waist. When Maxim handed the white sword to Christine, Christine pulled out the white blade and looked at the pure white blade. The purest substance, white iron. Of course, the power to contain mana is much stronger than other metals. Christine blew mana lightly, and Baek Ah’s sword shone with Christine’s golden mana.

“The method will be a bit drastic. If the curse is strengthened from the other side, then we can also amplify the power of the seal… .”

Christine grabbed Baek Ah’s hilt and pointed the knife at Maxim.

“The way to directly interfere with the curse is to have my spell directly touch the curse spell. Do you know what I mean, senpai?”

Maxim looked at Baek-ah in silence. The pain is engraved on the body. Maxim could already vividly imagine the sensation of the sharp, pure white tip of a knife piercing his flesh and piercing his heart.

“It means stabbing your heart with a knife.”

“I cast a spell on the blade, and you have to stab it. If the two powers of the seal and the curse are in harmony, you will not die instantly and you will be able to endure for a while. That doesn’t mean that the chance of the senior dying is low, though.”

Christine said in a calm tone. Maxim shrugged.

“Well, there is no other alternative. Still, doesn’t that mean you will die unconditionally?”

Christine let out a laugh as if it were absurd.

“In the first place, senior, you shouldn’t think that stabbing your own heart is easy when the curse controls your body. Only if you succeed… If there are people who can help you, it’s not that there isn’t a chance of living.”

Maxim nodded and took the white child back from Christine. As if she knew what to do with her master, Baek-ah was weakly crying. Maxim put Baekah into the scabbard. There was silence, weighed down by the weight of the conversation.

“You save me.”

Maxim suddenly raised his head and said that.

“… I’m going to save you even if I kill you, so don’t worry.”

“If Theodora knew, she would never take me. Keep it a secret?”

“It’s bad, old man. In the end, I use it until the end, right?”

“If you’re being used, what if you’re being used to the end?”

Maxim added, and Christine replied with a smile.

—

Memories returned slowly. Maxim blinked as he rummaged through his memories like someone writing in a diary on a blank sheet of paper.

yes my name I am Maxim Appart. The eldest son of Baron Apart and a knight belonging to the 2nd Guards. The one fighting alongside me is Theodora. my ex-girlfriend. Beautiful blonde hair. And even more so, a wonderful and lovely knight with dark cloud-colored eyes.

The heavy pain felt in his chest seemed to accelerate the accident even more. Maxim supported his staggering body with the white ax. Every time I moved, it felt like my body was being torn apart. Maxim let out the breath he had been holding in all at once. Handfuls of black, dead blood vomited out along with breath.

“Cool!”

Maxim blinked to correct his spinning vision. The yellow light floating like a dot flickered and then slowly faded with several blinks. Maxim wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and clicked his tongue slightly as he checked the color of the blood.

“Really, it hurts so much.”

Maxim grumbled and looked down at his pierced chest. There was no bleeding. Right now, it seemed that the heart’s mana was fighting a war with the curse. It was Maxim who died thanks to the aftermath of that war. As Christine said, you can hold on.

And now all that’s left is to bring the sword down at that damn count. Leon Benning stared blankly at Maxim as he staggered up with his limbs completely frozen. Soon after, the count let out a laugh and shook his head.

“… yes. There must have been that damn wizard. I didn’t think it would be so powerful.”

Maxim breathed heavily. It was as if the wind was blowing softly through the cuts in his chest. Leon Benning’s eyes glared at Maxime with a kind light, nothing more and nothing less.

“I am ignorant, but the effect seems to be quite good.”

I didn’t feel any connection. He must have regained control of the curse. Leon Benning let out a chuckle. Like all the laughs that Leon Benning spits out, it was both a laugh and a mania. Laughter lasted a long time. what was so funny Frustration in a situation that has reached this far? Reprimand yourself for not being more thorough? If not that, anger towards all the people who betrayed him and drove him this far?

“Khehehehe.”

Leon Bening laughed barely breathing. Maxime quietly watched Leon Benning burst out laughing. I didn’t feel any sign of the current count. It was unlikely that he would draw his sword and attack Maxim again, and it was unlikely that he would be hiding another heinous plan.

“Ah, that’s really absurd. I knew there were circumstances beyond my control. But I never thought that the situation would become a variable.”

Leon Benning started talking every now and again. The monstrous nature inherent in his depth continued to flow out as if there was no need to hide it any longer.

“No, even if the situation outside of my hands becomes a big variable, I thought there was a way to completely block it. yes. I’m only thinking about it now, but it wasn’t the plan that went wrong. If it wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t my plan.”

Leon Benning leaned back and looked at the collapsed ceiling of the Great War. Today’s day is sunny. It was the opposite of the sky this winter, which was always cloudy. Leon Benning stared squarely at the thin sunlight streaming through the cracks in the collapse. Despite the blinding pain, Leon Benning did not stop laughing. Those inorganic, distinctive gray eyes glistened in the sun.

“It was me who wasn’t perfect. I was able to plan all of them, but I couldn’t fully carry out the perfect plan because I, who was controlling from above, was not perfect. I thought you would realize this only now.”

びぁぁぅ.

I couldn’t tell if it was a laugh out of breath or someone weeping in pain. Leon Benning continued to laugh like that, and at one point stopped. The winter wind was blowing through the gap. The blowing dust settled on my head like snow.

The clouds are passing by.

The sky in winter was higher than in autumn. The clouds that I could normally catch if I stretched out my hand seemed to lie high in the sky that I couldn’t even touch with my fingertips no matter how hard I tried. Leon Benning did not reach for the clouds. I just looked at the clouds that flowed beyond the eyes burned by the sunlight.

how do i act now

Did you try to take what was out of reach? No, has there ever been a place I couldn’t reach in the first place? Was it a mistake to judge that I could do it this time?

Have I failed?

Leon Benning questioned himself, but no clear answer came. The last question he had posed lingered in Leon Benning’s mind for a strangely long time. I never thought of it as a failure. It was a strange feeling. He discarded fights with low odds and repeated only fights with high odds. However, when the time came when he had to fight a battle with little chance of winning, he did not think of surrendering.

“Really, humans are strange creatures.”

I asked all my life, but I couldn’t find out. I tried to kill him but I couldn’t figure it out, I tried to subdue him but I couldn’t figure it out. Because he was a monster, imprisoned in a human prison. The one who thought he was a trivial existence all his life was eventually the identity of the prison he was imprisoned in. The search for interest in finding out what one is and what a person is eventually ended up with this result.

that’s the person

In Leon Benning’s field of vision, Theodora supporting Maxim was reflected. People were tools to the Count in the first place. The appearances of Theodora and Maxim did not inspire anything. However, the fact that he would never become like that, the doubts he had avoided all his life, just started to rise.

“It’s such an unknown world, isn’t it, Maxime Appard?”

The corners of Leon Benning’s mouth went up again. As always, it was a fake laugh. Insignificant and insignificant, thinking that he was trapped in such an insignificant and insignificant existence, Leon Benning opens his mouth again. This time, he was staring straight at Theodora. This time, I was curious about how they would react to this statement.

“I killed your mother, Theodora.”

Theodora’s expression hardened. Then, all the energy of mana that had filled the room disappeared, and the thick platinum life slowly began to fill the gap. Theodora did not seem to doubt what Leon Benning had said in the first place. Next to him, Maxim was watching Theodora’s face anxiously.

“Why are you saying that now?”

“Well, there is no need for a long explanation. I’m just a person who was interested in it. I lost interest in it, so I just disposed of it as I liked.”

Leon Benning sighed and quickly raised the sword he had slammed into the ground. The witch, Lillia’s life vessel was still moving, albeit slightly, wriggling creepily even when it was pierced by Leon Benning’s sword. Leon Benning pulled out his heart from the tip of his sword. Instead of blood, the black magic mana was evaporating and spewing black smoke.

“I.”

Theodora said. Leon Benning looked at his daughter with thin eyes.

“I can’t understand you at all. No, I have no idea what it is.”

Murder emanated from Theodora’s hardened voice. Leon Benning willingly accepted Theodora’s intense life with his five senses.

“As much as you don’t know me, I couldn’t know you either. No, I couldn’t know all other humans, including you. Bernard, who I thought was a bit like me, wasn’t too different from other humans.”

Leon Benning turned his gaze to the life vessel in his left hand. As the mana flowed out, I felt the enormous mana pulsating in it.

“In the end, you talk about being nothing more than the same person, thinking you’re some kind of god.”

It was the voice of Maxime Appart. Leon Benning let out a laugh.

“Okay. It must be ridiculous to say such a thing with a body that is dying.”

Leon Benning took the Life Vessel to his mouth. I didn’t like the things that made a fuss, but it became like this. The blood drained from Theodora’s face, and an aura boiled over. Leon Benning raised a black mana barrier and caught the sword attacking him.

“In that case, why not kill me and prove him?”

Ugh.

Leon Benning bit off the Witch’s Life Vessel. Blacker than pitch black, complete darkness fell over the Great War. Then, the maddening voice of Leon Benning resonated throughout Daejeon.

“If I kill you, you will know that I am different from you!”

Leon Benning spread his arms wide. The world shattered beyond his sight and began to be sucked into a single point. Leon Benning laughed, showing his teeth for the first time. The term “reason for life” was trivial. But the Count could feel as if he had been present in this world for this battle. Even though the black magic was tearing his body apart inside and out, he felt no pain at all. I didn’t care if the sight disappeared and only the outline remained in the dark background and roamed around.

“Now, grab that sword and attack me. Theodora, Maxime Appard.”

The voice rides the wind and turns into a whirlwind. Leon Benning’s body became one with Mana and gradually began to rise.

“me! Deny the me I defined and downgrade to being no different from you guys!”

Key Yiing-!!

After those words, Leon Benning was completely swallowed up by the black wind.