0% My right arm was hot.
A sensation like it was about to be severed. I pondered as I shifted my heavy body.
What happened again?
Right, I had just started running without hesitation the mont I saw the dozens of rays about to plunge towards Lotte.
I don’t know why I did that. If I had to give a reason, then...... just because?
Right, I just did it. There was no reason.
But that thing’s attack had changed its course towards midway. I had co to a halt for a mont, and in that ti saw dozens of flashes of light.
Then, I had lost consciousness.
Seeing as my arm was hurting, I must have gotten hit by Ectoplasm’s attack after all.
“Ugh.”
It was another level of pain. If Lotte had been hit by sothing like this, she definitely wouldn’t have made it.
Thinking that, it was as I opened my eyelids with effort.
“......?”
There was a heaviness.
It wasn’t a weight coming from within. The feeling was as if a heavy stone was weighing down on .
Was it, it can’t be.
“...Aughh.”
My head slowly moved down. The dress shirt I was wearing was soaked in red paint.
“.......”
This. Wasn’t my blood.
“Hey....”
I shifted without thinking in order to wake up the girl who had collapsed in my arms.
The tallic tang of blood, and a floral scent that was slightly stronger than that. It was the sll of my friend’s perfu which I had slled several tis before.
“Wake up, wake up.”
No matter how much I shook her, she didn’t move. Her head was hanging, and the way her shoulders drooped lifelessly was like that of a corpse.
My breath caught in my throat.
I carefully turned the girl onto her side. Supporting her head in my left hand, I patted her face and clothes with my stiff right.
Everywhere I touched was hot and damp.
“You, why are you like this.”
For an instant, my mind blanked out.
There were holes in the girl’s chest. Not just one, but several.
Why are you like this. What happened to your body.
I wanted to ask.
Even knowing that I shouldn’t, I kept shaking her. I slapped her face with my hand that was difficult to move, and tried calling her na as well.
Lotte, Lotte, Lotte.
After a few calls, the girl’s eyelids slid open. I was relieved for a mont, but my face soon crumpled again.
Lotte’s eyes were blank and unfocused.
“......er.”
She moved her lips, and blood spilled out.
“...Thank, goodness.”
Her voice gurgled. I couldn’t hear her usual bright and clear tone right now.
And so I couldn’t say anything. Because there was nothing that ca to mind. It was just one aborted sound after another.
anwhile, Lotte’s head turned with difficulty.
“Your arm, what happened....”
There was still a bit of blood oozing from my right arm.
Black blood, the sign of a Beast. I should never have been found out, but it happened in the end.
Except Lotte didn’t say a word about the color of my blood. Rather, there was only worry in her dying eyes.
What happened to your arm, the girl was asking.
“You knew...?”
I asked.
Lotte nodded weakly. The corners of her lips lifted slightly.
“Why did you protect , then.”
I wanted to ask.
“Why would you protect a monster like ....”
“What about you... for .......”
“That was just. An act. I was just acting.”
In order to keep going with the plan, I had to pretend to care for the students whether I liked it or not. Because if I didn’t, I’d be caught by the Elental Kings here. And since I didn’t want to be slaughtered like that, I was going to shield you and take the hit even if it hurt a little....
I blathered on and on with excuses, but one word rendered it all useless.
“Li-ar.”
Again, I was at a loss for words.
The arm wasn’t hurting anymore, but the pressure in my chest was driving crazy.
I looked around and the situation was roughly under control.
- The Goddess didn’t abandon us!
We’re saved. We’re saved!
Having sensed the attack, the Elentals Kings ca down the altar one by one.
Then I was going to die here. I was to die. Because I was found out to be a Beast in the end....
Now I was going to be blad for this whole situation. Spring Heaven Pasmo’s plan to get rid of after using up succeeded after all.
Ah, then what was going to happen to Akasha? Would she die as well? That didn’t make sense.
I don’t know.
The plan I thought was perfect, the ambition to complete Dark Day, the desire to go back to my original world.
It had all been for nothing. It was all destined to end here.
Even if I died when the ti ca, I wanted to save the girl before my eyes. With my shallow dical knowledge, I tried to provide first aid.
But, there simply wasn’t any hope.
The beams passed through the heart and vital organs, and she was bleeding profusely. At this rate, she only had a few more minutes.
“Just why....”
–did you save . Why did you do sothing so reckless for . Why did you throw yourself for knowing that I was a Beast.
Give a proper, reasonable answer.
“......Because.”
Lotte squeezed the word out with difficulty.
“Because...?”
Nod.
“Just because? For no other reason?”
So in the end, saving , accepting as is–there was no other intention?
Nod.
“Ah.......”
Huuu, Lotte sighed. And that was the end. The girl’s eyes fluttered closed.
“Ahh....”
Actually, I knew.
Even if I didn’t ask, if it was Lotte...
If it was Lotte Saliere, she’d accept as I was no matter the circumstances.
So that was why I had avoided her from the start. Because I had been afraid. Afraid that my past days of those one thousand tis would be denied because of you.
“Ah, ahhhhghhh......!”
A howl that was hard to tell if it ca from a human or monster spilled out.
My friend’s lips turned blue. She was going to die. She was dying. Her stomach was sticky with warm blood, but her limbs were growing cold.
That three strikes thing was a bet I had lost from the start.
No, what kind of bet was a bet one made with themselves. It was nothing more than a defense chanism.
Look at now. There was no voice in my head. It had been nothing more than a self-made fantasy since the beginning.
However, even so.
I had mories of Earth. At the sa ti, there were mories of Ahrens continent.
Who was I. Why did I have mories of the past. What was I doing here. Why did things turn out this way.
Even amidst this feeling of chaos, the girl in my arms was turning into ice.
Crunch!
I bit down on my lip hard enough to draw blood. It was cold. I was cold. The bloodied white muffler was warm. Still–no. It would always be.
My friend’s hand was as cold as ice. Her face was like frost. The sticky blood was slowly hardening. Plip, pli-plip. One, two drops of water on the girl’s paling face.
─ I want a peaceful world to co after the war is over.
A third, a fourth.
─ You’re living with once it’s all over. It’s a promise, okay?
Fifth, sixth.
The promise.
I have to keep the promise.
As I clenched my teeth, my head cleared. Once my emotions grew numb and only reason was left, I realized that sothing was weird.
Lotte’s temperature had dropped too suddenly.
She was cold like touching an icicle, not figuratively but literally.
Even a corpse wouldn’t get this cold.
And for so reason, I was also getting the chills. When I concentrated my senses, there was a cold spread throughout the whole area. I lifted my head and searched for its source.
I could see two bloodstains on the ground next to each other, and gradually lifted my gaze to follow them.
There, stood a blue-eyed woman.
“.......”
The woman watched silently, frost hanging off her fingertips.
I had never seen her before, but I knew instantly who it was.
The Water Elental King, Secuel.
She had freezed Lotte with her powers.
I heard of it before, that one of the Water Lord’s abilities could even freeze ti. That was what she must have used.
Secuel looked down at without a word. Her aquamarine blue eyes were both cool and serene.
I wasn’t scared or anything.
Since I was found out as a Beast, if I died to this woman, I died.
Except, there was one thing I regretted.
“Are you alright, everyone!”
The outside must have been taken care of because the mages and priests rushed in.
The mages bowed their heads hastily upon seeing the Elental Kings, and so priests even prostrated themselves, crying in reverence.
“......!”
My eyes locked with theirs.
When they saw , they brought forth the staff that they had put away.
I knew what they were thinking based on the situation. They probably believed that I caused this ss and the Kings, who just couldn’t stand by, showed up and subdued . Even I would think the sa.
“Your Majesties...!”
“Stop, that’s enough.”
Secuel raised her hand and stopped the mages.
It wasn’t only people that she stopped, but also ordered the Elentals–calling mindlessly for the extermination of the Beast–to be quiet.
Two other Kings ca over to Secuel. One was Ifrit, the Fire Elental King, and the other was the Earth Elental King, Gno.
“May you punish it as you see fit.”
An elderly elf in priestly robes offered up a prayer. I say prayer, but it was basically asking them to kill .
The sa pattern for the second ti following last sester. I honestly didn’t even have the heart to be angry. I was beyond it. Sure, it could happen. If I did get angry, rather, wouldn’t it only be good for Spring and Sumr who betrayed ?
“May you end that monster, O Kings, and in doing so comfort the souls of the elves who have fallen, and.......”
The mages in priest robes kept praying, and the Kings watching them were just sighing and listening quietly.
“...Have rcy on us, and grant us the courage and wisdom to handle the situation.”
It was an ordinary prayer, but for it was like a death sentence. If the Elental Kings did as they said, I would die.
“Haah.”
Whatever happens, happens.
It was as I was thinking that.
[What if we don’t want to?]
“......?”
[Who are you to say to kill my contractor or not, goodness. How unpleasant.]
Said a voice from above .
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