novelraw Chapter 81 : Chapter 81
Chapter 81 : Chapter 81
Chapter 81: Bone Between Flowers (4)
Ahat, ahat.
Laughter echoed in the darkness.
The underground laboratory of the Saint-Pierre family. The children who were scheduled to be killed during the banquet were imprisoned there.
The children did not know. What was happening outside the laboratory. Breathing in the faint smell of smoke that seeped in, sweating in the lingering heat that warmed the laboratory walls, they just laughed and laughed and laughed again.
──Thud!
While laughing, they cried.
A smile lingered on their lips, but moisture welled up and trickled from the corners of their eyes. Tied to the operating tables, they stared blankly at the ceiling, ahat, ahat. They repeated a sound that was neither laughter nor cry.
──Kwoong!
I want to die. I want to die. I want to die.
The children thought. They didn't know what death was, but they had come to know. We were killed. We are already dead. The parents who left after telling us to wait just a moment in the middle of the snowy mountain must have been waiting for our deaths for as long as we had been waiting for them. We were meant to die.
──Kwoooong!
But why weren't they dying?
It was funny that they weren't dying. It was sad that they weren't dying.
As they thought so, and made the sound ‘ahat, ahat’,
“It cannot be──!”
with a thunderous shout,
──Kwaaaang!
the entrance to the laboratory collapsed.
Giant men with axes stormed into the laboratory. They were the Barbarians of the Zylon family. The strong men, wrapped in animal fur, quickly checked on the children. They stood side by side, embracing the children who had been bound to the operating tables.
“It cannot be……”
Drogo von Babenberg le Zylon.
The head of the Zylon family muttered, clenching his teeth.
The battle axe in Drogo’s hand was exuding a cold chill. He had just broken through the laboratory entrance, which had been protected by five layers of defensive spells, eight layers of concealment spells, and three layers of warding spells. Not with any other means, but with pure strength alone.
“The North……, the North is the home of Zylon. No one should die……”
Drogo said, gasping for breath.
His thick hair, like a mane, fluttered in the cold wind.
“Deserick de Saint-Pierre……”
Grind.
The sound of teeth grinding.
“──What on earth was that bastard doing!”
To Drogo’s roar,
Ahaha──!
Ahahahahat──!
the children’s laughter bloomed.
Drogo’s chest, which had been heaving violently, became quiet. He could figure out what the children’s laughter was. It must be more of a groan than a laugh. It must be a cry. The children, high on drugs, were convulsing uncontrollably.
Fairy children.
He couldn’t believe it. Such a vicious tradition still remained? No, it was different. The tradition had disappeared. And so, only malice was left. It was useless no matter how many enemy soldiers were executed, no matter how many monsters were executed. The malice that had seeped into the snowy mountain was ruling this land. Coldly, and desolately.
“……Weak.”
Looking at the children, Drogo muttered.
“You are weak.”
All of you are weak.
Unbearably weak.
“Why……”
Why did such weak children,
have to die in this land?
Wondering so, Drogo lowered his head.
Anger, self-loathing, sadness. The moment all sorts of emotions rushed through Drogo’s mind,
“Zylon, transport the children.”
Suddenly, Iris’s cold voice was heard.
“They look malnourished. They’ll need to be treated immediately.”
“……Orléans.”
Drogo looked back at Iris.
Iris was standing with her back against the laboratory wall. Wrapped in a wool coat, with a cigarette in one hand that scattered acrid smoke.
“Transport the children.”
Drogo muttered weakly.
The barbarians began to move, holding the children in their arms.
After looking back at the barbarians running into the distance, Iris approached Drogo.
“His Majesty has commanded. Investigate the truth of the evil deeds committed by the Saint-Pierre family. What happened here today must be clearly revealed, but it must be filtered before it is known to the subjects. It won’t be possible to conceal everything, but it must be revealed to the world very slowly.”
“You talk a good game, Orléans.”
Drogo’s gaze sharpened.
His Majesty is truly indifferent. He thought, scanning Iris’s face. How could he send the head of the Orléans family to the North? He must be a descendant of the very person who stained this land with blood.
“I will obey His Majesty’s command. So get lost. I cannot tolerate you setting foot in this land.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can do that. I trust your abilities, but there are things I need to confirm myself.”
“What on earth are you going to confirm? Are you going to see the bones of my ancestors who were killed by your ancestor? If so, then dig anywhere you like. You’ll be able to find them without difficulty.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Iris bowed her head slightly.
Then she turned her back. The sound of rain was heard from outside, and the damp air that enveloped the underground laboratory became wet, and,
“Orléans.”
Drogo opened his mouth roughly.
With his back to the motionless Iris.
“This body hates your family.”
I hate, hate, and will hate them.
The family of yours that massacred my ancestors to get their hands on the North,
miserably slandered the ethnicity of our Zylon,
and looked down on us, saying we were barbaric and unsightly──.
“──This body will curse them for the rest of its life.”
Iris was silent.
The moment she was about to take a step without a word,
“And Iris.”
Drogo opened his mouth quietly.
Looking back at the motionless Iris.
“I still love you.”
You, Konstanze, and I.
I always remember our school days.
Because it is the most beautiful memory of my life.
So I sincerely wish. That both Konstanze and you……,
“……will be happy forever and ever.”
Silence flowed.
Iris did not look back at Drogo.
She just lowered her head and thought for a moment, then,
“Duke Drogo von Babenberg le Zylon.”
she whispered in an ever-so-gentle voice.
Drogo’s eyes widened. Did that woman, that child, know how to speak so kindly?
“I can no longer distinguish between love and hate.”
Iris confessed a piece of her true feelings.
With her expression hidden from Drogo.
“Therefore, I can only politely decline your innocent affection and your rightful hatred.”
The only things I can distinguish are life and death.
I will live for someone’s life, and I will die for someone’s death. Because everything else has become unimportant.
“So I tell you with all my heart──.”
By all means, please,don’t die and live a long life.
* * *
The rain poured down.
The lumpy rainwater cooled and melted.
It cooled the fiercely blooming flames, and it melted the firmly frozen snow.
Monika looked into the distance. Standing on the vividly intertwined green stalk, she gazed beyond the collapsed wall of the banquet hall. The warships that had landed everywhere, the bustling crowd, and the scorched and collapsed buildings. The day had broken, but the sky was gloomy with dark clouds.
[We will meet again.]
The god was gone.
He was no longer there. It felt as if what had happened overnight was an illusion. But seeing the vast blooming flower, it seemed it was not a dream. She hoped it wasn't.
“……Monika.”
Monika tilted her gaze downwards.
If the city was in the distance, Fleur was nearby.
The sound of breathing, like rustling petals, could be heard. Fleur’s eyes, supported by Monika, opened neatly. The torn dress was hopelessly shabby, but her body, which had been transformed into a Demon Human, was restored to its original state.
“I think I met my mother.”
Fleur’s voice was hazy.
“My mother……, and the knights who followed me……”
I think I said goodbye to everyone.
Fleur muttered so.
“Was it a dream?”
“It probably wasn’t a dream.”
“I see.”
Fleur’s head tilted to the side.
Fleur, who was looking at the scenery of the Saint-Pierre estate, had a faint smile on her face.
“……It wasn’t a dream, was it.”
“Fleur, listen carefully.”
Monika whispered to Fleur.
“There isn’t much time.”
Fleur was not completely revived.
She had only bought time to say goodbye.
Would it be about an hour at most? There was no time to spare.
“So let’s go.”
Tuk.
Monika pushed off.
With her legs wrapped in green Aura.
“To say goodbye to everyone.”
* * *
“Wake up.”
Tuk.
Abel extended his hand.
He tapped Osmond’s face.
“It’s time to say goodbye.”
……Goodbye?
Opening his eyes slightly, Osmond wondered.
The day had already broken. The surroundings were blurry due to the pouring rain, but the color of the sky was different from the night when the snowstorm had raged and the flames had spread.
Had they won?
It seemed so. Abel was looking down at Osmond with an indifferent expression. Abel’s armor was broken, and Osmond’s armor was also broken. Osmond extended his arm, which was only bones, and pulled Abel’s cheek.
“……What are you doing.”
“Does it hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt.”
“Then it’s a dream?”
“Let’s just say it hurts a little.”
“Then it’s not a dream?”
“Right.”
I see.
Osmond smiled faintly.
He felt good, and he felt bad.
As Fleur had intended, the subjects of the Saint-Pierre estate were safe. The Inquisition Bureau and the Imperial Secret Service. The elite military organizations of the empire had helped Abel. In normal times, it would have been an impossible task.
But Fleur was dead. She had stabbed a sword into her own heart. Looking down at his two hands, Osmond remembered. The sensation of piercing Fleur’s body. He clenched his hand of bone and his hand of flesh at the same time. It was unbearably miserable.
“What will you do now.”
“I don’t know.”
To Abel’s question, Osmond answered.
“I don’t care what happens.”
“Were your arms and legs congenitally missing?”
“No, I had an accident. It doesn’t matter what happened.”
Everything didn’t matter.
Bone and flesh at the same time. Osmond considered himself to be in a state of neither being alive nor dead. He had followed Fleur his entire life, and now that Fleur was gone, the reason to live and the reason to die had disappeared. He had lived for her, and he thought he could die for her.
“Osmond Epanoui.”
Suddenly, Abel opened his mouth.
“I was asked by Fleur to save the subjects of the Saint-Pierre estate.”
“So?”
“Are you not a subject of this place?”
Laughter should have come, but it didn't.
Osmond looked up at Abel with an expressionless face. A subject of the Saint-Pierre estate? He had never been treated like that.
“Do you mean you’ll save me?”
“It seems so.”
Abel turned his back.
He took a step forward.
As Abel’s back grew distant, a figure was approaching Osmond.
“Did I not tell you? It is time to say goodbye.”
Suddenly, Abel said, looking back at Osmond, and,
“That’s……”
Osmond’s eyes widened.
“……Lady Fleur?”
A girl like a flower bud was approaching Osmond.
That’s right. You were always like a flower. Pushing through the fragments of armor, Osmond stood up. He stood on the ground with bone, and he stood on the ground with flesh. And so, he asked Fleur, who had stopped beside him.
“You didn’t……, die?”
“No.”
Fleur answered in a quiet voice.
The rain soaked Fleur’s blue hair.
With a smile on her wet face,
“I will die, and you will live.”
Fleur whispered so.