Matian, who had shaken off the eyes of the dwarf airmen by pretending to go down to the first floor, hid his body in a corner of the corridor and turned his steps back towards the elder’s room.

There was an unusual movement among the airmen, as if there was a problem in the rear engine room, but that was not his concern.

Matian had a different purpose now.

‘Was this the way to the warehouse where Rukna was locked up?’

Even with the Red Eagle’s prophecy book before his eyes, his mind was filled only with thoughts of Rukna, who had been dragged away by the dwarves.

He knew that the fox-like high priest would not properly share the contents of the prophecy book with him anyway, but he was more worried that Rukna might get shot by the hot-tempered dwarves.

‘That idiot might get into big trouble fiddling with a gun without even knowing what it is.’

As student council president, Matian had many opportunities to communicate with dwarves, but Rukna, who knew nothing, was different.

His blood ran cold as soon as he imagined Rukna covered in blood.

Moreover, hadn’t there been an explosion sound from this direction?

‘Something not good is happening on the airship.’

Matian pressed his palm firmly against his throbbing heart.

At that moment, dozens of soldiers moved in line towards the rear of the airship. It was the unit escorting the elder.

‘I need to get Rukna out quickly.’

Matian silently subdued the soldiers who remained sparsely in the corridor and moved to the warehouse where Rukna was locked up.

After striking down the lock hanging on the ring with his sword hilt, he entered the warehouse, but Rukna was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, what greeted him were odds and ends, a hole in the wall, and the elder’s room visible through it.

Crossing through the hole, Matian discovered the central communication cube fallen on the carpet and burnt scraps of the prophecy book.

Next to it was an ugly stain, as if someone had been lying down crying.

‘Fortunately, there are no bloodstains.’

Damn it, those tear stains must be Rukna’s.

There’s no way the high priest or the dwarf elder would have wept to this extent.

‘Where on earth did you go?’

If he had known this would happen, he should have stopped the soldiers from taking Rukna away even if it meant falling out with the dwarves and the military academy.

Recalling those green eyes brimming with tears he had seen once, his insides burned black.

At that moment, a clean and strong holy power was felt from beyond the corridor.

‘This is!’

Though there was also the high priest on this airship, Matian immediately thought of Rukna first.

More precisely, the image of Rukna holding the holy sword.

‘Let’s go check first.’

Rukna moved to a deserted corner following the guidance of the holy sword.

‘This should be far enough, right?’

“Yes, my master. Now try holding me in your hand.”

As the holy sword instructed, she closed her eyes while grasping the pendant, and the contents of the prophecy book began to enter her mind.

Strangely, the content passed not as sentences but as scenes.

Rukna was standing in the middle of a battlefield.

Under a sky covered with gray clouds, corpses formed mountains and the river was completely dyed with blood.

Terribly shaped demons poured out of the large black gate in the front, and they slaughtered every living thing on this land.

An adult Matian was just watching the scene while holding the holy sword.

His expressionless stance, covered in blood, made it difficult to distinguish whether he was a demon or a human.

Soon, the ‘Black Sage’ wearing a black hood walked out of the gate and spread his arms towards Matian.

It was the body of Closet, the holy woman who was said to have sealed the demon king in her body, but after being trapped in the gate for hundreds of years, her self had been captured by the demon king.

“It was worth waiting for you for hundreds of years, Wiegratz. You finally brought me out.”

Matian stared quietly at the Black Sage and then pointed his sword at her heart.

His hand, which always cut through anything easily and was always so resolute, merely trembled before her.

“You brought me out by breaking the seal, and now you’re trying to kill me, Wiegratz?”

“……”

“That’s good. I’ve always been desperate to offer this body to you. Come on, stab me.”

“……”

“I said kill me.”

The Black Sage started to mock Matian while cackling.

Matian just trembled, unable to put strength into his hand. When the Black Sage leaned towards the sword, he was startled and even withdrew it.

The Black Sage reached out with both hands and grasped Matian’s cheeks.

And after kissing him deeply, she snatched the holy sword from his hand.

“Why did you bring such a thing as a holy sword polluted by Closet’s blood? When you can’t even stab me.”

Originally, the Black Sage couldn’t hold the holy sword, but the one corrupted by the Red Eagle didn’t function properly.

“Foolish Wiegratz. In the end, you choose to kill everyone with your own hands.”

With those words, the Black Sage stabbed Matian’s heart with the holy sword.

Cough! Even as he coughed up blood, Matian didn’t avoid the sword.

Despite being stabbed, he apologized to the Black Sage and embraced her with both arms.

The more he did so, the deeper the sword plunged in, but he never loosened his arms.

As soon as Matian’s body went limp, the Black Sage pushed him to the ground.

Then she took out Matian’s dying heart and collected the demon fragment embedded in it.

“I’m finally complete!”

The Black Sage smiled slightly and approached the group of Red Eagles standing far away.

The few surviving humans on the battlefield full of rampaging demons all knelt down and submitted to the Black Sage.

“Are you the king of this place?”

The Black Sage extended her hand to a man with red hair.

Around his neck hung a royal family crest pendant that she had seen somewhere before.

“Yes, that’s right. Oh Black Sage.”

The man chuckled and kissed the back of her hand.

All that was visible was red hair and seductively smiling lips, but Rukna somehow felt she knew who that face belonged to.

“…Wake up.”

Someone’s voice was heard.

“I said wake up, Rukna.”

Flash. When she opened her eyes, she was lying on a wooden box.

At the same time, the water pooled in her mouth swallowed down her throat, bringing her to her senses. Her throat was already dry, so this was perfect timing.

“Matian.”

“Yes, it’s me.”

Matian, who had been sitting on the edge of the old box, was about to demand ‘What on earth were you doing here?’ but closed his mouth.

“Well, I was coming out of the elder’s room and got motion sickness, so I sat down here. I must have dozed off.”

Rukna slowly raised her upper body.

Then the cloth covering her body slid down. It was Matian’s jacket.

“You weren’t mistreated or anything, were you?”

Matian asked as he put his jacket back on.

“Mistreated?”

Rukna tilted her head. Instead of answering, Matian clenched his molars and wiped Rukna’s moist eyes.

It wasn’t the first time he had seen a man’s tears. There were plenty of people who had been beaten by him to the point of crying their eyes out.

But for some reason, Rukna’s tears made his heart sink.

He wasn’t sure if this was irritation, anger, or sadness, but he was certain that it was causing an unpleasant emotion in him.

“Try not to cry in front of me if you can help it.”

“I, I didn’t know I was crying.”

Rukna roughly rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.

Judging by his warning not to cry in front of him, he must have been extremely annoyed by the sight of another man whimpering.

But why wouldn’t the tears stop?

“Be honest. Something happened to you, didn’t it?”

“Ugh, what do you mean something happened? I’m Rukna Golden. The club president. If someone had picked a fight with me, I would have at least properly bitten one part of them to make them crawl!”

Rukna raised the corners of her mouth while putting on unnecessary bravado.

Despite such efforts, tears flowed down freely.

‘The Matian in the prophecy seemed like the villain of this world.’

It was said that he had opened the seal of the demon’s egg, and he also possessed the holy sword that was presumed to have been corrupted by his blood.

‘But it’s strange. I don’t hate him.’

Rather, she couldn’t sort out her emotions as she only recalled his pitiful figure being helplessly stabbed in the heart.

Matian, who had no way of knowing what was going on inside her, was busy wiping away the endlessly flowing tears, presumably because he couldn’t stand the sight of them, even after warning her not to cry.

Despite that scary guy’s caution not to cry, her tear ducts seemed to be broken and wouldn’t stop.

“Don’t misunderstand. This isn’t crying, it’s sweat coming from my eyes. The airship is hot so my eyeballs keep melting.”

Rukna spouted an absurd excuse while covering her eyes with both hands.

‘Why were you so powerless in the future?’

Why couldn’t a weapon master like you properly swing your sword even once and instead willingly offer your heart to the Black Sage?

A guy who quietly puts in effort every dawn while others are sleeping, a guy who cares so much about others’ gazes that he can’t even show signs of pain because he doesn’t want to reveal his weaknesses… why was his end so unsightly?

‘It’s annoying.’

If he had been completely unlikable or thoroughly selfish in his actions, it wouldn’t have been this heartbreaking.

‘This won’t do. At this rate, I’ll end up crying all day.’

First, let’s pull ourselves together and return to school. After resting a bit in the dormitory, I’ll probably feel better.

Seeing how her emotions were surging like this, it seemed she had grown quite attached to that guy without even realizing it.

‘Pull yourself together.’

Rukna banged her forehead against the wall she had been leaning on. As her forehead throbbed, the overflowing emotions were quite sorted out. So when she was about to bang it again, this time Matian’s palm touched her forehead instead of the wall.