5 years ago.

It was the year he turned 19.

16 years old. The brave knight Cedric Roger, who won a victory on the battlefield at a young age.

Since then, for 3 years, he, who reported numerous victories, had become the most notable knight in the Martin Kingdom.

Exceptional tactical and leadership skills. A man with extraordinary swordsmanship.

Praised by everyone, he was filled with confidence that he would win all the upcoming wars.

But then.

4 years before Martin Kingdom and Lator Kingdom became one.

In the war with Lator Kingdom, he faced the worst situation.

The heads of the knights he led were gruesomely severed before his eyes.

He wildly swung his sword to cut the enemies’ throats, but their numbers didn’t decrease.

For the first time, he felt fear.

He felt as if he was trapped in an inescapable swamp.

He ordered all the remaining knights to retreat but held onto his sword until the very end.

But eventually.

‘Ugh…….’

He was stabbed in the chest by the enemy’s sword.

Screams from everywhere and a cruel, sharp smell of blood.

Trampled by galloping horse hooves, his vision started to fade.

‘……Is this the end?’

The surroundings were quiet as if the war had ended.

A terrible pain enveloping his body was signaling the end of his life.

The terrifying sound of dying people’s moans slowly faded away.

He slowly closed his eyelids that he had been holding open until the end.

The youngest war hero. A notable knight.

As a dazzling star loses its light, everything disappeared at that moment.

‘Please…… Regain consciousness. I will help you.’

A trembling, weak voice like a thin reed.

‘Please…… Don’t die. Sob.’

A woman’s voice covered in sobs reached his ears.

He slowly opened his eyes.

In his blurred vision, he saw a girl, frantically touching his bloodcovered body with trembling hands.

‘Ugh!!’

He suddenly vomited dark red blood, covering the woman’s face.

‘Eek! It’s……it’s okay. Hang on, just a bit. I’ll save you.’

What is okay about shaking like that?

A woman with a cloak hiding her face to the point that her eyes were not visible.

Though tears were dropping one by one.

Though she was letting out fearful sobbing sounds with her tightly closed lips.

‘The wound is deep. But please bear it for a while.’

The woman, creepy with all the blood on her, didn’t stop her movements.

‘Why on earth……. Cough. Cough.’

Pain surged with her touch, along with a burning sensation.

‘Ugh!’

His body twisted with the brutal sensation, and his vision blurred further.

‘It might hurt at first. But it will be okay soon. Just a little. Please bear it just a little longer.’

In the blurry world, violet eyes filled with fear and desperation twinkled.

……Why is she so desperate?

Who are you to look at me like that?

Cedric, shaking all over, stared at her with blurry eyes until his gaze fixed on one place.

A cloak so tightly worn that even her face was not visible.

‘The badge of Lator Kingdom.’

Seeing the badge on the cloak, Cedric’s eyes flashed as if they would explode.

Thud.

‘Kyaaak!’

Enduring the chestwrenching pain, he grabbed the wrist of the woman who was touching him.

‘What are you doing to me right now?’

Hearing his growling voice, she desperately twisted her caught wrist.

‘I’m……trying to save you.’

Cedric painfully contorted his face and slowly raised his upper body.

‘Me? Lator…… Cough! Lator’s person like you. Why? Cough! Cough!’

With every tiny movement, dark red blood kept pouring from his opened lips.

Smack!

At that moment, a small hand pushed Cedric’s body down.

‘Ugh!’

His body flung to the floor, she pressed it down firmly with one hand.

And with the other, she pressed hard on the chest wound.

‘My life won’t change by saving you.’

A voice devoid of power or emotion flowed through the small opened lips.

‘You wouldn’t know.’

‘…….’

‘How painful it is for someone who can only live by saving others, just watching people die…….’

A feeble voice that seemed it would vanish with a gust of wind.
‘Please… just stay still.’

Drip. Drip.

Clear tears that fell from her eyes moistened her face.

She slowly closed her eyes, then opened them again.

The excruciating pain that seemed as if it would cut off her breath slowly disappeared.

And her vision began to blur to the point where she couldn’t see anything.

‘It will be alright soon.’

A brutal space filled with the foul smell of blood.

How much time had passed?

She might have stopped breathing.

Thinking so, as she was struggling to lift her eyelids, that’s when…

‘I’m glad. Truly glad.’

A voice, choking back a sob, whispered into her ears.

At that moment, she felt as if she was lying on a peaceful meadow, bathed in warm sunlight.

A child, still shedding tears, sat in front of her.

‘…Who are you, really?’

Without being able to ask anything, her eyelids closed down with all her might.

The world disappeared.

And she disappeared.

.

.

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