TMLLT 74

Chapter 74

“You Move Quickly”

“It must mean you were pretty nervous… but you didn’t look like it at all.”

“The reason I’m nervous now is…”

Roitz tilted his head, a faintly decadent look on his face, and suddenly gave a bright smile.

“No, never mind. Anyway.”

Then he went back to talking about how he’d been nervous.

“I didn’t look nervous? I wasn’t confident.”

“Then where did that overconfident attitude come from?”

I gave him a sly glance and a smile as I asked.

His answer was a little strange.

“That.”

He took my hand and pulled me toward him.

Then, with a leisurely smile, he said,

“From here.”

“…”

“It came from here.”

Roitz, holding my hand tightly, fell asleep right away.

I stared at the large hand pulling me toward him. From where my hand rested against his chest, I could feel his heartbeat.

From here? Did he mean Necroquad?

But that was already gone.

If not that…

I mumbled to myself without knowing what I was even saying.

“…I did give you energy, I guess…”

That night, I sat outside on the terrace, my lips pressed tightly shut.

The cool breeze lightly stirred the hair that fell over Roitz’s forehead.

I listened to his steady breathing as he slept, holding my hand tightly.

I couldn’t bring myself to move his head off my shoulder, but I also couldn’t pull him closer to lean more fully.

It was a strange feeling — both exciting and painful, soft yet unsettling.

What is this feeling?

From that day on, that feeling came to me often.

But no one told me what it was, and I was slow to understand my own emotions.

It took time for me to learn its name.

A few days after Roitz’s trial ended, when I was busy readjusting to everyday life again, I met Siyute.

It was at a tearoom in Melrn Street Square.

“Didn’t expect you to come to me first, but I’m glad.”

“I have something to say.”

I wasn’t good at saying sentimental things, but I could still do it — and if not with elegant words, I could at least say it directly.

“Thank you, Siyute.”

Even though Cute’s path and mine were different, he still tried to save me.

“What?”

Siyute looked surprised, as if he thought I was too lacking in morals to even say thank you.

He spun his teacup around before replying.

“Don’t call me that name. Use the name only you call me.”

“Cute?”

“Yes, that one.”

When I answered, “Alright, Cute,” he smiled faintly and sipped his tea.

“Is your body fully recovered?”

“I could say I’m almost fine.”

“Doesn’t seem like it. If you’re fine, why are you still wearing bandages?”

“I’ll take them off tomorrow. And you? All healed?”

“Yeah, nothing serious.”

Cute stared at me. As I drank several big gulps of tea and wiped my mouth, he spoke.

“It’s kind of strange.”

“What is?”

“You.”

“What about me?”

“After getting hurt that badly, why are you still with Velkyrente? Don’t you resent him?”

I didn’t feel any resentment at all. Maybe because I had prepared myself, or because I had imagined dying but ended up living.

There was no one to resent anyway. Necroquad was already gone.

“You’re saying that because you lived. You were just lucky.”

Cute said that, but I didn’t think it was luck that both Roitz and I survived.

The fact that he opened his eyes when I called him, that he held out in the critical moment and pulled me out of danger.

That I could think of a way to save him while he was collapsed in front of me.

That was because of our will — and because of the memories we’d given each other all this time.

“You move quickly, you know.”

Cute didn’t seem fully convinced by my words.

“To be honest, I think… even if you ended up killing Velkyrente’s Sword Master then, it would’ve been inevitable.”

“In the end, it was my choice. ‘Inevitable’ is just an excuse.”

“I don’t know. When you’re choosing between your life and someone else’s, does the word ‘choice’ really mean anything?”

I tried to counter, but he picked up the teacup in front of me and held it to my lips, stopping my words.

His indifferent expression clearly said don’t say more.

Anyway, I’d come today to thank him, not to convince him.

So I went along with what he wanted, and asked what I’d been curious about.

“I have a question too. How come Necroquad’s power didn’t work on you?”

“Oh, that?”

Cute started to speak, then smiled.

“I’m not telling.”

“Why not? Tell me.”

“No. This way you’ll keep being curious about me.”

He seemed serious, and no matter how I pressed or pleaded, he wouldn’t tell me.

“…Guess it really is her.”

He only spoke after watching Serdin leave.

Her eyes were just like that person’s from years ago. He hadn’t believed it at first, but now he was sure.

You’d make a fine knight someday.

That’s what that person had told Siyute, left alone at that frozen pond.

“Really… you do move quickly.”

He rested his chin in his hand, his gaze following Serdin outside the window.

He thought he fully understood his own shortcomings — and that knowing them meant he could gain everything.

But meeting Serdin had started to put cracks in that belief.

Because of Serdin and Velkyrente.

Velkyrente… Siyute repeated the name.

The Veiche and Velkyrente families didn’t get along well.

No one openly showed hostility, but everyone knew of Veiche’s long-held inferiority and quiet resentment toward Velkyrente.

The Velkyrente family was granted their dukedom about two hundred years ago.

After the imperial army’s victory in a volcanic rock region at the border, the Elche Knights — created by the temple — beheaded a rank-1 monster. The commander then, Endia Velkyrente, was given the title of duke.

The Veiche family had been a holy knight family, always managing temple events.

But after that day, all temple-related matters went to Elche, even after they became an imperial guard unit.

Siyute didn’t carry some grand sense of duty over events from two centuries ago.

He simply knew this:

The fastest way to be recognized in the Veiche family was to defeat Velkyrente.

To topple them, not trail behind them — to rule over them.

To erase Veiche’s quiet resentment.

And among them, to take down their Sword Master, Roitz Velkyrente.

No matter how hard you try, a little ordinary sword skill won’t get you anywhere.

That’s what his brother had said to him — because of Roitz Velkyrente.

Siyute was confident. Even without being chosen by the sword, he had sharp perception, quick judgment, and the ability to act on anything.

He’d trained in swordsmanship to counter Necroquad just to make Roitz taste the same defeat.

It was a technique of wrapping himself in holy power so he wouldn’t see a monster’s true body — and it took him three full years to master it.

For three years, he’d lived for that single purpose.

So when a rampaging monster appeared, drawing his sword was both fitting to his goal and perfectly justified.

If he didn’t kill it, someone else would die.

But—

No, Siyute!

He still couldn’t understand why Serdin had blocked him then.

Serdin Vivi — Sword Master of the Vivi family and knight of Elche.

And someone Roitz Velkyrente seemed to value greatly.

And someone like her.

Even now, he still thought that — but he knew himself well enough.

He wasn’t pure or naïve enough anymore to be lenient just because of that.

So he’d planned to use Serdin. To grab Velkyrente’s weakness and shake him.

She’s just another one trailing behind Velkyrente anyway.

But unlike he first thought, she kept making him curious.

Her attention toward Velkyrente was different from others’.

And even the way she treated Siyute.

Before he knew it, he just wanted to take away the time she spent with Velkyrente.

He thought it would be easy — she seemed uneasy being next to Velkyrente, probably because of his monster.

Then why…

Why didn’t she take the sword he’d offered?

Why, knowing her life was in danger?

At that moment, even killing Velkyrente’s Sword Master would’ve been truly inevitable.

No one would’ve blamed Serdin.

Even Velkyrente’s Sword Master wouldn’t have blamed her.

He looked like he would gladly die if she asked him to.

You’ll die at this rate!

There has to be a way!

Serdin had said that, but Siyute didn’t believe such a way existed.

Either she’d stubbornly get stabbed by Velkyrente’s sword — or she’d kill him.

It had to be one or the other. There was no other answer.