Proofreader: Chaddude
Sighing to myself, I approached the ruins, when a man lightly armed in a breastplate and pauldrons stopped me.
“Hey. No entry here… Um? Red hair? By any chance, are you the Hero Cloud?”
“Hmm. That will be me.”
“Can I see the Hero’s plaque?”
I fished out my Hero’s plaque and handed it to him.
He examined it carefully, then handed the plaque back and bowed his head.
“Excuse my rudeness. The circumstances are hectic and so is my mind, I did not even recognize a Hero.”
“It’s nothing. What about you?”
“Selenion, I am a knight of the Kingdom of Prona.”
“You are a knight, huh. Then Sir Selenion, can you brief me on the palace’s status?”
“Yes. No problem. I will guide you inside and explain.”
Selenion led me back to the right yard of the palace.
“As you can see… the palace has completely collapsed. It is hard to score not only the royal palace proper, but also the gardens, gymnasiums, and other miscellaneous divisions.”
“You managed to survive in such a situation. That’s amazing in itself.”
A small shadow fell on Selenion’s face.
“…I was on patrol in the city at the time. I was just lucky. Lucky and ungallant.”
“There is nothing to be ashamed of. Even if you say that you survived because you were lucky, you did what you could. Why blame yourself?”
He shook his head.
“I have sworn allegiance to His Majesty the King. So, when a monster appears above the palace, I should run to it and fight. But I didn’t. Cowardly, the moment I saw the monster, my body froze in fear. So I ran away from my obligations in the name of saving the citizens. I don’t deserve to be called a knight.”
Selenion suddenly stopped walking.
He locked me with a serious gaze.
“But you are different from me. Like you proved, you did not turn your back to the creepy monster, but rather fought back. And defeated it.”
“I just did what I had to do.”
“And I didn’t what I was supposed to.”
Selenion laughed bitterly, but soon erased his croaks and knelt down on one knee.
“I, Selenion Fargarte, thank the Hero on behalf of the Kingdom. Thanks to you, the Kingdom of Prona didn’t disappear into the backwaters of history of destroyed Kingdoms of old.”
Selenion reached out to me, supporting his sword with both hands.
“I, Selenion Fargarte, by the virtue of my knighthood, swear to the benefactor of the kingdom, as long as the benefactor’s orders are not against the peace of the kingdom, my sword is at your disposal.”
I was a little taken aback by Selenion’s sudden oath.
A knight oath was a serious matter.
However, my heart stilled, gauging the serious expression on Selenion’s face, holding the sword.
I decided to accept his oath.
‘The Kingdom of Prona’s rite of knight oath… I’m sure this was it, right?’
I bit on my thumb and smeared it along the sword’s face.
“I, the Hero of Prona, Cloud, accept your oath.”
Solemnly, I drew my thumb along his sword.
And so, a blood oath formed.
Seeing that, Selenion stood up with a satisfied expression.
“It must have been a little sudden, but thank you for accepting it.”
“Are there any other surviving knights, Sir Selenion?”
“There are, and just as grateful to you.”
“…knight’s oath level of gratefulness?”
“Of course.”
“You have to be kidding me.”
“Isn’t it the miracle that the Hero showed us just so great?”
Selenion shrugged his shoulders.
I saw the knights jogging towards us and eyed my thumb, which I had bitten earlier.
It had healed, and a scab was sitting there.
Damn. I’ll have to bite again. If not, multiple times.
* * *
The work of digging up the rubble was finished only when the sun had completely set and the sky was darkening.
We decided to gather again tomorrow and work at it again, but I think everyone had realized it by now.
Neither others hoped for any more miracles.
Just that this was the only thing in mind, so we were at it non-stop.
‘It’s going to be the worst-case scenario after all.’
The administration of Lupus had been paralyzed.
It meant that the system that supported the city was broken.
How long will it take to recover this system?
I don’t even know if it can be restored in the first place.
I returned to the inn with mixed feelings.
There was no one in the hall on the first floor.
It was late at night, so naturally yes. I went upstairs and entered my room.
“Arrived?”
Katarina, who was lying on the bed, pulled herself up.
“Katarina? Why aren’t you sleeping by now?”
“You are out there late at night, tiring yourself out, and you expect me to sleep blissfully.”
“I’m not so weak to have everyone worry about me.”
“Nonsense. Hey, come over here and sit down. Not that way, this way.”
As she ordered, I sat down on the edge of her bed. Then she started to take off my pants.
So active today?
Alas, bad timing.
“Katarina, I’m tired, so can we do it next time?”
“…It’s fine. I’ll take care of it. You just sit there.”
She knelt down in front of me.
Uh, is this posture… no?
“Could this be..?”
“…yes.”
“How? You ground your teeth to dust when I had asked you.”
“Oh goodness, so noisy. It’s special, just this time.”
Katarina’s face reddened.
She moved her head down, brushing her side hair behind her ear.
It was adorable that she moved harder when I stroked her hair.
* * *
‘Lovers… why, why all of a sudden…’
Lying on the bed, Neria thought, covered within a blanket.
Since she ran into her room during the daytime, she hadn’t gotten out from under the covers even once.
‘Tell me it’s a joke…’
A lie.
Just a prank to tease her.
But her hope circuit wasn’t holding well.
The kiss between Cloud and Katarina was too strong to be a joke.
So much that the viewers were overwhelmed.
Both of them seemed used to it.
All circumstances pointed to the fact that the two were lovers.
Crying again, she buried her face in the pillow and sobbed.
“Huh… You said you like short hair… Then why are you dating a long-haired girl…!”
Cutting her hair, which she has grown along the years, was not an easy task.
Even so, Neria closed her eyes tightly and cut them short.
Because she had heard that Cloud liked bobbed hair.
However, he himself was dating a long-haired woman.
How could she not be sad?
“You’ve known me longer… *sob*..!”
Unlike Neria, whom he had known since childhood, Katarina and Cloud had not known each other for very long.
But Cloud was dating her.
Even though she didn’t have short hair, which was his preference, but long ones.
Which proved that Katarina had the charm that he needn’t bother with his taste, which made Neria feel like a female who had lost her male companion.
In other words, she was fucking sad.
‘I shouldn’t have done that then!’
The day Cloud had said, ‘Every day can be a happy one if it’s with you’.
She had laughed it off back then. Apparently, she should have seized the opportunity.
At that time, she teased him about his confession as well. She shouldn’t have.
If she had chosen the right options…
Wouldn’t she be living happily with Cloud?
Her happy imagination was momentary, but at the touch of her damp pillow, she returned to the gutter-like reality and sobbed again.
She did it over and over again, so she couldn’t sleep all night, and she had to greet the morning sun with eye bags.
She had cried all night, she looked like she was going to die of exhaustion, but surprisingly, her eyes were gleaming.
Because last night, she hadn’t heard Katarina moan!
‘Maybe they haven’t reached that level of relationship yet.’
Feeling a little hopeful from that fact, Neria stepped out of her room.
As she walked down the hallway, she heard someone talking downstairs.
‘Cloud?’
Cloud and Katarina, together.
‘Looks like they woke up early.’
Together.
And she also knew it would get painful to be caught between the two of them, especially now…
After much thought, Neria made up her mind to go back to her room, but the moment she moved to turn around.
“Can you not do it with your mouth one time more, please?”
A single sentence from Cloud reaching her ear made her stand still.
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