◈ 323. [Side Story] Hwayangyeonhwa (花樣年華) (5)
Agents of the Assassination Squad shrewdly dug into the villa.
Lucas followed slowly behind him.
Walking along the corridor of the villa, Lucas was lost in memories for a while.
Serenade and Alberto and many others… … A beautiful childhood in this villa.
Dustia, who took care of herself when she came here after losing her parents.
Ash, who was shot by an arrow instead of calling him older brother.
The bright and beautiful days.
trampled by the boots of intruders.
“… .”
Lucas stopped in his seat.
Then, he pulled out the sword Ash had given him as a gift that was worn around his waist.
Sreung-!
When the sound of a blade hitting the outside air was heard, the leader of the assassination unit walking in front of Lucas looked back incredulously.
Lucas glared at the leader of the assassination unit with tears streaming down his blue eyes. The leader clicked his tongue.
“Are you going to stop us now?”
“… .”
“For that to happen, you shouldn’t have opened the door in the first place. little kid You opened the door and the knife is already in your stomach. What are you trying to do now?”
“It’s not like that.”
Lucas chewed ferociously and spat it out.
“I definitely helped you. He said he kept his promise to Her Highness Fernandez. So, Her Majesty Fernandez must save the people of my family. … Apart from that, I will die in an accident here.”
Dustia said if Ash had to die today.
Lucas decided that he would die here too.
“I can’t tell who is my friend because of the side effects of the Beastization Serum… They are attacking you.”
“Hey kid, stop talking nonsense. If you just put that knife back in, I’ll make it happen-”
But before the leader could say anything, Lucas inserted the syringe containing the beast-blood serum into his neck.
As soon as the serum was injected, it created a magical chemical reaction that penetrated Lucas’ body.
Lucas bent down and shivered as he felt the blood vessels in his body swell.
“Ha ha ha… !”
Then, between the boy’s disheveled blond hair, two blue eyes burned like flames.
The tears that flowed down it seemed to flow like sparks.
“Did you keep your promise? therefore… Let me die for the last bit for Highness Ash.”
“… .”
The tongue-in-cheek leader gestured to the subordinates in front and pulled out two daggers from his arms.
“You guys are in charge of removing the second empress and the prince. I have to take care of this poor little boy.”
Lucas, who was breathing white through his parted mouth, lowered his stance.
Then, with the bestowed sword forward, he leaped like a beast.
***
The hall at the entrance to the villa.
“Oh my God! Please come to your senses!”
Standing at the entrance to the first floor, Ash screamed. Ash was watching Dustia standing on the ledge on the third floor.
Dustia was swaying precariously on the railing on the third floor with a knot made of rope hanging around her neck.
“It’s dangerous, Mama! Come down!”
Ash looked around for help, but no one was there.
It was a situation where Alberto was forced to go on vacation today – no, as if it was for this purpose.
The serenade that I used to come to care for every day was not there today.
Ash prayed with both hands, then knelt on the floor and prayed to Dustia.
“You said you were living with me, Mom! please! Please don’t… … !”
“ash.”
Dustia’s face was calm. Just like before the madness.
“It sounds like nonsense, but listen carefully. Mom has been through this day thousands of times. So everyone knows what will happen next.”
“all right. mom. Okay, so come down and talk… … !”
“I must die so that you can inherit the clan’s curse and survive today. okay. It’s the only way.”
With a peaceful, warm smile, she opened her mouth slowly.
“I’m sorry, Ash. I’m really sorry for passing on this curse. our son But this is how you live… … .”
A single tear streamed down her smiling eyes.
“Mom will always be by your side.”
“No Mom! no!”
“I love you.”
Dustia jumped down the railing.
“No, no!”
Dustia’s withered body hung in the air along with Ash’s scream.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Dustia’s suicide ended quickly.
The rope broke his neck, and he died before he could suffocate.
Squeak- Squeak- Dustia
‘s body swaying like a pendulum with her neck hanging from a rope.
A hazy gray mana escaped from his body and flowed into Ash, who stood blankly and shed tears.
-click.
With a sound like a clockwork ticking,
“Kuluk kuluk?! Cool memory!”
Ash collapsed to the floor, coughing violently and shivering.
Eventually, the trembling body calmed down, and Ash’s black eyes settled coldly in the disheveled black hair.
“… iced coffee.”
Ash’s voice, which slowly raised his body, was a little different from before.
“Damn it. I can’t get used to this feeling even if I go through thousands and tens of thousands of times.”
There is no cool feeling unique to a fifteen-year-old boy.
It was a hoarse, weary voice, as if it had been worn out over time.
“It’s okay to set the return point at a slightly different time… . Why is it always this time when I come back?”
Looking up at his mother with eyes full of emptiness instead of sadness, Ash let out a dry sigh.
“Wouldn’t there be another way, Mother? Please be considerate of your son who has to look up at your corpse every time he returns… … .”
I roughly wiped the tears that wet my cheeks as if it were annoying.
Ash turned around.
“And you guys are really sick of it too.”
Before I knew it, the agents of the assassination unit were pouring into the hall on the first floor.
The number is about twenty.
Killing machines, each skilled in killing people, slowly surrounded Ash.
“ha… .”
Ash sighed and brushed his hair back, then put his hand forward and nodded.
“Come in and fuck.”
A desolate sneer hung over the boy’s lips.
“I feel like X, so let’s take our anger out.”
“… ?”
On the contrary, the agents of the assassination unit were taken aback.
A young prince who had no fighting ability at all and was bare-handed. they are provoking themselves.
There was no other way to explain it other than that I was crazy.
But what does it matter?
I’m destined to die here today anyway.
The agents drew their knives from their bosoms in unison and charged from all sides at the target they were supposed to kill.
***
Both daggers wielded by the leader of the assassination unit were lodged in Lucas’ body.
One on the shoulder and one on the side.
And Lucas’s sword was also embedded in the body of the assassination unit leader.
left chest.
It was heart.
The leader tried to subdue Lucas without killing him. Lucas noticed it and took advantage of it.
After deliberately hitting an area that would not be lethal even if the attack was allowed, the fatal blow was inserted into the gap.
Although the leader was strong, he could not properly grasp the boy’s concentrated will and tenacity. That’s why I allowed a fatal wound.
“Cool cool cool! … You got this right… … .”
The leader, who was bleeding from his open mouth, collapsed with a bitter laugh.
“also… McGregor is McGregor… … .”
fluff.
The leader’s body fell to the side without strength.
After confirming his death with eyes burning bright blue, Lucas staggered toward the villa.
He allowed many attacks besides his shoulders and flanks. Blood flowed from all over his body, and he felt as if he would lose his consciousness at any moment. But Lucas walked.
He was going to die next to Dustia and Ash.
‘At least together… … let me die… … .’
Leaving bloody footprints, Lucas gritted his teeth.
From the garden to the entrance of the villa.
There was no place where memories were not accumulated.
Since he was in the state of a beast, Lucas wept with a distorted face like a beast.
I want to go back.
to those days
The days that were as beautiful as flowers… … .
Lucas moved his feet with all his strength and entered the hall on the first floor of the detached palace.
“… ?”
I had to face an incomprehensible sight.
The members of the assassination unit were all lying around as corpses. Without a single exception, everyone fell dead.
And on top of that pile of corpses—
“You’re late.”
Ash was sitting.
As if he were the king of hell sitting on his throne, his entire body soaked in blood. With a relaxed, desolate smile. He waved at Lucas happily.
“You traitor bastard.”
“what… ? how… ?”
Unable to accept the situation, Lucas stuttered blankly. Ash shrugged calmly.
“Isn’t it an idiot to not be able to win when the same guys attack in the same way every time you regress?”
“Your Highness the Prince… ? That’s right… … ?”
The atmosphere was different.
Even though it was different, it was so different.
There was no trace of the usual innocent and kind boy, and what was there now was a man like a wind that smelled of blood and dust.
“Your Highness the Prince? then. That’s right, Your Highness the Prince.”
Ash smiled and slowly rose from the top of the pile of corpses.
“Come on traitor. The prince you must kill is here. Why don’t you bite me? Or do you get rabies and don’t even recognize who you’re supposed to kill?”
Ash’s black abyss-like eyes radiated clear hostility.
Lucas staggered back.
“No, I’m not trying to kill you… … .”
“Don’t call me brother. fuck. Because it looks like it will make hives.”
With both hands in his trouser pockets, Ash strode towards Lucas.
“If you hadn’t opened that door tonight, my mother would have been alive.”
Dustia’s body had already been collected by Ash and left on the first floor.
Only then did Lucas confirm Dustia’s death, and his eyes widened.
“My mother would have lived a lot longer if you hadn’t contended to save your family… … ! Then I must have started this damn regression even a little late!”
Ash, who had walked right in front of the trembling Lucas, growled ferociously.
“It’s all your fault, Lucas. entire.”
“Ah ah… ugh… … .”
I couldn’t understand everything Ash said.
It was the unmistakable truth that he had betrayed him, so in the end Lucas shuddered, unable to utter a word.
The sword was still in Lucas’ right hand.
Ash stretched out his arm and grabbed Lucas’s wrist, then put the sword in his hand to his throat.
“You bastard who doesn’t even recognize the owner, come on! stab me! That’s what you came for!”
The tip of Lucas’s sword flew into Ash’s throat and
boom!
Lucas hurriedly put his left arm between them to block the sword.
Blood gushed out of Lucas’s left arm where the sword was stuck. Ash glanced at Lucas annoyed and shove him aside.
Courage!
Lucas’s body rolled on the floor without any strength
.
The sword, which had already been cracked from fighting the leader of the assassination unit, eventually shattered.
Amidst the wreckage of his shattered sword and the puddles of his own blood, Lucas fell to his knees and sobbed his head on the floor.
“I was wrong, I was wrong… .”
“… .”
“Please kill me, Your Highness… please kill me… … .”
Lucas’s consciousness gradually faded due to the recoil of the beast and excessive blood loss.
After spatting out the words of apology until the end, Lucas passed out.
Ash, who was glaring at Lucas with contempt, brushed his hair with a long sigh.
“Because you’re a consistent asshole from start to finish… .”
Ash retrieved bandages from a nearby cupboard and applied first aid to Lucas’ wounds with surprising skill.
Even his own bloody hands were bandaged, Ash put a cigarette he found in the cupboard in his mouth and lit it.
It
was a very natural movement, just like a person who has lived a life far from smoking, but has only smoked cigarettes all his life.
“Whoa… .” “How do you think the situation is
over
?”
A wizard in a gray robe walked slowly into the hall.
It was an unexpected appearance, but as if he had already expected it, Ash calmly chewed on a cigarette and furrowed his brow.
“Isn’t this the great ‘Prophet’ of Everblack? You are always one beat late.”
“haha. a prophet It’s such an unfamiliar title.”
A wizard who suddenly appeared five hundred years ago and helped to revive Everblack.
A ‘prophet’ who turned a black thorn tree into a magical beacon and led the construction of an empire.
He slowly took off the hood of his robe, revealing the face of a man with shaggy gray hair and thick, invisible glasses.
Ash glared at him and let out a puff of smoke.
“Nice to meet you again. You fucking director bastard.”
Then, the prophet-Ader, who smiled bashfully, spoke in his characteristic languid voice.
“Did you enjoy your short vacation, Mr. ‘Save Slot’? Then, let’s start the ‘game’ of this round.”
Right after that, Ader changed his words bitterly.
“no… The last game we were allowed to play.”
