Chapter 280 : Chapter 280
Chapter 280
I was stabbed in the heart.
Dagger Ashkal, the very sword prepared to kill a God, pierced my heart.
It was the doing of the Lord of Denoebang.
Ashkal's magic prevented me from becoming a dragon.
Silver magic tore my whole body apart sharply starting from the heart.
Silver magic flowed beneath the black scales.
I just looked at the Lord of Denoebang filled with questions, and Amethus and Obro rushed in immediately.
"Shion!"
Amethus headed towards me.
Amethus pulled Dagger Ashkal out of my heart.
However, the silver magic still remained and tormented me.
"Father-!!"
Obro Denoebang grabbed the Lord of Denoebang, his own father, and rolled on the ground.
The Lord of Denoebang is one of the best swordsmen in the West.
However, since Obro Denoebang grabbed and pushed him, he had no choice but to roll on the ground.
"What are you doing!"
Obro shouted in rage.
He could not understand at all.
I am his benefactor.
I saved Obro Denoebang, who was soaked in alcohol and desperately waiting only for death in a countryside where no one knew him.
But his own father stabbed me.
"Why did you do that!"
At the most important time, at the most fatal time!
"Why! Just why!"
"…Why, you ask, son?"
The Lord of Denoebang, Desep Denoebang, smiled bitterly.
He shook off Obro and raised his body.
Desep spoke without hesitation even while his lower lip trembled violently.
"It is for the West."
Desep Denoebang's two eyes are determined.
Before I knew it, there were many other people by Desep's side.
King of Maesh, Archbishop of the Original Ladder Church, Grand Lord of Konland…….
Faces symbolizing the West are glaring at me by Desep's side.
"It is not just my will."
"……."
Obro Denoebang trembled with rage and pointed his finger.
He suddenly recalled old scars.
That night, that mistake.
The masses of humans who gnawed at him for years over a mistake that he himself suffered from more than anyone.
Humans who did not hesitate to blame him saying a mistake is a mistake, no matter what help the White Lord had given to the West!
Old hatred he thought he had forgotten rose up, and he just trembled with rage.
"You people, all of you… are in cahoots."
"No, White Lord."
The King of Maesh took the words.
"Only you people are the eccentric ones. Only a few of you in the whole West! You are stubbornly insisting that we can fight and win against the Empire!"
"…It is not a fight we fight because we can win. It is a fight we fight because we must fight…."
Obro Denoebang realized.
In the West, there was no one on my side.
"Shion!"
Amethus grabbed me as I twisted and shouted.
I trembled in chills and convulsed.
The 'Dragon of Six Horns' tried to pop out from inside, but the silver magic blocked it.
Because two huge forces fought inside, I began to gradually melt down.
"Wake up, Shion!"
"……Ugh……!"
The sight of a human melting down could not be fully explained by the word cruel.
I have lived harboring suffering for a long time anyway.
A dagger was embedded in such a heart of mine.
Magic prepared to kill a God made a fatal scratch on my already scarred heart.
I convulsed.
I could not even tremble with strength, but trembled violently with a body drooping as if sticking to the floor, as if melting down.
Everything was just melting down starting from the soul.
"…You guys…."
I spoke with difficulty.
Tears flowed deeply blue.
"……How could you guys, how could you do this to me……."
I wanted to cry.
So I cried.
A heart melted deeply blue dripped down.
I looked at those glaring at me.
Desep Denoebang was a comrade before regression.
One of the swordsmen I relied on.
But he stuck a sword in my heart.
The King of Maesh or the Archbishop of the Original Ladder Church, and others were the same.
They were comrades who did not spare their lives for each other.
It was definitely so before regression.
To me, they are still precious comrades.
People I cherish and cherish enough not to forget even after coming back 19 years.
However, to them, I am just a stumbling block.
Merely an annoying existence.
I knew.
Regression was such a thing.
Even if I remember, they do not remember.
I lived thinking that much was fine, that I would endure it.
Even so, I did not think they would stick a sword in my heart.
No, perhaps I did not want to think about it.
"…Do you know my life? Do you guys have any idea how I have lived…? All, all for you…. Yes, I have all along…."
Even so, solely for them.
I came back 19 years ago, made all these preparations for them, and tried to bring down the Empire for them.
With a heart hoping they would not suffer terrible things like before regression.
But, but why….
"…I…."
I spoke with a sorrowful crying sound.
"…I, for you guys, how… how much……."
"…Shion of Merion…."
Desep Denoebang spoke.
He did not have a comfortable face either.
"We did not want to do this either. Just that you… cannot be reasoned with."
"……."
"We know. That we are cowards. That you are the one who is the real hero. But Shion, Shion of Merion…. Our hero…."
There was no one with a comfortable face.
They all knew they were doing a shameless thing.
Yet they had to do the shameless thing.
There were only dark faces feeling that weight.
"…What remains in a hero's life?"
At Desep's question, I felt as if my lungs were pierced.
Because that single phrase denied me my entire life.
I knew it too.
Ordinary happiness is better than a hero's wit.
I was not unaware.
I also just wanted to live cultivating a field and raising children.
I had only put it down.
To save the West, I had to put everything down.
So I had to become a hero like that.
It was a terribly painful putting down, yet Desep asked if that putting down wasn't vain.
That question hurt more than anything.
"…So, you decided to sell me?"
Desep's words were correct, and therefore it was like accusing my whole life of being wrong.
I just shed blue tears more violently.
No, rather than shedding tears, I was pouring them out.
"Cordis must have said so? That they would give a price if you sold me over?"
"……."
"Seeing there is no answer, it must have been accurate. Let's hear it, Desep…! What on earth did they say they would give that you sold me?"
"…We agreed to receive reparations more than three times what was promised before. Not simply money, but all sorts of supplies we need…."
"Right…. Big…. Certainly big, so you stabbed me? Because of that, you drove a sword into my heart……?"
"No."
Desep shook his head.
I was steadily dying even in the midst of that.
Silver magic swirled and melted my body.
"Still, I thought we could not do that. Because there are things you have done for us. I thought that much was unacceptable."
"……."
"But… your secret…."
Desep Denoebang made a face sadder than anything.
The corners of his eyes dropped way down, bearing a light of terrible pity.
Yet it was a complex face, harboring a strange hatred.
"…I heard your old name."
I felt terrible anxiety.
The past I thought I had tried hard to forget suddenly felt painfully fearful as if gripping my heart.
"The 5th Imperial Prince, Zionis."
***
The sky began to be dyed black.
It seemed like it was going to rain.
"……."
There, while dying with a sword stuck in my heart, I shed tears looking at the clouding sky, and soon turned my head slowly.
"……Is that so……."
I, Shion Pollinglight, no, the 5th Imperial Prince of the Cordis Empire, Zionis, looked at Desep Denoebang with blue eyes.
I squeezed out my remaining strength and smiled bitterly.
"……So that was it. Does this damned bloodline grab my ankle again……."
"…You do not deny it."
"You already found out, so what can I do…."
I, the 5th Imperial Prince Zionis, could only let out a bitter smile.
"I am grateful that you have worked for the West until now…. No, in fact, it is admirable…."
"……."
"But Shion of Merion, you are too Cordis…. The son of Great Emperor Continua, whom we can absolutely not tolerate……."
"……."
I could not even answer.
"We are perplexed too…. How on earth should we treat you? I lost my father to Great Emperor Continua 53 years ago. Most of us are like that…."
"……."
"And yet because we cannot fight anymore…. Fighting more will only shed more blood, only increase children suffering pain like ours……."
My heart hurt.
My lungs hurt.
Life hurts.
I hate Cordis more than anyone, yet I am the Cordis of Cordis.
I could not endure because this fact hurt.
"……Right……."
I gasped for breath roughly.
The punctured heart was vomiting blood.
I lived in the West.
Then dying for the West… would not be… only bad….
Although I did not imagine this method.
"…So you want my life. You say you will sell me over and buy the peace of the West…."
I tried to accept.
"…Then good."
Considering this also as fate, I tried to obey.
As always.
As I have always lived.
Although I could not know why blue tears were flowing down endlessly, I tried to hand myself over to those sword-wielding men.
"…Take my neck. Since it was a life offered for you from the beginning… as you wish, sell me over…."
"No."
There was an interrupting voice.
It was Obro Denoebang.
"I cannot do that."
Before anyone knew it, Obro Denoebang was holding a liquor bottle in his hand.
He gulped down the strong liquor and poured it into his mouth.
His face quickly flushed red.
A beard is growing again on his chin.
The drunkard swordsman blocked my front.
"When I shouted to let me stay sitting down, you forcibly raised me up, Shion. You made me, who trembled in pain just hearing the name White Lord, into the White Lord again."
"……."
"I clearly said so back then. If your words are true, if Mariet, if that child is alive… I would follow you all my life. That I would serve you, dedicating all of a life I had once let go…."
There is a single sword in the White Lord's hand.
His Ars, a shape like a tree branch, 'Grayish-white Nobility'.
No one in the West dared to take even a single step.
Blue demonic energy surged in Obro Denoebang's two eyes.
"You did not leave me as a miserable drunkard. So I cannot leave you remaining miserable either."
Obro Denoebang raised his sword.
Who would dare to oppose?
"I mean even if you give up on yourself, I cannot give up on you, Shion."
The whole West was the opponent.
Not only the powerful figures called Elders but thousands of elite soldiers surround them.
However, Obro Denoebang alone overwhelmed everyone.
In front of the drunkard surging with blue demonic energy, they could not even move their lips.
"So run away, Shion! Hurry!"