As soon as Nike saw Vania entering the dorm, he noticed Ryan quickly leaving as if he had been waiting for her.
It must be going to Vania.
He might have asked what she talked about with the Third Prince.
But it didn't matter anyway.
Whether Vania keeps quiet about the power transplant experiment to Ryan or tells him.
If he had wanted the secret to be kept until the end, he wouldn't have called Vania out now and dug into the matter by asking, "Did you know that the masked man was me?" and not even listen to her answer.
It was a deliberate question.
Because Nike had been waiting for this situation to arise, where she could meet Vania and leave her behind.
He had expected to meet her here, having spoken to Ryan during the previous Eastern Front expedition...
"Is the next expedition going to the South? I happen to have a family member from that area, and we're planning a trip there to get some fresh air and some fun..."
"Your Highness, whenever you go on a punitive expedition to the south, you don't sleep out on the road, do you? Do you have any lodging of your own? I don't know much about that area, so if you know of a good place, please recommend..."
He also knew that he would have a chance to see Vania.
Yes, on purpose.
The reason he revealed that he was the masked man that day.
It was because he wanted to have 'confidence' about some suspicions he had about Vania.
'If that had been our 'real' first meeting... would you have recognized me?'
That can't be true.
With this, Nike was almost certain.
For Vania, who felt so 'familiar' with him, that meeting that day would not have been her first.
That child clearly exists in his own 'lost time'.
As someone who knows him in a way he doesn’t know...
At first, I didn't even notice anything strange.
Even when interrogating Professor Gustav Lettman and her daughter Luna Lettman, who were attempting to resume experiments on transplanting powers.
"That kid was kidnapped on purpose! No, he came here on his own, so it couldn't even be called kidnapping!"
Luna Lettman, who kidnapped Vania and tried to force Ryan to cooperate in her superpower transplant experiments, said so.
"I was fooled, too. I didn't know she was that kind of kid. She'd been acting like a normal twelve-year-old before, so I never thought she'd react like that."
According to Luna's testimony, Vania was kidnapped 'on purpose'.
The reason was to keep an eye on the forces targeting Ryan.
Of course, Nike didn't believe it.
It wasn't something a twelve-year-old girl would do, and she wouldn't have done something so reckless without any countermeasures.
He thought it was just an excuse from Gustav and his wife, who didn't want to add the charge of child kidnapping to the fact that they had simply resumed illegal experiments.
“So, does that mean that the child’s sad crying was all an act?”
"That...!"
Luna felt wronged, as if she didn't know what was happening.
Vania started crying sadly as soon as she saw Nike holding a sword.
As a child, the masked man wielding a weapon must have felt threatening, and it would have been natural for her to cry at the thought that she could die.
Yeah, I guess so...
I thought...
Even while riding a horse and taking her to Ryan, Vania cried sadly.
The crying must have originated from the emotion of fear.
He couldn't help but think that way.
At that time.
This is a memory he has now lost.
Nike Valencier.
Winter of his twenty-first year.
He was suffering at the time.
“I missed you.”
A woman greeted with blushing cheeks.
“...Nike.”
He couldn't understand Vania's intentions when she always called him "Prince," but sometimes called him by his name.
They had been dating for a little less than two years, and Vania was looking to make progress in their relationship.
But...
“...Yes, my lady.”
“...”
I missed you too, Vania.
I dream of you every day.
He couldn't say that.
Because it shouldn't have been done.
His first love was a disaster.
It wasn't a slow, permeating sensation that soaked Nike. It hit him, heart like a bolt of lightning.
“Your Highness, my name is... Vania.”
From the moment he first met her, the moment he saw Vania smiling shyly while erasing the scar on his cheek.
And surprisingly, it ate away at his heart deeply, very deeply, like a swamp.
The day he first felt his heartbeat. From then on, there were countless opportunities to escape, but he didn't.
He didn't want to do that.
Even though he knew it was poison that he should never drink, he foolishly...
He was a cowardly and selfish man.
Even though he knew Vania's feelings, and even though it was in his best interest to ruthlessly kick her out... he didn't do it.
Because it was good. Because he thought it would be hard for him if he didn't see it.
Because for the first time in a world covered in colorless colors, he discovered her alone wearing dazzling colors...
So, time passed by in a cowardly manner, burning Vania's heart without clearly defining the ambiguous relationship.
That was two years.
Nike doesn't remember anything now.
But...
Winter. Snow. And lightning.
The face of someone who looked at him and smiled brightly while crying.
Every time he tried to dig up his memories, he endured the pain that felt like his head was being ripped apart, but there was a harvest he gained.
Winter of Nike's twenty-first year.
It was a first-class demonic situation.
The situation was so dire that he was certain he wouldn't be able to return alive this time.
'Vania...'
What comes to mind in the face of death is not family, comrades, or enemies.
When he realized that it was the face of a woman who had not yet been defined by any relationship.
Nike finally regretted it.
'I should have said it.'
For not expressing his true feelings.
I loved you.
He wanted to say that like crazy.
“Support from Wassenberg!”
But at the end of life, a miracle came.
“Recover the wounded and move them out of the danger zone quickly!”
Nike saw the rampaging demons being tied down all at once.
The Shackles of Bondage
Richard Wassenberg.
Vania was a good follower of the older brother.
“...Who is the commander of the support force?”
Nike asked as he helped the wounded soldier off the battlefield.
“I am the first son of Wassenberg.”
Nike was surprised.
David Wassenberg is the first son of the Wassenberg family.
He was the most evil person that Nike hated.
A human who kills allies and enemies alike every time he comes to support a first-class demonic incident.
But... why?
Why did he do something so uncharacteristic of himself this time, like saving his own allies?
Only after the entire punitive force had safely moved out of the danger zone and he had escaped did Nike realize the reason.
“...”
A man in a black coat standing on a white snow field.
David Wassenberg, a man with an arrogant expression and a cigarette in his mouth, was smiling directly at Nike.
And...
Kneeling before him as if begging...
The shabby back of the woman she loves.
“All units secured!”
It must be going to Vania.
He might have asked what she talked about with the Third Prince.
But it didn't matter anyway.
Whether Vania keeps quiet about the power transplant experiment to Ryan or tells him.
If he had wanted the secret to be kept until the end, he wouldn't have called Vania out now and dug into the matter by asking, "Did you know that the masked man was me?" and not even listen to her answer.
It was a deliberate question.
Because Nike had been waiting for this situation to arise, where she could meet Vania and leave her behind.
He had expected to meet her here, having spoken to Ryan during the previous Eastern Front expedition...
"Is the next expedition going to the South? I happen to have a family member from that area, and we're planning a trip there to get some fresh air and some fun..."
"Your Highness, whenever you go on a punitive expedition to the south, you don't sleep out on the road, do you? Do you have any lodging of your own? I don't know much about that area, so if you know of a good place, please recommend..."
He also knew that he would have a chance to see Vania.
Yes, on purpose.
The reason he revealed that he was the masked man that day.
It was because he wanted to have 'confidence' about some suspicions he had about Vania.
'If that had been our 'real' first meeting... would you have recognized me?'
That can't be true.
With this, Nike was almost certain.
For Vania, who felt so 'familiar' with him, that meeting that day would not have been her first.
That child clearly exists in his own 'lost time'.
As someone who knows him in a way he doesn’t know...
***
At first, I didn't even notice anything strange.
Even when interrogating Professor Gustav Lettman and her daughter Luna Lettman, who were attempting to resume experiments on transplanting powers.
"That kid was kidnapped on purpose! No, he came here on his own, so it couldn't even be called kidnapping!"
Luna Lettman, who kidnapped Vania and tried to force Ryan to cooperate in her superpower transplant experiments, said so.
"I was fooled, too. I didn't know she was that kind of kid. She'd been acting like a normal twelve-year-old before, so I never thought she'd react like that."
According to Luna's testimony, Vania was kidnapped 'on purpose'.
The reason was to keep an eye on the forces targeting Ryan.
Of course, Nike didn't believe it.
It wasn't something a twelve-year-old girl would do, and she wouldn't have done something so reckless without any countermeasures.
He thought it was just an excuse from Gustav and his wife, who didn't want to add the charge of child kidnapping to the fact that they had simply resumed illegal experiments.
“So, does that mean that the child’s sad crying was all an act?”
"That...!"
Luna felt wronged, as if she didn't know what was happening.
Vania started crying sadly as soon as she saw Nike holding a sword.
As a child, the masked man wielding a weapon must have felt threatening, and it would have been natural for her to cry at the thought that she could die.
Yeah, I guess so...
I thought...
Even while riding a horse and taking her to Ryan, Vania cried sadly.
The crying must have originated from the emotion of fear.
He couldn't help but think that way.
At that time.
***
This is a memory he has now lost.
Nike Valencier.
Winter of his twenty-first year.
He was suffering at the time.
“I missed you.”
A woman greeted with blushing cheeks.
“...Nike.”
He couldn't understand Vania's intentions when she always called him "Prince," but sometimes called him by his name.
They had been dating for a little less than two years, and Vania was looking to make progress in their relationship.
But...
“...Yes, my lady.”
“...”
I missed you too, Vania.
I dream of you every day.
He couldn't say that.
Because it shouldn't have been done.
His first love was a disaster.
It wasn't a slow, permeating sensation that soaked Nike. It hit him, heart like a bolt of lightning.
“Your Highness, my name is... Vania.”
From the moment he first met her, the moment he saw Vania smiling shyly while erasing the scar on his cheek.
And surprisingly, it ate away at his heart deeply, very deeply, like a swamp.
The day he first felt his heartbeat. From then on, there were countless opportunities to escape, but he didn't.
He didn't want to do that.
Even though he knew it was poison that he should never drink, he foolishly...
He was a cowardly and selfish man.
Even though he knew Vania's feelings, and even though it was in his best interest to ruthlessly kick her out... he didn't do it.
Because it was good. Because he thought it would be hard for him if he didn't see it.
Because for the first time in a world covered in colorless colors, he discovered her alone wearing dazzling colors...
So, time passed by in a cowardly manner, burning Vania's heart without clearly defining the ambiguous relationship.
That was two years.
***
Nike doesn't remember anything now.
But...
Winter. Snow. And lightning.
The face of someone who looked at him and smiled brightly while crying.
Every time he tried to dig up his memories, he endured the pain that felt like his head was being ripped apart, but there was a harvest he gained.
***
Winter of Nike's twenty-first year.
It was a first-class demonic situation.
The situation was so dire that he was certain he wouldn't be able to return alive this time.
'Vania...'
What comes to mind in the face of death is not family, comrades, or enemies.
When he realized that it was the face of a woman who had not yet been defined by any relationship.
Nike finally regretted it.
'I should have said it.'
For not expressing his true feelings.
I loved you.
He wanted to say that like crazy.
“Support from Wassenberg!”
But at the end of life, a miracle came.
“Recover the wounded and move them out of the danger zone quickly!”
Nike saw the rampaging demons being tied down all at once.
The Shackles of Bondage
Richard Wassenberg.
Vania was a good follower of the older brother.
He stood there with a beautiful face and a blank expression, halting the chaotic battlefield in an instant before suddenly turning and walking away.
Nike asked as he helped the wounded soldier off the battlefield.
“I am the first son of Wassenberg.”
Nike was surprised.
David Wassenberg is the first son of the Wassenberg family.
He was the most evil person that Nike hated.
A human who kills allies and enemies alike every time he comes to support a first-class demonic incident.
But... why?
Why did he do something so uncharacteristic of himself this time, like saving his own allies?
Only after the entire punitive force had safely moved out of the danger zone and he had escaped did Nike realize the reason.
“...”
A man in a black coat standing on a white snow field.
David Wassenberg, a man with an arrogant expression and a cigarette in his mouth, was smiling directly at Nike.
And...
Kneeling before him as if begging...
The shabby back of the woman she loves.
“All units secured!”
Someone's scream.
God's Punishment
Only then did lightning strike behind his back.
The screams of the demons.
Everything was dull and dug into the tinnitus.
Why did that man force his precious younger sister to kneel before him? Why did he have to force Vania to submit like that?
Such anger.
And...
You knelt down in front of the brother you hated the most, unaware that your body was freezing in the cold snow.
Because of me.
Because of me, who cowardly avoided your heart.
To save me.
You are on your knees.
David, who had been watching Nike's distorted expression with satisfaction, bent down.
Without taking his eyes off Nike, he gently stroked the head of his sister, who was kneeling miserably, and whispered something.
After a while, Vania looked back.
She finds Nike safe and smiles brightly.
At that moment, Nike's heart broke.
It confirmed again what he already knew for sure.
We... this relationship...
It shouldn't have even started in the first place...
It was poison to you and to me.
***
He doesn't remember anything.
All that Nike could think of was the bitterly cold smell of winter. White snow. Lightning.
And someone's face, which feels hazy as if it's covered in fog.
That was it.
She seemed relieved that Nike was alive, and perhaps smiled brightly...
"Ah."
Someone appeared to overlap in front of his eyes.
It was Vania.
A thirteen-year-old girl whom he has only met three times today.
Even though quite some time had passed since their conversation outside, Vania blinked with wide eyes as she watched Nike standing there blankly without entering the room.
Nike stared at Vania silently.
It was the same with Vania.
‘What are you...?’
“Oh my!”
At that moment, the view was suddenly obscured.
Nike was startled and snapped out of his thoughts.
A huge mass was blocking Vania as if it were blocked by a wall...
It was Ryan.
He glared at Nike for some reason and then poked Vania behind him.
“Go in and sleep, you little girl!”
“Ah, don’t stab me...”
“Aren’t you going quickly?!”
Ryan continued to block Nike's view with his large body, shoving Vania into the room like a stepfather torturing his poor stepdaughter.
Vania trudged upstairs.
Thus, Nike's head turns.
And Ryan walked with a crab-like gait, blocking the two men perfectly.
Nike was embarrassed.
Ryan's expression seemed to be extremely wary of him for some reason. Nike couldn't understand its meaning.
As Ryan passed Nike safely, he almost half-embraced Vania and disappeared.
Nike looked at the stairs that had swallowed the two people, and something felt ominous.
‘Why... are you doing that...?’
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