He tried to hold on by tightening the saddle with his thighs, but his body had already reached its limit.
In the end, he plummeted over the cold snow.
"Your Excellency!"
Someone managed to catch his body sliding on the horse.
Kneeling on the floor, Barcas held his breath, shook off the hands that were trying to support him, and used the spear as a support to straighten his leaning body.
However, his vision was once again dizzyingly distorted.
Resting his head on his halberd, waiting for his dizziness to subside, Barcas glanced down at his abdomen. Apparently, the wound was opened due to excessive movement. Blood was constantly gushing out from the cracks in the sword-marked armor.
A mounted warrior who tore the suit and hurriedly blocked it shouted.
"Call the wizard right away!"
When it became clear that he could no longer move, he immediately leaned his back against the snow.
He didn't feel any pain, but he could clearly recognize the chill and fatigue that filled his body.
Maybe this is the last scenery he sees.
With that in mind, Barcas looked up at the sky. The beautiful cobalt light of the late afternoon poured into his retina.
In an instant, a tingling sensation spread from the Inside of his chest.
It was strange. It must have been the side that was pierced, but why does it seem like there is a hole in the heart?
After blinking his blurry eyes a few times, Barcas immediately lowered his eyelids as if he was tired.
***
The breeze with the strong smell of grass gently caressed his face.
Noticing that there was a sweet fruit scent mixed in it, Barcas immediately turned his steps.
Soon after, he was able to find a girl who had been searching for hours by the pond that was dyed red with sunset.
Barcas looked up at the girl who was sitting on a thick branch about shoulder height, and her bare feet with a disapproving look.
"Isn't the age to climb a tree past now?"
The blue eyes that were staring at the gently shimmering purple lake glanced at him.
"It's not over yet. You can do anything until you're 15."
He raised one eyebrow in disbelief. Daughters from noble families usually learned to behave as a lady from around the age of eight or nine.
As he was about to refute like that, he sighed and held out a hand.
"It's late. Please stop coming down now."
The girl who was looking down at him with strange eyes turned her head with a fresh face.
"I can't go."
He narrowed his eyes.
Under the silent pressure, the girl shook her pure white feet under the hem of her skirt that had been rolled up to her calves.
"Do you see this? I'm barefoot, so I can't move here."
"..What about shoes?"
"I don't know. Where did it fall over there?"
She pointed to the lush bushes under the gentle slope leading to the lakeshore.
Swallowing a sigh, Barcas descended under it and began to rummage through the bushes. Eventually, he was able to find a pair of velvet shoes the size of his palm.
After shaking off the dust from it, he returned to the tree, and the girl came out in front of him as if she had been waiting.
"Come on."
He frowned for a moment at the attitude of treating him, a knight and heir to the Grand Duke, like a lowly servant. He wrapped his hand around one of her feet and carefully pushed it into her shoe.
The girl, who had been fiddling with her small toes as if tickling, held out the opposite foot this time.
Without saying a word, Barcas, who put on the shoes on the rest of her feet, straightened his body and tilted his head to one side.
"Are you done now?"
"What does it matter?"
She stretched out her arms towards him with a sad face.
Barcas, who had been standing still and staring at her, let out a sigh of resignation and lifted the girl's body up. Just as he was about to lower him to the floor, a white and soft forearm wrapped around his neck.
Barcas, who was stiffened by the unexpected behavior, wrinkled his brows the next moment when he smelled the strong wine. It seemed that she had secretly stolen some alcohol from somewhere and drank it.
He pulled off the girl who was clinging to his chest and questioned her in a stiff voice.
"Where else did you get the wine?"
"Secret."
The girl giggled softly.
The laughter that echoed like a breeze echoed in his mouth, and the admonitions that had been in his mouth disappeared in an instant.
He looked at the small face with a blushing little face with strange eyes. Barcas couldn't take his eyes off the girl's unhappy face as she smiled without wrinkles.
"Look at that, Barcas. The moon is in the sky."
She suddenly pointed to the sky that was dyed navy blue.
As he followed her fingertips, he saw a fingernail-shaped moon hanging on the border between red and blue.
The girl who had been looking up at it for a long time, as if she had found a treasure, muttered in a dreamy voice.
"In a year, I will be sixteen."
The water-soaked blue eyes slowly descended and captured him.
"Yes, when the time comes..."
The voice that had been slowing down was cut off at some point.
Barcas looked down at the girl's figure, scattering like a mirage from a distance.
A strong wind swept through his body from somewhere.
The next moment, he was standing in the courtyard of Raedgo's castle.
He saw her through the garden where the flowers were blooming.
Smiling happily in the bright sunlight, she was holding a small boy in her arms.
The woman, who was looking down at the child's face with the same look as she did when she looked up at the moon, suddenly raised her head and looked at him.
"Barcas."
As he cautiously approached the woman who was calling him, she showed him the face of the child, as if to give him a special favor.
"Look at this. Isn't it really pretty?"
The woman said triumphantly, as if she was boasting about a precious treasure, and brought rosy lips to the child's cheek.
Barcas's eyes, which had been watching the scene without blinking, fell into her arms.
Jewel-like blue eyes twinkled on a tiny face that looked like a mix of her and him. Over it, the ashen face growing cold inside the swaddling cloth flashed by.
He wondered if there were such blue pupils beyond those eyelids that were closed forever.
Barcas thought about it in a daze, then reached out and touched the child's cheek. Then, that useless and fleeting fantasy also shattered like a mirage. Her happy smile also turned to ashes and was scattered in an instant.
Watching everything that had been shining silently melt into the wind, Barcas curled up his empty hands.
Eventually, everything around him faded to ashes and shattered. The wind blowing from somewhere sweeps away all the debris of the illusion.
All that was left of him now was a corroding body and an endless emptiness.
He sat on his knees on the floor as if collapsing, staring at the Infinite ruins without hesitation.
***
"Are you coming to your senses now?"
The first thing that caught his eye when he opened his eyes with a faint moan was Darren's emaciated face.
Why is the man who should be guarding Tarlin by my side?
Barcas frowned, but eventually realized that he was not in a barracks, but in a lavishly decorated bedroom, and stood up with his upper body.
Seeing this, Darren was frightened and slammed his shoulder.
"The wound has not completely healed yet. You must not move."
Barcas looked down at his body with a firm face. A pure white bandage was tightly wrapped around his bare abdomen.
When he pressed it slightly, he felt a throbbing sensation along with a severe pull.
He looked up at Darren with a puzzled face.
"Why didn't they cast a healing spell?"
"Why wouldn't they have? Four high priests swarmed around you and poured out divine power."
The man sitting on the chair let out a tired sigh and said.
"It seems the sword was coated with monster poison. Healing magic was ineffective, so the priests had to devote themselves to treating Your Excellency for fifteen days straight."
Barcas raised one eyebrow.
"How much exactly did I fall?"
"You were unconscious for exactly two weeks and five days."
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