- Episode 27
Adelheid blinked rapidly. But he was still in the same spot.
Seemingly a little bustling, confused, and steep, yet serene, the eyes were like water pooled beneath an ancient shadow.
His tightly closed jaw moved slightly. From his shoulders to the tip of his gripped sword, everything about him was so excessively straight that, at first glance, it looked like an illusion.
Dark eyes, as if clutching a shadow, turned toward Adelheid.
That gaze, which somehow made her feel desperate just by looking at it, fixed on her face for a very brief moment and then passed by as if glancing sideways.
She couldn't understand. Why did he come here now?
Why aim your blade at the King? Do you know that you are of royal blood?
Why, why, him.
Clang!
Two well-sharpened blades clashed, producing a sharp metallic sound.
Anton planted one foot on the ground and blocked the flying sword.
Dominic pressed on without giving him a moment's rest. Turning his head, bending at the waist, short groans, twisting his arm, stabbing, dodging, the sound of blades grazing, and a few handfuls of hair flying in the air.
Anton said, grinding his teeth.
“You’re crazy.”
"Weren't you planning to eliminate me someday?"
“...What are you talking about?”
A blade rushed past Dominic's neck. He reflexively twisted his waist to dodge it, but it grazed him lightly, causing a drop of blood to form.
He placed his hands on the floor while still leaning backward and kicked Anton in the shin with his foot.
Anton retreated as if growling, then struck the sword flying straight towards him.
"What kind of bullshit is that?"
"You should know this well."
"Hey!"
A sword flew over Anton's head. It was at a terrifying speed, as if the wind were splitting apart.
One of his knees was about to buckle, but he managed to block it with great difficulty. His hands gripping the sword were tightly clenched.
Crunch, two blades meshed together, producing a spine-chilling sound. Anton gritted his teeth.
“You crazy bastard, who said to you that bullshit?”
Dominic looked up without answering and pressed on. Anton, seemingly having given up on hearing an answer, focused on the battle.
Pushed back, then pushed back, backing away, sliding around, then pushing back again. Mockery mixed in between the rough breaths.
"They said you were a genius sent by the times. Ugh, it's nothing special. What's going on?"
"..."
"Huh? Answer me!"
When Adelheid was royalty, she had heard quite a few stories about the King of Genomes and the Captain of Legenon.
An infinitely cruel and ruthless King, bordering on a slaughterer. And Captain Legenon, the genius bestowed by the times.
Both were highly armed, but Captain Legenon was far superior in skill.
He was even called a genius blessed by the dragon.
"Ha, you idiot, you've come back completely broken!"
Dominic clearly fought well. In the eyes of Adelheid, he was fighting so well that it was impossible to keep up with his movements.
However, it was not as much as the rumors said about receiving the dragon's blessing.
In reality, Anton and Dominic were continuing a battle that was nearly evenly matched.
Why?
Small wounds increased on the two men's bodies.
As time passed, their breathing became heavy and beads of sweat formed on their forehead.
Movements were gradually slowing down. Even the few words exchanged were becoming too difficult to breathe. All they could do was breathe.
The sun was setting. Scarlet waves slowly swallowed the earth.
Adelheid, who had been watching, stood up from her seat and violently shook off the carriage door that had been almost completely destroyed by Anton.
It was already loose enough that it wasn't that difficult.
The two were so focused on the fight that they had no time to pay attention to her.
As the battle continued, the distance between Adelheid and the two grew further and further.
For some reason, she had the ridiculous thought that Dominic seemed to be leading it that way.
Now that Anton is distracted and his troops are away, she can easily escape.
It might have been an opportunity that would never come again.
However, the reason she absolutely could not do so was that he saw her.
Adelheid narrowed her eyes and quickly gauged the distance.
Roughly fifteen steps to as many as twenty steps.
She held the slightly heavy door with her swaying arm and ran with all her might, dragging it along.
Ran.
The place with the loud metallic sounds gradually drew closer.
It was a distance where one of the two men could have easily hit the target if she had thrown a knife.
Her eyes met Dominic's across from me in the air. His eyes widened. She thought she saw him mouth words like "don't come."
However, Adelheid did not stop. She gritted her teeth and ran.
When there were about three or four steps left, Anton, who belatedly noticed the presence, leaned his body slightly and turned around.
Their eyes met in a fleeting glance. Those sickeningly terrible eyes.
She swung what she was holding right next to Anton's leg.
Anton let out a short scream of pain and slumped to a lower position.
Adelheid swung the carriage door at her head one more time.
The air hitting the carriage door vibrated. It was true that she struck roughly due to a lack of arm strength, but there was definitely a blow.
Dominic was given another moment, though it was only for a brief instant.
Anton, who had been severely slashed in the nape of his neck before he could even recover, slumped to his knees.
Blood gushed out of the wound.
It was an injury that made it difficult even to get up. The moment Dominic gripped his sword again, Adelheid gasped for breath and screamed as if snapping at the sound.
“To me!”
"..."
" Give me the sword."
"..."
" Give me the sword."
The words sounded like both an appeal and a command.
Adelheid lifted her chin and glared at Dominic.
Anton let out a choked groan and clutched his neck.
Red blood seeped through his fingers. The mere smiles he had always worn were nowhere to be seen.
The sun began to set slowly, and all that covered Anton was red, and nothing else.
Dominic looked back and forth between Anton and Adelheid, closed and then opened his eyes, and carefully handed her the sword. Then he stepped back.
Adelheid took the sword, gripping it loosely, and stood in front of Anton.
She straightened her back, held her head stiff, and kept her gaze fixed only on him.
Her whole body trembled so much that it was difficult just to stand, as if she had been pushed to the edge of a cliff, yet her mind became strangely calm. It felt as if cold water had been poured over her head.
Suddenly, she looked at her arm and saw that her white clothes were soaked in blood. Only then did she feel a throbbing pain in my left arm.
It looked like she had been cut in that brief moment when her eyes met Anton's earlier.
Adelheid held back the breath she had inhaled and gripped the sword tightly with both hands.
The end of the day, filled with hatred, headed toward the man's face.
“...You always.”
“Gasp, cough...”
"You always laughed while killing me. There was never a single time you didn't do that."
Even when he came to her in a very low mood, laid a hand on her for no reason, and thrust a blade at her, Anton smiled, at least at the moment of killing. He smiled as if he were enjoying it.
There has never been a single time when it wasn't done.
That filthy laughter tightened its grip on Adelheid just by the thought of it.
"When I kill you, I can't even laugh.”
She couldn't laugh because she knew that even if she killed him, it wouldn't really be killing him.
Even if she killed Anton because she absolutely could not bear it or out of a primitive survival instinct, she could not laugh out of fear of the death that would soon follow.
After killing him, she put the body in a corner of the room and slept all day.
It was less scary to be asleep as if dead.
" I wanted to laugh when I killed you, too. I wanted to kill you like that just once. Because I killed you while always waiting for death..."
Adelheid laughed.
"Die, you son of a bitch."
And she swung her sword.
Anton did not die immediately due to an arm injury and a crude knife cut.
She swung, swung, plunged the blade into the nape of his neck, pulled it out, and swung again. Adelheid took the full force of the blood spurting out like a fountain.
The sensation of a blade piercing human flesh and bone crawled up the hand in its raw state.
I want to kill him.
I want to kill you forever.
The strength drained from her hand, and she dropped the sword.
She barely managed to bend down, staggered to pick up the sword, and swung it again with all her might.
Anton choked and gasped, unable to even scream.
Nevertheless, it still held a faint breath. It was filthy. It was terrible.
Squeezing out the last bit of strength from her convulsing arm, she swung her sword.
The tattered body tumbled with a thud onto the blood-soaked dirt floor. The dangling neck remained attached to the end, appearing as if it were about to detach but not quite.
Anton's body trembled a few times as if having a seizure, then soon calmed down. Calm down. Calm down.
It became quiet.
Adelheid slumped to the ground. It had quieted down. He was dead. Really. Really... No. She had killed him many times before, but he had never once been ‘really’ dead.
She stared blankly at the tragedy she had created, placed his right hand on the floor, dragged herself close to the corpse, and completely separated the neck, which had been mutilated and was almost completely severed, from the body.
A pungent smell of blood wafted in. Adelheid felt like she was going to throw up.
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