A week later.
Arma chased Garen Wilbreed.
He just lived like that, as if he had forgotten to eat or sleep, as if his only life was chasing after Garen Wilbreed.
On the day a week had passed, he finally came face-to-face with Garen Wilbreed at the edge of a deserted cliff.
"That specter is truly persistent. I do not know what the dead hope so much of from the living that they pursue you with such venom."
"Garen Wilbreed."
Arma Dianitas called his name while grinding his teeth, looking emaciated—a sight so terrifying it was feared he would appear in his dreams rather than in those of a human.
Garen Wilbreed lightly shrugged his shoulders with a relaxed attitude.
"Yes. Your Highness, the Third Prince, what brings you to this distant place?"
“Why did you do that?”
The elderly middle-aged man tilted his head slightly with a puzzled expression.
A relaxed smile played on his lips, and his expression was utterly detestable.
Arma clenched his hand, which was roughly bandaged, and gritted his teeth.
"I asked why you killed Roselyn."
"Your Highness. You are speaking strangely. Why do you think I killed Roselyn Bellion, Your Highness?"
Garen Wilbreed tilted his head and asked.
Arma opened his eyes wide.
His bloodshot eyes were already congested, and the blood vessels had long since burst, and a menacing, murderous aura hung over his piercing blue eyes.
Nevertheless, Garen Wilbreed did not lose his composure in the slightest.
"I cast off that princely facade a long time ago, so stop talking nonsense and just answer me!"
Sreeeung!
Arma drew his sword.
A pitch-black energy surged and swirled around the edge of his sword. It was a dangerous energy that seemed capable of engulfing the surroundings with just a single cut.
"Why on earth did you run with that power and kill Roselyn!"
He lunged at Garen.
Cheaeng~!
Garen drew his sword from his staff and narrowed his brows as he blocked Arma's sword.
"Do you even realize what on earth you've just done...!"
“That facade.”
Garen Wilbreed lightly cut off Arma's words with a grin.
"Come to think of it, wasn't it that pretense that drove Roselyn into a death trap?"
At Garen Wilbreed's words, Arma glared with his eyes wide open while their swords clashed.
Garen pulled his sword back and laughed as he watched Arma's body stiffen and tremble slightly.
"Did you really not know? What would happen if you hovered around me while holding the status of the Third Prince?"
"..."
"Ah, I spoke casually because you have shed the facade of being a Prince, so don't nitpick now."
Garen Wilbreed added in a voice tinged with laughter as he pushed the sword back into the cane he was holding. He lightly tapped the ground once with the tip of his staff.
" I was wondering why you chased me all the way here, but I see that's why you were following me."
Garen Wilbreed tilted his head once with a look of surprise and shrugged his shoulders.
"You didn't want to become King, and you achieved that wish by faking your own death and leaving Roselyn behind. I don't understand why you are acting like this now."
"..."
" Let's leave the house games to house games. It seems Roselyn did the same."
"...I."
Arma clenched his fist tightly.
With a disheveled, gaunt face, he bit and crushed his lips again and again.
"There are so many things I need to apologize to Roselyn for. So many... I tried to apologize, but since the person to apologize to... doesn't exist in this world, I can't apologize."
"Hmm. Given Roselyn's personality, I don't think she would particularly want to accept your apology."
"I want to apologize... I..."
There's a lot to apologize for.
There are many things I'm sorry about...
And after I have finished apologizing, there is also something I would like to convey.
However, because these are words that absolutely cannot be conveyed without an apology...
However, the fact that he could never have that opportunity made him so angry and left me breathless.
Is reality really this cruel?
Always, always...
"Why always..."
He doesn't know if what he always wishes for isn't by his side.
" Ah, I see."
Garen Wilbreed let out a low gasp.
"You... love Roselyn."
It was the moment Arma, whose eyes had widened at the voice muttering in a perplexed tone, lifted his head.
"I’m a bit sorry about this. It’s not really my place to say this, but... it’s your fault for not treating her well when you had the chance."
"...You!"
Grrrr-!
Flames blazed fiercely around Marquis Wilbreed and began to surround him.
"When you were by Roselyn's side, even the nobles couldn't act rashly, but the problem was that you disappeared in that manner. Roselyn was a thorn in the side of both the nobles and Makluxa in many ways. She is smart, though. She’s good at tightrope walking, too. Including the things she brought me, she knows a few of the family’s secrets that they keep quiet about, and she’s been selling that information everywhere."
Garen threw the cane he was holding into the fire, put his hands into his coat pockets, and smiled.
"So... after the only shield is gone, the hyenas have no choice but to swarm to tear apart the luscious rabbit."
He shrugged his shoulders.
" My only crime is bringing Roselyn to His Majesty unharmed, before others bit her neck to death."
Garen Wilbreed shrugged his shoulders as if he felt wronged.
"Bullshit! She's dead! Garen Walbreed! You took Roselyn away from me!"
"Roselyn, she is dead, or she killed herself. I did not kill her."
"Don't talk nonsense...!"
It was when Arma, grinding his teeth, took a big step closer to Garen.
The flames spread to Garen.
Garen grimaced slightly as the fire spread. Arma's eyes widened at the unbelievable sight.
"What are you doing right now?"
" I'm thinking of dying."
"Die? Why on earth? Marquis, what on earth are you thinking?"
"Well... I, too, have come to not want to live in a world without my wife. It is because I think I have realized what love is."
"What on earth are you talking about! Roselyn is...!"
Garen Wilbreed stopped there and, as if he had finished speaking, slowly closed his eyes while engulfed in flames.
"Was it a fun life in its own way?"
Engulfed in flames that began to burn even more fiercely, along with a low mutter, he vanished silently into the massive fire.
As if it had never existed in the first place, this time leaving not a single ash behind.
The flame that burned Garen Wilbreed vanished without leaving even a trace of soot.
It was a sight that was completely unbelievable.
"...What on earth is this?"
Arma muttered blankly, let out a hollow laugh, and slumped onto the floor.
In the end, after chasing and chasing like this, nothing was left.
Arma just sat there blankly for a long time, bewildered by the situation he didn't understand.
He had to sit there for a long time in shabby clothes, like a lost child.
There was nowhere suitable to go.
Having walked ceaselessly and used the Abyss to find his way here solely in search of traces of Geran Wilbreed, he had no strength left to walk any further.
The moment he thought that far, he felt his mind go blank and tilted his head back blankly.
"Ah. Why am I here..."
Arma narrowed his eyebrows.
Who was I chasing to get here?
Why did I come here? I think I came here chasing someone, but I couldn't remember who it was.
Something hazy did not come to mind clearly.
Now, there was only one thing filling his mind.
"Roselyn..."
Yeah, he tried to atone to Roselyn.
Roselyn is gone now. I can't take revenge, I can't apologize, I can't be sorry, and I just can't do anything.
There will be nothing you can do. Because there will be no one to listen, and no one to blame.
Since Arma is the only thing left in this whole world, Arma will ultimately be the only one to endure this solitude and go mad.
"Love..."
Arma quietly muttered the words swirling in her head.
What is love?
What difference does it make to realize it now?
Will it be conveyed that I am reciting this now?
Now that I have realized it, it feels infinitely futile.
"... It's punishment, isn't it? Because I said something mean. I'm sorry. Roselyn, I was wrong."
It is because of having a bad heart, or starting with a wicked mind from the beginning.
Since I intended to hurt you, how could it possibly end well?
I should go back and build a tomb for Roselyn.
I have to make it and keep apologizing forever.
Because Roselyn must have resented it right up until the moment of her death, just as much as she suffered. Because it must have been painful.
"I just didn't want to become Emperor..."
Arma lowered his head.
"I didn't intend to make Roselyn like that."
He never imagined that a bounty would be issued for the assassination of a member of the royal family, but that is how it turned out.
And Arma ended up turning a blind eye to it, and actually did turn a blind eye. He was in a hurry to hide himself, and Roselyn was a very decisive person.
He thought that was enough.
"...I like you, Roselyn."
Arma muttered softly and staggered to his feet.
The voice mixed with sobs, scattering in the breeze, was akin to a plea for someone who was already dead and whom one could never reach, and who would never be reached.
Some time later, a tomb rose up in a quiet, sunny spot along with a large tombstone.
A strange rumor circulated that a large wool blanket was covered every winter at the grave, where dust never accumulated on the tombstone because a drunken man visited almost every day to mutter to himself.
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