Episode 159. Falling Blossoms
Seeing that, Methone rushed over.
“Are you alright?!”
Noah glanced at Methone, whose inner cheek was exposed on his right side, and muttered sarcastically.
“Worry about yourself. Your face is melting.”
“I think we need to retreat.”
At Methone’s words, Noah looked around with a heavy heart. Most of the naval uniforms, made to withstand acid, had melted away, as had their boots.
Like demons that crawled out no matter how many times they were killed, Krakens constantly pushed their heads towards the land from the sea.
“Your Highness!”
Noah turned his head and looked towards the warehouse.
Beyond this warehouse lay the city, so they couldn’t retreat too far.
Noah made a quick decision.
“Retreat behind the warehouse district. We’ll use the warehouses as a defense line and hold out until reinforcements arrive!”
Every time he made a decision like this, he felt like he was shouldering a sin he didn't want to bear. Weighing the lives of others, or things as precious as their lives, was truly not to his liking.
“Understood.”
As Methone blew his whistle upon receiving Noah’s order, soldiers who had been fighting Krakens everywhere began to pull back in unison.
Usher and the Royal Guards also retreated along with the soldiers’ movements, causing the warehouse owners, who had been watching from afar, to cry out in despair.
“No, Your Highness!! No!”
“Please protect the warehouses, sob. Without them, we are as good as dead.”
Noah thought he might have to step down from his position due to his responsibility for this situation.
“Your Highness!! Save us, Your Highness!!”
An untimely snowfall began to flutter down.
Noah walked, feeling the frost-like cold snow on his face.
His title, what was so special about it?
“Your Highness, sob.”
Sorrowful cries and wails struck his ears forcefully. They pleaded with him to save them.
Noah felt a sense of helplessness for the first time in a long while.
A sticky, dark, suffocating emotion, like a swamp.
Noah thought of Olivia.
Was every day like this for you? Even when you were by my side.
“Noah!!!!”
Someone’s voice echoed in his distant ears. He could see Usher struggling desperately to run towards him from afar, and the Royal Guards holding him back.
Noah slowly turned his body, as if he were someone from whom the entire world had fallen away.
A dark shadow fell over his head, and a giant leg seemed to fall towards him in slow motion.
“…Olivia.”
As death descended upon him, Noah listlessly murmured her name.
The name that had consumed him awakened him in this moment of dire peril.
With an animalistic movement, Noah rolled to the side. He immediately sprang up, severed the creature’s leg with his Magical Power, and just as he was about to charge at it, evading the ink…
Fwip, Thwack!
“……!”
It was a flash of light.
Noah turned towards the direction the light had come from.
Two Magic Domes, shrouded in darkness, were now glowing.
All eyes turned towards the Magic Domes. As a fervent wish mingled in everyone’s gaze, the beams of light fiercely struck the Kraken’s heart, as if to prove it wasn’t an illusion.
Seeing the beams of light shooting from the Magic Domes, the people roared in unison and burst into joy.
“Waaaaaaaah!!!”
“We did it!!!”
A thunderous cheer erupted.
The Mana Cannons accurately struck the hearts of the Krakens, both those hiding in the sea and those climbing ashore. The sea churned as if to flip over from their movements.
The reason why the Magic Domes held sway over global security became starkly clear.
Noah slowly inhaled and exhaled, then turned back to the soldiers who had retreated. They had stopped their steps and were looking at Noah.
As if asking what they were looking at, Noah leaped high towards a nearby Kraken and shouted.
“All troops, deal with the Krakens on land! Don’t retreat, come back and hold your positions!”
As his silhouette, backlit by the moonlight, turned golden, another Mana Cannon streaked across the sky, painting the sea.
The tide of battle had turned.
As soon as news of the Magic Domes’ return spread, newspapers distributed extra editions. This was thanks to King Leonard’s summons, allowing them to prepare the papers in advance.
Under the falling snow, people stood on the streets, unfolding the newspapers.
“…The Princess consort repaired the Magic Dome…?”
“What does this mean?”
They looked up from their papers, then lowered their gaze back to Olivia’s photo.
Snowflakes landed on Olivia’s smiling photo, creating round, dark marks.
“…Just what kind of person… was she…?”
The interest, which had merely been that of a lucky woman who rose in status thanks to the Prince’s favor, ignited into a flame.
The woman who piqued people’s curiosity stood before the black sea where snowflakes fell. The wind, now carrying a chill, sharply struck her cheeks. Yet, Olivia didn’t seem to feel the cold.
Before her eyes, a sheer mountain range still stood, and she had only just taken a step onto it.
“Her Highness!”
Another soldier, sent to fetch Olivia, called out to her. He looked at her, having untied the anchor rope that secured the boat.
Olivia leaped onto the boat and fastened her seatbelt.
“We’re departing!”
“You’ve worked hard.”
“You’ve been through a lot.”
Pierre, who chose to remain at the Magic Dome, bowed respectfully. Olivia watched him recede, then turned her gaze to the passing sea.
The boat cut through the water, heading towards land.
The moon, adorned with a pale halo, shimmered on the rippling sea. Snowflakes coughed up by the clouds fluttered over the moonlit ocean.
The weather was completely different from when she had sailed towards the Magic Dome.
Like the reversed weather, she too had become a completely different person from when she crossed this sea. When she set foot on land again, a world different from what she had known would await her.
There was no gradual, gentle change.
Change was sudden. Just as all the changes she had experienced had been.
“…Everything, as if flipping a palm….”
CRASH!!
Olivia’s words, spoken in a daze, trailed off.
Wind entered through her hair.
Her gaze, which had been fixed on the moonlit sea, somehow shifted to the sky where snow was falling.
It felt like she had been hit by something. Staring blankly at the sky, Olivia couldn’t comprehend what was happening. She felt pain somewhere, but couldn’t identify it.
“Olivia!!!!!!”
A scream of agony, as if she were dying, seemed to come from far away.
“Her Highness!!”
The soldier steering the boat reached out to her urgently, shouting.
“The seatbelt…!!”
His cry was cut short as something long and black cast a shadow over the sky, creating darkness above her. Olivia fumbled with the buckle of the seatbelt that secured her to the boat.
Strange.
Why can’t I feel strength in my fingers?
Olivia blankly watched the giant leg of the Kraken approaching her.
Am I going to die?
A flash of light streaked across her retinas, as if stepping back from the world.
The approaching leg split open, and something splattered her face. Then, someone appeared through the gap in the severed leg. He landed on the crumbling boat falling below and threw himself towards her.
Behind him, the moon shone brightly, and his shadowed face seemed contorted in disarray.
Though she couldn’t see clearly, his eyes, as they looked at her, would hold pity…
And, like leaves turning in autumn, they would be brilliant, red and blue.
“…Noah.”
The boat, carrying the two of them, plunged towards the sea.
Sudden and sorrowful, like the falling blossoms that signal the end of a season.
CRASH!!
Noah’s world stopped as he stood on the pier, waiting for Olivia.
The sight of the boat carrying her soaring into the snow-filled black sky was so surreal, he wondered if he was dreaming with his eyes open.
But separate from his doubt, his body moved instinctively towards the ascending boat.
His salvation was falling into the sea.
“Olivia!!!”
A terror greater than death washed over him.
Noah stepped over the carcass of a Kraken that had emerged from the water. Using a still-writhing leg as a support, Noah leaped into the air and fiercely severed the Kraken’s leg that was falling towards Olivia.
Through the gap in the splitting leg, he saw Olivia, staring at him blankly.
Noah threw himself towards Olivia.
“…Noah.”
A sob threatened to erupt at her fragile, almost broken call.
Noah released the buckle that secured her. His hands slipped several times on the slippery surface, but he finally succeeded and pulled Olivia into his embrace.
He had vowed to save her, even if it meant assuming she would sink in the middle of the ocean.
Before the boat plunged into the water, Noah kicked off with all his might and sprang up. He landed on the carcass of a nearby Kraken, then leaped to another. After crossing countless carcasses, he finally reached the pier, but Noah didn’t stop.
His magnificent naval uniform was already in tatters, and his exposed back was stained red as if from a rash. Even his gloves had melted, revealing his inner flesh on the back of his hands.
He looked utterly exhausted, but he never let go of his wife. The ground was slick with acidic ink, and he couldn’t possibly lay Olivia down amidst a pile of carcasses that might twitch reflexively at any moment.
People surrounding him guided him.
Noah walked forward, then looked down at Olivia in his arms, and repeated the action. Olivia was serene, as if asleep.
“Sleep well.”
With a light remark, Noah tried to soothe his heart with her strangely peaceful face.
But the turmoil in his chest did not subside. He had saved Olivia, so why did he feel so uneasy?
And then, a moment later, Noah’s anxiety became reality.
Only after laying Olivia down on a blanket spread by the soldiers did Noah realize her condition. More accurately, it was only when he noticed his white uniform, which had held her, was stained a deep crimson.
Noah couldn’t believe this red, red bloodstain belonged to Olivia.
No, he didn’t want to believe it.
