Chapter 52
Red Sword Star, Kyle Stroban.
He was a hero of the continent who led the Great Subjugation period against cultists, and a figure who had brilliantly recorded dozens of pages in history.
A star that had reached the highest night sky.
He had executed numerous black magicians and illuminated the chaotic empire with brilliant light.
He even died heroically at the end of the war.
Such noble actions gained attention in the empire.
People called him the 'Fallen Star' and commemorated the hero's unfortunate end.
It was the typical biography of a great person.
'Of course.'
That wasn't everything.
There were always stories unknown to the audience beyond the screen.
Kyle Stroban was no exception.
There were plenty of untold stories.
-I saved the continent... but I couldn't protect what was precious to me.
The man had a family.
A beautiful wife, and a daughter he cherished more than his own eyes.
The hero had originally taken up the sword to protect them, but that choice instead pushed his happy family into hell.
It was a nightmare.
-I ruined everything.
Kyle, who had led the subjugation at the very front.
It was truly overwhelming force.
The black magicians, judging they couldn't face him head-on, devised a scheme to bring down the star.
They kidnapped his beloved family.
-Throw down your weapon and surrender.
-If you want to save your wife and daughter, you'd better obey quietly.
He couldn't go against their words.
A star falling pathetically.
The man was captured without even a trace of resistance.
The cultists imprisoned Kyle in a facility no one could find, and tortured him or used him as an experimental subject for black magic.
They didn't even tell him whether his family was alive or dead.
Kyle could only endure.
For the sake of his beloved family who might still be alive.
-How do you feel now, Sword Star?
-You blocked our path so well until now, but now you're in the opposite position.
-Let's see how well you can endure.
Painful time passed.
He was stabbed, cut, torn. It was closer to torture than experiments.
As he was played with by hands full of malice like that, even his iron-like heart was gradually breaking.
At that time, someone appeared.
-I've come to retrieve you, Red Sword Star.
It was a boy with deep golden hair and slit eyes.
He who had infiltrated the facility instantly slaughtered the cultists, then leisurely approached the iron cage where Kyle was trapped.
His ominous gaze seemed to examine the man's condition.
-You haven't become a monster yet.
-I was worried what if I was too late until the end... Should I say I'm relieved?
-It would be troublesome in many ways if you appeared as a stage boss.
Incomprehensible self-mutterings.
Though the snake muttered indifferently, he cut the iron bars and freed the man.
He quietly supported the body sprawled on the floor.
As if trying to help him escape from this place.
-Let's go together.
The wounded beast was taken in.
They left behind the scorched facility.
The boy took the collapsed man somewhere.
There, Kyle was able to meet a longed-for person he hadn't even dreamed of again.
It was his kidnapped wife.
-She was in some branch outside imperial territory.
-I rescued her while sweeping away the cultist remnants.
-As you can see, she's badly injured... but they say it's to a degree she can recover healthily.
-We were lucky.
Kyle wailed while embracing his wife.
A heart crumbling weakly.
The snake wedged into that subtle gap.
Craftily tempting the once brilliant hero.
-Serve me from now on.
-Then I will fulfill everything you desire.
A voice ringing calmly.
Though his appearance was that of a boy around sixteen, his ominous smile resembled an adult's filth.
The snake whispered an offer that couldn't be refused into his ear.
-Your daughter too, if you want.
-I don't know how long it will take... but I will definitely retrieve her.
-The other half of your world that you lost.
Kyle couldn't resist.
-I am your master.
From that day on.
The hero came to serve a new god.
***
The promise was eventually fulfilled.
At a moment he never expected.
"Your lost daughter... I've retrieved her as promised."
Slit eyes smiling tightly.
Behind him, a huge lump of meat was writhing.
<Aah, aaah...?>
A grotesque cry flowed from a mouth torn into five parts.
Hundreds of tentacles hung on its body, and just as many eyes were stuck all over its skin.
Sharp teeth protruded like thorns.
It was a horrifying appearance that made one's brow furrow involuntarily.
But.
Kyle couldn't take his eyes off at all.
Rather, he stared blankly at the dying monster in a daze.
Perhaps it was a kind of intuition?
"......"
No matter how distorted its appearance.
Parents recognize their children.
It's like an instinct.
Not reasoning based on given clues, but realizing through emotions dyeing hotly in the heart.
Kyle, who had been a father, was not much different.
<Augh... aaah>
The daughter he had loved so much.
Though the image forming in his pupils denied it couldn't be, the man's heart was beating roughly.
How could he not know as a father?
"...Eileen?"
A short word caught in his throat.
A name he was uttering after a very long time. It felt especially painful.
His breath faltered.
Kyle realized.
<Augh...?>
That the monster appearing in his vision was really his daughter.
His body stiffened due to his breath catching.
The man was simply taking in the miserable appearance with his eyes.
"......"
Red eyes blinking.
Though countless eyeballs were attached, there were red eyes especially resembling his own.
He was certain those were the pupils his daughter had originally possessed.
Kyle, who had been stopped for a moment, soon took steps.
Then he slowly approached the monster.
Bright red blood was dripping from lips that had been bitten to the point of tearing.
They were empty steps.
"Eileen... my daughter."
Thud-.
Finally strength left his legs.
Kyle collapsed to his knees in front of the writhing tentacles.
Dry tears flowed down his cheeks.
"How much your father missed you..."
He had actually known.
Since she had been kidnapped by black magicians, it was an ending he had expected to some degree.
He had steeled himself every night lying awake.
But.
"...How could you return in such a form."
The pain of actually facing it was on a different dimension.
Faced with his daughter who had once been human but could no longer be called human, Kyle clenched his fist.
It felt like a cold awl was piercing his heart.
Life was this cruel.
What sight was he supposed to see that he had desperately survived?
"I really... really wanted to see you."
A voice gradually becoming wet.
Though it felt like his reason would snap at any moment, Kyle opened his eyes wide with all his might.
There was still something he had to conclude.
It was a duty Kyle had to take on himself.
At the same time, it was a responsibility he couldn't pass on to someone else.
<Augh, aaah...>
Eileen letting out a painful groan.
It was a particularly pitiful cry, as if saying she couldn't take any more.
He wanted to let her rest comfortably now.
Shing-.
Kyle drew the sword at his waist.
Tentacles splashing were reflected on the chilly surface.
The father who had been standing with his words blocked for a while soon raised his sword towards his daughter.
It was a cruel scene.
"Now... rest."
Poor child.
You lived your sentence with life as the crime, how could the world measure that pain?
Only because you originated from me.
I will also conclude your end with my hands.
"Don't forgive your incompetent father."
A sword flashing precariously.
Just as such a tragic scene was about to continue.
"Stop."
Someone appearing from behind interfered with the attack.
A shadow grabbing his arm so it couldn't move. When he turned around, the snake was smiling.
The boy asked calmly.
"Why are you trying to send her off so hastily when we worked hard to retrieve her?"
"...Commander."
Kyle answered while suppressing his tears.
"There will only be pain like this. I want this child to be comfortable now."
"I have the same wish."
"Then... please let go."
Transparent red eyes stared at the snake.
One or two tears fell from pupils dyed with sadness.
"I want to end it myself."
"My, my... It seems you misunderstood my words."
"Pardon?"
"I'm a person who keeps promises thoroughly. I wouldn't say I kept a promise with such a sloppy conclusion, would I?"
"What do you mean...?"
"Just watch silently."
The snake pushed the man back.
Then he placed his palm in front of the huge tentacles.
Pitch-black darkness lurked around.
The scattered shadows soon converged to one point and hung as a sharp light at the boy's fingertips.
At the same time, the snake recited an incantation.
"Shatter."
Crash-!
A noise like glass breaking was heard.
Right after, black cracks appeared in the air and densely surrounded the huge monster.
A scene shattering into tens of thousands of fragments.
Just as he was bewildered by that.
The boy opened his closed eyes and snapped his fingers.
"Rewind."
Snap-!
White pupils revealed between eyelids.
Following the ecstatically shining surface, the entire space was covered in pitch-black shadows.
Like that, after a few seconds of blackout.
One.
Two.
Three.
"Stop."
Snap-!
Once again fingers collided, and the surroundings covered in darkness brightened.
The cracks had been cleanly erased before he knew it.
"Commander? What on earth did you... Ah?"
Kyle who had been looking around in bewilderment soon discovered.
The monster's form that had disappeared without a trace.
And a girl lying in front of his eyes.
"......"
Delicate features, red hair reaching her shoulders, eyelids closed gently.
It was exactly as he remembered.
Kyle stared blankly.
Wondering if he was seeing his own hallucination.
The snake who had been quietly smiling soon spoke to the man in a gentle voice.
"I've kept my promise."
Eileen existed there without a single wound.
Kyle checked his daughter's pulse with trembling hands.
She was alive.
Warm body temperature was felt at his fingertips.
That maddeningly clear sensation made him realize the scene he was seeing now was not a dream.
The father embraced his daughter's body tightly.
"Eileen...!"
The snake smiled brightly.
"She's alive, she's alive... Oh my God."
"She's just sleeping from exhaustion. She'll be able to open her eyes healthily after a day passes."
"Aah...!"
A miraculous story.
The world that had been broken in half was now whole again.
The man lowered his head while shedding tears.
"Aah, Commander......"
He straightened the sword he had been holding.
He knelt on one knee and planted the sword tip on the floor. Then he raised his hands as if praying.
It was the posture swordsmen showed when swearing loyalty to their master.
The hero muttered.
"My god."
It was worship dyed with hot emotion.
The other members standing in the same space had also knelt following the man.
They were all witnesses to the miracle.
Kyle put his hands together neatly.
Then in a very refined pronunciation, he chewed over a meditation offered to Him.
Towards the holy resonance.
"All according to your will."
A hymn brushing by for an instant.
"All according to your will."
Even at the moment all the believers recited the prayer, the god simply stood calmly.
With a faint smile held on his lips.
What the boy was thinking was only.
'I'm glad it's a happy ending.'
Wishing for others' happiness.
Perhaps it was a heart that was too soft.
***
Meanwhile.
Irene was watching that scene.
Though she was dumbfounded at witnessing a miracle for the second time, she soon came to her senses at the following scene.
It was the snake letting out a light cough.
"Cough..."
A cough sound ringing quietly.
The boy covered his mouth.
Dark red bloodstains were engraved on his pure white gloves.
It was none other than coughing up blood.
"Huh...?"
The fox unknowingly let out a dumbfounded sound.
Though she was bewildered by the unexpected sight, the boy was nonchalantly wiping the blood from his mouth.
As if it were familiar.
"......"
The surrounding members didn't seem to have noticed.
Because they all had their eyes closed and heads lowered.
Only Irene had noticed.
Snap-!
The snake lightly snapped his fingers and erased the bloodstains.
The boy who had been checking his surroundings for a moment soon sent a bright smile towards Irene.
"Shh."
His index finger on his lips.
It seemed he wanted it kept secret.
Irene couldn't show any reaction. She was just staring with surprised eyes.
At the slit-eyed boy standing nonchalantly.