Black Badger

And he thought it was fortunate that he had been able to meet the Ice Dragon.

It was the Ice Dragon that had removed the last stubborn fragment of hesitation lingering inside him. In truth, Kyle had never expected the Ice Dragon to actually grant their request. But it had been far too important to them not to try, and so they had poured every ounce of effort into finding the dragon.

That had been the decisive nail.

“There are many flowers.”

The Ice Dragon’s sky-blue hair scattered in the wind.

“Did they all bloom at your command?”

“No.”

Kyle answered while looking at the flowers scattered across the land.

“I did make many bloom at once recently under my orders, but I heard they’ve been blooming them steadily for fifty years.”

Flowers.

Those produced by the black magicians connected to other dimensions.

However, there was almost nothing one could choose.

The opening time, the destination, the size of the entity able to pass through safely.

Even Russian roulette, which he had learned from humans, would be more merciful than that.

Jumping into the puddle formed by a fully bloomed flower was not very different from leaping off a rooftop wearing a parachute that might not even open.

Even knowing that, their kin had continued to bloom flowers for fifty years.

Because they had never let go of hope.

They had...

“So if things came to it, you were going to jump into another dimension?”

When Valdez first brought it up, Kyle had been so dumbfounded that he could not even reply right away.

Kyle stared blankly at the mage.

“Into a flower puddle? Are you insane? Even if you’re lucky and make it across safely, there’s no guarantee the same thing won’t happen there. In the worst case, it could be even worse.”

“I know.”

Valdez replied gloomily.

“But we cannot enter human society, and we don’t wish to either. If we encountered humans while the Captain was still unconscious, there would be no answer. If we bloom flowers under certain conditions, a certain dimension appears more often, so we prepared it as an emergency plan. The archmages are in that state as well, so we can’t even open a stable dimensional gate.”

“What about sneaking into human society?”

Kyle asked.

“Did you never consider it?”

“Captain. Why do you think you’re the only one burning with vengeance?”

He had not thought that.

He had simply hoped so.

It was a truth he had never confessed to anyone.

After he awakened, after he regained the ability to move, after he grasped the general situation—when he saw his kin running across the vast grasslands, the first thought that came to his mind had been this.

Wouldn’t it be fine for you to live like this?

He himself could not live that way.

Rei’s death had placed upon him the destiny of a final battle with Hildebert.

But even while burning with hatred toward his old friend, Kyle could not help thinking it.

The newly born children were innocent, and the horizon stretching before their eyes was beautiful.

If only they could remain ignorant of hatred...

“Captain.”

He quickly realized it was a foolish hope.

“Fifty years is a long time. We tried quite a lot during that time.”

Yes.

Fifty years was by no means a short span.

While he had slept, many children had been born.

Among those children, some grew tired of hearing stories about the war.

Some did not even know there had been a war.

And almost none of them knew electricity.

Because they hardly used electricity.

They knew nothing of computers, nor of electric lights beyond the glow of a glow-worm’s tail.

“I still don’t agree with the White Knights’ Captain, and I don’t regret following you in the slightest.”

That was what Valdez had confessed when he came to see him at midnight on the day the dimensional transfer had been discussed.

“But I do regret one thing. Maybe we should have given some of them a chance. Maybe we should have tried, right after the war ended, to secretly integrate them into human society.”

Even if they were the same species, assimilation would not be easy.

Kyle knew that from experience.

Had he not endured it endlessly in the Empire?

He had taken up the sword and risen to what was effectively the highest position in the Empire, yet he had never been able to fully improve the treatment of the tribal people.

Discrimination had always existed.

Until the very moment the Empire burned and vanished, the label of conquered people had stubbornly remained.

Still, back then they had at least been the same race.

Even in a class society, they had shared some common culture.

But now?

Before the First War began, when he had argued endlessly with Hildebert, there had at least been the possibility.

But how could people living lives like those of his childhood be suddenly thrown into modern society and expected to adapt?

They were stronger than ordinary humans.

They did not know English.

Their mastoid processes were clearly pronounced.

The elders who still remembered the First War.

Rei’s final moment, engraved vividly within the Core.

“I almost want to step down as leader and face Hildebert alone.”

“That won’t do. Please don’t belittle the vengeance we’ve cultivated for fifty years.”

Valdez grumbled.

“You saw the mood.”

Such messy, complicated things.

Looking over all those countless factors that refused to neatly arrange themselves, Kyle began working.

He bloomed flowers.

Diligently.

Far more frequently.

And then he discovered Cecil.

If they had been able to turn her into an ally, they might never have attempted dimensional transfer.

Even if they had lost Cecil, if Meierbold and Nabarate had remained intact, they might still have glimpsed a chance at victory.

But Cecil had gone berserk.

And the mana current of Nabarate had become twisted.

At that point, the possibility of victory was gone.

There were not many choices left to them.

None of them were satisfying.

But as their leader, Kyle made a decision.

And in that situation, the Ice Dragon had come to them with unexpected kindness.

“This makes things fair.”

The ancient dragon murmured to itself and smiled gently.

“It isn’t a bad choice. I cannot promise anything—I cannot read the future—but it looks like a good place to begin a new life. The world is wide, not so different from the place where you were born, and there are not many humans there.”

Kyle widened his eyes in surprise at the amount of information the dragon was providing.

The ancient dragon, radiating a heavy presence, smiled faintly.

“You won’t be wiped out the moment you arrive. You must have had quite a difficult time finding it.”

And so now Kyle had no hesitation left.

He felt completely light.

The only duty remaining to him now was revenge for Rei.

Life had become simple.

And it would remain that way until the outcome of the battle was decided.

Kyle looked at the aura of his opponent shining elegantly within the darkness.

“Are you ready to accept the answer once you hear it?”

Hildebert’s brow twitched.

“You’re thinking from a human standard.”

Hildebert did not make the wounded expression he used to.

Perhaps he had grown used to it.

He probably did not expect Kyle to explain things kindly.

Breaking that expectation was rather enjoyable.

“We can’t keep staying here when humans might start greedily reclaiming land at any time.”

Kyle said it indifferently.

Hildebert’s eyes widened.

“What?”

An opening.

CLANG!

CLANG, CLANG!

Distance opened again.

Kyle rushed forward like an arrow, but the white-haired knight intercepted the blade that stabbed toward the gap. They exchanged several sharp blows in an instant before once again entering a standoff.

This time Hildebert asked the question.

“You’re leaving?”

His voice was cracked with shock.

Annoyingly, the white-haired Swordmaster still showed no openings.

“Where?”

Even while asking in shock, his stance remained perfect.

Because of that, until the moment Hildebert clearly grasped their strategy, Kyle was unable to inflict a meaningful wound.

Iron clashed with iron, shaking the ground.

The remaining ruins shattered into fragments.

Creatures within the surrounding area lost their lives.

Yet neither of them managed to land a decisive blow.

Meanwhile, Hildebert pieced together the situation through the communication channels and Kyle’s stray remarks.

It was simple.

The civilians would leave.

The portal on the lowest floor of the building would be sealed by Meierbold.

The portal on the top floor would be blocked by Mou.

Anyone who did not desire revenge would be sent away.

Revenge would take place here.

Hildebert stared blankly at Kyle, as though overwhelmed by the understanding flooding into him.

Kyle gazed back at those golden eyes filled with shock.

While Hildebert had struggled to restore his leaf-veins, Kyle had trained relentlessly without missing a single moment, widening the gap between them.

Yet despite all that effort, Hildebert had caught up with him again.

A truly tiresome bond.

“This is the only way things could end for you and me.”

It had nothing to do with the movements of their kin.

“You know that too.”

Rei was dead.

“You would have done the same.”

This was Kyle’s revenge alone.

From the moment he opened his eyes until now.

The reason he had clung to life.

“Let’s finish it.”

Ever since Rei had died by Hildebert’s sword, only one path had remained for them.

***

Hildebert did not think so.

More precisely, until he heard Kyle’s strategy, he had been thinking the same thing Kyle was.

He had resolved to receive the unstoppable Kyle.

Guilt.

Self-loathing.

Love for the people inside the Core.

Responsibility toward those who remained.

And the selfish desire to finally rest.

If I could stop you by offering my neck, I would gladly do it.

But you would not be satisfied with that.

So I must face you as one faces a worthy enemy.

Something like that.

At one point he had even thought that perhaps their best outcome would be stabbing each other’s hearts ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) and perishing together.

So then... 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

[The lower level is completely blocked!]

Just a moment ago, that had certainly been the case.

[We’ll break through the creature on the top floor and go through there, so hold on a little longer!]

You’re leaving?

Hildebert thought.

Then you should go too.

Of course, he had no intention of doing so.

Even after plunging a sword into Hildebert’s heart, Kyle would not stop.

If anything, freed from the burden of leadership, he would likely move lightly and go cut down the heads of Igor and the others.

Hildebert knew Kyle well.

That knight with black hair flowing...

A thought suddenly occurred to him.

What if I win?

Just like Kairos said.

Win—or even if I don’t win, survive somehow until the end—and then throw this knight into the dimensional transfer pit?

Wouldn’t it work if I simply moved a little faster at the final moment?

Then Kyle’s life would continue.

Hildebert decided he must keep that life alive.

Kyle.

Survive and fulfill your duty as leader.

CLANG!

Of course, Hildebert knew perfectly well that this was the last thing Kyle wanted.

He also knew humans would not want such an outcome either.

What they wanted was perfect revenge.

Or the enemy’s submission.

Escape was cowardice.

So what?

Hildebert deflected the sword upward and widened the distance, thinking.

Do I care?

You hate the idea that revenge might end emptily?

You want to settle the score instead of being thrown into a dimensional gate?

Then you should have been satisfied with taking my head.

You barged in here on your own and now you hate the idea of him fleeing to another world?

You want the score settled so the crime of starting the First War can be repaid?

Then you should have had the skill to capture Kyle yourselves and kill him!

CLANG!

Even his own kin who followed him would likely dislike this decision.

They had fought a civil war.

They had lost many people to the hands of their own kind, including Yvon.

Why are you not angry like Kyle?

Someone would ask.

Many who followed you died by Kyle’s hand!

Why are you trying to let Kyle live?

Selfish!

It was a fair accusation.

But there was something more important to Hildebert than their resentment.

He still remembered it vividly in his heart.

“No matter what happens in the future, make the decision that saves as many people as possible.”

CLANG! CLANG!

An order from his master that could not be bargained away with anything.

...

...

And besides, I want Kyle to live.

Anger toward countless unseen people surged within him, and Hildebert frowned sharply while swinging his aura-filled blade.

You all did whatever you wanted, didn’t you?

So why can’t I do what I want?

He gritted his teeth and swung his sword.

Can you stop me?

BOOOOM!

The two swords collided precisely.

A massive shockwave spread outward.

Nearby creatures screamed their dying cries.

Bullets flying through the air shattered.

The ruins surrounding the knights expanded.

Another brief standoff.

Searching for the next opening while widening the distance, Hildebert Taleb was seized by the strongest will to victory he had felt since coming to Earth.

I will win.

The white-haired knight vowed.

I will absolutely win.

I will survive no matter what, and this time I will create the outcome I want.

His eyes sharpened.

His sword tightened in his grip.

His opponent narrowed his eyes as he sensed the shift in atmosphere.

Hildebert, now with not a single fragment of hesitation left, raised his sword.

Kyle lifted his blade filled with purified vengeance.

The eyes of two knights who desired victory more than anyone.

The two Swordmasters charged toward each other.