Inside the throne room of Cyradis' castle, the tension was a physical presence, hanging in the air like a storm that refused to break. King Manus sat upon his throne, a figure carved from cold iron and shadow. His left hand gripped the manchette of the seat with white-knuckled force, while his right rested on the pommel of his sword.
"Fain, tell me exactly what happened." He demanded. His voice was a low, resonant roll of thunder that vibrated through the floorboards. "How did the city become a graveyard of ash?"
Fain stood in the center of the throne room, his eyes flicking with a terror that clawed at his throat. He was a man standing in the shadow of a hidden gallows; if he spoke of the healers he had surrendered to Vionette, the Soul Contract would snap tight, reaping his life before he could finish the sentence.
It was the ultimate, bitter crossroads: life or loyalty, the selfish pull of the pulse or the selfless dignity of the grave.
To be loyal was to die; to live was to betray.
Beside Fain stood Kaito, his fists clenched so tightly they trembled. His eyes were not filled with the heavy, bitter weight of fallen pride. Next to him, Sayon maintained a neutral mask, her cyan eyes sleepy and distant, betraying nothing of the thoughts swirling behind them.
To Fain's left, Souka was a lightning rod for repressed fury, her fists balled as she stared at the marble floor with eyes that scorched the stone. Next to her was Hana; after her desperate, failed struggle to drag a classmate back, she had become a hollow shell, her gaze reflecting nothing but depression and a total loss of hope.
They had arrived at the capital after a grueling three-day trek through the wilderness. The teleportation circles had been shattered, forcing them to walk through the ruins of their own confidence. No sooner had they crossed the threshold than they were demanded to give a report on the disaster.
"Your majesty! It's him! It's that bastard!" Souka's voice erupted, a jagged scream that tore through the solemnity of the room. Her mouth opened wide as she lost the battle with her own composure, the poison of her anger spilling out uncontrollably.
"Souka!" Manus' voice boomed, striking the air like a hammer on an anvil. "Calm down and tell me the story slowly. Anger is a blunt tool that will not carve a path to the truth."
The command acted like a physical blow, breaking Souka's outburst instantly. She knew the weight of Manus' temper; to upset him further would be to invite a storm she could not survive. She forced her breath to steady and looked at Fain, wordlessly pleading for him to bridge the gap between their survival and the King's judgment.
Fain gave a short, solemn nod. He had spent years analyzing the way Manus controlled this kingdom through logic and cold authority, and he knew exactly which path he had to take.
"Your majesty," Fain began, his voice dropping into a steady, cinematic drone. "That red dragon reported to have laired inside the forest bordering the kingdom... it arrived that day and began its campaign of destruction." He moved his hand in a sweeping motion.
"I am aware of that part, Fain. That was why I dispatched Kaito's group to handle the beast." Manus folded his arms and leaned back into the shadows of his throne, his eyes narrowing.
If you knew of its power, why did you only send four heroes to face it? Have you never truly looked into the eyes of a dragon, King Manus? Fain's mind screamed the question he would never dare speak.
"After the dragon began its assault, suddenly a man appeared amidst the fire and started attacking it alone."
"What? Someone challenged a dragon in single combat?" Elear, the head mage, shouted from his station. His old hands clutching his staff hard. "Did he seek a glorious death, or was he simply a fool?"
Fain looked at Elear and then turned back toward Manus before continuing.
"Just after the fight started, a woman also rushed into my office. She demanded a Soul Contract—two conditions in return for defeating the dragon."
"A Soul Contract… and what were these conditions?" Manus asked, putting his hand on his chin as he scented a complexity he hadn't anticipated.
"Forgive me, my liege. I cannot speak of the conditions because of the contract itself."
"…Continue."
Manus accepted the silence. To his logical mind, if one condition forbade the disclosure of the contract's details, then the second condition must be the reason Fain was being so vague about the woman's identity. He concluded that the woman had demanded anonymity, and that Fain was clever enough to use the contract as a shield to hint at this.
"After I accepted the terms, we headed to the city to see what the fight was turning into. And then…" Fain let the silence hang, a heavy curtain before the final revelation.
…
"So you're saying he defeated the dragon all by himself!?" Elear's shout was a mix of disbelief and professional insult, his staff thudding against the marble.
"And the man you are talking about…" Manus looked toward Kaito, the leader who had failed where one man had succeeded.
"It's Noa. That piece of shit from four years ago," Kaito muttered. The name left his mouth like a curse, flavored with the bitterness of his own bruised ego.
"…What?" Even the always composed Manus was taken aback. He sat back, the word echoing in the chamber like a ghost that had finally found its way home.
The boy with no system? The one we discarded like trash, defeated a dragon that would have taken my four heroes to kill? He realized something was missing from the equation.
"And the woman? What were her characteristics?" he asked, leaning so far forward he was nearly off the throne.
"She was beautiful. She had white hair and red eyes," Sayon answered, her voice a flat, hollow drone. "They seemed to be in a close relationship."
White hair… red eyes… no, it can't be. Manus' mind flew to the portraits of a fallen house, but he immediately denied the possibility. Crimvane is currently embroiled in a war for its existence; there is no way their ruler has the time to be here. It must be someone else.
He had already accepted Crimvane's defeat to Aurelyth. To him, the royal house of Crimvane was already a memory.
"They also took the dragon with them after its defeat," Kaito spoke, his voice sharpening with a mixture of shame and resentment. "But they left a message for…you, your majesty."
"Deliver the message." Manus snapped back from his inner thoughts and sharpened his eyes to listen to the words of the man he had wanted to kill four years ago.
"He said…" Kaito paused, his own pride stinging as he channeled the weight of Noa's arrogance. "He said that he will come here to pay your majesty a visit personally."
"…What?"
SLAM!
Just a second after Manus muttered in surprise about the sheer gall of the threat, the massive oak doors of the throne room burst open with a sound like a thunderclap. A man entered the room at a frantic sprint—the royal envoy of Cyradis.
He ignored the etiquette of the court, his noble clothes hitting the ground as he knelt quickly before the throne.
"Your majesty, forgive me for my rudeness, but there is an important news!"
"An important news? So suddenly?" Manus' face and tone became serious. "You may speak."
"The war between the kingdom of Aurelyth and Crimvane ended yesterday. And henceforth, the three kingdoms will merge together and be—"
"So Aurelyth even defeated Eryndor and Crimvane?" Manus interrupted, talking to himself as he mapped out the new borders. "They might be a little threat later on, but a unified Aurelyth is a beast we can tame."
As he talked to himself, he realized the envoy's head was sinking lower, his shoulders trembling with a confusion that bordered on terror.
"No, your majesty," the envoy whispered, the words sounding alien even to his own ears. "Aurelyth was defeated by Crimvane. Eryndor has surrendered its crown and agreed to work under Crimvane's throne. As of this moment, the three kingdoms are one. They are known as… Crimvane."
"!!?"
The throne room fell into a silence so absolute it felt like a tomb. The impossible had occurred: the dying kingdom had risen from its sickbed and devoured its predators, creating a monolith out of the ruins of its enemies.
"What!? Aurelyth and Eryndor fell to the hands of Crimvane?" Elear shouted in surprise, his staff clattering against his robes.
"Is this true?" Manus was still containing his composure, but his grip on his sword hilt tightened until the metal groaned under the pressure.
"Yes, your majesty. It is absolute."
How? How did the weakest of the three emerge as the master of all? Did we have misinformation, or has the world truly gone mad?
Manus questioned the impossible turn, not in fear, but in the confusion of a master who had lost control of the board. Even if Crimvane grew that much, it was still comparable to Cyradis, and he had the heroes. But his gaze drifted back to Kaito.
The man who killed the dragon...
"You all are dismissed." He extended his hand and shouted, his voice a dismissal of the world itself.
---
After the order was given, the five who had returned from Cerma exited the throne hall. Their footsteps echoed through the long, vaulted hallway like a clock counting down to an ending they couldn't see.
As they walked, the silhouettes of a crowd began to form at the end of the corridor.
"Here they are!" a woman shouted, and a wave of movement followed.
It was their classmates—the other 'heroes' who had stayed behind, their faces bright with the arrogance of those who had never tasted true defeat. They swarmed around the returning group, their questions a chaotic buzz of ignorance.
"Hey Kaito, what happened to Cerma? Did you guys actually fail your mission, dude?"
"Hana, got a minute—wait, why are you crying?"
"Hey, what's with the expression, Souka?"
The friends and classmates pressed in, their voices light and carefree, entirely unaware of the blood that had been spilled or the power that had been unleashed. They were like children playing in a nursery while the house burned down. Then, someone finally noticed the empty space in their formation.
"Hey… where's Riku?"
"Yeah, did he get hurt and go to the infirmary?"
"I mean… it is a dragon after all."
They muttered, their voices echoing the small-mindedness of frogs in a well, believing the tiny patch of sky they saw was the entire world. They had lived in a dream for four years, pampered by the King and fueled by the belief that they were the protagonists of this world. They didn't understand that even a weakened dragon was a force of nature.
Kaito didn't speak; he simply stared at the wall. Souka's head dropped, her fists clenching. No one expected an answer from Sayon. Then, after seconds of agonizing silence, Hana's mouth opened slightly.
"He's… dead. He… he killed him." Her voice was a broken whisper, a thread of sound that barely survived the air.
"…What?" someone asked in confusion, their smirk flickering.
Then suddenly, Hana snapped her head up. Her eyes were no longer the eyes of a girl; they were windows into a void of despair and hopelessness.
"HE'S DEAD! NOA KILLED HIM!" Her scream tore through the hallway like the cries of the dying, a raw, primal sound that silenced the entire castle wing.
"Hana, calm down!" Aoi stepped forward, grabbing Hana's shoulders with both hands. "Calm down and tell us what happened. You're talking about Noa?"
Hana slowly knelt, her strength leaving her like water from a cracked jar. Aoi followed her down, supporting her. Hana's hands trembled as she covered her face, as if she could hide from the memory of the blood.
"Noa killed Riku. He's gone," Sayon said, her voice providing the cold, clinical truth that Hana couldn't articulate.
Aoi looked up, her eyes widening until they felt like they might burst. She had barely believed Noa was even alive, let alone capable of this.
"Noa? He's actually alive?"
"What? How could he kill Riku"
"Riku was a hero!"
They had lived in a dream for four years, and Noa was the nightmare that had come to wake them up. They didn't understand that the lawless world Noa inhabited didn't care about their titles or their "Hero" status. They thought the world would bend over to them, only to have the illusion of their invincibility ripped away in a single sentence.
And then, the resentment began to fester.
"How dare that piece of shit?"
"He's a murderer!"
"I knew it. We should have made sure he was dead four years ago. He was a monster even then!"
Sayon watched the chaos unfold. Her sleepy, cyan eyes finally sharpened, shifting from their usual apathy into an expression of pure, unadulterated disgust. She looked at the classmates who had been eager to throw Noa to the wolves four years ago, and who now spoke of 'fairness' and 'justice' as if they had ever practiced either.
At the end… we are all just pitiful scum with different brands of imagination, she thought, her gaze turning toward the high windows where the sun was beginning to set. Just accept who you are.
… Just like he did.