Chapter 297:

Chapter 297:

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The sun was short in midwinter.

The setting sun that descended through the narrow entrance of the canyon seeped into the tent, turning Leciel’s red hair golden.

It was a scene reminiscent of a memory from a distant past on some coast.

But the fact that that time's loose, warm atmosphere was nowhere to be found now was painful.

Leciel called him again with a quiet but firm voice.

“Professor.”

...The hero realized that denying further was meaningless.

Leciel would be sure of his identity no matter how much he denied it.

Lying again here would only be unnecessary deception and would deepen the wounds.

The hero’s mouth opened.

“...Yes.”

The awaited answer came.

Leciel’s gaze wavered momentarily; she was swept up in a whirlwind of complex emotions.

A slightly staggering body.

She was so tense, fearing that the hero might escape.

The hero unconsciously tried to support her... but withdrew his outstretched hand.

“.......”

Facing Leciel after a long time,

The hero had no choice but to admit that he had overestimated himself.

Even though he had known and prepared for this moment,

Facing Leciel’s wounds right before him, it felt like he was back to his naive old self.

Even his once confident tongue was now frozen.

The deep, well-like gaze stared at him.

The Leciel’s eyes, he remembered, were not like this.

“.......”

Meanwhile, Leciel could not easily open her mouth either.

‘You have to speak well.’

The thoughts she had been suppressing,

They were chipped away and diminished when she tried to speak them out.

In a slightly unexpected form.

‘I want to convey my thoughts and feelings accurately.’

Throwing out the past three years recklessly like a child was something she hated more than death.

So, even though it was the moment she had longed for so much, she had no choice but to shut her mouth.

In the strange silence between the master and disciple,

Flap-

An uninvited guest suddenly entered the hero’s tent with a cheerful voice.

“Hey, Ignotus. Are you busy?”

Looking back,

Arpheus was holding an expensive-looking bottle of wine.

Ah, yes.

Today must have been a harsh day for him as well.

Dragged into a meeting discussing humanity’s survival before fully recovering from yesterday’s battle fatigue, he was tense all day.

He probably wanted to relax and seek advice from Ignotus, whom he had become quite close to.

But the timing was terrible.

Arpheus, smiling and taking out cheese-like snacks, froze upon noticing the visitor.

“Oh, um.”

Sensing the tense atmosphere,

He lowered his voice slightly while observing Leciel’s expression.

“...Would you like to join us?”

“Leave.”

“Okay.”

Without looking back, Arpheus disappeared.

“.......”

“.......”

...If his lack of tact had helped in any way, it was that the terribly stiff atmosphere had slightly eased.

Leciel let out a light sigh and opened her mouth.

“Do you have anything you want to say?”

At that moment, a voice whispered in the hero’s head.

[Stop hesitating and replicate it completely]

It suggested that finding soothing words would be much easier if he completely replicated the essence now.

‘Nonsense.’

The hero instinctively shook his head.

Although it wasn’t a rejection of her, Leciel nodded as if she understood.

“Then I’ll start.”

“.......”

“I have a lot to say.”

Once she started speaking, it felt easier.

Yes, now she would say it all.

Everything honestly.

What the hero meant to her.

How harsh the past three years had been.

And what she would do now.

...The preamble is like this.

This would be the best start.

“I missed you.”

* * *

Yes, there was nothing wrong with Yussi’s words.

‘That’s right.’

Learning the sword from the hero, receiving his praise, and spending time together felt like,

Being one of the subjects in a masterpiece painted by a great artist.

Part of a noble plan.

A guarantee that her life was never meaningless.

‘As long as I could be with him until the end, anything was fine.’

But the hero left without any warning.

After leaving, he never once looked for her.

She thought she was part of the picture he was drawing and dreaming of... but in reality, she was just a dried-up paint smudge in the corner of the palette.

[If you think of yourself as a stray dog that has lost its master, it’s easy to understand. A puppy reminiscing about the old days while suffering from cold, hunger, and thirst. It’s easy to understand, isn’t it?]

...At the time, Yussi was not in her right mind after hearing of Ted’s death, and thus, she was more brutally candid and cynical than usual.

But Leciel couldn’t refute any of her words.

“......”

She understood the cause of her problems.

But, of course, the situation didn’t dramatically change.

Leciel was still distressed, bored, and sometimes resentful.

She lived as if the unseen hero was watching her.

...On one of those days when even that waiting started to dull,

He suddenly appeared again.

“I will ascend as the captain of Avalon. So follow me without question.”

Leciel, who usually struggled to read others’ emotions, could clearly understand why the hero acted like a ‘terrifying presence’ in the meeting.

Like the day the preliminary briefing was held.

Like the past year.

The hero needed the extreme children; he needed her.

...She hadn’t forgotten.

‘That’s enough.’

What he had been doing all this time.

Why he hadn’t come to see her?

What was he thinking when he lied?

If she could hear a few explanations, that would be perfect, but for now, this was enough.

“...So that’s how it was.”

Leciel concluded her explanation of the past three years.

“......”

The hero, who had been silently listening, just stared at her...

Unexpectedly, he looked confused.

“...A puppy? Master? Leciel... hold on a second.”

??? took the opportunity to shout angrily in his head.

[See? She’s spouting nonsense. Just replicate it.]

...It was true.

For Leciel, who wasn’t good with words, it was too difficult a task to coherently convey the many complex emotions that had swept through her over such a long time in front of the person involved.

‘I understand the context.’

The hero tilted his head.

...He understood the overall context of forgiving and moving forward.

However, the detailed content took a lot of work to grasp.

This was because Leciel, despite feeling she had approached the conversation calmly, had actually spent over 30 minutes alternately sobbing and venting her anger, making her story somewhat disjointed.

Particularly at the part where she compared herself to a puppy, her emotions overwhelmed her, making it harder to understand.

So the hero calmly asked again.

“I’m sorry, but could you repeat that...”

“L-let’s talk later.”

Having exhausted all her courage, Leciel’s face turned beet red as she hastily left the tent.

The hero and ??? watched her retreating figure blankly.

[... She’s still a child. I thought she’d at least put on a sword dance.]

‘.......’

Indeed, she was a child.

Though she spoke little, seemed mature, and was incredibly powerful, it was easy to forget that she was young.

The hero repeated one of the things Leciel had babbled about.

“So don’t leave again and stay like before.”

...Like before.

It was about a week before Avalon would be completed.

In other words, seven days were left until the final preparations for the decisive battle began in earnest.

It seemed clear what needed to be done in that time.

‘Since I’ve been found out anyway....’

It wouldn’t hurt to go all out.

.

.

.

The next day.

It was an embarrassingly early morning to call it dawn.

“Snore—”

“Snore—”

The sound of children in deep sleep filled the tent of the Lotus Knights.

Thud—

Heavy footsteps echoed.

“Wake up.”

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