← The Doomed Mercenary’s Last Chance
A world where all things lay frozen — as if everything were made of transparent glass.
In the world where only a cold silence had settled, the change came the very next moment.
“Uh…?”
That groan-like single word was the first. Like snow melting in sunlight, the cold that had covered the world began to vanish quickly.
Trees that had been all white regained their green color, rivers began to flow again, and the firmly frozen ground softened.
The frozen people, too, opened their eyes one by one.
“Huk! Wh-what?”
“Mama!”
“How did this happen?”
The people wore bewildered faces, then, realizing they were alive, finally shed tears and embraced one another.
No one knew what had happened after they’d frozen. But one fact alone was certain.
The long winter had ended, and spring had come.
In a room of Hyrak’s royal palace, Tiron opened his eyes. It felt as though he’d slept a very long time, or as though he’d merely blinked once.
“Ugh.”
Shivering lightly in his damp clothes, Tiron looked toward the window. The snow he’d last seen falling as if to bury the world had somehow stopped.
Tiron went outside as if spellbound. The warm sunlight pouring over his head warmed his chilled body. With his eyes closed, he savored the sunlight with a joyful heart.
By the time his wet clothes had dried somewhat, he belatedly looked around to see people standing there receiving the sunlight just like him. They were all strangers, but when their eyes met Tiron’s, they smiled brightly as if greeting someone familiar. Smiling back at them, Tiron’s eyes caught a girl held in her parents’ arms.
Jane must be safe, right?
Now he would be able to go find Jane. No one remained here to hold him back. The calamity had completely ended.
…Wait. Ended?
At that moment, something flickered through Tiron’s mind. His heart began to pound with an expectation that had risen without his knowing.
Without even time to change his clothes, Tiron hurried to the stable to find his horse. Fortunately, despite having been frozen so long, the horse only wobbled at first, then soon ran well. Probably because it hadn’t been ordinary ice. Either way, it couldn’t have been more fortunate for Tiron.
Riding a full day like that, he brought his horse to a stop before a broken signpost.
<Jinak>
Gazing blankly at the word carved on the sign, Tiron dismounted and entered the village. With every step he took, his heart pounded as if it would burst — with tension, fear, and an inevitable anticipation.
He soon discovered people gathered together, murmuring. The clothes they wore were clean, but all long out of fashion. Of course. They’d been fashionable ten years ago.
Discovering a familiar face among the crowd, Tiron’s hands began to tremble.
“Ah, aah…”
His staggering steps gradually quickened. Tiron, running as if about to topple over, threw his arms around a woman’s neck. Before he knew it, his face was soaked with tears.
“Mother! Father!”
“Tiron, my child!?”
Tiron’s family clung to one another, shedding tears.
After a long while, his mother, her heart calmed, spoke first.
“What on earth happened? Is the dark mage dead?” Tiron wiped his tears and smiled brightly.
“Many things happened. Really, many things. I’ll tell you all of it. But it’ll surely be quite different from what you know.”
***
The spirit world likewise met with change.
When the dragon vanished, demonic energy instantly covered the spirit world. The spirits fought with all their might, but strangely the monsters were far stronger than before — impossible to match.
“The demonic energy is too strong!”
“At this rate the spirit world will fall. What are we to do now?” The spirits clung to the great spirits. But not even the great spirits had any brilliant plan. The demonic energy had grown stronger because the dragon had become a monster. When the sun is dyed black, the world receiving its light cannot help but be dyed black as well.
What the great spirits could do now was only to delay the fall as much as possible.
“…But it’s not far off.”
Cor looked up at the sky covered in demonic energy. It had long since grown so thick that day and night could no longer be distinguished.
He had to return to the canyon now, but having just faced two monsters, not a shred of strength remained in his body. Cor dragged his limp wings along the ground, moving his steps with difficulty.
Just then, a growling sound came from somewhere.
Turning his head, Cor saw a giant monster that had been crouching pounce toward him.
Damn!
Cor bit his lip, trying to call the wind — but it was too late. Before he could kill the monster, the monster’s teeth would dig into his body first.
But at that moment, the unexpected happened.
The monster charging at Cor went rigidly stiff. As though caught in an invisible spiderweb.
Though his life was saved, Cor’s face did not brighten. Rather, he stared somewhere with a face harder than when he’d faced the monster. Even in the darkness, Cor’s eyes pierced his counterpart precisely.
“…Sinsuriel.”
As the doll hidden in the tree shadows stepped forward, his face grew a little clearer. The blue-haired man greeted calmly, as if this day were one of his ordinary routines.
“Long time no see, Cor.”
“Indeed. The first since you fooled us all and left?” Cor spoke sarcastically, yet stayed on guard to answer Sinsuriel’s attack at any moment. But Sinsuriel showed no will to attack Cor, taking no action at all.
Cor frowned.
“Why are you smiling? Is this situation amusing to you?”
“…I’m smiling?”
Sinsuriel’s expression hardened abruptly as he felt at his own face. But only for a moment. He soon recovered his original relaxed expression.
“Cor, you look weary.”
“Thanks to you. I trust you didn’t say that hoping to hear thanks.” Despite the sarcasm, Sinsuriel showed no reaction. Sinsuriel’s emotional range hadn’t been large to begin with, but now it was especially so.
The two eyes looking at Cor shone like glass beads.
“Igni and Hui as well — I see they’re struggling somehow to stop the approaching end. I’d originally planned to keep watching, but with a pained heart I couldn’t stand idly by. It reminds me of old times, too…” Sinsuriel’s final words were too small to hear well. Even if heard, Cor couldn’t have understood them. For the old times Sinsuriel recalled were those when demonic energy had first arisen.
Then too, just as now, the great spirits had struggled to protect the spirit world from demonic energy, and in the end all had died, leaving only Sinsuriel. To Sinsuriel, this situation felt like a repetition of that era. That he — who would originally have only watched — had revealed himself before Cor was for that reason.
“You needn’t suffer so, nor strive so. If Lord Asad’s mate had made the wish properly, this time would never have existed.”
“What? What do you mean—”
Before Cor could finish, a change occurred.
The sky, dark with its covering of demonic energy, brightened in a single instant.
When the light touched it, the monster Sinsuriel had been holding gradually shrank as if clumping together, then scattered into powder and dispersed.
Watching it, Sinsuriel’s gaze shook violently.
“Impossible… surely…”
Cor, standing dazed at the unexpected situation, heard a faint voice and belatedly checked the spot where Sinsuriel had been.
But already, no one was there.
***
Because Sinsuriel could sense beings harboring demonic energy, he knew where Asad was.
Just as when he’d left the Dragon Palace, no one noticed Sinsuriel’s approach as he used demonic energy. Since even the only being who could stop it did not lift a hand, Sinsuriel appeared before Asad without anyone’s interference.
Though Asad knew Sinsuriel had appeared, he showed no reaction. His gaze remained fixed toward the bed.
Sinsuriel, glancing back and forth between the face on the bed and Asad, burst into a nervous laugh.
“…Haha, truly unbelievable. How foolish, how selfish! In the end, you chose this failed life?”
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