← The Doomed Mercenary’s Last Chance
Sinsuriel’s face contorted. He sincerely wanted to kill Kinain, but he could do nothing. In an instant his vision flashed, and before he knew it he was sprawled on the floor. Asad looked down at him with cold eyes.
Sinsuriel spoke in a voice trembling with rage.
“Lord Asad has truly chosen the wrong mate. There was a chance to turn everything back, but that human ruined it all with his own greed!” Asad answered coldly.
“His Highness returned to a past of never meeting me — just as you wished.” Confusion crossed Sinsuriel’s face.
“Returned…?”
Then surely that human also saw his own life of never meeting the dragon. A peaceful life where no tragedy ever occurred.
“Then why did he come back?”
Sinsuriel couldn’t understand it. Had it been him, he would never have chosen to come back.
Just then, a cold voice came from above his head.
“Unlike your guess, I — who never met His Highness — did not make another mate. A heartless dragon submerged the spirit world in water solely for his own pleasure, and in the end everyone died.” The line of Asad’s eyes, looking at Sinsuriel, hardened stiffly.
“And you seem to find this story quite amusing.”
“That can’t be. Why would you say such…”
Sinsuriel couldn’t continue. Because he’d realized he was smiling again.
Goosebumps rose all over his body. There was nothing in what he’d just heard worth smiling about.
Then why was he smiling?
“Sinsuriel, have you never once doubted yourself?”
Suddenly, Maira’s words to him from before flashed through his mind.
“No, that can’t be. It can’t…”
Sinsuriel chewed his lip, muttering as if speaking to himself.
“I know you think badly of me. It’s not as though I do these things to be acknowledged in the first place. But all of it — all of it was done for Lord Asad. Because I only wished for you to become a perfect dragon…”
Asad gave a hollow laugh.
“What exactly is a ‘perfect dragon’? A dragon who won’t destroy the world?”
“Or the opposite?”
At Asad’s question, Sinsuriel’s body went rigidly stiff.
“Wh-what do you mean…”
“Your expression suggests you’re guessing too. Though I only realized it not long ago.” Asad continued, looking at Sinsuriel’s paling face.
“Demonic energy is magic originating from the will to destroy the world. That is why those who wield demonic energy — those called dark mages — meet bad ends in the end. Exposed to demonic energy, one cannot judge properly. Even His Highness… was so.” Sinsuriel understood what Asad was saying. He retorted sharply.
“Are you saying demonic energy led that human to death? That was that human’s will. Choosing death because life is miserable happens anywhere.”
“But with His Highness’s death, this world came to ruin — so it turned out exactly as demonic energy willed, did it not?”
That magic could work in such a way was something he’d realized from watching how Kinain’s wish was granted this time.
Round and round, in the end Kinain’s wish came true. But if making him return to the past and repeat his time was also meant to arrive at an outcome like this one…
Thinking so, Asad could understand what had happened to Sinsuriel as well.
“Sinsuriel. You didn’t do those things for the dragon. You…”
“No!”
Sinsuriel staggered to his feet. In his bloodshot eyes, the beautiful great spirit who had always worn a gentle smile could no longer be found.
“It was all for you! I’ve lived only for the dragon! And you’re saying that’s all a lie? That can’t be!”
Sinsuriel’s bloodshot eyes took in the human lying on the bed.
If only that human were gone! If I just get rid of that human!
He couldn’t stop the thought. Seized by a single thought, Sinsuriel couldn’t even judge that he was being irrational.
But as long as the dragon stood guard at his side, he couldn’t lay a hand on the mate. Sinsuriel forcibly suppressed his killing intent and shifted his gaze toward Asad.
“…It can’t be helped. Lord Asad, I shall visit you again soon. By then, you too will know I was right.”
Better to withdraw now and plan for the next time. Then someday another chance would come. Thinking so, Sinsuriel moved the demonic energy. Pitch-black demonic energy wrapped around his body.
But something was strange. Asad — whom he’d expected to stop him — stood still, nodding toward Sinsuriel.
No — precisely, toward *behind* him.
At the same time, a sharp impact was felt.
Sinsuriel slowly lowered his head. A blood-soaked blade jutted through his chest.
Only then did Sinsuriel look behind him.
“You…”
His widened eyes stared at the one holding the sword. A woman scattering flame-like red hair glared at him.
Sensing the dragon’s return as the demonic energy weakened, Igni had headed straight for the Dragon Palace. And there she had discovered the enemy who had killed her kin.
After discovering the brutally murdered gatekeeper’s corpse, the horned tribe’s vengeance — which had never once gone out — showed no mercy.
“You…”
Sinsuriel had believed the one to kill him would be the dragon. But what actually took his life was the karma he had built up.
At the moment of death, his conversation with Maira resurfaced in his mind.
“Sinsuriel, have you never once doubted yourself?”
“What?”
“The moment I created demonic energy, you were closest to me. Demonic energy amplifies negative emotions. The feelings you felt looking at me in that moment must have been abnormally amplified.”
“Above all, demonic energy is fundamentally the will to annihilate the living beings existing in this world. From what I see, you’re moving according to demonic energy’s will.”
“You’re saying what I do isn’t for Lord Asad, but the will of demonic energy that wants to destroy the world? Ridiculous. I control demonic energy perfectly.”
“I only told you how to remove the demonic energy polluting your body. But you researched how to manipulate demonic energy, and in the end grew closer to it than was allowed. You thought you controlled that power — but is that really so?”
“…That can’t be.”
Even with death finally approaching, Sinsuriel still could not accept the truth.
How could he? To accept that truth meant admitting that everything he had done was merely evil deeds committed while being manipulated by demonic energy.
Because of demonic energy? Ridiculous.
Everything had been purely for the dragon. Rather than deny that fact, he would choose to die hundreds of times over.
He had devoted long ages to the dragon. No dragon had ever acknowledged his efforts, looking only at their own mates — but he had never once voiced a complaint.
The mate whom the dragon cherished so could ruin the dragon, while Sinsuriel had wished only for the dragon, asking nothing in return.
So I…?
As his vision blurred, the landscape in his mind grew clear instead.
A beautiful dragon was looking at him.
*”Maira, weren’t I a being you needed more than a mate?”* At that moment, Sinsuriel’s heart stopped completely.
***
Neither Sinsuriel’s death nor the two worlds regaining their peace had anything to do with Asad.
On the bed that Asad stared through, a man with pale skin lay. The man’s body was a wreck, like a roughly stitched rag doll. Only the chest rising and falling told that he was alive.
Time was needed for the once-departed soul to settle properly back into its body. Meanwhile, Asad stayed by Kinain’s side, neither eating nor drinking. Though he knew Kinain would surely return, he couldn’t bear the anxiety unless he held him directly in his eyes.
And so, one year later, on a certain day.
Kinain slowly opened his eyes. But the moment he lifted his eyelids, he couldn’t help frowning.
Ah, bright.
Fortunately his muscles didn’t move well yet. Otherwise that might have been his first words upon returning.
Well — anyone would, having slept like me. But still, how uncool.
Kinain blinked slowly. This dazzling thing he’d taken for a small sun was, as expected, his lover’s eyes.
“…Asad.”
Kinain reached out and touched the single remaining fragment of black scale on his lover’s cheek. The moment his hand touched it, it turned to powder and vanished.
Pulling at the stiff cheek, Kinain made a hard-working smiling face.
“I’m back.”
*It’s cold, so I wish you’d hold me* — though he didn’t say it, Asad understood his meaning and moved at once.
Asad held Kinain for a long while, saying nothing.
But many words weren’t needed.
In this moment, both of them knew — Kinain’s wish had been perfectly granted.
— End —
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