Someone was pointing a gun at Cynthia’s head from behind.
A man with silver-white hair and golden eyes, Markiel, grinned at Masera.
Masera’s pupils narrowed instantly, his irises darkening.
Soon, he grabbed a gun and began charging forward with terrifying momentum.
Taang-!
Heavy gunshots echoed repeatedly.
Having exhausted all his bullets, he picked up a fallen Organization member’s rifle.
Then, he headed towards the tower, shooting down anyone in sight.
Markiel, who had been gazing out the window, said in an admiring tone.
“He seems to have lost his reason after seeing you captured.”
Cynthia, who had been maintaining her composure, biting and releasing her lip, said,
“Are you trying to give us the ultimate tragedy?”
He brought his face close to Cynthia’s ear and whispered softly,
“It’s nothing much. I just want to look down from the top after becoming your husband, whom you don’t love.”
“And after you achieve your goal?”
“Well, it’s been so long since I’ve lived with a dream.”
The man, who seemed somewhat broken, said,
“Come to think of it, Princess, you’re obsessively trying to figure out the reasons behind other people’s actions. Is it just meddling because you want to understand them?”
He didn’t want any genuine understanding or sympathy. Because she would apply the same standards to him.
“Princess, do you need a reason to hate someone? I think that’s all just an excuse.”
Cynthia felt that his inner self was empty.
She didn’t know what had happened in the past, but a heart that couldn’t be filled with anything was harder to restore than a heart that was filled and broken.
“Did you need someone to resent and take revenge on? Did you think that was the meaning of your life?”
Cynthia turned to Markiel and continued in a subdued voice.
“Helene is actually alive. Someone cleared away the debris that was covering Helene, so she could be saved.”
As soon as Cynthia finished speaking, she felt Markiel’s hand, which was holding the gun, tighten.
It was a kind of agitation.
Was what remained in his life, which had turned to ashes, a heart that someone had hidden away, or a lump of melted lead?
“…Maybe the thought you had the last time you saw her was what you really wanted.”
At Cynthia’s murmur, Markiel smiled and asked.
“You saved Helene? I don’t know if you’re a pushover or a hypocrite.”
“Think what you want. I don’t care about the opinions of people who do nothing.”
“I was just wondering if you’re deluding yourself into thinking that if there’s a justifiable reason, they’re worth giving a chance.”
Kwaang-!
At that moment, the door burst open roughly, and Masera appeared.
He was frighteningly expressionless, and his eyes were completely crazed, as if he didn’t even feel the pain of his injuries.
Worried, Cynthia tried to run out, but Markiel immediately grabbed her.
Click.
Masera aimed his gun at Markiel.
In response, Markiel put the gun to Cynthia’s head and smiled innocently. He seemed almost happy to meet someone he had been waiting for for a long time.
“Who would have thought we’d meet again like this.”
The boys who had grown up in the brutal hands of war were reunited.
After the war, where the only goal was to kill the other and survive, they became adults wandering in peace.
Of course, one person was standing on the path to ending his wandering.
Masera had only remembered Markiel after hearing Helene’s story.
The Esatain boy he had met in the hospital and at the facility.
The boy’s face, which had been bright when he first saw him at the hospital, gradually became filled with sorrow.
“They say white hair like yours is unlucky and ominous, right?”
“They say if you get involved with someone like that, you’ll get caught and tortured.”
The children at the facility wanted to find someone more miserable than themselves.
Since the war was still raging, the prevailing sentiment of avoiding Esatains for fear of retaliation from the Empire also played a part.
Watching this, Masera recalled his last conversation before leaving the hospital.
“Everyone hates me, and I don’t know why. My mom was a really good person too, but she was hated by people and ran away.”
The Esatain boy showed a genuine smile for the first time in a while and said.
“Hey, do you want to be friends with me? I liked you. If we become friends, I’ll tell you my real name.”
But Masera refused Markiel’s outstretched hand.
He didn’t know what it meant to the boy to reveal his real name.
Being young, he didn’t anticipate the terrible things that the Esatain boy would suffer in the future.
It was only after becoming an adult that he learned that children of certain ethnicities were treated worse than animals, in ways too terrible to even mention.
Masera had killed Blake, Markiel’s father, when he was a child soldier.
“Kill all the humans you see around you.”
At the time, he had spotted a boy of the same age hiding nearby, covering his mouth, but Masera had pretended not to see him.
That boy was Markiel, who had been sold to a nobleman, lived a miserable life, and was rescued by his father.
Blake deliberately kept his distance from his son, pretending not to know him, but Markiel would secretly visit his father and wander around nearby.
Then, he witnessed his father’s death.
After becoming completely alone, he became a child soldier to survive, and after being discharged, he drifted into the underworld.
“Regardless of who started it, hatred and revenge become the reason for living. It’s ridiculous.”
Masera recalled the words of Count Queensguard.
Regardless of the reason, Masera, in his current state, had no room to understand other people’s circumstances.
All that remained in his mind was to break the chain of hatred and save his loved one.
Thump, thump, thump-
Busy footsteps were heard.
Behind Masera, who stood with a fierce expression, Organization members rushed in and pointed their guns at Masera.
Markiel still had his gun pointed at Cynthia’s head.
In the suffocating tension, Markiel asked.
“Princess. If that man dies in front of you, you’ll be trapped in this moment’s emotions for the rest of your life, right?”
Seeing her shoulders trembling slightly, Markiel raised his chin and made eye contact with Masera.
“The opposite is fine too.”
Masera felt a chilling shiver down his neck.
It was as if he was trying to return the same thing that he had experienced.
Lowering his gun and standing straight, Masera looked at him.
“Isn’t it you who wants to be engraved in someone’s memory forever?”
In the silence, Masera continued in a low voice.
“It’s usually the villains who remain in people’s memories even after they die. In your position, I’m probably the villain.”
“I’ll remember you that way, at least.”
Click-
Markiel moved his finger to release the safety on his pistol and added.
“I can’t remember you as a friend, after all.”
The direction of the gun he was holding was aimed at Masera, not Cynthia.
Cynthia, who had tightly closed her eyes, lifted her eyelids.
“They say people can’t speak their true feelings when they’re consumed by anger.”
She sighed and continued, enunciating each word clearly.
“You also wanted to be someone special to someone, didn’t you? It’s just that that wish was twisted by anger. It’s because you can’t share your heart with others.”
Markiel’s eyebrows furrowed unhappily. Cynthia was looking at him with the pitying eyes he hated the most.
“So even if someone with genuine feelings appeared, you wouldn’t have recognized them. Unlike you, we’re going to live ordinary lives that others won’t remember, and die of natural causes on the same day, right?”
She shouted like a machine gun to distract them, then clenched and unclenched her fist for a moment.
It was a signal to fire.
Masera thought of the word ‘trust’.
Since she trusted him, he had to trust her too.
Taang-!
Soon, a bullet flew quickly and pierced Markiel’s arm accurately.
In the meantime, Cynthia turned her body in the opposite direction and threw something she had taken from her bag onto the floor.
Chwaaak-!
It was a smoke grenade she had swiped from Brigadier General Steve.
“What is it!”
“Damn it, I can’t see anything!”
Confusion ensued, and the inside was filled with thick smoke.
Tadang! Tang!
The sound of gunfire echoed everywhere.
Masera immediately ran towards Cynthia.
In the smoke where he couldn’t see an inch ahead, he quickly realized that the small hand that had grabbed his hand, which he had stretched out into the air, was hers.
Cynthia, who was leading him, stood by the window.
Seeing someone aiming a gun at them through a gap in the dissipating smoke, Masera pulled Cynthia into his arms.
The chillingly piercing bullets were nothing.
He cupped Cynthia’s cheek with one hand, lowered his head, and kissed her lips.
Parting his lips slightly, Masera whispered.
“…I hope my existence doesn’t remain as your eternal sorrow.”
Cynthia’s eyes widened as she saw blood flowing from Masera’s mouth.
Confirming that blood was spreading on his back, Cynthia hugged him tightly, resting her head on her shoulder.
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes, madly.”
He nodded, clutching her trembling shoulders.
“I’ve come to realize that that’s what love is for the first time.”
Love is not about dying for the other person, but about having the courage to overcome even death.
Her body, which was embracing him, slowly tilted backward.
Soon, with a burst of gunfire behind them, they threw themselves together into the night sky where the aurora was shining.
Pasak!
At that moment, a bullet flew and grazed Cynthia’s necklace.
Sparkling fragments and silvery hair like a galaxy scattered softly.
As if only the two of them were left in the world, the surrounding noise and gunshots faded into the distance.
Falling together, Cynthia recalled the first time she had met him.
‘It was already love.’
It had started from the moment they first met.
At the moment she realized her first love, a fragrant breeze carrying spring seemed to blow.
The cold snowflakes pouring down upside down looked like flower petals scattering.
Could the scenery seen while falling be so beautiful?
It felt like she could hear her brother’s voice from somewhere.
“Through adversity, towards the stars.”
It was what her brother had said while saluting before his last participation in the war.
It meant that adversity was not the end, but a stepping stone to leap towards a new beginning.
Cynthia reached out her hand to the night sky adorned with stars and red auroras.
‘Our story will never end in tragedy.’
Towards the countless firsts that she had not experienced before and would meet in the future.
What’s happening…