83 – The Unqualified Person -7-
His own mistakes came to an abrupt end with Ricardo’s faint smile.
Stricken with an incalculable shock, I reached out into the void, but all that returned was the cold script of the blue window.
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[Returning to the original time in 3 minutes.]
The edges of my vision began to darken.
Only sounds were discernible.
Nothing could be seen.
And through the darkening veil of sight, it was Ricardo’s calm voice that I could hear.
“Run, Miss Yuria.”
“Ah… a…”
“It’s alright. Hurry.”
I had wished to stay by his side to the very end.
I had hoped to remain beside Ricardo to administer aid, but my own footsteps, fleeing in overwhelming terror, contorted Yuria’s expression.
“I could… treat…”
“It’s okay. Just run.”
The frantic footsteps of the girl scurrying away echoed eerily like a dirge through the darkened sight.
‘No…’
‘Don’t run away…’
‘Stay until the end.’
As her own past footsteps grew increasingly distant, Yuria crumbled.
She couldn’t see a thing, but Yuria knew. She knew that in this space, only Ricardo and Calyps were present.
“Scoff… scoff… scoff. What will you do now, having been abandoned? If you capture that woman even now, I might spare at least you.”
“I might know how to attack the elderly, but I don’t know how to respect them.”
“Heh heh… what a dull friend you are.”
“That’s right. It seems my sense of humor is lost on someone stricken with dementia.”
When the brief conversation ended, sounds of battle, loud enough to rupture eardrums, filled the air.
The chilling noise as flesh was torn.
As skin was slashed.
Yulia covered her ears, tears falling.
“No… It can’t be…”
She struggled against the realization, but the slowly fitting pieces of her memory refused to let her escape from the mire of recognition.
A forgotten memory resurfaced.
After escaping the dungeon, during her hospital stay, she remembered how Ricardo had cautiously opened the door to her room.
“Why are you here…”
She recalled rejecting Ricardo coldly then, not directly telling him to leave, but implying it, a memory that only now floated back.
Ricardo had surveyed her for injuries, then awkwardly left a small gift on the room’s table with a strained smile.
“I’ve brought back something you lost.”
That day, the small box contained the pink dagger she thought lost in the dungeon.
The dagger she had used to stab Ricardo.
The precious item received from her father, which she once told Ricardo about, he had brought back, stirring up unpleasant memories.
As her memories fell into place, Yulia shook her head in denial.
“No… No, it isn’t so…”
“The poor creature that was abandoned.”
“…”
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“Do you still wish to protect him, even after he left you behind? If it were me, I would have dragged him back by the hair.”
“You’re quite senile.”
“Isn’t your life precious to you?”
“Shouldn’t you be returning to the soil by now?”
The sounds of a bitter combat between Ricardo and the taunting dark mage reached Yulia’s ears.
Then, the voice of the old man, hinting at Ricardo’s defeat, could be heard.
“You fought valiantly, young swordsman.”
As the dark mage’s icy words ended,
“Break through the limit.”
With Ricardo’s curt proclamation, the blue lance bid farewell to the past.
[Returning to the original timeline.]
When consciousness returned, it was all over.
In the stupefying aftermath of the dreadful past wrought by his own mistakes, he had simply stood there, dazed.
Mikhail had mustered all his strength to confront Hans, and thanks to Mikhail delaying for time, the Empire’s knights, who were searching for Hans, were able to arrive.
“Damn it…”
Hans swallowed his resentment and fled.
The presence of a strong opponent, adept in using aura, forced him to turn tail.
With a chilling declaration, “We’ll meet again,” Hans, who cursed his own rampage, vanished from our sights.
I had contributed nothing.
Joined the party to offer support, but due to my own inadequacies, I did not aid Mikhail and Ruin; instead, I was a hindrance and even failed to persuade Hans.
Yuria, watching the knights attempt to regroup, was filled with suppressed rage.
“I couldn’t… do anything…”
There were many victims and friends lost.
Unseen truths were laid bare before her.
Harshly mistreated and grossly misunderstood, Yuria, now aware of the reality, bit her lip and choked back tears.
“So foolish…”
She felt foolish for being so utterly helpless.
If only I had been a little stronger, not ruled by emotion, the events the blue lance foretold would not have occurred.
Mikhail. Ruin. Ricardo.
I might have been able to protect them all.
Yuria felt worthless and weak.
Amidst the vast space where the battle with Hans had unfolded.
Yuria tilted her head to the ceiling in an effort to hide the welling tears. Otherwise, they seemed sure to overflow.
She did not wish to reveal her tears before the knights and her friends, but as she gazed upon the ceiling dense with scars from swords, Yuria’s emotions surged like a receding tide, and she finally broke down.
“Sob…”
The scars indicated intense combat.
The remnant of the weak academy student’s desperate swing to protect herself against the dreadfully wicked sorcerer.
The trace that he had protected her.
Tears began streaming down her cheeks.
-There had been no incident.
His caring voice seemed to linger in my thoughts. The sad face of Ricardo, faintly smiling while hiding the blood spilling from his mouth, still remained etched in my mind.
Yulia murmured with empty eyes.
“You shouldn’t be doing this.”
“If you act this way, what does it make me…”
“I… I thought it was something you did, but if you’re involved, then what am I…”
Yulia murmured to herself sorrowfully. Without wiping away the tears that were falling, she kept muttering as she looked at the scorch marks drawn all over the walls and ceiling.
“I hated you without even knowing…”
She had hated Ricardo.
She hated him so much that she wished he would trip on a stone as he walked along the road. Yet, she had never once wished him dead.
It was just that she had hoped he would feel the pain she had felt, and that he would be punished for the misdeeds he had committed at the academy, but she had not desired this sort of vengeance.
She had never thought she’d be the one to suffer an injury…
She had merely wished to rise a little from the lower side of the scale of relations, to have some balance.
She had never wished for the balance to lighten this way.
‘I just wanted Ricardo to have a tough time…’
Yulia, whose misconceptions were starting to crumble, could only stare blankly at the ceiling.
The world seemed to be tinted in shades of gray.
She wished that everything had been a lie, but unfortunately, Yulia had to acknowledge that the past she had witnessed wasn’t fabricated.
That was what Hans had said.
Her dim memories were supporting this realization.
Yulia raised her hand towards the ceiling. Her fingers were delicate and white, without a single scar.
It was with this hand that she had stabbed Ricardo.
“I…”
Yulia looked at her own hand with trembling eyes. Her fingertips were trembling, tinged with guilt. The remorse for what her hand had done caused each of her fingers to shake.
“I didn’t do it on purpose…”
“It was all… the dark wizard’s doing…”
She denied responsibility, attributing it to the malicious dark wizard.
Even though her cunning lie suggested it was not her own volition, the pink dagger fastened at her waist seemed to scream in ridicule.
‘…’
It was a clumsy lie.
Just an excuse to ease her conscience.
Yuria shook her head with a hollow chuckle.
“Right… they’re all just excuses.”
If only she hadn’t foolishly followed those guys on that day, Ricardo wouldn’t have suffered such an ordeal.
Each time, feeling utterly incompetent for consistently being a burden, Yuria’s shoulders began to tremble with ragged breaths.
“I can’t stand this.”
Overwhelmed with frustration, Yuria pounded her chest with her fist, hoping it might alleviate the feeling even a little. But as she struck her chest with her fist, Ricardo’s bitter smile came to mind, only tightening the grip on her heart further.
“Yuria…!”
Ruined, who had been lying injured, rushed towards her. Moved by the sight of Ruined running toward her despite his wounds, her sentiment sank into despondency in an instant, tainted by the memory of Ricardo’s pained smile.
Ruined, having quickly reached her, asked with a face full of concern.
“Are you okay? You must have been very startled…”
Yuria grabbed Ruined and said.
“Ruined… that must have hurt, right?”
“I’m fine.”
Yuria’s gaze did not meet Ruined’s. Gazing at the man who lingered in her memories, she spoke to Ruined.
“Ricardo.. must have been in so much pain..?”
“He must have… hated me…”
“I… I must have been hated to death.”
Even though she had ample experience in healing others, having never been hurt herself, Yuria realized she couldn’t understand the pain Ricardo had endured.
She couldn’t grasp the tormented heart of Ricardo, who had felt the agony of betrayal by someone he trusted.
Yuria lay face down, lost in thought.
Her forehead touched the filthy floor, but no thoughts came to mind.
Just…
She wanted to stay like this for a while.
Until her heart, which felt as though it was going to rip apart, was okay again, just for a moment…
She wanted to remain this way.
“Yuria…!”
Yuria’s vision went dark.