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“Hey!”
Someone shouted as Reinhardt grabbed the ladder. A rough but subtly familiar voice came from behind.
“Valletta! Get up there!”
“Zenith?”
It was almost the same time that Reinhardt’s urgent voice and Valletta’s eyes met with the opponent’s. As Valletta climbed up, the sword in Zenith’s hand flew high into the sky.
“I’m late.”
She was about to go up as Reinhardt had said, but she let go of the ladder and stepped back. She felt something hard touch her back.
“Ugh.”
She heard a squeal right next to her as the livestock got slaughtered. The smell of blood that had been wafting in the distance suddenly thickened.
“Ugh……..”
Valletta raised her head in panic at the voice coming from above. A sword was embedded in Reinhardt’s shoulder.
“What……..”
“Master, are you okay?”
Reinhardt smiled and asked with a pale face.That strange voice made Valletta lift her chin. She gritted her teeth and grabbed the sword stuck in Reinhardt’s shoulder with her hands.
“Don’t do it.” (Reinhardt)
“Shut up, is that what you’re saying to me now?” (Valletta)
Valletta gripped the blade of the sword in her hand as hard as she could. As the blade dug in, blood flowed down on the blade with sharp pain. Reinhardt’s face turned white and crumpled.
“Don’t do it, Master.”
“Who are you to command me?”
Her violet eyes were different in the darkness. Reinhardt held his breath for a moment, but then quickly frowned.
Valletta grabbed the sword blade and began to carefully remove it.
As she grabbed the sword blade, Valletta was unconcerned, but the look on Reinhardt’s face became even more crinkled as he watched her.
“It hurts, Master……”
“Hang in there. I could’ve avoided it on my own. Why did you interrupt?”
“I don’t know. My body just moved.”
Reinhardt’s calm words made Valletta speechless. Sometimes when she heard such candid words, she was speechless without realizing it.
Her lips quivered for a while as she looked at Zenith, who was making a strange sound without rushing in right away.
“Why does a corpse use a sword?” (Valletta)
“Haha …… it must be the boss of the walking corpses.” (Reinhardt)
‘Say it like you’re a genius.’ Valletta glared at him.
“Can you move instead of talking nonsense?”
The sword wasn’t pulled out completely, and his robe was soaked with blood. Valletta couldn’t do it, because in front of the ladder stood the empty-eyed Zenith with tears of blood streaming down her face.
“Let’s go that way for now.”
“Master, look at this.”
Reinhardt rubbed the dirt floor with his feet a few times, his chin tilted. There was a magic circle on the floor. It was a unique magic circle that he had never seen before.
“This is….”
A magic circle was basically composed of lines, dots, and an ancient language. The basic principle of magic was to pour magic power into the completed formation. On the contrary, an alchemy formation consisted of a circle and various basic alchemical formulas, with the object to be alchemized placed in the center of the circle and magic power poured into it.
The basic difference between alchemy and magic was whether or not there was a price. Alchemy was basically based on the principle of giving something and getting something back that was worth that much, but magic was not. Creating something out of nothing was magic.
“…… What is this? Is it magic or alchemy?”
Valletta said as she knelt down on the floor, examining it closely.
She carefully moved the dirt away with her fingers. Her expression was not good. Reinhardt, who was bent over next to her, also shrugged.
“Well, it’s my first time seeing it.”
“It looks like a combination of an alchemy formula and a magic circle.”
Reinhardt’s head tilted. His crooked smile grew even deeper.
“If we call this alchemy, is the price the bodies of the people of this village?”
“…..you’re right. When it comes to magic, it’s a simple killing spell.”
Valletta said with her eyes wide opened. In fact, it made sense to call it magic or alchemy.
She knelt still and looked around the mysterious magic circle. Zenith, who hadn’t moved a muscle earlier, started sniffing and swinging the sword recklessly with missing eyes.
“Get out of the way, Master.”
“Oh… yes.”
Valletta raised herself up to follow Reinhardt’s tug on her shoulder.
“Can you run?” (Reinhardt)
“Me? I can’t run for very long. I realized the limitations of my physical strength.” (Valletta)
Reinhardt’s forehead wrinkled. Smiling, he lightly stepped back and held Valletta’s hand.
“Master has always been very weak.”
“Did I have time to exercise when I was locked up? Even if I had, he wouldn’t have let me do it. That man liked it when I didn’t rebel.”
The corners of Reinhardt’s eyes flickered. Seeing Zenith coming more and more forward, swinging her sword, Reinhardt let out a light breath.
With that faint gasp, Zenith’s body snapped to a halt. Her sword was thrust precisely at Reinhardt and Valletta. Valletta and Reinhardt’s bodies also froze.
“…. Hey, this is your fault.”
“I’m sorry, Master.”
“Turn it off, whoa, whoa, whoa…..!”
Zenith stumbled all over and rushed in with her sword. Valletta and Reinhardt dodged as they were.
At that moment, boom! A lightning bolt struck. The two were about to kick the ground, but their feet stopped. They turned around, and Zenith, who was struck by lightning, was on the floor, occasionally wriggling.
What was certain was that she wasn’t dead. It smelled like burning meat and it made Valletta feel nauseous.
“Are you okay?”
“…Quilt?”
“Did both of you get hurt?”
Valletta’s eyes fluttered in surprise at the sight of Quilt and Ceylon appearing, asking for their safety. Instead of answering, she turned her head to look at Reinhardt and saw that his pupils were slightly dilated. Perhaps it was not what he expected either.
“Let’s go back to the tower for now.”
“Don’t worry, I said I could do it on my own..….”
“Stop being so stubborn!”
Quilt shouted as he clenched his fist.
Reinhardt’s eyes narrowed. A faint smile indicated his displeasure.
Valletta squeezed his hand that was holding hers a little more tightly.
“You are our master. The owner of the tower. We are your tools. Please consider using it.” (Quilt)
“I thought I told you I don’t need the tower. Do whatever you want.” (Reinhardt)
“We’ll help you.”
“I don’t need you guys.”
Reinhardt hung his bleeding arm and wrapped his other arm around Valletta’s waist.
“Just my master and I will be enough.”
“….. Didn’t you get caught in the magic circle?”
“I’ll figure it out on my own.”
Reinhardt replied indifferently and turned his head away. He narrowed his eyebrows as he sensed that the wriggling Zenith was trying to get up.
“Master, this way…..”
Valletta sighed and gave Reinhardt a light flick on the forehead. Reinhardt’s eyes widened. He dropped his gaze and stared at her, perplexed.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Huh?”
“Why are you being so hostile? They say they’re here to help.”
Valletta stopped walking. Her words startled Reinhardt, as well as Quilt and Ceylon, who opened their eyes wide. The most shocking person seemed to be Reinhardt himself. His red iris expanded to the fullest. He crumpled his forehead as if it were unpleasant.
“We don’t need them, they’re useless anyway. We can do this on our own.” (Reinhardt)
“How do you know if they are useful or not, if we can do it or not?” (Valletta)
Now was not the time to argue about cold water or hot water in this situation. He couldn’t move his limbs, and the metal scratching sound was getting closer. She didn’t like getting help from anyone either, but this was not a situation to be stubborn about.
It was obvious that the lightning from earlier had caught Lesir’s attention.
“I know because it’s happened before. Why are you suddenly taking their side?” (Reinhardt)
“I’m not taking their side. What if we fail to get out?” (Valletta)
Reinhardt shrugged at Valletta’s counter-question. He still looked relaxed and still didn’t seem serious. Even more so, at least by looking at his smiling face.
“I said I would be responsible for your end. I’ll kill you painlessly, so you can die and I can die together.” (Reinhardt)
He made the brutal sound as if it were nothing. The scariest part of this was that he was actually going to do it when the time came.
Valletta still didn’t know how to fix his crooked mindset of dying together because he would rather kill her comfortably than suffer and die.
“I’ll tell you up front, the reason I’m going through all this trouble is for my peaceful life, not for my peaceful death.”
Valletta drew a firm line. If it had been about ‘dying’, she would have already chosen death long ago instead of enduring such a cruel life. She decided not to die, and that was why she was still alive.
As if Valletta’s words had touched somewhere, Reinhardt’s face turned grim. Tightening his grip, he stepped closer to her. How much blood did he shed, even his lips turned blue. The floor was filled with blood.
“So, master, are you asking for help from them?”
Reinhardt’s breathing was rough and hot as he tilted his head at an angle and spoke sarcastically. He wasn’t in a good condition.
Valletta frowned.
“Reinhardt.”
At her low call, Reinhardt’s fierce eyes bent slightly. He reflexively made eye contact with Valletta.
“I was the only one who believed you in that bloody mansion.”
“…… You say you were different.”
Valletta sighed briefly at the speech mixed with bitter laughter as he was so close. She understood that he didn’t want any help, but she couldn’t watch Zenith wriggling from behind anymore.
“I once heard your voice in the dark as a salvation.” (Valletta)
Reinhardt’s mouth slightly opened at Valletta’s rare display of sincerity. She lowered her gaze slightly and immediately faced his red eyes. The violet eyes were reflected in the bright red ones.
“But, Reinhardt, our world will not always be ours alone.”
She said, averting her gaze.
That day, Reinhardt broke the birdcage. It was a small, stuffy cage that had confined them. A prison-like place where she seemed to be unable to escape forever. They were alone, the two of them, and he broke it down himself.
The suffocating mansion and small world collapsed, and an endlessly wide world opened up before them. She could now stand under the bright blue sky and walk and stop as much as she wanted.
“…… Why can’t we?”
Reinhardt asked gloomily.
The sluggish, crooked look in his eyes already had a lot of power in it. The raised corners of his eyes reflected his sharp feelings.
“Don’t tell me you’re abandoning me. Valletta, you are mine. If you’re ever going to die, it will only be at my hands.”
“You’re the one who is about to die, what are you talking about?”
Valletta put her hand on her forehead. She couldn’t understand what the hell he was so worried about when he had the ability to find her and grab her by the neck wherever she went. She didn’t understand him before, but she understood him even less now.
‘Does he usually express his feelings this way?’