Chapter 116
When the grenade exploded, the surroundings were dyed with pitch-black mist.
Even the audience could no longer be seen.
Only Rubin and I were standing here.
‘……So, he created a barrier.’
It wasn’t a lethal weapon, but a temporary barrier formed with the mana contained in the engineering grenade.
It couldn’t last long—about five minutes at most.
This barrier couldn’t cause me any direct harm.
It merely created a space completely cut off from the outside for five minutes.
No sound, movement, or even the ripple of mana inside the barrier reached beyond it.
Rubin removed his mask and reverted to his school uniform appearance.
On his arm were parts of his broken mechanical arm, and a liquid, whether oil or blood, dripped down.
“Yeah. Black Knight…… If you’ve driven me this far, I understand well enough that you are that Hero.”
Rubin kept speaking as he unbuttoned his uniform.
“I have just one request for the Hero.”
Rubin then fell to his knees.
I quietly watched him.
“……Just a few days!”
Rubin screamed as if in desperation.
“Just give me a few days……! I need treatment. I have to save my little sister!”
“……”
Even with such a desperate plea, throwing away all pride, I did not lower my sword.
I only protected justice.
For justice, I would not consider Rubin’s circumstances.
“All right. If that’s how you choose to come……”
With trembling hands, Rubin undid the buttons of his uniform jacket.
When he opened the inside, Bomb Beetles were clinging all over him.
Rubin pulled a potion from his pocket and shook the liquid—Professor Ruber’s enhancement potion.
According to the plan that Curio had discovered, it was meant as a prop in a self-staged act to prove himself as the Black Knight.
“Professor Ruber made this. A Bomb Beetle explosion is powerful enough to break a building pillar.”
Rubin’s hand trembled as he held the potion.
“But if I feed them this potion, their explosive power increases severalfold. I could blow this entire space away. If that’s what it takes, I’ll drag you to hell with me……”
Drag me with him.
That meant self-destruction.
‘I expected he might attack me using Bomb Beetles that could no longer be used for terrorism.’
……But I never thought he would use them for suicide.
I frowned without realizing it.
“Rubin. Was that the extent of your resolve?”
When I answered, Rubin let out a hollow laugh.
“Resolve? I’m already…… finished……”
Rubin bit the cork stopper off the potion and spat it out.
His eyes already showed resignation.
“Dying in an explosion with you is better. That way…… no one will know who the Black Knight really was. In the end, my sister will still get treatment.”
His eyes were already consumed by madness.
“……I didn’t plan on sending the Empire’s Hero off like this, but my sister is more precious to me. This is goodbye.”
Without hesitation, Rubin poured the potion onto the beetles under his clothes.
– Fwoooosh!
A red aura swirled around the potion-soaked beetles.
Their shapes twisted, their bodies swelling larger and larger.
“You fool.”
“In this place, you and I will both die……”
Rubin couldn’t finish his words.
Crackkk―!
In this place filled with darkness, cracks began to form.
Claaang―!
The sound of shattering glass echoed as the mana flow maintaining the barrier broke.
Through the fracture, white light seeped in.
Crackkk―! Claaang―!
The barrier continued to shatter until, at last, the blue sky became visible.
“……What the.”
Rubin’s eyes widened as he stared at the collapsing barrier.
Originally, it should have lifted after five minutes.
But now, not even a single minute had passed.
‘Someone forcibly broke the barrier.’
Unlike with Verdi, this was a hastily created barrier by a student, making it relatively easier to dismantle.
Even so, breaking it by force required the ability of a professor-level mage.
……Rubin had overlooked one fact.
That there was a professor-level expert present here.
‘Yes…… In this place, there’s only one such figure.’
One of the bodyguards who risked their life to protect the Princess.
Before long, the barrier completely shattered.
What was revealed was me, sword aimed, and Rubin, collapsed with Bomb Beetles covering his entire body.
“Vice President Rubin?!”
“Why are Bomb Beetles stuck on him like that…… and why are they so huge……?”
“Wait, isn’t that the same enhancement potion from Professor Ruber’s practice session?!”
A Bomb Beetle, the size of a pinky finger, carried an explosive force of about one meter in radius.
A pinky finger was about 5cm long.
But the Bomb Beetles now looked ten times that size.
And with several clinging to him, their power would only increase further.
If they exploded…… this entire area would vanish.
Everyone was struck silent in shock, and Rubin looked just as horrified as they did.
“……What do I do now.”
Rubin’s gaze, which had been on them, slowly shifted toward me.
“I never meant to make this many unnecessary companions in death……”
His eyes showed that he realized countless sacrifices would follow.
It was almost as if he was crying out for me to help.
At that moment, from somewhere, thud―! A chilling, crushing killing intent so heavy it felt like my heart would burst was felt.
‘Luga……!’
As if things weren’t bad enough, now this.
Just as befit the Princess’s bodyguard, he had been watching everything.
I could feel it from the killing intent alone.
They wanted to kill Rubin in an instant to save the Princess watching from the arena.
If Rubin died by Luga’s blade just like that, the official timeline would spiral into a dangerous deviation.
Acting on pure instinct, without time to form a judgment, my mouth moved on its own.
“Stop!”
I shouted toward the stands.
The crowd seemed flustered by my sudden action, but……
……the killing intent ceased the moment I shouted.
‘They trusted me.’
Whatever the case, it was an urgent situation; there was no time for such thoughts.
Before Luga could change his mind, I strode straight toward Rubin.
Rubin, who was covered in Bomb Beetles, was greatly startled as I approached.
“They’re going to explode soon—what are you trying to do……?”
“Stay still.”
I opened a subspace.
What I put in and took out of that place was a Bomb Beetle no bigger than a pinky.
When I placed the beetle on my palm, a new system prompt appeared.
A Bomb Beetle friend wanted to follow you!
It was a Bomb Beetle I had tamed in the system before the duel began.
I looked at the beetle and spoke.
“Take your friends up into the sky. As high as you can.”
“They can’t understand you if you talk to bugs like that……”
Rubin scoffed, but the Bomb Beetle flapped its wings as if it had understood my words.
It flew from my hand, circled around Rubin, and then began to soar high into the sky.
Fwoosh―?
The grotesquely enlarged beetles flapped their wings.
“What……?”
As the beetles moved, Rubin’s breathing quickened.
The beetles detached from Rubin’s body and began to rise toward the sky.
They were following my tamed Bomb Beetle upward.
‘……Right, pheromones.’
Beetles exchanged positional signals through pheromones.
Because of that, taming only one allowed me to control dozens of them.
Rattle―!
A dozen or so Bomb Beetles shot high into the sky.
Everyone here watched them.
‘It’s still dangerous. They need to go higher.’
When the swarm looked like a tiny speck……
Boom―!
Bang―! Bang―!
Magnificent explosions erupted in the midday sky.
Along with the roaring blasts, dazzling fireworks decorated the heavens.
Everyone held their breath and stared upward, and at that moment I sensed movement and turned my gaze back to Rubin.
‘Right, it’s not over yet.’
Somehow having repaired his arm clumsily, Rubin threw a punch at me.
His eyes were bloodshot and he looked like he had lost his mind.
“Do you want to win that badly?”
I tilted my head slightly and brushed past his fist as if grazing it.
Whoosh―! A powerful strike cleaved the air beside me.
“I know. I’m not ignorant of the circumstances that drove you this far.”
My voice was calm; Rubin flinched for an instant but, refusing to give up, charged again.
“But the way you chose was criminal. You deceived everyone and sacrificed others.”
I quietly clenched my fist.
A faint black flame blossomed at my fingertips.
“You don’t deserve to live. But you don’t deserve to die either.”
Thud―! Thud―! Like a pulsing heartbeat, the flaming fist dropped low—then—.
“Live, and pay for your sins to the end.”
My punched fist, cleaving the air, aimed squarely for Rubin’s jaw.
Wham!
The fist struck Rubin’s jaw dead-on; his head snapped back and a small blast of air burst out.
“Graaah—!”
Rubin’s body flew up like a sheet of paper.
Thud, thud, wham―!
He flew like a collapsing scarecrow, rolled a few times across the arena floor, and finally stopped moving.
No one here could utter a single word; they all held their breath.
Smoke cleared to reveal soot, scattered mechanical fragments from Rubin, and Rubin himself collapsed and unconscious.
Someone from the Student Council slowly exhaled in that quiet place as they looked at the scene.
“……It’s over.”
Rubin was immediately taken into custody.
The evidence was clear, so his crime was swiftly proven.
His knighthood was revoked and all honor was stripped from him.
‘In the official timeline, Rubin’s sister would have received treatment.’
His punishment for accounting fraud alone was supposed to be the flow of the original story.
But Rubin’s impersonation of the Black Knight and deception of the Princess were too grievous.
Perhaps because of that, his sister did not seem to receive treatment.
If left like this, she would truly die.
Even as a side episode, his sister’s treatment was a crucial pillar in maintaining the official timeline.
‘To preserve the proper course…… there was no choice.’
On a moonlit midnight, I gripped the black card that hung in the void.
Step, step……
Someone was walking toward the cabin.
Sebastian opened his eyes wide and drew his sword from his cloak.
Creak.
When the door opened quietly, Sebastian rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
“You are…….”
A knight in a black mask.
Wasn’t he the figure Miss Sehara always had on her lips?
Regrettably, he was also the one who had uncovered Rubin’s crime and sent him to prison.
Sebastian tightened his hand on the hilt without realizing it.
If the man who had opposed Rubin came here in person……
“……The young master has already gone to prison to pay for his sins. If you have come here, do you mean to finish what was left unresolved?”
At Sebastian’s cautious question, the black-masked knight answered quietly.
“Worry not. I merely dropped by for personal reasons. Guide Miss Sehara to me.”
“……”
Sebastian fell silent.
That answer was enough.
There was no hostility, no hint of reprisal toward the black knight.
Sebastian sensed it with the seasoned feeling of many years.
Without a word, Sebastian pointed to the room where Sehara slept.
The black knight nodded once and entered the room without a sound.
Beneath moonlight seeping through the curtains, a girl drenched in shadow slept.
Even in sleep she seemed uneasy, drenched in cold sweat and breathing raggedly.
The black knight quietly approached her and stretched out his hand into the air.
Kuyap.
A small, alien sound spread lightly through the air.
A tiny living creature, an axolotl, had landed on his palm.
The creature emitted a faint light toward Sehara.
It quietly enveloped her like moonlight.
Jed Sehara opened her eyes.
Sunlight streamed between the old curtains.
She lay on the same cabin-bed she always did.
Sehara had hated mornings the most.
When she opened her eyes, pain would seize her whole body.
She wanted to live forever in painless dreams.
……But then.
“……?”
The familiar stabbing pain that arrived as soon as she opened her eyes did not come.
“……”
Sehara looked at her arm.
Normally, a pitch-black, charred arm would come into view, but……
there was no blackness at all.
Memories of the past resurfaced.
Memories of happy days with her parents and brother.
“……Ah.”
Before she knew it, her arm had returned to the pure white skin she had seen when she was very little.
Sehara slowly rose from her bed.
Perhaps because she had not been able to walk for a long time.
Her legs lacked muscle, but even so, Sehara could walk, however slowly.
Like a baby, Sehara moved one step at a time, one step at a time, toward the door.
Before long, she reached the door, grabbed the knob, and opened it.
Outside her room, Sebastian, dozing in a chair, opened his eyes.
His mouth fell open, and his eyes grew wide.
“My lady……”
Thud.
The white-bearded old man rose from his chair but, after only a few steps, fell to his knees as if collapsing, tears streaming down.
“Sebastian.”
Sehara’s eyes grew red, and at last, tears rolled down her cheeks.
A man crouched with his back against a dark wall.
Pale skin, hollow eyes, and a gaunt face.
He had changed so much that no one would have recognized him as Jed Rubin.
Once hailed as a promising talent of the Student Council, in just a month he had become darkness itself.
It was a life of merely enduring each day in lethargy.
That day was no different, smothered in darkness.
Then, from beyond the bars, the guard’s voice rang out.
“Visitor. Prepare yourself.”
With hollow eyes, Rubin lifted his head.
A visitor…… the Princess?
Or perhaps members of the Student Council?
Had they come just to sneer at his broken self?
……Yes, he would not deny it.
He was a criminal, after all.
In any case, he no longer had a reason to live.
Even the one he had risked everything to protect was no longer in this world.
Resigned, Rubin rose and followed the guard to the visiting room.
A place where even light barely reached.
Even there, the faint air that seeped in was cold.
Creak!
The heavy iron door opened.
Rubin lifted his head indifferently, and in that instant—
……a sight entered his view that stole his breath.
A pure white dress.
Even under dim light, an unclouded, dazzlingly bright smile.
Rubin’s pupils shook.
Yes, it was just like……
That child who had laughed so happily beneath the radiant sunlight.
The one who had played with him in the fields of Hetarion.
The only one Rubin had risked his life to protect.
She looked exactly like his little sister.
“……”
“……”
Sehara only smiled brightly without a word.
And Rubin, trembling all over, broke into a voiceless sob on the spot.
The younger sister who had been bedridden for years.
That child now stood before Rubin, healthy.
Rubin and Sehara faced one another, unable to speak further.
There was no need; every emotion was conveyed without words.
Just by looking at each other, it was enough.
Without speaking, the two locked eyes.
And endless tears quietly flowed between them.