Chapter 165: Summer is Blue (1)
The Great Wall, sometime in the past.
It had been seven years since Cain first arrived at the Great Wall.
Cain, the Warrior King and Lord East, sat with his back to the cold wall of the Great Wall, leading his warriors.
Next to him stood his magic sword, ‘Winter’, as if to block the cold, snowy wind.
“Found you, sir.”
A warrior approached the spot where the old magic lamp flickered.
His steps faltered as if he were drunk, and a bottle of liquor was in his hand.
Thud.
He plopped down next to Cain, who was sitting silently.
“It’s summer. The season when those damned enemies don’t appear in this dreadful snowfield.”
Even in the snowy far east, summer arrives.
Although it wasn’t enough to melt the white snowfield that never melted all year round, it was at least a short summer where the warriors could rest for a few days.
Lord East Cain reached out his hand.
“This summer will be about eleven days.”
Unlike the Great Wall, where it always snowed, there was nothing in his hand. What he felt was warm air, unlike the Great Wall, that wouldn’t even make his breath visible.
Thump.
The approaching warrior placed the bottle of liquor on Cain’s empty hand.
“So please relax. How many days a year do we get to rest like this?”
“You should rest.”
Cain lowered his head.
He looked like a young bird reluctant to leave its egg.
The warrior, whose hair had started to turn grey, stared blankly at Cain.
“You’re addicted.”
Cain, with his hazy violet eyes, raised his head and looked back at him in wonder.
“Addicted?”
“To fighting.”
“……”
“You are perfect, sir. You are the first to step forward and the strongest in this Great Wall.”
“I’m just doing my job.”
Cain replied with a smirk.
But the warrior shook his head.
“No, you’re doing well, but no. You wither away in moments like this, devoid of blood and death.”
Cain Lord East.
A man who shines brighter than the sun that illuminates the entire universe on the battlefield, but a darkness whose existence is blurred in a world where war has disappeared.
The warrior pointed out the distorted life of Cain.
“Someday, if monsters no longer appear on the Great Wall……”
“That’s impossible.”
Cain cut off the warrior’s assumption. During Johnny-Walker’s time, his predecessors, and even the predecessors of his predecessors.
There were monsters on the Great Wall.
To protect the Western world, warriors shed blood, killed them, and protected the world. At that time, it was an absolute and unchanging truth for Cain.
The warrior smiled wryly at the resolute Cain.
“Didn’t the Holy See announce a few years ago? That they found a hero named Abel and that the Demon King had appeared.”
“……”
Cain closed his mouth at the name Abel.
“Who knows. If the Demon King dies, the monsters that keep coming from the east might disappear.”
“A meaningless assumption.”
“No, sir. What will you do if such an era of peace comes?”
“It won’t come.”
Click.
The warrior picked up the bottle of liquor he had placed on Cain’s hand, took a sip, and smiled.
“If it comes.”
“That’s……”
Cain couldn’t answer.
His master was dead.
His family abandoned him.
He had no home to return to.
To him, the world was made up only of blood, death, and monsters.
Cain couldn’t even begin to imagine how he would live in a world without enemies.
Perhaps sensing his thoughts…
“That’s why it’s an addiction.”
“The word addiction certainly fits.”
Cain smiled bitterly and agreed. It was difficult to find a more appropriate expression.
A brief silence followed.
Instead of recklessly comforting Cain’s loneliness, the warrior looked up at the darkened night sky.
The twinkling starlight reflected in his dark eyes somehow resembled tears.
“Didn’t the merchant who came last time say there was a famous female mercenary in Antwerp?”
“I heard that too. Sherry Dronach, the Slaughter King, was it? If a female mercenary is called the Slaughter King, she must have gone through a lot.”
“My name is Everdee. Everdee Dronach.”
Whoosh—
Cain’s eyes widened as he turned to look at him, and the warrior, Everdee, smiled bitterly.
“She’s my daughter.”
“Uh…… you had a daughter?”
Cain asked awkwardly.
He didn’t even know the warrior’s name until now, so naturally, he didn’t know if he had a daughter.
As if he was used to it, he shrugged.
“She’s a beautiful child, unlike me. Probably a little younger than you, sir.”
“Well…… congratulations.”
“To have a daughter of a fatherless mercenary become a Slaughter King?”
A little flustered, Cain hesitated before sighing and speaking.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.”
The warrior smiled knowingly, as if he had expected it.
“I’ve been there. That’s why I came all the way to the Great Wall, leaving my wife and daughter behind.”
Who among the warriors of the Great Wall would have no story?
When Cain saw that he was no longer speaking, he didn’t pry any further.
It was the way of the Great Wall, where existing warriors died and new warriors arrived every day.
“If the Demon King dies and the monsters stop coming, I’m going to go see my wife.”
“……”
Thump.
He placed his hand over his heart. Even after all the alcohol, his heartbeat remained calm as ever.
“Because she was the woman who made this cold heart beat.”
“I hope you get to see her again.”
“That’s why you should get a wife too, sir.”
“……?”
The warrior smiled mischievously and rose from his seat. Then, waving his hand, he walked towards the tavern where the warriors were playing.
“If it’s hard to embrace peace alone, do it together. It’ll get better somehow.”
“Together.”
Cain smiled bitterly and shook his head. Who would be there to meet him, someone addicted to the battlefield?
Thus, the short summer of the Great Wall ended, and the next day…
Cain closed the eyes of Everdee Dronach, half-eaten by monsters.
It was the daily life of the Great Wall.
🔹🔹🔹
Rumble—
Cain stood on the highest terrace of Count Ethelred’s castle.
The dark clouds that had been approaching from afar had already covered the count’s territory and were heading north.
Rumble—
Fortunately, it wasn’t raining yet.
While having dinner with his family, there was a brief sound of raindrops hitting the window, but it seemed like it was just a light drizzle, as the clouds only writhed like snakes.
‘Family.’
Cain gazed at the boundary between the night and the sea, which had become indistinguishable in the distance, and recalled the past.
He had buried countless people in his heart.
One of them, Everdee Dronach.
When he heard Arna’s toast, ‘To peace’, he reflexively thought of him.
What will you do when peace comes?
Cain muttered with a lonely smile, lonelier than anyone else.
“I still don’t know.”
The world line back then ended with him killing Abel, but this world line was different.
From the moment fate began to change, it burned him like a flame and changed everything.
His master is still alive.
His family was with him.
He has a home to return to.
Although there was a difference between when he was Lord East and now as Duke Cain Walker, as vast as the sky and the earth, the person himself was the same.
One might think of it as a reward for living his best, but Cain himself felt like he was wearing clothes that didn’t fit.
‘Is it because there are still enemies?’
He looked east.
A stormy wind ruffled his black hair, but his violet eyes were unwavering.
The Kreuz Empire, where the current old and cruel emperor would die and the imperial family would be fiercely divided and fight amongst themselves.
The Holy See, which had been the loser in the past, but now pretended to be prostrate before God.
The Free City Alliance, hiding its fangs, waiting for the right moment to strike.
And beyond all that, the Great Wall.
Commons, who had made the hero, Abel, die, would be embedded in all those places.
Moreover, now that they had slayed such a powerful Apostle, they would never leave the current Abel alone.
‘Enemies of my world.’
There were enemies trying to shake Cain’s world. Paradoxically, that was what made Cain’s heart race.
Tightly.
Cain placed his hand over his heart, just like Everdee had, and smiled bitterly.
This was why he hated peace.
Because it was a time so leisurely that useless thoughts came to mind.
“Cain.”
Cain turned around to see Oleciren in simple attire.
She approached, brushing back her hair that was being blown by the rough wind.
“What are you doing here alone?”
“Enjoying the nice breeze.”
“Sea breeze is bad for your skin.”
Cain chuckled at Oleciren’s joke and then turned back to the distant sea.
“Talking about skin as if it matters. No matter how much you take care of it, it ends with a single slash of a sword.”
“There you go again, with your bleak words.”
Thud—
Oleciren stood next to Cain and grabbed the railing.
Whooooosh—
The rough wind blew once more.
The identical black hair of Cain and Oleciren fluttered in the wind.
Cain turned his head to look at Oleciren.
Under the dark clouds.
A witch with black eyes and black hair, standing above the dark sea where no light shimmered.
“What?”
She sensed Cain’s gaze but continued looking at the sea as she replied curtly.
Cain shook his head as if it was nothing.
“Just thinking that for someone who talks about skin so much, yours isn’t that great.”
Swoosh!
Oleciren whirled around, her eyes narrowed.
“If your eyesight is failing, tell me. I’ll gladly gouge your eyes out.”
Clickety-clack, clickety-clack—
At the sound of gears turning, as if she was really drawing upon her witch’s power, Cain immediately shook his head.
“Your skin is nice.”
“……It feels like I’m receiving a compliment from a snake.”
“You’re perceptive.”
“You.”
“Not you, Duke Cain Walker. The way you speak, like you’re going to be the next king.”
“Hah.”
Oleciren glared at Cain in disbelief and then burst into laughter.
“Be sealed.”
The witch’s incantation followed.
A translucent barrier, invisible to the naked eye, unfolded above Cain and Oleciren’s heads.
As Cain tilted his head in wonder, Oleciren met his eyes and held up three fingers.
“One, two, three.”
The moment all her fingers were folded……
Pitter-patter, pitter-patter—
As if the absence of rain until now was a dream, a tremendous downpour began.
However, thanks to the barrier erected beforehand, the rain did not reach Cain and Oleciren.
“Were you holding back the rain?”
Cain asked, a little surprised.
It was strange that it wasn’t raining when the clouds looked like they were about to burst.
Oleciren smiled bitterly, just like Cain had.
“The dinner was so enjoyable. I thought the mood would be ruined if it rained too much.”
Just like Cain.
Oleciren also enjoyed the ordinary dinner at Ethelred.
“Come to think of it, you and my family are alike.”
“How?”
“Our fathers are alive, but our mothers aren’t.”
“……”
“And our mothers came back in one way or another, only to leave again.”
To an ordinary person, it would sound absurd, but since they already knew each other’s circumstances.
“I guess you and I are the only ones who can relate.”
They were the furthest apart, but they ended up in the closest positions, experiencing the same time.
They both sensed the subtle shift in their relationship, knowingly or unknowingly, and faced each other.
“That……”
Before either of them could speak…
Thud—
Someone fell onto the terrace.
Ting, ting, ting—
A man with a bucket on his head, the raindrops hitting it with an annoying sound.
And…
Ting…
A boy shyly lowering his head, wearing a small bucket.
“Since it’s raining, I’ll teach you about the human sword.”
“I don’t think we needed this……”
It was Edmund and Abel.
“Stop wearing that ridiculous thing before I break it with my own hands.”
And Oleciren’s words, heavier than a hammer, followed.
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