* * *

When he became aware of the ‘consciousness’, a single gravestone appeared in the otherwise dark landscape. In front of the tombstone was not a bunch of flowers or alcohol, but a sword. It was all too familiar, his own sword.

‘Am I dead?’

It was an unassuming grave, with a bland gravestone that bore none of the usual inscriptions, and overgrown weeds surrounding it. A lonely sword sat in the middle of it, slowly rusting away.

A lonely death with no one to see it. It was a lonely end indeed, but Lumen didn’t seem to mind. He felt strangely at peace. He felt no regrets, like someone who had come to the end of everything.

But the next moment, someone approached his grave.

‘……Leader.’

It was Cadel. Cadel stared at the gravestone as if reminiscing about someone he missed, then squatted down in front of it and began to clear the weeds around it. With his bare hands, he painstakingly pulled up the weeds and pushed them aside, then wiped the dirt off the gravestone.

By the time Cadel had finished cleaning up, the others had arrived.

The first was Van, who spoke something incomprehensible to the struggling Cadel and pulled Lumen’s longsword from its haphazard resting place on the ground. After roughly brushing the dirt from the blade, he sheathed it in the scabbard he had brought and laid it at an angle next to the gravestone.

The second was Lydon, who flew in, smiling as always, and scattered a bunch of flowers from wherever he’d picked them on the gravestone. Then, he casually walked over and sat on the gravestone. Cadel gave him a stern look, but he only smiled brightly.

The last was Garuel, and what he brought was alcohol. He held the bottle up to the gravestone and muttered something like a prayer, and as if on cue, everyone’s image began to slowly blur.

As if only in Lumen’s eyes, the Knight Order was busy talking to each other. They shared the kind of emotions that only the survivors enjoy, a little empty but ready to shake it off and move on.

Lumen could only watch, unable to join them, and while they moved on, he would remain stationary, like a sword sheathed here for life.

‘Leader. Cadel.’

He could call out to Cadel over and over again, but there was no answer. Cadel would never hear his own voice again. The moment he realized this, an unbearable loneliness and longing for life swept over him.

‘Am I…… really dead……?’

Can’t we be together anymore? Is it all over? He didn’t want it to end. He didn’t want to let go of what he had finally found. As if trampling on his only hope, they all slipped away.

All that remained was a gravestone bearing their mark. Staring at it in agony, Lumen reached for his sword. And from nothing more than a drifting consciousness, he was given a body. Hands to hold the sword, legs to support it, eyes to see, and ears to hear.

Regaining his original form, he began to walk blindly through the darkness. He couldn’t accept that this was his end. There was still so much he needed to do, so much he wanted to do.

So it couldn’t end like this.

As if brainwashing himself, Lumen denied his death over and over again. He tried to remind himself that he was alive. He believed there was an end to this vague darkness.

And as if to reward his faith, someone not far away called his name. A voice that would be the only light in the world, a light that would never fade in the midst of despair.

“Wake up slowly, Lumen. If this continues, you will dry out and die first.”

As Cadel continued to talk to himself in solitude with no one to answer, he naturally lost strength due to boredom. Cadel, who was rubbing his dry face with a deep sigh, suddenly raised his head when he heard a faint voice.

“Ca, del…….”

The low, cracking voice was unmistakably Lumen’s. Reflexively, Cadel rose to his feet and stepped in front of Lumen.

“Lumen? You’re awake?”

“Ugh…….”

“You, you woke up! Are you feeling any discomfort? Are you feeling any pain?”

Impatient gazes constantly scanned Lumen’s face. The corners of his frown twitched slightly, then his tightly closed eyelids lifted slightly, and beyond them, blue eyes slowly rolled back into focus. Cadel clutched Lumen’s hand tightly, feeling his heart pounding.

“Lumen, do you recognize me?”

A glimmer of recognition appeared in his cloudy eyes as he stared into the distance. Lumen, his brow furrowed as he stared at the face before him, murmured softly.

“Leader…….”

“Haa…….”

As soon as he heard the name, which normally didn’t impress him, he felt a tightness as if his lungs were being squeezed. Cadel let out a sigh and shook his head.

“You really have a knack for…… making people fall apart. That’s a talent, too.”

When he realized that Lumen had returned safely, he felt relaxed and burst into laughter. Cadel looked at Lumen’s frowning face, who still had not regained his sense of reality, and gently smoothed his furrowed brow.

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions, but we’ll save them for when you’re fully recovered. I’ll call Garuel first.”

“Everyone…….”

“Huh?”

“Is, everyone……safe……?”

He couldn’t believe that Lumen would ask that right after he woke up. He wondered if Lumen had been worried about his comrades until the moment he collapsed. Stifling a sob, Cadel stroked the back of Lumen’s relaxed hand and nodded.

“Everyone’s safe, thanks to you.”

* * *

“Ahaha! You were like Sleeping Beauty, Lumen! Do you remember the taste of the herbs I fed you? They may have gotten a little dirt on them, but they woke you up. You can thank me all you want!”

Lydon hovered around Lumen’s ear in the form of a little fairy, chattering loudly, and was being swatted away like a fly. It seemed that the terrible images that Elvie had shown on the top floor of the tower were all illusions. It was a liveliness that couldn’t be explained otherwise.

“There are no injuries. However, the fatigue still remains, so it would be a good idea to continue lying down for a couple of days.”

“As someone might say, you are a noble young master, and you are as fragile as a flower. Wouldn’t it be better to carry a cane rather than a sword?”

“No arguing with the patient, Sir Van. Any increase in blood pressure is bad for him.”

“This is advice, not argument.”

The news of Lumen’s awakening brought Van, Lydon, and Garuel to his room. Cadel was the only one to express genuine concern or relief for Lumen, but the atmosphere was incomparably more excited than when he collapsed.

“Lumen, Lumen! What was the end of that demon kid? How did you defeat him? Tell me about it.”

“I just sliced his heart.”

“Ahaha! Tired of explaining? I guess you want to fall asleep again. I even dug up herbs every day for Lumen, how ungrateful!”

“Don’t pretend you don’t remember.”

“That’s right, Sir Lydon. Don’t forget that among the herbs Sir brought, there were also poisonous ones.”

There was not a dime’s worth of warmth in the words exchanged. But Cadel knew the others were happy for Lumen’s recovery, too.

Amidst the usual bickering, there was a peacefulness that melted away the tension. After listening to their loud conversation for a while, Cadel quietly rose from his seat.

“You guys keep talking. I need to get some rest now.”

“Shall I escort you, Commander?”

“It’s okay, the room is just around the corner. Don’t stay too long either. Because Lumen is a patient.”

Lumen looked very disappointed when Cadel said he would go. He seemed to want to get rid of his noisy comrades who surrounded him and be left alone with Cadel, but Cadel’s countenance was not conducive to his greed. It was natural since he hadn’t slept properly in days.

“……See you tomorrow, Leader.”

Cadel gave Lumen a small smile, then turned and left the room. His body felt as limp as a wet cotton ball from the strain. If he didn’t recover quickly, he’d be in trouble for the next main quest.

As Cadel rubbed his stiff eyelids and made his way to his room, his gaze landed on a doorway. It was Yozen’s room, newly acquired today. It was the first time he and Lumen had met, and it was difficult to introduce a new comrade to a patient who had just woken up, so Cadel did not call him.

‘I hope he’s resting well.’

Cadel was worried about his new subordinate, even though he was the one who should be resting. Aside from his blindness, he was right to be concerned about Ypzen’s habits as a lifelong assassin.

Yozen was used to working alone and undercover. But as a member of the Knight Order, he would have to work with his comrades a lot in the future, and he needed to spend time together and get to know them. Would Yozen be willing to go along with the process?

Cadel knew it wasn’t a problem that could be solved by rushing around, but he also didn’t want to sit on his hands. Because he didn’t want to see Yozen wandering around alone.

Moreover, managing favorability was also a problem. Cadel recalled Yozen’s profile, which he had checked while waiting for Lumen to wake up.