* * *
Eren slowly opened his tightly closed eyes.
He couldn’t see clearly due to the hot liquid streaming down his face.
When he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, something red smeared onto his sleeve.
‘Huh…?’
As soon as he realized it was fresh blood, all sound was blocked out.
His heart hammered like a drum in his ears, and it was hard to even breathe.
He wanted to look, but fear had seeped into his bones, preventing him from lifting his head like a heavy shackle.
“A… Ashard-nim…?”
He stammered his name.
Unfortunately, his reply still didn’t come.
Eren only lifted his eyes slightly to look at Ashard.
Blood was flowing non-stop from the sword plunged into his shoulder.
Time moved slowly, as if frozen.
He blinked several times, unable to believe the reality before his eyes, but the situation did not change.
When Ashard pulled the sword out of his shoulder, blood gushed out and sprayed everywhere, unlike when it was lodged there.
Eren frantically covered the gaping wound with his hand.
The red fluid that burst out streamed down to his elbow.
“Why, why are you doing this… Ashard-nim!”
The blood-stained sword sliced through the air once more.
This time, it plunged straight into his thigh.
Despite Eren’s desperate pleas, Ashard repeatedly stabbed and withdrew the sword from his own body.
“Stop it! I said stop!”
His body was covered in injuries without an empty spot.
Eren shouted, fueled by rage and desperation, but Ashard would not stop.
His eyes were utterly vacant.
The unfocused gaze made it seem as though his sanity had completely disappeared.
As if he were being controlled by someone.
“Ahahahaha! What a spectacle!”
Julius’s eyes sparkled with ecstasy, and his face held a grotesque delight.
Treating Eren’s cries as beautiful background music, Julius laughed loudly.
“Isn’t human suffering truly beautiful, Eren? Because it’s so honest that it cannot be hidden!”
“Stop right now! Don’t do it, please stop!”
Eren pleaded desperately, but Julius only became more aroused by the fear and despair in Eren’s eyes.
He pressed down on the sword embedded in Ashard’s body, his lips curving into an eerie smile.
It was a thrill he had never felt since he was born.
An overwhelming sensation he hadn’t even felt when he killed his parents.
Julius raised his head and looked around.
Everything in his view seemed different than usual.
The colors were more vivid, and the sounds were more distinct.
At that moment, he felt certain that he had found what he had yearned for all along.
There was no regret or fear in his eyes.
Only a craving for new pleasure and ecstasy.
“Do you really want me to stop?”
“Hmph… I’m going to actually kill you!”
Eren’s voice trembled, mixed with despair and anger.
The resentment echoed like a hollow sound, spreading out.
The smile on Julius’s face held the innocent joy of a child playing with a toy.
Eren felt suffocated by his look of endless enjoyment.
“Hmm…”
It was undeniably a euphoria he had never experienced before, yet something was missing.
Perhaps because he had been imagining this situation for so long, boredom quickly settled in Julius’s eyes.
“Just as I was starting to get bored. Shall we switch roles then? This time, you’ll be the one getting stabbed by that sword.”
“…You crazy bastard.”
“Ah, you just need to stand still, of course. Your lover will do it himself.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the sword was raised.
It was positioned exactly above Eren’s shoulder.
Eren willingly closed his eyes. He would rather be hurt himself than watch Ashard harm himself.
“If this is what it takes to protect Ashard-nim, I have no regrets. That’s enough for me…”
Those were words he had once heard from him.
No, were they the words Ashard had spoken in the future vision he had just seen?
‘Ah, I don’t know.’
Eren slowly closed his eyes.
Flashback.
“So you’re saying Eren is with that man right now.”
“That’s right, but… something is suspicious, Uncle. He deliberately wrote down the location for us! He definitely has an ulterior motive.”
Elyrion rattled off quickly, trying to restrain Ashard, who had jumped up and looked ready to rush out. But it was no use.
Ashard was holding two pieces of paper found at the Marquis Renan’s mansion.
One was a short note neatly written with a message that Eren was with him, and next to it was a travel scroll with coordinates specified.
Seeing this, Ashard lost his mind, insisting he would go find Eren immediately, while Elyrion and Melody were trying to stop him, certain that Julius was hiding some sinister intent.
“Get out of the way. You want me to do nothing when I don’t know what that bastard is doing to Eren?”
Melody’s door was thrown open with a bang, making a loud noise.
Ashard, who was heading straight for the door as if he hadn’t heard the sound, flinched.
The person who entered was Ashard’s older brother, Empress Luan.
Elyrion, who had been struggling to pull Ashard back by the waist, looked relieved upon seeing the Empress.
“Mother, thank you for coming! Please try to stop Uncle!”
“…Brother.”
Luan looked at Ashard with calm eyes.
Because of the firmness in his gaze, Ashard’s mouth did not open for a moment.
“What are you doing, Ashard.”
“…If you are going to tell me not to go, I won’t listen—”
“Why aren’t you going right now? Do you intend to leave Eren alone?”
“…Mother?”
Elyrion and Melody’s eyes widened simultaneously at the unexpected words from the Empress.
Ashard was no exception.
Contrary to the expectation that he would try to stop him, what he heard was a reprimand, and Ashard wore an awkward expression in his sheer confusion.
“What did you just say…?”
“It was only two days ago that you were ranting that you couldn’t live without Eren. But what are you doing? Is your feeling for him only that much?”
As Luan chided him, Ashard bit his lip hard, and color returned to his pale lips, which had been bloodless since he had collapsed and woken up shortly after.
“In times like these, you should follow your heart, Ashard.”
“…”
“Go, now.”
With Luan’s hand pushing his back, Ashard didn’t hesitate and tore the scroll in his hand.
It wasn’t that he didn’t suspect Julius was up to something.
Nevertheless, it didn’t matter because there was a small hope that Eren would be there.
(Back to present)
Even from afar, he could see him instantly.
It was the Eren he had been searching for.
There was no room for hesitation anymore in his relationship with Eren.
“No! Don’t come! Please! You can’t come…!”
He heard a voice crying out in despair.
‘You want me to grant you anything you desire, but why must you ask for the one thing I cannot give.’
Ashard murmured softly, although it was a distance too far for Eren to hear unless he shouted loudly. He didn’t even want Eren to hear that.
The sound of his voice, filled with despair, was no longer heard.
As he sped up and approached, Eren was bound with a handkerchief stuffed in his mouth.
Ignoring Julius, who was lurking nearby as if to fully expose himself as the culprit, Ashard lowered himself toward Eren.
“Why did you come! Go back quickly, please. Huh? Listen to me. Quickly, quickly go…!”
Those were the first words Eren uttered when the handkerchief was removed.
Ashard deliberately pretended not to hear and checked Eren’s condition.
He felt relieved since there were no visible injuries on the surface.
“…Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“You shouldn’t be here… You’ll die, you’ll die! So please, just go!”
Eren’s long eyelashes glistened, wet with tears, and the teardrops slowly flowed down his cheeks.
‘I made him cry again.’
He had sworn to himself that he would never make him cry again.
Yet, he had made tears flow from those eyes once more.
Wiping Eren’s cheek, all he could say was this:
“You’re here, so where are you telling me to go? Don’t cry. If you cry like that, I’ll…”
Crash—
While he was speaking, his ears suddenly became muffled, and his body began to move on its own.
His hand involuntarily gripped the sword, and someone whispered softly inside him.
-Stab.
His mouth moved on its own, asking.
‘Who?’
A flat, emotionless tone spoke once more.
It was a short, monotonous word.
-You.
* * *
