Her big golden eyes were filled with tears out of worry.
"What about you, Diana?"
Diana smiled as she received the lady's warm concern.
She soon gently removed the hand that clung to her wrist.
"Don't worry about me. I just… I just need you to be safe, Milady."
"Diana…"
A voice so full of sorrow called out to her, but Diana turned to Daniel as though she did not hear it.
He faced Diana with a stiff look, but nonetheless filled with sadness as well.
"Then, Sir Daniel. I leave Milady in your care."
"Be careful out there, Miss Diana."
That was the last moment.
Diana rushed out of there without any more words exchanged between them. The monsters that were knocked out earlier were about to rise again.
So, she had to get away from them as soon as possible.
Without hesitation, she turned her back on them and ran towards the direction where the monsters lay.
Thud, thud, thud.
Every step she made was loud.
So, anyone who'd hear this would notice her presence at once.
This was so that those two could hide even better.
And fortunately, her efforts were successful.
All five monsters chased after Diana.
She kept cutting them down over and over again so that they wouldn't get near those two people.
Until things ended up like this.
Diana continued to worry for her even as she was being choked to death.
'After I die, I just wish that these monsters won't go to Lady Alicia…'
Four monsters were nearby, lying on the ground.
One monster was grabbing her neck.
She didn't want any of these monsters to go to Alicia, even if that meant offering her own body as carnage.
Her vision gradually turned cloudy, and then black.
Amidst her blurred thoughts, one name that she had set aside for the moment flashed to the forefront of her mind.
…Ria.
Her younger sister, Ria.
So afraid that she'd choose her own survival if she'd remember the name, Diana had been desperately trying to push down that name.
If she ever dared to live, she might run away.
That she might save her own life instead of the lives of the people she had a duty to protect.
And she was afraid of that, so she tried to hide that name and pretend she couldn't remember.
However, as the end of her life approached, she couldn't help but think of her name.
Ria.
When her younger sister's face came to mind, Diana's firm lips were naturally drawn into an arc on their own.
Tears filled her eyes as her lashes trembled.
Soon, two streams of hot tears flowed down her cheeks.
At the same time, her vision turned completely black.
As though her head was being suffocated as well, her brain was in such pain that it felt like it was about to explode.
And this was her final moment.
.
.
No.
She thought it was the final moment.
Slaaash—
Until something flew through the wind, and soon, her body dropped to the ground.
"Hu…huuk… Cough… cough… Ha…"
As she was on the floor, Diana grabbed her choked neck and spat out a dry cough.
Every time rough breaths passed through her throat, the clarity of her imminent death gradually faded.
From where the projectile flew in, something started to move.
Diana was barely able to twist her head to see whose presence it was.
That person, standing tall, approached her with ease.
Something gold flashed brightly through the drizzling rain.
Diana blinked.
Just in case— just to check whether what she's looking at right now was real or merely an illusion.
In the meantime, the mirage that approached her reached out one hand.
There, on that person's open palm was Diana's dagger.
The monster had thrown it away earlier, but that same dagger came back and cut the monster down.
Diana reached forward with a trembling hand to take the dagger.
The sensation of its cold metal overwhelmed her sense of touch.
As if to confirm that this was not a mere illusion.
Only then did Diana's lips open slightly.
"…La…Lady Rosetta…"
As her name was called, Rosetta smiled.
"You have to take care of your weapon properly, Diana. I had this made especially for you, right?"
At the joking tone, Diana's expression changed, and eventually she laughed.
She really, really wanted to hear that voice.
She'd been waiting so long.
Atop the garbled smile on her face, hot tears poured down relentlessly.
As she laughed and cried, Rosetta disposed of the sprawling monsters one after another with her own hands.
Enraptured, Diana stared as Rosetta moved. In the end, there was a helpless smile on her lips.
She couldn't believe that the opponents she had been struggling so hard against died just like that.
"The weakness of these monsters is the small core inside their hearts. They're also called 'beads'. If you break those beads, the monsters will never come back to life again."
"…Ha, I didn't know that… I think I've cut off their heads a hundred times already…"
By the time the regretful murmur was uttered, all the sprawling monsters had disappeared completely.
The only things left to indicate that they had once been here were shattered beads and blue puddles.
Rosetta looked around for the last time, then she went to Diana's side, examining her physical condition.
Rosetta's straight eyebrows furrowed deeply.
Injured shoulders and hands.
A scarred neck.
All of these injuries were evidence to just how fiercely Diana endured.
With a stiff expression, Rosetta stared at Diana for a moment, then she quietly raised one hand to pat Diana on the head.
"You did well, Diana. You must have had a difficult time enduring until now."
A gentle touch, worried eyes.
As she received Rosetta's warm solace, Diana gritted her molars together.
If she didn't do this, she thought that she just might burst into tears again.
So, holding back her tears, Diana smiled broadly instead.
"Right? I did my very best to hold on."
Hearing Diana's brave voice as it was blurred by her tears, Rosetta nodded.
"Yes, you did. You did such a good job."
* * *
After a moment.
Diana was now on Rosetta's back.
Diana tried to get to her feet so that she could guide Rosetta to where Alicia was, but she staggered not long after. So, Rosetta carried her.
She tried to dissuade Rosetta from doing this, but it didn't work.
"Milady, you really don't have to…"
While guiding Rosetta towards their destination, Diana kept fiddling with her fingers and muttering the same thing.
It's not that she didn't hate it.
It's just…
She felt awkward and uncomfortable to be on Rosetta's back. Rosetta was the person she respected the most.
Rosetta also knew how Diana felt, so she purposely said one thing in a calm voice.
"It's fine. I also carried Maxwell on my back earlier."
"…Pfft."
The reply was restrained laughter.
Considering how large Cassion's physique was, just picturing him on Rosetta's back made it so that she could barely hold back her laughter.
Giggling briefly at the mental image, Diana soon looked around to see where the man was.
She wanted to make fun of him as soon as she saw him.
He must have come here too, just like a thread would not be without a needle.
However, no matter how much she looked around, she couldn't see the face of the man she was looking for.
In the first place, it seemed like Rosetta was the only one who came here.
Diana tilted her head to the side.
Perhaps, did Maxwell stay behind at the barracks?
Was he dealing with the monsters over there?
Well, certainly, that was the original plan.
"…Is Maxwell staying near the barracks?"
As Diana came to this conclusion, she asked just to confirm.
It was just a casual question.
Quite literally, the kind of question that would be asked under the impression that the plan was going smoothly.
However, at that moment.
The air froze.
Rosetta's legs, as they were diligently moving down the path, stopped suddenly.
And her golden eyes lost focus as she stared into the air.
Diana's own eyes widened gradually at the unusual atmosphere. It's not the reaction that she was expecting.
No way.
As her eyes went wide, her brown pupils stared at Rosetta.
All she could see was Rosetta's silver hair, drooping in the rain.
Gulp.
A shallow gulp passed down her dry, aching throat.
She was at a loss for words, but eventually, she was able to speak only after stammering several times.
"…That… That's not the case… Right?"
It was an ominous way to broach the subject.
A question that she could not bear to complete.
An answer wasn't given right away.
Still silent, Rosetta started moving again.
The sound of her steps over the puddles on the ground continued.
The drenched silence stretched on as the sound of rain and the rumbling of thunder accompanied it.
However, just before Diana was about to burst into tears again.
Only belatedly did Rosetta's rain-soaked red lips slowly open.
"…Maxwell is…"
"..."
"Don't worry. He's not dead."
The tension in the air had been drawn out, but in the end, the answer was positive.
"Ha! Lady Rosetta!"
To the point that Diana reproached Rosetta in this way.
Rosetta stopped walking for a moment, and she looked back at Diana with a smile.
Her lips were smiling, however her gaze was still subdued.
Her pause came across as though she was teasing Diana, but as a matter of fact, it wasn't for that reason.
For a moment, as he was gasping for dear life, Cassion's face popped into her mind.
The flash of life as he was dying, the flash of life as he was revived.
Rosetta couldn't help but pause because the heart-shattering anxiety she experienced earlier came to mind so vividly.
—GRAAAH!
Then, she saw the lizard towering over the trees.
It was so huge that, even from a distance, its white eyeballs were clearly visible.
And, on that lizard's enormous head was one such man with dark eyes.
He was one of the two people who were moving quickly around the beast.
Cassion.
That foolish man who ran out to stop the lizard the very moment he barely escaped death.
And the other one.
'…Leo Carter.'
The man who could perhaps be Urien.
Soon enough, Rosetta raised her head once more and started moving forward yet again.
"So, where do we go, Diana?"
"Ah, just straight ahead from here, and then…"
As she busily ran down the path that Diana guided her on, other thoughts still continued to hover in her head.
From the moment he saved Cassion and the lizard appeared.
And.
Until the moment her eyes met with the red gaze that was looking straight at her.
* * *
About thirty minutes ago.
With his face still so deathly pale, Cassion was closing his eyes.
Rosetta began to unravel all of his blocked pathways, hoping for a second miracle.
And soon enough, Cassion's limp body began to move abruptly.
Cough—
Ugh—
Both the man and the woman coughed out blood at the same time.
Rosetta couldn't even wipe the blood around her mouth. She focused all her energy in concentrating on the task at hand.
To squeeze out every last drop of the mana in his heart, which until now had yet to flow properly.
Cassion coughed again several times, his body convulsing.
But unfortunately, his closed eyes did not open.
Every time he coughed as his eyes were closed, the amount of mana flowing through his body gradually increased.
Then, at long last.
When all of the mana in his heart had finally started to flow around his body.
"Huuuk…"
With a gasp, those closed eyes shot open.
At the same time, the mana that overflowed from its source began to flow back.
The unexpected result made Rosetta jump from her seat.
"CASSION!"
And Rosetta's cry then resounded inside the barracks.