"MILORD!"
The sonorous voice of Reinhardt has covered the area. Instead of a freezing breath of air that welcomed the morning, the whole inn was being eaten by a blistering fire. It's so hot and fierce that it could melt your flesh in just a second that even Reinhardt, who has a body as thick as armor, could feel the prickly pain like needles piercing his flesh.
It hurts him, but what's important to him the most is to save the little kid, Khalid, who was left inside the burning inn with countless corpses that were being cremate inside.
'Urgh!!'
He groan.
'Milord, please be safe! '
Reinhardt moans in pain while looking for Khalid inside the inn, where the fire had already devoured it and turned half of it into ashes.
Whenever he touches the flaming woods that are blocking his way, he can't feel anything but a desire to save his master. Even though his body was covered in wounds and cuts that bled ceaselessly from his flesh, he couldn't care less; instead, he embraced the pain all over his body so much that he even felt relieved to see a little kid standing in the distance in front of him.
By just looking at his emotionless expression, it is, in fact, his master.
"M-mi…MILORD!"
He screamed in joy, and Reinhardt was assured that it was him.
His face lit up when he saw Khalid near him surrounded by the flame, but the smile carved on his lips vanished from the sight. Before he could even run in his direction, the pile of crackling planks of wood from the ceiling had fallen towards him.
[A moment ago.]
As he scanned his body, he was assured that he had come back to life, yet Lee Hyun was stuck on Khalid's body, which was like a twig, making him feel disappointed.
He hated being small and weak, and Khalid's body was too small to be called a child; it was too small to also be recognized as a kid when it looked like the body of a baby. Pale, fragile, small, and thin.
"Ah, looking at this body makes me feel anxious."
He stated this as he got up on the bed before a piece of fiery wood almost fell onto his head. Khalid then came back to his senses and realized that he was inside the burning inn.
'Ha, this feels like Deja Vu.'
He stood up, spinning his sight in the room, looking around as the roaring fire got unstoppable and wild.
Right now, Khalid was hoping that he had vodka by his side to watch and wait until the fire devoured him.
As he decided to get out of the room, he was almost blinded by the incandescence that was created by the fiery inferno surrounding the place. Whenever he walks further and further into the fire, it melts his body like ice cream under the heat of the sun, but instead of crying in pain like a baby, he rather feels envious of the countless corpses that are being cremated inside the building; their blood and ashes have already mixed up so much that no one knows who's the owner of each bone that was left untouched by the fire.
It's as if Khalid was taking a stroll around hell while enjoying the peiskos of the blazing fire that gives him such an ardor feeling while staring at the pieces of bones on the ground with a bleak expression on his face.
Just then Khalid suddenly heard a clamorous yell from a man at a distance that caught his attention.
"MILORD!"
His voice gave him warmth, but it wasn't coming from the heat of the fire; rather, he was feeling something warm inside of his chest while looking at the big, built man near him. It's no wonder.
Khalid was staring at Reinhardt from a distance, but as soon as he could even take a step towards him, a piece of blazing plank from the ceiling was about to fall on Khalid.
'It's time to die again.'
He was so sure that the piece of plank was about to land in his direction, so he just stared at it.
After experiencing death lots of times, the feeling of burning alive was normal to him now, so when he felt that the plank didn't fall onto him, his eyes widened while staring at Reinhardt, who was tightly shielding him using his body just to prevent Khalid from being burned by the fire.
"M-milord, are you alright?"
He had asked in an earnest tone of voice. Reinhardt was too close for him; that was enough for Khalid to smell his burning flesh and his visible wounds that were cut wide open. Just by looking at them, he knows how much it hurts, but he never said a thing. When he touches Reinhardt's back, he can tell how swollen and wet it is.
'I can't die anyway, so what's the point of saving someone like me?'
Khalid had thought, but instead of being stubborn, he held Reinhardt as tight as his body could.
The two of them leave the inn while Khalid is being carried like a child in Reinhardt's arms.
He even noticed how Reinhardt's grip tightened whenever his sweat walked through his wounds, giving him the painful sting of an ant bite on his skin, but he never said a thing, he even prevented a single groan from coming out of his mouth since he didn't want Khalid to worry about someone like him.
His action was so readable that Khalid decided to let go of Reinhardt as soon as they escaped safely inside the inn before it was swiftly eaten and destroyed by the fire.
"You should get yourself treated."
Khalid suggested, but Reinhardt just wouldn't leave his side. He became more persistent than before, which left him no choice but to tag along where Dal could be seen treating people in the tent, with Erwin sitting on the bed while a kid was peacefully sleeping on his lap.
"Milord, you're alive!"
Dal whined and hugged Khalid tightly, and once again, the weird feeling of warmth that was burning inside his heart that he had felt earlier hunted him again, and seeing how the other smiled at him gladly made the feeling inside his chest worse.
"We're glad that you're okay."
Erwin added, but his smile could be seen as fake.
"What happened to the child?"
Khalid had asked, but before Erwin answered, he gave a deep sigh.
"I use my somniate incantation to make her fall into a deep sleep."
His voice is calm while looking at the child, but there is a hint of worry in his gaze.
"The scene was too much for a kid to handle; she should forget everything."
"No, she'll be fine."
Khalid spoke as if he already knew who had caused this madness.
"Dal, let Reinhardt be treated; I'll go find Garion."
He insisted as he left the scene, leaving the three with a woeful expression on their faces.
"Milord! Please go easy on him!"
Erwin shouted as they watched him leave.
While Khalid walked deep down the forest, he could hear the crow's caws at dawn. The more he got deeper into the forest, the smell of blood got stronger. Khalid never thought that the verendus would work against the clock before he could take action.
"Damn it! If I just woke up a bit earlier, then none of this happened!"
He grumbled before he could notice the person he was looking at.
Garion was kneeling on the ground, muttering to himself like a sane man, but as soon as he felt Khalid's aura, he stopped and lifted his head, which made Khalid frown while looking at him.
His head was continuously bleeding, and the hole in his left eye was too visible for him not to notice that he had lost his eyeball from a squabble quarrel.
Garion would not have time to mourn as soon as he saw Khalid standing in front of him because he already knew who was at fault for his reckless action, and if there was one blame, then it was Garion.
"I'm sorry, it's my fault; I let her kill everyone."
He apologetically affirmed as he punched the ground, which caused his hand to bleed.
Just by looking at his messy appearance and distraught expression, Khalid was aware of how big the fract she had left on him and that even a bandage was not enough to cover the hole in his heart.
"Don't tell me you're planning an anteric way to get revenge."
Khalid stated leaving Garion froze on the spot.
Instead of feeling shocked, Garion was rather confused by Khalid's words. He can't know the culprit after waking up in the chaos, so he wonders if the secret he had whelved deep down to Khalid was already caught by the net.
"You're bleeding a lot, Garion; you should have treated yourself first."
He insisted, but Garion kept apologizing to him while kneeling on the ground, which made him sigh for a second time.
"Save your sorry; you could never change the thing that already happened."
He gives him a warm embrace, like Reinhardt did, which makes Garion lose his words.
"The best thing we can do right now is to fix our mistake."
His warm touch and voice made Garion feel like he wasn't at fault in the situation.
"Everything would be fine."
Khalid added as he lifted Garion's face, and then a sudden thought visited his head.
'AH, I wish I could say that to myself.'
Just then Khalid let go of his embrace as he helped Garion stand from the ground.
Looking at him, who was badly injured, made him think that the thing that caused an amok was sure to be more heartless than Khalid himself.
'Haist, let's just stop. If someone sees us, they think that I'm comforting my father.'
Khalid rubbed his hair as they proceeded to walk towards the tent, where the others could be seen wearing distressed expressions on their faces.
Inside the white room, a man with a nice figure was standing there with two phantoms beside him, floating behind his back as they watched him giggle. His face was unable to be seen because of the luminous light that was covering his face, but his voice was like a sweet lollipop that could capture everyone's heart.
"Did you see it?"
He asked the phantom, but they just made a question mark on their faces and seemed to be left out of his thoughts.
"See what?!"
"I would never understand you. Is it about Hyun? That rude guy?"
They stated it confusedly.
"Rude? You will change your mind once you find out."
He even smiles as if he were pleased to meet someone who was completely stuck in his body.
The two phantoms looked at each other as they both sighed in confusion.
"Urgh, you're killing us!"
Their action made Khalid laugh before he said some words, making it look like he had known Lee Hyun for a long time more than anyone.
"Pfft- that- *Sighed*"
He chuckled before he continued.
"That man had lived in darkness for such a long time that his eyes hurt from glancing at the light."
His words made the phantom almost faint on the ground. Even though they wanted to read what was on his mind, it was so unpredictable for them to know what he was thinking, so they just looked at him as he formed a most sincere smile that they had never seen before while looking from afar.
'The calamity will soon start; not everyone will stay for a long time.'
He then thought as he started to take steps on the stairs that were heading towards the door covered in a blinding light, and before it ate him whole, he muttered a word in the air.
"It's almost time for him to accept his faith."
That was the last word he murmured while his body was being illuminated by the light.