EPILOGUE
“Roselia! No! Why…why are you…?!”
“Don’t cry, Leonis.”
She extended a hand. Even as it was being eaten away by nothingness, she gave him a kindly smile.
“A thousand years from now, I will be reborn.”
She pleaded for Leonis to find her, no matter the cost…
“…I promise! No matter what, I’ll find you, Roselia!”
Thus, the girl known as the Goddess of Rebellion offered him a final, fleeting smile.
With the Void Lord’s destruction, the Stampede came to an end. Having lost their commander, the Voids grew sluggish and were taken out one after another by the Holy Swordsmen of Excalibur Academy. The Voids’ carcasses were piled on top of one another and eventually dissolved into mist. They left no bodies behind, disappearing into the emptiness that was their namesake…
At Excalibur Academy’s Hræsvelgr dorm, Leonis spent half the day lying in bed in Riselia’s room.
…Blast it all… The feared and lauded Undead King…suffering from muscle pains…
This was the recoil from wielding the power he’d held as a swordsman that had been sealed within Dáinsleif. His untrained, ten-year-old body was stricken with crippling muscle pain. It felt as if his every tendon had been torn.
And it even took all my mana away… What an absurd Demon Sword.
With little else to do, Leonis staved off his boredom by watching movies. The entertainment of this era was far more interesting than the theater of a thousand years ago. At first, he took what movies he could find in the library, but finishing those, he decided to watch selections from Riselia’s collection. Most of them were love stories between a noble and a commoner, with a few rather passionate scenes.
…So she likes these sorts of stories. I’m a bit surprised.
Leonis rolled about on the bed as that thought circulated in his mind.
“Leo, I brought you lunch… Wait, wh-wh-wh-what are you doing…?!”
Riselia had returned to the room and, upon noticing what was playing on the screen, reacted in a flustered panic.
“Y-you can’t watch that! It’s too soon for you, Leo!”
She grabbed the screen’s control device and promptly turned off the film.
“…I was just getting to the best part…” Leonis frowned.
“No. If you want to watch a movie, you have the ones Sakuya lent you.”
“But they’re uninteresting…”
Those movies were of men with katanas in hand trying to cut each other. They were rather brutal and hardly suited Leonis’s taste. He’d seen enough violence a thousand years ago and preferred to watch something a bit more peaceful and healing for his amusement.
Riselia sat down on the bed.
“They started rebuilding the commercial district, but it looks like it’ll take some time to fix the broken power system. We’ll have to stay in this part of the ocean for a while.”
“I see…”
“Also, the news reported that the Void Lord died naturally after awakening in an incomplete state.”
Her expression seemed a bit discontent, as if to say, “even though you were the one who defeated it.”
“That’s fine. I’d prefer it if my identity wasn’t exposed anyway,” Leonis said.
But his words prompted intense scrutiny from Riselia.
“Just who are you, really?” she asked.
“I told you already. An ancient sorcerer who was sealed away and then reawakened.”
“But you used a sword.”
“………” Leonis averted his gaze.
“…Well, fine.” She shrugged. “Here. The orphanage’s owner, Phrenia, told me to give you this.”
“…Mmm?”
She took a small flower-shaped decoration out of her shawl.
“What’s this?”
“A medal. The kids at the orphanage made it for you.”
It was a clumsily shaped blue flower, constructed from paper.
“…A medal, eh?” Leonis found himself smirking bitterly.
He’d declared this place the Undead King’s kingdom, but that didn’t matter right now.
Anyone who pays respect to the Undead King is worthy of protection…
Just then…
“…B-by the way, Leo…” Riselia fidgeted, her face flaring pink.
“What is it?”
“Erm, actually, I, uhhh, when I use my Holy Sword, I deplete a lot of my blood…”
“Oh… Yes, I assume you would.”
Its power was to turn her blood into blades, after all.
“So I, um… I really want some…”
“Didn’t you say you’d be patient and endure it?”
“…You bully…”
At Leonis’s exasperated question, tears welled up in Riselia’s eyes.
Her face was flushed, and she eyed him with a pained, longing expression.
“…Fine. Just a little, though.” Leonis nodded.
Whispering an “I’m sorry,” Riselia brought her lips to Leonis’s neck, and…
“Lady Selia, how’s the kid doin—? Wait, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!”
Regina walked into the room without knocking and gaped at them with wide eyes.
“…Aaah, R-Regina?!”
“We came to visit the kid while he was feeling down, but…” Sakuya, who had also walked in, turned around while pretending not to have seen anything. “Sorry. Looks like you were in the middle of something.”
“L-Lady Selia, what are you doing to him?!”
“…This isn’t what you think! This is, erm… I’m nursing him back to health! Yes, I’m taking care of him, and…”
“Hmm, Selia? I’m pretty sure this is in violation of dorm regulations…,” Elfiné, having also made her entrance, said with a conflicted expression.
“Miss Elfiné, you’ve got this all wrong!”
Shrugging tiredly at the riot going on around him, Leonis turned his gaze out the window. Voids, Holy Swords, and the words left behind by the resurrected member of the Six Heroes.
“The world shall be reborn with the Star of Nothingness…” Hmm…
Was it just the Archsage’s nonsensical babble as he lost his mind to the Voids?
Regardless of whether it’s true or not, I must hurry and rebuild the Dark Lords’ Armies…
Looking out the window at the damage Excalibur Academy had suffered, he considered what was to come, not yet aware that this was but a prelude to the tumultuous days ahead…
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