Past.
─It’s the final mission. Get everything sorted out and be prepared.
I thought I’d be all happy when the final mission arrived.
But I’m just blank.
Will I really be free after finishing this?
What will I do after gaining freedom?
After all, it’s just a terminal illness.
“Teacher!”
With great momentum, a wooden stick flew in and landed squarely on Ezekiel’s right shoulder.
Thwack!
A dull sound.
But Ezekiel didn’t seem affected at all. Instead, it was the 1st Princess who was surprised.
“What’s wrong? You weren’t focused just now, were you? You were thinking about something else!”
Ezekiel slowly blinked, breaking free from his contemplation.
Ether, a girl not even as tall as his waist.
The 1st Princess of the Empire was puffing up her cheeks.
“…No, I wasn’t.”
Ezekiel shook his head and pressed his fingers against his brows.
Was it because of the upcoming final mission? Or was it because this was the last lesson? He kept losing himself in thought.
“It’s because Your Highness has grown tremendously.”
Ezekiel spat out a polite lie. Ether looked at him suspiciously, holding the wooden stick across her shoulder.
“…Is that really the reason? Were you being lenient?”
“I can’t afford to be lenient. If I don’t give my all when facing Your Highness, I might get seriously injured.”
“Hmm.”
“I’m quite surprised. You keep growing so much every time.”
“Hmm! Ahem!”
Ether blushed and cleared her throat a couple of times. Her shoulders were rising as if to touch the sky.
“…I must’ve genuinely won purely on skill. Maybe I should’ve been lenient? That would have been harsh, huh?”
“….”
“It was a secret technique of mine, so the injury must be tremendous. I could offer you an elixir, how about it?”
“I’m fine.”
“Teacher, your reaction is really unique. Most people would be dying to lick my feet if I offered them an elixir. Do you perhaps not know what an elixir is? E-li-xir.”
“I fully understand.”
“And?”
“It’s something I could never dare to covet.”
“Shall I inform His Majesty the Emperor? There’s nothing I can’t do. Maybe I should just bring out the Sun Elixir. It’s flowing like a river, even filling the bathtub.”
Ezekiel could only smile bitterly.
“…Just the words are enough for me.”
Ether still didn’t know.
That for her, elixirs were easily within reach, and the Sun Elixir wasn’t that precious, so she thought it should be the same for others.
Some had applied countless times but were all denied, never receiving it, and despite wishing for it their entire lives, they didn’t know it was an elixir they’d never even gotten a drop of.
The Emperor hadn’t allowed Ezekiel to have the Sun Elixir.
Just one word offered about giving an elixir.
Just by saying that, even the question of whether he wanted an elixir… Ether didn’t realize the fact that it could shred Ezekiel’s heart apart.
The girl plopped down next to Ezekiel.
“Teacher, I’m going to get much, much stronger in the future, right?”
“Of course.”
As she sat there stretching her legs out, looking up at the sky, Ether suddenly felt a cold sensation near her calves. Ezekiel was applying an elixir to her.
Soon, the residual wounds on her calves were covered in the elixir.
“First aid should be done immediately.”
Ether narrowed her eyes.
“Do you really have to treat everything one by one?”
“If even small things pile up, they become big. So, it’s better to treat even one more injury when you can.”
Ezekiel’s large hands, unexpectedly gentle.
“The injuries aren’t shallow, but how fortunate it is that there are such precious elixirs in the Imperial Family. It’s truly heavenly.”
“You don’t even take what I give you, but you spend it so freely on yourself. Teacher, you’re really strange. Why don’t you take one yourself?”
“How could I be the same as Your Highness?”
Ezekiel continued speaking slowly.
“You will become the pillar of the Empire in the future. You need to consider your health as the Empire’s power and take care of it carefully.”
“I don’t care. That’s annoying.”
Ether stuck out her tongue.
“So, can I play together today?”
She pointed her gaze over to the pile of weapons on the other side: spears, one-handed swords, two-handed swords, daggers, bows… all kinds of things were piled up.
“I want to try all of those with you.”
“Today, it seems we won’t be able to have fun.”
“Oh, so you’re busy after all.”
The girl nodded casually, but couldn’t hide the slight disappointment flickering across her face.
After a moment, the 1st Princess Ether finally broke the silence.
“Teacher, I’ve been having thoughts like this lately.”
“What thoughts?”
“If I get stronger, endlessly stronger, I can take on the tasks you handle. Then there would be free time, and we can play together, right?”
“You shouldn’t think that way. My duties and what Your Highness should do are clearly different.”
“Hmm.”
Ether looked at Ezekiel for a moment with an awkward expression.
The teacher was acting strangely today. He seemed particularly lost in thought, and unlike usual, he wasn’t joking around and was just incredibly serious.
“The weather is particularly nice today.”
The 1st Princess scratched her cheek awkwardly.
“Anyway, I’ll continue to get stronger. I’ll grow up and become your spear and shield.”
“The shield is my job. How could it be Yours?”
“Don’t retort; you must also keep getting stronger. No matter how weak I am, I want you to be my rival, so we can spend time together and grow stronger.”
Ezekiel slowly nodded.
Looking back on his life, he hadn’t received proper rewards for much, but the favor the Princess occasionally showed was indeed a valuable reward.
‘If I safely finish the final mission….’
And if I’m unharmed,
Maybe we can spend time together again.
“1st Princess.”
“Hmm?”
There’s something called intuition in this world.
Just by calling her name, he felt as if he already knew what she would say next. The 1st Princess Ether’s intuition activated immediately.
It felt very ominous.
“Will you make me one promise?”
“What promise?”
“Training, please keep doing it diligently even if I’m not around.”
“…Why such nonsense all of a sudden?”
Ether instinctively bristled at his voice.
It was the uneasiness that was the cause.
“Isn’t it true that I’m not always by your side? I just mean to continue as you have so far.”
“Why make a promise about something you’ve already been doing?”
“It isn’t a hard promise to keep.”
“I don’t want to. I won’t. Something feels off.”
Ether instinctively rejected the proposal.
“Teacher, you’re acting strange today. Really strange.”
The Princess intentionally jumped up from her seat. To shake off her unease, she started swinging the wooden stick.
Of course, Ezekiel still wore a smile.
“Have you made a promise?”
“I haven’t.”
“Even the 1st Princess can’t say no to a simple promise?”
“Shut up!”
Ether pointed her wooden stick at Ezekiel nervously.
Their eyes met, and after a moment of catching their breaths…
“….”
She then lowered the stick weakly, very weakly.
“…Teacher, you’re going somewhere, aren’t you?”
“Indeed.”
“What’s the reason? Is it because your health isn’t good?”
Ether’s sensitivity to energy was second to none.
Drawing out power from absorbed energy, reading others’ energies was incredibly easy. She had known about Ezekiel’s health issues for a while now.
“It’s just a mission.”
“Don’t go.”
“I must go. But I will return after completing it.”
The 1st Princess instinctively understood she couldn’t stop him.
“…I will get stronger. I’ll break everything, so you can no longer have missions to attend to.”
“Haha, if you break everything, wouldn’t that create even more work for me? Go train.”
“Shh.”
Ether interrupted Ezekiel’s words.
“I will work hard, so you….”
The 1st Princess hesitated to finish her sentence.
“Take a good rest and come back. You must take care of your health.”
There was no answer.
“Wasn’t it a promise? Right?”
Ether asked again.
But Ezekiel could only smile an un-hateful smile.
“Well…”
“My words are the Imperial Decree.”
“You also rejected my promise.”
Ezekiel extended his pinky again.
“Then shall we each make one promise?”
“…Fine. You’re an idiot.”
Was it pride? Ether turned her back in a huff.
“If you don’t like it, then don’t. Do as you wish.”
The promise that ultimately couldn’t be made.
And…
After that, Ether could not even hear news of her teacher.
Bang—!
Ether’s foot landed on the ground with a terrifying force.
She was carrying Ezekiel’s body. Despite the considerable distance to the Imperial Palace, the space compressed in an instant.
While running, she glanced at Ezekiel’s figure.
“….”
It was a disaster.
He had been shot by an arrow in a defenseless state after exhausting all his mana. Of course, he hadn’t been okay at all.
However, what concerned her more than the wounds was—
‘Why is his aura so chaotic?’
She had no idea what Ezekiel had been through.
But she could tell just from holding him that his condition was quite poor. His aura was unstable like a candle about to extinguish.
‘Didn’t I clearly tell him to take care of himself….’
How did it get this bad?
At that moment, if she had confirmed the promise, maybe things would have been different.
When she received the letter, Ether was incredibly happy. She thought he had just been doing well after the struggles he had gone through.
But the reality was this awful.
Whoosh—!
Ether leapt over the walls of the Imperial Palace and dashed across rooftops. Like a light arrow, she surged towards the final destination: the Holy Temple.
Despite the raucous entrance of the 1st Princess, there was a woman with her back turned, praying.
“First, I have lost.”
“I expected that. Your opponent is someone very special.”
Ether hugged Ezekiel a little tighter.
“I lost most terribly. The problem is, Teacher got seriously injured. This is undoubtedly my fault. I should’ve seen that the scouts would be shaken.”
“…?”
Only then did the 3rd Princess, Solana, turn around.
“Save him. Please, I beg you.”
Her face, like a sunflower, blinked a few times in disbelief.
“W-What…?!”
Soon enough, Solana was taken aback.
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