The physician swallowed the words stuck in his throat and nodded.

Not because he agreed. Just because he understood. What else was he supposed to do? How could a nobody little physician like him dare argue with a Hero? His legs were already shaking this hard even now!

"My lady."

"Take this."

Even with fractures all over her body, Coco shot Hugh a look to stop him from helping her and pushed herself upright.

Then she unclasped the pendant from around her neck and held it out to Luman.

A small pendant dangling from a gold chain.

The lid of the pendant was set with the crest of Duke Gannion’s house and a vivid red ruby. On the back were Lady Coco’s initials.

"This will serve as proof."

"Will showing this alone be enough?"

"Hey. Do you have paper?"

When Coco called out after a moment’s thought, the physician hurriedly dug through his travel bag.

With trembling hands, he finally managed to pull out a sheet of cheap paper and an ink pen. Lady Coco snatched them from him like she was taking them by force, clearly displeased but holding herself back.

She braced the paper against her palm, scratched out a few hurried lines, then signed her name.

"This should be enough too."

She wasn’t really saying it to Luman.

Luman tucked both the paper and the pendant securely into an inner chest pocket.

"Hey."

"Y-yes! I-I’m sorry. For such worthless paper..."

"...It worked fine."

That was all Coco said before tossing back the remaining paper and ink pen.

The pen rolled across the hollow with a clatter.

The physician picked up the paper with reverence.

I thought she was going to throw it in my face!

Guess her temper isn’t quite as rotten as it looks!

Luman combined his own torn cloak with Temar’s and wrapped Ren’s body up tightly.

Ren was burning hot, like a lump of fire.

As if he were dreaming something, his small mouth moved faintly, mumbling something, but it couldn’t be made out.

Luman couldn’t understand it.

Couldn’t understand the heart of someone who had shoved a sword into his own chest in another person’s place.

He wanted to call him a fucking idiot, but that too would only be possible once Ren opened his eyes.

Hiding the pain tearing through his body, Luman rose and lifted Ren into his arms.

Normally he was light as a feather, so light it felt like holding nothing, and strength would flood through Luman’s whole body, enough to make standing still difficult...

But now, with a body that had been torn apart by an anti-Hero weapon and stitched back together again...

the truth was, it wouldn’t have been strange if he collapsed at any moment.

No.

It wouldn’t have been strange if he died like this either.

Heroes never lived long to begin with.

Things used too often broke and shattered.

A Hero’s life force and energy weren’t all that different.

Still, even dying was something that had to wait until after the mission was done.

Luman hadn’t yet realized that his mission had already become, first and foremost, keep Ren alive.

"Ah, you need to be careful when you go somewhere you’ve never been before."

Coco, somehow having understood, stepped closer and slipped a hand into the inside of Luman’s coat where he held Ren.

"What are you—"

Luman flinched, but Coco didn’t so much as twitch a brow.

She opened the pendant she had given him and showed it to him.

Instead of a portrait inside, there was an image of a beautiful, imposing estate. The dark green figures worked into the image were almost certainly the direct bloodline of the ducal house. In the moonlight, the image even seemed to shift for a second.

"You must’ve caught a glimpse of it on the way to the capital. Don’t tell me you’re going to say you don’t know the capital."

"That’s enough."

Coco, glaring at Luman with purple eyes, closed the pendant again and tucked it precisely back into his inner pocket.

This princess’s hands are no joke.

And she’s hiding that face like she’s about to cry surprisingly well...

"Temar!"

Luman’s voice rang through the hollow.

Rather than hurting the ears, it felt like a hammer striking the skull.

"Temar!"

"..."

Temar was still on the ground exactly as he had collapsed while Ren was being treated. One hand was still clutching his chest. Even the physician, who had at least checked on everyone else once, hadn’t dared say a word to him.

"Take care of the corpse and the sword. Contact the king through the crystal orb—"

Luman stopped.

Because he remembered that Dell Belkerman had destroyed the communication orb first thing.

"A Hero without his divine power is like a frail little beast. So it’s true after all. Heh heh heh..."

Luman let out a short laugh as Dell Belkerman’s mockery came back to him.

Had anti-Hero combat weapons really become common enough for an assassin like that to wield one? Was this the reason behind the Hero Summons Order? Was this the thing surrounding nations had been stirring over and searching for?

Anti-Hero combat weapons.

He’d dismissed them as something that wouldn’t be developed in this century.

And yet the thing that had only ever existed as rumor had appeared right in front of him.

This might not end as a simple investigation after all.

The situation might be worse than he’d thought.

They should have captured Dell Belkerman alive and tortured him, but what was the point regretting a man whose head was already off? Luman looked toward Dell Belkerman’s head, which had rolled all the way into the corner of the stone wall. The physician’s gaze followed his...

and °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° the instant he saw the neatly severed neck, he recoiled so hard he dropped to the ground.

Ohhh, fuck!

He barely managed to clamp his own mouth shut and keep from screaming, but still.

"Temar. Collect Dell Belkerman’s head and sword, and make sure Lady Coco’s party stays safe."

With Temar’s ability, he couldn’t take Ren all the way to the capital.

And in Luman’s current condition, bringing Temar with him to the capital too was impossible.

The arm holding Ren already felt like it was about to tear off, and once he exhausted his ability, there was no telling what would happen.

I just have to arrive. If I collapse or die, they’ll search the body.

Then they’ll find the pendant and the paper, so there won’t be a problem.

All I need is to make it inside Duke Gannion’s estate.

Having finished the calculation, Luman drew in a breath.

"Temar."

The hollow hummed.

He didn’t have the energy to waste it like this, but he had to knock some sense back into Temar before leaving.

"Temar."

Luman’s voice, grabbing him by the hair and dragging him back to himself, finally snapped Temar out of his thoughts.

When he blinked, the floor beneath him was wet.

The moment Temar realized Ren was no longer where he had left his gaze, he lurched to his feet. He missed his footing and slammed a hand down to catch himself—

Boom!

With the heavy crash, the floor split open.

For a moment the whole hollow shook like it was about to collapse, and dust and pebbles rained down wildly from the ceiling.

Temar, who had punched a deep hole into the floor, only stilled once he found Ren in Luman’s arms.

"..."

A crushed breath left Temar’s mouth.

"I told you. Pick up Dell Belkerman’s head and sword. Protect Lady Coco’s group."

"No. I’m going."

"What the hell are you doing."

Luman growled.

Temar strode over and reached for Ren.

The hand that seized his wrist was Hugh’s.

Standing only by forcing himself upright, biting his lip hard enough to swallow the groan, Hugh blocked the Hero.

"Do you want to die."

Temar’s voice was flat.

It wasn’t openly threatening. It wasn’t even shaped like a threat.

But his vacant dark brown eyes were so horrifyingly still that it was obvious he considered the lives of one or two humans beneath notice.

The eyes of a killer.

"Let go, Temar. We don’t have time for this."

"The one who can move him is Lord Luman... isn’t he."

Blood spilled from Hugh’s mouth as he spoke. As if he’d bitten through his tongue, it kept running. The grotesque sight drained the color from Coco’s face.

She wanted to tell him to stop talking, but she couldn’t. If that idiot Hero Temar refused to back down, Ren would die right here.

Coco clenched both fists hard.

If she had to, she would throw herself in again like before.

Because she was a duke’s daughter, did that mean she had nothing to fear?

No.

Just as Ren had fed his heart to a sword for her, Coco too could lend up her life for Ren.

Because she couldn’t live with a debt like that, not even if she died.

"Temar. Don’t be stubborn for no reason—"

"No. I—"

"...Ugh..."

Temar paid no attention at all to the hand gripping him.

He only kept drawing up what little strength he had left, quietly, like a warning to Luman for refusing to hand Ren over. Like he was prepared to fight if he had to.

One spark away from disaster.

Everyone in this hollow might die.

If Coco threw herself in again, this time she wouldn’t be lucky enough to stop it like before.

Her head would come off.

Temar had forgotten that he was a Hero.

The only thing he remembered now was Ren.

The only thing lodged inside him was Ren.

Ren, who had always been by his side.

Nothing but Ren.

Every thought inside Temar had stopped.

"...Uh..."

The two men, who had faltered as if they’d heard a hallucination, stopped and listened again.

Then they realized the weak sound had come from Ren.

Ren’s lips were still moving.

The only difference now was that, unlike before, they could hear his voice faintly.

As if there were something he desperately needed to say, Ren kept twitching his lips.

With that little sick sound, those shallow breaths, that face trying so hard to swallow the pain of burning alive—

what the hell was a boy who could barely even breathe trying so hard to say?

The words he couldn’t let go of, not even in sleep...

"Hh... br... oth..."

The words he was saying at death’s door, unable even to rest...

"...er. I... I’m... oka..."

Brother.

I’m okay.

The boy who couldn’t even open his eyes properly, through the thin tears spilling down, forced out those words in a whisper anyway:

"Brother. I’m okay."

The faint upward curve at the corner of his mouth felt like something driving deep into the chest.

Temar broke.

"Luvien!"

Luman shouted sharply, and a fierce light wrapped around his whole body like it was burning up his life. In the next instant, he vanished together with Ren. For a moment, a fox-shaped afterimage lingered where he had stood.

"Ren."

"Ren..."

"Ren—!"

The one screaming at the empty place was not Ren.

It was Temar.