Swords and Magic, and the Flame Burning in the Heart ~The Fateful Path of the Hero and the Mage~ - The Blood of the Demon King, the Brand of Betrayal

Last night, Rushian's cold fingertips touched Aruto's cheek. That sensation still lingered somewhere. While bringing a spoonful of soup to his lips, Aruto found himself recalling that touch over and over. The pale complexion. The trembling hand. That mage who spoke of sacrificing nothing while sacrificing everything. ——It all crumbled this morning. A deafening roar shook the outer walls of the royal capital, Luminalis. "Monsters!! A massive swarm is coming!!" Screams cascaded through the air. The sight from atop the ramparts was unlike any battlefield Aruto had ever witnessed. A sea of black shadows surged across the Luminous Plains, swallowing the grassland whole. Goblins, wulfwargs—and more. Creatures of unfamiliar shapes, wreathed in dark miasma, stretched endlessly into the distance. "Arcana's Shield, link up with the defense squad. Move." His voice was flat. As always, stripped of emotion. But today, for the first time, Aruto found comfort in that tone. He nodded and broke into a run. Combat had already begun near the south gate of the outer wall. Defense squad soldiers swung their blades while mages unleashed flames. But there were too many. For every one they felled, two more came. The cycle repeated endlessly. Then a voice cut through—jarringly bright for a battlefield. "Oh! Are you maybe the Arcana's Shield people? I saw your photos on the guild bulletin board!" Aruto turned. Water-colored long hair fluttered in the wind. Three soldiers lay on the ground. Light seeped from their wounds and sealed them shut before his eyes. Healing magic—and while casting it, the girl waved at them with an easy smile. In one corner of the blood-soaked battlefield, golden eyes gleamed with joy. Her white vestments from the Holy Light Church were stained with battlefield mud, yet her smile remained untarnished. "A priestess from the Holy Light Church—a healing magic specialist—on the battlefield!?" "I'm Serena! Nice to meet you!" No hesitation. Her self-introduction was so carefree it seemed she'd completely forgotten they were in combat. Then Serena's gaze settled on Rushian. Her golden eyes examined him slowly, from top to bottom. Jet-black hair, silver eyes, 182 centimeters tall. She began observing him intently as he drove spears of ice into monsters without expression, completely ignoring the battle. "...A cold-looking pretty boy is the mage Rushian? Just like the rumors say." "Be quiet." One word. He didn't even turn around. But Serena wasn't fazed at all. If anything, her eyes brightened. "Wow, you really are cold. But more importantly—" Serena looked between Aruto and Rushian alternately. She carefully noted the distance between them—how they naturally moved in sync, separated by barely half a step—and smiled sweetly. "You two are pretty close, aren't you? Are you maybe dating?" Heat rushed to Aruto's face instantly. "N-No!! That's not it at all! We're just comrades, and, um...!" Rushian turned away silently. But Aruto didn't miss how the tips of his ears flushed slightly red. Actually, he shouldn't have missed it. And besides—they were in combat. Monsters were coming. Yet his mind was spinning. Serena giggled and dashed toward a newly fallen soldier. "Just kidding. But I'm glad you two get along." Aruto wanted to ask what that meant, but a large goblin lunged at him, leaving no room for further thought. ——The battle dragged on. They maintained their defensive line using the outer wall as a shield, but the swarm of monsters showed no sign of retreating. Waves came and came. Aruto could see the defense squad soldiers growing exhausted. At the south end of the outer wall, a massive shadow appeared. A Shadow Stalker—a shadow-like creature that emerged in places thick with dark miasma—and a large one at that. Its form was unstable, it hated light, and it was highly dangerous. This specimen was particularly enormous, deflecting all ordinary attacks. Aruto began gathering light magic in both hands. A powerful light slash that required incantation. It would take several seconds. He couldn't move during that time. (Please hold on—) He sensed movement behind him. A monster. A smaller creature lunged at Aruto from behind, targeting him mid-incantation. He couldn't dodge. He'd have to break the incantation—or so he thought. An ice wall materialized. Silently, behind Aruto. The lunging creature crashed into the ice and shattered. "Focus." A low voice fell from behind him. Aruto glanced back to see Rushian staring at the next target, expressionless. He'd understood the timing of the incantation. That's why he moved. Nothing more, his face seemed to say. Aruto's incantation completed. The light slash pierced through the Shadow Stalker. Without even a death cry, the shadow dissipated. Aruto looked at Rushian. Rushian had already turned to face the next monster. Their eyes met for an instant, then parted. (Saved again.) It was the opposite of when Aruto had shielded Rushian from Zerg's greatsword in the Miasma Valley. Back then, Aruto had thrown himself in front. Now it was reversed. But——it felt natural. It wasn't about who protected whom, or who was stronger. They were simply there, moving together. The center of his chest grew warm. (Maybe I... like this guy.) The moment that thought surfaced, Aruto forcefully drove it from his mind. This was a battlefield. Monsters were coming. This wasn't the time for such thoughts. Nearby, Serena cast healing magic on wounded soldiers while watching the two's coordination from the corner of her eye. "(A wordless duo... they really aren't normal.)" Serena sighed softly to herself, satisfied. "Second wave incoming!! Numbers are increasing!!" The defense squad's shout tore through the quiet. Combat resumed. Aruto readied his sword. ——Then. A roar came from the center of the royal capital. The ground trembled. In the distance, something collapsed. Aruto reflexively looked toward the sound. The Holy Luminalis Grand Cathedral—that 80-meter spire visible from anywhere in the capital—was beginning to crumble from its upper section. And a thick, dark miasma rose like a pillar. "A diversion." His voice had dropped. He spoke it as calculation, not emotion. "We're heading to the cathedral!" He ran. Rushian, Serena, and several defense squad members followed. They left the outer wall battle to the remaining soldiers and sprinted toward the capital's center. The sound of footsteps on stone. The sound of distant collapse. The stench of miasma drawing closer. When they reached the cathedral's front plaza, part of the building had already crumbled. White stone shattered into a mountain of rubble. Dark miasma leaking from below tinted the entire plaza in shadow. Standing atop the rubble was a figure clad in black iron armor. It was Zerg. A general of the Demon King's army—his muscular frame wreathed in dark magic, the greatsword "Grand Crack" slung across his back—stood with arms crossed, looking down at them with the air of one for whom victory was already assured. "Zerg!!" "You're late, hero." At the foot of the rubble lay an elderly man in white vestments. The High Priest who oversaw the Grand Cathedral—bleeding from his head, unconscious. Serena cried out "Your Eminence!" and rushed toward him. From below, even thicker miasma seeped out. One of the sealing keystones in the cathedral's depths—the foundation supporting the seal of the Great Archmage—had already been shattered. Its aftermath reached the surface. "You destroyed a sealing keystone!!" "Just one. But I have an interesting story for you, hero." Zerg sneered. The scar on his face twisted. "Why do you think I knew where the seals were?" No one answered. "Because your party contains the bloodline of the Great Archmage." Silence. Zerg's gaze slowly turned toward Rushian. "That one's blood resonates with the Great Archmage's seal. Without even knowing it—they've been continuously transmitting the seal's location to us all along." Everyone turned to look at Rushian. Rushian didn't move. His expression didn't change. But——color drained from his face. Slowly, quietly, the blood drained away. His silver eyes stared at a single point in the void. A faint purple pattern on his arm glowed softly in the miasma. "So all the times we got beaten... was because of—" A voice emerged. One member started to speak, then stopped. But their gaze remained fixed on Rushian. "You, from the beginning—" "Wait." Serena stood up. She rose from beside the High Priest, stepping forward. "Rushian didn't know anything. Zerg himself said he was unconscious about it." "Knowing or not, the results don't change." "That's a lie!" Aruto shouted at Zerg. But the words wouldn't come. He looked at Rushian's face. It had grown even paler. Until moments ago, he'd maintained an emotionless expression, stripped of all feeling. Now——something was peeling away. What lay beneath was beginning to seep through. There must have been words hurled at him since childhood. Tainted blood. A cursed birth. A person who'd endured such words was now receiving the stares of his comrades. Aruto felt he had to say something. He searched for words he could speak. (Rushian isn't at fault. I know that. But——) For just an instant——the briefest moment, a shadow crossed his chest. All the damage they'd suffered. The battle in the Miasma Valley. The night Zerg had sent him flying. All of it connected to this party having Rushian in it, and that thought cut across his mind. Just an instant. But that instant existed. "......" He couldn't say anything. Rushian's eyes were looking at Aruto. Directly. As if trying to confirm something with that gaze alone. Aruto tried to open his mouth. No sound came. That single moment of silence——Rushian saw it all. Something broke. Not a sound. But that's what it sounded like to Aruto. Something inside Rushian broke quietly. Rushian turned on his heel. "Rushian——" He didn't turn back. Into the gaps in the rubble, into the darkness of the cathedral's collapsed side, Rushian walked. "Wait, Rushian!!" The moment he ran forward, a roar came. An ice wall. A massive, translucent white ice wall appeared between them. From ground to ceiling. Not to block an escape route——but to prevent approach. Aruto's body slammed into it with momentum and was sent flying. His back struck the stone pavement. It hurt. But that didn't matter. It was the same magic Rushian had used to protect Aruto from enemies outside on the night in the forbidden library. But that wall had been meant to shield from external threats. This wall——held an entirely different meaning. A wall of rejection. Rushian's presence vanished into the darkness. ——For a while, no one moved. The ice wall remained. Miasma continued leaking from below. One corner of the royal capital began to slowly darken and discolor. The stench of miasma filled the cathedral plaza. Serena knelt, continuing to cast healing magic on the High Priest. Her lips were pressed firmly together. The usual smile was gone. Party members stood in a daze. Aruto remained with his fist pressed against the ice wall, unable to move. He tried to shout but no voice came. He tried to chase but his legs wouldn't move. The cold sensation of ice transmitted to his fist. He remembered Rushian the morning after the forbidden library, pale-faced, saying "I haven't done anything significant." He remembered cold fingertips quietly wiping away tears. That coldness then and the coldness of this ice wall now——felt completely different. That coldness then had been warm. The coldness of this wall now was coldness Aruto had created. (I should have said something. Just one word. "I believe in you" would've been enough. But——) Aruto's knees buckled. He collapsed onto the rubble. With his forehead pressed against the ice wall, he forced out his voice. "Rushian......" No one heard. His voice wa

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Episode 4

Name: Swords and Magic, and the Flame Burning in the Heart ~The Fateful Path of the Hero and the Mage~
Author: Novelia

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