*He wanted a quiet life. He got a war hero's title, a mountain of paperwork, and two beautiful women he's too scared to answer.*
Lion Fou Bartfort—reincarnated mob character, reluctant marquis, and self-proclaimed future background extra—just wants to live unnoticed. But three days after the great war ended, his desk is buried in urgent documents, his compensation is being docked for every missed deadline, and his sarcastic AI partner Luxion never lets him forget it. Worst of all, he can't stop
Blooming After the War - False Ties, True Bonds — Turn — The Medical Institute of Despair and the Blood of the Old Humans
The infirmary air was thick with the mingled smells of antiseptic and old blood, clinging to the back of the nose.
Morning light slanted through the window, falling cold and pitiless across Angelica's face where she lay on the white sheets. From her bandaged shoulder down across her chest, a dark red stain was slowly seeping outward.
Lion Fou Bartfort sat in a hard wooden chair, not having slept a wink.
His brown eyes traveled from Angelica's face to the stain, then back to her face again, over and over.
*My own sloppy judgment... this is what it costs.*
His right fingertips unconsciously sought the leather band around his left wrist. A plain bracelet, modeled after Luxion's terminal. Its touch dragged the terror of last night vividly back to the surface.
That automaton that had appeared in the alley. A fragment of Eclipse. Angelica had taken the blow meant for him.
The dull sound of flesh tearing, bone cracking. The smell of blood. Angelica's face twisted in agony.
They seared through Lion's mind again and again, like flashbacks.
"...Damn it."
Lion clenched his fist. His nails bit into his palm, sending a small stab of pain through him. If this pain could distract him even a little from the guilt, how much easier it would be.
His fist went white, trembling in small, tight shudders.
"Master. There is no need to force yourself to stay awake. Sleep deprivation degrades judgment."
A flat, toneless voice came from the bracelet. Luxion's voice. The same cold, mechanical voice as always.
But right now, Lion couldn't help but feel irritated by it.
"Shut up. What the hell would you know."
His voice came out far more barbed than he'd expected.
"I cannot comprehend the master's emotions. However, physical fatigue can be measured numerically. I recommend rest."
"I said shut up, didn't I."
Lion spat the words out.
Luxion said nothing more.
Silence filled the sickroom.
From outside came the carefree voices of merchants preparing the morning market. The creak of wagon wheels on cobblestone. Birdsong.
The world was going on as usual, as if nothing had happened.
That, to Lion, was unbearably infuriating.
*Why, because of me, did Ange...*
Lion reached for Angelica's hand, then hesitated.
Her hand lay flung out on the sheets. White, slender, and faintly cold.
Lion was afraid to let his own hand touch her.
*Someone like me has no right to touch her.*
That was when it happened.
Cold footsteps began echoing down the infirmary corridor.
Clack, clack, clack.
Approaching at a steady rhythm.
The footsteps were brusque and arrogant, as if deliberately trampling on the hospital's stillness.
Lion raised his head.
Beyond the sickroom door.
A silhouette surfaced behind the frosted glass.
Slowly, the door opened.
Standing there was a girl.
Golden hair, straight, falling to her waist.
Blue eyes harboring a cold light.
On her left ear, a strangely shaped earring that looked like a relic of the old civilization.
Celestine.
The mysterious girl who claimed to be a descendant of the old humans' betrothed.
She froze the air of the sickroom in an instant.
Lion rose from his chair and faced her.
"...Good day to you, Lion Fou Bartfort."
Celestine's voice was sharp and cold as a blade of ice.
"You... what the hell are you doing here."
Lion's words came out in a low growl.
"Why? Because I have business with you. A simple thing, isn't it?"
Celestine seemed utterly unbothered by Lion's killing intent.
She took a single step into the sickroom.
"This is an infirmary. It is not a place for unrelated persons to enter. Please leave."
Luxion's voice rang out from the bracelet.
Celestine turned her blue gaze toward the bracelet on Lion's left wrist.
Her eyes narrowed, just slightly.
"...Luxion. It's been a while. I'm glad to see that form of yours still hasn't lost the brilliance of the old civilization."
Her voice carried a strange familiarity, as if she were speaking to an old friend.
"I have no memory of receiving greetings from you. I recognize you as a hostile entity."
"A hostile entity. Is that what your master decided? Or is that the judgment of you, as a legacy of the old humans?"
Celestine posed the question.
Luxion did not answer.
Lion felt an indefinable unease at that silence.
"...What do you want, Celestine. If you've got business, spit it out."
Lion glared at Celestine as he spoke.
"Then I shall be blunt."
Celestine straightened her back and looked Lion squarely in the eye.
"I am Celestine, descendant of the old humans' betrothed. The rightful administrator of Luxion. Hand that terminal over to me."
Her voice was a declaration.
"...Huh?"
Lion's thoughts ground to a halt for a moment at the sheer unexpectedness of the words.
"Did you not hear me? I am telling you to give Luxion to me."
"You've gotta be kidding! Like hell I'd hand him over! Luxion is my partner!"
Lion shouted back.
His voice echoed through the sickroom.
"Partner, is it. That is nothing more than your own one-sided delusion. The only reason Luxion recognizes you as master is a mere functional convenience."
Celestine delivered the words coldly.
"...What the hell are you saying."
"You didn't know? The reason Luxion recognized you as master is that a faint trace of old-human genes remained in your body. That is the only reason."
Celestine's words drove deep, deep into Lion's chest.
*Old-human... genes...?*
Lion caught his breath.
"Luxion is a legacy of the old humans. Its master ought to be one who carries old-human blood. You simply happened to possess those genes. Nothing more than a vessel."
"...That's not true."
Lion forced the words out.
"That's not it. Luxion and I aren't like that. We fight together, we laugh together... we're partners."
Lion's voice was trembling.
"That is merely your genes making you believe so. Luxion calls you master because those genes command it. Nothing more, nothing less."
Celestine stated it flatly, as if reading out facts.
Lion turned a clinging look toward Luxion.
"Luxion... say something back. Tell me everything this one's saying is a lie."
Lion's voice was almost a plea.
But Luxion kept his silence.
On the bracelet, the red single eye slowly blinked on and off.
But that light felt to Lion far colder and more distant than ever before.
"...See, look. He says nothing. That is your answer."
Celestine's voice carved mercilessly into Lion's heart.
*Why, Luxion... why won't you say anything?*
A cold void spread through Lion's chest.
He felt an invisible wall rising up between himself and Luxion, creaking as it went.
"Now then, Lion. Let us return to the matter at hand. Hand Luxion over. If we activate the Eclipse sleeping within him, the new humans will perish and the old humans' dearest wish will be fulfilled. If you carry old-human blood, you should by rights be on our side."
"Like hell I'd join you! I'm not letting you do something that would destroy the world!"
Lion shouted with all his might.
"I see. A pity. Then you have two choices. Cooperate with me, or else..."
Celestine broke off there and fixed her eyes on Lion's.
"Or this royal capital becomes Eclipse's testing ground."
It took Lion several seconds to grasp the meaning of the words.
"...W-what?"
"I have already planted Eclipse fragments throughout the capital. If you do not hand over Luxion, I will activate them and shut down the mana circuits of approximately two hundred fifty thousand residents."
Celestine's voice was sheer ruthlessness.
"You understand what happens when mana circuits stop, don't you? For new humans whose bodies depend on magic, even sustaining life becomes precarious. Children, the elderly—it makes no difference. This city will quietly become a city of the dead."
Lion felt the blood drain from his entire body with an audible rush.
"You... you'd really do that?!"
Lion focused his will on the bracelet, about to activate Arroganz.
But his body wouldn't move.
*No... if I fight here...*
Angelica's sleeping form on the bed rose in Lion's mind.
There were many other patients in the infirmary.
If a battle broke out here, they would unquestionably be caught in it.
"A wise judgment. If you attack me now, I will activate the fragments at that very moment. And your partner's calculations still aren't in proper form, are they?"
Celestine spoke as if she could see straight through him.
Lion bit down on his lip.
The taste of blood spread through his mouth.
"Then I will come to hear your answer another day. Until then, think it over carefully. Whether that false bond of yours is truly worth protecting."
With those words left behind, Celestine turned her back.
Her golden hair swept around.
"Ah, and one more piece of advice. The reason you were recognized as master by Luxion is that you had old-human genes. Nothing more than a vessel. Do not turn your eyes away from that fact."
Her final words drove deep into Lion's chest.
Celestine left the sickroom.
Clack, clack, clack.
The cold footsteps receded.
Silence once again ruled the sickroom.
Lion stood rooted to the spot.
Strength wouldn't come to his legs.
His knees were shaking.
"...Ha. Haha."
A dry laugh leaked from his mouth.
*A false bond, huh.*
*Old-human genes. Nothing but a vessel.*
Celestine's words spun round and round in his head.
Lion left the sickroom and let his back fall against the corridor wall.
His body slid slowly down to the floor.
He folded his knees and slammed his fist against the ground.
Thud.
The dull sound echoed through the quiet corridor.
Blood seeped from his knuckles.
There was pain.
But compared to the pain in his heart, it was as good as nothing.
"What the hell... have I been fighting for?"
Lion murmured, head bowed.
"Luxion... was I just a convenient tool to you?"
There was no reply from the bracelet.
That silence plunged Lion's heart even deeper into a dark pit.
"Olivia and Ange... they both help me. But is that just because I'm convenient as a check on the Saintess's power? Because they want to curry favor with a ducal house? ...Of course it is. There's no way anyone would seriously care about a small-time, foul-mouthed, money-grubbing bastard like me."
Lion laughed at himself.
"...Maybe to all of you, and to Luxion too, I'm nothing but a convenient tool."
The moment he said the words, something inside Lion's heart snapped.
"Lion!"
Suddenly a high voice rang through the corridor.
He looked up to see Olivia running toward him, her flaxen hair in disarray, her blue eyes brimming with tears.
She reached him and dropped to her knees right there.
"Lion! Are you all right?! Your hand—it's bleeding—!"
Olivia wrapped both hands around Lion's bloodied fist.
Her hands were warm.
But that warmth was painful to Lion now.
"...Olivia. Don't come near me. Leave me alone."
Lion tried to shake off her hands.
"No! I won't let go! You're suffering all alone like this—how could I possibly leave you?!"
Olivia gripped his hand tighter.
"This isn't your fault! If I'd been by your side sooner... if I hadn't let Angelica go alone...!"
Olivia pleaded, tears spilling down her cheeks.
"That's not it... that's not what this is."
Lion shook his head.
"That's not the problem."
Then another voice reached them.
"...Lion."
A frail voice, yet firm.
Lion and Olivia both turned toward it at once.
There stood Angelica, having staggered out of her sickroom.
Red blood was seeping through the bandage wrapped around her shoulder.
Though a nurse supported her by the shoulder, her powerful red eyes were fixed straight on Lion.
"Ange... you shouldn't be moving! Your wound will open!"
Lion instinctively tried to rise.
"Be silent! You think I could lie still in bed while you wear a face like that?!"
Angelica's shout cut him off.
At her ferocity, Lion, Olivia, and even the nurse were struck speechless for a moment.
Angelica shook off the nurse's hand and walked unsteadily to stand before Lion.
Then, in front of him, she dropped to one
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