*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 Bonds, True Ties — Conclusion — The Voice That Calls the Soul's Name
Dusk over the royal capital of Vermut stained the white walls of the medical ward a deep madder red.
Lion Fou Bartfort sat on the stone steps along the canal, his back to those walls. The crowds had long since vanished. As if the daytime bustle had been a lie, only the sound of flowing water and the distant tolling of bells remained.
He stared at his fists, resting on his knees. The fingertips of his right hand brushed against the leather band wrapped around his left wrist. A plain bracelet, modeled after a Luxion terminal. Its touch now conveyed nothing but the coldness of leather.
Celestine's words echoed through his mind, over and over.
*"The only reason Luxion recognized you as Master is that you carry Old Human genes."*
That voice, cold as ice. A toneless ring that stated only facts.
*"Your bond is a counterfeit, manufactured by genetics."*
Counterfeit.
The word lodged itself deep in his chest and would not come out.
Lion clenched his fists. His nails bit into his palms, sending a small stab of pain through him. That pain was the only thing keeping him tethered to reality.
(Am I just a tool?)
To Luxion, he was nothing more than an operator of a terminal who happened to carry Old Human genes. To Olivia and Angelica too—just something convenient.
(Thinking like this is just proof of how weak I am.)
He knew that. He knew it, and yet his thoughts kept sinking, down into the dark, into the deep. The evening light cast long shadows across the cobblestones. Lion's own shadow melted into them until he could no longer tell where he ended and the shadow began.
(I don't want anyone to see me like this.)
Lion hung his head. The evening breeze skimmed the canal's surface, carrying lukewarm air. The smell of water. The smell of stone. From somewhere, the smell of oil frying—someone preparing supper.
The world turned on, same as always. No matter how far he sank.
That was when it happened.
"Lion!"
A voice—desperate, and yet warm—shattered the stillness of the dusk.
Lion raised his head.
A girl with disheveled flaxen hair and blue eyes brimming with tears came running down the stone steps. Olivia. A scholarship student at the Royal Academy of Magic, bearer of the Saint's power, a commoner by birth. On her left wrist, a cheap bracelet he'd once given her on a whim still swung as she moved.
Breathless, Olivia sat down beside him without a moment's hesitation. Close enough that their shoulders touched. The sound of her ragged breathing reached his ears.
"Lion... I finally found you."
Her voice trembled faintly, on the verge of tears.
"...Olivia. How did you know I was here?"
Lion couldn't bring himself to look at her face and let his gaze escape to the canal's surface.
"You weren't anywhere, Lion... I've been searching for you this whole time. When I heard you'd run out of the medical ward, I couldn't just sit still."
As she spoke, Olivia gently laid both her hands over his clenched fist. Her hands were damp with sweat, and yet astonishingly warm.
"Lion. There's something I need to tell you properly."
Lion stirred. He wanted to run. But the heat of her palms wouldn't allow it.
"If you're going to call yourself a tool, Lion... then I'll say it as many times as it takes. You are not a tool. To me, you are real, and you are precious."
Her voice shook, and grew stronger.
"Because—you didn't abandon me when Marie took my place, when no one else would even look at me. If you hadn't reached out your hand that day, I surely wouldn't... I wouldn't be here now."
Large tears spilled from Olivia's blue eyes. Caught in the setting sun, they glittered like jewels as they fell onto the back of Lion's hand.
Hot.
The heat of those tears began to melt, just slightly, the frozen surface of his heart.
"You are my light, Lion. So... please, don't call yourself a counterfeit. Not like that."
Olivia squeezed his hand tight. Her almost painfully intense feelings flowed into his chest, utterly without pretense.
Lion tried to argue. That he wasn't the person she thought he was. But when he looked into her direct gaze, the words stuck in the back of his throat and wouldn't come out.
"...Olivia."
That was all he managed to force out.
Then, from the top of the stone steps, another voice descended.
"Lion!"
A voice clear and resolute—yet now slightly shrill, as though holding back pain.
Lion and Olivia turned at the same time.
There stood Angelica Rafa Redgrave. Her radiant blonde hair, perhaps with no time to pin it up, hung loose and disheveled down her back. Fresh bandages were wrapped around her shoulder, and over them she wore a crimson coat. Her red eyes caught Lion and would not let go.
Wincing with pain, she nonetheless straightened her spine and descended the stone steps, one step, then another. Behind her came the anguished protests of a woman who appeared to be a nurse.
"Lady Angelica! You'll do yourself harm! Please, come back inside!"
"...Quiet. I am fine. More importantly, you—stay back."
Angelica spoke without so much as turning around. Her voice carried the overwhelming authority of a duke's daughter. The nurse's footsteps retreated hesitantly into the distance.
Angelica came to a stop before Lion. And then, with the setting sun at her back, she looked down at him directly.
"...You've been carrying it all alone again, haven't you. You really are—why must you always be like this."
Her voice sounded angry, but in truth it was filled with deep sorrow and helpless affection.
"But, Lion. The days you built with Luxion are not counterfeit. I guarantee it."
Enduring the pain in her shoulder, Angelica lowered herself to one knee before him. Then she wrapped both her hands around Lion's other hand—the one Olivia wasn't holding. Her hands were slightly cool, and trembling faintly.
"After all, you saved me when I was abandoned at my condemnation. That day, you fought for me without asking anything in return. So tell me—what part of a man like that is counterfeit?"
Her red eyes caught the sunset and flickered like flames.
Lion, both hands held by the two women, could not move.
(I... what was I even wavering about?)
Olivia's tears. Angelica's resolute words. Both of them had been hurt for his sake, had wept for his sake, and still they tried to believe in him.
The one who had decided he was a mob character, a tool—was none other than himself.
"...You're both idiots."
Lion murmured it softly, head still bowed. His voice was shaking.
"A small-time guy like me, foul-mouthed and money-grubbing—where's the value in that?"
"That awkward side of you, and yet kinder than anyone—that's what I love about you, Lion."
Olivia smiled through her tear-streaked face.
"Indeed. The straightforward heart behind your twisted way of speaking. We know it well."
Angelica too squeezed his hand back, gently but firmly.
Deep in Lion's chest, something crumbled with a sound. It was the stubborn shell he had built around himself.
Just as he tried to lift his head—
"Master."
A voice came from the bracelet.
The same flat, mechanical voice as always. And yet, there was something in it now that had never been there before.
Lion looked at the bracelet on his left wrist.
The small red light embedded in it began to blink, slowly.
"Master. There is something I must tell you now."
Luxion's voice echoed quietly over the evening canal.
"I was hiding the memories of that fiancée. I was afraid—afraid that if the New Humans used the memories of the Old Human fiancée as a catalyst, they would exploit me."
Lion's eyes went wide.
Luxion was speaking of its own inner thoughts, of its own accord. It was the first time.
"I am an Old Human terminal. Within me exists a program to annihilate the New Humans—Eclipse. If misused, that power could destroy this world a second time. I was afraid of that."
Luxion's voice was dispassionate. But to Lion, it sounded as though it were trembling.
"That is why I clung to the indisputable fact of genetics as the basis for my relationship with you, Master. Because I thought that if I did, you would treat me as nothing more than a tool."
"...Luxion."
Lion forced the name out.
"But, Master. The time I have spent with you was the first true bond of my existence. Whatever the genetics may say, I chose you myself. By my own will, I acknowledged you as Master."
Luxion's red light shone strong and clear.
"I am your partner. That is neither counterfeit nor tool. It is a fact—one I decided by my own will."
Lion caught his breath.
(Luxion... said all that?)
The depths of his chest grew hot. He could feel it clearly—the heart frozen by Celestine's words was melting.
"...You. You never said a single word about any of this until now."
Lion's voice was shaking.
"There was no need to say it. That you treated me not as a tool but as a partner was demonstrated through your actions."
"...Good grief. You're a pain in the ass of an AI, you know that?"
Lion gave a wry smile. But tears were welling in his eyes.
"Master. There is one more thing I must tell you."
Luxion's voice hardened once more.
"There exists only one method to seal Eclipse permanently."
Lion braced himself, a bad premonition rising.
"It is to erase my core and shut down my functions, program and all. I would connect to Celestine's terminal and wipe out Eclipse along with my own existence."
"What—!"
Lion was speechless.
"Master. Please take me to the central plaza. Once I connect to Celestine's terminal, everything will be over. You will no longer need to suffer."
Luxion's words were far too quiet, filled with resignation.
Blood rushed to Lion's head.
"Like hell I will!"
Lion was shouting. His clenched fists trembled.
"I didn't come all this way just to lose you! If you say you're my partner, then I'm your partner too! You think I'd stand by and let my partner die?!"
His roar echoed over the evening canal.
"That's right! Lux! We don't want you to sacrifice yourself!"
Olivia too shouted at the bracelet through her tears.
"Indeed. Luxion. You are Lion's partner and our comrade. I will not permit anyone to abandon a comrade."
Angelica admonished Luxion in a firm tone as well.
"...Master. You do not understand. If this continues, the people of the royal capital will become sacrifices to Celestine's experiment."
"Then we'll find a way that doesn't require sacrificing you! All four of us are going to survive! That's the answer I've come up with!"
Lion gripped the bracelet tight.
That was when it happened.
—BOOOOM!!!
From the heart of the royal capital came a heavy explosion that resonated in the pit of his stomach.
"Kyaaaaaah!"
Olivia screamed and clung to Lion.
Lion raised his head. From the direction of the great cathedral at the capital's center, black smoke was rising into the evening sky.
"W-what the hell?!"
"...It is Celestine. She has begun the experimental activation of Eclipse."
Luxion's voice rang cold.
From the distance came screams. At first one, then two. Then they multiplied.
The central plaza of the royal capital, Vermut.
There stood Celestine.
At her feet were countless strange devices—relics of the old civilization, by the look of them—arranged in a vast array. They emitted a pale blue light and a sinister hum.
The residents who had been in the plaza collapsed one after another, like marionettes with their strings cut.
Merchants. Housewives. Children. The elderly. Knights.
Station, age—none of it mattered.
They clutched their chests, writhing in agony, and crumpled where they stood. Their mana circuits were being forcibly shut down.
"...Hm. The effect exceeds expectations. So this is what it feels like to halt the mana circuits of the New Humans. The Old Humans' dearest wish is finally fulfilled."
Celestine looked down at the falling people with cold blue eyes. Her face showed neither joy nor sorrow—no emotion at all.
"Now then, Lion Fou Bartfort. What will you do? Will you watch as every soul in the royal capital dies? Or will you han
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