“The more you act like this, the less I understand! He’s not even worth giving another chance!”
At Gavin’s shout, D’Élysée slowly opened his mouth.
“Every year when my birthday came around, my brother would give me a special gift. One day, he boasted that he would bring me figs.”
“Do you know how much I care about you? You can’t even compare to that half-breed!”
“The prize for a competition held at the crossroads pub was a box of figs.”
“You…! Sigh, damn it.”
Though he seemed to have a lot to say, Gavin started listening quietly. D’Élysée continued his explanation in a monotone voice.
“I found out it was a slap-taking competition when I secretly followed him. My brother probably never imagined I was there too. All the commoners known for their strength in the system gathered. My brother, thin as a matchstick, was no comparison to the other participants. From the moment he got on stage, everyone just jeered. They didn’t like his pale green demon skin, and he kept delaying the competition. Every time he fell after being slapped by hands bigger than his own face, people cheered.”
“…”
“But, whenever they tried to end the competition, my brother would get up again. Saying he could still go on. I don’t know how many times he staggered back up. Even as his face was ruined, blood flowing and drying, he got up again.”
Gavin started shuffling his feet uncomfortably. D’Élysée continued undeterred.
“As the same situation kept repeating, even the competition organizer seemed fed up. At some point, they pulled my brother backstage. They probably mumbled something about him being first place and handed him the figs. Actually, they weren’t even figs. They were rotten apricots.”
“…”
“They probably meant for him to just eat them and leave, but my brother seemed to firmly believe they were figs. Of course he couldn’t have known. The fruits he’d tasted in his whole life could be counted on one hand. Actually, I was sure they were figs too back then.”
“…”
“After confirming my brother coming out the back door of the pub, all I thought about was running. I arrived home first and was catching my breath when my brother opened the front door, smiling with his swollen face. Do you know what he said as he limped over to me jumping on the bed?”
“Fig-figs are mysterious fruits. They say eating them makes you healthy. Happy birthday, D’Élysée.”
“…Let’s eat together, brother.”
“Oh, no. I ate a lot already. Go ahead and try them.”
“It was a lie that he had tried them first. They were extremely bitter and astringent. If he had known they tasted like that, he definitely wouldn’t have given them to me. He never gives me anything that tastes bad or has gone bad.”
“…”
“My brother probably thought he had won first place until the moment he died.”
D’Élysée’s lips trembled for a moment.
“Later, when I became an apprentice knight and ate figs bestowed by His Holiness the Pope… The taste was so different. Sweet like honey, but soft like jam.”
“Wait, stop for a moment.”
“That’s when I was sure. What my brother brought really wasn’t figs after all.”
“I said stop.”
“My brother still doesn’t know. What figs taste like.”
“D’Élysée!”
Raising his voice, Gavin roughly messed up his bangs.
“I was just going to listen, but this won’t do. Why are you explaining all this to me?”
“Because you need to understand.”
“What?”
“That day, I chewed and swallowed the rotten fruit thoroughly and smiled, saying it was delicious. How could devotion just for me not be sweet?”
D’Élysée’s grip on the blank check loosened slightly.
“But they say my brother died alone on an underground floor.”
“What?”
“He was my only family in the world.”
Gavin’s expression crumpled as he opened and closed his mouth like a fish.
“Don’t tell me because of the recent massacre…”
“From the moment you gave me the check.”
The edge of the check in D’Élysée’s hand trembled finely.
“I can’t stop thinking that if he had even this measly check, things might have been different. If he had at least used it as a bribe…”
“It’s useless to have regrets now.”
Though he looked perplexed, Gavin still didn’t yield. A thin gleam swirled in D’Élysée’s pale green eyes.
“Your parents were indifferent, but my brother wasn’t. He was someone who gave up everything for me.”
D’Élysée spoke in a low, indignant voice.
“Even if my foolish actions killed your parents, it wouldn’t compare to my loss now.”
“No. The timing and circumstances were just different. The premise of abandoning family is the same either way. You think I don’t have any good memories at all?”
Gavin didn’t back down.
“No matter how many good deeds you list, it doesn’t change the fact that he abandoned you. We have no reason to fight over such a trivial matter.”
“Trivial?”
“No. Actually, it’s for the best.”
Shaking his head a few times, Gavin put his hand on D’Élysée’s shoulder.
“Believe me, D’Élysée.”
“…”
“You just need time to calm your mind. Whether it’s the massacre or whatever, that half-breed’s disappearance is actually fortunate…”
Gavin couldn’t continue speaking. In an instant, his vision was slammed into the dirt ground.
“Ugh!”
With a sound like a death rattle, Gavin clutched his chest.
He couldn’t breathe. His lungs wouldn’t accept oxygen.
He was clearly hit somewhere, but he didn’t even see the moment D’Élysée clenched his fist. Just as he was about to turn his wavering eyes—
“Aah…!”
“Commander! You can’t!”
Shouts burst from the holy knights at the Papal Headquarters windows. They had been secretly watching the conversation between the Commander and Vice Commander.
“Hey! Get down there quickly!”
“Stop him right now!”
It was then that D’Élysée grabbed Gavin’s collar.
“Urk…!”
Even trying to pry off the strong grip didn’t budge it at all. Thus Gavin could face D’Élysée.
He couldn’t see his expression properly. D’Élysée’s face, obscured by backlighting, filled Gavin’s pupils. With a final glimpse of a fist rising high to block the sunlight, Gavin’s eyes were smashed.
“…Do you understand now?”
D’Élysée asked. When no response came, he struck with his fist once more.
“Do you understand now?”
“Cough…!”
D’Élysée kept swinging his fist, repeating the same question. Heavy blows rained down mercilessly. The back of D’Élysée’s hand, with veins bulging, gradually turned red.
Gavin subconsciously realized what he was trying to make him understand. But he didn’t want to acknowledge it. It was always easier to turn away from mistakes than to face them.
“Stop, please stop!”
“Commander! Please!”
“Hey! You grab his arms! We’ll grab his legs!”
“He’ll really die at this rate!”
The holy knights who had rushed down pounced on the Commander without hesitation. But no one could restrain him.
“P-people…!”
Gavin roughly opened his lips, blood gushing out.
“People abandon more easily the second time, you know?”
“…”
“Are you a stray dog? That damn half-breed wasn’t a guardian, he was just acting like an owner! Even after I explain it like this, you still can’t tell the difference?”
The Commander’s silence didn’t last long. The next moment, blue aura surged through his entire body. The holy knights, who had been desperately clinging to him, could only be terrified.
We’re all going to die…
“Everyone, let go.”
Amidst the desperate thoughts, a calmer voice than anyone’s cut through. Through the crowd that was stuck, unable to move, a flow of high-concentration magic power rushed in.
Thud.
Before the holy knights could fully retreat, D’Élysée’s body alone was slammed into the ground. He looked as if pressed down by an invisible force. A gravity magic of at least A-class. It was an amazingly delicate control of magic power.
“Calm down, Commander. What on earth is going on?”
“Y-Your Holiness!”
“Pope, Your Holiness!”
Everyone was relieved at the Pope’s appearance. But only D’Élysée kept staring at Gavin incessantly. His eyes, red with burst blood vessels, were fiercely burning. He showed no signs of calming down.
The holy knights murmured in terror at the strength that stubbornly pressed against the dirt ground to stand up. But with one gesture from the Pope, silence fell again.
“Put down your sword, Commander.”
D’Élysée’s hand trembled as he barely managed to move while resisting the gravity magic. He was in a stance to draw the holy sword at his waist. A terrifying clattering sound rang from the holy sword’s hilt.
“The holy sword was not bestowed to harm allies.”
The Pope waved his hand without wavering.
Crack, crackle. As the gravity magic was layered multiple times, the dirt ground sank in depressions. They were at regular intervals, as if measured with a ruler.
Blood flowed from D’Élysée’s eyes and nose, though his posture still hadn’t crumbled. But when his airways and lungs were compressed, even the oxygen flow to his brain was cut off. For better or worse, the pale green eyes gradually lost their light.
Thud.
Having finally knocked out the Commander, the Pope carefully moved. He slowly approached the Commander’s side and knelt down. His purple eyes, filled with sorrow, looked around at the holy knights.
“Please understand with a generous heart. The Commander is enduring a harder time than anyone.”
The holy knights all bowed their heads with solemn expressions. The Pope stroked the Commander’s cheek with his snow-white hand.
“I will nurse both of them myself.”