Time of the Blind Beast - Chapter 125

“…What the hell?”

A cold chill seeped into the left side of his torso, where the heart was.

Levian rolled only his eyes to glance sideways.

“…Ha.”

The silver barrel of a rifle was pressed firmly against his side. The stance, with the stock against her shoulder and hands gripping the weapon, was so clumsy it was laughable, and Levian let out a chuckle before he realized it.

The only ability worth mentioning was those two feet that had crept up silently. Even that, he was giving her too much credit. If he hadn’t been distracted, there was no way he wouldn’t have noticed her presence.

He tried to twist his body to dodge the childish aim, but Ezekiel was faster. The Major gripped Levian’s arm, the one holding the knife buried deep in his abdomen, with both hands and pinned him in place. Veins bulged from his forearm. The more strength he used, the worse the bleeding grew, yet the man seemed utterly unconcerned.

Damn it.

Levian ground out a curse between his teeth. This inhuman bastard was still monstrously strong, even with a knife in his gut.

“Do you think this changes anything?”

He gritted his teeth and snarled at the woman. To steady her trembling, she overlapped her left hand over the right that was on the trigger.

Her face had gone pale and bluish. Seeing the woman on the verge of fainting gave Levian a fleeting sense of relief.

Wait. Really now, just because she’s holding a gun, does that mean she can do anything?

She was a weak woman. It was obvious just from her face. A young girl raised in a school dormitory as isolated as a convent, spending her days picking fruit, nothing more. This was surely the first time she had ever held a weapon meant for killing.

For someone like that, killing another person wasn’t easy. Even trained soldiers hesitated at their first kill. How much less likely was it that such a fragile woman could do it? This was the same girl who hadn’t even screamed when her dormitory friends were killed, dragged out powerless as a hostage.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Do you even know how to load that thing?”

There were rifles scattered among the corpses, so she must have picked one up. But did she even know how to load it? No, did she even have powder and bullets in the first place?

Her only support must have been Major Valdemaira. And even he had done nothing but flee with her, trying to keep her safe.

In the end, even if he had lost all his men in the chase, the one who split flesh and bone first and spilled blood was Levian. He was the victor.

Perhaps she was holding an empty gun, bluffing to save her life? Maybe her lover was playing along with this pathetic little act?

That was a reasonable suspicion.

Levian mocked her, “Go on, shoot.”

Did she think he would fall for such a pathetic trick?

“If you’ve got the guts, then shoot.”

Even at his sneer, the woman only pressed her lips tightly together. She was shaken and nervous, that much was clear, but perhaps stubbornness or spite kept her from lowering the gun aimed at him.

“Lisanne.”

It was then. Ezekiel called to her softly.

“You know, don’t you? You don’t have to.”

His voice was calm.

“It’s fine if you can’t. Leave the rest to me and turn away. Don’t force yourself to suffer. Whatever choice you make, you don’t need to feel guilty. If anyone should feel guilt here, it’s me, for failing to protect you.”

Where did the truth end, and where did the lie begin?

Where was the trap, and where was the sincerity?

If the gun the woman held truly had bullets, the Major should have urged her to pull the trigger at once. Not speak as if letting her go.

Of course. This was the only chance to take the enemy down with him.

Levian hastily calmed his confusion.

As expected, the gun was empty. This show happening right before his eyes was nothing but a farce to deceive him.

Did they think he would fall for it?

“No matter what has happened between us, in the end you have always saved me. Because of you, my long nights were not dark. Just don’t forget that.”

With Levian stuck between them, the Major looked only at the woman, and the woman looked only at the Major. As if in this world only the two of them existed, fixated solely on each other.

“Go, Lisanne.”

“As if I’d let you leave alive,” Levian sneered.

Ezekiel replied, “Then you’ll have to come with me. I’ve no intention of letting you go alive either.”

Levian didn’t hesitate. His mouth twisted cruelly as he wrenched the knife embedded in Ezekiel’s stomach.

Bang! The last gunshot rang out.

For a moment, Levian had no awareness of what had happened to him.

Only when, through his tilting vision, he caught sight of the woman’s face did realization strike him like lightning.

He had been wrong about her. Completely wrong.

The rifle wasn’t empty. Major Valdemaira was a man who would even risk his own life to free the woman from guilt. And at the final moment, the woman who pulled the trigger did so without hesitation, her expression astonishingly calm.

She had the look Levian knew well.

The look of a soldier who had resolved to become a killer, the eyes of one who faced battle on her own.

Ezekiel had been deeply worried for her, but when faced with her first kill, Lisanne was surprisingly composed. She didn’t regret her decision. She knew that if she hesitated or trembled, Ezekiel would die.

She couldn’t bear to lose him. That was why she made the choice she had to.

To save the one who must live, she killed the one who had to die. If it meant saving him, Lisanne wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger again and again. Besides, this bullet was also the price of the lives of the girls who had died without knowing why.

The spy who had stabbed Ezekiel’s stomach twice and boasted of his victory stiffened like a log and collapsed from a single bullet that pierced his heart.

Only after confirming the enemy’s death did Ezekiel finally falter. He had endured on sheer willpower, but once he was certain of Lisanne’s safety, his knees buckled and he crumpled.

Lisanne grabbed him in a panic. She wanted to hold him up, but his weight was too much. In the end, she collapsed with him onto the ground.

What should she do now?

She had no idea. All she knew, with her shallow medical knowledge, was that pulling out the knife lodged in his stomach would only worsen the bleeding. Ezekiel had already lost too much blood. For now, she had to preserve what blood he had left and his body heat. Lisanne stripped off his outer coat and put it on him, then pulled gloves onto his hands.

“…Are you alright? You’re not hurt badly, are you?”

Anyone could see he was the one gravely wounded, yet Ezekiel was only concerned with checking her condition. Lisanne nodded frantically.

She wanted to ask him if he was alright too, if he could endure, but however she looked, he was not fine. She tried pressing on the wound with her hand to stem the bleeding, but the precious life kept seeping through her fingers.

“That’s enough.”

When Lisanne tried to rip her nightgown for bandages, Ezekiel stopped her.

“Don’t waste time. Go, Lisanne.”

“……”

“Hurry.”

Why again?

Why was he trying to send her off alone, instead of asking to go together?

Why, why?

As if he could read the torment burning inside her, Ezekiel said, “The one who can live must live.”

Then, in Lisanne’s ears, his words to “go” changed into “live.”

Why was he speaking as if he were the one about to die, leaving her behind? Lisanne could not accept it.

This was not what she had come here for.

Not for this. Not to hear him talk as if he had fulfilled his duty and could finally rest.

Ezekiel lifted his head. It seemed he wanted to see her face, so Lisanne quickly met his gaze.

He blinked.

Blink. His dark blue eyes fixed on her. Blink. The clarity in his eyes slowly dimmed. Each blink showed his fading strength, his last threads of willpower fraying.

His head drooped.

In that moment, it felt as though the whole world turned pitch black. As if she had been left utterly alone in a vast darkness.

Don’t.

Don’t do this.

You saved me, and I saved you.

Ezekiel,

“Rose, how long are you going to keep calling me Major?”

“…Pardon?”

“You know. My name.”

Why had she been so afraid she couldn’t call it even once?

It was futile. She regretted it. She was terrified.

Ezekiel.

She should have called it when she still had the chance.

Even in this moment, to not be able to call out to him aloud was unbearably cruel.

Lisanne moved her lips. Whether her voice came out or not, she repeated over and over, calling him again and again.

Ezekiel.

His name tasted of tears. Bitter, salty.

Ezekiel, Ezekiel.

What if this name became the past?

She couldn’t bear to only remember him as a memory. Even now he already felt so far away she could hardly endure it.

Ezekiel, Ezekiel, Ezekiel, Eze…

“…kiel.”

At first, she didn’t even realize what had happened.

“Ezekiel!”

Her cry, mixed with sobs, shattered the stillness of the night.

Lisanne doubted her own ears. Then she doubted her throat. Even then she couldn’t believe it, so she cautiously parted her lips again.

“…Ezekiel?”

It was certain. She had heard it. Her own voice.

Of course, it wasn’t exactly the same as before. There was a rasping quality, tinged with hoarseness, and the unfamiliar feeling of her throat vibrating again made her keep touching it.

But without a doubt, it was her voice, flowing from her vocal cords and lips.

“Do you hear? Ezekiel, do you hear my voice?”

Lisanne shouted into the ear of the man who was slowly losing consciousness.

“Stay awake! Don’t lose consciousness…”

The man who had supposedly brushed past death countless times, this time truly seemed about to cross the line, and she was at a loss for what words might hold him here.

“You said you wanted to propose to me!”

He had reassured her as if he’d always be there, yet how could he vanish overnight like a mirage?

Now they had only just begun to build happy days together. Too many futures remained unfulfilled…

Her sorrow surged.

“What kind of man gives a ring only to be remembered by? Even if I said no, you should have tried once more… I didn’t truly mean no, I just needed time. I never stopped loving you, so how can you give up so easily?”

Lisanne tore the necklace from her neck that held the ring. Even when Akenaus had tried to take it from her, she had fought with all her strength to keep it. She placed the ring, still threaded on the necklace cord, into Ezekiel’s hand.

“I always carried it. I never once thought of throwing it away, never once took it off my body, but you didn’t even know…”

Her throat tightened. She had once wondered what her first words would be if her voice ever returned, but she had never imagined it would be like this.

The man who should have been listening to her words was in a state where he might not hear them at all. She had never imagined such a cruel twist.

She had never imagined every moment would be so out of joint.

If she had known.

If only she had known sooner.

“…We would have been married.”

At last, her true feelings surfaced.

“We wouldn’t have set foot in dangerous places like Cielsa. So propose to me again. Not a cowardly proposal like before, but put the ring on my hand yourself and I’ll gladly accept right then…”

“…Lisanne?”

Suddenly, a voice reached her ears that made her doubt them.