Cadel promised to break the seal and give him freedom. Drawn to his promise, Lydon agreed to accompany him. He left the forest, leaving the fate of his people behind. Following his own desires, trusting Cadel to fulfill them.

Theirs was a relationship between the one who entrusted his fate to the other and the one who bore it, and it was powerful enough to crush whatever emotional connection they had. So Cadel must not die. The values of power and freedom outweighed him, but Lydon needed him to claim them. These were things Lydon could not do without him. Without Cadel, none of it meant anything.

Every muscle creaked and screamed in pain as Lydon slowly rose to his feet. But Lydon was unperturbed, the corners of his mouth twitching upward in his usual fashion. Hesonia’s eyebrows arched as he watched him.

“You’ve made up your mind.”

“Ahaha! Are you trying to do a mind reading? Let’s see if you can read my mind and make a decision.”

“Say your choice.”

“You are no fun.”

Lydon clicked his tongue in boredom, then slowly turned to face Hesonia. His face was a mess of wounds and blood, but his expression was somehow refreshing. Maybe it was because he liked the conclusion he’d reached very much.

The corners of his mouth curled upward cutely. Slowly, the lips parted, and a light, joking tone escaped.

“I don’t know about Van or Lumen, but I don’t want Cadel to die. He’s my favorite human being. I’ll do anything to keep him alive. So, I will gi.....”

Give up the trial. The moment Lydon was about to say that.

The pan they stood on tilted and shook violently. Barely centered, Lydon looked up in surprise. Suddenly, the distance between them and the pan above was much closer.

As Lydon stood still, sizing up the distance, a crisp voice broke through the smoke that obscured his vision.

“Lydon!”

A cool breeze sliced through the space, and a familiar figure emerged from the rapidly dispersing smoke.

It was Cadel. He was covered in blood, and it was a miracle he could stand at all. His entire body, which had survived the blast without a barrier, was covered in a mess of bruises. A horrible, horrible mess.

But he did not waver in the slightest. His dark, bronze-colored eyes, peeking through the tangle of blood, stared directly at none other than Lydon.

Cadel pointed a stiffened finger at Lydon, as if he could see no one else and needed no one else. A solid voice that did not match the appearance rang out, filling the space.

“Don’t even think about it. I will never die, not until your seal is broken, not until your race is free, not until you see this world with your own two eyes! ....I will never die.”

So you, too, hang in there and trust me.

His voice was cracked at the end, and it didn’t sound very polished.

But at that moment. Lydon felt a throbbing, bitter thrill as if someone had struck his heart.

He looked up at Cadel, his eyes dazed, until Cadel looked away again and continued the fight. Lydon stared vaguely up at Cadel’s back, which had never felt so wide.

With every fiber of his being, Cadel was trying to take charge of Lydon’s fate. It wasn’t even Cadel’s own fate, and they weren’t even that close.

He was a man with a brain. It was impossible not to assume that even if he couldn’t regain his power right now, there might be another way. And yet.

“I.....”

Lydon’s heart was pounding like crazy in his chest. It was an emotion he had never felt before. Lydon clutched at his chest, his lips curling into a hard line.

“I really like him.....”

Hesonia’s eyes narrowed at the near-whispered confession, and he turned his gaze away from Cadel and toward the flushed face of Lydon.

“Are you going to give up the trial?”

“Shut up. Shut your mouth.”

He looked as if he could melt at any moment, but the words that came out were harsh. Lydon slowly drew his hand away from his chest and took a deep breath.

He had decided.

He pressed his palms together as he let out an unfiltered laugh. A sharp chill ran through his body. Blood, barely stopped, trickled down his nose and mouth.

“I’m going to go give him a hug right now.”

Creeeak—

With a loud clang, the scales tipped heavily. Cadel squinted, straining against his staggering body.

‘The pan is rising again. Why the hell?’

Was something wrong with the scale? It didn’t make sense. What a pain to endure.

Cadel rolled his eyes, roughly wiping away a trickle of blood from under his chin. He turned his fierce gaze downward, searching for the source of the situation.

“....Lydon?”

There wasn’t any problem with the scale. The scale was still counting pain delicately and clearly. The problem was the sudden action of Lydon, who was supposed to be waiting for him calmly below.

“That maniac!”

Lydon had entered a state of mana depletion. Anyone could tell by the dried blood at the corners of his mouth and his precarious appearance.

He shouldn’t draw any more mana unless he was delirious with a desire to die. And yet, Lydon was doing just that. Vast amounts of it, far beyond his normal usage.

It was a risky move at the risk of life, and the scales were tipping steeply to the ground below. Cadel’s head-on blocking of the explosion was no longer rewarding.

“What are you doing, Lydon?! Stop!”

A blizzard raged around Lydon. The fierce flurries were blocked by a transparent wall surrounding the pan, and from a distance, he looked like a tiny doll trapped in a snowball.

Cadel called to Lydon, straining at his creaking neck, but Lydon did not respond. He didn’t even answer, only tipping the center of the scales that held them, slowly and surely.

Cadel looked back at the Jelly Bombs with impatience. The Jelly Bombs, whose numbers hadn’t decreased at all since the beginning, were still bouncing around, aiming for him.

As long as Lydon continued to tip the scale like this, the amount of pain Cadel must endure would only increase. It was too much. A gap this large could not be closed without death.

‘Why the hell is he doing this?’

Lydon’s intentions were hard to discern. If he wanted to abandon the trial, he could tell Hesonia, or if he wanted to continue, he could sit back and wait. Either way, there was no reason to exacerbate the situation with a near-suicidal maneuver.

Even as Cadel thought about it, the Jelly Bombs bounced cheerfully.

“Cough.....”

Cadel, who had blasted them with [Wind Blade] from afar, let out a single groan and folded his arms across his chest. The arm around his stomach shook, and blood trickled from his tightly clenched gums.

‘My body, is at its limit.....’

Lydon wasn’t the only one to run out of mana. Cadel also used a significant amount of mana throughout the trial, and was unable to drink any of the potions he had brought with him. He also survived a series of explosions from the Jelly Bombs with no shields.

With each breath, Cadel could taste the thick taste of blood. Every muscle in his body screamed for life. Closing his eyes tightly against the pain, he muttered in a cracked voice.

“What do you want? Lydon.”

And at that moment.

A ferocious shattering sound rang in his ears, like glass breaking. Cadel’s head whipped around in response to the sound, his vision stinging, and Lydon swooped in, flying through the chilly snow.

Unruly tousled hair and two pairs of transparent, shimmering wings. Ruddy cheeks stained with blood and heat, the corners of his mouth turned up and his eyes bent gently. A pair of red eyes reflected only one person, with a clear light in them as he drew closer.

All of that, like slow motion, came at him vividly and intensely.

“Ly―”

Cadel felt a dull jolt through his body, afraid to call out his name. At the same time, a fresh, floral scent wafted through the air, unexpected in such a barren space.

When he came to, a beat too late. He was in the big arms of Lydon.

A dull ache rattled the bones of his body. Cadel frowned reflexively, but Lydon only hugged him tighter.

“I like you.”

“....What?”

“I like you, Cadel. I like you.”

The bowed head burrowed into the nape of Cadel’s neck. A thin chuckle slipped through the muffled pronunciation. Cadel blinked, dumbfounded by the passionate confession of the fairy who had appeared out of nowhere.