Ending Maker Episode 421
Chapter 12 – Before and After #2
The invasion by foreign gods including Musin lasted only a few hours, but the damage suffered by the Sacred Nation was truly enormous.
More than half of the walls surrounding the capital of the Holy Kingdom had collapsed, and the royal palace had also collapsed beyond recognition of its former form.
Fortunately, the casualties were relatively small thanks to the rapid evacuation, but this was only small compared to the scale of the damage to the capital city, and was by no means minor.
“It’s fortunate that the garrison is made up of machines.”
The forces guarding the capital could be broadly divided into two groups.
The Knights Templar, made up of the knights of the Cordelia Church, and the garrison made up of machines created by dwarves.
The garrison suffered heavy damage, losing 50% of its strength, but since most of its strength was comprised of machines to begin with, casualties were minimal.
The Knights were also able to preserve their forces beyond their expectations thanks to the support of Count Chase, the Wind Wolf Gale, and the Golden Yasha Adelia who appeared at a critical moment.
However, not only Adelia who brought up the story, but also Yuder who was looking around the situation in the capital had a bad expression.
In any case, it was true that the Holy Nation suffered great damage.
And here’s one more thing added to it.
Cordelia burst into tears as she entered the treatment room in the shelter located in the basement of the palace.
On the beds next to each other, Maia and Dahlia lay unconscious.
Both of them had bandages wrapped all over their bodies and various treatment tools attached to them, so their condition looked critical at first glance.
But that wasn’t the only problem.
“Dahlia, Dahlia’s legs… … .”
Cordelia couldn’t even continue speaking.
Uther also looked back at Maia with his teeth clenched.
Maia also had one of her legs completely crushed, so it would have been better to just amputate it.
It was Uther who had already heard from Atalia what had happened.
If Count Bayer had not appeared at the right moment, the two men would not only have lost their legs, but would have lost their lives.
Uther squeezed his eyes shut and tried to calm himself down.
It was a mistake to give them access to the Worldstone since they were the two most trusted people in the Holy Nation, excluding Cordelia.
If he had not given her such authority in the first place, Maia would have fled out of the capital, and Dahlia would have had no reason to confront a being like a god.
“It’s okay, it’ll be okay.”
They were not who they used to be.
If he was still alive, there was a way to do something about it.
So it was okay.
Now was the time to be thankful that the two of them had survived.
Uther spoke softly to both himself and Cordelia, forcing a smile, and Cordelia nodded with a face full of tears.
* * *
Dahlia slowly opened her eyes.
A white ceiling with a faint light reflecting off it was visible in my blurry vision.
“ah…….”
Dahlia let out a small, shaky voice and opened and closed her eyes.
My head was heavy and my body was sluggish, but I was able to come to my senses little by little.
‘You’re alive.’
Dahlia, who had once again slumped her shoulders in a vague sense of relief, quickly sat up.
No, I wanted to set it up.
Because the situation right before I lost consciousness flashed back to me.
“Ugh?!”
Dahlia, who was trying to raise her upper body, almost fell off the bed.
Dahlia, barely able to regain her balance and lying back down, could immediately see why.
I had no feeling in my lower body.
It wasn’t paralyzed.
The reason I almost fell off the bed when I tried to raise my upper body was because there was no weight on my legs.
Dahlia’s breathing suddenly became ragged.
Dahlia gritted her teeth and pulled back the blanket that had been covering her chest.
The lower thighs were empty.
The knees were not visible.
“Haa… … Ha… … .”
Both legs were cut off.
It was not a dream, it was reality.
Dahlia continued to gasp for breath and covered her face with both hands.
I didn’t scream, but there was nothing I could do about the tears that were flowing out.
‘It’s okay, it’s okay, Dahlia.’
He lost both legs, but he did not die.
And- and-
Dahlia hastily put her hand down and looked around.
Right next to me.
I saw Maia lying in bed, sound asleep.
Although he looked visibly tired, his face looked calm.
“ha…….”
Maya lived.
Maya is alive.
Dahlia laughed and cried without realizing it.
Even though both legs were cut off, Maia lived, so it was okay.
They could both die, but they had to be content with both being alive.
What happened?
Did the young lady or the young master come to rescue me?
Dahlia continued to think.
It was partly out of genuine curiosity, but also to avoid the reality that both of his legs had been cut off.
“Maya… … .”
I wanted to look a little closer.
I wanted to touch her cheek and feel her warm body temperature.
But I couldn’t do it.
Getting out of bed was now impossible.
Dahlia burst into tears again and bit her lip to muffle her voice.
I wanted to cry, but I had to hold it back.
Dahlia herself was a knight.
Didn’t you ever expect that a day like this might come someday?
Besides, if I cried now, Maia might wake up.
Dahlia swallowed a muffled sob and continued her thoughts.
I wonder what happened to the young lady and the young master.
Would it be okay to just attach a prosthetic leg to replace the amputated leg?
Would Lord Edward’s prosthetic leg allow him to walk again?
But if I can’t fight anymore – if I have to quit being a knight – what should I do then?
Should I learn some administrative work?
Or how about learning from Maya all the time?
That might be kind of fun.
A thousand thoughts literally came to mind.
But in the end, I couldn’t help but shed tears again.
I felt like my heart was breaking from the overwhelming sense of loss.
And then again, how much time had passed?
Dahlia, who had fallen asleep from crying, opened her eyes with a slightly dazed face.
Perhaps because I had cried my heart out, I felt strangely refreshed, and then a very happy face caught my eye.
“dahlia!”
“miss?”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s me.”
Cordelia, smiling even more cheerfully than usual, lowered her body and hugged Dahlia tightly.
“miss.”
“Yeah, Dahlia.”
“miss.”
Dahlia eventually burst into tears again.
She was originally not a person who cried much, but a series of events made her heart too weak.
Cordelia hugged Dahlia tightly and shared her body heat with her, and when Dahlia calmed down a bit, she pointed to the side.
“Maia is there too.”
It really was.
Maia was on the bed right next to me.
Just like always, she has a faint smile that looks expressionless at first glance.
“Maya.”
Maia smiled softly and held Dahlia’s hand tightly.
Since Maia usually has cold hands, it wasn’t warm, but the coolness felt pleasant.
“Thank you, Dahlia.”
Dahlia nodded, biting her lip at that one word that contained so much.
Because I felt like I was going to start crying again any moment now.
‘It’s okay, after all.’
Even though I lost both my legs, I saved Maia.
Because I protected Maia with these hands.
Dahlia spread her arms, and Maia smiled slightly before bending down and hugging Dahlia tightly.
Cordelia looked at the two of them with a smile.
And one person.
Yuder, who had been silent until now, smiled softly and said.
“Thank you too, Sir Dahlia.”
“Oh, no. I just did my duty.”
Dahlia answered a little stiffly, still holding Maia in her arms.
In any case, to her, who was a knight, Yuder was both her superior and her lord.
“Well, that won’t work. From now on, I’ll do it alone, so you go out for a bit.”
Because Dahlia is having a hard time.
The story I’m going to tell from now on would be more comfortable for both Dahlia and Maia if you weren’t there.
Uther showed a sad expression at Cordelia’s banishment, but it only lasted for a moment.
He greeted Dahlia and Maia and left the room. After making sure the door was closed, Cordelia looked back at Dahlia and Maia and said.
“I will make two people into angels.”
“……yes?”
It was Dahlia who asked back reflexively.
Maia just blinked her big eyes as if she didn’t understand.
“To be more precise, we will create a new body for the angel and then transplant the souls of two people into it.”
“yes???”
Dahlia couldn’t help but ask again.
What are you making and what are you transplanting?
“Some of them are seriously injured, and some of them have been injured for a long time. This is the most certain and clean way. It also gives me more peace of mind.”
Because if you become an angel, you will be much stronger than a human.
In fact, creating an angel’s body and then transplanting its soul into it was not an easy task for Cordelia either.
In the case of Cordelia herself and Uther, it was easy to use avatars because they were beings with strong souls to the point of possessing divinity from the beginning, but Dahlia and Maia were ordinary humans.
Furthermore, while using an avatar was ultimately limited to controlling a temporary body, the two people were in a situation where they had to transfer their souls into completely new bodies.
‘Besides, I have no intention of making you just a regular angel.’
If it was a transplant to the lowest angel, honestly, it wasn’t that difficult.
In the first place, the lowest level angels were the ones that could be mass-produced like factory production.
What Cordelia thought was an angel.
A high-ranking angel, right after the archangels and seraphs.
It was truly a difficult task to create an angelic body of this caliber and then place an ordinary human soul inside it.
It was also clear that Cordelia’s divinity and spiritual power would be consumed enormously.
But Cordelia was going to do it.
She was the type of person who would not hesitate to use more than ten times the resources she had anticipated for the sake of two people.
“So, are there any options you would like?”
“Oh, options?”
“Yes, I’m going to make a completely new body. I’m going to use two people as a base so that the soul can settle in well, but I can still fix it little by little.”
This was the very reason why Yuder was kicked out.
If they were two women, it might be okay, but if Yuder was a man, neither of them would be able to say what they want freely.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so don’t regret it later. Just tell me everything. If you put in the effort, anything is possible.”
The more Cordelia talked, the more her face became playful.
As if he was looking forward to seeing what options the two would ask for.
“That, that, uh… … .”
Dahlia stuttered, as if confused.
When I thought about modifying my body, all sorts of things came to mind, but it was too embarrassing to actually say them out loud.
But that was just then.
“All, just something… … .”
“huh?”
“Eating sweets without gaining weight… Is that even possible?”
When Maia asked cautiously with her shy face – expressionless to others but recognizable to Dahlia – Cordelia blinked, then nodded with a bright smile.
“Yeah, of course. It’s simple, just having a body type where you don’t gain weight even if you eat a lot.”
At Cordelia’s words, Maia smiled faintly and clenched her fists.
He seemed happier than expected.
‘Maya, you were paying attention.’
Maia, always pitiful and elegant, with a voluptuous waist.
But in fact, Maia was also very concerned about weight management.
You must have been trying hard to hold back on even the sweets.
That’s what it was.
Dahlia felt like she had seen the same comment, saying that her understanding of Maia had increased by 10. She smiled slightly and turned to Cordelia.
“Miss, I would like the same thing.”
“Yeah, of course. Is there anything else?”
What I want from my new body.
This time, Maia was the first to speak shyly, and Dahlia felt a little surprised again at Maia’s request.
Cordelia laughed heartily.
“What about Dahlia? Is Dahlia the same thing?”
“Uh… … yes… … .”
Dahlia answered shyly with a blushing face and looked at Maia, and Maia looked at Dahlia with affectionate eyes as always.
So Dahlia smiled.
Although she was still embarrassed, she looked back at Cordelia and began to list the things she wished for, and Cordelia began to write down Dahlia’s wishes, saying, “Oh.”
Maia also confessed what she wanted, even reaching out.
And so the three of them continued their enjoyable girls’ talk.
‘We need a new Bible.’
Standing outside the door, Uder had a dark – no, a happy smile on his face as he imagined the verses and illustrations of the two angels with Cordelia.
