Children’s Song (3)
There were hands reaching out to catch the falling stars.
They were the hands of small, young children who had not yet fully bloomed.
Those hands in the dark, held out only by one’s own will, not by anyone’s instructions or force, were holding Vlad along with Josef.
-It’s been a while.
“……Iknow, right.”
Josef’s face, seen beyond the clasped hands, looked paler than ever, perhaps because of the surrounding darkness.
However, the smile he gave while looking at Vlad did not seem to have changed at all from what he saw in the sunlight-filled office.
“Keuung!”
A world of upside-down trees that seemed as if they would fall endlessly.
Vlad, who was barely lifted up by the hands that held me, was only then able to notice the countless eyes looking at him.
“…It’s you guys.”
In the pitch-black darkness we finally stepped into, there were children holding their breath while looking at Vlad.
Children who look pitiful with their eyes painted entirely black.
Nevertheless, Vlad was at a loss for words as he looked at the heads tilting as if they were recognizing him.
“I have a lot to say, but let’s do it later.”
-okay.
Josef smiled faintly when Vlad said that we would talk about our situation later.
However, Vlad, who looked up at the place where he had fallen, did not notice that Josef looked somewhat sad.
[It starts to close.]
“…….”
The person named Vlad could not be seen in the children’s dim eyes covered by darkness.
There was only the brightly shining starlight.
As the star fell from the sky and looked up again, the children nearby all started to look up as well.
“There was no other way, right?”
-That’s right.
However, the light shining from the place you look up only gets darker as time goes by.
As he watched the passage to the outside world becoming increasingly closed, Vlad realized that he had little time left.
“Then I guess I’ll have to get up there somehow.”
-Is there a way to get to the top? At that moment
, Vlad
‘s sword began to cry as if it had been waiting.
A sword born from the stars and engraved with the inscription of the World Tree.
Vlad, who realized what the sword I was holding was saying, looked at Josef with a determined expression.
“…I’ll try making it.”
I don’t know if I can do it again, but it has to be done.
Vlad closed his left eye deeply while listening to the sound of the sword speaking.
“Whoa…”
To pull out the children wandering in this dream-like world.
To do so, Vlad began to once again evoke the feelings he still remembered from Auslin.
“Let’s really do it again.”
Kwasik-!
With a deep, tense breath, a faint light began to leak from the sword that was sharply inserted.
The same color as Vlad’s left eye.
The light seen now is the same color as the young world tree that was lent to it then.
-huh? What is that?
-It’s green?
Doo-doo-dud-
The cracks created by Vlad began to appear in the quiet world of Ramasht.
-Isn’t that a sprout?
The crack was also a signal that brought strong change to this world that would stand still forever.
“Huh!”
What is a Sword Master?
It means someone who knows how to draw their own world.
And the knight standing here now is the one and only successor to the Sword Master. It was Vlad of Shoara.
-Vlad!
A bright green light began to radiate from the sword Vlad had inserted.
That color is the light of the world that Vlad wants to draw now.
The brightly shining light was reaching not only the children nearby but also the children loitering by the bonfire.
“Kwaaaah!”
In the world of Ramasht, where no color existed, the picture drawn by Vlad began to sprout little by little.
It started as a small sprout, but before we knew it, it was soaring toward the sky.
-That…
I was born as a dragon, but what I want to draw is a brilliant flower.
So the sword master of this era was drawing a staircase for children.
Deeudeeudeeudeuk-!
The blooming roots are green that recognizes me.
The rising stem is white with me.
And the flower petals rising toward the sky are the blue of the moon that I have always hoped for.
“Let’s take a ride!”
From this dark world, there was a flower blooming toward the sky.
It was a boy’s world that Josef had also seen.
“Because I will support you!”
The name of the flower that always blooms where it should be is Vlad of Shoara.
The flower of this generation, blooming for young potential, was shouting for us to step on them and climb up.
※※※※
“Kaaaa!”
The trembling eyes were already filled with red blood vessels.
“Frausen-!”
Anger and pain. The dragon’s blue eyes contain it all.
The person those eyes are pointing at is the emperor who was resurrected from the dead. It was Frausen.
“……Sarnus. “You foolish dragon.”
Ugly roots began to sprout from Frausen’s back.
However, they were ignoring Frausen and were just waving their black tongues at Sarnus right in front of them.
“You damn b*stard! to the end!”
A drop of poison spread throughout a world that dreams of perfection.
A faded world hidden within the imperial sculpture was fiercely piercing Sarnus’ heart.
“You die with me today.”
Frausen was walking towards the dragon that was roaring at him.
Stepping on dying soldiers and wielding a vicious tree behind his back.
Frausen was just walking along, picturing death, as if he didn’t care about the boys singing in the distance.
“Because that will be the last duty I have left.”
Just trying not to let go of the last duty I have.
The silver knight raised like that had a faded color on it.
“Do I want to end up like this?”
Ugly roots began to fall on the head of the oldest dragon, who was struggling in pain.
Sarnus was pouring out angry bubbles of
blood as he looked at the roots, which were sharper than a sword and heavier than a castle.
“Do you know how I got here?”
“…!”
At that moment, sharp fangs began to erupt from the corners of Sarnus’ mouth, which was tightly closed.
The dragon’s blue eyes raised together with him.
The remnants of perfection reflected in those eyes made Frausen take a step back without realizing it.
“I am a dragon! “A dragon who can dream of perfection!”
Kwakagagagang-!
As the house-like roots crawled over Sarnus, corpses piled up on the ground began to scatter here and there.
Along with the thick dust that rose up as it could not overcome the weight of the roots.
“…Sarnus.”
Nod! Suddenly!
There were eyes shining in the red mist mixed with blood.
From his closed left eye, it was the pupil of Sarnus, dreaming of the most perfect world.
“It can never end like this.”
Sarnus’ right arm, which was lifting a huge root like a castle wall, was full of golden scales.
Frausen began to get extremely nervous at the perfect appearance that only a pure-blooded dragon could recreate.
“I didn’t endure for hundreds of years just to be caught by people like you. Frausen.”
Sarnus’ eyes began to grow fierce as he looked at Frausen’s sword raised towards him.
However, the gaze of the oldest dragon was not at Frausen or at the ugly root, but at the jewel-like world looking at me from behind.
“And you weren’t the only one preparing for the move.”
Frausen noticed where Sarnus was looking and turned his head with a puzzled expression.
When I turn my head, I see a dragon of this era.
“…!”
Frausen, who realized Sarnus’ intention, hurriedly gestured towards the evil roots, but Sarnus, who had already cast off his human body, rushed faster than anyone else on the battlefield.
“……father?”
Kwasik-!
Drops of blood rose along with a hungry smile for perfection.
Bright red dragon blood splashing over the draped flag of Dragulia.
Mirshea’s blue eyes were growing as if they were torn apart as she looked at the dragons of the previous generation that she could not dare to fight against.
※※※※
Kuddudddud-!
“Ugh!”
Shell-like debris was flying across the pitch-black dark space.
However, for Vlad, the world of children stepping on him was more burdensome than the debris falling on his head.
“What is so heavy about the topic of children?”
From behind Vlad’s hunched back, leaning on his sheathed sword, small hands were climbing up the large holder.
Those small, ants-like gestures were still moving upward.
Toward the light visible above, following the boys’ song that I hear in my ears.
[Hold on! Because each child climbing now is the world itself!]
Although the weight of the body may be as light as a feather, the weight of the soul will not be the same.
However, Vlad was gritting his teeth until the end for the children who were trying to climb up there.
“…I’m going to lose my spine. really!”
I couldn’t give you wings to soar, but I will give you stairs to step on.
However, the noble will that Vlad is displaying now was not demonstrated simply because of an oath or oath.
“Do you think everyone had this hard time?”
[…….]
That’s because I knew that I, too, had climbed on someone else’s back.
There were faces that emerged with each step the children took.
The faces that started from a small blacksmith shop in Shoara were the faces of people who willingly gave up their backs for the current Vlad.
“If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have done it this way.”
From a boy in the back alley to the successor to the Sword Master.
From unadorned swords to dragon-slaying swords.
All of this growth was possible because there were people like Vlad who believed in his potential and supported him.
The knights of this era, who blossomed through their sacrifices, were people who had the obligation to pay the price fairly.
“But why aren’t they going?”
-Wait a moment!
However, behind the children climbing on my back, there were still children curled up next to the bonfire.
Children who are still afraid to move forward even as they see this world being violently broken.
The children simply closed their eyes in this world that was like a mother’s embrace.
-If you don’t get out now, you’ll be trapped in this world forever. Do you really want to do that?
Josef’s voice spoke calmly, but the children’s movements were still steadfast.
The shaking of a faded star visible even through tightly closed eyes.
However, the children were still cowering, waiting for someone, as if they did not want to follow the light.
“Holy shit! “Go up quickly!”
There is nothing the sword can do for the young potential that has already been shattered.
Vlad, who knew this very well, just lowered his head and took a deep breath.
“……please.”
At that moment, there was a voice rising from the floor.
“what?”
“Please. Please, please.”
A woman rising with black tears.
However, the formless figure, which seemed to have melted and was so writhing, could not possibly be said to belong to the living.
“…Ramasht.”
A woman who supported the black moon with all her strength.
The woman appeared in front of Vlad with her exhausted body for the children who were still waiting for her.
“Please, at least for the sake of those children.”
For the last possibility of raising a black moon.
A woman shedding black tears for her children, whom neither the revived emperor nor the oldest dragon cared for, was kneeling in front of a flower that had only just bloomed.
“……Please share with me the pieces you have.”
Ramasht, a woman full of sin.
However, the children she carried were not guilty.
“please.”
“…….”
The black moon was sinking.
Towards this hell-like battlefield.
However, in this hell where everyone only kills and kills, the only woman who cried for her children was this woman shedding black tears.
