He, who until just moments before had been lightly tending to the splintered wood pillar riddled with bullets, seemed to have taken off the instant the touch in his fingertips confirmed the direction and depth of the shot.Taeui clicked his tongue.――Still, there are those who hold grudges, so you’d better be careful during outdoor night marches. Even if they have no chance in a frontal fight, some might think to ambush you.Ching’s words flashed through his mind. Taeui began sprinting in the direction Ilrey had vanished.He had no way of knowing which of them had attacked. There were too many to guess.But he was certain of one thing: the only person who wouldn’t target him. He had asked that person—his uncle—to be informed. If he could just hold on until then, he could save the life of whoever had pulled the trigger.He sighed at the thought—why he felt compelled to protect the attacker’s life—but this was something he would have to accept ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ if he intended to keep living beside that man. At the same time, he felt a trace of worry for him, however unlikely the scenario.“Ilrey!!”He caught sight of Ilrey’s back in the distance. Even though Ilrey must have heard his voice, he barreled forward, eyes fixed ahead, and soon melted back into the darkness of the forest.As he ran, Taeui noticed two or three trees cratered where bullets had struck, and rocks split unnaturally. The assault had continued even as they ran.“Damn it. Since when does an ambusher get pursued? If you’re not capable, you shouldn’t be pulling off things you can’t handle in the first place.”Muttering curses, Taeui chased the vanished trail. After a while, he slowed. He had lost the trace. Until moments ago Ilrey’s pale back had flickered in his vision; now it was gone. In the inky forest, he had no clue where Ilrey had gone.Only the moonlight faintly illuminating the path, and the distant crackle of campfires where the troops were bivouacked—Taeui halted and listened for any movement.A forest can be like water; even hearing a sound gives no sense of its direction, especially when vision is swallowed by blackness.He thought he heard something: ragged breathing, suppressed groans, choked sobs, bodies colliding. His frayed nerves caught those noises, but he couldn’t pinpoint their source.Damn it. Where?Taeui stood frozen, amid the distant murmurs, the rustle of leaves, the sigh of wind.He heard it again: the crunch of footsteps on underbrush.Instinctively, he lunged toward that direction.“Ilrey! ――Hey!!”He shouted as he ran, sweeping aside the tall grass obscuring his view.And there, Taeui saw two men.Ilrey, with a languid expression, had one hand raised, gripping the throat of the man before him; the stranger’s eyes were bloodshot, bulging as if he would burst, his face twisted.“Why are you here? You didn’t need to come.”Ilrey murmured calmly, his gaze flicking to Taeui for a moment. His face was as unperturbed as his voice. Taeui could only manage a strangled sound before locking eyes with the struggling man for a few seconds, then frowned.“Don’t kill him. If you can help it. Even handing him over, he’ll rot in the brig.”Ilrey’s cold glance shot to him, pupils narrowing as if amused.“Didn’t you reckon these things when you decided to stick with me?”“…This is really….”Years of pent-up fury welled up, and Taeui stepped forward, resolved to sink his teeth into that man’s throat.But just as he rolled up his sleeve and took a step, a chill grazed his nape.He saw Ilrey’s eyes freeze in the moonlight—his gaze, his features, every bit of him, suddenly as cold as ice.The next instant, Taeui realized someone had wrapped their arms tightly around him from behind, pressing a knife’s edge to his throat.“….”“Is this really your weakness? Is it true, Rick?”A low, excited voice whispered in his ear. He could almost smell the steel of the blade at his skin.――You’d better watch out, someone might try to catch you off guard just as you’re hunting that guy.Damn it. That was Ching’s warning that Taeui should’ve remembered. Taeui, you fool.He stared at Ilrey through the blade’s reflection—Ieley stood there, motionless, his face pale as wax, expression drained of humanity.Ilrey’s grip loosened, and Rick collapsed to the forest floor with a heavy thud, coughing as if his throat had been torn.Yet Ilrey did not look at him. He made a fist with his gloved hand and slowly turned to face Taeui. The moonlight made his face appear unnaturally pale, doll-like.His eyes—black, emotionless—were fixed on Taeui.“Don’t tell me you thought I’d hurt you? I wouldn’t do that.”He lifted a hand and began gently wiping the blood from Rick’s throat, as if cleaning a doll.“Then stop staring at me like that.”Taeui spoke through clenched teeth and flicked Ilrey’s hand away. Ilrey smirked.“Why? You always assume I could hurt you—or might want to.”His low, calm voice sounded almost tender. Taeui met those jet-black, narrowed eyes once more—eyes he’d seen long ago, in the first footage he ever saw of Ilrey. Eyes that were cold, languid, void of any feeling.“So?” Ilrey whispered, tilting his head, smiling as if pondering a joke. “Shall I show you how to cut a man’s throat?”He stepped forward, and the blade trembled, inching deeper against Taeui’s skin. Rick’s muffled curses sounded behind him, but Taeui couldn’t hear them over the roaring in his ears.Ilrey came within inches.“Stand still!!” Rick bellowed. The knife’s edge grazed Taeui’s skin again, drawing a thin line of blood.But Ilrey’s hand shot out, seizing the blade before it could cut deeper. The steel stopped inches from Taeui’s jugular. Rick gasped in shock, the knife twisting uselessly in Ilrey’s grip. Blood dripped down the blade onto Ilrey’s glove—blood that wasn’t his own for the first time.“You see, a man’s throat is tougher than you’d think. You can’t just slice through it.”Ilrey’s voice remained even, as he met Taeui’s frozen stare.“To cut a throat….” His voice trailed as he drew a finger across his own throat. Then he raised his other hand and clamped it around Taeui’s neck, as if holding prey by the scruff.He snatched the knife from Rick’s hand, flipped it grip-first, and held it out before him—not toward his own hand anymore.“One swift, deep stab in the right spot, then pull across in one motion. Like this.”He demonstrated, raising the blade and bringing it down in a single, fluid motion, never breaking eye contact with Taeui.Taeui felt hot blood spurt across the back of his neck—first a single jet, then a torrent like a raging wave.――!!Without a scream, Rick convulsed behind him. Ilrey’s arm moved with cold precision as the flood of blood increased. Rick’s snarls grew grotesque.Through it all, Ilrey never looked away from Taeui. At the moment Rick’s body went limp and slumped to the ground, Ilrey spoke softly:“Did you really think I’d harm you? I wouldn’t.”He raised a hand and gently wiped Taeui’s neck clean of Rick’s blood, as though tending a wound.“Then stop staring at me like that.”He spoke just as Taeui set his jaw and brushed Ilrey’s hand aside.“Why?” Ilrey’s voice was low, hushed, almost affectionate. “You always assume I might hurt you.”Taeui met those narrowed, black eyes once again.

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