Empty (5)

Boom!

Reichardt, who had climbed onto the dragon’s head where Alicia had come down, hacked at its one remaining eye with his axe.

“KRAAAAAAH!”

Reichardt was not affected in the slightest by the dragon’s thrashing or the crackling lightning.

Alicia yanked harder on the chain she had clenched.

The dragon’s neck, crushed by pain, tilted as if it would hit the stone floor.

Reichardt, who had moved from the dragon’s brow toward its horned crown, brought his axe down in a heavy swing.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The axe came down again and again on the dragon’s neck.

Thud!

The dragon’s sacred head collapsed onto the stone floor.

The earthshaking rumble and lightning that had been rocking the world vanished all at once.

Reichardt did not let his guard down and kept chopping with his axe.

“…Krr…”

From the dragon’s head, which she had thought was dead, a beastly reverberation leaked out.

Its beautiful purple eye, ruined and smeared with blood, searched for Alicia and Reichardt.

“…You… today… …killed me, but… …you too… …will sleep here forever…!”

A voice steeped in pain and agony spat a curse, packed with rage.

Bang!

Reichardt severed the whispering head completely from the neck.

The enormous head dropped limply with a dull thud.

No more sound leaked from the dragon.

A long silence fell.

The world sank into a suffocating stillness.

“…”

Reichardt flinched at the instant the dragon’s breath finally stopped.

It felt as if time had frozen, and something inside him snapped away.

The invisible restraint that had been gripping him from behind fell off.

Drip.

Reichardt, unable to move for a moment in the unfamiliar sensation, cast his gaze around.

He still possessed that impossible hearing and heightened senses.

The sense linked to Alicia remained unchanged as well.

And yet, something was gone.

“…”

Reichardt stared out at the world in a daze.

The dragon’s massive body, which had radiated overwhelming presence, soon scattered like dust.

The dragon left behind a single magic crystal.

A huge violet magic crystal, too large to hold even with both hands.

With no outer shell, it looked like a jewel filled with the dragon’s essence.

“Alicia.”

Reichardt picked up the violet magic crystal and walked to her.

“This is…”

Alicia hesitated, wondering how to appear fair or generous.

The crystal was too big.

“It’s yours, Alicia.”

Reichardt said it firmly, politely.

‘I love you, Rei.’

Alicia looked up at Reichardt with eyes full of emotion, thinking it would be too petty to confess at this moment.

As if he had read her mind, Reichardt brushed his hand over her head, ruffling it gently.

“Thank you.”

Alicia spoke like the happiest person in the world and tightened her grip.

The brilliant violet light spread in every direction, then seeped into Alicia.

Reichardt watched in silence—astonished even the third time.

Alicia opened the eyes she had closed.

For a moment, it felt as if the violet in her eyes deepened.

“Rei…”

Alicia slowly opened her eyes, startled, about to speak.

“Alicia, we have a problem. Monsters are coming from all sides. It looks like the dragon drew them here before it died.”

Reichardt tried to pull Alicia into his arms to protect her.

Even if his body was injured, it recovered quickly.

Alicia slipped out of Reichardt’s embrace.

“Rei, hide.”

A monster was already beyond the door.

“Alicia?”

“Hide somewhere high up.”

Alicia said as she picked up a spear lying on the floor.

The place where the dragon had stayed was a circular chamber, with the dragon in the center and empty space around it.

“Somewhere high up” was nothing more than the wall ornaments.

Reichardt looked around for a space narrower than a window frame, and Alicia nodded.

There. Hide.

It was like she was saying that.

Reichardt was at a loss, but there was no time to ask.

KWA-BOOM!

The monsters that had entered the underground labyrinth smashed the entrance to the dragon’s lair and poured in.

Black monsters spilled in a mass like a rushing current.

“…!”

The next moment, Reichardt saw a miracle.

“I love you, Rei.”

Alicia threw a sweet confession up at Reichardt, perched in that narrow space, and met the monsters head-on.

“Krrrgh!”

Alicia moved through the black, riverlike horde as if she were light itself.

When the elegant violet glow brushed past them, the shrieking monsters crumbled into stone and collapsed.

The monsters that had filled the chamber met that beautiful shimmer—and met their end.

Inside the hall, only radiant violet light and the sound of falling stone rubble remained.

Boom! Rumble.

The monsters that had returned on the dragon’s command were annihilated in an instant.

“…A-Alicia…!”

Reichardt shouted as he watched a scene he could not believe even with his own eyes.

Amid the debris of monsters collapsing and shattering, Alicia stood alone.

After crushing the last monster, Alicia slowly crumpled.

With her vision blurring, she toppled sideways.

As she waited for the impact to come, strong arms gently wrapped around her back.

A terrified face wavered in and out before her dimming sight.

Alicia wanted to smile at the man holding her.

“Damn it…”

A ragged voice rang out.

Before tenderness or gratitude toward Reichardt, irritation surged first.

“Alicia?”

Reichardt feared something had gone wrong with the Alicia in his arms.

Alicia’s heart was pounding unbelievably fast.

“…I thought… my power came back completely… when I was in hell…”

Alicia grumbled in a voice full of grievance.

She was not ashamed of having been mistaken.

“…”

She was angry that she had not regained the power she’d had in hell.

“Rei, you don’t have to worry. I just didn’t know my limit—I used too much power at once, so I’m like this for a bit. When my power refills, I’ll go back to normal.”

Only after venting her complaints and frustration did Alicia explain.

Reichardt carefully laid Alicia down.

Alicia, embarrassed for no good reason, looked off somewhere else.

Even if she met his eyes, she couldn’t see his face clearly anyway.

Reichardt gave a low hum in his throat, then let out a long breath.

He looked, unmistakably, like he thought she was ridiculous.

Alicia wondered if she was just feeling guilty for no reason, but the man who had sighed softly chuckled.

“You’re laughing…?”

Her voice came out thick with emotion.

“How long could you maintain it like that in hell?”

Reichardt stroked Alicia’s cheek, limp with exhaustion.

“Maybe an hour? I don’t really know.”

Alicia answered with a careless swagger, like a broad-shouldered back-alley thug.

Reichardt recalled the day Alicia had ridden a horse standing up, then vaulted onto a wall.

Someone who moved like she had just now must have felt desperate when her body stopped obeying her as she wished.

“So that’s why you rode standing up.”

Reichardt muttered under his breath.

His tone sounded like he was teasing.

He cleared space beside Alicia and brought magic crystals from the monster debris.

“Ah. Open up.”

Reichardt pushed a magic crystal—its shell already smashed—between Alicia’s lips.

“What is it…”

Alicia tried to refuse at first, but when she realized what touched her lips was a magic crystal, she opened her mouth.

Crunch, crunch.

Thankfully, she still had the strength to chew and swallow magic crystals.

“How is it?”

Reichardt used the side of his axe to smash several magic-crystal shells at once.

“Better.”

Alicia was still seeing through a haze.

A magic crystal touched her lips again.

Alicia looked up at Reichardt, feeding her magic crystals like a mother bird, with eyes full of love.

Crunch, crunch.

That loving gaze kept eating magic crystals without pause.

There had been a time in hell when she lay alone in the desert after fighting monsters to the death.

Her waist had been broken, and she’d bled enough to fill a bucket.

She knew she wouldn’t die and would eventually recover, but lying alone under the blazing sun had been frightening and lonely.

If someone had fed her magic crystals like this back then, she would have loved them with all her heart.

Alicia felt as if this man was repaying the version of herself who had once been left lying in the desert.

“Are you sure you’re getting better?”

Reichardt looked down at Alicia, worried, as she smiled for no apparent reason.

“Give me more magic crystals.”

Alicia demanded boldly.

“Alright.”

Reichardt fed Alicia every magic crystal he had, then brought more and cracked their shells.

Then, like feeding a baby weaning food, he held the magic crystal to Alicia’s lips.

“Give me green ones.”

Alicia, feeling much better, demanded a specific color.

“Wait.”

Reichardt checked the magic crystals in his hand and stepped away for a moment.

As he went to pick up more, he roughly left the magic crystals he was holding beside Alicia.

Something that precious.

Alicia felt sorry for Reichardt, who didn’t seem to understand how valuable magic crystals were.

When he returned, Reichardt sorted out only the green ones and gave them to Alicia.

“How is it—are you alright now?”

Reichardt asked in a suspicious voice, clearly knowing how greedy Alicia usually was about magic crystals.

Was it really certain you could refill depleted power with magic crystals?

“Way better than before.”

Alicia looked at Reichardt with clearer eyes.

“Really?”

“…I’m about as ‘better’ as if someone poured a single waterskin into the desert. If I lie down like this for two days, I’ll recover.”

Alicia said it with a face like she couldn’t lie any further.

“Two days?”

A crease formed between Reichardt’s brows.

“So I can’t use that whenever I want.”

Alicia whispered with a troubled face.

Her expression, checking Reichardt’s mood, dripped with disappointment.

It was not normal to be saying something so absurd with complete sincerity.

“Don’t ever do it again.”

Reichardt said firmly.

His stern, rigid face was intense enough to make her flinch.

“B-But… wasn’t it cool…?”

Alicia, as if proving she really was feeling better, wriggled closer and rested her head on Reichardt’s thigh.

Her neck was bent at a right angle and it had to be uncomfortable, but she didn’t care.

Reichardt pulled the crumpled Alicia up and laid her down more comfortably.

“It was incredibly cool. But don’t ever do it again. Understood?”

Reichardt spoke gravely, pressing a green magic crystal to Alicia’s lips.

Alicia didn’t answer—she just opened her mouth and accepted the magic crystal.

Crunch.

Only the sound of Alicia chewing continued as her lips worked.

Reichardt went to find green magic crystals again and again, holding them out.

If she ate about twenty more, she felt like she could move lightly.

A pile of other-colored magic crystals built up beside Alicia.

Seeing that, Alicia’s lips curved into a satisfied smile without her even realizing.

“Don’t use that again. Why aren’t you answering?”

“Because it was cool…”

Alicia mumbled, pretending to be weak.

“It was unbelievably, insanely cool—but no.”

Reichardt emphasized.

“If it’s necessary, I might have to…”

Alicia muttered softly as she ate the magic crystal.

The way she avoided his gaze looked more comfortable now.

“How is it?”

After taking the last magic crystal, Alicia pushed herself up to sit.

“I’m fine.”

As Reichardt tried to say something, Alicia reached out and hugged him.

Reichardt, startled by the sudden embrace, soon hugged her back.

“Are you sure?”

At the voice ringing by her ear, Alicia nodded.

“I’m fine.”

Reichardt rained kisses onto Alicia’s ear as she nodded.

At that sweet sensation falling against her ear, Alicia felt puzzled.

With the final castle ahead, Reichardt had been openly affectionate with Alicia.

Since it was the last one, she could guess there would be a difficult opponent there.

Because the environmental changes around the Great Temple had been severe, Alicia had told him there was a possibility of a dragon.

But rather than the danger itself, it seemed Reichardt believed that once they sealed the final castle, something might happen to him.

They had cut off the dragon’s head and sealed the final castle.

His worries did not become reality.

His reality did not change, either.

Reichardt still had strange hearing and tremendous regenerative ability.

Until now, Reichardt had kept his distance when dealing with Alicia.

Even after confessing, there had been hesitation in the hand that reached for her.

Even when he showed affection actively, he had looked afraid that if something went wrong, his curse might spread to Alicia.

But from the Reichardt now, hugging her without restraint and planting kisses on her cheek and ear, Alicia could not feel that worry.

He did not fear it, nor did he hesitate.