Chapter 581 – #119_Comedy(3)
#581
1.
I opened my eyes.
The day was visible before me.
Like rainwater flowing down a leaf, bright red blood dripped from the spearhead, landing on my forehead.
Dorothy’s eyes slowly turned towards Siwoo.
His condition, aiming the spear at her, didn’t look much better.
Bloodshot eyes.
Blood trickled from his tightly closed lips, and the bulging veins on his arms seemed to be greatly affected by the distortion field.
Indeed, it was a field that instantly nullified the defensive capabilities of the nun’s habit, which could withstand most attacks even without a chapel.
The act of wielding the original source that produced that field would impose an enormous burden.
It was a pathetic sight.
Lelouch had planned to send him back when he had sufficiently suppressed his anger, completed the trial he had half-abandoned, and built up a solid resentment towards others.
The reason stated outwardly was that if he, who was also ‘weak,’ was next to Lelouch, the betrayal as a form of inoculation would be less effective…
But that wasn’t the only reason.
Seeing him getting along well with Lelouch, unable to hate Dorothy to his heart’s content, she had, for the first time in a long while, felt the desire to possess him.
She had a small hope that if she had a connection she had never experienced before, maybe she too could become as fragile as Lelouch or Chalit.
She had wanted to be with him, even for a little while…
In that process, Shin Siwoo’s resistance was not part of the plan.
She never imagined he would be completely subdued and pinned to the floor.
“…Why did you do that?”
Surprisingly, he spoke to her.
The spearhead was still poised to take Dorothy’s life, but his voice was as weak as she remembered.
“You could have just left…”
There were some errors, and he looked quite pathetic, but it didn’t really disrupt the plan.
Lelouch would develop a solid resentment towards her actions.
She would learn to doubt before trusting others.
Also, through Shin Siwoo, who had many witches close to Gehenna, she would stay within a safer boundary, even if just a little.
Dorothy would end her meaningless life here.
She would play the villain and die for her friend’s daughter, for her future.
Wouldn’t that be a pretty good ‘reason to die’?
“Just kill me.”
Dorothy said with a sigh.
“……”
Siwoo hesitated.
He was a man who wouldn’t move as she wanted until the very end.
He could kill Dorothy by simply bringing the spear down, but the spear remained still without the slightest movement.
The nun’s habit suppressed the effects of the distortion field as much as possible, but Dorothy had been stabbed in the abdomen, directly damaging the brand.
The damaged area was the stroke of the brand that acted as a reservoir of magical power.
Even at this moment, vast amounts of magical power were leaking out with her blood.
It wouldn’t hinder her ability to maintain her spirit form, but even if she stopped the bleeding and recovered, she would be unable to function as a witch in the future.
“It hurts too much. End it without pain.”
She could see the determination in his eyes, which had been wavering with hesitation.
Did he realize that Dorothy was beyond hope?
Or was it because he was worried about Lelouch’s condition?
Either way, it wasn’t out of anger for being attacked.
It was a resolve made while thinking of others.
Come to think of it, she had only dumped troublesome roles on him.
She felt a little sorry about that, but she thought it was only natural for him to suffer a little if he wanted to take her lovely niece.
He was a kind man who suited Lelouch.
Dorothy closed her eyes, relieved by that fact.
“Do you have any last words?”
Perhaps if she begged for her life here, he would hesitate.
But she had no attachment to life to the point of ruining her plan with a pathetic excuse.
“If possible, aim for the heart. I don’t want my face to be disfigured.”
“……”
He nodded heavily, and his spear rose.
She could see the veins bulging in his arm as he prepared for a painless finish.
Just before her heart was about to burst like a tomato.
“Siwoo! Stop!”
Lelouch’s voice echoed loudly through the corridor.
Siwoo looked towards the source of the sound with wide eyes.
According to Dorothy, she had clearly subdued her, but to hear such a lively voice.
He looked at Dorothy to see what was going on, but she was just as surprised as Siwoo.
No, she was even more surprised than Siwoo.
Dorothy had clearly temporarily paralyzed Lelouch’s magic circuits.
She had accurately targeted the part that would require at least a month of rest, let alone proper magic.
Furthermore, she had seized control of Akula and her familiar, ordering Lelouch to be detained.
So how did Lelouch get here?
If she couldn’t use magic, it was impossible to travel between Akula and the kingdom.
Lelouch could be seen running towards them with all her might.
Lelouch, who had been running with anger to the top of her head.
However, as soon as she saw the physical condition of Dorothy and Siwoo, all the color drained from her face.
“Siwoo, are you okay?”
“Yes, I don’t have any injuries. What… what happened?”
After giving the confused Siwoo a tight hug, Lelouch staggered and checked Dorothy’s condition.
A hole in her abdomen.
Her condition was far worse than Lelouch’s injury.
“You traitorous wench!”
Lelouch shouted and stood next to Dorothy.
Of course, no matter how badly Dorothy was injured, it wouldn’t calm Lelouch’s anger.
Well, if she was betrayed by a witch she had trusted as a friend, even the naive Lelouch would be angry.
“The heinous traitor who injured my royal body is sentenced to 500 years in prison! Who do you think you are, trying to die on your own!”
Lelouch betrayed those expectations too easily.
Even though she was biting her lower lip to hold back her tears, pearl-like tears were dripping from her eyes.
Then she lifted Dorothy’s upper body and hugged her.
Dorothy stared blankly at Lelouch, who was casting healing magic on her wound.
“I can’t forgive your betrayal! But I will never allow you to die like this!”
The wound was healing.
She didn’t know how Lelouch had recovered her circuits, but it was clear that the recovery was incomplete.
The 23rd-ranked archmage was sweating profusely and struggling while using such a small amount of magic.
But Lelouch was somehow using all her strength to repair Dorothy’s wound.
Dorothy opened her mouth hesitantly.
A sense of bewilderment she had never felt before filled her chest.
“But… I, I betrayed you, Your Majesty… But why…”
“Who would want their friend to die just because of that!”
Friend.
Even in this situation, she called her a friend.
Lelouch didn’t act as Dorothy had expected.
Foolishly.
While resenting and blaming her, she sincerely wished that Dorothy wouldn’t die.
No.
Who was the real fool?
2.
“First of all, you were wrong.”
When all the visible wounds had healed.
Lelouch began to get angry in earnest.
“My people were not the parts you said they were. Their loyalty to me was not a game! They resisted your orders with all their might and released me.”
It was not something that was logically possible.
All of Akula’s crew were familiars belonging to Akula.
However, the bond they had built with Lelouch had created a miracle.
The crew refused the orders of Dorothy, who was registered as the captain, and helped Lelouch.
“Admit that you were wrong right now!”
Dorothy hung her head low.
It wasn’t that she was ashamed of the plan going awry.
It was because she didn’t know what kind of expression to look at Lelouch with.
“There are so many strange things. There are too many questionable parts to your actions. So, explain in detail why you did such a thing and relieve this frustration.”
On the other hand, Lelouch had not saved Dorothy without any thought.
First, the wound that Dorothy had inflicted on Lelouch’s body.
She had cut off only the core of the magic circuit without causing any direct damage to the brand.
It was so clean that it was more like surgery than an injury.
It was an injury that could be recovered without any problems in a month without any action.
There was a contradiction there.
Dorothy had said that Lelouch’s brand was useless because the type of magic was different, but the brand of another witch was valuable in itself.
A 23rd-ranked brand would fetch an astronomical price just by taking it to the public society and auctioning it off.
However, Dorothy showed no interest in Lelouch’s brand, and yet the way she subdued her was in a way that did not damage the brand.
This was the worst possible disposition even for the future.
It would only take a month for the enraged Lelouch to regain her strength.
To eliminate the aftermath, it was normal to kill her or leave a permanent scar on the brand.
It was too contradictory and sloppy a treatment compared to her malicious actions of trying to steal Siwoo by stabbing her in the back.
Of course, this alone did not guarantee that Dorothy was not a villain.
It was possible that she had a tiny bit of conscience left, so she couldn’t bring herself to kill her friend’s daughter.
But Lelouch trusted her friend.
If there was any room to believe, no matter how insignificant, she wanted to believe it.
“……”
Dorothy looked at Siwoo’s face as she listened to Lelouch’s words.
From his point of view, she was the traitor he had just fought to the death with.
Yet, as he listened to Lelouch’s persuasion, Siwoo seemed to slowly believe her claims.
A trust that was so flimsy it made her want to scoff, a blind faith, a strong bond.
It was a flaw that Dorothy had once defined as weakness and tried to exclude.
But Lelouch, who was reciting words that would be absurd even if Dorothy defended herself, as if she truly believed them, did not look weak at all.
She looked strong.
She looked radiant.
Dorothy realized.
She had just been arrogant.
She had just been saying that life had no value, and she had been trying to preach to Lelouch that the path she had lived was the only right answer.
In fact, she was strong enough not to need such a thing.
“I’m really sorry.”
With those words, Dorothy opened her mouth.
