I Will End My 10-Year Unrequited Love - Chapter 14
The world flipped upside down with the sound of screams and crashing voices. From the grand ceiling, people covered in armor surged forward. Without warning, a relentless barrage of arrows rained down.
“Kyaak!”
The sharp sound of arrows clashing with swords ripped through the air, and the room was filled with screams and groans. The scene was utter chaos.
But this time, it was different from that day. The rebels, who had fiercely charged before, were now falling without even getting close to Cyrone. The battle was swiftly swinging in favor of the Empire.
The rebels, pushed to the brink, were throwing themselves into the fray, either in resignation to death or scrambling to escape with their lives.
The room had transformed into hell in an instant.
“Leave no one alive! Protect His Highness!”
The commander’s voice thundered like a lightning strike. Elia, who had steeled herself for this moment, couldn’t suppress the tremors in her body. Her shoulders were still shaking, perhaps because her instincts had not yet forgotten the fear of that day.
“Cyrone! Cyrone!”
Instinct took over, drowning out her reason. Like that day, she frantically searched for Cyrone. This was the instinct her body had ingrained after ten years of loving him, an instinct that had been burned into her soul.
Her resolve, which had been so firm, crumbled in an instant.
Elia crawled across the blood-soaked floor, her body dragging as she finally reached the platform. Cyrone was standing, his sharp sword slashing through the rebels’ necks.
Up until this point, everything was exactly the same as her memory. Now, now…
“C-Cyrone!”
Her body, remembering its instinct, called out his name and struggled to move toward him. Elia’s body, as if shackled by chains, fell to the ground.
‘Please, please, Elia!’
Her body trembled uncontrollably, trying to hold back the overwhelming emotion, collapsing on the floor.
“It’s okay. It’s all okay.”
At that moment, someone grabbed her shoulder tightly.
Like the final desperate struggle of the rebels, a poisoned arrow flew toward Cyrone’s heart from the sky. Cyrone, holding a blood-drenched sword, turned his head.
The poisoned arrow cut through the air, aimed directly at him.
“El…!”
In that split second, as the lightning-like arrow fell from the sky, Cyrone’s eyes searched desperately among the tangled bodies, looking for someone.
Cyrone already knew. He had always known. The woman who had always circled around him like a shadow would, without a doubt, sacrifice her heart for him. The terrifying certainty of that instinct filled him with dread.
As Cyrone’s frantic hand abandoned the sword, ready to charge forward, his gaze froze in mid-air. Time seemed to stand still.
Cyrone’s gaze was filled with the sight of her, looking at him from someone’s arms, as though frozen in place. His entire body stiffened. He couldn’t believe it.
Why was Elia, who should have been in his arms right now, over there…
“Your Highness!”
The figure blocking his way was Commander Farus. With a sharp swing of his blade, the poisoned arrow was deflected forcefully.
The sharp sound of the arrow breaking echoed, and the arrowhead scattered at Cyrone’s feet.
The noise, once tearing through the air, abruptly stopped. Elia slowly opened her eyes. In that instant, the gazes of two people, so different from each other, met in the air. Time seemed to freeze in the middle of hell as their eyes clashed.
“You…”
Cyrone stood there, rooted in place, as if he couldn’t believe what was happening. He muttered, as if the whole situation had short-circuited his mind.
“Why are you there?”
Why, why? When the seemingly endless moment of their gazes finally broke, his first words were “why.” Elia, confused by his incomprehensible words, couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.
“Ha, haha!”
Elia’s hollow laughter poured out.
“Did you really think that this foolish me, would take the arrow for you and die?”
Everything, really everything, was finally over. Overcome with an overwhelming emptiness, Elia laughed madly as her body seemed to lose all tension and collapse.
Elia no longer threw herself into the inferno to protect him. She was only there, watching his death unfold before her. It was an impossible situation, not just for Cyrone, but for Elia herself.
“Are you okay? Elia, do you know who I am?”
A warm cloak was draped over Elia’s shoulders as she collapsed to the floor. The man who had been holding her tightly whispered softly to her, comforting her.
“Rias…”
Elia slowly turned her head. She broke the entangled gazes between them first.
In the hell that had trapped them both, Elia made her exit.
The man holding her was none other than Rias. As the warmth from Rias enveloped her, Elia’s tears erupted uncontrollably.
“I’m so glad, truly. Thank you for staying alive.”
Elia, like someone who had lost her mind, babbled through tears and laughter, unable to hold back the words. She barely choked on the name she couldn’t bring herself to say.
Rias understood that Elia’s words were not directed at him, but he knew.
Despite that, he hugged her tightly. Gently patting her trembling back, he helped her stand up. They had to leave this blood-soaked hell.
