Ashes and Kingdoms

Finn was in the dark.

Why are you here, where were you trying to go? I don't know.

- and.

Pomp. A pair of blue lights lit up. Small, fluorescent blue light.

Staring at it blindly, the light swelled to the size of a walnut without realizing it.

Cold. Shivering, Finn accidentally returns to me.

The blue light is just a little thinner. There was no voice, just signs of laughter coming through the darkness.

(You are)

Wolf then. The night before entering Winnea, he showed up before Finn and left without doing anything, the beast of darkness.

(What the hell, why are you here? What's so funny)

Similar to a small bubble gushing up, I heard it creeping. Finn shudders at the ominousness.

- Stupid Kana.

One word, that sounded like it. Finn instantly understood what it meant and drank his breath.

(Don't)

Shake your head unconsciously. But the blue light narrowed once again delightfully after opening it up and staring at Finn. Heh heh, and a nasal laugh, obscure sound leaks.

- True ni, stupid cana...

My voice goes away. Though silly, but with no contempt or ridicule in its aftermath, there were rather enough signs to say that I seemed to love you.

The light is so far away. Finn reached out desperately.

(Stop, no!!

The light turns down and disappears.

――

The momentum jumped forward and Finn took a rough breath with his head. My body is rattling and trembling, and I can't stop it with the power of my will.

"Phineas?"

What's the matter, the sound of a sleeping voice asks. Turning around, the suspicious faces of Oandus and Fauna were floating in the light of unreliable corner lights. A shack of abandoned coffins, parents lying in old hay and farnayne sleeping deeply in between. I guess I'm tired of crying, tired of walking.

The corner light was brought from Nanais, but now I've lost my protection and it's just a light. Still, the kind of darkness I dreamed about was just a little snaggy in the corner of the cabin.

Finn looked around slowly and, recalling the situation in which he was placed, stood up with a bloody finger scrubbing his face with gossip.

"Lena."

As soon as I call, a girl emerges with a fluttering white light. Finn said, staring into those golden eyes.

"I have to go help. Everybody's in danger."

"Why?"

Lena tilted her little neck wonderfully. The question doesn't immediately make sense, and Finn frowns. Later, Lena's senses stained in his heart, and he was stunned.

It is not "why" to ask on what basis. What she asked was why we had to help.

"Why... it's him. The Dark Beast found the captains. So I have to go help."

"But" once again, Lena glanced puzzled. "Finn's important people will be here, won't they?

The word, which was said to be rushed, struck Finn with a painful blow. Finn is frightened by the shock and holds his own chest. Neither did the voices of my parents, who called out worryingly.

Yes. It's the family that Finn wants to protect, not others.

It is thanks to Lena keeping the dark family away that I can now sleep without a watch with one corner light, albeit in the cabin. If Finn goes to help the Valts, his parents and Farnayne will be left... to be killed. You can't leave them and go help others.

Igross' appearance crossed the back of his brain. A man who ran out of saying he would protect Farnayne even if he abandoned everyone else. In the end, he lost his life because of his pity for others.

I can't tread on him. Finn doesn't have anyone to trust.

――……

Deep exhalation leaked. Lower your hips cursorily and cover your face with both hands.

One day I might abandon someone myself, I remember the day I thought about it that way.

The fact that I was in a situation like this was due to a mistake in my judgment.

No, there were certainly causes for people other than yourself.

Think about all that and this - spilled on top of it, it was heavy exhalation.

All right, Lena. I'm not going to help you.

Lena gently touches Finn's heart, who told him so. For a moment, Finn was driven by the urge to shake it off. But his awareness of being a childish winner made him impatient, and Finn reluctantly condoned dark emotions such as anger and helplessness melting and disappearing. Even that guilt faded recently.

"... excuse me, uncle, aunt. I woke him up."

Apologizing in a low voice, Finn smiled weakly and asked me to go to sleep if I could.

I lie down again, even though my parents are anxious. But the person who told me to go to sleep, as it were, dawned without a scratch.

Little birds chirp, chickens make moments in the distance. Finn left the three sleeping men and gently went outside the cabin, looking down at the ground and twitching. It's the footprint of a beast. It's more like a bear than a wolf. Other than that, there's one or two unidentified nail marks...

Finn grabbed the ground with his feet and erased the marks, looking over at the white wax drifting between the trees before walking out slowly. The early morning air is cold, albeit summer. Bite the stretch to death, Finn rubbed his arm.

The wood runs out immediately and thin streets appear. It connects the streets from Winnea to Tetna in the northeast with the streets to Kalsum in the southeast.

If you go all the way to the left, i.e. south, you will soon meet the street to Karsum, and if you break from there to the west, you will eventually rendezvous with the street leading to Comlis. Finn looked over there, then now to the right, i.e. north. The chaser should show himself from over there. If you noticed where the fins were going. Before that, if you can get past the night safely.

Finn breathed all the time, kneeling down to the creek beside the street and washing his face. By then, the sun was gradually clearing and the world was becoming brighter and brighter.

Wipe your face with your sleeves and look north again. The chaser is not coming. Finn stood up there during the bundle, but walked out to the cabin with his heels back as determined. If I'm stuck, I won't be able to rendezvous with Nellis and the others.

After a while, the fins went out onto the street after a whispering breakfast. I walked out with Farnayne grumbling on the swell surface, and I heard the contact between the horseshoe and metal in the distance, and the line stopped my leg. Farnayne looks up all the time and looks across the street with anticipation.

Finn narrowed his eyes softly, then told him to snap.

This is Captain Valt.

One line did not escape or hide. A chaser's footsteps are not an army fast walk. It's like dragging a cursory leg, exhausted - just like the fins before they came to Winnea.

Eventually, Farnein clouded his expression as he approached a distance where he could clearly see the appearance of the legion soldiers. He twitches anxiously and hides behind Oandus.

I couldn't help it. The group that led the ridden Valt seemed to be bloodstained, hurt, and suspected of being bandits.

Coming to the front of Finn, Valt lowered his horse to fall and exhaled.

"Unexpected"

Saying blush, he vaguely sees the faces of the ensuing.

"I was expecting one or two, or they wouldn't come out at all, and I was thinking of measures. I didn't expect you to be so big and welcoming. I've become great, too. How dare you sneak away or something like that. Then it's gone. Everyone who survives is here. Well, but what the hell, just the guys from Tetna are safe. Plus, I got more money and food allotments than I would if I snuck away, and I even got a horse."

"... excuse me"

"Whoa," Valt shudders. "Until the Dark Beast moves, it's not your fault. Either way, I'm the one who decided to take a ride on your escape. Kid, don't apologize when you're great, just take their stuff."

I didn't mean to sound great, but Finn received the package from a legion soldier who was going to fall even though he felt complicated. Oandus also walks over to the line and lightens the injured man's shoulder. In the meantime, Valt kept talking.

"After nightfall, I explained the situation. Sometimes it means we're just gonna keep running. On top of that, I let you decide. Return to Winnea and be turned to a sentinel duty outside the walls, whilst being cursed with a great helix that is useless to Dilgius? Or come with us."

"Are some of you back?"

When Finn inquired, Valt made an ominous grin.

"No. Not so far. But the guy who wants to go back has a star."

Say no, he interrupted the line and dragged one young man out. The soldier, who looked more and more dull with fatigue, suspicion and despair, was Euches.

In front of a stalling fin, Valt rambled Euches' back.

"I guess so, hey Eucis. You're gonna find out where we're going, and then you're gonna go back to Winnea, right? You've been sniffing around since yesterday, you didn't think it was broken?

…………

Eucis bites his lips and nags, and does not answer. Finn felt sorry for herself and wanted to cry, leaking a faint voice with a small "why not". As soon as possible, Euches reopens or looks up in a plump flair.

"Why, because? What are you talking about, you're Dragon Marquis. Then you have a responsibility to help that power. Running away is cowardly. If you don't like the way the Commander does, you can take his place. About that, if you were a dragon marquis, you could do it, right? Why are you running away? Abandon us. Just one of us. It's bad."

"I'm not a dragon marquis!

Finn unwittingly denied it. It is so clearly affirmed that the surviving soldiers exchange anxious obscenities. Feeling what that gaze meant - it could be a mistake to come this way - Finn roared with a headache in mind.

"Sure, I bonded with the dragon. So, at least with me... or as long as you're with Lena the Dragon, you don't have to worry about being struck by the Dark Beast. But, Euches, your thoughts are a good off-target. I'm not a dragon marquis. I didn't do anything just to be called that, and I don't have as much power as I can from now on. It's impotent to replace a commander."

I don't want to, even if I can, hide the truth and say that much. Finn must have stared at Youtis. Almost in a prayerful mood.

"Please, Euches. Please don't keep me with the dragon queen of epic poetry. I'm just... the son of a miller, and there's nothing special about it. I don't even have any great hopes for it. I just want to live in peace somewhere safe with my family."

I was going to join the Legion because if it was the Nanais garrison, it would have been nice not to leave my hometown. Both land and sea are just jobs to keep an eye on the nearby field, so I'll be away for a few days, even for a long time. I will visit the windmill shed with ease, and in the future it would be fun to have my own place in the town of Nanais and invite Nellis and adoptive parents to dinner a few times a month - even though I had such a picture of the future in mind.

Everything's shattered and scattered.

Even though he was desperate to gather glittering fragments of his dreams and manage to connect them back together, Euches trampled on them. It's cowardly to want that, he said.

Regretful, clenched fists, turn white. But Euches didn't even notice it.

"That's true of everyone. Me, too. But you need special help to make a world where everyone can live like that. You have gained strength. It's not easy to get a bond with a dragon, so it's an escape to say you're powerless."

As I proclaim, Euches' voice grows taller and taller. Together, a cloudy cloud poured into Finn's heart.

"You have a duty. (It's your duty, not mine)

If you take the dragon back to Winnea, won't the whole town of Winnea be able to retreat from the Dark Beast? (You can do it, you have to do it, I don't want to fight anymore)

That's not all. If you were in the Legion, you wouldn't have to worry about your allies getting eaten in the middle of the night, no matter where you're going to march. (It's natural to protect you because you have the strength)

And yet you're running away with only one! (Exactly, I'm right, I'm not wrong!

"Shut up!!

Finn yelled as he was finally overwhelmed.

"Do something unsolicited! You're just threatening, you just want to shield me because you don't want to be eaten! All I'm thinking about is my convenience, saying that your wishes and mine are the same. Stop looking natural because you happen to have a human around saved by a dragon!

I invoke anger in my hands, and the moment I cut the word, I regret it. You shouldn't have exposed your opponent's true intentions so badly. There are not many people who are poked at the truth by others and admitted to it - especially in situations like this.

The suggestion was that Euches blued and frightened his face, staring at Finn with an eye that had become full of anger and fear. The gaze hits, and at best it hits each other.

It was Valt who lifted the silent tension.

"... So, what do we do, Phineas"

Asked plainly, Finn distracted and blinked his eyes for a while. Walt replied with a bitter smile to Finn, who asked him what he was going to do.

"This is him. It's you, Takariya Youchis. If you let him go like this, I'll snitch on Dilgius. If no one goes back, we can buy time for at least a few days, and now it's time for Dilgius to admit that he's in danger outside the wall. But if this guy goes up to his commander..."

Don't you dare tell me until the end, Valt saw Euches. It seems that to this end, Euches finally understood the situation in which he was placed. I felt even more bloody from my face and turned earthy. Until now, Finn was forced to sacrifice himself by swinging his argument, frightened most of the time while he saw it, and peered into the complexion of his surroundings.

Finn was tired and pressed between his eyebrows, watching Valt.

"Much, you say ruthless things. He's been with us since Tetna."

"That's not necessarily why we're good friends. Just to be clear, if I could buy a little bit of safety for everyone with this guy's life, I'd be happy to do that. It's better than being betrayed and risking it."

"I can't believe you betrayed me, no"

Weakly, the Euches protested. The look speaks. You're the one who betrayed me, lied, hid something, ran away...

Finn shook his head small and drove away the emotions of others who clung together. Reaching behind my heart and touching the warmth of Lena, I felt a little soothed.

"Anyway... let's take you to the rendezvous point. Nellis can handle a decent scratch. It's not bad to give them time to think until then. And over there."

And so he lurked his voice, and whispered to keep it out of Euches' ears.

"You don't have to kill him, you can take the method of leaving him"

If we tie up the Euches in this place and leave them in the cabin, they will surely die without anyone finding them first. But if it's where Nellis and the others wait...

Understanding such Finn's thoughts, Valt hung his eyebrows, wondering if he was stunned or surprised.

"Kind enough. I thought you hated him."

Finn blushed when he was told that it was a long time ago. Stuck in answers and mumble.

Valt laughed with his nose and continued looking funny.

"Keep that blatantly relentless, and what are you putting aside now? No, I didn't want you to hate me at all. Well, I'm really glad you didn't like me that much."

A smile spills among his men at the captain who laughed. The only ones with pitiful faces are Finn and Euches of the day.

Valt looked back at the line, stretching out his voice to encourage him.

"All right, then, everybody, step on it a little longer! 'Cause there's a cute little lady waiting for you up ahead, and when you get there, you're off!

The voice of recessionary consent rises and the sound of hitting the shield echoes sparsely. Valt glanced over his shoulder and looked around at Finn and the family, whispering.

"Put that kid on the horse. Damn it... Dirgius is so obsessed with a kid like that that he's crushed his face. I should have let you go, because I'm your kid."

"I took an oath."

Finn says that briefly and strictly, turning his back clearly until he hears more than that, and pushes Farnayne up to the saddle of the horse. Valt stared at the aftermath of such a fin and snapped at him.

"Swear, huh? I didn't know anyone was still there to protect me. And that's..."

"What is it?

Finn listens and looks back. "No," Valt deceived, again leading the way and walking out.

The wounded and tired line moves out. Euches was surrounded so as not to escape, poked small and walked fluttering like a ghost.