My Childhood Friends Are Trying To Kill Me

***

Kalix got up, brushing his body and wiping the blood from his lips.

“Hey, you crazy b*****d! You steal someone else’s bride, and even beat him up?”

“I tried to see you as a friend, but there’s no such thing as a very unscrupulous person, ” Kalix muttered in a small whisper.

“Get out before I kill you.” Oscar said coldly, as if it was not worth responding to.

Kalix’s brow wrinkled.

“Are you going to kill me? Aren’t you afraid to say you’re going to kill your friend?”

“I never thought of you as a friend.” Oscar’s answer was adamant.

Kalix, who was approaching Oscar as if to counterattack at any moment, stood tall.

Kalix then blinked as if encountering something unexpected, and muttered, “…Hey, this hurts a bit…”

Oscar stared at Kalix as if he had no emotions. He was ready to kill him right away, if necessary. Kalix was shocked. Did Oscar really like Lelia that much? Even when she had been kidnapped in a hurry, he expected it… Looking into those eyes, he seemed to have a lot of feelings. It was difficult. Anyway, Lelia liked him, and she’s going to marry him. Kalix didn’t want to be shy with his friends, but this was unavoidable.

At the same time as Kalix felt sorry for her, he felt pathetic. If he likes a woman, he’ll do her favors, get down on his knees and think of winning her heart. But instead Oscar kidnapped her. It was rude. Well, he probably didn’t have confidence…

He may have done it because he already knew that Lelia’s heart was turned towards him. He couldn’t have her, so instead he kidnapped her to keep her next to him. Thinking like that, he understood the gaze and cold words that glared at him as if Oscar would kill him.

“Oscar. No matter what you do, Lelia cannot leave her family and go with you to Hraesvelg.”

“…”

“Do you want to make this little, delicate girl cry? She must be sad and missing her family. Can you watch that?”

Oscar stiffened and said nothing. He wanted to go towards Kalix, who was talking nonsense right now, and drill a hole in his heart… Maybe the Oscar from a few days ago could have done it, but he couldn’t refute it now.

Oscar looked at Kalix with empty eyes. Then he looked away. He looked at Lelia, her terrified eyes, and the way she was looking at him. Those eyes… His own eyes felt painful as if stabbed by a sharp sword. From now on, he will see Lelia forever only with that look in her eyes. No affection, no compassion, just eyes full of fear. A face that looks like it saw something terrible.

The pain spread through his chest. Not long after his seizures had subsided, he felt dizzy again. This terrifying sensation shook his whole body. He felt like he was about to have another seizure. He couldn’t get out of this pain until a few minutes ago. Although he was nearby, he suffered from seizures the whole time, and he could not come to Lelia. He came back when he had barely regained consciousness, only to realize that Kalix had arrived.

“…Ahh…”

But it didn’t seem like his consciousness could last long. His stomach twisted as if he was about to have a seizure again. Oscar bowed his head to avoid Lelia so as not to reveal his condition. He didn’t want to show her that. When he was a child, he appeared like that in front of Lelia more than a dozen times… This was different.

Memories from a very long time ago churned through his mind and tormented him. The resulting seizures were accompanied by a different level of pain than that of his childhood. He didn’t want to show her the pain in his eyes when it happened. It was a curse.

However, he could confidently say previously in this unfamiliar scene, ‘I don’t care what the curse is.’ He risked his curse to drag Lelia into mud. Yes, he is cursed. But that was then.

Kalix asked Oscar, as he hid the pain, “Beside you, Lelia can’t be happy forever. You know that. Is that what you want?”

The cold words stabbed him.

A knife pierced his chest and blood oozed out of it.

“Think of how Leo treated you when you were young. Even thinking about it, do you really want to do this?”

“…”

He hated to admit it, but there was nothing wrong with what Kalix said. It was blind protection. It was the first time in his life that he was protected by someone. Leo cherished and took care of him. The first love that he had received was very sweet. He was thirsty for that attention, and he became increasingly voracious. He was always walking through the desert in search of water, and Leo poured sweet water of affection on him whenever he wanted. So, he got used to it. There was such an existence. The only one in this world… Her…

“… Go.” Oscar managed to open his mouth.

A voice that seemed to scratch his neck barely escaped.

“What?”

“… Take her.”

As if squeezed, Oscar barely responded again.

“…”

Kalix nodded his head, seemingly thinking of Oscar better than him, with a slightly sad expression on his face.

But he wasn’t Lelia.

[What now…?]

Lelia went numb as if she had just been slapped in the back of the head. As if she had been betrayed by someone she trusted so much. Like she lost consciousness.

[Take me away… Is that what Oscar said now? Wasn’t he unwilling?]

Even if she begged to be sent like that, it was Oscar who resolutely replied that he did not like it. Oscar, who acted as if he had tied her up, and hid her forever…

[So easy? You’re sending me away so quickly that it’s frustrating. The Oscar who kidnapped me, locked me up, promised to make me the Empress and made her family invisible… Did you intend to change this quickly?]

She was stunned by such an easy decision.

It was like being hit in the face.

“Oscar…”

Unbeknownst to her, a pleading voice came out. Oscar looked at her. His eyes were cold.

“… Go, I will send you away as you want.”

“Oscar, how could you…?”

“Go, get lost.”

A cold voice slapped her on the cheek again. She was speechless, unable to breathe properly.

“Anyway, you hate me. With those eyes…”

‘I’m going to go crazy every time I see you.’

Oscar swallowed his words back and turned his head away.

Lelia had an intuition as she looked at Oscar who turned his head resolutely from her.

Oh, it’s over.

[This is the end of you and me.]

And she also realized one more thing.

[… It didn’t work.]

The feeling made her feel so shy that she couldn’t even see Oscar and meet his eyes the whole time, so she wanted to avoid it. The sensation tickled her chest. She asked what the conversation was with the inn woman, and she had the urge to question why he was laughing. Not all of them were side effects of drugs. It was a pure feeling she felt. It was the bud of fresh emotions.

She wanted to ask why now he’s telling her to go so easily. She wanted to ask why he turned his head away from her and why he gave up on her so easily. Her wretched feelings were intense. She wanted to shout, “Are you playing with me?”

“Let’s go, Lelia.”

But there was no room for that.

Kalix walked over to Lelia, carefully carrying Sena who had been lying on the bed, on his back.

“Oscar, come to the Duke of Superion when you calm down.”

“…”

Oscar didn’t respond to Kalix’s words. He didn’t give a glance to Lelia and Kalix. He just turned his head in disgust and stood still. Kalix looked at Oscar with pity, then he wrapped his arm around Lelia’s shoulder. Then, without any hesitation, he tore the scroll in his hand.

“Ah… !”

Lelia, who was standing blankly, reached out her hand involuntarily at the last moment.

It was a brief moment, but she witnessed Oscar’s shoulder wrinkle in pain.

“Oscar, why are you…?”

Her words did not fully escape before, in an instant, the landscape in front of her changed.

“Lelia!”

“Lelia!!”

It was the Duke of Superion. It was the place she had been missing the whole time. Her grandfather and aunt rushed to her, anxiously roaming the office.

“Lelia, what the hell is this…?!”

She could hold the family she wanted to see, and she needed to explain about her mother, but neither her body nor her mouth moved.

She stood there startled and couldn’t say anything… Just a moment ago, her head was filled with only the figure of Oscar.

“Lelia!”

Lelia eventually collapsed on the spot and fainted.

***

The tendons in his tense, muscular neck stood tight. Oscar grabbed his head as if in pain.

“Ugh…”

A handful of blood spewed out. His blood, his head, and his neck were throbbing. Fragments of unfamiliar memories tormented him.

“Hi?”

“Sir Oscar.”

“It’s okay?”

It was the voice of a young Leo. But a little older than the original memory… it was a cautious voice.

It was the first time someone called him such a sweet voice. He considered it to be salvation, and he blindly followed. He promised to meet them again someday and live for that person.

“Ugh… Ugh…”

It felt like someone was ripping through his stomach. He was gasping because he couldn’t breathe properly. When his airway was blocked and he was about to die, he caught his breath again. It was like he could barely breathe due to the thin air. It was that kind of feeling. Lelia was also a precious being who came into his life, seemingly like he was dying soon… if she stayed with him.

“Will you do it?”

Through the foggy space, a clear voice could be heard. It was a voice he had forgotten. He answered without hesitation. He will do it. After that, words like dreadful curses could be heard. It warned that if he committed such a formidable sin, he would have to live in pain forever. He laughed and replied that it didn’t matter. Since then, the angel’s figure has blessed his curse with a gruesome smile.

“Huh… Ugh…”

As he closed his eyes, another scene appeared in front of him. It was a scene in his memory that haunted him for days. A shadow was cast on the bright and courageous young Leo who had saved him. It was the shadow of death.

He looked empty, as if he had given up on everything. The little boy was walking through the woods as if exhausted. A dark night where even the moonlight is obscured by clouds. The place where the child, who had been walking for a long time, stopped was in front of the pond. The child, who was looking at the deep pond, put one of his feet out on the surface of the water. There was not even a single moment of hesitation.

The child went in search of his freedom to escape from a reality worse than his death. The moment he found out why his savior, whom he desperately wanted to recover, died, he felt like everything was falling apart. His whole body shattered. Shattered like glass.

He forcibly grabbed and dragged the soul who had found freedom through death. He was willing to carry the curse and live a life that would have been like a nightmare. His whole body was crushed by guilt. It was the weight of atonement that could never be escaped.

At that moment, another scene roamed his mind again. It was a nightmare he had a few days ago. Maybe it was something that might happen in the future. She was forcibly taken to Hraesvelg and Lelia lost all her life.

Like the little child in his memory, her face had the shadow of death. Lelia, who walked to the pond, jumps again like she once did. She escaped him and regained her freedom. Oscar twisted his body painfully and laughed in dismay. A curse placed upon him like a blessing by something in the form of an angel. A curse worse than eternal life. He himself could not have Lelia forever. This was the real curse he had to endure.

***