IATAOTHKG | CHAPTER 97 – Novexa Novels

[CHAPTER 97]

Meyna twisted her arm while looking at Caliph with trembling eyes.

“Let go.”

However, the grip of Caliph’s hand clutching her shoulder only grew stronger.

His icy gaze cut into her skin like frostbitten blades.

Still held firmly by the shoulder, Meyna stared blankly at the scene unfolding behind Caliph’s back.

The site was still complete chaos.

Those with abilities, knowing the protective magic could not last forever, stayed tense and prepared themselves for battle once more.

Terrified civilians hurried through the portals, dragging along their young children and elderly parents even in the midst of the turmoil.

The altar was soaked in black blood, and the uncontained flames roared as if they would burn every living thing to death.

The faces of the saintesses twisted in fear that not even their faith in God could soothe.

“On August 2nd, AV 3022.”

“By imperial authority, Code Black is hereby declared.”

The Empress, who had remained until the very end, announced the Empire’s crisis with the bare minimum of formality before disappearing beyond the portal.

The swelling horde of monsters drooled and roared as they advanced.

Yet Caliph, the one who should have been commanding this crisis from the front, was completely detached from reality.

Consumed by an anger whose origin he could not even identify.

Having lost his reason.

“I said let go!”

As Meyna shouted, a powerful force shoved Caliph’s massive body backward.

Boom…!

His black boots crushed into the ground as he slid back.

Through the cloud of dust, his silhouette appeared blurred and indistinct.

Meyna began walking toward the foolish man she would never understand, no matter how long she lived.

“You’re saying I deceived you?”

“Even if that were true, is this really the time for you to question me about it?”

Her voice burst out, filled with pent-up resentment.

“You’re asking when I knew I would awaken?”

“Ha ha.”

Her face twisted in rage as she let out a hollow laugh that sounded like a sob, clenching her fists.

“Why does something so trivial even matter?”

“Look around you!”

“Civilians are shaking in fear, and your comrades are ready to fight.”

“Get a grip and do what you’re supposed to do!”

Meyna’s fury, so intense that she lost all composure, was something even Caliph, who had spent long years by her side, had never seen before.

It was likely something that had never happened throughout her entire life.

Unfortunately, Caliph was no different from a blind man.

Already devoured by the monster called misunderstanding, he was being crushed under endlessly multiplying betrayal.

The emotions Meyna poured out with her whole body failed to reach Caliph’s heart and simply bounced away, powerless.

“So what exactly is it that I’m supposed to do?”

Caliph sneered, twisting his lips.

To fight monsters and protect civilians.

To become a hero who saved the nation.

That sacred calling was only valid when the woman standing before him was someone who mattered to him.

Born a commoner, living a miserable life, then awakening overnight as a top-tier knight and amassing wealth.

Why was it that on one of those days in the past, wearing expensive, custom-made military boots crafted from the finest materials instead of torn cheap shoes, the first person he went to see was Meyna Winslet?

“Meyna Winslet.”

“Would you like to work with me?”

What had the ten-year contract he offered meant, under the pretense of paying off the debts that had turned her into a beggar?

He failed to realize it, even when Meyna was by his side, and even after he lost her.

Ironically, that realization only began to surface faintly after he faced the sense of betrayal that she might have deceived him all along.

He had given her his heart.

What if she had been hiding another purpose instead?

Caliph’s previously unwavering expression twisted.

“It doesn’t matter whether you believe me or not.”

“I don’t care in the slightest what the Princess told you to make you act this way.”

“If you think I betrayed you, then think whatever you want.”

“Even if it’s a misunderstanding, I don’t want to clear it up.”

The lips that once scattered sugar-sweet smiles in her youth, the lips that withered and lost all vitality at Lennox Castle, spilled words that carried no warmth at all.

Like delivering a death sentence to a condemned prisoner kneeling before the guillotine, as if it were the natural order of things.

“The reason I stayed by your side all those years, enduring your indifference and rudeness, was because I respected your work.”

“Even though I have no abilities of my own, I was happy to be able to help you.”

“While I endured your misplaced anger and handled all the trivial messes, you were able to save civilians.”

The massive dome that had firmly covered the plaza wavered for a moment before beginning to collapse.

Meyna realized her mana was being depleted.

Just as she had sensed her awakening with all five senses, she instinctively knew this as well.

Fortunately, all civilians except those with abilities had already been evacuated.

A hollow smile appeared on Meyna’s face as she looked at Caliph.

“You were often a terrible human being.”

“But at least the sense of duty of Sir Caliph Lennox always shone brightly.”

“…”

“Now it’s completely shattered, without even a bottom left.”

She tried to embrace his flaws, engraving the truth that all humans are imperfect into her heart.

Having lost her parents overnight herself, she found his childhood wounds all the more pitiful.

All the while, she never realized her own soul was dying.

Meyna’s eyes, which could no longer feel even a trace of anger, trembling, or any emotion at all, gazed calmly at Caliph.

At last, the protective magic collapsed completely.

The ability users shouted in unison and charged into a bloody battle with the monsters.

Caliph, backing away like a ghost drained of life, suddenly turned his back on Meyna and rushed toward the monsters.

A silent slaughter began, without a single sound.

The thought that it would not matter if he died transformed into a clear desire to kill himself.

He threw himself into the melee, fighting wildly until his limbs were torn apart like rags.

“Captain!”

“Have you lost your mind?!”

Rob shouted in shock as he spotted Caliph.

Everyone began to notice Caliph’s abnormal behavior, so unlike his usual self.

Yet no one could stop him.

Without even giving Biterion and the other knights a chance to attack, Caliph offered up his own body as a sacrifice and swung his sword like a madman.

After finally severing the last monster’s head, Caliph collapsed, vomiting blood.

“Sir Lennox!”

Sera limped toward him on her injured leg.

Though she had nearly exhausted her mana, she desperately wrapped her arms around Caliph.

Caliph, expressionless, shoved her body away.

Meyna, her mana completely depleted, staggered toward Caliph.

“Your Highness.”

Pale and bloodless, Meyna called out to Sera.

As if it no longer mattered whether she embraced Caliph with her bare body or pressed herself against him in any way.

As Caliph’s consciousness faded, he felt his comrades grabbing hold of his limbs and lifting him.

“Anyone with mana left… open a portal immediately…!”

“Your Highness… healing magic, hurry…!”