My consciousness surfaced slowly.
When I pried my heavy eyelids open, an unfamiliar ceiling drifted into view. It was a cold, dim room with a sterile stone ceiling.
"Where... am I...?"
I tried to push myself up, but a sharp pain lanced through my abdomen.
"Urgh...!"
I grimaced involuntarily. The wound appeared to have been treated, but a dull, throbbing ache remained.
I scanned my surroundings. The room was sparse yet possessed an overbearing, oppressive atmosphere. It wasn't exactly a dungeon cell, but it didn't feel like a place where I was free to leave, either.
And then—
"Are you awake?"
A low, familiar voice reached my ears.
"..."
I turned my head. A man sat there, perched in a chair.
"...Hero?"
He was a comrade I had once fought beside, a friend I had trusted with my life. The moment I saw him, a wave of relief washed over me.
"Thank goodness...!" I breathed, the words escaping my lips in a rush of air. "Hero, you understand, don't you!?"
I leaned toward him, desperate.
"I didn't do anything! High treason—there’s no way I’d ever do something like that! Nana... they took Nana away, too! Please, you have to help us!"
My plea was desperate. However...
"..."
The Hero didn't offer a word in response. He simply stared at me in silence. His face lacked its usual radiance. His eyes were cold, as if he were forcibly suffocating every emotion within him.
"...Hero?"
A sense of wrongness prickled at my chest.
"What's wrong? Say something."
Even then, he didn't open his mouth immediately. A heavy silence dominated the room. Eventually, the Hero stood up slowly and walked until he was standing directly before me.
In those eyes, there was no longer even a trace of friendship.
"...Minato," he said. His voice was quiet, but the resonance was unnervingly cold. "You really don't understand a thing, do you?"
"What...?"
A sickening premonition spread through my gut. The Hero’s lips twisted into a slight smirk. It was a smile, but it was nothing like the ones he had shown me in the past. It was cold, distorted, and cruel.
And then, he spoke.
"I'm the one who branded you a rebel."
That single sentence shattered my world, quietly and irrevocably. I lost my voice entirely.
"...Huh?"
My mind couldn't keep up. My brain rejected what I had just heard.
"Wha—what are you... talking about...?" I managed to rasp.
The Hero’s expression didn't waver. He didn't look like he was joking.
"Why...?" The question fell from my trembling lips. "Why would you do something like this...?"
At that moment, the heavy door groaned open.
"—Minato!"
It was the voice of the person I loved most.
"Nana!"
I turned to see Nana standing there. Even with soldiers flanking her, she tried to sprint toward me the moment our eyes met.
"Minato, are you alright!?"
"Nana... you're safe...!"
Relief momentarily eclipsed my confusion. But then I saw the Hero's face. His features contorted, twisted by an emotion he couldn't quite suppress. Jealousy, envy, and a bottomless, wretched obsession seeped into his gaze.
Standing behind Nana was another woman. She wore a magnificent dress and carried herself with an air of refined grace. She was the Princess of this kingdom—and I had heard she was now the Hero's wife.
It might have been the wrong time to think it, but I had been relieved for him. I had honestly thought he’d found a new life and become happy.
...And yet, the Hero just stood there, watching us with those hollow eyes.
"Why?" I glared at him. "Why are you doing this!?"
"..."
The Hero remained silent for a long time. But eventually, he opened his mouth, and his suppressed emotions finally spilled out.
"...You wouldn't understand," he said, his voice low and trembling. "You have no idea how much Nanalicia saved me."
"..."
"When I was being crushed by the weight of being the Hero... when I doubted my own strength... when I was broken and couldn't stand up again..."
The Hero’s fist creaked as he clenched it tight.
"Licia was always there!"
He turned his gaze toward Nana.
"She smiled for me. She encouraged me. She believed in me!"
His voice gradually rose in heat and volume.
"That's why I could fight! That’s the only reason I could stay the Hero!"
His shout echoed through the stone room. I stared at him, utterly stunned.
"...For a reason like that?" I whispered, unable to believe what I was hearing.
I understood his reasoning, but that didn't explain why it turned into this. It didn't justify what he had done to us. I didn't have the energy to choose my words carefully anymore.
"Because of that, you did this to us...?"
The Hero's face transformed instantly.
"Because of 'that'?"
His rage exploded.
"What do you know!?"
He lunged forward and grabbed me by the collar.
"Do you have any idea how much Nanalicia meant to me!?"
"Ugh...!"
"And yet you stole her away without knowing a damn thing!"
"I didn't steal her! Nana chose me!" I snapped back, my own anger flaring. "Nana isn't a trophy! She chose me of her own free will! You just can't stand that, can you!?"
"Shut up!!"
His roar made the very walls vibrate.
"Hero, you have a wife! You even have children, don't you!?" I shouted. "So why—"
I choked on the rest of my words. I saw the look on his face—a pathetic, ugly mixture of regret, jealousy, and directionless spite.
Still, I forced the words out.
"Nana and I don't need you anymore!!"
The Hero’s expression froze completely.
A second later, he spoke in a voice devoid of all warmth.
"...Take him away."
At that command, the soldiers who had been waiting in the shadows moved in unison.
"Guh—let go!"
I tried to resist, but my wounded body was no match for them. They grabbed my arms and forced me to my feet.
"Minato! Stop it, let him go!" Nana screamed.
The soldiers blocked her path as she tried to reach me.
"Let go! Leave Minato alone!"
Her tragic cries wrenched my heart. But the Hero didn't even look back. He simply gave a cold, final decree.
"The rebel shall receive the punishment he deserves."
"You bastard!!"
My roar didn't reach him. The soldiers dragged me out of the room like a sack of grain.
A cold wind slapped my cheeks mercilessly.
I had been brought to a high section of the Royal Castle’s Outer Wall. A platform had been constructed there—a stage meant for public shaming.
"What are you planning to do...?"
No one answered. The soldiers shackled my hands and bound me to a pillar. The wound in my abdomen groaned, and I grimaced in pain.
Before long, a massive commotion rose from below. I looked down to see the square packed with people—thousands of them. The Royal Capital Residents filled every available inch of space.
And then, the shouting began.
"You rebel!"
"Traitor!"
"Give the Lady Saint back!"
A deluge of rage rained down upon me. Stones began to fly. One struck my shoulder, sending a dull throb of pain through my arm.
"Enemy of the kingdom!"
"Execute him!"
"Have you no shame!?"
The insults were relentless. It was as if they were trying to negate my very existence.
"Tch..."
I grit my teeth. They didn't know anything. They didn't even care to learn the truth. Yet they believed with all their hearts that I was the villain.
Just then, I heard a door open behind me. I couldn't turn my head to see, but I heard the voice.
"Minato!!"
It was Nana.
"Stop this! This is all wrong!" she screamed desperately.
But her voice was swallowed by the roar of the mob.
"Lady Saint!"
"Please, stay back!"
"A rebel deserves no mercy!"
Nana continued to struggle against them.
"No! Minato is—!"
But her words never reached the people.
I slowly closed my eyes. The biting wind, the endless stream of curses, and the cries of the woman I loved... everything tore at my soul.
Was this the ending the Hero wanted? Was this the reward for our long journey?
The people I had saved turned out to be this trash... and the man I thought was my dearest friend was trying to kill me out of petty jealousy. No, I was about to be killed.
What had I been doing all this time?
If it was going to end like this...
"...I didn't want any power. I should never have helped anyone."
If I could have one wish... I’d want to be with you again. Just the two of us. One more time.