Hero – Part 08
When she first came up with this crazy plan, she had naively thought she could manage, under the assumption that she would be up against humans. With Aria by her side, she believed that if she could master the Infernal Blade’s power, she could take on a hundred opponents if needed. After all, she’d trained for this. She was confident in her abilities.
But reality slapped her in the face. The enemies were monstrous, Inhuman weapons. She’d barely managed to handle one before, and now there were over ten. How could she even begin to fight them? How could she break through their precise, coordinated formation? The gusts from the Infernal Blade would be neutralized by those swords on their backs. Could she, a mere human, stand against them? Did she have a chance of winning? Of course not. She didn’t even have a concrete plan.
“Do you want to die?”
Yeah, she might die here. The fear was almost enough to make her cry. Her body was shaking, and it wasn’t just from the cold.
She couldn’t help but curse her own nature. But still, she couldn’t back down now.
If she fled to save herself, leaving these Inhumans free to rampage, the situation would only get worse. She was sure of it. This wasn’t just a clash of interests anymore. Something far greater was at stake.
Arvie was right. The battlefield was a stark echo of the hellish Valbanill War once fought by demons. A vision of the future Siegfried sought to create.
And if that was the case, then Cecily had no other choice. She couldn’t let fear, or the risk of death, be the reason to turn tail. She had ambitions to realize.
“I won’t die. I will win,” she declared. She forced air into her lungs, slammed her fist into her trembling thigh, and bit down hard on her pale lip until it split. Her eyes shone with a wild intensity as she made her declaration again. “I told you before. I will bring all my visions to life.”
She would make sure her will and determination bore fruit.
Siegfried burst out laughing, utterly enthralled. “Fine, little girl! Show me. If you can wipe out all my Inhumans, I’ll suspend this little battle. Hell, I’ll even let you recruit a few fighters. One or two more won’t make a difference anyway. You’ll die a worthless death all the same.”
“You can’t do this!” Justina yelled, clearly rattled. “We can’t have a Campbell dying here. Both of you, retract your statements!”
Siegfried ignored her, still chuckling to himself. Cecily did not listen to the words of an official from the Continental Law Commission. Siegfried’s mocking laughter grated on her nerves, dragging up her worst memories, threatening to sap her will.
To shake off the rising fear, she shouted back, “I’ve got your word!”
“You can’t just make decisions on your own!” Harvey protested.
Cecily frowned. She was certain that Siegfried, given his personality, would accept her proposal. The real hurdle was always going to be Harvey Blethyn, captain of the Independent Trade City’s First District Knight Guard. She hastily searched for the right words to convince him.
Harvey strode toward her. “You don’t have the authority to speak on behalf of the Independent Trade Ci—gah!”
A horse suddenly emerged from the mist behind him and kicked him in the back, sending him sprawling face-first into the dirt.
“Ah, my bad,” said the rider. His tone held no shred of remorse.
Harvey did not hear the apology. He had already lost consciousness under the horse’s hooves.
While everyone else stood dumbfounded, Luke casually hopped off the horse. Lisa, who had been clinging to his waist, failed to land properly and crashed to the ground with a yelp.
Strangely, Luke had a katana strapped to his right hand. He scanned the camp until his eyes landed on Cecily. Without a word, he walked over and took her hand. The sudden firmness of his grip startled her so much that she let out a tiny, involuntary hiccup.
“Your hands are freezing. You’ll lose your grip on the sword like that. Lisa.”
“Right away!” Lisa sprang up.
“Warm Cecily’s hands for her.”
“Understood!”
“W-Wait, Luke?” Cecily stammered.
But Luke had already let go of her hands and was gazing out toward the distant battlefield. One look was enough for him to grasp the situation.
He turned back to Cecily. “Just to confirm, Cecily Campbell,” he said. He pointed the sword strapped to his right hand at the horde of Inhumans swarming the plains. “We just have to cut down every last one of them, right?”
“Then tell me, what is that man to you?”
It hit her then, a sudden moment of clarity. She now had an answer to Zenobia’s question. And there was more. She finally figured out why she’d felt something off when sparring with Luke.
Because he was never her enemy.
He’s my hero.
Hopelessly, undeniably, Luke was the man to Cecily Campbell.
It frustrated her to no end, how much she admired him, how fiercely she longed for him. Her cheeks flushed, despite herself.
“I’ll charge in and break their ranks,” Luke said. “Once your hands are warm, join me.” He shot a glance at Siegfried, flashing a sly grin.
The man in black raised an eyebrow. Satisfied by the reaction, Luke sprinted off without a second’s hesitation. He became a blur, shrinking into the distance as he closed in on the battlefield.
“S-Stop him! Stop the blacksmith! He’ll get himself killed!” Zenobia was the first to snap out of her shock. She tried to go after Luke, but Charlotte and the others held her back. “We’ve had enough casualties! Someone, stop him!”
Her desperate cry jolted Cecily out of her daze.
“Lady Zenobia, pull back your troops,” Cecily said firmly. “Before any more lives are lost.”
Zenobia turned to her, eyes bloodshot and wild. “Are you seriously suggesting I leave that battlefield to the blacksmith? He’ll die! As a ruler, I cannot stand by and watch a person of such value to the continent be sent to his death!”
“I’ll join him soon,” Cecily replied. “He will not die.”
Lisa pressed a small piece of jewel steel into Cecily’s hands. The metal gradually heated up, nearly burning her frozen fingers, but she gripped it tight. Her heart was already racing to catch up with Luke.
“You really have that much faith in him?” Zenobia’s voice was hoarse. “Is that overconfidence, or foolishness? Or are you just a woman blinded by infatuation?”
“Perhaps so,” Cecily said simply.
Zenobia stared at her, stunned.
But there was no other way to put it.
Cecily’s feelings couldn’t be explained with anything more than those plain, simple words.
His heart pounded like never before.
As he sped downhill, his legs gained unstoppable momentum, gravity pulling him forward. Instead of the usual alternating stride—right leg with left arm, and vice versa—he moved his right and left sides in sync. His boots carved straight grooves into the earth, sending up clouds of dust like an artillery barrage.
Luke Ainsworth was exhilarated. Inside him burned a spark, coursing through his bones, flooding his entire body. It filled him with feverish warmth, dizziness, and nausea that threatened to drive him mad. The excitement was so fierce it could’ve easily made him pass out. A sharp laugh escaped his lips.
That spark wasn’t lit just recently. It had been smoldering within him for a long time, lying dormant, waiting for the right moment to burst into flames. What was it exactly?
Sure, there was the constant worry about his right eye slowly losing its sight, a grim reminder that his days as a blacksmith were numbered. But that was only a small trigger, not the true source of the fire that raged inside him.
For a moment, he thought back on his past. He’d built a mountain of irreparable mistakes, treating everything with indifference.
His half-hearted attitude toward Lisa. The lethargy that kept him from truly dedicating himself to forging. Days spent masking past regrets with burning hatred toward Valbanill. Practicing his swordmanship in solitude, all the while teetering on the edge of losing sight of his goals. And his lingering, almost embarrassingly intense attachment to Liza.
It was on that day, when he finally faced it all, that the spark had ignited. It was the burning desire to reclaim everything he had neglected, all that he had carelessly let slip through his fingers. And for so long, that spark had been waiting to be set free.
But enough with the long-winded explanations.
“Haha…”
Simply put…
“Hahahahaha!”
He had been waiting all this time for a chance to break loose.
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