Ochiden V8 - Epilogue: Sion and Ryner
Nov. 15th, 2020 06:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
idolaEpilogue: Sion and Ryner
Previous | End
---
“……”
It was just as Lucile said.
Nothing changed.
Nothing changed even after he became king.
All that happened was that the nobles became stronger and the darkness got deeper.
Sion sat alone on the throne.
Luke and Miller wouldn’t come here. This wasn’t the new Roland they were envisioning, so they were starting anew elsewhere.
They lost a huge amount of their men on that battlefield, and both Luke and Claugh suffered major wounds that took months for them to come back from. Claugh had rejoined the military, but he was most likely working with Luke and Miller, too.
And Sion was just as powerless as ever. He still couldn’t save anyone.
“……”
Several months passed since he had taken the throne.
Of course there were a couple things he managed to accomplish.
He freed the people who had been jailed for crimes no worse than going against what the nobility wanted, many of whom were Miller or Sion’s allies. It took a bit of fighting, but the nobility finally agreed to let Sion release them.
One of the prisoners he’d freed was supposed to be coming here today to meet with him.
A cute redheaded woman in travelling clothes stepped into the unpleasantly large throne room. In the past, she’d fought by Sion’s side as one of his classmates at the Roland Empire’s Royal Special Military Academy.
“Kiefer,” Sion said.
Kiefer looked up, surprised. She approached with a smile. “Whoa, amazing! You really became king!”
“Haha.”
“So? How’s the throne? I bet it’s comfy.”
“It feels horrible,” Sion said.
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah.”
“I see.”
“Yeah,” Sion said again and nodded. He looked at her wide smile. “It’s been awhile, Kiefer.”
“Mm-hm.”
“I’m sure you must have wanted this to happen sooner, but I’ve not had the power to do it…”
She shook her head. “You’re saving Ryner from solitary confinement… and you saved me, too… Though prison really wasn’t that bad.”
“……”
“It was actually a pretty nice place to put a traitor like me.”
“……”
“Every day I wished I’d meet a bloodier fate… That’s how nice it was.” She stopped there and laughed. She made a face like she didn’t think there was a point in talking about that anymore, then looked at Sion. “But really, you’re amazing. When you say you want something, it really happens. You’ve become a real king.”
Sion shook his head. “Nothing goes the way I want it to. I’ve lost so many of my allies, even after becoming king.”
“You’re still amazing.”
“I’m not. I’m still powerless as could be. So…”
So won’t you lend me your power? He thought about saying that.
But Kiefer responded too quickly. “So what about Ryner?”
“……”
“What happened to Ryner?”
Sion grimaced. “He’s still in prison. I still don’t have enough power to reach inside the prison he’s in and free him.”
“Even though you’re king?”
“It’s horrible, isn’t it?”
Kiefer looked down at him. “I’ll lend you my power if you need it to free Ryner. But you’re king, so I’ll take your word if you say you can free him with your own power and keep him out of trouble, and I’ll leave Roland.”
“You’re leaving?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“To figure out what the deal is with Ryner’s eyes.”
Sion thought back to when Ryner’s eyes went berserk. It already felt like a distant memory.
When Ryner’s eyes went berserk, he went crazy and tried to kill both Sion and Kiefer. Buf that hadn’t happened, Sion would have died that day. Ryner wouldn’t have killed all the Magical Knights and saved him, so he would have died.
But that wasn’t what Ryner got out of it. Instead, he blamed himself for killing and called himself a monster. He went to prison willingly for his crime of living.
“His eyes… So you’re going to research the Alpha Stigma?” Sion asked.
“Yeah.”
“To save Ryner?”
Kiefer nodded, pleased to hear it from him. “After all… that’s the only reason I can find to be alive right now.”
She said it so easily.
“So answer me, Sion. Will you free Ryner from prison?”
Sion nodded. “I think I can probably manage it.”
“Promise?”
“Yeah. Definitely.”
“Then I’ll leave it to you,” Kiefer said.
“……”
“I’m leaving Roland, then. Ah, but Sion! Don’t tell Ryner about this. I’ll tell him the next time I see him.”
“If that’s what you want.”
“Yeah. It is.”
“I understand…”
“Then that’s that,” Kiefer said. She turned to leave, but only took a couple steps before she turned back. “Oh, and… Sion?”
“Hm?”
“Your complexion looks terrible. Are you okay?”
Sion smiled. “I haven’t been getting much sleep.”
“Are you working nonstop just like you used to?”
“Yeah. I just love working so much~!”
“Ahaha. But that’s no good. You’ll never get anything done right if you try to do it all at once.”
“Is that so.”
“Yeah. If you can’t do it all yourself, then you should rely on other people for help.”
Sion smiled. “You’re the one to talk. You never talked to us about anything.”
“Ahaha. I know because I have personal experience. And the worst part of it is that Ryner’s the one who taught me!”
“I see.”
But even if they talked big, back then, none of them had any power at all. Nobody could save anyone. They were powerless, just like always. They never had any power in the critical moment where it’d make a real difference.
“So, Sion. If you’re ever having a hard time…”
“I have lots of friends,” Sion interrupted. “I have lots of allies and girlfriends, too. Unlike Ryner, I’m super popular.”
Kiefer laughed. “Yeah, I guess so. I mean, you’re the king now!”
“Yeah, that’s right!”
“But you won’t open your heart to any of them.”
“……”
“That’s why I’m offering to lend you an ear now,” Kiefer said. “It’s a limited time offer. And I won’t help you solve anything.”
“Ahaha. You’re horrible!”
“Your face is the most horrible thing here. You look exhausted.”
“Well, I’ve only just become king. Succeeding the throne isn’t supposed to be easy, but it’ll get better.”
“Mm.”
“So there’s nothing I can do about being tired right now. But I’ll work as hard as I can to expand my influence.”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’ll get Ryner out of prison… and go to him with my problems.”
Kiefer’s eyes shone. “Oh, that’s great! Ryner’s always thought that he’s a monster who nobody wants, after all. It’ll be good for him to feel useful.”
“Haha, yeah.”
“Alright, I’ll leave him to you. Take care of him until I get back…”
“Yeah. I understand. And Kiefer…”
“Hm?”
“Take care.”
Kiefer nodded. “Don’t worry. I’m a first-rate spy, after all.”
A first-rate spy who blew her cover, let her sisters get killed, betrayed her allies and caused everyone’s deaths, and got Ryner thrown in jail.
She was carrying all of that on her conscience. But it wasn’t her fault. And nothing that Ryner was carrying was his fault, either.
They blamed themselves for things that were completely out of their control.
“Ahaha… well, that’s all. See you again sometime, Sion.”
“Yeah. See you someday,” Sion whispered.
Then the throne room returned to absolute silence.
He needed more power to save Ryner from prison. He needed to capture more and more human hearts. He needed to get rid of some of the influence the anti-monarchy party of nobles had.
“……”
---
Every day was a struggle for power.
His political views aimed at bettering his country started and ended as dreams.
Countless people killed. Countless people were killed.
It was normal.
The darkness inside of him slowly but surely spread. He could feel it as he killed. As he stepped on the lives of others.
“……”
Before he realized it, people were calling him the Hero King.
His hands were dirtier than ever before, they said that the way they were governed was better than ever. They said that they had a wonderful king.
People began to say that the revolution that led to the change in kings was a bloodless one. They said that even though the last king had died.
That was proof of how many he killed, both friend and foe.
The darkness - the curse inside of him - swelled as if trying to swallow him entirely. It was hard to stay himself. It hurt everywhere. He could feel the curse in every pore of his body, every nerve in his body, encroaching on the person he was supposed to be.
There were nights where he thought about how much easier it’d be to just give in and stop being human. He thought about how much easier it’d be to lose it completely and let the world pass by him, just as his father had, as he writhed on the floor in agony, all alone.
“……”
But on a hard, pain-filled day, just like the many that came before it—
Sion finally gained enough power to get Ryner out of prison.
And… he was a little worried. What kind of expression should he greet Ryner with?
His hands were so much dirtier than they were the last time they saw each other. They were stained red with blood. Yet he still worried about tiny, insignificant things like what expression he should make when he saw Ryner again.
“……”
Even after everything, this was something important to him. He really did want to save his friend from prison.
---
It was a place where light couldn’t reach, oblivious of the lights of the sun and the moon, of day and night. It was impossible to tell if it was noon or midnight the second he stepped inside of the cruelest prison in the country.
A normal human would go mad after a couple months in there. It was a terrible environment for Ryner to be cooped up in.
“……”
Sion was paying a visit in the dead of night to avoid prying eyes. If it got back to the nobles that he’d been in here, they’d almost certainly interfere with his goal. Their meddling could very well put Ryner in danger.
That was the extent of his powerlessness even now.
Why was he king? Only because the last king died. It wasn’t like the country had held out both hands and beckoned him into kinghood or anything. But… it was fine for now. It was enough for now.
“……”
His eyes narrowed as he stared into a small cell with three stone walls and one of iron bars. It was so full of books that it was almost impossible to see the floor, and even the walls in some places. According to the jailor who managed this prison, Ryner had been researching something the whole time he was here.
For two entire years, he sat in here, researching as much as he could given his circumstances.
He’d always been such an unmotivated guy. What could someone like Ryner possibly be so passionate about that he spent two years researching it?
When Sion looked up at the bookshelf, he understood. When he looked at the titles, he understood. Ryner was fighting his own battle here, all alone.
“……”
He could hear Ryner’s relaxed breathing as he slept.
From the other side of dirty iron bars, he could hear Ryner inhaling and exhaling slowly.
Two years ago, his presence alone would have woke Ryner. But he continued to sleep.
Two years had passed. Ryner’s senses had probably dulled in that time.
Sion slowly, quietly raised a hand through the bars to take a messy bundle of papers from on top of one of Ryner’s piles. Unrealistic, idiotic delusions lined the pages. Words like ‘hero,’ ‘demon,’ and ‘demon king’ appeared often.
A normal person might take one look at it and deem it madness.
It was a childish thesis. An idiotic thesis.
It said that if they managed to find the power that heroes and demons left them, they might be able to spread some light on the dark world they lived in. The feeling that the pages conveyed was past the point of being child-like ambition and diving into more of an earnest hope for something good to happen, almost like a prayer that things would change.
“…Ha, hahah…”
It was all Sion could do to laugh at the words Ryner had written. He wasn’t laughing because it was stupid, though. It certainly wasn’t stupid.
As he flipped through the pages, he found one that encapsulated Ryner’s will for the future.
He knew that reading it might take him off of the path he was on. He felt like it might offer a simpler solution, one where they could stop fighting.
He wanted something simpler because the curse was horrible. He could feel it burning through his veins. He wanted something simpler, a way to make it easier, make him lose his sanity sooner.
So he read it.
When he did, the person he’d been trying so hard to throw away came back full force.
When his eyes read the words Ryner had written… when he read the words Ryner had worked so hard to put on paper. When he read Ryner’s unbelievably childish paper…
I hate it when people die.
I also hate killing.
I hate crying and I hate being made to cry.
What’s the feeling called when you know you can’t choose your life? When your family dies? What about when the person you love dies?
Nobody wants those things to happen, and yet this world wishes for pointless sadness, laughing all the while.
I’ve never wanted to change things. I know it’s futile. But I’ll keep being sad if things don’t change, and I don’t want to lose anything else…
This is a pain to write, but… I think it’s about time to move forward. I’ve averted my eyes from the past until now, but if it’s necessary, I’ll look at it. For the sake of making a world where nobody will lose anything anymore.
A world where that kid and Kiefer don’t have to cry, where Tyle, Tony, and Fahle don’t have to die, where Sion doesn’t have to torment himself over the state of things.
To a world where everyone smiles and it’s okay if all we do is nap.
Ryner Lute
“……”
Ryner… that Ryner.
In the midst of an ugly, horrifying world where all he could do was push others away out of fear, Ryner had written this. And in the midst of their ugly, horrifying world, Sion had read it.
“……”
Sion swallowed the urge to cry. “I see,” he whispered with a trembling voice. “So this is the path you chose.”
His sense of self had come back to him. He felt the will to fight again. He didn’t know how long he could keep his body and heart alive, but… he decided that he’d try to do all the things he set out to do.
Let them call him the Hero King. He’d do something that made praising his name worth their time.
He’d fight earnestly for a little longer. So… Ryner also had to…
“…I told you that this wasn’t going to be somewhere that you could just nap your life away. I told you that it’d be hard… but it wasn’t. I won’t forgive you for being the only person in the world who likes being in a place like this. I won’t forgive you for making me alone worry. You’re mine, so I’m going to use you.” Sion smiled meanly through his tears. “Even if you don’t want me to.”
That was the start of a legend. It was the start of their new legend. It was the story of an impossible darkness and the two who still managed to see light.
It was the story that tied the Dark Fallen Hero and the Lonesome Demon together.
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