Chapter 28 — Twilight (2)
The Paths collided and tangled together.
Straight lines twisted into curves, scattering into chaos before gathering once more.
ken walked forward slowly, sword in hand.
But it wasn’t standing against him now. The one holding Twilight in this mont was not the boy, Arhan Karavan — it was the sword’s true master: the honorable knight, Fetel.
Hair slicked neatly back, lips pressed tight, posture stiff and earnest — the noble knight who stood against his enemy in dignified silence.
My hands beca Fetel’s hands.
My arms beca his arms.
The complete knight unclaid by disease — Fetel as he once was — stood firm, far harder than the man I had known.
『Lord Arhan.』
This wasn’t the Karavan Line. In that mont, a different Path spread within my heart.
『I simply wished to leave more of myself behind in this world.』
『Perhaps that too is greed.』
To my eyes, the Path shimred strangely. I couldn’t tell whether it was the mana of a Sword Walker… or the footprints of a man nad Fetel, engraved by his life’s journey.
『Even if the world forgets , I hope you rember.』
One thing was certain.
『That one knight struggled against this cruel world until the very end.』
That Path was every bit as firm as the Karavan’s — unyielding and solid. And then, a flood of mories surged into my mind. Fetel’s final mories.
『I won seventeen honor duels. I protected you amidst flaming arrows and the bombardnts of mages. When five hundred starving refugees stord the gates, I defended them alone.』
『I devoted myself to you.』
『And the world rewarded my devotion with an incurable disease.』
***
I barely won that first honor duel — the one I began solely for your sake. Even after, other knights ca to challenge , saying I had sinned. Seventeen duels in total. I won them all.
Everyone called a fanatic.
“Do you really think you can protect that fallen noblewoman? You’ll regret it.”
“……”
“The great powers of the continent call us knights ‘dogs.’ And they’re half right. Without masters to give us food and shelter, we’re nothing but sword-wielding strays.”
“……”
“Change your allegiance. Why cling to a master who can’t feed or house you? Find a new one, you stupid bastard.”
The words were barbed, yet hard to deny.
I ate ager food, lived in a shabby inn, and when funds ran low, I took rcenary jobs behind a mask.
It wasn’t the glorious life of a knight I once dread of. But I couldn’t leave.
“Sir Fetel, please. Leave.”
Even when she was dragged into the blood feud between the Iron Kingdom’s princes — forced into war — I couldn’t abandon her.
“Why won’t you leave ? Why?”
Flaming arrows, mage bombardnts — chaos and screams filled the battlefield. Amidst it all, I protected her. Even atop her trembling horse, she shouted over the din:
Leave, Fetel. You can live. Even if I die here, you’re already an honorable knight. Many orders would take you in. Living that way would be worth far more than dying pointlessly here.
Leave .
Live your own life.
“Fetel, please…”
I still rember her tears outside the silent war tent, beside the restless horses.
She looked at my bloodied, burnt face — struck by spells and explosions — and wept like a child.
Just like back then, when she’d fallen learning to ride for the first ti.
“Why… why are you still here…”
The war destroyed her family.
My employer — her father — died in the chaos, his head mounted on an enemy banner.
Her mother took her own life as a prisoner.
Her brothers were buried in the mud.
She was no longer a nobility.
No longer beautiful.
No longer my master.
The contract her father had once held — the one hiring — had long since burned.
She hadn’t been able to pay my wages in years.
But I didn’t leave. Before her, crying softly outside the stable, I spoke.
“Because I am Fetel the Loyal.”
She survived the war. Her once-delicate beauty — worthy of her na, Daisy — faded under its cruelty. Her laughter vanished, her skin roughened, her hair tangled, and small scars marred her once-fair face. But she regained her noble rights.
Through the second prince’s purge, ant to secure his throne, she was made Countess Daisy.
She beca a Countess — yet she didn’t seem happy. Burdened with duty, she bore the anger of a nation. When starving peasants rioted, hamring on the gates of her estate, I stood before them alone.
I didn’t kill them.
I endured the stones, fists, and insults hurled my way, armor dented and bloodied — thinking, if this will soothe their rage, it’s worth it.
After being beaten nearly to death, I staggered back to her. She’d returned from her duties, exhausted. And though I had not kneeled before five hundred n, I knelt before her.
“Fetel…”
She no longer needed to call Sir.
She was noble again, wealthy again, mistress of a domain and castle.
“I’m sorry, Fetel. I’m so sorry.”
Why did she still weep like a child? I couldn’t hate her.
I could only watch as she clung to , sobbing, staining her gown with my blood and dust.
I wanted to embrace her — but didn’t. Instead, I spoke, clumsy as ever.
“…It has been my greatest honor to serve as your knight.”
She used her wealth and connections to heal my scars, repair my armor, and even recomnded to a reputable knight order.
Peace followed. But my realm did not rise.
The step to beco a Sword Runner was too high.
Those who began later than I, even so who’d started with , sprouted wings — but I stayed grounded.
More knights joined her service, all tested Sword Runners.
Yet she kept closest.
“Sleeping with him, perhaps?” they whispered.
The rumors turned vile. Still, she never pushed away.
She grew greater — brighter — while I stayed the sa, aging and stagnant.
Perhaps it was then… that the seed of inferiority began to rot within .
“I don’t know why that useless dog still stays by her side.”
I was no longer her sole protagonist.
Now she stood among true heroes — knights of brilliance and prestige.
She beca the protagonist of her story. And I… I was a pathetic extra, refusing to leave the stage. All I could offer her was loyalty — to never betray her.
And that made feel smaller than ever.
“……”
So I clung to my sword and to my wings. Desperate not to be discarded — afraid she might one day cast aside — I devoted myself even more blindly.
Maybe the gods thought my struggle was too pitiful, and so they decided to take .
Enough, Fetel, they said. This is how it ends.
In human words, that ant:
“We don’t know what disease it is. The only thing I can tell you is that you don’t have long. The marks will spread across your body, and nothing can stop them.”
“……”
“I’m sorry. There’s nothing more I can do.”
The world sentenced to death.
Not by a knight’s duel.
Not protecting her in glory.
But by a pitiful, wretched illness.
I spent three days awake — no food, no sleep — in a haze.
The Knight Order exiled .
Priests and healers barred from temples, fearing contagion.
Even villagers I’d once protected shunned .
The healer who diagnosed for pay gossiped that Knight Fetel was diseased, and soon everyone treated like a leper. In one night, everything fell apart.
That evening, Daisy ca.
“Don’t go, Fetel.”
Don’t go, Fetel.
Even if you die, you’ll always be my greatest knight.
I’ll spend everything to find a cure. And if you still die, I’ll honor you with the grandest funeral.
So please — don’t leave .
Stay by my side. Until the end.
Don’t leave . Let’s finish our stories together.
She, who had always told to leave — now begged to stay, eyes the sa as when she was still a young girl.
“I love you, Fetel.”
Perhaps we had always known.
Perhaps I had waited my whole life to hear it.
It was a forbidden, disgraceful love for a knight — but it had always lingered in the corner of my heart.
If I hadn’t been ill… maybe I would’ve kissed her.
Maybe we would’ve shared that night, ignoring everything else.
But that couldn’t be.
She was radiant. And I had already fallen into shadow.
My role was done. If I stayed, I’d only tarnish her light.
Once a character serves his purpose, he must leave the stage. That’s the most beautiful ending.
I still rember her face — her tearful eyes — and the sunset behind her, painting the world crimson. That twilight felt like my own life.
I could not drag her — my rising sun — into my twilight.
For after twilight, only darkness follows.
So I left. Because I was Fetel the Loyal. And I wanted her to rember forever as her knight — her protagonist.
After she returned ho, I slipped away quietly, whispering to the empty air.
“I loved you too, Daisy.”
I wandered the remote villages of the Iron Kingdom.
Avoiding people.
Seeking isolation.
I wanted no one to see my corpse.
Even if beasts devoured , it was fine — as long as you didn’t see what I’d beco.
I tried to forget you. But every evening, as the sky turned red, I couldn’t help but rember your gentle gaze.
One day, I arrived at a village. There, I t a strange boy.
“I don’t ever want to give up out of fear again — not before I’ve fought.”
For so reason, I couldn’t look away from him. His sword, his hardened heart — but most of all, the will burning in his eyes.
A will that suited the word protagonist far more than mine ever did.
So I beca his neighbor.
Ti passed quickly.
The marks spread, rotting my body and clouding my mind. And then one day, I saw a knight arrive.
The boy was in danger — and I took his cri upon myself.
“I killed him.”
It wasn’t pure selflessness. It was also selfishness.
“Didn’t you hear? A knight from the Green Deer Order — victorious in seventeen honor duels, the ever-honorable ‘Fetel the Loyal.’ I killed your deserter knight.”
It seed like a fitting end for .
Looking at that knight’s wings, jealousy burned again.
To die by the sword of soone who possessed what I’d always longed for — wings — wasn’t a bad fate.
And perhaps I was laughing at myself, still thinking of Daisy even as I stared at those wings.
If only I had wings, I thought, I could have stayed by her side without sha.
That my misery ca from that — from being a man without wings.
So I drew my sword. And, as always, the world was rciless.
“I’ve always loved twilight.”
I died before the duel even ended.
“When the day ends and the dark night begins, that red glow that covers the world — I find it beautiful. It reminds of us humans, leaving traces before the darkness takes us.”
The truth was, I loved twilight because it reminded of you.
I smiled at the boy before , though I couldn’t tell him all this.
I couldn’t confess my story or my love — not to anyone.
I was always a stubborn, foolish man — not good with words.
If that boy rembered as a wandering knight dying of disease, that was fine.
But I hoped — just once — that soone would rember my struggle.
That much was enough.
“Take my sword.”
And I saw my true death.
As the distant sunset painted the world crimson, I thought of you again — the warmth of your hand, the scent of flowers, your gentle smile and voice, your tear-streaked face begging to stay, your flushed cheeks whispering love.
Even dying, I smiled. Perhaps, like you, so part of my heart had remained a boy’s — forever dreaming.
I — Fetel, the boy — had dread of being the protagonist. But when I grew into a man, I could not be one. At my pitiful end, I finally saw the light. The twilight was beautiful — just like you.
And that… was the end of one knight nad Fetel.
***
“……”
Countless Paths intertwined again.
The sword born of Fetel’s mory was honest — and unbreakable.
My Twilight did not falter, nor get lost among the countless Paths.
It walked on its own.
ken’s Paths shattered one by one.
It wasn’t swordfighting anymore — it was proof of life itself.
Like when he’d won seventeen honor duels, like when he’d protected his master amid war, like when he’d endured the fists of starving refugees to defend a gate alone —He fought to protect what mattered, without bending —like the will of a man who’d long since left this world.
The Paths spread, stretching in every direction, then converging — many roads returning to one destination.
When all those winding paths beca one, it turned thin as thread —a shimring filant of light.
I drew a deep breath.
“Haa—”
I inherited Fetel’s Path. And through the Karavan blood, it turned to Steel — hardening into a single shining Line.
Following that Line, I gripped Fetel’s sword —stepped forward, and charged, heavy and fierce, swinging down like a giant axe.
Crude. Brutal. Perfect.
And for a heartbeat, my mind went blank.
“Ha—”
When I ca to, I was standing behind ken.
Red blood spattered the dirt.
With a dull sound, ken’s sword fell — broken.
Two severed arms rolled across the ground.
“Gaaaah—!!”
ken scread — both arms gone.
I steadied my ragged breath, staring down at him. Around us, the surrounding knights looked on in stunned silence.
I lifted my sword high, then drove it into the earth.
Thunk.
The ground trembled.
I squeezed out the last of my strength.
“Announce the winner of the honor duel.”
The dumbfounded squire’s mouth hung open.
Above him, I saw Liam’s face floating serenely — smiling.
『Splendid.』
I had proven my kind neighbor’s life was not in vain.
Yes.
“Go on,” I whispered.
The Karavan way.
***
『Designation: Twilight』
『A long, sharp sword once wielded by Knight Fetel.』
『A traditional longsword, typical of knights.』
『Ingestion complete.』
.
.
.
『The Steel Blood is hungry.』
『Ingest a new sword.』
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