Chapter 36: Goodbye, Star of Change

  (Kairo's Perspective)

  The whole world watched their star go out with the sunrise.

  Then silence fell.

  An absolute, heavy silence, as if the universe itself had held its breath. In the Van der Wood mansion, where we were hiding, all movement stopped. There were no tears, no screams. There was only a silent moment of respect for that child who had just turned eighteen, carried the world on his shoulders, and then fell.

  I walked down the hill slowly, my legs trembling. The battlefield was like a drawing by a mad artist. The bodies of the Saints were shattered like fallen ancient marble statues, and the rain washed the blood from their vacant faces. The smell of ozone, blood, and rain filled the air.

  And in the middle of all this destruction, there was a strange stillness. Corvus was still kneeling on the ground, cradling Deo's lifeless body in his arms, as if trying to warm him from the coldness of death that had already taken hold.

  I stood in front of him. I didn't see a Saint, I didn't see an enemy. I only saw a father holding his dead son.

  "Get out of here," I said, my voice hoarse and strained. "I beg you. Just get out."

  Corvus looked at me with those golden eyes that resembled my friend's, but they were completely empty. "Don't you want to kill me?"

  "Kill you?" I laughed a bitter, humorless laugh. "If he didn't kill you, who am I to do it?" I looked at Deo. "He forgave you. And that is worse than any punishment you could receive. Now go. Go to the edge of the world, and live with this void you left for yourself. Just get out of here."

  Corvus slowly stood up. He took one last, long, painful look at Deo's face, then turned, and dissolved into the shadows as if he had never been there.

  I knelt beside my friend. Beside my brother. I touched his cold face. He was strong. He was truly strong. That bastard, he was a thousand times stronger than me. But he was scared. I'm sure of it. In the end, he was a coward, afraid of death.

  "You fool," I whispered, tears finally burning my eyes. "Why did you leave the hard work to me and go? If you had told me 'Come and die with me,' I would have come. But you didn't. You knew I was lazy, a coward, weak. Why did you do this, Deo?"

  (Clara's Perspective)

  When I saw him fall on the screen, my world stopped.

  All the colors faded. The world that was colored by his presence vanished with him. I remained sitting, staring at the empty screen, staring at my husband, my soul, my star... falling.

  The funeral was held in his old mansion. In his garden, beside the grave of his wet nurse, Mia. The place was full of people. Nobles in their luxurious black attire, commoners in their simple clothes, and surviving warriors whose faces were covered in scars. They all came to bid farewell to the hero they only knew as a rumor, then as a prophecy, then as a legend on a screen.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I stood there, looking at the ring on my finger. I was his woman. I was his queen. And without him, what am I? I was his star, his beloved, his woman, his world. The girl more beautiful than the stars, the most foolish, the smartest. He was everything to me.

  Then Kairo started yelling, his face drenched in tears, as he gave the first eulogy. "That fool left the hardest work to us! He hated crying, he hated sadness! So don't grieve what we lost, but rejoice in the life he gave us!"

  Isabella yelled from beside me, rage in her voice: "That bastard ran away again without fighting me! If he had waited one year, I would have defeated him!"

  Warriors yelled: "He saved us! He gave us food! He saved us from prison!"

  A woman from the crowd yelled: "He saved my daughter from a thief!"

  Gabriel yelled: "He was the greatest apprentice I ever trained!"

  Jose yelled: "If he had been born in my time, we would have been the best of friends!"

  Mattias whispered: "That arrogant fool... he was kind."

  Everyone who knew him, everyone he touched, everyone he saved, yelled a description of him. He was a hero, a demon, a child, a man, a fool, a genius. He was everything.

  Even my son in my belly, I felt him kick hard, as if screaming: "He was full of love!"

  Then, from behind the crowd, a broken, painful voice cried out.

  "He was... a real son."

  It was Corvus. He stood far away, alone, then turned and left. Everyone saw him and wanted to kill him, but if he didn't do it, who were they to do it? They understood.

  We all stood in mourning. Not just for Deo, but for everyone who fell in this war. I placed headstones next to Deo for all who fell: Alessandro, Eva, Leonardo, little Louis, Mateo, Gaspard, Ulrich, big Louis, Layla... He united the world even in his death.

  Twenty Years Later...

  Twenty winters buried the world in white, and twenty summers bloomed flowers on his grave.

  The sun was warm. I sat on the grass next to his grave, drinking wine straight from the bottle.

  "Are you still waiting for that fool to return?"

  It was Isabella. She was beautiful, and the faint wrinkles around her eyes added to her dignity as the Headmistress of "Elysian" Academy.

  "It's impossible for me to marry anyone but that fool," I said, smiling. "Otherwise, he and his son will kill me."

  Isabella laughed. "He was the most annoying student. I don't believe this, how did you raise him? He's nothing like Deo. It was the worst year I was Headmistress, just because of him."

  "He is my son, and he is very strong," I said, laughing.

  "He is Deo's son, the Star of Change. If he wasn't strong, what would he be?"

  Kairo, who was sitting on the other side of the grave, laughed. "You're right. He's coming to kill you."

  Isabella hit Kairo on the head. "If someone would just propose to me! My God, I'm almost forty and still single!"

  Kairo laughed. "Fine, fine, soon I will. But I can't find any ideas. Every time I remember how Deo introduced himself to Clara, I tell myself, how will I surpass that?"

  I laughed. "He was incredibly romantic. You are competing with Deo, the Star of Change."

  All three of us laughed.

  After Kairo got drunk, he healed himself with magic. "Alright, I'm leaving."

  "Where to, you drunken fool?" Isabella said. "Propose to me! Tell me you love me!"

  Kairo waved goodbye. "Tomorrow, tomorrow. I'm sleepy now."

  Kairo entered the old mansion, which had become his home. He took a small, broken metallic chip out of his pocket and looked at it. He was about to close his eyes to sleep, but he suddenly stopped.

  He opened his eyes.

  He was no longer in the mansion.

  He was standing in a dark place, with no beginning and no end. Around him stood thousands of silent figures, their faces blurred. He looked up, to where everyone was looking.

  The sky was black. A dark, profound void.

  There were no stars.