Goodbyes

With his arms stretched outwardly in a grandiose manner, Cole released a slow breath throughout the trailing quietness drowning the wide halls.

Clink-clank.

An armor plate clinked against another, and then–

Schlack.

Thud.

"Trying to catch me off guard from behind, weren't you? What naughty knights the Mansion of Silvindor has given birth to…"

Cole trailed off, behaving as if he were disappointed, and that disconcerted expression immediately turned into a grin.

"Pfft! Bwahaha! This is frankly funny! Weren't y'all supposed to be the strongest of the strongest to protect your dear King?"

"The daddy who gives you money to survive and has raised your confidence to the level of foolishness?"

"Huh?"

Cole kept bombarding them with mockery and words of humiliation, until a man with a mustache, seemingly of young age, raised a hand.

"Everyone, you have magic powers, but you were all ordered not to use them within the mansion… Not unless the King is deemed in danger."

His tone shifted into a yell, "THEN WHY HESITATE?"

"Oh…"

"Right…"

"Uh–"

Staring at that scene nonchalantly, Cole, totally out of his usual behavior scratched at his ear, similarly to how Brander used to do it.

He slightly turned his head on an angle, seeming bored out of his mind, "Sir? I apologize but do you think this is some theatrical play or something? Why would you begin a motivational speech when you should just–"

With a step–no–a blink, Cole had already appeared behind that leader wanna-be.

"Strike when they don't expect it!"

Unsheathing his rusty blade and running it through the man's neck like a knife through butter, Cole felt the discomforting sensation of the bone cracking at first contact.

'It feels as if it's my own hand…'

He thought. 

His blade already having severed the head from the neck dripped with red liquid.

'Thanks for the meal–'

A chill-inducing voice was heard as the blood disappeared, and then–

Sch-scha-schlap!

Bodies, the one of the guy with the mustache and Brander's disappeared. 

As if they were eaten by space itself.

"Brander…" Cole trailed out as the guards were already running on all fours from him.

"You had the potential to be a strong and trusted comrade… it was all to no avail, huh."

"This is quite pathetic. Am I overpowered right now? Shouldn't the palace have the strongest of knights to contest me and aim for my life?"

"Maybe every strong knight, mage, or whatever is out just like my previous party members were."

Step, step, step.

The hallways were cleared and quiet.

The limited amount of rays that were protruding through the clouds and into the castle halls made the scene all the more novel.

"Hm, hm hm, hmmm~"

Cole was humming a song, imagining soft instruments playing in the background as he strolled without any worries weighing on his mind.

'The world has already ended, so what purpose would there be for me to care if I live one more day or not?'

"I'll just do my own thing."

With an ecstatic smile of relief, he began grasping at the nonexistent link.

At least it felt like that towards him like he's gaining something from nothing, which, in terms of the laws of nature, should be impossible.

"Shall I also give her a visit…?"

He questioned out loud to particularly no one, the image of a woman who specialized in using wind magic appearing in his mind.

The grinning face of a woman who had an aloof air to her when she was with her party member.

The woman who wore the face of a leader when the situation grew tense, and…

The woman, and the first human that was kind to Cole besides his own mother.

"Aeliana."

He called out her name, taking a deep breath and sending oxygen down his body as crackling energy spread out from his legs.

Near the King's chamber.

"..."

His hair fluttered as light blue energy exploded from his body, leaving behind an afterimage of his body and a small crater on the ground.

The veins and muscles on his calves and thighs bulged as he swiftly phased through the walls, searching for his target, the leader of the party, Aeliana Windleaf.

Fwoo– Crack!

The door flew open, alerting Aeliana who was writing down something with a feather sunk in ink.

"C-Cole? How are you–"

"Hey there, dearest party leader!"

Cole waved his hand, flashing a gentle smile toward the standing Aeliana, the chair she was seated in had already fallen to the ground.

"Kgh?"

The moment she blinked, Cole was already behind her, his blade to her neck.

"You know what this means, don't you?" He asked, his voice as cold as ice.

"..."

Aeliana swallowed her saliva, her mouth quickly getting parched and dry.

"I won't ask too much, just one thing."

With a terse tone, she managed to muster up and speak, "W-What is it…?"

"Why did you not try to defend me when you knew damned well I was innocent?" Cole asked, his voice and expression still as still as stone, albeit, the tip of his blade was already making contact with the skin of her neck.

"..."

Putting slightly more pressure on the blade to her skin, Aeliana forcefully sputtered, a stinging pain spreading as a slight arc of red trailed down her slender neck.

"T-The words of the King are absolute."

With an annoyed voice, Cole asked as he raised his brow, "And?" 

"And… The Grand Inquisitor's words… Her words are always correct– Kghyaaa!!!"

With a smooth arc of his blade, Cole severed Aeliana's left arm, not letting her finish the sentence Cole already knew the end of.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" 

He voiced, thinking how he could not relate to her in this aspect, after all, he had never gotten his arms severed, nor his legs.

Dropping down to her knees and clutching at her fresh and warm wound that was spurting blood in gradual bouts, similar to her heartbeat, Aeliana grunted and moaned.

Feeling disinterested in the members of the party and the people throughout the castle, Cole made his way towards the blown-off door again, his intention of simply scarring the people who betrayed him was clearly crossed.

"..."

With reddened eyes and a contorted expression, Aeliana barked gruffly– "Spirits of Flight, bless this wasted soul–"

Cra-crack!

"Huh? W-What did you do!? What did you do you damned fuck!? What!?"

"Hmm," Humming as Cole lowered his right arm, he scanned Aeliana.

Her nose and upper lip full of snot.

Her bottom lip trailing blood and covered in saliva.

Her severed arm still bleeding.

Her eyes… filled with hatred.

"I guess you could say I fed your spell to a certain someone. Now then, deal with yourself, you don't want to die from blood loss, do you?"

"As for now, this is a farewell, Aeliana."

With those final words, Cole left the room.

His legs shook and his vision flickered between light and darkness.

"All that's left… is the King. I have to say my goodbye in a well-remembering fashion."

'You really don't care about yourself, do you?"

A high-pitched and giddy voice asked within his mind.

"Shut the fuck up and just do what I ask you of."