Chapter 66: The End of the War

“…Hey… how is it?”

Shia—my sister—no longer had her arms.

What remained stopped just above the elbows. The rest was gone, leaving behind raw, unmistakable scars—jagged, painful to look at, their presence impossible to ignore. The loose ends of her sleeves brushed faintly against my skin, as if trying, in vain, to conceal what had been lost.

“…The same as what you’re touching right now.”

My missing left eye… and what remained of her arms—two absences meeting, quietly, painfully.

“…You said you wouldn’t push yourself too far.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“That’s…if you apologize so honestly…”

Still holding me, Shia suddenly shifted her weight forward, pressing me down until my back hit the floor. The impact echoed dully through the shop, causing a faint rattle among the displayed goods.

The shop had already been closed. The clerk who had been tending it earlier had long since read the situation and quietly excused himself.

“…I can finally calm down.”

Shia buried her face into my chest, rubbing her nose gently against me as if trying to reassure herself of something.

“…Ah… yes. This is Noah’s scent.”

“…H-hey, that’s a bit embarrassing…”

“The ‘you’ I was seeing before… wasn’t really you, Noah. I couldn’t face reality. I was running away.”

“…Yeah…”

The last time I had seen her, she had been trapped in hallucinations—seeing me where I wasn’t.

That must be what she meant.

I had always instructed the members of my company to keep me informed about her condition. According to their reports, she had gradually begun to manage tasks even without her hands, and the hallucinations had stopped.

So this—this wasn’t because she was seeing me again and stabilizing.

This trembling figure before me… this was her, as she truly was now.

“Weak” wasn’t the right word.

But compared to before, the woman clinging to me felt so much more fragile… her body trembling ever so slightly.

“…Shia-neesama.”

“That’s why… I won’t run away anymore. I can’t just keep being protected by you forever. I’ve accepted it now. I can… I can finally—”

“That’s impossible.”

I cut her off immediately, shaking my head.

“That’s not true! I can—!”

“That’s not what I mean. I’m a brigadier general now. I’ve achieved results on both the western and eastern fronts… and soon, I’ll be heading back to the west with the general again.”

“So what…!?”

“That means… I don’t need you anymore, Oneesan.”

“…Ah…”

“The House of Willard… Father… they no longer see you as a political piece to be used. At first, my going to the battlefield was in place of your engagement. But now… your engagement won’t be enough to pull me back from the front.”

“No… no, no! Don’t say that! Don’t say you don’t need me! You—of all people—can’t say that to me!”

“I love you… Oneesan.”

Gently, I wrapped my arms around her—around my real, irreplaceable sister.

“Hah… hah… hah…”

Her breathing grew ragged, uneven.

“Why… why… I was supposed to protect you, Noah. I was your big sister… I was supposed to be able to do it… but I’ve become… weak…”

Her voice trembled.

“You would never say you don’t need me… and yet… I reacted only to those words… ah… a woman like me… I have no value at all, do I? To think I could replace you…”

Pulling away from me, her body shaking, tears spilled freely from her eyes.

“That’s not true.”

I sat up, pulling her with me, forcing her gently but firmly back to her feet.

“I’m not… anything special either.”

Facing her directly, our eyes level, I let the words slip out—words I had been holding back for far too long.

“…War… I still can’t accept it. Watching people live… and die…”

I had always known war would come someday.

I had prepared for it—believing that once it began, Shia would be sent to the battlefield, leaving me without support, cast out of the Willard household. That certainty had been what drove me to build my merchant company in the first place.

And in doing so, I had tried to steel myself—to become the kind of person who could profit from war, a merchant of death if necessary.

“I know it’s necessary… that’s why I do it.”

In a world where war was inevitable, succeeding as a merchant without touching it was impossible.

That was what I had believed. And now, by some twist of fate, I stood at the front lines myself—taking lives with my own hands.

I understood the necessity.

“But… it hurts.”

My heart hadn’t caught up.

“Noah…”

“At the end of this war… where do you think it leads?”

“…The end?”

“Yes. When every nation throws everything it has into this war… what lies beyond that?”

“All… everything…?”

“A final hero will emerge. Maintaining anti-magic barriers requires training. Eventually, there will come a time when no one can sustain a barrier large enough to protect an entire city.”

How long would international laws still hold?

Not much longer, I suspected.

“The end of war… will come when a mage from one nation burns another nation to the ground. That’s what I believe. And the country that preserves its strongest magic users until the very end… will be the one that wins.”

Even now, the standing of renowned mages—Lunoa’s included—was rapidly declining.

Many nobles had already been wounded on the front lines, cast aside, their futures uncertain. Whether they would even be capable of wielding magic by the war’s final stage… no one could say.

“…Shia-neesama.”

I looked straight at her.

She probably didn’t fully understand everything I was saying.

But still—

“I… as that ‘final hero’… I don’t have the courage to kill innocent people.”

I had tried to be strong.

But I wasn’t.

Even now… I was still someone General Newsbeck had to worry about.

And it hadn’t even been a full year since I had thrown myself into war.

I couldn’t fight alone.

And Shia… she wouldn’t accept simply being protected anymore.

“I said something brave before… about protecting you… but…”

In the end—

“Can I… rely on you instead?”

Because she refused to be just someone protected—

Because she wanted to stand beside me—

I found myself clinging to that thought, as if it were an escape… letting the words slip out like a quiet plea.