Chapter 166: The Insecure Cadet

The moment the final shot was drawn and the enemy was confirmed dead, Lyra and Philo ended their [Symphony], Philo pulsated in a grotesque feat of reforming himself back into his bunny form, however Lyra, in a rare occasion for an undead felt like all of her body was sucked of energy, something that is supposed to be infinite for a creature such as herself, she slumped to the ground, the bones in her left hand and right shoulder as well as the two joints in her knees were exposed as the flesh around the said bones continued to evaporate.

Philo could not help but sigh. He opened his mouth, and there was the space magic paper invented by his queen.

"You are out of commission in the entirety of the war. Don't force yourself so that you can participate in the war against Valentine."

Lyra did not pant, but she still looked tired. Her eyes rolled as she nodded, almost subconsciously.

Philo put the paper in the head of Lyra and put some mana on it, immediately it sucked Lyra and slumped her in the side of [Guide], she doesn't need a medic, she just need time to stop her body from evaporating that will take, maybe after the invasion of the Indio territory.

Philo then looked at the summoner general of the living army, who is gritting his teeth as he knew that their most annoying general was now dead, Philo then looked at the direction by which Clara morphed and pounced at the summoner with several quadrupedal monsters at his side.

_He doesn't know she turned into one of my spawns, huh? This should be easy._

__________

Simoun and Kabuto, the conventional assassins of the two armies emerged from the shadows that the two of them are overly adept in utilizing to the point that their abilities in the said set of common skills did not overlap, Kabuto plunched Simoun down to his dark realm that he uses to shuttle through literal shadows, while Simoun used dark strings that uses the shadows in the dark realm, of course, normally, anyone who got surrounded by the weapon of their enemy will inevitably succumb against them, except for Kabuto, he skillfully used his organic weapon familiar, making Simoun have crucial lags in his casting of the shadow strings that is made every time their two daggers meet as the latter will feel like his world tilt slightly or he will mysteriously trip on a the very plain, cylindrical world.

Yet Simoun was no scrub either, somehow, someway, he was able to prevent receiving any blows from Kabuto, thus making an unusually high-level and delicate stalement, however, out of a sudden Simoun that is honestly enjoying the fight and emersed himself on it subconsciously suddenly widened his eyes, in the realm of perpetual darkness, he glanced at his back, somehow, someway ripped the upper part of the dark realm by force and emerged back to the surface, his breathing suddenly turned gassed despite not reaching his upper limit and a desperate glint emerged in his eyes.

"Clara!"

He shouted as he ignored his undead opponent and made a run for the spot as fast as possible, making Kabuto flabbergasted.

_He heard Clara's last shouts? What in the love transcends distance bullshit is this._

Kabuto also went out of the dark realm and emerged out of Simoun's shadow, thrusting one of his dagger that pointed dangerously close to the throat of Simoun, he once again blocked the lover boy's path, yet Simoun, the cadet and the one and only man ever to be loved by Clara dodged to the side, punched Kabuto to the stomach which made the undead be flung away several meters away, after which dashed once, not caring about the potential future accusations of neglecting his duty.

However, of course, his opponent will not let him escape just like that, in a swift motion, Kabuto sprang back and appeared in front of Simoun, adamant on making the assassin stop on his tracks, the look of desperation on Simoun's face intensified, tears flowed out his eyes, after which, seething anger emerged from all over his body.

"Get out of my way!"

Simoun shouted as he attacked Kabuto, which made the undead assassin curl his lips into a smile. Of course, the former would not notice it, nor will he ever care if he did notice it. Instead, as he lashes out with full force against his enemy, he cannot help but loath on himself.

If only I'm not a coward!

If only I had revealed my true identity the moment we met again!

He wanted to punch himself, however, he also wanted to escape the pursuit of such an annoying opponent, and as he desperately thought of how to do so, his past slowly resurfaced from his mind.

Simoun Crisostomo Ibarra is the supposed heir of the now destroyed Ibarra family, one of the former noble houses of the Stardust Kingdom.

Their fall was caused by the death of his father, Rafael Ibarra.

Before his death, he was arrested as the perpetuator of an emerging idea of mutiny against the monarchy, seeing the king as incapable of passing down the throne, for in his whole tenure as a king, he never have even a single one night stand, he was suspected to be homosexual, which is normally forgivable, if he adopted children so that the lineage will not be endangered in an off chance that he was killed, after Rafael Ibarra was imprisoned, he was speculatively tortured and died because of his wounds, only his cremated remains was left for the Ibarra family.

Such ridiculous bullshit accusation was of course not believed by Simoun, first of all, the Ibarra noble family is a dukedom that became prominent for they are one of the first followers of the King, and his father, Rafael is just the third duke of their territory, it was a very strange and unreasonable thing to implicate himself on a mutiny that goes against the lord that made his family a prominent one, but, Simoun, being a mere child doesn't have evidence for this, thus he naturally did not reported his conjecture.

For one, he is just a heir in training, second he was immediately stripped away by his supposed authority by his relatives, they spent it in oppressing the people that once loved their family, gave them unreasonable taxes double their annual income just so that they can see the pleading faces of numerous farmers and other unrecognized workers in their domain, if they were not to pay their taxes, their daughters will be delivered to the mansion of the duke and then was made to be a "servant" to the needs of the people who usurped the home of Simoun, the kid doesn't have a choice but to see the land painstakingly cultivated by his father descend down the path of bankruptcy due to the doings of his relatives that once supported his father to the best of their abilities.

Simoun was disgusted and left the house, making his view of the world darken as he grew up, for he saw the true nature of mortals that is once associated to humans alone.

If an opportunity came, even the most loyal of soldiers and the closest of relatives will destroy everything one have worked so hard for, thus as his land have fallen into the hands of the state, he went to the assassin's academy of the Kingdom of Stardust, becoming apprehensive of everyone, becoming a master of disguise and acting that he was deemed as friendly despite him secretly taking tabs on his so called "friends" in the academy and killing some of the few with his newfound talent in daggers, espionage and assassination that he deemed to have traitorous tendencies or outright double spies of the rival of his father that wanted the whole of Ibarra family wiped out.

This action, alongside the "OJT" training of the assassins of Stardust made Simoun turn dark while still acting like the same bubbly person on the outside.

_The world is a dark place with nothing but pain and suffering._

In this span of time, Simoun also investigated the death of his father, day in and day out, without rest, yet something strange about his investigation is that every possible clue was leading to no one from his detestable family but to the royal palace, meaning Aerendil the King himself.

_No, this is impossible; how can the king plot against one of his richest subordinates?_

Besides being an assassin, Simoun also fancied painting, the only thing he is not acting about in all of his personas, and because of the stress of his training and the ridiculous results he is yielding, he decided to take a break.

"I wonder if that lady will let me paint her..."

Simoun, walking on the streets of the noble district of the royal capital of Stardust with a well rehearsed smile and an artist's attire went to his usual spot of observation, the one who bought their mansion, the Montague noble house, they were already absolved of suspicion, but one of the daughters of the family caught the fancy of this seemingly emotionless assassin.

Apparently, her name is Clara, dubbed as the "Lady with Sinful Eyes" because her eyes riddled with parasitic worms that not even the greatest scientists of the Kingdom can identify.

As he stared at the figure, Simoun could not help but wonder.

_With all the things she went through, even having to willingly isolate herself to protect her family from the possible contagiousness of her parasites, she still stares at the window... seemingly full of hope and imagination on this accursed world..._

Simoun, being indoctrinated by the dark side of the world and willingly embracing it, found the lady interesting. He wanted to know more about her, how she could hold on such a hopeful posture despite having the worst disease to have ever descended on a person.

"My Lady, please minimize your movement! I want you to be the subject of my painting!"

That was Simoun's first words to Clara, and from their, their love story wherein the man cannot penetrate the mask wore by Clara and the woman cannot see the true face of Simoun started, the latter became addicted to the comfortable feeling of discreetly asking about the hopes of the woman that he paints continuously, she was full of dreams of becoming an ophthalmologist, to become a trader like his father and to be able to look at the morning sun with her own eyes and not just imaginations.

_Childish... really, really childish..._

Yet every time Simoun learned something new about her, he felt his heart flutter, like how a frozen lake slowly thawing in the sight of spring, he felt refreshed as he heard how Clara expects the world to be, the stark opposite of what he makes his accursed world to be.

Maybe, just maybe, an accursed world such as this one has hope, a hope that he once distinguished in his heart.

Without even realizing it, the painting was done, yet Simoun is still reluctant to part with his lady, and in an impulse, he uttered through words the feeling he have never thought he will ever feel.

"Ah... but that is not the reason... You see, at first, I just found your mulling post by your window very interesting... but when I started to talk with you and hear your naive yet wonderful description of what you think the world to be... I was magnetized by you slowly, until I..."

"I think I like how you were able to look at the world very positively, I think you were the opposite of me... I... I think I have fallen in love with you."

Honestly, it was still all a blur, and those were the words he could remember.

However, he did remember the shudder that went through his spine; he didn't know why it emerged, but suddenly, he felt himself, a fallen noble unworthy of the affection of Clara, the person who, despite her accursed fate, still saw the world brightly.

What if she liked me too?

What if she... she caught my nihilism?

Do I want that?

No, I don't want that.

As if animated by a mind of their own, his tongue and lips, on the spot spun a deceitful tale matching with a sad tone, using the truth of having been tapped by the military already to get out of the scenario he selfishly simulated in his mind where instead of a brimming voice full of rainbows and sunshine, he will instead hear the tone of Clara, the same as his true self.

The tone of giving up hope and is just clinging to life in a fleeting dream to avenge his father's death.

Just like that, Simoun, who had discovered his insecurity, escaped from the life of his beloved, and holding back his tears, he went to the office of the king that assigns the first mission of every top students of the academy, and as he reached the office, he heard a stranger speak.

"So how good is he? The son of Rafael."