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Once a conference on the country's future course was held in the chaotic grounds, Rudel called Izumi and the others to a tent that had been te Luecke, Eunius and Aleist, he started explaining everything in order The black boar, the sinister bird, the black fog… and he told them about Sakuya He told them slowly so his eave off a terribly cold iiven Lena to everyone

He told the out, had cast down that life for his sake As he did, Aleist punched hi emotional, he rained Rudel with jeers

"To hell with that! If you had a grip on things, there wouldn't have been a problem, dammit! Why do you look so indifferent! She died for your sake, didn't she!?"

Eunius and Luecke held him back, and by their hands he was pulled out of the tent In the end, Luecke and Eunius decided to leave the space to Izuuy down'

"Hey! Wait! I still have so they had left the provisional tent, Rudel stood and gave a bitter s To think I'd be punched by Aleist"

He did stand, but he averted his eyes fro trip, Sakuya was sound asleep in the tent Izumi lay a hand on Sakuya's forehead as she called over to Rudel Rudel was sure he was in for another put down

He knew he had done enough to deserve it, and he intended to accept it all But Izumi's words betrayed his expectations

"Did you cry, Rudel?"

"? Yeah, I think I cried… I was crying the moment I opened my eyes I can barely remember it, but I cried and walked out of the cave There were lots of dragons flying through the sky It see Sakuya's birth"

Rudel tried to change the subject, but Izumi paid it no mind

"I see… did you cry after that?"

"No, I don't think I did I was too busy We had to train Sakuya to fly, and there were quite a few things I needed to hear I had lost er from the princess came, I hadn't even noticed From there, I hurriedly prepared to return to the manor and made it just in tiave a laugh as he spoke Izu his best not to think about it

As Rudel spoke with sohtly around his Rudel's face was buried in her chest As the power left his body, Rudel crumbled at the knees, and Izu you go through the pain alone… it's alright You can cry if you want to, Rudel"

Izuently pat his head Rudel shed tears as he spit out his own feelings Rudel could never rely on anyone, but the truth was that he was terrible at relying on people To Rudel who never had people he could depend on from his childhood, he was unable to comprehend the events around him

He had only actually understood Sakuya's actions once everything was over

"I-if only I'd been more level headed! It's just as Aleist said If only I looked at Sakuya more, it never would have come to this! … But soon I'm the worst The worst piece of trash! And yet, and yet for someone like me, Sakuya…!"

In the letter Sakuya left behind as a will, there were lots of words for Rudel Izunized Sakuya's affection towards hi

"She told est, she told me to protect someone! I have no choice but to do it! Even when I'm like this, it'sSakuya's ideal knight I have to keep being the strongest or I'll never be able to look her in the face!"

Like the string holding him back had been cut, Rudel spewed his e in came out, it came out with tear after tear

"You don't have to endure it, Rudel You can cry now"

Rudel wept loudly, and Izu tears as well

Outside the tent, there were three eavesdropping on their conversation It was Luecke, Eunius, and Aleist Aleist alone was in a slu the fact he hit Rudel The one who looked after Sakuya was Rudel, and he recalled how he didn't do anything in particular for her

Eunius and Luecke thought back over all the unnatural occurrences, and as they thought, they looked at the sky

"W-why am I always…"

"No, neither you nor Rudel ever reads thedown a depressed Aleist with a single stroke of the tongue, Luecke recalled the contents of Sakuya's letter He had been in it as well, and she wrote it was fun He was seeing Sakuya, who knew she was going to die, yet hid her feelings, in a new light

Eunius reflected in a similar fashion Saw her anew, and cast some words to the sky Even if he knew they wouldn't reach, he couldn't stand by without saying theood woman I should've called out to her"

The sky dyed with twilight; so

◇

Sakuya's letter

With her shoddy, large lettering, Sakuya had left a letter It was a sort of will, but the one in question hadn't written it with that intent She silad I came to the academy I was happy'

'I didn't have time, but even I was able to hold a drea one of the dragons so,'

'I'oon with Rudel, so maybe it came true after all?'

'Thank you, everyone'

She wrote down lots of na with Rudel, she even wrote the names of the cafeteria lunch ladies Aleist and Fina alone were addressed dubiously Stupid Aleist and Weird Fina She thanked them both as well