The Escort Knight Who Is Obsessed by the Villainess Wants to Escape - Chapter 170

Judas ran through the flames.

The black-burning Eliza continued to fall.

Eliza grabbed Judas and held him back.

Exhausted, Judas barely managed to break free and struggled to keep walking.

As he broke free, various memories poured out from Eliza’s mouth through multiple voices.

“I’m glad you’re safe, miss…”

When he almost died at the hands of an assassin sent by Narcissa.

“It was nothing.”

“Excuse me? But…”

“It was all my doing.”

On the day she became an adult.

When Eliza caused a commotion as if she had been kidnapped.

“Judas, you…!”

“…It’s nothing.”

During the imperial guard exam when Judas was hit by a crossbow instead of Eliza.

Among them were memories that Judas did not recognize.

“If you two stay together like this, the moment will come when your magic will completely run out.”

“……”

“The scorch marks left by this fire… probably… prove that the child can no longer handle the power of the young lady.”

When she heard from the tower master about the cause of the soot on Judas’ body.

“Your existence must be eliminated.”

“That’s the reason. There’s a weakness, so I must get rid of you. You’re more than unnecessary; you’re just a nuisance.”

“I wish you’d die. It would be troublesome if your sedative is needed during the war.”

When she kicked him out, fearing that Judas might die if she stayed near him.

“I hate you so much.”

When Judas was misunderstood as having killed Maria.

“Cough…! Sniff! Groan, Ugh—!”

When Maria was stabbed with a sword right in front of her.

“Ah… Ugh….”

When she looked down at the gravely wounded Judas, who was near death.

All the memories were vividly conveyed through voices alone.

Judas gritted his teeth and ignored them.

He placed his heavy steps on the fire.

It was hot.

It felt as though his breathing apparatus had melted away.

Every breath he took felt like his throat and nose were being torn apart.

His exposed flesh was burned and melting.

Right next to him was an endless cliff.

Falling seemed like it might be easier.

But he endured.

Clenching his teeth, he kept walking.

Before long, he had ascended much higher.

The sun was close enough to touch if he stretched out his hand.

He squeezed his last bit of strength.

He would leap up and touch the sun.

Just as he put force into his trembling legs…

“Ugh!”

The fiery path shook violently.

Judas staggered and nearly fell.

He barely regained his balance and looked down.

At a great distance, people appeared as mere dots.

Barak was clearly visible.

He was dying, with his arm stretched out.

The death of the dead.

Soon, it would mean annihilation.

Barak was attacked by Eliza.

The black-burning Eliza rained down on him like hail.

She endlessly muttered horrible words.

The humiliation she endured at her home.

The abuse she suffered from Narcissa.

The way she had passed by him indifferently.

With the single-minded goal of sending Judas up, Barak knocked Eliza out of the way and killed him.

This is all an illusion.

He must not be deceived.

The feeling of killing again a child who had already been killed was miserable.

Then, at some point, other children melting and flowing down came into his view.

They had lost all semblance of their former selves and were completely deranged.

It was a sight of annihilation before them.

“Ah…”

In that moment, everything became meaningless to Barak.

His guilt.

This action.

What value did it have?

He had ultimately saved no one.

Not Maria. Not Narcissa.

Cain, Levi, Jezebel, Achan, Sarah.

Even Eliza.

When one clings to a particular desire, their self-awareness becomes muddled.

And the moment they realize that this desire can never be fulfilled, their self-awareness collapses.

The deranged children rushed at Barak.

They shoved, beat, and trampled on him as if to kill him.

“AAAHHH-!”

“Cough…!”

The children, whose flesh was melting away, attacked him in grotesque forms.

And Eliza, falling from the sky.

The black flames collided with the ground and exploded.

They scattered and splashed toward him.

They melted as they hit him.

It was his own filthy karma.

Barak barely held onto his crumbling self.

The final moment.

He had to hold on, at least until Judas reached that sun.

Through the screams of his children, the black sky was visible.

The fiery path squirmed, causing Judas to stumble.

He regained his posture and jumped toward the black sun.

But…

“Ugh…!”

Barak’s limit came first.

The raging flames gradually grew weaker and started to vanish from the bottom up.

“No…!”

Judas leaped with all his strength.

His hand stretched toward the black sun.

He was almost there.

Barak let out a sigh of relief at the sight.

While dying under the weight of his children, he felt relief and also apologized.

To his children.

And to Eliza.

To Maria and Narcissa as well.

At the very end, he silently expressed his gratitude to Judas, who had helped him at least atone for his sins, even just a little.

As he was about to close his eyes in that moment…

‘…!’

Someone emerged from the black sun and blocked Judas’s way.

The person squeezed Judas’s neck.

Because of that, Judas couldn’t enter the sun.

The one who was about to reach the sun started to fall.

In the end, Barak completely lost consciousness without witnessing Judas entering the sun.

It was an empty end that suited him.

***

“You’re not going anywhere-!”

The woman who grabbed Judas’s neck screamed like a demon.

The ends of her golden hair were burning with black flames.

Judas frowned at the horrible sight.

‘Narcissa…!’

Maria, who had captured Barak’s heart without any background.

Eliza, the Illegitimate born of a commoner who inherited the power of fire.

The woman, driven mad with jealousy toward the two daughters, grabbed Judas.

“You crazy bitch-!”

Judas spat out curses in a loud voice.

He had climbed up, but the flames had disappeared, and now he was caught by Narcissa and falling.

He punched Narcissa in the face with all his might.

But that witch-like human wouldn’t let go.

Right now, he didn’t have the strength to shake her off.

Even if he did, there was no way to climb back up.

“We’re all going to die! We’ll die together!”

Narcissa’ skin was also scorched by the flames, melting and dripping off.

She screamed out in rage.

Judas was fed up with her, and he was furious with the situation.

His mind was filled with anger, driven only by the obsession to save Eliza.

‘How did… how did I end up here…!’

Despite the blood coming from his gums, he gritted his teeth.

Even though this wouldn’t change anything, he couldn’t stand the violence and had to fight back.

While falling, he kept punching Narcissa’ face relentlessly.

“Ugh…!”

In retaliation, Narcissa tried to break free.

Judas didn’t let her escape.

He tied her waist with his legs and kept hitting her.

He crushed her nose with his fist and slapped her cheek hard with his palm.

“Because of you, because of a bastard like you, Eliza…!”

Even as he poured his anger onto Narcissa with bloodshot eyes, nothing changed.

His body kept falling.

The ground was getting closer.

Was this really the end?

In the moment his heart wavered…

“Let go of that hand.”

A low, cold voice interrupted.

Judas opened his tightly shut eyes.

A woman was choking Narcissa’ neck.

With curly black hair.

A white dress.

The figure that somewhat resembled Eliza was the woman who had guided Judas from the afterlife.

It was slightly different from what he often saw, but now he could recognize her.

‘Lia…?’

Maria.

Eliza’s mother was holding onto Narcissa.

“Please stop tormenting my daughter.”

“Aaaaagh-!”

Maria fell with Narcissa.

Narcissa let go of Judas.

She reached out, screaming.

“Ugh?!”

Before Judas could even wonder how Maria had gotten up, something from below supported him.

His body floated up.

Judas was startled and looked down.

A horn growing like the branch of a healthy tree.

A strong-bodied deer.

“You…!”

A deer, probably from another month, was leaping through the air, carrying him.

It was definitely a spiritual being that Judas knew.

“Yuel?!”

Why was Yuel here?

There was no time to think.

In an instant, they reached the height of the black sun.

Yuel placed Judas on the horn and lifted her head with all her might.

“Ugh-!”

As they flew toward the black sun, Judas looked down below.

Without a word, Yuel stepped back into the air and descended far below.

Then, Narcissa screamed as she fell.

Maria was holding her tightly from behind.

Their eyes met.

Maria smiled softly.

Tears, like dew, gathered in her black eyes.

She whispered softly with her lips.

“Please take care.”

With that greeting, Judas was completely sucked into the black sun.

“……”

Judas barely raised her body, collapsed on the floor.

She knelt and looked down at her hands.

‘…I’m fine.’

Her melted skin had returned to normal.

As though nothing had ever happened.

Her blurry vision was now clear.

‘But… where am I?’

She had entered the black sun of Eliza.

The surroundings were as dark as that sun.

There was still some light.

‘Is this inside the sun…?’

Looking up, the only source of light here, the moon, was visible.

It had cracks all over, as though it had been shattered once before.

It seemed to have been clumsily pieced together.

Below that, there were steel beams.

‘…A cage?’

It looked like a birdcage.

And a very large one.

Stars began to rise around the cage outside.

Judas looked straight ahead.

A straight path extended inside the cage.

The sides were blocked by walls.

At the end of the path, there was a door.

Two doors that opened to either side were different from each other.

One was Eliza’s bedroom door.

The other was Judas’s bedroom door.

They were doors made by combining the two.

Eliza was there.

Instinctively sure, Judas took a step forward.

Then, a picture frame appeared on the wall.

Inside the frame was a drawing, soft and warm like it was made with crayons.

The picture moved.

It made a sound too.

“It’s soft.”

In the picture, young Eliza was petting a moon deer.

In the mansion’s stable.

It was the day when she first petted Yuel.

“……”

Judas walked again.

Another picture appeared.

“Don’t go.”

“I understand.”

“Did you like it here that much?”

“……”

The time when she briefly stayed at Eliza’s mansion.

She was expecting to be told to leave, but she responded without listening, and then found herself embarrassed.

And Eliza, asking her blankly.

The two children.

A memory of a day that made her heart feel soft just by looking at it.

The next picture was silent.

Only quiet breathing could be heard.

It was Eliza, crawling into Judas’s bed on her birthday.

And Judas holding her like that.

In the quiet bedroom of the night, their small body heat embraced each other.

“Give me two of these.”

Eliza asked Judas to pick a flowerpot and then smiled while buying an anemone.

As Judas moved forward, a picture drawn as a memory appeared on the walls on either side.

“What do you think of me?”

“Mine.”

A day when she had said something without thinking and was embarrassed by it.

“…What are you doing?”

“Your cheek… it looks so soft…”

“You can touch it more if you want.”

Judas froze, touching Eliza’s cheek while she was asleep.

To her flustered self, Eliza said it was fine to touch more.

The feel of her soft, chewy cheek still remained in Judas’s hands.

“Ah, stop.”

She did something irreversible after saying she’d feed her.

“Feed me.”

The next day, she immediately paid for it.

Judas chuckled and moved forward.

“It’s not something the young lady needs to apologize for. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I’m glad you’re safe.”

One day, when they became adults.

Judas, worried that Eliza had been kidnapped.

Eliza, looking up at him, apologizing.

“……”

The day after the final test, when she was about to place Eliza on top of Yuel and almost kissed her lips.

The breeze that brushes by and the scent of Eliza that tickles the tip of my nose.

Eliza and Judas stare at each other’s faces in a daze.

“Look ahead.”

On the way back riding the Yuel.

When they exit the forest, the scenery unfolds.

The blue fields ripple.

Only then did Judas realize one thing.

‘Color…’

Until now, there had been no color in Eliza’s gaze.

It was there, but strangely twisted and distorted, so everything was grayscale.

The only one who radiated color and light was herself.

And the moment he saw the field.

Temporarily, color returned to the world.

The fresh, swaying grass.

There, Eliza smiled brightly with a yellow marigold in her ear.

“Will you swear eternal loyalty to me, a loyalty that cannot be torn apart, even by life itself?”

“…I swear.”

“Can you die for me?”

“I will offer it.”

“Prove it.”

On the day of the coronation ceremony.

In the end, it became an embarrassing memory because he froze, burying his nose in Eliza’s foot.

“Don’t let go.”

“…Please don’t let go. Even from now on.”

“Because of you, it’s your responsibility.”

The time when they enjoyed the festival together alone at the founding ceremony.

“Do you know how I feel? Do you know how much and what I think of you… do you really know?”

What he heard after reuniting with Eliza, who had distanced herself.

“Ugh, no. Not now. I want to stay like this for now.”

When she hugged him after killing Barak.

Perhaps, that was the first cute act of Eliza that Judas remembered.

“Do you like me, or do you like Yuel?”

“Then why don’t you pet me?”

The time when she complained about only liking Yuel.

It was embarrassing, but she was so adorable that Judas didn’t know what to do.

“Thank you for coming to me.”

The moment when they shared the first kiss at the Bevel family.

And then.

“I like you so much, Judas.”

Eliza confessed in front of Maria’s tomb.

They shared their hearts without truly knowing the truth about Maria’s death.

Judas watched as color returned to her world.

The colors, spreading like watercolor from him, soon filled the earth and the sky.

Before the undeniable, lasting color, Eliza smiled and cried.

Finally.

“It’s okay.”

Just before perishing with the evil god of emptiness.

Eliza smiled, saying it was okay while looking at him.

“……”

That image was the last.

Judas looked back at the path he had walked.

A straight, long road.

On either side, framed pictures of warm memories hung on the walls.

A space where they treasured and recorded their shared memories.

From the outside, Eliza seemed as though she was trying to block anyone from coming closer.

It almost seemed like she was trying to erase the memories with him.

But the fact that there was such a space inside might mean that Eliza was seeking help, wouldn’t it?

After briefly collecting his thoughts, Judas placed his hand on the door in front of him.

Eliza is beyond this.

He could bring the real Eliza.

With certainty, Judas opened the door.

Then there was light.

A golden light poured out, surrounding him and dazzling the entire world.