Only with Your Heart

From the moment I stared at him, I think Chizuru forgot to breathe.

"Come on, husband, what do you say? You must be the woman I told you about. Put on some nice clothes and you'll look different!

When Rodolgo returned to me hah because he had come down from his horse and approached him, Chizuru's throat had become callous and breathless. I panic and repeat my breathing and try to keep my mind normal.

Not yet...... not yet visible.

The helmet made of silver armor covered the knight's head and half his face, and all he could tell from this close was the line between his mouth and jaw. It was also blocked by the shadows of the sunset and must have been made of a few days' journey, hidden in the beard, so it's about the shape of the lips that you can clearly tell.

But.

But I didn't think this was someone else.

I felt like his baritone was nostalgic and tickling Chizuru's ears before I heard his voice yet.

"Luklov......?

Chizuru's mouth was calling his name on its own.

"It must be Luklov......? Remember me, Chizuru..."

Then I felt like the shoulder of a knight who had never broken immobility rocked pictorially.

Soon Rodolgo was coming right to the side, grabbing Chizuru's two arms gaggedly and ramblingly pushing forward, as he boasted of his freshly hunted prey.

"Do you want to pay? Aren't you going to pay? If my husband doesn't pay, I'll sell him to another man."

Rodolgo, who said lightly not to listen, is still grinning challengingly at Chizuru's two arms. It's like being treated as a person, not a person, but Chizuru was more distracted by the knight in front of him than that.

Take off that helmet and show me your face.

Let me hear your voice.

Rodolgo and Dorote look suspiciously at each other, whether they felt the mere air of the two, or whether they began to coax a much more silent knight.

Chizuru also began to get nervous about the length of too much silence.

What if he's not Luklov? Thousands of cranes may be sold by strange sexuality men who don't know what to expect...

But after plenty of minutes of immobility and silence, the man dressed as a knight finally moved his hand.

"Fine."

and tell him briefly in a low voice, sliding his hands around his waist.

Although Rodolgo tried to get fit for a moment, already before dressing up for a decent setup, the knight had thrown down one leather bag in front of Rodolgo. Even over the leather bag, I heard precious metal make a proper noise and fall to the ground.

Rodolgo and Drote, who instantly changed the color of their eyes, flock to that leather bag. When dirty hands clumsily opened their bags to poor living, there were a number of dazzling (blinking) glowing gold coins in there. Dorote screams of joy as if it were an animal.

The Long Knight, however, didn't even point a glance at those two.

I'm just staring at Chizuru.

Chizuru keeps staring at him like that.

"Are you coming or not?"

Next to Rodolgo and Dorote, who are rammed to the ground and swarmed by gold coins, a knight spoke to a thousand cranes who could not move forever. It's like Chizuru has a choice. Thousand cranes couldn't speak, and once they just stumbled, they nodded.

─ ─ It's Lucrov's voice, for sure.

A low, calming voice that may have lost its luster but remains unchanged, much more tannic than it used to be.

Having seen Chizuru's affirmation, the knight slowly approached her as she rode the horse, lifting the body of Chizuru from the horse with momentum as she reached it within reach.

"Geez."

Chizuru's scream quickly disappeared as he was pressed against the knight's chest. The ragged stiffness of the clamshell hits the cheek of a thousand cranes... it was a nostalgic feeling.

"Luklov......"

The knight held the reins strongly, raising his voice in the mood to put a drink in the horse, so as to overlap the whining of a thousand cranes that

When the black sun horse changes direction at an incredible speed, he follows his husband's life and rushes out to scale. The horse rocked hard first, but Thousand Cranes did not feel any concern that it might fall.

Because Chizuru is in Ruklov's chest right now.

Whether it's a year, two months, or fourteen years, no matter how long it takes, there's something that doesn't change.

It was early for the night book to descend, and in less than an hour the sky turned into a full starry sky.

Are you familiar with geography, Ruklov keeps driving his horse straight without getting lost in any way. Through the trees that cut high into the sky like a disease, down a hill, and after a short run, the forest gradually opened. At the same time, however, the nightly mist that seemed to cover the area begins to slow down the horse......

Ruklov would not be forced to scold the horse any further, but slowly stopped moving forward.

Seeing the horse stop his leg, Chizuru raises his face.

"Here... are you going down?

I asked, but there was only one slight nod to the extent that I didn't know if there was a response. Even before that, he has always been silent, and don't take off his armor helmet. However, I was less anxious because my arms were so powerful and gentle that they were hugging me a thousand cranes on horseback.

Luklov, who got off the horse in such a vibrant motion that he didn't think he was wearing a heavy clasp, lent his hand to Chizuru descending the horse with his hand. Although it was over the gloves, I was held by my hand with a nostalgic and hot feeling, and I was held by my hips. As it was, Su Tong, was gently lowered to the ground as if he had stopped and ignored gravity, and Chizuru only slightly grated at the difference from the sway on the horse.

Luklov's hand supports such a thousand cranes all the time.

"Oh, thank you"

Even as I thanked him, Ruklov still just gave me a slight response.

Leaving behind a thousand cranes to stand up, Ruklov begins by putting his horse's reins on the trunk of the tree and evening the ground with his feet. I knew right away what I was doing to Chizuru, who wasn't the first to do this.

Less than fifteen minutes later, Ruklov had gathered dead trees and leaves on the even ground and had cleverly set fire to them with the firestone he was carrying.

If there's too much I want to tell you, maybe instead the words don't come out well.

Both Ruklov and Chizuru were facing each other for a while surrounding the fire without being able to say anything for a while.

Ruklov sits in place of a chair with the stone that was in the nearby field, and Chizuru sits in a disintegrated outfit as it was on the ground. There was no cold thanks to the slowly growing fire, but there was a little wind and this much silence is what keeps my spine cold.

A red burning bonfire illuminates the contour of a man formerly known as The Horseman of Fire.

Maybe I lost a little weight...... I thought. But my body and my wide shoulder width, and my spine's firm stretched length, remained the same at all.

And its powerful gaze, staring only at Chizuru.

"Luklov... you know, let me explain"

Can't wait, Chizuru opened his mouth first.

"At that time... my grandmother was badly ill, and I... accidentally went back to my original world. But it's only been a year and a little over there..."

For some reason, my voice shook.

That's right, Ruklov is a man who has just been honored as the best knight in the country, releasing the power to cripple people even in silence. In that sense, he was a pretty courageous opponent to confess or apologize to.

"I never forgot you. Not long ago, when I heard the voice of this world again... I asked him to let me go home immediately. So... so now, uh, come back here..."

Ruklov was still silent.

I just stare at a thousand cranes over my helmet, and I can't even get a small nod to this one. Chizuru had to bite his lips to stop the tears that seemed to overflow unexpectedly.

"How come... you don't take off your helmet?

When Chizuru heard, Ruklov exhaled a short sigh...... it seemed.

And as I slowly reached out to hold the back of my head, I quietly took off my armor helmet. Shortly aligned, pitch-black hair is first seen, and Luklov's faint face appears in front of Thousand Cranes illuminated by the light of the fire.

Chizuru was smiling in tears unexpectedly.

It's Luklov.

It was much more sinister than Luklov remembered by Chizuru, but still, I can't go wrong.

Black eyes that are likely to be swallowed, masculine jaw lines on the deep face of the sculpture, lips that seem to be strong in will. All of it. It's just that I'm starting to lose a little weight and have wrinkles on my eyes and mouth that I've never had before. And over the right eyebrow, there was a trace of a cut on the temple from his forehead, which was formed.

But that look was cold as ice.

Or even looked terribly angry. The cold and the heat, the temperatures that are supposed to conflict, seem to come into one arrow and pierce a thousand cranes, so painfully...

"Luklov... I..."

"Why now?

A low and sharp voice blocked Chizuru's words. If not misheard, Luklov's voice was also of Chizuru's. Likewise, he was slightly trembling.

"Huh?"

"Why come back now? How can you abandon people for over fourteen years now... and come back?

Chizuru could not answer.

"Forsake," "Fourteen + Years," and... "No Way."

Chizuru's heart froze, and his body did not move, as if it had lost even a reason to breathe.