Only with Your Heart

Outside the window floated a thin three sun moon low, a quiet night with no clouds or wind.

Once again, Chizuru wet the towel and squeezed it before the hot water cooled, wiping Luklov's neck off. Ruklov is closing his eyes again and letting himself remain silent in Chizuru's movements. Chizuru looked emotionally at the throat Buddha as he followed his breath up and down.

And as Chizuru turned behind Ruklov and tried to slide the towel on his wide back, he opened his eyes and began to say, "Quiet, one by one."

"Zayn and Edina have been with me many times, even after you disappeared... Unlike the loan that inherited territory right after that, we didn't have any land like this..."

Chizuru thought of the two knights.

Zain and, Edina.

Zain was a tall blonde knight, sturdy as a picturesque prince with clear watery eyes and dark blonde hair like a clear spring sky. Calm and righteous in character, just like the white horse knights the girls dream of.

And Edina......

She was a knight, with beautiful blonde hair as light as a suckling ear in the wind.

A gentle, broad-minded woman with both strength and tenderness, she was nothing but admiration for Chizuru. Edina was also strangely adorable to Chizuru, who suddenly came down from different worlds and sprung up, not knowing his right or left, and the two of them were friends that could be called sisters. I do think he was about the same age as Ruklov.

And what struck me more than anything else was that this Edina and Zain loved each other deeply.

An orphan who said they both grew up in the same orphanage, they had supported and encouraged each other from an early age and naturally loved each other as men and women as they breathed as they did.

Seeing those two leaning in, no matter how cold the humans were, was enough to keep them from admiring their love.

"After you disappeared, it was the two of us who calmed me down that was rough... In the first place, it was Zain who suggested that you ask the king and his prophet of use to search for you. Maybe that's why he felt responsible forever. Ten years..."

Luklov's back stifled, and Chizuru stopped his hand perfectly and listened to his words.

─ ─ After all, what Luklov had been looking for since dyeing his hands in evil for ten years was the whereabouts of Chizuru...

Heavy responsibilities, grief, and carelessly, slight joy come to your chest as you mix.

Ruklov continued in a low voice.

"Ten years... Can you believe that? You should have just abandoned madness like me... Yet the two of them, on that last mission, came about together..."

Ten years.

He kept looking for Chizuru.

Dreams, honor, youth, and even other opportunities for love were abandoned to keep me looking for a thousand cranes who had only spent a year with me.

At that time Chizuru swore to his heart that he would not stop loving him, even if Luklov would not return his love to Chizuru for the rest of his life until his death. Even if what he wants from Chizuru is just her body, that's fine. As long as Luklov needs a thousand cranes, I'll respond to them in any way...

"The two are supposed to have died in battle. I reported it, and the church accepted it."

Again, the two of them......

Chizuru couldn't wait, and when he dropped the towel on the floor, he turned his hands and hugged Luklov's shoulder from behind. Instead of refusing that embrace, Ruklov gently moved his face closer to Chizuru's cheek and held her hand tightly in one hand tied in front of his neck.

"The truth is different. Edina was the only one who died in the war. Even though the war situation is at a disadvantage, it's my fault for trying to stay..."

Ruklov's voice was faintly trembling.

"I took the enemy's sword to my heart and took my breath on the spot. In front of me and Zain."

Remembering the memory of the time, Ruklov held his mouth for a while and stared at the walls of nothing.

That was sweet, Edina.

He inspired a thousand cranes over and over again, he was one like his sister.

Ruklov and...... not to mention Zain, her disappearance would have been a pain equal to being taken from her soul. Chizuru couldn't stop the tears from overflowing and nodded his face at Ruklov's neck.

"... Zain and I survived. But for Zain, I guess he was losing meaning the moment he lost Edina, such as his life. He kept quiet on his knees in front of Edina's wreckage the whole time. And, by the way, when I took the sword, I poked myself in the same place where Edina received the sword, and I finished it."

Luklov closed his eyes and told him to spit out, gripping Chizuru's hand even harder.

"I held them together and buried them. There was nothing like being a headstone, so I've only put up a sword and a helmet. It was night. That's when I lost everything... my heart, my dreams, my love. I gave up everything."

Thousands of cranes.

And a dream to reunite with Chizuru.

Love for Chizuru too.

Everything.

Everything.

Naturally, Luklov accepted Chizuru, who suddenly returned four years later, in any way. If such a woman didn't want to see her face again, it wouldn't have been surprising if she'd cut it off or abandoned it.

Yet he still accepts the embrace of Chizuru in this way.

"I'm sorry...... Luklov. Sorry......"

Ruklov opened his eyes softly to the voice of Thousand Cranes trembling in tears.

"Chizuru"

Ruklov whispered in Chizuru's ear. "You know what was the worst part of this hell?

Chizuru shook his head to the side.

"The worst part was that I didn't die... I didn't know where you were. If they heard you were dead, I'd be as clean as Zain... But where are you... I didn't know. I thought maybe somewhere in this world, you were looking for me alive... and I didn't die."

More large tears overflowed, and Chizuru closed his eyes as he hugged Luklov for a long time.

Like this.

Like this.

"Don't cry"

Ruklov's voice echoed in his ear. But I couldn't see because I was closing my eyes, but I'm sure Lucrov is crying too.

They held each other tight as it was and stood, saying nothing more.

After a while, Ruklov silently carried Thousand Cranes to bed, where the two slowly overlaid their bodies. From the hair, to the tip of the nail, there would have been no place in Chizuru's body where he did not receive Lucrov's lips.

Before morning arrived, it was Ruklov who fell asleep first.

"Thanks......"

Leaning softly on the sleeping face of a tired shadowy Luklov, Chizuru muttered in a small voice.

"Thank you... for looking for me. You're alive. Thanks........."