Side Story 1
<Ruediger Winterwald>

“Uncle!”

Ruediger Winterwald watched the carriage grow farther away.

The young nephew leaning out of the carriage screamed as his voice blurred and faded into the distance along with it.

He immediately turned his gaze away from the carriage and toward the assassins charging at him like a pack of wild dogs, intent on taking both his life and his nephew’s.

The assassins flinched at Ruediger’s sudden appearance. But soon, trusting their numbers, they shouted with smug confidence.

“Ruediger Winterwald! Do you really think you can take us on alone!”

“Why not.”

“So confident. No matter how exceptional you are, you won’t survive all of us.”

The assassins sent from Burkenlais numbered close to a hundred. That was practically the size of a full company.

Even as ordinary soldiers, it was no small force. As professional assassins, it was even more overwhelming.

Hiring this many killers must have cost a fortune. Even the Count of Burkenlais wouldn’t have found it easy to afford.

‘Looks like Burkenlais sharpened his blade properly to deal with me and Luca.’

The assassins surrounding Ruediger now numbered around thirty. Compared to the group that initially chased them, their numbers had been greatly reduced.

Even so, it was not a force Ruediger could deal with easily on his own.

He would likely die here today.

‘But I have no intention of dying quietly.’

Ruediger calmly swept his gaze over the assassins. When outnumbered, seizing the initiative mattered more than anything.

“So Burkenlais didn’t send dogs this time. Looks like he sent politicians instead.”

“What!”

“If you call yourselves assassins but all you do is flap your mouths, your level is obvious.”

“You bastard!”

The assassins bristled at the provocation. Ruediger wet his dry lips and continued to taunt them leisurely.

“In the end, all I have to do is kill every last one of you. It doesn’t get any easier than that.”

“You son of a bitch, he’s just buying time! Team One, chase the carriage. Teams Three and Six, cover me and kill him!”

Not slow on the uptake. Ruediger clicked his tongue inwardly and tightened his grip on the gun.

The moment Ruediger fixed his eyes on the enemy, his gun barrel was already aimed at them.

Bang!

The assassin who had been running first toward the carriage collapsed. Ruediger fired again and again, and each shot dropped another assassin.

“I can’t let you chase the carriage.”

He muttered quietly as he swapped magazines.

“I stayed behind to cut off your tail completely.”

The assassins opened fire on Ruediger, but he took cover behind a tree. From there, he continued to snipe the ones pursuing the carriage.

“Damn it… Take care of Ruediger first! We can chase the carriage afterward!”

Realizing Ruediger would never let them pass easily, the assassins immediately switched their target to him.

That was exactly what Ruediger wanted.

He counted the remaining magazines in his head.

Thirty rounds. That’s tight.

He didn’t have much room to spare.

Still, his expression didn’t change in the slightest.

With cold eyes, Ruediger stared down the assassins charging at him.

His grip tightened around the gun, and the same tension spread through the assassins. Dozens of gun barrels were aimed at Ruediger.

Before anyone could tell who fired first, gunshots echoed through the air.

* * *

Bang!

The final gunshot rang out.

The forest birds had already fled during the earlier chaos, leaving none to take flight at the sudden sound.

The gun barrel, smoke still leaking from it, slowly tilted toward the ground. The weapon slipped from Ruediger’s fingers and fell limply.

Ruediger staggered toward a nearby old tree. His steps wavered, his large frame swaying dangerously.

Leaning against the tree, he let out a deep breath. His back slid down the trunk until he collapsed onto the ground.

Bodies were scattered all around him.

With blurred vision, Ruediger counted them.

‘Two… No, did three get away.’

He clicked his tongue softly. He should have finished them all. Worry crept in over whether Luca would manage to escape safely.

‘For now… I can only trust Hans.’

Ruediger sat slumped against the tree, gasping for breath. One bullet in his leg, one in his arm, three in his abdomen. Survival was already out of the question.

‘Is this the end of my life.’

He reflected on his thirty odd years, short if you called them short, long if you called them long.

No regrets. No lingering attachments.

As a soldier, he had never once imagined dying peacefully in bed.

If anything, dying with his limbs intact was a stroke of luck.

Dying to protect a country he felt neither affection nor loyalty toward was far less satisfying than dying to save the next heir of Winterwald.

Ruediger’s eyelids fluttered. His consciousness grew hazy as the boundary between reality and dreams blurred.

‘I want to live with you, Uncle… Uncle, if you love me, please listen to me. Please. Okay.’

Luca’s voice echoed vividly in his ears, the same voice that had cried and begged him not to leave.

That was the trigger for a flood of memories.

The moment he first met Luca.

The faint blush on Luca’s cheeks the first time he rode a horse.

The first time Luca tasted Sachertorte, his amazement knew no bounds. Excited by the fact that he could eat as much as he wanted, he had stuffed himself until his belly was completely round.

‘And then he suffered from a stomachache the next day…’

A faint smile tugged unconsciously at Ruediger’s lips.

Luca was a child who lived brightly and happily. Unlike Ruediger, who felt no passion for life, Luca knew how to feel love as love.

Yes. Luca would surely live in this world with more joy than Ruediger ever could.

‘He’ll become a splendid heir of Winterwald.’

Giving his life for that was more than acceptable.

After all, he had lived without attachments.

If there was one regret left behind…

‘If only I could have told him I loved him, even as a lie.’

Recalling Luca’s wounded expression, Ruediger formed a bitter smile.

But soon, he shook his head.

He was destined to die anyway. Cutting ties cleanly would be better for Luca in the long run.

Still, Luca’s expression that day had looked as if he’d been utterly betrayed.

No. Maybe it was the second time.

The first time was probably when Luca learned that his other blood relative, his aunt Judith, had sold him for money.

Suddenly, Ruediger recalled his first meeting with Judith.

Back then, she hadn’t shown the slightest concern despite Luca being sick. She had been the very image of a cruel aunt.

Seeing that, Ruediger had lost his temper in a way completely unlike himself.

Looking back, it really was strange.

Ruediger expected nothing from others. Even when faced with injustice or things that didn’t align with his standards, he never grew angry.

Anger was an emotion just as distant to him as love.

And yet, at their first meeting, he had lashed out at Judith.

After that, he clashed with her several times as she lingered around Luca, and each time, Ruediger raised his voice.

Whenever he faced her, his usual composure vanished, replaced by boiling anger.

Those pale violet eyes that stared straight back at him. Whenever their gazes met, his heart would lurch and ignite without warning.

‘Come to think of it, she died too…’

When the woman who circled Luca like a hyena disappeared for a long while, he’d looked into it, suspecting some other scheme. What came back instead was the unexpected news of her death.

He couldn’t even learn the exact cause.

When he received the notice, some unknown corner of his heart turned cold.

It felt like he’d lost something irreplaceable in his life without ever realizing it.

At the time, Ruediger mocked himself and shook his head.

She was a woman who could have become a burden to the future heir of Winterwald. Feeling relieved would have made more sense than feeling loss.

Yet Judith Maibaum remained in his memories, occasionally resurfacing to mock him.

Just like now.

‘You acted so high and mighty, I thought you’d never die. But in the end, you die just the same, don’t you.’

That sharp voice echoed in his ears like a hallucination. Ruediger let out a quiet laugh without realizing it.

Judith Maibaum would never make it to heaven. And neither would Ruediger. With the blood on his hands, even speaking of heaven was indulgent.

‘Maybe we’ll meet in hell.’

Thinking that way, dying didn’t seem so bad. At least he wouldn’t be bored even in death.

Perhaps because the end was near, such absurd thoughts brought him comfort.

Judith Maibaum was an infuriating woman, but…

If she had hated Luca just a little less, perhaps they could have gotten along.

Standing at the edge of death, Ruediger finally admitted it. He hadn’t disliked Judith Maibaum that much.

Rather…

Ruediger slowly closed his eyes.

What welcomed him was nothing but a silent, endless white stillness.