My Death Flag Shows No Sign Of Ending

Episode 28

The match between Ryner and Harold concluded. Colette, who was looking at that scene in a daze, came to her senses in the next instant and started running towards Ryner, who had collapsed.
That magic Harold had unleashed at the end. Although it wasn't a direct hit, there was no guarantee that Ryner was safe. Without even listening to Ryner's father, Orbell, trying to restrain her, she moved her legs while being driven by anxiety.

But when she was just a bit away from the first-aid room, her path was blocked by a crowd. Even while thinking, 'Why are there so many people?'

「Excuse me, please let me through!」 Colette resolutely plunged into the crowd and with those thin arms of hers, she pushed her way through them.

That crowd abruptly split. Due to the pressure around her suddenly disappearing, Colette pitched forward due to her momentum, but still, she reorganized her posture with her inherent sense of balance, managing to stop falling down. When she raised her face, her eyes met with Harold's.

「Ah.......」

Involuntarily, her voice leaked out. It seemed as though this crowd had split because they had wanted to avoid Harold. If she were to look around, a space that was close to a circle seemed to be made up around him. Certainly, she could agree that one's knees would become weak if they were to meet him right after they had seen that lightning. Colette too, would have acted similar to them if she hadn't been saved by Harold in the past.

But just because of that, it wasn't as though she could promptly speak to him. There was a huge amount of words and gratitude she wanted to convey. But after seeing the person who had saved her life and her precious childhood friend fight, now, at this particular moment when she was in a very unstable mood, she couldn't put together any words.

Although it wasn't as though he had perceived her emotions, Harold started speaking to her.

「Is that the guy whom you have acknowledged?」

「Eh.......? Ah! Y, yes!」

Maybe because Colette's mind was considerably disturbed, even her reply was very shaky. However, she understood what Harold was speaking about and replied back.

「I thought I had told you to give that to a man who could protect you. Why did you purposely choose a weakling like that?」

'That' was most probably the necklace Harold had given her three years ago. From the day Ryner had accepted that necklace, he had always worn it around his neck. While in the middle of fighting, Harold must have realized that Ryner was the knight that would protect Colette.

「Ry, Ryner isn't weak at all. He will protect me」

Colette, who had replied back like that, had done so in a frail voice. However, she hadn't averted her eyes and had spoken while firmly gazing at Harold.

「Hmph, well if you're satisfied at just being protected, then that's fine. A suitable coward for a weakling to protect. At the most, you could only hold Ryner back though」

「Why are you saying something like that..........」

Why Harold was rebuking the both of them, Colette couldn't understand the reason for doing that. Just, it was unbearably painful to be reproached by Harold.

「You should have personally experienced how helpless being weak is. And yet, if even after that you choose the path of living as a weakling, then suit yourself. Not like I care」

After saying only that much, as though losing his interest in Colette, Harold left. The reunion with the one had who saved her life had just ended with a few lines being exchanged. That too, in a form of one-sidedly being abandoned.