"———Hm. That's no good."
—What's that?
armor?
I guessed who this was almost instantly.
A knight, a strange being that only appears in fictional stories and fairy tales.
A knight in a blue uniform, standing seven feet (about 2.1 meters) tall and wielding a long sword, loomed above my head.
How could such a thing exist?
Have I already died and been sent to Heaven?
Wait, I'm dead, right?
The knight smiled when he saw my troubled expression.
"Your heart's no good, and your neck is pretty beat up, too…"
It really is a miracle that you're alive. I wouldn't be surprised if you believed in a God."
He gently strokes my face, but my senses are numb.
Looking around, I could still see piles of bodies.
We lie in a sea of my blood.
I thought I had escaped that hell, but I wasn't dead.
It may be a coincidence, but my heart is still beating.
That must be the case. Even if I can't feel or hear it, as long as I'm alive, my heart must be beating.
"Here, take my heart. It's not like I need it anymore."
The knight chants an incantation calmly after coming to a bitter decision.
The decision was made far too hastily, with almost no consideration given to it.
It was as if he had already decided what to do the moment he saw me.
"Transfiguration—!"
I can't speak, and I don't really understand what's happening.
However, I waved both my hands to indicate my refusal.
"————"
I can understand that he'll die.
For me to escape this hell, he will have to die.
Whatever he's doing, he's definitely going to die from it.
"Healing song of the Seventh Degree—!"
Green tattoos spurt from his forearms and eyes, resembling veins or graffiti etched into his skin.
Pulsating, he faces his hand toward me and touches my chest.
"—Gh—!?"
It feels like my heart has burst like a balloon.
In an instant, I actually died.
…And then, my chest is filled with something.
Like a tank, my chest is filled with a liquid like water.
"I give you everything I have."
When I opened my eyes again, I saw the knight looking at me weakly.
I am now lying in his arms.
He gives a faint smile, as if he were saying 'goodbye', and the strange lines on his skin fade to a demonic black.
"Be happy, Otouto. Your life is worth living."
———And from that day onward, I never saw that man again.
But, somehow, I survived.
Despite being pierced in the heart and neck, I survived that hellish world six years ago.
And yet, I was never truly "alive" again.
Having lost everything I knew, only an empty husk of my body remained.
After all, it wasn't my own heart beating inside my chest.
No.
It was the heart of a hero.
My brother, who was what one would call a Knight, saved my life.
The sentence itself sounds stupid.
I know that much.
Considering the current year (2009), if someone were to say something like this, I would look utterly bewildered.
But, I swore on that day that I would thank him.
Of course, it was a stupid goal.
After all, how can you thank a person who has passed?
Well, one could say I'm just being hysterical.
Frankly, the impact my body received that day caused me to withstand some serious brain damage.
"You say you were killed by a 'Knight', hm?"
The doctor looks at me as if I were a three-headed monster.
"You know, the damage sustained on your body caused some serious brain damage. You should refrain from trying to remember what happened."
I couldn't really form my words correctly, but nobody believed me anyways.
And, I can't blame them.
As much as I hate it, I can't blame them.
To be honest, I'm still not sure if my memory is really correct.
As the doctors repeatedly told me, it could all be due to brain damage.
Nevertheless, I swore to myself that I would be grateful to him with my life.
I will thank my brother, Atlas.
—I remember talking to him briefly a couple of times.
Most of my memories before that horrible event are too foggy to recall, but I can vaguely remember Atlas.
We were close. At least I think so.
…It hurts, losing the memories of somebody.
Because now that he's gone, he's truly dead in a way.
A human's life is in both their heart and the memory of their life.
So, people who die can be considered dead in two ways.
Crazy, huh?
Anyways, I was close to Atlas.
"---You know, Otouto."
"Know what, big brother?"
We were sitting in a green field.
The backyard of the Aaron family.
It is unbearably beautiful.
Or perhaps I'm just imagining things.
In reality, I'm probably in a hospital bed, smiling hysterically.
"I think the best dreams are the ones you can't reach."
He often said silly things like that.
I never really understood it at my age, but I thought he was a real poet.
"Wow—what's that mean?!"
"It means, you should live your life to the fullest."
I really thought he was some sort of god…
Strangely, he never did tell me he was a Knight.
In any case, I wouldn't have believed what he said. At the time, he wasn't particularly tall, nor was he unusually strong.
I never knew our family owned long swords either.
Though, we did own swords.
—I can remember his yellow eyes and his silver hair.
We share these two traits, unsurprisingly.
"So, how can I live my life to the fullest, big brother?"
He often smiled cheerfully.
"—Don't hurt anyone. That's how. Never get in any sort of trouble."
It seemed like something basic you'd learn in elementary school, but it left a deep impression on me.
From that day on, I didn't hurt anything. I even avoided stepping on insects.
As long as I had a chance to be like Atlas, I would do it.
"Whatever you say, big brother~."
Looking back, I was too obsessed with him.
But, maybe it was a good thing.
He really seemed serious about his lessons.
I wonder why.
But even so, I dedicated my life to that unobtainable dream.
Not because I wanted to achieve it, but because I knew it was inherently impossible.
And, whether that "dream" meant giving my thanks to Atlas or never harming a living being…
It didn't matter, really.
Naturally, everyone knows that human beings are bound to get hurt eventually.
So, I interpreted his lesson as a call to action distinct from classical meaning.
A call to protect others from suffering.
And even if that meant taking the suffering upon myself, I had no other choice.
For, in the end, that was the very way I could show my gratitude to him.
I do not care if I'm a stupid boy.
It does not matter if my dreams and desires are stupid.
I take stupid things seriously.
After all, having been saved, I felt deep down that I ought to take those things more seriously.
And so, because I was given a second chance at life, I decided I should live it.