109. Preference

The tents of the Helmund direct line were also red.

Someone could grumble that they were obsessed with the color red at this point.

But having their own signature color was surprisingly important.

Especially on a battlefield like this, a red tent stood out conspicuously.

In urgent situations, or moments of crisis,

so that people could look to Helmund.

Turning their heads without difficulty to find them, harboring hope.

That was the purpose of the red.

Even after entering the large tent, the squabbling between the two direct descendants didn’t cease.

“Ugh! It’s so annoying! Sis, RoenGreen is sleeping in a different tent, right? We’re not sharing the same tent just because we’re family, are we?”

“Shut your mouth! The battlefield isn’t your playground! I bet you packed a mountain of snacks and thought you were going on a picnic!”

“I know the North better than you do, okay?! Sister, please. I really don’t want to share a tent with him. He grinds his teeth something awful-!”

“Both of you, enough.”

Rianna, shedding the grandeur she displayed outside, sighed.

Here, amongst only those of Helmun, there was no need to be as forceful as she was beyond.

“Sharen, how have you been? It’s been nearly half a year. You seem to have grown taller?”

“Hehe, I think you’ve gotten a bit taller too, sister?!”

“Really?”

“What utter nonsense.”

The two women turned their gazes simultaneously toward Loengreen, standing between them. The eldest son, sulking, clenched his fist and shouted.

“Forget this sentimental reunion and tell them to prepare to march north, immediately! Damn it all-! It’s so frustrating-!”

“Lord Eisenwolf warned you to watch your behavior.”

“……!”

“Act properly. Helmun is no longer the absolute power it once was. To be precise, it’s crumbling.”

Even the expression “crumbling” felt inadequate, frankly.

Gossipers openly declared Helmun to be ruined.

Starting with Galenia Helmun, all the way to Alois Helmun, they betrayed humanity.

And ultimately, Arundel Helmun perished, and their territories were utterly ravaged.

It was only natural that Helmun’s influence wasn’t what it used to be.

Silence filled the tent.

To see Helmun, once like an impregnable fortress, collapse in just a few months was utterly devastating.

“We just need to do it.”

Rianna declared, matter-of-factly.

“Rebuild it. That’s our task. So, mind your manners. Especially-“

“Especially?”

“Don’t go around challenging just anyone to a duel so flippantly. We’re in a state of war. We need to conserve every ounce of strength.”

“…….”

Loengreen’s face filled with disgruntled protest.

“The northern campaign starts soon. You won’t have the energy to spar later on.”

“Ha, precisely because I know that, I want to do it today. There won’t be any chances to duel him afterward.”

“Still, it’s not permissible. We can’t show Helmun losing.”

“M-Me, losing?!”

Loengreen shouted, stung, but the fact that he had been defeated by Isaac multiple times during the Blackthorn subjugation was already well-known among the Helmun knights.

He had also lost quite handily in the Sword Emperor contest.

“The conversation is over. Loengreen, if you have so much energy to burn, go stand guard. Give the soldiers a chance to rest.”

“Damn it!”

Loengreen stomped out, fuming.

It seemed he was looking forward to dueling Isaac even more than clearing out the North.

“He’s such an idiot,” Sharen, who had been listening quietly to the conversation, remarked.

It wasn’t a sentiment she wanted to agree with, but she found herself doing so.

“Sharen, have you been well?”

“Yes, Sister! I learned so many things outside!”

“I see….”

Rianna had ears, and so she had heard all the news about Isaac and Sharen.

The massacre at Volten was shocking, the assassination of Princess Adeline was infuriating, and the annulment of Princess Claris’s engagement was bewildering.

“Um, Sharen.”

“Hm?”

Rianna hesitated.

For the first time ever, she became wary of her younger sister, and then she asked cautiously.

“You and Isaac, you’ve been doing well, haven’t you?”

“Yes! We’ve been doing great! Being with Isaac is fun! It’s like, a lot of things happen, you know?”

“….”

“The maid in Isaac’s house has a name similar to mine? So, one time I pretended to be the maid…!”

“Ahem, Sharen?”

“Huh?”

The prickliness she had shown to Loengreen earlier had already vanished from Sharen.

Thanks to that, Rianna could ask her more comfortably.

“Ah, it seems like Isaac has changed a bit, hasn’t he?”

“Changed? Really?”

Sharen tilted her head.

Perhaps because she was always by his side, she didn’t seem to notice any particular changes in him.

“Well… To me, it seems like he’s changed quite a bit.”

“Oh, really? Hmm, I don’t really know…”

As she spoke, one thing suddenly came to mind.

While marching north, they would set up tents and rest at night.

Often, sparring matches would take place for the purpose of camaraderie, and Isaac especially sparred frequently with Marlin Rivais.

[That boy has changed.]

While watching the sparring matches at the time, Sharen remembered what the Grand Master had said.

“Ah, he did say he had changed!”

“Right? To me…”

“He’s become a little perverted.”

“……Huh?”

Taken aback, Rianna’s eyes widened as she stared at Sharen.

Sharen, on the other hand, answered with a bright smile.

“That’s what the Grand Master said! Perverted! He said he was being excessively persistent.”

“Pe-perverted… Persistent…?”

“Yes! That’s what he said!”

Rianna’s crimson eyes began to tremble violently.

* * *

Isaac finished setting up his tent.

Even though it was afternoon with the sun still blazing, the northern cold was biting, his breath puffing out in visible clouds.

Though, undeniably, the chill was less severe than before.

Likely because the Malidain Barrier, imbued with magic to intensify the cold, had been dispelled.

‘Silberna…’

He couldn’t help but worry.

A woman just beginning to truly bloom.

He hoped she would become a sweet daphne, cultivated through passion and effort, and not another wildflower forced to blossom from tragedy and sorrow as she did before.

“What are you pondering?”

“…”

Isaac slowly turned at the voice behind him.

Standing there was Marilyn of the Reavis family, a noblewoman with striking cyan-blue hair, whom he’d been sparring with daily of late.

‘As always, she conceals her presence remarkably well.’

Whether it was her nature or not, her stealthy movements had even earned the Great Master’s praise.

The complete opposite of her brother, who was always flamboyant and drawing attention.

“What brings you here?”

“Are you scheduled for a duel with Loengreen Hellmunt?”

Her directness mirrored her brother, focusing solely on delivering the key point of her inquiry.

Or perhaps it was simply her own peculiar way of responding, born from a lack of social grace.

“No. I doubt there will be a duel.”

“Then, will you cross swords with me?”

“So abruptly? It’s not difficult, but we’ve just arrived in the north, so preparations-“

“My brother instructed me to.”

“…”

“He had to seek out Rianna Hellmunt, and ordered me to keep Baron Logan occupied.”

A hint of guilt flickered across her expressionless face as she spoke.

“So, I thought the only thing I could do was spar.”

“…You’re going through a lot.”

A nod.

Honestly, if it had been during the march, he might have felt a strange resentment, but.

Having witnessed Rianna’s reaction earlier, Isaac was indifferent.

‘He’s in for a good thrashing.’

Rianna would undoubtedly separate the personal from the professional.

That fool should consider himself lucky if all he gets is a beating and ejection, daring to court her on the battlefield.

“…”

Isaac gazed intently at Marilyn and sighed.

She blinked, looking up at him.

She could appear innocent, or utterly emotionless, or even as if she harbored something profound within her.

“Are you alright?”

Isaac, finally unable to hold it in, spoke.

Marilyn, who had only tilted her head in response to his question, countered,

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about following Rayan Levius’ orders. If you don’t want to, it’s an option to say you don’t want to. If you keep your mouth shut, no one will know what you’re thinking.”

“……”

“I mean it.”

A rather pointed piece of advice.

Upon hearing Isaac’s words, Marilyn pondered for a moment, then fidgeted with the sword at her hip.

“Then—”

“Yes? Then?”

“Please make our sparring…cleaner.”

“……”

An unexpected answer.

Marilyn’s words spilled forth as if she had been waiting for the opportunity.

“I know you keep dragging out our matches each time, trying to see more of Levius’ sword.”

“It feels like I’m being violated, and I feel like you’re studying me in a sticky, obsessive way.”

“I often feel like I’m being stripped naked in front of people.”

“Frankly…I thought you were being perverted.”

“Kheu-heu-eum!”

Isaac cleared his throat awkwardly and turned his head away.

“No, it’s just that Levius’ demonic sword…the more you peel it back, the more things keep coming out—”

Especially since he felt that there were many aspects that could be grafted onto the malevolent energy he was currently wielding, so he had a tendency to prolong the sparring matches in his excitement.

“Ahem, I apologize if I made you uncomfortable.”

“It’s alright.”

Marilyn accepted the apology in a matter-of-fact tone, fiddling with the tip of her blade.

Even so, she wouldn’t leave, all to obey her brother Rayan’s orders to the very end.

Frankly, Isaac had thought that Rianna and Marilyn were quite similar.

The way they didn’t express their emotions well, their beauty, and their adherence to the family were all alike.

But after seeing Rianna in person after a long time, he came to retract his thoughts.

‘Now that I see her like this—’

Different.

Clearly different.

He couldn’t explain it in words, but they were distinctly different. Perhaps it was because the woman Rianna Helmundt was, in some ways, special to him.

“Are we…going to spar?”

At Marilyn’s question, Isaac stood there awkwardly for a moment before nodding.

“Let’s do that.”

He had to do what he had to do, after all.

* * *

“Ah, don’t misunderstand!”

“There’s this girl named Marilyn who has a very similar vibe to your sister.”

“It’s because dueling with her is… perverted, you know?”

“……”

Rianna nodded calmly at Sharen’s words. She knew Isaac’s habit of exploring swords well.

She quickly realized that it had become somewhat… more perverted.

“He said she resembles Rianna?”

“When did *he* get back?”

Loengreen, who had returned to the tent unnoticed, chuckled as he sat on his bedroll.

“He just can’t kick that habit, can he? Acting all high and mighty, but in the end, he’s just a man.”

“What are you even saying?! Isaac is nothing like you!”

“……”

Sharen shrieked.

And Rianna stared, questioning the meaning.

Loengreen clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“Think about it. Why did Isaac marry Rianna?”

“Hmm? Because he likes her?”

“……”

“Right, in the end, it’s just a matter of ‘taste’, I suppose.”

It wasn’t entirely wrong.

After all, one could say Isaac fell for Rianna at first sight.

“Just now, I saw him outside. He was dueling with Levius’ woman. Ha! They say men are honest with their swords and their… well, you know. Guess he’s no different.”

“……”

Rianna grew increasingly perplexed.

She looked at him, wondering what it all meant, and Loengreen simply shrugged with a smirk.

“Doesn’t he have a unique taste in women? He only chooses silent, expressionless ones and keeps them by his side.”

“……!”

“Well, a rising star is a rising star, isn’t he? After Helmund, now the daughter of the Levius family. Watch, once this commotion is over, there will probably be wedding bells… Wow?!”

*Ptooey!*

Rianna’s divine power erupted, sending Loengreen’s body bouncing off the ground and tumbling outside.

“Ooh… I failed to do that.”

Sharen involuntarily applauded at the sight.

*Crash!*

“Cough?! What are you doing, Sir Loengreen!”

“Damn it-!”

The commotion from outside.

It seemed Loengreen and Rayan had become entangled as he rolled.