29 – 29. Dinner

“Sort out the areas where you felt I was lacking and tell me tomorrow.”

The sky was turning a dusky dark.

Watching Isaac, who was sheathing his sword as he added that, Sharen blinked dumbly.

“Me?”

“Yeah, you did good a minute ago. The points you made were a real help.”

“Oh, yeah… I said that.”

Sharen’s reply was awkward.

What she’d said earlier had been a story Rianna told her, so this felt a bit disconcerting.

And for him to ask it of her again felt somehow strange, too.

“I, I really have to say it?”

“It’d be good if you did. Why? You think it’ll be too hard?”

“Nah, nah! I can! I can do it. I’ll pick apart everything about the sword you showed me today, like bones from a fish, and bring it to you!”

She pumped both fists and pranced off, and a small smile flickered across Isaac’s face.

It wasn’t that he truly wanted anything from Sharen.

It was more like consulting the woman beyond Sharen.

‘Talking face to face after the divorce was a bit uncomfortable.’

In this way, Sharen had become a carrier pigeon, and he intended to use her as long as he could.

“But Isaac, you’re going to dinner, right? Shall we go together?”

“I got an invite for dinner tonight. So we can’t eat together.”

“An invite? Now? From who?”

“The Margrave called for me.”

“Uldiran Caldias?! No, but why Isaac?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

He answered as if placating a child, but Isaac was also quite puzzled.

Normally, he might just shrug it off, but now they were in the midst of a war with a large swarm encroaching.

A dinner invite in this situation.

It didn’t seem like it would be a pleasant occasion.

“Hey Isaac, do you perhaps have any thoughts on remarrying?”

“…….”

Taken aback by Sharen’s sudden question, Isaac clamped his mouth shut.

He felt like he might make a mistake if he blurted something out impulsively.

After taking a breath, Isaac answered matter-of-factly.

“No.”

“Really?”

“No, I don’t. But why are you asking that? It doesn’t seem like it’s any of your concern.”

“I, I’m just asking to make sure! I was worried that maybe Isaac might become Caldias’s son-in-law!”

“Haa, Sharen. Since you clearly don’t know, I’ll say it plainly.”

“Huh?”

He had to make this headstrong girl, whose only skill seemed to be swinging a sword, understand that this wasn’t like the manor.

“Don’t go spreading strange rumors outside. I’m still married to Rianna.”

Isaac showed her the ring on the ring finger of his left hand.

“See? But talk about divorce or remarrying Caldias. Saying such things outside is very dangerous.”

“……”

“What if someone overhears? Do you even know how many nobles from the different houses are here?”

“Ah, I know.”

“How many, then?”

“…Don’t know.”

“So you *don’t* know.”

Sharen, staring blankly up at Isaac, nods without thinking.

“Y-yeah, I guess so.”

Sharen tilts her head, feeling like she got twisted up in the conversation. Before she can quite catch up, Isaac keeps firing off words.

“That’s why you gotta watch your mouth, awake or asleep. I’m leaving Helmont in a month anyway. But what about you? You’re staying, aren’t you?”

“That’s right.”

Nodding, Sharen suddenly perks up, head cocking as she asks back.

“Are you, maybe, worried about me?”

“What kind of bullshi- haah. Fine, think whatever you want.”

Conversations with kids these days, you never know where they’ll jump.

Isaac just gave up on thinking and decided to go see about dinner.

* * *

“….”

Isaac wasn’t too fazed, having been invited to the Caldiases’ dinner table once before.

They’d been living together for a good while now, no need for formalities or to get all worked up about it, he’d thought.

“Please, eat.”

A surprise woman was at the table with them, making Isaac a little disconcerted.

Her name was Selene Caldias.

Uldiran’s wife, and Silverna’s mother.

Long white hair flowing down, beauty that hadn’t faded despite being middle-aged, and full curves.

It seemed Silverna had clearly inherited much of her looks from her mother.

“Thank you for the food.”

The meal was simple, plain.

For an invitation, it was nothing special; it wasn’t much different from what they ate in the soldiers’ mess hall.

“What, did you expect a feast and got disappointed?”

Uldiran, sitting across, asks casually with a fork in his hand.

“I’d have been disappointed if a feast had been laid out, actually.”

Isaac answered with a soft smile, and Uldiran chuckled, nodding.

A Border Count indulging in a lavish meal alone during war wouldn’t be the Caldias he knew, after all.

“…….”

“My, Sylverna. A guest has arrived, isn’t it rather rude to focus so intently on eating?”

Sylverna, who had been staring at her plate, shoving mouthfuls of food down, flinched at her mother’s words.

After roughly washing down the food with water she’d grabbed beside her, she responded.

“I…I was hungry.”

“Still, aren’t they your squadmates?”

“…….”

Sylverna, who had been pointedly not looking at Isaac, glanced over, her cheeks flushing red with embarrassment.

Awkwardly, she blurted out.

“You, I told you to cut your hair.”

“You were serious?”

“O-of course I was.”

“I’ll cut it later. Every single barber in the North seems intent on turning me into a barbarian.”

“Well, it’s because you look so slender, see.”

Surprisingly, their conversation flowed smoothly.

So much so, that Sylverna herself was taken aback.

Knowing her own heart, knowing she must relinquish her affections, the distance she’d kept now seemed overblown.

“Shall I cut it for you?”

“You know how to cut hair?”

“Wouldn’t I? How many monster heads have I taken?”

“…….”

“Would using a spear instead of scissors be alright?”

It was Uldiran who interrupted their teasing banter.

“Isaac Helmut, Antonio came to see me out of the blue today.”

“…You speak of Antonio, sir?”

The most likely reason he’d been invited to dinner, which he’d suspected, had just hit the mark.

“Heard he wants to forge a sword from frost-veined ore. For you, no less.”

Isaac, inwardly cursing Antonio’s ignorance, still decided it was for the best that the sensitive topic was brought up.

It was, after all, burdensome for him to even mention frost-veined ore, given his position.

“Seems I’ve ignited his craftsman’s fire. If I have, perhaps, offended the Margrave, I offer my sincerest apologies.”

“Aye, offended he did. That lad, barging into my office, raising a ruckus about wanting some.”

“Oh, really?”

That mad blacksmith.

Isaac felt a cold sweat break out, but the Caldius family didn’t seem particularly displeased.

“Is it the first time?”

Rather, according to Silverna, this had happened a few times already.

Uldiran, guzzling down his beer, nodded with a hearty laugh.

“But this time was different. Usually, he’d be after it for his own work, but this time, it was for a sword for Isaac…for you, he said.”

“……”

“What did he say? He thinks the finest sword ever forged by the gods is the Helmund, right? But he sincerely wants to surpass it, he said.”

Beneath the table, Isaac’s hand clenched into a fist.

“He seems to think that thin blade you will wield can defeat the Helmund.”

He neither confirmed nor denied it.

He simply accepted the expectations that had been placed upon him in silence.

“Isaac Helmund.”

Uldiran slowly lowered his grip from his beer glass.

His expression shifted, the lingering haze of drink vanished from his eyes.

“Of course, the frost-veined ore is out of the question.”

“……”

“Not because you are Helmund. I hope there’s no misunderstanding on that part.”

“Yes, I understand. I apologize if I’ve burdened you with unnecessary concerns.”

Uldiran asked or said nothing further.

He simply took another sip of beer, moistening his lips.

“If Isaac is Helmund, why does he need to defeat the Helmund?”

Seleny interjected naturally.

It was a timely question that broke the silence within the strange atmosphere.

“Uhm, it’s… my own kind of resolve, I guess.”

Isaac fumbles, offering a strained laugh.

He can’t outright bring up the divorce, so he tries to sidestep it, but Uldiran cuts in.

“It’s because of the Sword Trials.”

“The Sword Trials?”

Mother and daughter turn their gazes to Uldiran.

He explains, calmly chuckling, like he’s telling an old story.

“It’s an event held by Helmund every four years. They invite the kingdom’s nobles, and the Helmund line engage in duels there.”

Uldiran grins slyly.

“External nobles can participate, but they usually don’t. What’s the point, really? They just get crushed by the Helmund folk anyway.”

“What about you?”

“Me?”

Uldiran gives a sheepish smile.

“I participated once, maybe twenty years back. Lost to Arandel back then. Too bad.”

“So, Isaac…”

Silberna’s gaze lands on Isaac.

“Even if you’re a son-in-law, you’re still my husband. It’ll be me, not Rianna my wife, who takes part.”

Isaac replies with an awkward laugh, and Silberna’s eyes widen.

“So, that’s why you’ve been sparring with Sharen so much lately?”

“You could say that.”

It wasn’t just about the Sword Trials, actually.

Either way, the Sword Trials were just a step in the process.

Isaac wanted to become a swordsman, and opportunities to duel with Helmund were rare, so he’s been trying hard.

Especially since, a month after the divorce, he won’t even dream of sparring like this.

‘Got to squeeze as much out of it as I can while I can.’

Anyway, if they had understood and interpreted it that way, all the better.

“That’s so romantic, isn’t it?”

Selene says with a gentle smile.

“Huh?”

A surprised voice blurts out involuntarily, and Selene seems to take it as him hiding his embarrassment.

“Since you’re standing in for your wife, shouldn’t you be striving not to tarnish her name?”

‘Not really.’

He raises the corner of his mouth in an awkward smile.

His face twitches and wrinkles as he utters the stinging words.

“Y-yes, that’s right.”

“Haa, how lovely. I wish my husband had that kind of romanticism. Just being too dependable is no good for a man, you know? They need some romance.”

“Cough, hemm!”

Uldiran cleared his throat awkwardly.

“I’ll just… go get some air.”

He flat-out fled from his seat.

Then, seemingly more comfortable, Selene readjusts her position, eyes gleaming.

“Hey, Isaac, if you don’t mind, could you tell us some romantic anecdotes you and your wife have had? Everyone here is so rigid.”

“Mother?!”

“Ha, haha…”

Sylverna tried to stop her, but Selene silenced her by resting her chin in her hand.

“You need to hear things like this too. The kid takes after his father too much and has no interest in this sort of thing, you see?”

Sylverna, unable to stop her mother’s chattering, covers her face with both hands, hanging her head.

“How was your first meeting?”

“Our first meeting…”

Perhaps it was the force of her persistence.

Isaac mumbled involuntarily.

Married for four years.

They’d wed a year after meeting, making it five years in total.

But if he included his previous life…

It’d be a stretch of about 15 years.

“Under the warm sun—”

Surprisingly.

“The river was stained yellow that day.”

Vivid memories of that day.

“Beautiful, yet thorny, the name ‘rose’ suited her well.”

Before Isaac’s eyes, it was happening again.

Rianna, as he first met her, was blooming back into his memory.

[I want to cross the river.]

Not a single greeting.

She asked, dryly, like that.

‘A silver coin will do.’

[I don’t have one right now.]

‘Too bad. I also need silver to row.’

[…I’ll pay you next time.]

‘What am I to believe? Will you give me some kind of guarantee?’

[I have nothing but my sword.]

‘That looks a bit too heavy, don’t you think?’

[…….]

Her blank stare, it made him want to tease her a little, maybe.

‘How about a smile? Let’s call that the guarantee.’

That day, he’d won quite a bit in the card game, hadn’t he.

That’s why he was willing to take such a ridiculous thing for payment.

[Are you messing with me?]

‘If you don’t want to, I guess there’s nothing to be done. This one’s going to take a nap.’

[…Wait.]

The rose woman sighed and tried to lift the corners of her mouth, awkwardly.

‘Is that supposed to be a smile?’

[If this doesn’t work, I don’t know what will.]

‘Haa, then how about this, can *you* make me laugh?’

Back then, he was intrigued by her awkwardness.

Truth be told, she could have just pulled her greatsword and put it to his neck and been done with it.

[Once upon a time-]

She wrung her brain and came up with a story.

‘That’s terribly unamusing.’

It was just so incredibly dull.

The air grew so still it could bite.

[…….]

Rianna pressed her lips tight.

Biting down on them as if in spite.

Whether it was the sun or shame, I couldn’t say.

Her pale skin, flushing crimson,

Truly captivating.

‘Ha hah!’

Before I knew it, I’d lost the bet.

[You… just laughed.]

‘Ah, so it seems.’

Unfazed by the defeat that felt like tripping over my own feet, I kept rowing.

On the small skiff,

Watching her loose-lipped, cheek-propped enjoyment of the river breeze.

That’s what I’d thought.

That I wanted to make her laugh.

“Thinking about it now, it feels like I fell for her from the very first meeting.”

Isaac, caught off guard, finished his story awkwardly, a smile playing at his lips.

“Well, whatever now—.”

Back then, for sure.

I must have been in love.

* * *

After Isaac left.

Celene found Silverna in her room.

“Mother?”

Silverna’s expression was still troubled as she was preparing for bed.

The story Isaac told tonight stirred her heart far more than she expected,

But it was a story that pierced it far more than she expected as well.

“I hear you are pursuing a love you shouldn’t.”

“Anna must have spoken.”

“Just wanted to shake you back to your senses… Seems I’ve unintentionally given you a big wound, so I came,” she says.

A comforting smile graces Selene’s lips.

Sylverna, eyes wide, shakes her head faintly.

“No, I think I can sort my heart out well enough.”

“It was a bit hotter talk than I expected, truth be told… but that also made me envious.”

Selene murmurs about the romance.

Sylverna was thinking the same thing.

How could he have married a woman like Rianna?

Listening to Isaac’s tale, it felt almost as though the marriage was inevitable.

Selene slowly moves to embrace Sylverna.

“Sylverna, this pain of love is something everyone goes through. This experience will surely guide you to a better love.”

“Mother…”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, I am the one who should apologize.”

She hugs her daughter tighter, who confessed it was her fault for loving a man she couldn’t have.

“Sylverna.”

“It’s alright. I’ve learned something. Next time I meet my fated man, I’ll surely not miss the chance. This time, it’s too late.”

A soft smile blossoms on Selene’s face at Sylverna’s words.

Wasn’t she just like that too?

Her past, when she aggressively appealed to woo Uldrian Cardias.

“Yes, you’re my daughter. You will surely do well.”

She comforts Sylverna, holding her close.

Yes, her daughter is strong.

Even while thinking that, a thought flickers.

‘….’

[What.]

Isaac’s last words.

[It doesn’t matter now, how it is.]

Selene found them strangely jarring.