30 – 30. Laughter

Early dawn.

The Maliduan ramparts, silent, asleep in darkness.

Deep in the corner, a fire kindles, faint as a match.

Before his day’s work at the forge begins, Antonio lights up a smoke.

He exhales, a bitter cloud, recalling the scene of his outburst before the Margrave yesterday.

“Knew it wouldn’t work, but it stings more than I thought.”

A vessel of the sword, ordained by God.

To forge, with his own hands, the one who could fell Helmont—what greater honor could there be for a smith?

Not wanting to let this opportunity slip, Antonio was mulling over a different approach.

“Strange indeed.”

Truthfully, his apprentices had been aghast when he’d told them, begging him to reconsider.

How could a man who’d never shown anything be expected to defeat Helmont simply by wielding a sword?

Hearing those words, Antonio hadn’t offered a proper rebuttal himself.

It was, in essence, a gamble based on gut feeling.

‘But I want to try it, damn it.’

Yet, more fiercely than ever before, Antonio was drawn to Isaac.

Vision.

‘That one has a vision.’

Actions that seemed to be sure of himself not now, but in the far-off future.

A deep consideration of the sword, unlike others, combined with a strange, almost violent ambition.

He didn’t know where it stemmed from, but it was as if some vengeful ghost, unable to wield a blade in life, had possessed him, making him both desperate and tenacious.

Of course, if mere tenacity alone could defeat Helmont, anyone could’ve done it-

“Antonio.”

A clandestine voice, a woman’s tone, slipping into the dawn air.

“Milady?”

Silberna stood there, her spear resting on her shoulder.

“Out on patrol already?”

Antonio, stamping out his smoke, questioned. Silberna shook her head slightly.

“No, I came because I wanted to ask you something.”

“Hm? Are you speaking to me?”

Silberna hesitated a moment, then opened her lips cautiously, as if worried others might hear.

“Why are you so obsessed with Isaac’s sword?”

“Hah.”

“He’s clearly improving, but even so, he’s not *that* great to warrant giving up Frostsilver to make a sword.”

Certainly, Isaac had improved.

Before anyone knew it, he was boasting a high win rate in sparring against the dispatched nobles.

And in physical training, unlike the first days when he was close to last place, he was now in a leading position.

His growth was so rapid, many felt spurred by it.

But to ask if he was so outstanding to deserve a treasure like Frostsilver, the answer was no.

“Heh heh.”

Antônio regretted tossing away the unfinished cigarette as he swallowed his breath.

“You could say it’s a new challenge, perhaps. The kind of attitude he wants, well, it’s never been crafted into a thing before.”

“……”

“And that fellow is also taking on a challenge. You might say it’s not suitable for his age, but I wanted to get one foot in that challenge too.”

A rather worthless reason.

Silberna thought that the explanation didn’t quite click, but conversely, she sympathized with it.

Because she also had similar thoughts, she had asked Antônio to organize her own.

“Antônio.”

Having steeled her resolve, Silberna offered him her spear.

“Use this.”

“Milady?”

Silberna’s spear.

A weapon created using Frostsilver.

“I’m sorry to ask you to melt down the spear you made, but it’s still possible, isn’t it?”

“Milady, you are speaking of something very dangerous. Even so-”

“Are you really saying that, someone who went straight to the Margrave to fight him?”

“……”

Antônio fell silent.

Hiding her smile in the pre-dawn darkness, Silberna spoke.

“Please.”

Antonio understood the emotion in her voice wasn’t quite a mirror of his own.

A hidden tenderness held him speechless, and he could only receive the spear.

“Thank you.”

With that, Silbern turned and retraced her steps.

‘A strange feeling, this,’

Silbern frankly assessed her own state.

Even having given her precious spear, she felt a pang, a pity for not being able to do more.

This must be what they call tenderness.

This must be unrequited love.

“It’s enough.”

She smiled brightly, looking up at the sky.

Beyond the Malidian Wall, a sliver of sunrise peeked out, illuminating her as if in praise.

“Though we can’t walk together.”

Let me be thankful that I could be a small help to the path you walk.

“It’s enough.”

Let me be content that, in your hand as you move forward, lies my secret affection.

“This is enough!”

As if answering her clear cry, the wind swept through her hair.

A refreshing day had begun.

* * *

“Sharen.”

“Sister?!”

Early morning.

Sharen was startled by Rianna, who had come to her room.

After learning that Rianna was living with the maids, Sharen’s shoulders tensed, worried that she might lose her room.

“W-what’s the matter?!”

But without noticing Sharen’s needless fear, Rianna handed her a neatly folded, envelope-like object.

“This is my opinion on Isaac’s sword, written down.”

“Ah.”

Sharen took the scroll, relieved the room was untouched.

She hesitated, thinking of opening it, but decided against it.

“Sharen, I heard you guys are going to be working outside now, like the other scout teams.”

“Huh? Yeah. Seems like they’re figuring out the Giant assassination stuff. We’re being moved completely to scout duty.”

“I see.”

Her voice held a complicated, heavy feel.

Rianna gently stroked Sharen’s hair.

“Be careful, Sharen.”

“Oh, sis?”

“I want to go with you, but I’d probably stick out too much. So, it wouldn’t work.”

“Right?”

“I’m asking you to protect Isaac.”

Sharen’s eyes widened, gleaming as she nodded eagerly.

“Of course! Don’t worry, sis!”

This was the first time Rianna had asked her for something like this, so Sharen answered with excited gusto.

Her enthusiasm lightened Rianna’s mood a little.

‘Was she always this bright?’

She hadn’t noticed it back in Helmund.

Just thought of her as a reckless, clueless kid.

But seeing her so happy from a simple head pat…

“Sharen.”

Rianna decided to go a step further.

“Yeah?”

“When you use Crimson Flame, you’re worried about the color of your *jeokgang* fading, aren’t you?”

“H-how did you know?!”

Sharen’s *jeokgang* sometimes had a plum color to it, and it was something that bothered her.

The *jeokgang* of Helmund was a deep, rose red.

“Don’t get hung up on it. That color… it’ll become your own *jeokgang*.”

“B-but, Father’s is nothing like this…”

“You’re not your father.”

“That’s…right, isn’t it?”

“Don’t worry, just let it flow naturally. Helmunt’s sword isn’t something to be buried somewhere. It’s not about striving to *become* something.”

Helmunt, they say.

Not someone who strives to be great,

but someone who *cannot help* but be great.

It’s not about forcing something, but about pouring your essence into the sword, letting it bloom.

“Don’t get trapped in a mold. Father…that’s why he doesn’t acknowledge us.”

“……”

“Is it hard?”

Sharen shakes her head.

“No, I’ll try! Thanks, sis!”

“Yeah.”

Sharen, eager, gathers her sword.

Though she looked good, Rianna felt the need to repeat a lecture she had given countless times.

“And…don’t *ever* tell anyone anything about Isaac and me. Not even a slip of the tongue.”

“I know, Isaac and you both think I’m such a fool.”

‘It’s unsettling, somehow.’

* * *

“Nothing much today. They’ve given us an easy mission for a change, to make up for our hard work.”

Before the rear rampart facing the kingdom.

The front was embroiled in fierce fighting, but the rear was only used as an entrance, practically new compared to the front.

“We’re just going to visit a nearby village and collect some taxes, simple as that.”

Silberna says boastfully.

Everyone tilts their heads, confused by her claim that even if a massive cluster arrives, they still have to do their duties.

“Why do we have to do that?”

Sharen asks, raising a hand. Silberna nods, saying it’s a good question.

“Actually, we don’t really need to collect taxes. We wouldn’t get anything but a snack’s worth at best.”

Silberna grins, resting her spear on her shoulder.

“The real reason is a kind of patrol for comfort. It’s all noisy these days because of the large cluster, but we are here to protect them, so we’re telling them not to worry.”

“Oh? That’s so annoying.”

“You go, and you keep your mouth shut. That’s the Captain’s order.”

Sharen, stripped of her voice in an instant.

“Anyway. We’re just going around, telling the village chiefs not to worry, right? And I do have a certain symbolism around Caldias.”

She’d been tearing through the front lines of the battlefield, so this mission was practically a break.

“Let’s cover some ground today.”

Silberna gestured towards their tethered horses.

And so, the 5th Recon Team left the battlefield where they had been fighting fiercely, for a day.

As everyone loaded their gear onto their horses, Anna quietly approached Silberna.

“But, Miss, where’s the spear you usually use?”

“Oh? Uhm, I left it behind. I figured I should get used to using other spears too.”

“Hmm? Really? What’s gotten into you?”

“It doesn’t look like I’ll need to be swinging a spear today.”

Even though Anna knew Silberna well, she couldn’t possibly imagine that she’d had her spear melted down.

“I see.”

Thinking it was nothing much, she let it pass.

The others were already mounted, exchanging casual talk.

“We had a thing like this in Helmont too.”

Jonathan, already in the saddle, smiled at Isaac.

“When bandits or beasts showed up near villages, we’d go take care of them.”

“Ah, right. We did.”

Isaac’s expression darkened for a moment.

Meladic cut in, taking his awkward reply.

“Helmont, where bandits wouldn’t dare show their face, right?”

“I thought so too, but these guys, they’re just so ignorant, they didn’t even know it was Helmont territory.”

“Ha, well, they’re just gonna live lives of thievery then.”

It was an answer that dripped with noble upbringing.

Well, everyone lived in their own worlds.

Anyway.

They spurred their horses towards the nearby villages, and began to move together.

* * *

The first place they headed was the village of Andes.

Well, to say first, it was actually the village furthest from the barrier wall.

The plan was to visit the furthest villages first and then make their way back, going through them in order.

“…My back is killing me.”

Aboard his horse, Isaac muttered, tapping his lower back.

At his waist, no less than three swords were hanging.

Two were practice katanas, and one was a pulse blade.

The practice katanas were so easily broken, being for testing, that he decided to carry two, and the pulse blade was to be used when even those were broken.

“You’re carrying them around like it’s some brute force thing.”

At Anna’s wry chuckle, Isaac managed a tight smile.

“Won’t I be carrying them like this until I get a proper sword?”

“Let’s hope Antonio can really put his back into it.”

“Still, they’re lighter than Helmut’s greatsword.”

“Really?”

Anna, her eyes wide, looked at Jonathan and Sharen’s greatswords. It seemed she wanted to try lifting them later.

Silberna, who was leading the way, cleared her throat, interrupting.

“Ahem, he’ll probably make one soon enough. Antonio is an amazing blacksmith, after all.”

“It’ll still take a little while, though.”

“No! Don’t underestimate Antonio. He’ll definitely make you something incredible.”

“……”

Why she was being so resolute, he couldn’t quite tell, but Silberna just shrugged her shoulders without elaborating.

And just like that, Scout Team 5 entered the village of Andes.

“…Everyone, dismount.”

Silberna quickly commanded, recoiling from the sharp, acrid stench that pierced their noses.

A heavy, layered smell of blood saturated the air, and swarms of flies buzzed loudly across the sky above the village.

The Malridan barrier wasn’t exactly a place with a lot of casualties, but,

This was a stench of rotting corpses and festering maggots far worse than any battlefield.

Everyone gripping their weapons, they moved inside, only to find piles of the villagers’ corpses stacked up there.

“It hasn’t been long.”

“They carved out specific parts, like eyes, or hands.”

Isaac and Anna assessed the situation with cold composure.

While others either choked back a boiling rage, or dry-heaved.

“Heh.”

A sound from behind made them turn.

The source was one of their own.

“Heh heh.”

Unforced.

Helmut’s knight’s words surfaced.

[He’s an unpleasant man.]

It wasn’t just the hazing of a junior, he figured.

Helmut’s knight valued chivalry, after all.

[We often go to assist nearby villages.]

“Heh, heh heh.”

[Sadly, we sometimes see villagers caught in the crossfire.]

“Heh heh, ah, ssshh. Hukk! Heh heh!”

[Each time… particularly when there are many victims.]

“Ahhh! Haah! Ah, shit! Kihheh! Ahhhahahah!”

[He laughs, like he enjoys it.]

Isaac questioned if the man before him was really the naive knight they had travelled with.

No, could they truly call him human?

In this spectacle.

“Kyahahahaha! Ugh! S-sorry-! AHAHAHA!”

Even with both hands covering his mouth, this person was splitting apart with laughter?

And he wasn’t holding it back.

He wasn’t trying to stop a surge of laughter.

It was a natural, bright smile.

He was trying to conceal it, not suppress it.

“Ssshh, huff, ha… Pfoop! Kihihik!”

Even bent over, face hidden.

Jonathan’s chilling laughter showed no sign of stopping.