45 – 45. A Divergence

A pack of warhorses streaks across the gaze.

Exhaustion was etched upon them, yet the riders shook the reins, never slowing.

At the very forefront rode Rianna Helmund and Sylverna Caldias.

Pushing ahead even of Commander Uldiran, they charged.

Their disregard for formation was testament to the urgency that drove them.

“And why exactly did you let it get away!”

Sylverna spat, her voice edged with nerves.

Because the horde’s lord chose to flee from the start, the battle hadn’t lasted as long as they’d thought, and the encirclement had been broken.

*Kwarung! Kwarrung!*

Distant thunder rumbled.

As they drew closer to the Malidian Wall, the creature’s ruinous mana pricked their skin like sparks.

*‘Isaac.’*

Rianna’s hand tightened on the reins.

*‘Please, I beg you.’*

With all her heart, Rianna wished he’d escaped.

The horde’s lord was not an opponent Isaac could face.

No, not just Isaac, but the current forces remaining at the wall could not stand against it.

“Hah! Hah!”

After such a ride, finally, the Malidian Wall came into sight.

The wall was not as it should be.

A hazy white vapor swirled like clouds, and the wall was frosted with thick, white rime.

Uldiran had explained the phenomenon.

“It’s the wall’s defensive magic. It is designed to occur naturally in a crisis.”

Uldiran’s later words, that it would cease after a few hours, were lost to them.

Regardless, that sight alone clearly screamed that the Malidian Wall was in grave peril.

“Kuuraaah!”

A roar swallowed by rage, and the crackle of lightning scattering like sparks.

Brakala, unleashing lightning from atop the rampart.

Too far, the figure standing upon the wall is indiscernible.

Except for one.

“Isaac-!”

Rianna’s eyes widen.

The demonic bolt, without a shred of hesitation, hurtles towards Isaac.

A moment where, with no resistance, he could be engulfed and burned to ash.

But in the sky of the Malidian rampart.

A silver line was drawn.

Unwavering, beautiful as an ice crystal, and as delicate as an artisan’s brushstroke.

It moved forward, as if testing its limits.

“Woah.”

Silberna, forgetting the situation, gasped involuntarily.

Uldiran, his eyes wide, watched it as well.

Not aura, but a great flash wrought by sword.

All those who witnessed it gaped, cries of wonder escaping their lips.

And closest of all.

Brakala, who hadn’t even registered the cut, fell to his knees, his head hitting the ground at the same time.

* * *

“Kkueeaaakk!”

The first thing Isaac did upon opening his eyes was to scream in pain.

His arm felt like it was twisting out of shape.

He quickly looked at his right hand and saw that his arm was splinted.

“Haak! Haak!”

Even though his arm was still there, it felt like his muscles and bones were swirling together.

Only after gritting his teeth did he realize there was a thick cloth-like material in his mouth.

It seemed to have been put there to stop him from biting his tongue during the pain while he slept.

“Ptooey.”

He spat out the cloth in his mouth and looked around.

A familiar place.

It was the infirmary.

“Anyone… is anyone there?”

Though I barely managed a whisper, a flurry of footsteps rushed from outside.

“Isaac?”

The door swung open, and it was Rianna who stood there.

The moment I saw her, a wave of relief washed over me.

At least, seeing Rianna here, perfectly fine, meant the situation was more or less sorted.

“Are you alright? How’s your body?”

“I’m… ghh, fine. More importantly, what about that thing?”

I asked, enduring the pain in my right arm.

Even through the haze of memory, that thing was so vividly clear – I needed to know if it was real.

Rianna nodded faintly at my question.

“It’s dead. You did it.”

“…Right.”

I hadn’t really thought I’d done something all that great.

But hearing it from Rianna, with tears welling in her eyes, a lump formed in my chest.

“You did it.”

Relief and emptiness existed side-by-side.

Even after returning, I had fought many strong foes in the north,

but I’d never before fought an entity so far outside my league and managed to win.

“I…did it.”

I covered my face with my left hand.

The emotion that surged through me was something hard to explain.

The hundreds of hours of effort that had turned the impossible into reality now declared I was, at last, worthy.

“I saw your sword.”

Rianna spoke hesitantly, her gaze fixed on me.

Her hand, complex with emotion, carefully reached out and placed itself on my right arm – the one that delivered that miraculous blow.

“To be honest, even just yesterday, I wished you wouldn’t wield a sword anymore.”

“……”

“I thought your obsession with swordsmanship stemmed from it leaving a scar on you. Especially seeing you wield a blade so different from Helmunt’s, yet constantly trying to capture the essence of their style.”

Living in Helmunt.

Was it not true that Isaac had strived to handle their greatswords?

The reason he accepted duels with the direct line, which were nothing short of violence, was also for learning.

To become a son-in-law befitting Helmunt, one way or another.

To be someone who wouldn’t fall short in the position of Rianna’s husband.

“Do you remember when you were bedridden for a week after your duel with Loengreen?”

“How could I forget.”

A bitter smile crept onto Isaac’s face.

Loengreen, who had been defeated by Rianna in a duel.

Because of that, the next day Loengreen had intentionally called Isaac out and demanded a duel.

He was utterly broken.

After that, while he was bedridden, Rianna had come to visit, curtly uttering only one line before leaving.

“I told you to stop the sword, didn’t I.”

“…That’s right.”

Rianna took a breath.

She looked like she was in pain, but knowing that she wasn’t the one who should be hurting here, she recomposed her expression and continued.

“I wanted you to stop trying. You looked like you were about to shatter, constantly smashing yourself against the Helmunt rock.”

But she was wrong.

She shouldn’t have said those words.

Rianna now realized that.

“It was the opposite.”

The tears gathering in Rianna’s eyes did not fall.

As if she wasn’t worthy.

“I-“

Rianna slowly met Isaac’s gaze.

A smile that was warped with the bitterness of regret.

“I should have… told you that you could do it.”

Actually.

The day Rianna told him to give up.

I don’t know how much I cried.

The thought that even the person I most wanted to be acknowledged by had given up on me.

The embers of my burning efforts, extinguished with a heartbreaking hollowness.

“I wished you wouldn’t break—”

Rianna clutched at her eyes, trying to hide the flowing tears.

“But in the end, I—!”

Emotions spilled out like a dam bursting.

Hot breaths and the burning regret held within them.

“I was the one who broke you.”

In the path forward, hardship is a part of the process.

But, the moment the purpose of moving forward is lost,

there’s nothing left to do but collapse.

Rianna had been Isaac’s purpose.

And all the other added things were simply hardships to overcome.

“Now, I understand.”

Forcing a smile, Rianna slowly straightened her back.

Sniffling, she apologized for her misunderstanding.

“You…really overcame everything. Before we, who hurt you, could even see your wounds.”

Already.

“I overcame it all.”

And because of that.

She deeply realized that there was nothing she could do.

“…It wasn’t easy.”

The misunderstandings stacked up from the regression.

It may have seemed easy to brush aside.

But in truth.

To be completely honest.

“It was a gruesome time.”

In my past life, I hadn’t overcome it so easily.

A year, crippled by Alois’s scheme.

He’d locked himself in his room, refusing to see anyone.

Only one reason.

He couldn’t bear to show Rianna his form, a husk stripped of all potential.

But now.

“I admired your sword, Rianna.”

It had all become, ultimately, a trial overcome.

Isaac, bloomed, cared not for the Hellmunt who cast him aside.

“What did you see?”

He wanted to hear the swordsman’s thoughts, the one who put him on this path.

“Truly…”

Rianna, face wet with tears she didn’t bother to wipe, just smiled brightly.

Recalling the awe-inspiring, magnificent flash of a single strike.

“It was amazing.”

Rianna, never one for eloquence, could not add embellishment even if she wished to.

But.

Just hearing this simple reply.

“Finally.”

A gentle smile bloomed on Isaac’s lips.

“I’ve earned your recognition, Lia.”

* * *

“Truly, it was amazing.”

Beyond the door.

The choked confession of Rianna made Silverna’s chest feel tight.

“Finally.”

She closed her eyes slowly.

The voice alone, coming from outside the infirmary, and yet she could almost see the expression on his face.

“I’ve earned your recognition, Lia.”

Because his reply held that much transparent emotion.

“……”

Silverna’s head falls.

The cascade of hair obscures her vision, yet the silver earring on her palm remains starkly visible.

She fights to hold back the tears welling in her eyes.

A tight clench.

She closes her fist around the earring Antonio made, as if to conceal what she’d just been about to do.

She walks down the hallway.

Under the guise of not interrupting their time, she strains to keep her breathing quiet.

There was something she wanted to say.

That thing held in her mouth, she swallows it along with her tears.