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Chapter 130

“…Ack!?”

“Ah, Dad is awake! Are you hurt at all?”

The moment I opened my eyes, Yeon-woo shot up, and Shar calmly spoke to her.

What the heck, did I faint?

As I thought that, I tried to turn my head toward Shar, but it wouldn’t budge.

Not only that. I had somehow sat up, but when I tried to move my body, no part of it would cooperate. It felt as though I had taken some paralysis potion.

“D-Don’t tell me, Shar…?!”

“Hehe, have you figured it out…?!”

With that, Shar let out a sinister chuckle. The always cute Shar was showing a trickster smile for the first time, leaving Yeon-woo in utter shock. But even that was somehow adorable. What the heck is going on?

Pitter-patter, with cute footsteps, Shar approached and placed her hand on Yeon-woo’s chest. The palm resting where the heart is—

Yeon-woo was lightly pushed.

Plop, she completely flopped back onto the bed.

“It’s just muscle soreness.”

“I see.”

Certainly, I had overdone it. I was used to physically exhausting myself thanks to Claire’s special training, but having to dig deep into my mana just to land a hit made the symptoms worse than before.

“Are you okay, Shar? Isn’t it uncomfortable?”

“I’m fine. Tae-oh seems okay too.”

“Thank goodness.”

At least I could still move my mouth; if I couldn’t, I would have been bored out of my mind.

“I’ll go tell the doctor~”

Leaving Yeon-woo somewhat reassured, Shar pitter-pattered out of the room. The room fell silent in an instant.

I speculated that Tae-oh was probably outside playing.

‘I wonder how things turned out.’

To be honest, I don’t remember the end very well. My sword had extended smoothly like never before, but I had no idea if it had actually landed a blow.

As I rummaged through my hazy memories and replayed the sparring session, not long after, the door swung wide open. Since my head wasn’t cooperating, I just greeted without turning my body.

“Shar, you’re back?”

“I did come back, but… the Count said he would do it himself?”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, he thought you’d had a tough time and figured he’d help you out by loosening your muscles as well.”

“Uh, um… thank you?”

The one who came to relieve my mistreated body wasn’t a doctor, but the very person who had mistreated it, Count Richard.

“Ouch.”

Crack!!

“Ah! …Oh? That feels nice.”

“Be glad. I’ve only done this for our vice-captain twice at best.”

“Whoaa… thank you.”

“What, I can do at least this much for a guest who can’t move. Alright, this area is really tight. Here we go, hya!”

Crack!!

With a sound likening to a wooden chair breaking, Shar jumped in surprise, and for a moment, a part of Yeon-woo’s body bent oddly before returning to its original form as she started moving that area.

Yeon-woo felt more like she was in a bone-setting than a massage.

‘W-What on earth is that sound…?’

Thinking that, Shar trembled in fear while leaving them be; the two continued to loosen the muscles, of course, exchanging words as well.

“I’m sorry for tormenting you, but it should’ve been helpful. Starting from the middle, you showed a very proper stance.”

“Really? I don’t remember much.”

“If you truly wish to master the sword, you must distance yourself from beauty and style. Only by swinging desperately in a disheveled manner will your body remember how to move in the best way for you.”

“I can somewhat relate to that. You need to roll around to optimize things.”

“Oho, you understand! Nowadays, youngsters usually don’t like such ideas. You really are different, aren’t you?”

“Haha, I hear that sometimes.”

Is this a social test?

I thought that, but while I didn’t want to impose on others, I genuinely believed that everyone should experience rock bottom at least once.

Just as one should know their drinking capacity.

During that conversation, something hard to ignore for Yeon-woo came up.

“Gyeomsim-gong is a great mental art. Make sure to train hard. Yuri has noteworthy abilities. How on earth did you manage to get two such excellent disciples in a row?”

Yuri’s ninth disciple. I remembered hearing that I was the tenth at some point. I knew enough stories about the first eight, but I had never heard of the ninth before returning.

Just last week, while talking to Yuri, I only confirmed that the disciple was female, a sajo. Apparently, even though their styles differed, the foundational Gyeomsim-gong was the same.

“Have you ever met the sajo?”

“Hmm? Well, not really. Anyone who’s someone at Arkeion probably met her at least once.”

“Really? You’ve met that many? Did they all go off on some training regimens?”

“What? You don’t know? Can I say this? I don’t see any reason to hide it…”

Suddenly hesitant, Richard inserted a muscle destroying technique into Yeon-woo. It was painless but refreshing, a cognitive dissonance to boot.

“Hmm, I’ll probably meet her once the break ends, and I just want to know what kind of person she is beforehand. They say she’s currently at the academy.”

“Hmm… well, that should be fine. First off, your sajo is the same age as you. Of course, she’s strong. It’s hard to find that kind of talent at her age. She’s even stronger than Albert and you. Not sure if that’s still the case, though.”

“You’re not sure if that’s still the case? Did something happen?”

“Poor girl. Noel de Vichy, the second daughter of the Vichy Marquis family. And well… she’s the ‘Hero’ of Arkeion.”

“…Huh?”

“A hero chosen by the goddess to defeat the Demon King. Everyone was astonished when a young lady of a Marquis family was chosen just after turning nine.”

So the sajo was a hero. But getting such a heavy responsibility at nine years old…

“Of course, the United Human Alliance isn’t that heartless. They couldn’t just send a nine-year-old child off alone without anticipating the consequences.”

That’s certainly true. No matter how much a feudal state Arkeion seemed, the mixed influences of Earth’s culture made such rebellions more likely.

“However, the circumstances back then weren’t great. The abnormal influx of monsters and some of the Four Demon Generals launched their offensive. Although we, including the sword faction, did our best, we couldn’t stop them.”

“Really…? The enemies are that strong? Even the Count couldn’t win? How could just a 13-year-old stop them…?”

“Well, that’s a bit different. It turned out the Demon Generals would come back to life soon after dying, as if they were being protected by something, even if they weren’t heroes.”

Even so, we wouldn’t tell a 13-year-old to take down what we couldn’t manage. I self-deprecatingly thought as Richard continued.

“If you’re not chosen as a hero, you can’t even lay a finger on the Demon King, let alone the Demon Generals. That’s the type of Demon King Arkeion has.”

About the peculiarities of Arkeion’s Demon King… I suppose some people knew about it. Strong hunters like Kim Hyun-soo surely knew about such things.

Those kinds of stories wouldn’t reach the ears of those who wouldn’t benefit from them.

“Honestly, it’s a tragic story. Once you grow up, you’re left with nothing to do, and it feels like the responsibility is thrown onto a child several times younger than you. But… really, there was nothing we could do. We could only hunt monsters so that the hero could save those we couldn’t.”

As Richard said that, he rubbed his face, looking weary. I could somewhat understand his feelings.

Before my regression, when Baek In-hwa saved people and died, I felt a twinge of similar emotions.

“…It feels like a debt I owe. I understand that well.”

At Yeon-woo’s words, Richard smirked. That was astonishingly fitting expression.

“Right, it’s a debt. The entirety of humanity living on this continent has shackled that little girl with the name of a hero.”

“That was quite a hard story to tell.”

“That’s fine. Hearing Yuri say that she’s at the academy puts my mind at ease. We still have time. At the very least, we old folks should buy some time until that girl grows up.”

Richard’s face seemed to regain some vitality, unlike before.

What a healthy man he is.

*

Emotions have weight. The man realized that fact long ago, having passed several years.

Anger feels so light. Violent emotions make a person feel as if they’re floating. It gives one a sense of being lightweight, like floating on clouds.

Joy is exceedingly heavy. That single moment can throw a person’s life into a chasm. It’s a haunting emotion, the more you think about it.

In contrast, depression feels wonderfully comforting. It provides the right balance. Like a weight tied to the ankle, it willingly sinks this body down to the depths of a tranquil lake.

The man walked through deserts. He walked through plains. He crossed hills and ice. The premise of walking from the sacred land of depression to Harmony City didn’t make sense, yet he accomplished it.

I couldn’t tell how long it took. It didn’t matter how long.

The Archbishop told him, and so he would.

Living is a sad affair. In life, one must lose something. Though there are countless precious things, you cannot live without letting them go.

“Losing is… sad…”

Ah, that’s something he knows better than anyone. Losing something you love feels like having your heart ripped apart.

He knows that despair of watching something precious slip through his fingertips better than anyone.

“I won’t force you to walk the same path as me…”

In a melancholic voice, the blonde man, Christopher, murmured. In the empty plains, he gazed up at the sky.

There’s not much he can do. Aside from flailing his arms and legs and smashing whatever touches him, that’s all he’s capable of.

He won’t let anyone leave saying they rather die.

Not letting anyone fall into despair and live as he did.

“If that’s the way to live, wouldn’t it be better to die first….”

Everything was, everything was a soliloquy. A monologue that no one would listen to, a lament of someone already dead. The aimless steps of a blind man.

The monster, Christopher, takes a step. Wishing for no one else to go through what he has.

Wishing that the feeling of joy, which pushes people into the abyss, does not spread.

He took a step towards the city busily preparing for the Academy’s tournament, a step after another. Slowly, he moved forward. With a week’s time left, he believed he could reach his destination.

(To be continued in the next episode)

 

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