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“Ion!”

The moment I saw him, I knew.

“Ion?”

This is a dream.

A memory so deeply etched in my heart that I can’t forget it.

Against the backdrop of a landscape that no longer exists, a blonde girl from my memories looked at me and smiled sweetly.

Once, she made me dance like a sunflower under the sunlight, and at other times, her sun-like smile caused me to writhe in agony whenever I recalled it.

“Ion!”

“Ugh—!”

Ella slapped my forehead while I was lost in thought.

The young me grabbed my forehead, jolted back to reality.

“What in the world are you thinking about?”

“Uh… nothing.”

“Nothing? You were looking at those people again, weren’t you?”

Ella pointed to her inn located below the ridge of the back mountain.

At Ella’s inn, a mercenary band had been staying for several days, and they were real mercenaries clad in shiny armor and wielding swords, something not often seen in this rural town.

The village elders were anxious about several armed mercenaries staying for days in such a small village, but to my young self, their worries and anxieties felt like a tale from another world.

My attention was entirely consumed by the mercenaries’ equipment. Real swords and armor, so different from my twig sword and brass helmet. If a knight, like the ones from the illustrations in storybooks, were to appear before me, wouldn’t they look something like that? I simply gazed at them with envy.

Ella spoke as if dreaming while watching the mercenary band.

“They’re going to Sangria tomorrow.”

“To Sangria?”

“Yeah. They said something big is going to happen, so instead of the dangerous outskirts, they’re looking for work in the safer capital? Whatever the reason, they’ll make a lot of money and head to the capital… I’m jealous.”

Ella always yearned for life in Sangria. Since I had never experienced that life, I could only imagine why Ella longed for it so much, but I often thought about how wonderful it would be if I could make her dream come true.

If I tried desperately enough. If I persevered endlessly, I thought, someday I could realize that dream.

But compared to those people clad in swords and armor, my current appearance, covered in dirt, felt so shabby. It felt like I was thrown from a sweet dream into a cold reality.

So I said something I would never usually say.

“If you’re that jealous… why not just go with them?”

“What?”

“If you go with those people, you can go to the capital too, and that would be great… ugh!”

Suddenly, Ella slapped my forehead again. After receiving two slaps in such a short time, I grabbed my flushed forehead and pouted.

She looked at me with a stern expression as if scolding me.

“Why are you saying such weak things? It doesn’t suit you.”

“But….”

“Where did that bravado go when you promised to take me to the palace and the ball? You look coolest when you pretend to be strong. So don’t ever say things like that again.”

Ella crossed her arms and shrugged.

“And those people are too ugly to be knights serving a princess. You’re much better looking.”

“What? Haha!”

Hearing that, my gloomy mood vanished in an instant.

It wasn’t that I felt good because she said I was handsome or cool. The fact that Ella still remembered the promise she made with me and that she needed me was more delightful than anything else.

Ella looked up at the sky and muttered quietly.

“It feels like it’s going to rain today… should we head back?”

“Yeah.”

The sky looked clear without a cloud in sight, but without hesitation, I nodded my head.

Ella had an extraordinary ability to read the weather. Even better than the oldest elder in the village, the villagers often asked Ella about the day’s weather. Though it was clear now, whenever Ella said it would rain, it would invariably rain.

That night, it rained.

*

Tap! Tap!

I woke up to the sound of something hitting the wooden window in the middle of the night.

At first, I thought it was rain. But it was too loud and dull to be rain.

Who could it be at this hour?

I cautiously grasped the twig sword placed in a corner of the room and carefully opened my mouth.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me. Ion.”

“Ella!?”

I hurriedly opened the window at the familiar voice. Ella was standing there, drenched in the heavy rain, shivering as the torrents poured down.

“F-First, come in. Quickly.”

I let Ella inside through the window. She was soaked, her hair and clothes dripping wet. Seeing her in such a state, it felt like my heart sank.

“What are you doing out here? I need to wake your parents—”

“No! Don’t go.”

Ella grabbed the hem of my clothes.

Her shoulders trembled. Her pale lips seemed cold from the chill and also perhaps from fear.

“Don’t go. Ion.”

“…….”

First, I needed to warm her frozen body. I added logs to the fireplace and draped a blanket over her shoulders. After a while, as we both basked in the warm light, I could feel her trembling slowly easing.

I carefully glanced at her and asked.

“What happened?”

Ella came to me without saying a word and nestled against me.

I felt my breath catch in my throat, frozen in the moment. Not knowing what to do, my arms felt suspended in air like they were broken. While I thought I should push her away, something inside me felt like I shouldn’t.

“Ugh…!”

I sensed her sobs. Her shoulders, which I thought had calmed down, started trembling again. My chest felt warm and damp, likely from her tears.

“Um….”

I was at a loss at the sight of Ella I had never seen before. I wanted to stop her tears. I had no idea what to say in situations like this.

All I could do was hold her tightly in my arms to prevent her shoulders from shaking. Like a knight guarding his princess.

Embracing Ella, I thought.

Had Ella’s shoulders always been so delicate?

Her small body trembled in my arms, as if it would crumble with just a little pressure.

As I looked at her, a foreboding sense washed over me. It felt as if Ella might vanish into thin air after tonight. So I held her even more carefully and cherished her warmth.

“I’m cold….”

Though her body had already warmed up, Ella said that.

“Will you hold me like this?”

Her tear-streaked turquoise eyes sparkled in the light as she looked up at me. The anxiety glimpsed in her fluctuating gaze seemed to contain a silent message of longing.

Ella closed her eyes gently.

Impulsively, I kissed her lips.

Our shadows overlapped gradually, lingering for a long time.

The next morning, when I opened my eyes, Ella was not beside me.

That nagging sense of dread was never wrong.

*

Marian looked up at the sky filled with dark clouds.

‘The weather is terrible.’

It looked like it would rain any moment. On days like this, it was best to calmly sip tea by the fireplace and watch the rain fall outside, but unfortunately for me, it was class time and, worse yet, it was being held outdoors.

It was the combat practice class taught by Instructor Ion.

About twenty students from each class had gathered for combat practice.

Among the Opal Black Class, there were three other students besides Marian.

Gwen, Batar, and Elizabeth.

Marian was a bit surprised that even a noble princess had signed up for combat practice. It was amusing that Marian, also of noble birth, was participating in combat practice too.

“Now, I will begin the combat practice class.”

Instructor Ion spoke with a more subdued tone than usual.

Marian frowned slightly. Ion’s mood seemed unusually low today.

His expression was set in a gray hue, as though he had just risen from a deep nightmare.

Today felt like a day when one shouldn’t push their luck.

“The term combat can be interpreted in various ways. It’s not just about wielding a sword skillfully or fighting better than others; defeating an enemy, accomplishing a mission. All of that can be included in combat.”

At that moment, one of the boys gathered there smirked and spoke up.

“Instructor, it seems like it’s going to rain today; can’t we just go inside?”

The boy bore the white insignia of the Diamond White Class on his chest.

“I don’t want to take a lesson in the rain….”

“Let’s just waste time in the classroom?”

Another boy from the Diamond White Class chimed in.

Marian recognized their faces. Cornelius, Lucius, Zaius. They were boys with unpleasant appearances who loved to stick together in social circles, and she secretly referred to them as the “Ogre Trio.”

She had heard they enrolled in Philion Academy this year, and it seemed they had been assigned to the Diamond White Class without question.

Their blatant intent to mock was evident, and Marian and a few other students frowned.

‘What’s with them?’

Yesterday, she had heard rumors about how the Diamond White class’s head instructor had blown up at Instructor Ion in the teacher’s office. Could they be harboring ill feelings and inciting their students?

It seemed unlikely, yet considering the vicious rumors circulating in social circles about Instructor Acheron, it wasn’t a far-fetched conjecture.

Instructor Ion showed no particular reaction to the obvious disruption caused by the Ogre Trio.

“Combat practice is, as the name implies, a class to experience the various situations that may arise in actual combat with your body. Therefore, class outdoors is the most reasonable choice.”

“Ugh, but having class on a day like this is just unreasonable. What if I catch a cold? Are you going to take responsibility, instructor?”

“Exactly. We’re all noble! What would happen if someone got hurt during class?”

“A princess is here, so isn’t it unreasonable to let just any commoner get drenched in the rain?”

The Ogre Trio had the audacity to invoke the name of the princess present in this matter.

“Ugh….”

Marian saw Elizabeth’s eyebrow raise at the mention of her name, even without her consent.

However, the Ogre Trio didn’t seem to interpret Elizabeth’s silence as anything but a mute endorsement and continued blabbering foolishly.

Cornelius, one of the Ogre Trio, openly sneered.

“Let’s just go inside the classroom, shall we? What, we can make the instructor tell us stories about his first love in the spare time, right?”

In that instant, Marian felt the air freeze.

Raindrops began to fall from the sky now darker with clouds.

“…Earlier, you mentioned that combat can be interpreted in many ways.”

Marian felt raindrops land on her neck.

But whether the eerie sensation she felt there was from the raindrops or from the frozen air, she couldn’t quite tell.

The atmosphere changed in an instant, and the Ogre Trio became pale, unable to utter a word.

“For me, combat is survival.”

Ion spoke solemnly through his darkened countenance.

“Survive against me.”

Golden light flickered coldly in the darkness.

“That is the content of today’s lesson.”

 

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