A group of warhorses galloping through the snow.
Though they looked visibly exhausted, the riders showed no signs of stopping, continuously shaking their reins.
At the forefront were Riana Helmunth and Silbern Caldias.
They were ahead of even the commander, Uldiran.
The fact that they were riding so recklessly, ignoring formation, showed just how desperate they were.
“Why did you let them get away?!” Silverna snapped irritably.
The battle had ended sooner than expected because the lord of the Great Nest had chosen to flee from the start, breaking through the encirclement.
Boom! Crash!
The distant sound of thunder.
As they approached the Malidan Wall, the destructive mana emanating from it pierced their skin like sparks.
‘Isaac.’
Riana’s grip on the reins tightened.
‘Please, I beg you.’
She sincerely hoped he had escaped.
The lord of the Great Nest was not someone Isaac could handle.
No, not just Isaac—none of the forces remaining at the wall could stop him.
“Haa! Haa!”
After a long gallop, the Malidan Wall finally came into view.
The wall presented a scene unlike any usual sight.
A thick, white mist swirled like clouds, and the wall was frozen, covered in large patches of frost.
Uldiran explained the phenomenon.
“It’s the wall’s defensive magic. It activates automatically in times of crisis.”
His words about it stopping on its own in a few hours went unheard.
Regardless, the sight clearly indicated that the Malidan Wall was in a state of emergency.
“Kuaaaaaaah!”
A roar filled with rage, accompanied by the sound of lightning spreading like flames in all directions.
On the wall, Brikala was unleashing lightning.
It was too far to see who was standing on the wall.
Except for one person.
“Isaac—!”
Riana’s eyes widened.
The demonic lightning shot toward Isaac without a moment’s hesitation.
It would have been no surprise if it had consumed him in an instant, leaving no trace.
In the sky above the Malidan Wall.
A silver line was drawn.
It was as steady as an ice crystal, as delicate as a master’s brushstroke.
It seemed to test its limits.
“Wow.”
Silverna couldn’t help but let out an exclamation, forgetting the situation.
Uldiran also stared wide-eyed at the sight.
A great flash, not of aura, but of a sword.
Those who witnessed it all gasped in unison.
Closest to it.
Brikala, who likely didn’t even realize he had been cut, fell to his knees as his head hit the ground.
“Gaaaah!”
The first thing Isaac did upon waking was let out a scream of pain.
His arm felt twisted.
Frantically checking his right hand, he saw it bandaged with a splint.
“Gasp! Gasp!”
Though his arm was still there, it felt as though his muscles and bones were tangled in a whirlpool.
Only after clenching his teeth did he realize there was a thick cloth in his mouth.
It must have been placed there to prevent him from biting his tongue in his sleep.
“Ptooey.”
He spat out the cloth and looked around.
A familiar place.
It was the infirmary.
“Anyone, anyone there?”
Even though his voice was weak, hurried footsteps could be heard outside the infirmary.
“Isaac?”
The door burst open, and in came Riana.
Seeing her, Isaac felt an inexplicable sense of relief.
At least seeing Riana unharmed meant the situation had been somewhat resolved.
“Are you okay? How’s your body?”
“I’m—ugh, I’m fine. More importantly, what about him?”
He asked, enduring the pain in his right arm.
He wanted to confirm if the vivid memory in his hazy mind was real.
Riana nodded slightly at Isaac’s question.
“He’s dead. You did it.”
“…I see.”
He hadn’t thought he’d done anything particularly grand.
But hearing it from Riana, who was on the verge of tears, Isaac felt something warm welling up in his chest.
“I did it.”
A mix of relief and emptiness coexisted.
Since his return, he had fought strong enemies in the north.
But this was the first time he had faced such a fierce and overwhelming opponent and emerged victorious.
“I did it.”
Isaac covered his face with his left hand.
The overwhelming emotions were hard to describe.
The hundreds of hours of effort that had turned the impossible into possible now told him he had earned his place.
“I saw your sword.”
Riana hesitated before speaking, looking at Isaac.
With a mix of complex emotions, she carefully placed her hand on his right arm, which had delivered the miraculous sword strike.
“To be honest, until yesterday, I wished you wouldn’t wield a sword.”
“…”
“Your swordsmanship seemed like an obsession born from past wounds. Especially since you kept trying to embody the Helmunth sword while wielding a sword completely opposite to it.”
During his time at Helmunth.
Isaac had indeed tried to master their greatsword.
He had endured sparring with the violent direct descendants for the sake of learning.
All to become a son-in-law worthy of Helmunth.
To become someone who is fully deserving of the position of Anna’s husband.
“Do you remember when you were bedridden for a week after sparring with Loengreen?”
“Can’t forget it.”
Isaac forces a bitter smile.
Loengreen, who had lost to Lianna in a spar.
Because of that, Loengreen deliberately called Isaac out the next day and demanded a rematch.
He was utterly crushed.
Afterwards, Lianna came to him, who was lying in bed, and bluntly said one thing before leaving.
“I told you to quit the sword.”
“…Right.”
Lianna takes a deep breath.
She looked somewhat troubled, but knowing she wasn’t the one who should be suffering here, she composes herself and continues.
“I wanted you to stop trying. The way you kept crashing against the rock that is Helmunth, it looked like you’d shatter any moment.”
But she was wrong.
She shouldn’t have said that.
Lianna now realizes.
“It was the opposite.”
The tears in Lianna’s eyes don’t fall.
As if she doesn’t deserve to.
“I—”
Lianna slowly meets Isaac’s gaze.
A twisted smile rises, bitter with regret.
“I should have said… you can do it.”
Actually.
On the day Lianna told him to give up.
She doesn’t know how much she cried.
At the thought that even the person she most wanted to acknowledge her had given up on her.
The blazing spark of effort had extinguished in a surprisingly hollow way.
“I wanted you not to break—”
To hide her flowing tears, Lianna covers her eyes with her hand.
“But in the end, it was me—!”
Emotions burst forth.
A hot breath and the burning regret within it.
“I was the one who broke you.”
Hardship is part of the process of moving forward.
But the moment the purpose of moving forward is lost.
There was nothing left to do but collapse.
Lianna was Isaac’s purpose.
And everything else was just a hardship to overcome.
“Now, I understand.”
Forcing a smile, Lianna slowly straightens her back.
Sniffling, she apologizes for her misunderstanding.
“You… really overcame it all. Before we, who hurt you, could even notice your wounds.”
Already.
“You’ve overcome it all.”
And so.
Realizing there’s nothing she can do.
Lianna painfully understands.
“…It wasn’t easy.”
The misunderstandings piled up because of the regression.
It might seem like she shook it off easily.
But honestly.
To be very honest.
“It was a terrible time.”
In his past life, he couldn’t overcome it so easily.
After Alois’s scheme injured his leg, for a year.
He locked himself in his room, refusing to meet anyone.
There was only one reason.
He didn’t want to show Lianna the version of himself that had completely lost all possibility.
But now.
“I admired your sword, Lianna.”
All of it eventually became just another hardship to overcome.
The blossomed Isaac wasn’t the Helmunth who had cast him aside.
“How did it look to you?”
He wanted to hear the swordsman’s impression, the one who had set him on the path of the sword.
“Really—”
Lianna, forgetting to wipe the tears streaming down her cheeks, smiles brightly.
Remembering the astonishingly great sword strike she had seen.
“It was amazing.”
Lianna, who isn’t good with words, couldn’t embellish it even if she wanted to.
But.
Just hearing that simple answer.
“Finally.”
A calm smile forms on Isaac’s lips.
“I’ve been acknowledged by you, Lia.”
“It was really amazing.”
Beyond the door.
The moment Silbern hears Lianna’s tearful confession, she feels like she can’t breathe.
“Finally.”
She closes her eyes gently.
Though it was just a voice from outside the infirmary, in her mind, she could almost see what expression he was making.
“I’ve been acknowledged by you, Lia.”
Because the answer carried such transparent emotion.
“……”
Silbern’s head drops.
Her cascading hair obscures her vision, but the silver earring in her palm remains clear.
She tries hard to hold back the tears welling up in her eyes.
Crunch.
She clenches the earring Antonio made for her in her fist.
As if trying to hide what she had been about to do just moments ago.
She walks down the hallway.
Under the pretense of not disturbing their time, she tries hard to stifle her breath.
There were things she wanted to say.
She swallows them, along with her tears.
