〈 Chapter 123 〉 Graduation Tournament (8)
*
“I’m back.”
His tournament finally over.
Wilhelm returned to his father in the audience seats.
“You’ve gotten much stronger.”
“Of course.”
It was only natural.
After all, it had been three years since his father last witnessed his skills.
If he hadn’t improved during that time, it would have been strange.
‘But…’
He checked his father’s gaze once more.
Just as it was before, devoid of any emotion, as if it were only natural.
That gaze was no different from how it had been three years ago.
This wasn’t the kind of look he had hoped for.
‘What the heck is the problem?’
He hated that look from his father.
That was why he worked hard, and pushed himself even more.
To change the way his father looked at him.
“The opponent was too weak.”
But still, his father’s gaze didn’t change at all.
Even though he had done his absolute best, what more was he supposed to do?
“Damn it.”
Suddenly, he felt an unexpected surge of anger.
Thanks to that, he blurted out a careless remark to his father.
“Do you think I could beat you now?”
No, this wasn’t a slip of the tongue.
It was something he desperately wanted to ask his father.
In fact, the reason he had poured himself into archery for the past three years was because of this.
‘Thanks to that, I’ve become strong enough. So now…’
However, his father was resolute.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Your archery skills have finally caught up to me. And being young means you have flexibility in battle. But there are still many immature aspects.”
Immature aspects, huh?
“But I defeated that guy completely.”
“Well, you were just lucky, weren’t you? If his final arrow hadn’t gone off course, or if he had dodged your arrow just right… how would the match have turned out then?”
“That’s…”
Even he wasn’t sure.
Perhaps his father was right to think luck had played a significant role.
And there were certainly parts that he himself couldn’t ignore.
‘That guy definitely…’
Just as he was about to recall the tournament against Allen.
“In the end, it’s a matter of experience. After graduation, don’t rest; keep gaining experience. Soon enough, you’ll surpass me.”
“Really?”
Just now, his father acknowledged it himself.
He would soon surpass his father.
If he could surpass his father, then someday…
“Of course. You’re a Rosemond like me, and you’ve held a bow from an early age in the best environment, so you must surpass me.”
However, the next words from his father were slightly different from what he had expected.
“Don’t forget. You are a Rosemond. In archery, you must always be the strongest.”
He lowered his head slightly and continued.
“I’m ashamed to admit, but I wasn’t the strongest. In the end, I fell behind that Ludmilla in rank.”
“What does that have to do with me…”
“It doesn’t matter whether you inherit my bow or Ludmilla’s. As long as you’re the strongest in archery, that’s enough.”
In that moment.
A sudden headache struck him.
He could no longer face his father.
“I’m sorry, but I need to get some fresh air.”
He rushed out of the audience seats.
And then he reached the almost empty external corridor of the tournament arena.
There, he stopped and breathed heavily with a pale face.
“I…”
Surpassing his father was something obvious.
Being the strongest in archery was all that mattered.
Because that was what it meant to be a Rosemond.
“I am… a Rosemond…”
Now he finally understood a bit.
Why he felt so dirty inside.
Why his father’s gaze had always remained the same.
‘No one expects anything from me.’
No matter how well he shot arrows, or practiced.
Even if he became the strongest in archery, all of it could be summed up in one word.
Because he was a Rosemond.
Simply a Rosemond.
No one expected any more than that from him.
Not even…
‘Not even I expect anything from myself.’
In the end, the path he would take had already been decided.
There was no other road; he would simply continue forward on the path laid out for him.
It was a boring, colorless life.
‘Sung Yoo-rang said the Divine Seat didn’t abandon me, but…’
Did the Divine Seat really expect anything from him?
‘Who knows.’
He had always been afraid.
Afraid that, although unseen, the Divine Seat’s gaze was just like his father’s.
But now he felt he understood.
‘It doesn’t matter whether Sung Yoo-rang’s words are true or false.’
The Divine Seat must have looked at him with the same gaze.
Whether in the past when the Divine Seat existed or now, nothing about him had changed much.
He trained in archery day in and day out, and in the end, all he knew was archery.
There would be no one who wouldn’t get tired of watching him for years.
But…
‘So what am I supposed to do with that?’
There was no other way out of this path.
Until now, all he had done was archery.
Should he just shut up and keep honing his archery skills?
‘No way.’
It wasn’t like he was trying to complain that the people around him had no expectations.
The reality that he didn’t even have expectations for himself was what he hated.
‘Simply being the strongest in archery isn’t enough.’
He thought of Sung Yoo-rang.
He was definitely receiving the kind of look that he had never gotten.
And in fact…
‘It wasn’t a complete victory either.’
At the last moment of his match against Sung Yoo-rang.
He had clearly anticipated that Sung Yoo-rang would come straight at him.
That’s how he had fought in every mock battle until then.
‘If he had charged at me then…’
The arrows he shot would surely have aimed for Sung Yoo-rang’s vital points.
Would he have been able to avoid those arrows?
‘That’s not certain.’
He had put spin on the arrow to counter Sung Yoo-rang’s abilities, but that wasn’t a complete counter.
It was just possible that it had been a lucky shot landing on Sung Yoo-rang’s heart, like the arrow that struck at the end.
‘But still…’
For some reason, he felt that had it been the Sung Yoo-rang from that time, he wouldn’t have done that.
There was no concrete evidence for that.
Only the sensations he had felt at that moment pointed to that.
‘What in the world was that sensation?’
That moment when Sung Yoo-rang took an arrow to his right arm while approaching him.
He sensed something strange from Sung Yoo-rang.
‘It felt like…’
As if he were facing a gigantic beast.
A beast so mighty that it could break through a wall with just a collision.
It was so overwhelming that he never thought it would choose to evade and pick up its bow instead.
‘What if he had deflected my arrow with his bow while approaching me?’
Suddenly, he recalled how he had performed in the mock battle.
He had used the shaft to deflect attacks, albeit imperfectly.
If what he had shown back then wasn’t just a stroke of luck…?
‘No, there’s no way that’s possible.’
Even so, the assumption that he might have tried to deflect his arrow with his bow was too extreme.
After all, deflecting a spinning arrow at that distance would be challenging even for high-level knights.
‘But…’
In the end, he felt uncertain about whether it was truly a good thing that he had won like that.
‘If only I had lost…’
He might have been able to consult with Sung Yoo-rang.
Maybe… that guy would know a new way forward.
Of course, there was no evidence for that.
‘Is this inevitable?’
Even if he inherited Ludmilla’s bow, not much would change.
It would simply possess better performance than the bow of the Rosemond family, but that was all.
In the end, as his father said, becoming the strongest in archery was the endgame.
‘Sung Yoo-rang…’
No, this wasn’t about Sung Yoo-rang.
That massive beast he had seen beyond Sung Yoo-rang.
Eventually, it would be impossible to defeat that beast.
Yet there was no way around it.
In the end, his limits resided in the ‘bow.’
And there was no way to surpass that.
‘I suppose I’ll just have to live this cursed life as a Rosemond.’
Just as he was about to turn back to the audience seats where his father was.
“Wilhelm.”
Suddenly, he heard a voice calling him.
There hadn’t been anyone around just a moment ago.
Even more strangely, the voice came from right behind him.
‘Did I not sense a presence at all?’
While he wasn’t exceptional at sensing, he had decent qualities for perceiving a presence as an archer.
Of course, it didn’t mean he could catch everything, but for someone to get so close without him noticing, it was quite concerning.
He quickly created distance and turned around.
“Who are you?”
Then he saw a man standing where he had been.
Well, it was just a man’s voice; his gender wasn’t clear.
That was because the figure was cloaked in a dark hood, obscuring his face.
“You’re…”
He didn’t get a strong feeling of power from the man.
But strangely, an unusual aura was seeping out from within his robe.
He introduced himself.
“Do you understand if I say I am an Apostle?”
*
“Hmm…”
In the waiting room of the arena.
Yusera swung her trusted sword, the ‘Relic Sacred Replicant’, in the air.
‘Sky Cleaving, Sky Cleaving…’
Sung Yoo-rang had told her not to use ‘Sky Cleaving,’ but for some reason, it rolled off her tongue.
Approaching her was a professor who supervised the candidates.
“It’s time to get ready to go out.”
“Yes.”
Following her words, Yusera sheathed her sword.
Then she donned the white mantle signifying her as a candidate.
Thinking about it, there wasn’t much time left until she would wear the black mantle symbolizing her as a true hero.
‘Of course, she needs to do well in this tournament first.’
She had practiced tremendously alongside Sung Yoo-rang for the past few weeks in preparation for this tournament.
According to him, she was the most important factor in this tournament.
And…
‘The operation has already begun.’
In fact, Elsie was currently seated in the audience, playing Sung Yoo-rang’s role.
Moreover, during the preparation of that operation, she had learned about Sung Yoo-rang, Elsie, or rather Allen and Ershiarah.
‘It was a bit surprising.’
Both had their original forms apart from their current appearances.
When she found out that Elsie was the princess of the Leim Kingdom, Ershiarah, she almost couldn’t believe her ears.
Just today in the tournament, she had displayed the fierceness of biting an opponent’s sword with her teeth.
‘That fierce girl is a princess.’
However, when Elsie showed her original hair color, she couldn’t help but accept it.
It was undeniably an unusual golden color, resembling sunlight.
‘That said, I wasn’t envious of being a princess.’
Hearing the circumstances was utterly heartbreaking.
Having lost royal family members to the knights they trusted, fleeing the kingdom while clinging only to the Divine Seat.
And she had met Allen just as she was on the verge of death.
‘She really had a similar plight to mine.’
She had also lost her family to the Chaos Beasts.
And ever since that day, she had lost her smile too.
Yet for some reason, Elsie always displayed a bright personality.
‘Perhaps…’
That could be because she met him a little earlier.
If only she could have met him a bit sooner…
‘No.’
It was foolish to speculate about the past now.
Focusing on the present was the right thing to do.
‘Speaking of which…’
What surprised her the most was something different.
As she stepped out into the tournament arena, she searched for someone in the audience.
‘Sung Yoo-rang.’
A man with muddy blond hair leaning against the corridor connecting the audience to the outside.
When she heard that this was his original face, she was the most shocked.
Because…
‘It was too different.’
The name still resonated more with her as Sung Yoo-rang.
Maybe it was the name style she used in Sakh, her hometown, that made her feel that way.
But his face suited him so much better over there.
‘He said he was the Divine Seat.’
In a bet they had made long ago, he had offered to become her Divine Seat as the condition.
Of course, after the bet, he rescinded that condition, but still, she occasionally teased him by calling him Divine Seat.
But now, she knew there was a more appropriate term to describe him.
‘Of course, he knows a lot and has numerous skills…’
He was certainly different from the Divine Seat that only gave orders from above.
He was someone who jumped into battle more than anyone else, and recently he fought alongside her and the others.
The best description for him, and the reason she followed him was…
‘Hero.’
To her, he was already a hero.
And this time, it was her turn to become a hero for him.
However, before that, there was something she had to do for him.
‘I feel a little sorry for the opponent.’
She reached for her sheath, gazing at the opponent across from her.
