〈 Chapter 79 〉 Yusera (3)

*

A sword slicing through the air quickly.

As she moved her body, sweat droplets collected at the ends of her hair fell and soaked the floor.

‘I need to be faster than this.’

Yusera couldn’t comprehend.

Why had she lost so overwhelmingly?

In speed, strength, and skill, she was sure she had the advantage.

Yet, she still lost.

‘I should have won.’

She was well aware of her flawed swordsmanship.

But given those flaws, she had confidence that she could win, if only for that one match.

After all, no one had crossed ten rounds with her until now.

Except for that guy yesterday.

‘Was it my swordsmanship that was wrong?’

It was painful to start doubting, but once doubt crept in, it began to swell.

Eventually, that doubt morphed into a crisis of faith about her swordsmanship, questioning why she couldn’t defeat Elsie.

‘Is it right for me to insist on this swordsmanship?’

She recalled why she started using swords.

The Crow Association had been thrown into chaos due to the attack of the Chaos Beasts.

Following the command of the Divine Seat, she desperately fled the scene to seek help from a nearby Hero.

Fortunately, that Hero was a high-ranking strong Hero who cleared all the Chaos Beasts with just one sword.

However, it was already too late.

The Crow Association became irreparably damaged from that incident.

The Divine Seat suggested that she take up the sword herself, to gain the power to protect the association and rebuild it.

Having witnessed the miracles created by the high-ranking Hero through his sword, that suggestion was incredibly appealing to her.

From that moment on, her path was solely focused on the sword.

Of course, she couldn’t help but think that the crow emblem was more specialized in archery than swordsmanship.

In fact, the guy named Sung Yoo-rang seemed to excel in archery.

Nevertheless, it was hard to doubt the Divine Seat she had trusted all along.

She feared that doubting the Divine Seat would mean betraying the path she had walked so far.

‘Now learning archery feels… already too late.’

Her movements with the sword stopped.

Breathing heavily, she lowered her sword.

She had lost the will to train in swordsmanship.

‘What should I do?’

She felt lost.

It seemed she could come to no conclusion herself.

‘I…’

Once again, she found herself staring at the void.

‘Please answer me, Divine Seat.’

But there was no response.

*

‘What on earth is going on?’

I couldn’t grasp what was strange.

After mulling it over for a while, I decided to cool my head by heading to the Archery Exam Hall.

Maybe if I shoot a bow for a while, I’d come up with some ideas.

‘Is that guy here today too?’

There was Wilhelm, stationed at the first target of the archery hall, shooting arrows as usual.

Seeing him unchanged even after more than a month since the semester began was impressive.

However, even someone like him must have other things to do aside from archery.

‘So he really doesn’t have a Divine Seat.’

Thinking that, I picked up my bow.

Despite how incredible he was, I could confidently say I had practiced just as much.

Evidence was in the solid calluses on my fingers and the noticeably different gaze from Wilhelm.

During our first class, my horrendous shooting skills made him hardly pay attention to me.

However, my skills had improved significantly, and now I could shoot at least the average level of the archery class without relying on Wind’s Power.

And then, the moment my arrow struck the exact center of the target…

“Sung Yoo-rang.”

For a second, I doubted my ears.

But then, I heard the voice again.

“Sorry to interrupt, but do you have some time?”

It was Wilhelm.

It was the first time he had approached me during his training.

That meant it was probably something important.

“What’s going on?”

I lowered my bow and looked at Wilhelm.

True to his nature, he wore an especially serious expression.

He spoke to me in his characteristic serious tone.

“I have something I want to discuss.”

Discussion?

I couldn’t guess what it was about all of a sudden.

But for now, I had no choice but to accept.

“Alright, but what kind of discussion?”

“I think it’s better to talk after moving to another location. Others might come in here.”

Although it was a bit odd, I decided to follow his lead and move to another location.

*

“Sung Yoo-rang, I know you have a Divine Seat. I saw you using your Inventory last time.”

If someone overheard, this was definitely not a pleasant topic of conversation.

I had hidden it to the best of my ability, but it seemed that the excellent archer Wilhelm had caught on to me using my Inventory last time.

“That’s right, I do have a Divine Seat. So, what do you want to discuss?”

Given that, there was no use in dodging anymore.

I wanted to hear what he had to say.

“First, I’ll disclose something. I also have a Divine Seat.”

That was unexpected.

His previous demeanor had seemed more like someone without a Divine Seat.

But that didn’t seem to be the case.

“You have a Divine Seat?”

“No, it would be more accurate to say I used to have one.”

Used to have one?

That made it even harder to understand.

“What do you mean?”

“Literally. The Divine Seat definitely provided me with advice. Occasionally, I communicated with it. But recently…”

He continued with a sad look on his face.

“My Divine Seat hasn’t responded at all lately.”

In that moment, one hypothesis struck me for the first time.

His Divine Seat must have quit the game.

Sorry, but for someone like Wilhelm, that was very plausible.

“Do you also think your Divine Seat abandoned you?”

He probably had some inkling about it himself.

Wilhelm was good with the bow, but that was about it. Ultimately, he was a character with growth limits.

Moreover, most of his events were just focused on archery training.

‘Many users have noted him as a character lacking fun for character development.’

So it wouldn’t be strange to think that his Divine Seat had given up on his growth.

That is, if it weren’t for the current situation.

“Wilhelm, when was the last time you contacted your Divine Seat?”

Somehow, I felt like I could identify the source of the unease.

But for that, I needed to know when Wilhelm’s contact with his Divine Seat had been interrupted.

“I think it was… around last winter.”

“Last winter?”

That time matched when I took down Libero and Gineus.

If my guess was right, this issue wasn’t isolated to Wilhelm alone.

Come to think of it, there was no reason for Elsie not to recognize me. If she had a Divine Seat, she could access my information at any time.

The same applied to Gwen.

…Of course, while they recognized me, it could also be argued that they were intentionally pretending not to.

But there was another strange person apart from them.

‘Yusera.’

It was certain that she had a Divine Seat at some point.

But what if she was now out of contact with her Divine Seat?

Then it was somewhat understandable why she insisted on swordsmanship.

And the most reliable way to prove that was with me.

In fact, I had a hunch about it all.

Well…

‘Sung Yoo-rang, please give me some kind of answer.’

For some time now, my own Divine Seat had also been unresponsive.

I had thought it was just watching over me out of respect.

But perhaps, that might not be the case.

‘Sung Yoo-rang!!!’

No response.

‘That means…’

I recognized the source of my unease.

It seemed that the connection between all Divine Seats and characters had been severed.

‘What on earth happened?’

I wanted to dive right into the trial and demand an explanation from those so-called gods.

However, there was something more urgent at hand.

‘Yusera’s situation could be more serious than I thought.’

My thoughts about Yusera’s situation had been based on the assumption that she still had contact with her Divine Seat.

But what if her contact had also been cut off? Her condition might be graver than I had imagined.

First and foremost, I had to check her situation.

“Wilhelm, I’m not entirely sure, but it seems the connection with your Divine Seat has been severed, and you’re not the only one. There seems to be some other cause behind this, so don’t worry too much. I’ll try to find out the source as well.”

I quickly wrapped up our discussion.

Wilhelm seemed momentarily taken aback but soon regained his composure.

He smiled and said, “Is that so? I appreciate you saying that.”

Judging by his reaction, it didn’t seem like he had anything major to worry about.

As I stood up, I said to him, “Well, I have something urgent to attend to.”

That day, Yusera’s face, which had called for me after the tactical meeting, floated back into my mind.

Her expression had already been crumbling at that point.

That might have been her last plea for rescue.

‘Damn it.’

It was my fault for leaving it all to her Divine Seat even with the signs showing.

But how could an ordinary human like me persuade someone who had already lost faith in their Divine Seat?

‘What should I do…’

*