Chapter 36

“Huu……. Huu…….”

Serpens breathed roughly.

The attack had been successful.
Well, he hadn’t landed an actual hit, but……

“Haa……. Haa…….”

Judging by her rather startled face, he had at least managed to shock her.

Serpens stopped steadying his breath and rushed forward.
The flustered Violet focused on defense, but the flow had already shifted.

Kang!

Sword strikes went back and forth.
The corner of Serpens’s mouth rose faintly.

‘I can see it.’

When he aimed for her shoulder, Violet twisted her body to the left.
When he showed a large movement, she always counterattacked.
When she made an attack with force behind it, strength suddenly went into her right leg.

Takang-!

‘I’m starting to see a way to win.’

Serpens swung his sword again.
Not an attack, but a feint.
Even to an attack he had deliberately given no weight, Violet reacted immediately.

At that moment, Serpens quickly changed direction and increased his speed.

An opening came into the boy’s sight.
Serpens widened his stride and put force into his sword.

‘Put force into it as if cutting a great mountain, and focus only on what you intend to cut.’

Serpens’s gaze turned toward Violet’s head.
Nothing else was visible.
Serpens’s sword, raised high.
The sword swung down toward Violet’s head at high speed.

Clang-!

A clear, sharp metallic sound rang through the training ground.
The one who blocked Serpens’s attack wasn’t Violet.

“Huu…….”

Serpens looked at the pure-white ice his sword had struck into.
A chill he could feel despite the considerable distance between them.
An ice pillar that had suddenly risen from the ground had protected Violet.

“In my judgment, the match had been decided, so I intervened.”

Tat.

Frost slowly landed on the ground.
Her cold gaze examined Violet and Serpens in turn.

The murmuring audience.
Because most of the audience were Academy students, they were displeased with the result of the match.
The strongest and most outstanding talents among them had lost.
And to a thirteen-year-old at that.

Frost spoke to them.
Her expression was kind, but her voice was as cold as always.

“The sparring match has concluded. Students and teachers, I ask that all of you leave. Right now.”

The people who had been gauging one another began filing out, starting with one person who rose from their seat.

“You both did well.”

Frost said after confirming that everyone had left.

“I expected it, but it seems he was put through the wringer here and there.”

Frost looked at Lucas, who was approaching from beyond Serpens.
Did that mean she had expected the result of the match?
She did not like that indifferent face, even more detached than her own.

“He rolled around on his own.”

Serpens raised his eyebrows and whipped his head around.

“……?”

Looking back, it wasn’t exactly wrong.
But something resembling a sense of being wronged rose inside him.

“You did well, Violet.”

Frost helped Violet, whose eyes had lost focus, to her feet.

Violet’s shoulders drooped heavily.
Her lavender eyes drifted blankly, and she didn’t seem to have any thought of fixing her hair, which had been disheveled by the match.

At that sight, Serpens fell into thought for a moment.

“Go to the infirmary and rest.”
“No, Principal. More importantly, what happens to the recommendation letter?”

Frost’s eyes narrowed.

“Aiden and Violet both lost in the sparring matches.”
“But!”
“Violet.”
“……Understood.”

Violet turned with heavy steps.
Serpens blinked for a moment, then reached out his hand and opened his mouth.

“Um, Viol-”
“Stop.”

The one who stopped him from speaking was Lucas.
After placing a hand on the boy’s shoulder, he shook his head.

“If you intend to say something unnecessary, don’t.”
“What? But…….”

Hesitation entered Violet’s steps.
For a moment, it seemed she might look back this way.
But in the end, she could not turn back and moved with slow steps.
At the sight of her seeming to fade into gray, Serpens felt sorry for her.

“Were you thinking of comforting her?”
“Still, she’s someone I crossed swords with.”
“You are the victor, and she is the loser. Comfort offered by the victor only gives the loser a greater wound.”
“It might not always be like that. It might give her more strength instead……. And……”

Serpens trailed off.
If he had been Violet, would he really have needed comfort?
And from the opponent who had defeated him at that.

Serpens thought of the two opponents he had defeated.
Aiden and Violet.
After the matches ended, their faces had been clearly different from when he first saw them.
Since they had lost, their faces could not be the same as before, but they felt quite different from faces that had simply experienced defeat.

“Teacher is right. What those children need right now is time, not pity.”

With a light gesture, Frost erased the ice pillar she had made.
The small ice crystals created as the pillar disappeared tickled Serpens’s cheeks.

“…….”

Serpens felt a tightness in one corner of his heart.
If it had not been him, would the two of them not have worn such empty expressions?
What was this feeling?
He had done worse things before, and now he was feeling pity for others?

“Serpens.”
“Yes.”
“Do not blame yourself for winning.”
“But…….”
“You did not cross any lines you should not have crossed during the match, nor did you use any cowardly means. There is no need for you to feel anything unnecessary over winning.”
“But it still feels unpleasant.”

In the meantime, Lucas and Frost briefly met eyes.
As if something had come to mind, Frost opened her mouth.

“If it is because of the recommendation letter, do not worry.”
“What?”
“Originally, there were three students you were supposed to spar with today.”

Serpens slowly nodded.
He had been curious about that.
If he received the recommendation letter, one of the three would have to be dropped.
He wondered whether it would be one of the two who had lost to him, or that person who had not even appeared.

“One of them has already become a knight.”
“……What?”
“He was an exceptionally outstanding child. He had been set to receive a recommendation letter, but he became a knight on his own without one.”
“If that is possible, why the recommendation letter…….”

Frost smiled gently.
It was not her intention, but it was a cold smile that made Serpens more nervous instead.

“There are two types of positions where one becomes a knight through taking an examination. Those affiliated with the imperial court and wandering knights. But if one intends to become a knight in private service, there is no need to take the examination.”

Serpens tilted his head slightly.
Then would it not be fine for everyone to enter service under an individual?

As if reading the boy’s mind, Lucas spoke.

“Knights affiliated with the imperial court have stability and authority. Wandering knights can live freely. That is why those two types of knights make up about eighty percent of all knights. In comparison, knights under individuals are neither stable nor free. Their authority is even harder to enjoy, so most avoid that path.”
“Why did that person you said was outstanding enter private service?”
“People who take a path others avoid each have their own reasons. Though the nature of those reasons differs depending on whether it is voluntary or forced.”

Serpens’s head tilted even further.

“Do not worry. That child entered his own family’s knight order. His skill serves as his calling card, so he will be able to live a stable, free, and prestigious life as a knight.”

It was difficult.
Serpens found it hard to understand.
Were terms like wandering knight and knight in private service not too complicated?

The boy did not realize that the two adults were making their own efforts to ease his discomfort.

“In any case, there is no need for you to feel such emotions over growing and winning.”

Serpens sighed and dropped his head.
His faintly trembling right hand was recalling the thrill of the match.

“Someone’s growth is bound to become someone else’s trial.”
“……I understand.”

Pachut-!

The sharp sound of sparks rang out.
Serpens and Lucas turned their gazes.

There, Frost was forming a recommendation letter in the air and writing on it.
Her white hand moving briefly.
With a concise motion, as if placing a period, she handed the recommendation letter to Lucas.

“Do not worry about those two students, Serpens. I will write their recommendation letters as planned. Though they will have to endure cold gazes for a while.”
“Understood.”
“In any case, since you have received our recommendation letter, please do your best.”
“Yes!”

Serpens looked at Lucas and grinned.
A gaze that seemed to ask whether he had done well.
Lucas avoided those eyes.

“Then, now that the matter with this child’s recommendation letter is finished, would you speak with me for a moment?”
“…….”
“It is a necessary conversation, teacher.”

The atmosphere became quite serious.
Serpens quietly stepped back.

“Lucas. I’ll be waiting nearby.”
“We will finish quickly and move right away. Do not cause trouble.”
“Yep.”

Serpens hurried out with clumsy, noisy steps.

To that boy.

“Serpens.”

Lucas spoke as if letting the words slip out.

“……You did well.”

Praise overflowing with awkwardness.

“Uh…….”

The reaction to it was also overflowing with awkwardness.

“Haha! I did do well, didn’t I!”

Serpens felt a stifling feeling that was hard to express.
The boy, unable to overcome that feeling,

“I’ll wait in front of the door!”

hurriedly ran out the door.

Crash!

Serpens’s back as he noisily moved farther away.
Through that commotion, the corners of his mouth twitching fiercely were conveyed even to those behind him.

“Praise, is it…….”

Frost muttered quietly, finding it amusing.

“So, what do you have to say?”

Neither of their eyes contained any special emotion.
Lucas, with his rough, powerful impression, and Frost, whose beauty aligned in perfect angles.
Their contrasting coldness instead made them give off a similar atmosphere.

“Five years, no, it is six years now. You remember the day of Helena Liberator’s accident, do you not?”
“……We agreed not to mention that day.”

The training ground filled with cold air in an instant.
The two stared into each other’s eyes without the slightest movement.

“It is not a day I wish to recall either. It is the day you lost your wife and son, and I lost my beloved sister and nephew.”

A chill rippled around Frost.
The pure-white Aura that leaked out because she could not fully control it trembled irregularly, as if representing her emotions.

“……This conversation only touches painful memories and gains us nothing.”

Lucas turned away.
It was a movement that said he did not want to hear any more, and did not want to drag those memories out.

“It was not an accident.”

Tat-.

Lucas’s heavy step stopped.

“……What?”

Lucas’s body slowly turned around.

“What did you say?”

At the end of the brief hesitation that followed, Frost answered.

“The accident six years ago. Lucas, you personally killed the culprits.”

His feet slowly headed toward Frost,

“That incident, which everyone bowed their heads over and called tragic, was not a simple bandit attack.”

and a massive greatsword was held in Lucas’s right hand.

“This is the conclusion I reached after investigating, reviewing, and confirming it countless times over the past six years-”

Tap-.

The tip of the greatsword touched Frost’s neck.

Frost froze the part the sword touched and prevented damage.
Other than that, she took no other measures.
No, she couldn’t.

“……You said that aloud knowing what it means, I assume.”

The killing intent seeping from Lucas’s eyes and words.
His gradually intensifying anger was gripping Frost.

“Before Helena was your wife, she was my own blood. I am no less angry or prepared than you.”

Lucas’s eyes repeatedly lost focus.
Holding on to his wavering reason, he withdrew his sword.

“Speak.”

Frost glanced at the greatsword in Lucas’s hand.

“After hearing me out, please promise that you will not act while swayed by emotion.”
“…….”
“I believe you know this already, but at present, the empire is in the midst of turmoil both internally and externally. If you act emotionally here, the matter will grow larger.”

Lucas could not answer easily.
He had maintained his reason in any situation.
But the memories related to that incident six years ago struck him so sharply that they could cloud his judgment in an instant.

That was trauma.
A vivid nightmare that overrode reason and shook the present.

“……I promise.”

Lucas answered.
Frost hesitated for a moment.
Then she opened her mouth with narrowed eyes.

“Someone inside the imperial court ordered the murder.”