Ian’s waist.
The sword stained with blood comes into view.
It’s the familiar rapier in Sharon’s hand.
A sword Ian once handed to her, only to return to him again.
Sharon numbly grasped it.
Their relationship was defined by this sword.
◆
— Swaeeak!
The sword cleaves through the air roughly.
Frost briefly forms in the air before vanishing.
“Miss Sharon, are you coming to the freshman social today?”
“Don’t just focus on swordsmanship. Let’s have some fun for once. It’s not like you’ve been here long.”
— Swaeeak!
“You’re not going today either?”
“… It might be better to fit in a bit.”
— Swaeeak!
“Did you hear? She’s been shunned even by her own family.”
“What kind of person has no shame?”
“Enough. Let’s go.”
Sharon only looked ahead from the beginning, ignoring all rumors around her.
Instead, she wielded her sword.
However…
— Clang!
The problem was the sword kept breaking with every mana release.
Sharon sighed as she wrapped her hand with bandages.
‘… I wish I had a better sword.’
Then, from afar, came the noisy shouts of a knight academy peer.
“Sharon! Something big’s happened!”
Sharon lightly furrowed her brow.
The disturbance wasn’t welcome.
“What’s going on?”
“Sorry for interrupting! But listen!”
The classmate abruptly handed her a piece of paper.
“Look at this! Look!”
Their excitement was evident, continually laughing.
It was obvious what would interest girls of their age.
“… Let me see.”
Sharon received the note.
A chill suddenly appeared in her eyes as she read the words.
“What is it? What is it? A confession, right?!”
“… It’s nothing.”
“Come on, it seems like it! Who is it? Who is it?”
Sharon bit her lip.
The note clearly bore the name Ian.
Ian.
He had often helped her.
When she needed rare equipment, he would find it as if by magic. His earth elemental magic was greatly beneficial in difficult training sessions.
So, there was gratitude.
But that was just help from a colleague.
‘I don’t need anything that interferes with my training.’
This approach was awkward.
To Sharon, it was just a waste of time.
“What’s up, Sharon?”
“It’s nothing.”
Sharon coldly pushed away her persistent peer.
“Ah, you’re so unlucky.”
◇
In a certain garden, Ian was indeed waiting as the note said.
Sharon approached him coldly.
“If it’s a confession…”
“Ah, it’s not that.”
“…?”
Ian took something out.
“Do you need a sword?”
It’s a simple yet seemingly expensive sword.
Each material is high-quality, and the craftsmanship is evident. Its understated appearance suited Sharon’s taste even more.
“… Do you not care about how I’m perceived?”
“Is that important?”
“… No.”
“Then it’s not important to me either.”
Ian smiled. Then he asked.
“Do you need a sword?”
“I do.”
“Then take it.”
Her hand reached out involuntarily toward the sword he offered.
Just before touching it, Sharon stopped.
“Ian.”
“Yeah?”
“I can’t look at you differently just because you’re giving me something.”
“… Yeah.”
“I can’t give you my heart either.”
“That’s okay.”
“I’ll only accept. I have a path to follow. I have reasons to become stronger. For that, I’ll focus solely on training.”
Sharon laid out words she didn’t even realize were in her heart.
It was the first time she had spoken them to anyone.
Ian, who had been silently listening, spoke up.
“Then just accept.”
“… What?”
“I’ll just give. So you can accept.”
For a while, Sharon looked at Ian incredulously.
Why was this guy, who kept everyone at a distance, approaching her like this?
“Do you not understand…!”
Sharon shouted without realizing it.
“It means I don’t have the luxury to accommodate someone or anything!”
“It’s implying why you’re treating me well!”
“It’s saying not to expect anything from me!”
She knew.
There were rumors about this guy being interested in girls.
That’s probably why he was clinging to her.
She thought it was enough.
She thought she would have pushed him away by now.
But.
“Yeah.”
He smiled.
With a truly foolish face.
“…Hah.”
What an idiot.
Both of them.
And her, for allowing herself to be helped by such a person.
“Then I’ll accept. Don’t regret it later.”
Sharon gripped the sword in her hand.
Ian smiled and said.
“One condition.”
“…?”
“When you reach the end?”
“The end?”
“If you achieve what you aim for?”
“…”
“Will you look back at me then?”
Sharon stared blankly at Ian.
“…What.”
What is he even saying?
Why does he cling to her like this?
“…Then.”
After a moment’s pause, Sharon answered.
“I’ll consider it.”
◆
When she looked at the sword, that thought naturally arose.
“Of course, back then, you were just Ian.”
Days passed.
Ian confessed his feelings.
Though he said he wouldn’t, he still stirred her heart.
She might have waited.
But then again, he wasn’t that kind of gentleman.
Once an open heart turned to doubt.
She closed the door even tighter. Enough to not look outside anymore.
After that, delusions followed.
You had changed.
She doubted him.
Doubt crept in, and she contemplated breaking it.
Give me the sword that day, then snatch it back the next.
By the time she thought everything must have ended.
Definitely follow her path.
The end of the path she walked.
How should she accept him, who has brought himself here so persistently?
“Ian. Ian Blackangers.”
Why are he making her look back at you like this?
‘What are you to me.’
She didn’t know.
Everything is complicated.
She who has walked only one straight path cannot understand.
What you are to me.
What I am to you.
One thing is certain.
Why I turned my steps.
I think I understand now.
“I’ve only received.”
I’ve only received everything.
Just an excuse to walk my path.
I received everything from you.
“A while ago, I…”
Knowing you would be in danger.
Knowing Richard Pierce would eventually harm you.
I walked.
Because I’ve lived my life looking only ahead.
It seemed natural to want to receive from you.
“…But isn’t that wrong.”
To keep giving everything, to show me the end of my path.
If I’m human.
If I’m a person.
“…It’s wrong to let someone like you go.”
I want to ask.
…What was I to you?
Why did you keep appearing to me, who only ran forward?
The path beside me was filled with you.
I just didn’t realize it.
“I was foolish.”
I selfishly looked only at one path and didn’t look around…
“I was selfish.”
Sharon muttered.
It was enlightenment.
It was the growth Sharon Pierce had longed for.
It was the rise from the misconception that Ian was blocking her path.
Abandoning the single-minded pursuit of growth and looking around was the only way to attain liberation.
Her mother, Sasha Asilia, had walked a similar path.
“So I got another one like this.”
Yet, I turned my eyes away from you.
It meant something different from not looking at you until now.
Because there was someone right in front of me who needed to be dealt with.
Sharon picked up the blood-stained sword.
— Squelch.
The blood on her hand was Ian’s.
They followed the blade’s edge.
Splat. Thud.
The snowfield turned crimson.
As she averted her gaze, things unseen before came into view.
It was like when she lost her mother.
A man stood next to the fallen Ian.
Richard Pierce.
The head of the family she had served.
And the father who never acknowledged her as his child.
Now completely drenched in red, even his hair.
Now even his hair is dyed red with no sign of hiding it.
A member of the Bloodstone Cult.
“…You were a Bloodstone Cultist.”
Sharon gritted her teeth.
“The Bloodstone Cultist my mother warned me about was you.”
She couldn’t see it because she was looking straight ahead.
She projected the evil that was right next to her onto the completely wrong person.
“…What was I…”
How stupid was she?
As Sharon’s expression crumbled, Richard spoke.
“Sharon Pierce.”
“With that filthy mouth.”
Sharon raised her sword.
“Don’t utter my name with that filthy mouth.”
“It was an inevitable choice to devour your mother.”
“What nonsense!”
“Sasha Asilia. She was foolish.”
Richard smirked.
“She rushed at me without discrimination.”
“That was a sacrifice.”
“Anyway. But now, it seems you’re trying to be like her.”
Sharon’s lips trembled.
Then she regained her composure.
“Do not insult her. I may have been foolish, but my mother was not.”
“Indeed. Why are you standing before me?”
“… I don’t know.”
“No. You do. You’re trying to sacrifice. It’s a meaningless sacrifice like your mother’s.”
“This is not a sacrifice.”
“Why. Choosing not to walk away to the snowy fields right now, isn’t that a sacrifice?”
“It’s because it’s only repaying what’s due, now, even if it’s just a speck of dust.”
“You’re foolish.”
Richard moved.
His sword forcefully aimed towards Sharon’s heart.
Sharon didn’t flinch either.
Her sword also sharply aimed at Richard’s head.
“Sharon! Your sword is similar to mine!”
Yes.
The swordsmanship she had mastered resembled Richard’s.
It was the swordsmanship of the Pierce family.
— Clash!
So, they clashed.
Blocked by enlightenment, blocked by growth, and thus blocked by Richard.
— Clash!
Her waist was cut.
Sharon immediately froze her waist to stop the bleeding.
At the same time, she exhaled frost, wrapping Richard’s sword.
— Clash!
Part of his sword broke.
But a long icicle pierced Sharon’s left arm.
Every time a technique was used, blood poured from Sharon’s mouth.
Richard was the same.
There were no ordinary people in this snowy field.
“You cannot defeat me!”
— Clang!
Sharon barely blocked Richard’s strike.
The three swords bent like branches.
An insurmountable gap in power.
And then.
Sharon remembered.
A curved sword.
The sword Ian had drawn, even if it only drew small snowflakes.
The sword technique her mother had tried to perfect.
That sword, unfolded before her eyes.
Sharon’s rapier bent like branches.
“Where!”
Richard unleashed sharp ice relentlessly.
Sharon’s body tore apart and blood spurted.
Yet her gaze remained unchanged.
Her sword moved.
At the same time, flowers began to bloom.
Amidst the falling snow.
One.
Two.
The blooming flowers began to fill the world like a snowstorm.
“What, what is this!”
The flower snowflakes poured endlessly, slashing Richard.
The white snowflakes filled the sight.
Undoubtedly overwhelming.
“Cough!”
Richard’s sword crumbled mercilessly.
Resisting, resisting, and then.
— Thud!
Richard collapsed.
From the collapsed figure, not a drop of blood flowed to melt the snow.
Only black powder was staining the pure white snow.
“Sharon.”
He spoke.
Even though his face was so distorted that half of it couldn’t be recognized, and his eyes piercing through, freezing him, he greedily spoke.
“This should be enough to rival the top five of the Bloodstone Cult. I didn’t recognize it. I didn’t recognize your talent.”
Sharon didn’t reply.
She just looked down at him.
“Don’t you want to see the end of martial arts?”
“Don’t you want to cut through the mountains with your sword? Don’t you want to put the family that has always been behind the emperor’s throne? Don’t you want to look down on the world from the top of the empire, no, the continent!”
“Sharon, Sharon. You can become the strongest on the continent, even the strongest of all time. I am convinced of this. It will happen. It must happen.”
“You are a child who received both the blood of the Snowflake Swordmaster and the blood of me, Richard Pierce.”
“Sharon. Sharon Pierce. Listen to me.”
“The end of the path you’re walking on will eventually lead there.”
“The Bloodstone Cult Leader, they would be pleased.”
“They will make them a presence like never before. You may become the cult leader. That’s enough. Your talent is enough. And thus, the history of all continents will be established around you.”
“Let’s go.”
“Hold my hand and let’s go. I will introduce you to the cult leader. They will welcome you.”
“Let’s go. To where you should be.”
Richard spoke with eyes still full of desire.
“Will you become a Swordswoman?”
Sharon’s lips moved quietly as she looked down at him.
“No. You should face the consequences.”
Sharon’s reply was cold.
Yet that’s why she asked.
She didn’t decisively end Richard’s life out of anger.
“You’re making such a wrong choice again, child.”
Richard chuckled.
“I have never sincerely scolded you before.”
“…”
“It’s the first time I’m scolding you. Maybe that’s good.”
Richard, lying on the ground, shook his body.
At the end of it, there was Ian.
“Ah.”
Sharon moved her body.
It was just an instinctive action.
— Whoosh
Her stomach felt hot.
The sword was thrust beyond her stomach, but it didn’t touch her next time.
She desperately applied force to her stomach.
As a result, Richard’s sword only stirred Sharon’s entangled organs.
“Cough.”
— Thud
Blood spurted.
Yet Sharon looked at Ian.
Her spilled blood painted Ian’s outstretched arm.
To the man who had suddenly stood up, Richard’s sword did not reach.
Sharon stared into Ian’s eyes.
Deep and dark.
Endlessly upright eyes.
It wasn’t looking at herself but far away.
At the end of that gaze, there would be Richard.
His drawn sword had brushed by Sharon’s side.
And so. It would pierce Richard’s heart.
Ian’s resolute gaze spoke everything.
“… It’s a pity.”
It was regrettable.
If possible, she wanted to live.
There’s much to repay.
There’s much to atone for.
There’s much to reflect on.
…Yet.
‘At least I looked back in the end.’
The corners of Sharon’s mouth slightly lifted.
She could realize it, albeit late.
She could repay it, even a little.
“…I’m grateful.”
The white snow filled the snowy field.
The collapsed buildings, the blood, the mistakes.
The white snow covered everything.
Thus, while cold, the snow was warm.
Swoosh.
Sharon’s eyes closed.
