episode_0006

Yerena confidently challenged the duel, but her steps back to the dormitory after a clean defeat felt heavy.

She thought she wouldn’t be humiliated anywhere now. She believed she had no peers who could be her match.

Was it all just her arrogant delusion? She had the support of the Frost family and had worked tirelessly without a moment’s rest.

In the end, was she just a frog in a well?

“Miss, have you returned?”

Ignoring the maid who spoke with her usual indifferent expression, Yerena weakly lay down on her bed.

As she lay down, a strange sense of fatigue enveloped her body. Yerena did not resist it, simply loosening her top and closing her eyes.

“Sigh…”

Closing her eyes with a complex heart, the image of Sian aiming a sword at her came to mind. In [Winter’s Edge], the girl who resolutely aimed her sword shone brightly.

Unresolved regrets swirled in her mind. What if she hadn’t dodged when Sian swung his sword? What if she had regained her senses a bit faster? What if she had quickly moved back when her mark was activated?

Meaningless assumptions kept coming to mind. Despite trying to think of something else, the lingering regret always led back to how things could have been different in the duel.

And at the end of such regrets, there was always the student named Sian.

With a rather cute appearance, he had uncommon black hair and amethyst-like eyes.

However, contrary to his harmless appearance, the girl’s black swordsmanship had been through countless real battles. The gap between her cute appearance and her formidable swordsmanship seemed to imprint Sian in her mind.

And there was always the memory of their first meeting. A compliment she had never heard before: “You are so beautiful that I couldn’t take my eyes off you.”

“Am I really that pretty…?”

Yerena was aware that she was considered beautiful to some extent.

However, as someone who only trained with a sword, she did not know that one could be captivated by someone just for their beauty. She stared blankly at herself in the mirror for a moment.

“…Ah.”

And then, a belated sense of embarrassment washed over her.

Remembering how she had reacted to such a compliment, a strange warmth rose in the girl’s cheeks.

“Ugh…”

In front of others, Yerena Frost had to maintain a perfect appearance.

The world was a place where the weak were preyed upon. Laws, wealth, the military—none could protect her at all times. The law of the jungle applied not only to monsters but to everyone.

Yet, for some reason, whenever she was in front of Sian, the hidden aspects of herself kept emerging.

What was even worse was that even in the midst of such thoughts, her regret over the duel did not disappear.

Covering her eyes with her arm, Yerena, who had been lying down for about thirty minutes to clear her mind, finally sat up, shaking her head.

Feeling strange, she should have been feeling ashamed and angry. But for some reason, when it came to Sian, a strange feeling crept over her.

Somehow, she felt that the girl who had shown her genuine kindness might not reject her even in this state—

Slap— Yerena Frost slapped her own cheek with determination.

“Pull yourself together, Yerena Frost.”

Her cheek stung, almost numb. Along with it, the fuzzy sensation that had been rising in her heart vanished.

Yerena muttered to herself as she gazed at the mirror with her typical expressionless face.

“You lost in the duel, and yet you’re acting as if you’ve achieved something. You shouldn’t be like this, especially for the sake of your late parents.”

Closing her eyes, memories of her childhood resurfaced.

Her mother sacrificed herself to protect her when she was weak. Her father sacrificed himself to draw the attention of the monsters away from where she was hiding with her mother.

The knights of the Frost family who guarded the carriage willingly sacrificed their lives to buy her time to escape.

Surviving, she made a vow in front of their bodies. She vowed to become the unwavering guardian of the North, just as her parents had hoped.

If the world turned to the law of the jungle, she would become a stronger individual than anyone else.

So, she had to avenge the monsters who had devoured her parents. She had to prove that the sacrifices of her parents were not in vain.

“According to that vow, you shouldn’t fall apart like this.”

Her voice, slightly tinged with madness, echoed in the room. The girl with a clenched jaw slowly opened the drawer of her desk.

Accompanied by the creaking sound of the gears, Yerena’s calloused hand carefully felt around the top of the drawer and retrieved a key.

“Miss, it’s time for your medicine.”

“I know. Don’t call for me.”

Unlike other dormitories, the desk brought directly to the academy using the power of the Northern Duke’s daughter. Yerena, who opened the keyhole in the corner, cautiously took out a vial of medicine.

In the small vial, a pink liquid with a mysterious glow shimmered. A miraculous elixir that could even save a person on the brink of death. Elixir.

Drinking the elixir in one gulp, she frowned at the warm sensation she felt inside.

“About three more years from now.”

The girl, who tossed the vial into the trash can weakly, pondered on the time she had left.

Her parents, Elysia Frost and Evan Frost, were not weak individuals. They were the leaders of the Frost family, known for their strict meritocracy.

Even those two could not have survived the attack of the monsters, leaving Yerena, who was only nine years old at the time, unharmed.

Miraculously surviving, Yerena Frost bore a tremendous scar. Even the elixir known as a miracle could only delay the inevitable.

“…Time is running out.”

Muttering to herself, she slowly closed the drawer.

If the power of the Northern Duke’s family could find a way to cure her illness, Yerena could not reveal the fact that she was running out of time.

The Frost family, guardians of the North, had no reason to support Yerena, a terminally ill girl, once she graduated from the academy.

Therefore, Yerena did not tell anyone that she was running out of time, except for Beatrice, the maid she had seen for the past ten years.

That’s why the girl did not have much time left.

“So please, pull yourself together. Yerena Frost. You’ve done well for the past ten years.”

As a nine-year-old girl still in the age of affection, she found it difficult to let go of everything and wield a sword.

So whenever she wanted to rest, she would think of her late parents in a pitiful manner.

If she put down her sword, she would end up like that. She would be pitifully humiliated and die a terrible death at the hands of the strong. If she stopped now, she would suffer the same fate.

If she didn’t want that to happen, she had to wield her sword. Yerena brainwashed herself, repeating that she must wield the sword to become stronger, discarding everything unnecessary until she had nothing left.

“…So I can’t stop.”

For the sake of her parents, whom she had dedicated everything to in her twenty-year life span. Yerena had to avenge her parents.

So she had to prove that her parents’ tragic deaths were not in vain.

“The only thing that can protect me in the end is my sword.”

Repeating the words she had told herself countless times over the past eight years, Yerena slowly got up.

“Beatrice.”

“Yes, Miss.”

“If someone comes looking for me, send them away. If it’s urgent, tell them to come to the training grounds.”

“Understood.”

Yerena quickly changed her clothes after taking a light shower.

As she had done for the past eight years, she buried the fuzzy emotions that arose whenever she thought of Sian deep within her heart.

Unaware that the suppressed emotions had reached their limit, Yerena left the dormitory with an emotionless expression.

From now on, she swore she would not waver anymore.

. . .

…She was sure she had thought that way.

“Ugh…”

Looking at Sian’s outstretched hand, Yerena once again felt the heat rising in her face.

It was that feeling again. A pure emotion that had not been buried, a strange sensation she had never felt before.

After losing her parents in the carriage attack, the girl who had abandoned everything felt awkward with the term “friend.”

Yet, for some reason, the warm atmosphere that the word “friend” brought felt comforting.

She tried to convince herself that it was just to grasp Sian’s hand again for the duel—

“Oh, um… If that made you uncomfortable…”

“No.”

Yerena Frost took his outstretched hand.

The hand of the girl her age she held for the first time was surprisingly soft.