Ch.10936. Every Moment I Breathe.

A sound that could never be heard in nature reached my ears.

Thanks to that, Aseth woke up earlier than usual and focused on the presence and sounds coming from outside the cabin.

She was already aware that Mines had gone outside, albeit briefly, and was talking to someone out there.

With the scent wafting in as well, it wasn’t difficult to make an educated guess.

Sleep, when you think about it, was just a matter of getting deep rest for short periods while keeping half-awake with eyes closed the rest of the time.

No matter how much of a genius one might be, the battlefield doesn’t take such circumstances into consideration.

Rest and body maintenance are essential for maintaining combat readiness.

And skillfully adjusting the depth of sleep is a talent in its own right.

The tinkling sound merged with resonance to become a performance. Music.

‘That’s quite a skill, if you think about it.’

When did he become such a skilled performer?

No matter how many times I hear it, I can’t get used to it.

…Though that’s probably not because the tune changes every time.

As I stepped out of the cabin, the sound became clearer.

A blackened pot sat empty beside the campfire, whose flames were dying down to faint embers.

There, as the fog thinned and the sunlight grew a bit brighter.

Sitting on a fallen log that served as a chair while playing what appeared to be a guitar, Kariel looked much healthier and in better condition than when I had last seen him.

First of all, his once skeletal frame now had some meat on it, making him look less pitiful than before.

With his left leg stretched out and his right leg crossed, the instrument resting on his lap as he played, he looked as if he were simply relaxing at first glance.

No, that must be right.

“When are you planning to go back?”

“…”

After watching the scene while standing, I asked when it seemed like this might go on for a while. Kariel lowered the volume of his playing and replied.

“Occasionally.”

“Occasionally?”

“The groundwork is done.”

“So?”

“Now that I’ve built the foundation, I need to fill in the rest.”

In other words, it was time to build up his body.

Wait, hasn’t that been what he’s been doing until now?

It’s all part of the same process.

It’s just that until now, it was about discarding the useless things and emptying himself.

From now on, all that remains is to fill himself up.

That’s what he meant.

“Have all your questions been answered?”

When Aseth asked, Mines simply nodded gently.

“So this is goodbye?”

“No… not yet.”

“Why?”

“…”

Then Mines asked something she had been curious about but hadn’t gotten around to asking.

“Aseth, why are you staying here?”

After briefly glancing toward Kariel, Mines asked this.

Aseth responded as if it were nothing special.

“Because that’s what we agreed to long ago.”

“Long ago?”

When she was very young.

Young even by her own standards.

At just 11 years old, she was practically exiled from her homeland and thrown onto the continent, where she managed to find a place to settle thanks to her mother’s letter of introduction.

Even that was only temporary.

“After wandering around here and there, I met this guy, earned recognition for my skills, and was given status as his bodyguard.”

That happened when she was just 12.

Back when Kariel was not even 10 years old and traveling between foreign countries.

She met him during his visit to the Kingdom of Metran, where she was rising rapidly as a skilled fighter despite her young age.

After accompanying him several times and reaching the point of making various promises…

“I realized again that I couldn’t be satisfied with myself.”

Even back in her home country, she had already demonstrated bottomless potential that belied her young age.

The fact that she faced and passed the trial bestowed by the Lake Fairy at such a young age… was perhaps unprecedented.

However.

She rejected the sword offered by the Lake Fairy.

She flatly refused all the demands made by the Lake Fairy.

The result was a curse from the Lake Fairy and banishment from her homeland.

It wasn’t permanent exile.

She could return anytime if she wanted to.

But if she did, well, she’d probably just be used for a political marriage.

She had ended up in this situation by refusing to let someone else define, use, and mortgage her life.

…And now she was supposed to go back to her homeland and crawl back into that cage, that prison?

That was out of the question.

“I felt I needed to improve my skills. After all, skill is the only thing that would earn me respect from others.”

It was far too late to be concerned with character, disposition, dignity, or grace.

She could act the part outwardly, but for it to have meaning, there needed to be substance or backing behind it.

But what meaning would there be in appealing to political charm through a strategic marriage or bloodline?

If she had brought a companion attractive enough that her father couldn’t refuse, even if her future as a warrior or knight was dead, she could have secured her position as Aseth en Draig, a member of the royal family.

Someone like Kariel would certainly meet those conditions.

After all, he was known as one of the Radiant Bloodline.

…But.

Had she calculated and thought about that? Had she approached him with that in mind?

About half?

“So I completely changed my approach.”

What if, instead of a partner, they became companions or formed a master-servant relationship?

What if they could form a relationship in a realm that no one else could touch?

“I had already given up on returning home, and I needed a place to settle. I roughly decided on the Empire, under him. He was clearly promising at the time.”

But to be respected and treated well, one needs the appropriate abilities.

No one respects something useless, unless they’re quite foolish.

Being ignored and discarded would be fortunate by comparison.

So.

Aseth felt an even greater need to grow.

And at that time, she happened to make contact with Gazef, one of the Nine Heroes.

This too was made possible with Kariel’s help.

And Gazef told her about skilled individuals said to exist all over the continent, including the Lake Dragon and the Order of Salvation Knights.

First, Aseth immediately received training in the Divine Dragon Sword style here.

Without even needing to learn the Fighting God style, she already qualified to learn it.

Recognizing this, the Lake Dragon directly instructed Aseth for exactly ten days.

Afterward, she devoted herself to solitary training for more than half a year.

Occasionally, Gazef would serve as her sparring partner to supplement her lack of practical combat experience.

Once Aseth gained some confidence in her abilities, she traveled around to observe and learn from skilled individuals in various places while on her way to join Kariel.

When conflicts or battles broke out, she would participate as a mercenary and achieve remarkable accomplishments.

This was no different in monster subjugation campaigns.

That’s when she met a man who was a member of the Order of Salvation Knights and known as the First Sword.

Although she never formally learned the Order’s unique swordsmanship from him, after being on the receiving end for about a week, she could roughly imitate it.

However, there were crucial aspects she found impossible to replicate.

He said he would teach her if she officially joined the Order of Salvation Knights, so she readily agreed.

Surprisingly, for the next few weeks, she focused on acquiring skills while wandering from place to place with him.

After that.

Learning the Divine Dragon Sword style and the unnamed swordsmanship of the Order of Salvation Knights, known as the Grandeus style, was good.

But nothing beyond that came her way.

She wanted to observe the Sword Saint’s swordsmanship as well, but perhaps it wasn’t meant to be, as she never encountered it.

Then, she heard that Kariel had returned to the Empire.

She received this news just before entering the elven country, so she turned back.

She considered heading to the Empire from there but instead decided to focus on practical training and growth by wandering around for the future.

After about five years had passed?

Even outside the Empire, rumors spread that Kariel had become a good-for-nothing or something similar.

…Like a ruined genius.

“I actually thought that was good at the time.”

“…Why?”

“Because the more desperate his situation, the more valuable my help would be.”

That’s also why she seriously formed a mercenary group.

While it might be difficult alone, forming a force could provide definite strength.

So when the time came to lend her strength, if she could become someone useful.

Her position would be permanently secured until the day she died.

That’s what she judged at the time.

She didn’t have time to find out exactly what Kariel’s situation was within the Empire.

But she thought that someone with the intelligence she had seen in him before must have had reasons for allowing such rumors to spread.

“It was a huge misconception.”

Here.

On the journey to the Lake Dragon’s Valley, the Lake Dragon’s Forest, Aseth was able to roughly understand the truth of his situation.

Memory disorder.

Limited talent but excessive demands from family and surroundings.

“But his talent was more in dealing with people than being a warrior. Negatively put, he was good at scheming; positively put, he had excellent political skills? Though he shouldn’t have been completely incapable with a sword. Strange.”

Not being able to handle mana?

This was probably the most critical aspect.

But that could be substituted with tools.

…What was the problem?

Rather, why did he become ‘unable’ to handle mana?

The Kariel that Aseth knew was neither mana-incompatible nor incapable.

According to Kariel, this might be an aftereffect from a time when he nearly died, but that’s just speculation, though probably correct.

The most serious issue was the memory disorder.

And the fact that somehow, all his skills and talents had disappeared?

Losing one’s original skills and talents due to a near-death experience? Isn’t that a bit strange?

“So, does Aseth plan to continue following Kariel?”

“Aren’t we already sufficiently entangled? Given that I have connections to the Order of Salvation Knights and I’m the one who helped him escape, would anyone believe me if I claimed to have nothing to do with him?”

“…”

The most serious rumor about Kariel was that he might be connected to the Demon King.

At first, she thought the rumor spread because of her being the inheritor of the Great Demon King’s legacy, or because of her connection to the inheritor.

But upon closer inspection, it was different.

The rumors about the Demon King connected to Kariel weren’t about the inheritors of the legacy.

The Demon King rumor related to Kariel…

Was connected to none other than the “Golden Beast.”

“So, is it true as rumored that you’re related to the Golden Beast?”

Mines finally asked Kariel, as if the thought had just occurred to her.

“It’s not an incorrect story.”

Kariel calmly admitted the fact.

“But it’s not unconditionally true either.”

Then, for some reason, he snorted and stared into space for a moment.

As he strummed the strings with his fingers again, a soft tone flowed out with vibrations.

“…”

Come to think of it.

This is also why Mines wanted to stay here.

The truth of the matter wasn’t important to Mines.

The only important thing was that he seemed to desperately need help.

In reality, he was such a remarkable fighter that he could even temporarily neutralize her.

But in the world, there were absolute things that no amount of skill could overcome.

Currently, whether intentional or not, he was at risk of being rejected by the world.

“So, since when?”

When Aseth made this puzzling remark,

Kariel put down his guitar and answered.

“Since when? Every moment I breathe. Every moment my eyes are open.”

What could that mean?

Only later did they learn.

After that, Kariel continued his movement training with what looked like an ordinary iron sword.

And remarkably…

…He didn’t rest or stop even once until sunset.

However, his movements were so slow and monotonous that…

Just watching, it didn’t seem difficult at all.

Yet sweat poured down his entire body like rain, and white steam constantly rose from him as if fog were emerging.

He was always like this except during meals.

Thanks to his discarded upper garment, they could observe in detail how his skinny upper body changed day by day.

When sleeping, he would return to the stone cave and disappear.

Aseth and Mines took turns hunting.

With an extra mouth to feed, hunting frequency increased, and the returned Kariel ate voraciously, consuming various foods almost to the point of gluttony.

Nevertheless, he didn’t gain weight or increase in size.

Despite this, his thin body gradually began to find a more human shape.

In less than a week, the boy transformed.

He had become a boy who looked much healthier than before, having grown somewhat in build and size.

“…”

And during breaks, he always played the guitar.

Just before ten days had passed in this manner…

“Um, excuse me…”

A girl with tanned skin and a sturdy build, with silver-blue hair and fairy-like green eyes.

Aristetis, with a half-entranced expression drawn by Kariel’s guitar playing, made a request.

“Could I… could I learn that too? It’s so impressive… the music keeps echoing in my head…”

Of course.

“…If you want to.”

Kariel didn’t particularly refuse.