Ch.186Chapter 186: Sword Grave (4)

…what to do.

Being in a situation where I was mistaken for someone else and suddenly embraced by a woman I’d never met before.

My mind was racing with thoughts on how to navigate this predicament.

When she first saw me, she immediately labeled me as a minion of the Demon Realm and swung her sword mercilessly—the same one she had used in her sword dance—with such killing intent that my mind went blank.

Forget counterattacking; I was desperately trying to dodge her sword when my stance crumbled, putting me in a life-or-death situation.

Just as I thought all was lost, the woman caught a glimpse of my figure dimly illuminated by moonlight, suddenly called me “Fafnir,” and embraced me. How bewildered I was.

Everything I’d experienced since falling into this place had been the height of absurdity.

But compared to this woman calling me Fafnir, all other incidents seemed trivial enough to dismiss as mere trifles.

‘Do I really look that similar?’

Such thoughts crossed my mind after the initial shock wore off.

Come to think of it, I had known Fafnir for several months since obtaining the Dragon Sword and experienced many things with him.

But I had never seen his bare body or face without the Red Dragon Armor.

Considering Fafnir’s overwhelming martial prowess against me…

He could have handled someone like me more easily than twisting a child’s wrist, even without his armor, yet he stubbornly kept his appearance hidden behind that armor.

At first I was suspicious, but later I just accepted it.

‘Could it be that his human form resembles me, and that’s why he deliberately concealed it?’

This hypothesis was gradually forming in my mind thanks to this woman who called me Fafnir.

Though I couldn’t immediately ask Fafnir himself since he wouldn’t answer my calls.

It was only natural that I planned to question him about this once I escaped this place and returned to where I belonged.

Of course, to do that, there was one issue I needed to resolve first.

“I missed you so much… *sob*”

*Squeeze*

…somehow escaping from this woman who continued to give me a relentless bear hug(?) while mistaking me for Fafnir.

Her sword dance and swordsmanship were extraordinary.

And the physical strength with which she suddenly embraced me and maintained her grip was so powerful and robust that I wondered if she was really a woman.

It reminded me of Shizu after she awakened her special talent and gained tremendous strength.

Well, I could break free if I really tried, but…

“I thought I’d never see you again…”

I didn’t want to be so heartless to this woman who kept speaking with such deep emotion.

I knew all too well how desperate and emotional people become when they meet someone they’ve missed so much that they dream about them.

Even if it was a misunderstanding, I didn’t want to shatter the happiness of someone who was experiencing such joy.

Of course, regardless of my feelings…

The situation was forcing me to make one of two choices.

First, I could respond vaguely to the woman’s reactions and try to slip away casually, playing along without committing.

Or second, I could firmly declare that I was not the Fafnir she was looking for and dispel her misunderstanding.

Either choice carried significant risks.

If I tried to slip away and the woman discovered my true identity, the backlash would be severe.

This risk also existed if I chose to reveal my identity to clear up the misunderstanding.

The latter was somewhat better than the former in that at least I wouldn’t be deceiving her.

But since I had no idea how her attitude would change afterward, I continued to deliberate over what choice to make.

Then, as the woman who had buried her face against my chest lifted her head to look at my face more clearly…

“…Huh?”

The awkward situation ended as a bewildered voice escaped her lips.

It must have happened because the moonlight and starlight shining from above intensified, clearly illuminating my features that had only been dimly visible before, allowing the woman to properly see me.

The woman’s movements were swift once she finally got a clear look at my face.

As swift as when she had mistaken my dimly moonlit face for Fafnir’s.

In an instant, she pulled away from me.

She reached out with both hands toward my face, gently caressing it a few times, and then…

“It’s… different. This can’t be…”

She withdrew her arms while speaking in a dismayed voice filled with disappointment.

“When I saw the red hair, I was so sure… how…”

Though she had withdrawn her arms, her voice continued to reveal her sadness at the fact that despite my red hair, I was not Fafnir.

Seeing her like this reminded me that in the Central Continent where I lived, people with red hair were extremely rare.

It was such an uncommon hair color that those who had it were almost certainly from another continent, specifically the Western Continent.

In fact, the mother who gave birth to my sister and me also came from the Western Continent.

In any case, when I was born without the distinctive silver hair of the Lanos family—which typically manifests regardless of mixed bloodlines—it became quite the topic of conversation within the Empire.

It was gossiped about as surprising that there existed a bloodline from the Western Continent strong enough to suppress the Lanos genetic traits that had persisted for a millennium.

Well, anyway, now that the woman’s misunderstanding based on my hair color had been cleared up…

‘Phew.’

I inwardly sighed with relief, audible to no one.

Despite appearances, I was already committed to someone, so how could I not feel relieved to finally escape the uncomfortable situation of being embraced by a strange woman?

Of course, I didn’t show any obvious signs of relief as I observed the woman who had now distanced herself from me.

I was curious about the red-tinged hair I had glimpsed among her silver locks when we first confronted each other.

Fortunately, thanks to the moonlight and starlight that had increased in brightness to illuminate our surroundings…

Like the woman who realized I wasn’t Fafnir, I too could now see her more clearly than before.

And confirming what I had seen earlier wasn’t wrong…

Her silver hair, which seemed to glow with its own light even in darkness, cascaded down, but I could see that it was dyed red from the crown of her head.

And on her face, which had shed both the hostility she first showed me and the affection when she mistook me for Fafnir, I could see the sadness that had been in her voice reflected in her expression.

It was a face that clearly showed she was speechless with shock and sorrow.

And as her face gradually came into clearer view…

I thought this woman resembled someone I knew quite well.

Someone so close to me that I didn’t need to force myself to remember who.

‘Sister…’

Yes, my sister.

The way she drew her eyebrows into a straight line when trying to suppress various emotions all at once was remarkably similar to her beautiful yet formidable appearance.

The woman before me had quite a resemblance to my blood sister, Iriana, to the point where I couldn’t help but notice it.

Because of this, I could easily guess that the woman with that expression would soon release her pent-up emotions in some way, regardless of direction.

I just hoped it wouldn’t be in a negative direction, though that was unlikely.

All I could do was thoroughly prepare to flee if necessary.

Well, that aside, the moment I thought this woman resembled my sister, there was one more thing I needed to confirm.

To turn the thoughts gradually organizing in my mind into complete certainty.

To check that final piece, I turned my gaze to the ground where the sword the woman had been using until recently had fallen.

When I first discovered the woman, the pure white light emanating from the sword she had used for her dance and then tried to cut me with had seemed familiar somehow.

Familiar to what?

To the “Holy Sword”—created when the great gods in the highest places, pitying those suffering from the evil machinations of malevolent demon gods who sought to reshape the world according to their malice, breathed their will into sacred metal and bestowed it upon a hero to create miracles.

And to see if my mental image of the Holy Sword was correct…

As soon as I carefully examined the appearance of the sword on the ground with my own eyes…

‘…It is.’

I could easily confirm that it was indeed the Holy Sword.

It was identical to the Holy Sword that Shizu summoned and used both before and after my regression.

‘…From the moment she called me Fafnir, I should have checked what time period this was before worrying about where I was.’

Only then did I realize that the place the sword had guided me to wasn’t just a different location from where I had been, but an incredibly distant point in the past.

Though it was difficult to pinpoint the exact period…

This woman who mentioned minions of the Demon Realm…

No, that’s not right.

From what my ancestor, Lumen Lanos, was saying, this was during the height of the Great Holy War.

Recently, the development of space-time control spells had been remarkable.

Though limited, spells that could completely stop time had been developed.

But this time, I had been transported to a specific point in time a thousand years in the past—an unfathomable distance.

Having experienced the impossible miracle of regression, my surprise was somewhat diminished.

‘How did this happen?’

But that didn’t make the overwhelming feeling any less real.

I could only scratch the back of my head lightly with my right hand to relieve this frustration.

All I had done was infuse my energy into the sword for the trial that anyone from a qualified family must undergo.

How did I end up traveling to the past, meeting my ancestor, and being temporarily mistaken for his friend Fafnir? Judging by her reaction, they must be friends, right?

You say her reaction was too emotional for just a friend?

Well, Fafnir himself said they were friends, so I’ll just accept that.

Anyway, if I make it back safely, I should ask my sister and father about how they completed the trial in the Sword Tomb.

If they experienced something similar, I could accept it.

But if it was just me, I’d feel quite wronged.

As my mind was racing with these thoughts after assessing the current situation…

The Holy Sword lying on the ground suddenly flew toward my ancestor without warning.

It was firmly grasped in my ancestor’s outstretched right hand as it flew to him.

And simultaneously…

*Woong-!!*

With a brilliant resonant sound, the pure white radiance of the Holy Sword that I had glimpsed earlier intensified in brightness to match the ferocity of the resonance.

*Gulp*

I swallowed dryly.

Not because the resonance responding to my ancestor’s energy was growing stronger or the radiance brighter.

What felt more threatening than those two things was how overwhelmingly the sword had increased in size.

“…Who are you?”

It was the anger and various other negative emotions emanating from my ancestor, whose voice had become completely devoid of emotion, that made my mouth go dry.

‘This is bad.’

Judging by the emotional undertones in that voice, I realized a confrontation with my ancestor was unavoidable.

“Haah…”

A quiet sigh escaped my lips instead of an answer to my ancestor’s question directed at me.

And as if interpreting my sigh as a response…

“If you have no intention of answering…”

My ancestor’s body suddenly faded, and then…

*Whoosh-!!*

A sharp slashing motion was executed that would have instantly cut my right arm had I not dodged it.

“I’ll put you in a state where you can answer.”

He said this with a voice that, despite his thorough efforts to suppress it, still faintly revealed his anger.