Chapter 61
The shock of witnessing Aria’s outrageous impulse buying left Arin frozen in place for several long minutes. She had been standing stock-still when Aria’s voice snapped her back to reality.
“Meiel, take all of these with you.”
“Ung… Leave it to me…”
Aria handed over all three hundred weapons she had just purchased in a single lump-sum payment to Meiel.
And, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, Meiel lifted them all with magic and strolled out of the store.
Yujia, Kama, Isolde, and Morgan followed after her. Once she was alone, Aria plopped down on a chair near the entrance, crossing her legs with a heavy sigh.
The sight was so effortless and absurd that the Kraken staff member—who had been standing there with his mouth agape ever since the weapons were tallied—looked as if his jaw might actually unhinge.
Aria felt a strange sense of kinship with the poor employee.
Still, Arin had seen Aria every single day and was already familiar with her eccentric side, so she recovered faster than the clerk. Taking a deep breath, she walked toward the woman she had originally come to find.
Step— Step—
“Um… Professor Aria.”
“Hm? What is it? You’re already back? I gave you a full hour, didn’t I?”
Aria’s eyes widened in surprise as she looked at Arin. Only twenty-five minutes had passed, after all. She had apparently assumed the students would still be carefully choosing their weapons even after the time limit.
Indeed, if Arin hadn’t already found the Sun Sword, she probably would have spent the entire hour searching for the perfect blade.
That was why, when Aria asked why she had returned so quickly, Arin carefully presented the sword she had been cradling in her arms.
“I… I already picked a sword. I wanted you to evaluate it and tell me if it’s suitable.”
“Oh? This is Solid. It’s been quite a while since I last saw one.”
The moment Arin drew the blade with a soft click, Aria stroked her chin as if she recognized it. It seemed bringing the sword to Aria had been the right decision.
“Do you… know something about it?!”
“Of course I do.”
Her voice rose with excitement at Aria’s reaction. Still, Arin knew it would be terribly rude to keep shouting in the busy entrance of Kraken, so she forced her surging emotions down and asked more calmly.
“What did you mean when you said it was a superior counterpart…?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. In every aspect, its performance is twice that of Carnia. The Sunset Sword you’re using now was something you could fully utilize even with the skill you had a month and a half ago. But this Sun Sword requires far greater ability than Carnia.”
“Then… does that mean I won’t be able to draw out all of its power…?”
That would be the worst outcome. No matter how superior it was to the Sunset Sword, if her own skill was so lacking that she couldn’t even unleash its true strength—
As a knight, and more importantly as a person who had built herself through relentless effort, such a realization would be a stain on Arin’s pride. Her face crumpled, but the next words from Aria made it bloom again.
“What nonsense. You’ve grown stronger by following my lessons and receiving special training on top of that. There’s no way you couldn’t draw out the power of a mere Sun Sword.”
“Then that means…!”
“You chose quite an excellent blade. It’s the perfect weapon for who you are right now.”
The perfect weapon for who she was right now.
At Aria’s words, Arin couldn’t help but break into a radiant smile. How could she not smile when the sword she had chosen was declared the most suitable one for her?
She tried to suppress the silly grin threatening to spill across her face and murmured softly enough for Aria to hear.
“I really have become stronger…”
“Yes, without a doubt. You’ve grown so much that I no longer see the clumsy little fool I met in that tent.”
“Ugh…”
Aria’s teasing dug up an unpleasant memory, and Arin clutched her aching chest with a groan.
The memory of their first meeting inside that tent was not a pleasant one to recall.
After all, she had spoken rudely to the Aria she now respected so deeply, and she had struggled pathetically over a single piece of mithril, trying to draw Carnia through brute force alone.
If it were her now, she was confident she could split that mithril in half just like Aria had done that day. That was precisely why the memory remained a dark chapter in her history.
While Arin twisted in embarrassment at the sudden recollection, letting out a low groan, Aria burst into laughter. She snatched the Sun Sword from Arin’s hands and headed toward the counter.
“I’ll pay for this in advance. Excuse me, I’d like to settle the bill.”
“Ah, ugh… Huh?! Oh, yes! One Solid comes to 3.5 million gold!”
The clerk, who had finally regained his senses at Aria’s words, answered after looking at the sword. Aria gave a slight nod and said,
“Add this to the temple check I gave you earlier for the three hundred weapons. I’ll be paying for the other students’ weapons soon as well, so include those too.”
“Y-yes!”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Aria’s chin tilt might have seemed slightly arrogant, but perhaps because she was such a big spender, the clerk straightened up crisply in response. Aria offered a brief bow in thanks.
Then she turned back toward Arin.
Carrying the newly purchased Sun Sword, Aria walked over, bent down in front of her, and took hold of Arin’s belt.
“P-Professor?”
“Stay still. I’ll fasten it for you myself this time.”
Arin blinked in confusion as Aria suddenly began unbuckling her belt, but Aria cut her off, smoothly attached the Sun Sword to the freed belt, and only straightened up after confirming it was securely fastened.
For a moment, Aria simply looked at Arin in silence.
Then she gave a small smile and gently patted Arin’s head.
“Congratulations on obtaining a new weapon, Arin. You’ve grown wonderfully.”
“…!”
It was like a mother patting her daughter’s head. Aria’s hand lightly touched her hair and lifted away, repeating the motion.
The warmth in that touch left Arin staring up at Aria in a daze.
Aria was smiling as if she were truly, deeply happy about Arin’s growth. Come to think of it, Aria had always smiled like this whenever any of them grew stronger.
Always. Every single time. As if their growth brought her genuine joy.
As a professor teaching students, that might have been natural, but Aria’s smile felt different somehow.
It seemed somehow detached, occasionally mechanical, yet it was undeniably warm and filled with real happiness.
Every time Arin received that smile, her heart felt strangely unsettled, but she didn’t dislike it.
And perhaps because she was receiving that smile from so close,
Arin spoke before she could even think about what she was saying.
“Professor… how did you become so strong…?”
“Hm?”
Only after the words left her mouth did Arin realize she had spoken out of turn.
The new weapon had given her confidence, and receiving such direct praise up close must have made her lose her senses for a moment.
But words already spoken could not be taken back. So Arin lowered the hand that had flown to her mouth and asked again.
“If I keep following the same path you walked, will I become as strong as you?”
It was a question she had always wondered about but kept locked inside her heart.
Just where did Aria’s strength come from?
No matter how much she trained, no matter how many years she spent swinging a sword, Arin sometimes felt she would never reach that realm.
Having witnessed such an overwhelming level through Aria, the woman had become someone Arin respected and, in a way, feared—an object of awe.
Yet because Aria was a monster worthy of such reverence, Arin wanted to become as strong as her, even if it was presumptuous. And the only hypothesis she had was this:
If she followed the exact path Aria had walked, stepping precisely in her footprints, wouldn’t she become just as strong?
Even if each step tore her body apart with pain.
She had no idea how much time it would take to reach the place where Aria stood at the end of that endless trail of footprints, but it was the only method Arin could think of.
Caught up in the moment, she had asked the question she had only ever kept in her heart.
Even if an answer might not come, she at least hoped to gain some clue. Arin looked up at Aria, who had closed her eyes in response to the question. After some time, Aria slowly opened them again.
“…Ah.”
The first thing Arin saw in Aria’s eyes when they opened was regret.
She didn’t know what Aria was regretting, but the emotion was bitterly, painfully deep.
Arin realized something was wrong. She tried to stop Aria from speaking, but before she could, Aria opened her previously sealed lips.
“I… would rather you not walk the path I have walked.”
Aria paused there and gazed up at the empty air.
As if recalling something.
The next moment, she frowned slightly and withdrew the hand that had been resting on Arin’s head.
“The path I walked was utterly horrific. You could even say it was like being a doll.”
“A doll…”
“Yes, a life like a doll’s. That’s why I’m here now, teaching all of you. So that you won’t have to walk the same road I did.”
A life like a doll’s.
Aria described the life she had lived, the path she had walked, with a bitter smile.
Seeing that expression, Arin realized she had asked a question that dug into her teacher’s painful past. She opened her mouth, wanting to somehow ease that pain, but Aria turned toward the chair she had been sitting on and spoke first.
“Let’s rest for a while until the other students arrive. There’s still plenty of time left.”
“…Yes.”
As Aria turned away, she wore the same bright smile she had shown earlier.
A smile so obviously fake that even a fool could tell.
I turned toward the sofa and secretly wiped away cold sweat while Arin wasn’t looking.
I had forgotten about it, but Arin’s question brought the memories flooding back.
Entering the dungeon with the highest experience efficiency every day at midnight and repeatedly hunting five hundred monsters until my energy ran completely dry.
It was truly the most efficient way to level up, and the memory of grinding that dungeon for three straight hours in the middle of the night flashed through my mind like a panorama.
“Ugh, my head…”
It really hurts.
No, correction.
It hurts like hell now that I’ve remembered it.