Frost-Flower Sword Hero
"When I was little?"
Raon frowned as he studied the awkward look in Pedrick's eyes. He couldn't begin to guess what the man was about to say.
"What do you mean by that...?"
"I'll explain. I've been wondering how long I ought to keep this hidden, but perhaps this is for the best."
Pedrick gestured for him to sit. Raon glanced at the offered hand and took the seat across from him.
"You probably only remember me from when you were four or five, but I actually came to see you six times."
"Mm..."
Raon clicked his tongue softly.
I remember every single one of those visits.
He had been conscious from the moment of his birth, so he remembered every encounter with Pedrick. After their first meeting at his hundred-day celebration, the saint had come every year until Raon turned five, bringing elixirs and treating him.
"From the time you were one until you were five, I came to Zieghart of my own will to check on your condition. But the first visit was not my choice. And it certainly wasn't a coincidence, either."
"Pardon?"
The first visit would have been not long after Glenn had given him his name.
"I told Sylvia I'd simply stopped by after hearing she'd given birth, but..."
Pedrick let out a low sigh and bowed his head. His gaze sank, as if he were still wrestling with whether to go on, and another breath escaped him.
"Saint."
"Yes. Having started, I suppose I ought to finish. I went to the Annex at someone's request."
"A request?"
"It was a request that felt more like an order: come to Zieghart at once, examine the child's condition, and find a treatment to match it."
He gave a short, incredulous laugh, as if to say he'd never received a request so absurd in his life.
"Who was it?"
"If I were going to reveal their identity, I wouldn't have called them 'someone' in the first place."
Pedrick smiled faintly. It was the kind of smile that said, You already know who it is, don't you?
"When I told them you'd been stricken with a curse of bitter cold, that there was no certain cure, and that the body would have to be warmed with elixirs, 'that person' produced fire-attribute elixirs and told me to give them to Sylvia."
"Ah..."
Raon's mouth fell open.
Those elixirs too?
The ones Sylvia had warmed in a bowl and fed him hadn't come from the Saint at all, but from that person. He swallowed dryly.
"I'm sorry to tell you only now. They insisted I keep it a secret, so I had no choice."
"...There's nothing to apologize for."
If anything, he was grateful that Pedrick had broken a confidence for his sake.
"That's why I feel sorry toward you, and you alone. You risked your life fighting to save me, when the one who actually helped you was someone else."
"Please don't say that."
Raon shook his head firmly.
"I'm simply grateful."
The Saint was a recluse you could not keep at your side even if you wanted to. Even if the first visit had been at someone else's request, coming to Zieghart five more times to treat a child he'd never met and to bring him elixirs was no small thing. Hearing the truth from Pedrick didn't make Raon regret saving him in the slightest.
"Hearing you say that, I'm grateful. Now it feels as though I'm the one in your debt."
Pedrick stroked his beard and laughed, a warm, easy sound.
"To repay that debt, I'll do everything I can to study the requests you've made of me."
"You don't need to think of it as a debt. Please don't feel burdened."
"That makes it even more of a burden, you brat!"
Raon and Pedrick met each other's eyes, affection plain in both gazes, and smiled.
"So. Do you know who it was that summoned me?"
"Yes."
Raon lowered his eyes.
"I could hardly fail to know."
The man who had summoned Pedrick, the Saint of Rags, who had immediately produced three high-grade elixirs, who had confirmed the grim symptoms afflicting him. After being handed that many hints, anyone who still couldn't figure it out might as well bite their tongue and die.
"Who was it?" Wrath tilted his head, as if he couldn't think of anyone. "Who in the world wasted elixirs on you?"
Glenn Zieghart.
"That is..."
The Patriarch was the one who summoned the Saint.
He'd never imagined it, but the one who had called for Pedrick was unmistakably Glenn Zieghart, the head of the house.
So he knew even back then.
From the moment Glenn had given him his name, he must have known Raon was suffering from that frigid cold.
But why?
Why he had pretended to know nothing, to care about nothing, Raon couldn't understand.
I thought he disliked me.
Leaving him to be shamed and insulted not only by the direct line but by the collaterals as well, and summoning a saint for his sake — the two things simply would not sit together.
"Hrm."
Pedrick's mouth twitched as he watched Raon's brows draw down.
So he's figured out it was Glenn.
The boy was quick not only with a blade but with his mind. He would have landed on Glenn's name before the hints were even finished.
Sorry about this, you iron-faced old fool.
Pedrick offered a silent apology to Glenn, who would have no idea this conversation was taking place.
Still, I didn't tell him that you came every day to push aura into the boy, or that you used that token.
No one cherished Raon more than Glenn. He had gone to the child day after day to drive back the cold, and the token he had used to summon Pedrick was a sacred plaque that could be used only once in an entire lifetime.
Now stop being a fool and try getting along with him, would you?
A small smile touched Pedrick's face as he wished that this awkward grandfather and grandson — who still looked at each other like a cow regarding a chicken — might grow a little closer.
"Saint."
Raon called to him, his face full of questions.
"From the second visit onward, he didn't give you any instructions, did he?"
"That's right. He said nothing at all."
"Then may I ask just one thing?"
Pedrick nodded generously, as if to say he could ask as many as he liked.
"Even if the first visit was at someone's request, why did you come every year for five years? A saint who travels the entire continent healing people wouldn't have found it easy to keep returning to Zieghart."
Pedrick never stayed in one place. He wandered the continent, treating people as he went. For a man like that to come every year to look after a single child was highly unusual.
"Because of your eyes."
"My eyes?"
"How should I put it..."
He scratched his head, as if searching for the right words.
"You were barely born, and yet when you looked at a stranger you neither cried nor smiled. Your eyes were as cold and composed as an adult's. It sounds mad, but I felt something in them — as if you'd already weathered the storms of a lifetime, as if you were telling me you'd handle your own affairs yourself."
"Ah..."
Raon turned his gaze aside and bit his lip.
He's not wrong.
Betrayed in his previous life, he had intended to grow strong in Zieghart without anyone's help and then leave.
But starting with Sylvia and Helen, he had become entangled with so many people that the thought had changed.
"I wanted to change that look in your eyes. I wanted you to know that there are people in this world who help others without asking a price, who simply like them — and then I wanted to see you smile. Of course, you weren't old enough to understand any of that."
Pedrick scratched the back of his head, looking faintly embarrassed.
"Mm..."
Raon clenched his fist. Pedrick's sincerity struck deep in his chest, and something there rang like a bell.
"You asked me one question, so I'll make one request of you in turn."
"Please, go ahead."
"Will you hear it?"
"Yes."
After seeing Pedrick's heart laid bare just now, refusal was out of the question.
"Then smile for me. Just once."
"Pardon?"
Raon's eyes flew wide at a request he had never seen coming.
"I told you, didn't I? I wanted to see you smile. I never saw it even once when you were small, so show me now."
"That's..."
"Didn't you just say you'd do anything?"
"Augh."
Raon cupped his cheeks in his hands and grimaced.
"I didn't ask you to scowl. I asked you to smile."
"C-could it be anything else?"
He would rather have fought Eden all over again. Being told to smile out of nowhere was so mortifying that heat rushed to his face.
"Ahem!"
Pedrick cleared his throat loudly, as if to say hurry up.
"Haa..."
Raon let out a long breath. Come to think of it, he had no memory of smiling even while Pedrick was treating him.
"Give me a moment, then."
He pinched his cheeks and stretched them out, then turned his head. Looking at the expectant Pedrick, he formed the most natural smile he could manage.
It was painfully awkward, but he held the expression to the end, determined to repay the man's sincerity.
"Heh."
Pedrick nodded, a gentle smile of his own spreading across his face.
"Encia was right. You really are ridiculously handsome."
"Haa..."
Left alone in his room, Raon let out a long sigh.
I don't understand.
Glenn summoning Pedrick made sense. His grandson was ill, so of course he would call in an exceptional healer to examine him.
But why hide it?
He had summoned the finest healer on the continent, handed over three high-grade elixirs, and then concealed the whole thing. Raon couldn't make sense of it.
To avoid checks from the direct and collateral lines?
That didn't seem likely either. Glenn was the Absolute of Zieghart. His influence covered the entire house. No matter how aggressive the palace lords became, a single word from Glenn would have been enough to keep anyone from laying a finger on the Annex.
It's hard to call it affection, too.
Glenn had never given him anything first. Until Raon turned twelve, the only time he had met Glenn was at the Evaluation Ceremony, and he had never received a separate gift. Rewards had always been strictly commensurate with results, so it had never once occurred to him that Glenn might actually care.
No. The Supreme Harmony Footwork was a little different.
Glenn hadn't taught him the formulas of the Supreme Harmony Footwork, nor had he handed over a manual. He had demonstrated it himself. Thinking back, that was the one time Glenn had seemed different.
I don't know.
Raon raked his hands through his hair. The more he thought, the more it felt like wandering into a maze.
"Tsk. Isn't it obvious?"
Wrath climbed up onto the bracelet and clicked his tongue.
Obvious?
"Indeed. He means to use you."
That's...
"You would have been extraordinary from the moment of your birth, as befits This King's vessel. That old man recognized your talent and clearly intends to use you to raise his family's prestige."
Wrath muttered that the human realm and the Demon Realm were all the same.
Be quiet.
Raon frowned. He had considered that possibility himself, of course, but hearing it from Wrath still irritated him.
Once we return to the house, I should watch the Patriarch's reaction.
That would tell him what Glenn was truly thinking. He had been used thoroughly enough in his previous life. If this was another attempt to use him, he would see it clearly.
Knock, knock.
Just as he finished gathering his thoughts, a small knock sounded at the door. It was a sound he had grown used to since coming here.
"Come in."
The door opened almost before he finished speaking, and a boy stepped in — a child whose features looked a little insolent, but whose eyes were calm and settled. It was Julius, the boy who had fled with the Saint.
"Hello."
Julius bowed his head with careful courtesy.
"Right. Nothing hurts, does it?"
Raon smiled faintly and nodded. Ever since Raon had woken, Julius had come almost every day to ask after him with impeccable manners. His looks and his behavior could not have been more different.
"You don't have to keep coming. There's no need to feel indebted just because I saved you."
The way Pedrick had shown kindness to him as a child, Raon wanted nothing from Julius. He only hoped the boy would grow up well, without being broken by what he'd seen.
"Ah, I..."
Julius hesitated, biting his lip. It was a far cry from the crisp, self-possessed child Raon was used to.
"It's all right. If you have something to say, say it."
"Would it be possible for me to come with you as well?"
"What?"
"I wish to go with you, sir."
The eyes that met Raon's when Julius finally spoke were steady. There was no wavering in them. His will looked firm.
"Why the sudden request?"
"It isn't sudden. I have been thinking it since the day you saved the Saint and me. You said you would leave the day after tomorrow, so I felt that if I did not speak now, I would lose the chance."
Raon had noticed it before: even at his age, the boy's speech had a center to it. He seemed to have been raised with proper manners.
"What about your family?"
"I have none. I have been on my own since my grandfather passed away."
"Mm..."
The voice was so even that Raon was the one who felt startled.
So that's how it was.
Judging by the circumstances, the war that had broken out over who would take Julius must have come after the boy's grandfather had died.
Raon looked into those firmly settled eyes and drew up his senses.
The body is both flexible and solid. As for the mana circuits... huh?
He had been thinking the boy's physical condition wasn't bad, and then he looked inward and his mouth fell open.
What kind of child's mana circuits are these...?
Julius's mana circuits were thicker and wider than those of most Sword Users. The insides of the circuits were clean, and his aura core was larger and firmer than other people's. If this child learned a cultivation art, he would be able to gather aura faster than anyone.
No wonder everyone lost their minds over him.
His physical condition wasn't poor, but the real treasure was inside. Julius possessed the kind of talent that could carry him to the very top.
What Raon truly liked, however, was not those gifts.
It was the composure and the firmly tempered spirit — things a child that age almost never had.
"Taking you with us wouldn't be difficult. But this is your hometown. Are you sure you want to leave?"
"It isn't as though I can never return. I believe a hometown is something you carry in your heart."
Once again Julius said something far too old for his years, his eyes shining.
"All right. It isn't a hard thing. I'll speak to the Heavenly Sword Squad Leader."
Raon smiled faintly and nodded.
"But why come to me? It would've been easier to go to the Heavenly Sword Squad Leader from the start."
"Because you are the reason I want to go to Zieghart, sir."
"Ah..."
He had a rough idea of what the boy was thinking. Julius had clearly cast him as the hero who had come to save him from danger.
"Then you should think again. Going to Zieghart because of me isn't such a good..."
"No."
Julius shook his head quickly.
"The scent of a person?"
"I want to become a swordsman with a strong will, even if I am not strong myself. A swordsman who can see his convictions through. I have thought about this deeply, so please accept me."
The words — the scent of a person, and a swordsman who can see his convictions through — sank deep into his chest.
Is that how I looked to him...?
He didn't know what Julius had seen in him to say such a thing, but it didn't feel bad.
"All right. We leave the morning after next, so don't be late."
"Thank you!"
Julius bowed deeply and left the room.
"Hmph."
Wrath smacked his lips as he watched Julius's retreating back.
"Why does this one alone have that sort of..."
"Hm?"
Raon looked down at Wrath.
"Does that child have something special about him?"
"This King knows not!"
Wrath popped back into the bracelet, clearly with no intention of explaining.
I should look into that...
Two days later.
Raon left the mansion where they had been staying, ready to depart Letran. Everyone else had finished preparing ahead of time and was waiting in front of Encia's carriage.
"Coming in late just because you're the protagonist, huh?"
Sheryl, who had been leaning against the carriage, frowned.
"It isn't departure time yet, though."
"He never lets anyone have the last word."
Raon pointed at the sky, and Sheryl snorted a laugh before walking around to the front of the carriage.
"Young Master Raon?"
The carriage window opened and Encia burst into view. The swelling was gone; her clear, refreshed face caught the sunlight and shone.
"Young Master Raon!"
It wasn't just her face. She shoved her entire upper body out the window and waved.
"Waaah! You're so damn handsome today! This is the best you've ever looked! When you open your eyes wide like that, you look even better!"
"My lady!"
"Please!"
Thanks to the maids grabbing hold of her, Encia only barely avoided tumbling out the window.
She's gotten even worse.
Raon scratched his cheek. With the pain gone, Encia was carrying on even more wildly than usual, shouting about how handsome he was.
"Nothing hurts, I hope?"
"My back ached a little, but I'm fine now! Young Master Raon's face is my medicine, and his face is my meal!"
"Eum..."
It was a lot to take, but seeing someone who had been drowning in pain become this bright put his heart at ease.
"I thought once the pain was gone, the rose-tinted glasses would come off too, but no! He's just insanely handsome! Handsome and kind, handsome and brilliant, handsome and a Master!"
Even after the maids dragged her back into the carriage, Encia kept up what was practically a hymn of praise to his looks.
"Haaah, it's gotten even worse..."
"Ugly people can't even live like this."
"I want to die..."
"Not yet. The river's too cold."
"I'm ugly AND stupid AND only an Expert!"
The Heavenly Sword Squad and Light Wind Squad standing around the carriage clutched their heads and howled.
"Heh heh!"
"Whoa..."
Pedrick chuckled at the sight, while Julius stared at it in a daze.
"Mm. Insanely handsome. Ridiculously good-looking. Handsome and a Master..."
Runaan repeated Encia's words a few times and nodded. She seemed to be committing them to memory.
"If you're all done playing around, get ready!"
"Yes!"
At Sheryl's order, Raon swung up onto his horse. The other swordsmen took their places on horseback and at the front of the carriages, waiting for the command to move.
"Our destination is the Yonan family! The mission is not over yet! Do not let your guard down!"
"Yes!"
"Move out!"
As before, Sheryl rode at the very front, and everyone followed behind her.
They urged their horses down toward the main road at an easy pace, and people gathered on both sides like clouds.
"Waaaaaah!"
"Zieghart swordsmen! Thank you for saving us!"
"We're truly grateful!"
The townspeople waved, cheering for every last swordsman. Their eyes were clear, as if they had overcome their grief and were offering thanks in its place.
"We will repay this life-saving debt without fail!"
"Call on us whenever you need us!"
"We will come find you wherever you are!"
The surviving swordsmen of the Basin and Trian families reversed their blades and offered a sword salute — a gesture that they owed a great debt, and that they would surely repay it.
"That's enough. Go back and train."
Sheryl smiled faintly and waved the swordsmen off.
"Waaaaaaaah!"
"Young Master Raon!"
"Frost-Flower Sword Hero!"
"We'll be watching, Frost-Flower Sword Hero!"
When Raon passed, a roar went up louder than all the rest combined. The sound was enough to make ears ring, and everyone round-eyed in surprise.
"Frost-Flower Sword Hero?"
Raon tilted his head at a name he was hearing for the first time.
"They're talking about you."
Burren drew up alongside him and jerked his chin.
"Me?"
"The chivalrous swordsman who walked straight into Eden's trap to repay a debt from his childhood, and cut down the Blood-Crazed Ghost, the Red Wolf Ghost, and the Black Wing Ghost. It's Raon Zieghart's new epithet."
He smiled as if it were his own good fortune, plainly delighted.
"The highlight was the single-exchange duel with Akyanggwi! The whole continent was moved by how you never lowered your sword, all to protect the Saint and the child!"
Dorian scowled, regretting that he hadn't seen it himself.
"But why Frost-Flower Sword Hero...?"
"It means a sword hero who wields fire and ice at once, I suppose. It can also mean a flower, in a double sense. Either way, the title is really cool!"
"I want an epithet like that too..."
Crain came up as well, nodding with open envy.
Raon looked at the people calling his name and his new epithet, their faces split with smiles, and raised a hand to wave. The answering cheer was even louder. His ears rang, and his heart hammered in his chest.
He had felt it at Habun Castle too — having his name roared, having an epithet born from it, sent a strange thrill through him.
Rozy and the other priests who had been standing before the city gates came forward and bowed. When their hands lifted toward the sky, a pure white light poured down and wrapped around every member of the party.
"May blessings rest upon you, heroes."
Rozy and the priests raised their heads, smiling softly.
"May blessings be with you as well."
Raon followed Sheryl's greeting, bowing to the priests, and they passed out of Letran. Even after they left the town behind, the people's cheers kept coming.
"My chest was pounding so hard I thought I was going to die."
"I know. My heart's still racing."
Dorian and Crain wore dazed smiles on flushed faces.
"Tsk. Over that little thing."
"Get a hold of yourself!"
Marta and Burren, for all their words, were flushed as well.
"......"
The only truly calm one was Runaan, whose vacant eyes looked about as lively as her horse's.
Raon smiled faintly at them, then looked up at the sky. The work had been finished without incident. Now only one thing remained.
The reward for completing the mission.
That much was already decided.
What he wanted from the Yonan family was not some mere artifact.