The End
The End
At Ian's waist.
A sword slicked crimson caught her eye.
It was the estoc she knew by heart—the very blade Ian had once given her, only for it to return to his hand.
Sharon gripped it numbly.
Everything between them had been defined by this sword.
◆
— Shaaaa!
A blade savagely tore the air.
Frost bloomed mid-swing before vanishing just as quickly.
"Miss Sharon. Planning to attend the freshman social today?"
"You should come out and have fun for once, instead of drilling swordsmanship all day. We've barely been enrolled a month."
— Shaaaa!
"Not going again today?"
"...It wouldn't hurt to socialize a little."
— Shaaaa!
"Did you hear? Her own family's apparently written her off as some bastard half-breed."
"What gives her the right to act so stuck-up?"
"Forget it. Let's go."
From the very beginning, Sharon had always looked straight ahead.
She ignored every rumor that swirled around her.
Instead, all she did was swing her sword.
Except.
— Clang!
The problem was a blade that kept shattering every time she channeled mana through it.
Sharon sighed and wrapped a bandage around her hand.
'...If only I had a better sword.'
That was when a loud shout from a fellow Knight Department classmate rang out in the distance.
"Sharon! Big news! Huge!"
Sharon's brow creased. She had no patience for commotion.
"What is it?"
"Ah, sorry for interrupting! But seriously!"
The classmate thrust a piece of paper at Sharon.
"Look! Look at this!"
Her face was flushed with excitement.
She kept grinning like a fool. It was painfully obvious what girls their age made such a fuss over.
"...Let me see it."
Sharon took the note. As her eyes moved over the words, a sudden chill settled into them.
"What is it? What? A confession, right?!"
"...It's nothing."
"No way, I bet it totally is! Who is it? Who?"
Sharon bit her lip. The name on the note was unmistakably "Ian."
Ian.
She'd received help from him more than a few times. When she needed hard-to-find equipment, he procured it like a ghost. When she trained in high-difficulty drills, his earth-attribute magic had been indispensable. So, yes—she was grateful.
But that was only in the context of one trainee receiving aid from another.
'I have no need for distractions from my training.'
Approaches like this were a problem.
Sharon couldn't afford to waste a single moment.
"Hey, Sharon? So what is it?"
"It's nothing."
Sharon icily peeled the clinging classmate off.
"Tch. What a killjoy."
◇
Some garden.
Just as the note had said, Ian was waiting there.
Sharon struck first with cold words.
"If this is a confession..."
"Ah. It's not that."
"...?"
Ian fumbled awkwardly and produced something.
"You need a sword, right?"
It was a simple yet clearly costly blade. Every material was high-grade, and the forging was unmistakably the work of a master. Its unadorned elegance suited Sharon's taste perfectly.
"...Don't you know what kind of reputation I have?"
"Does that matter?"
"...No."
"Then it doesn't matter to me either."
Ian smiled. Then he asked again.
"Do you need a sword?"
"I do."
"Here."
Her hand reached for the offered sword on its own. Just before taking it, Sharon stopped herself.
"Ian."
"Yeah?"
"I can't turn around and look at you just because you give me things like this."
"...Yeah."
"I can't give you my heart either."
"That figures."
"I will simply receive. I have a path I must walk. A reason I must become strong. For that, I will focus solely on my training."
Sharon found herself spilling words she'd kept locked inside. It was the first time she had ever spoken them to anyone. Ian, who had been listening quietly, opened his mouth.
"Then just receive."
"...What?"
"I'll just give."
Sharon stared at Ian with a dumbfounded look for a long moment. Why did this man keep closing the distance when she held everyone at arm's length?
"You clearly don't understand...!"
Sharon raised her voice without meaning to.
"I'm telling you I have neither the capacity nor the leeway to hold anyone inside me!"
"I'm telling you I will end up suspecting why you're being so good to me!"
"I'm telling you not to expect anything from me!"
She knew. She'd heard the rumors that this man had a thing for women. That was obviously why he kept clinging to her. She'd thought this much would be enough. Enough to push him away.
But.
"Okay."
He smiled at her. A truly foolish face.
"...Ha."
Idiotic. This man. And herself, for ending up accepting help from someone like him.
"Then I'll take it. Don't regret it later."
Sharon gripped the sword. Ian added, smiling.
"But just one thing."
"...?"
"What about at the end of it?"
"What do you mean, 'the end'?"
"If you manage to reach the end of the path you're trying to walk?"
"......"
"Will you be able to turn and look at me then?"
Sharon stared blankly at Ian.
"...What on earth. You."
What was it about someone like me that made him cling so stubbornly?
"...At that time," Sharon answered after a beat of silence, "I will consider it."
◆
Seeing the sword, the memories surfaced unbidden.
"Of course, back then, you were simply Ian."
A few days later, Ian confessed to her. He said he wouldn't, yet he threw her heart into turmoil. He'd said he would wait. So, it seemed he wasn't that kind of gentleman after all. A heart once opened twisted into doubt. She shut the door tighter. Tight enough to stop seeing the outside altogether.
After that, the misunderstandings piled up. You changed. She suspected you. She hated you, and tried to break you.
The day you gave me that sword. And then the next time, took it away again. Just when I thought everything had finally ended. And now, damn it all, you've brought me my path. The end of the road I walked. How am I supposed to accept you?
"Ian. Ian Blackangus."
Why, damn it, do you make me turn and look at you?
'What are you to me?'
I don't know. Everything is tangled. A person who has only ever walked a single straight line like me cannot know. What you are to me. What I am to you.
But one thing is clear. I think I finally understand why my footsteps turned back.
"I only ever received."
I only ever received everything. Using my single-minded drive to walk my path as an excuse. I took everything from you.
"Just a moment ago, I also..."
Even knowing you were in danger. Even knowing Richard Pierce would ultimately try to harm you. I walked on. Because it's the life I've lived, looking only forward. As if it were only natural, I tried to receive from you.
"...How could that be right?"
You, who gave everything, and even showed me where the end of my own path lay. If I am human. If I am truly a person.
"...How could I just leave you like that?"
I want to ask you. ...What was I to you, that you kept appearing before me as I ran forward looking only ahead? The side of the road I walked was filled with you. I simply didn't realize it.
"I was a fool."
And I, who looked only at one path and couldn't turn to the side...
"I was selfish."
Sharon murmured. This was an awakening. The growth Sharon Pierce had so desperately desired. It was the ascension to a higher realm she had lost, mistakenly believing Ian was blocking her path. It was an enlightenment she could only gain by abandoning her desperate pursuit of growth and looking to the side instead. It was the same path her mother, Sasha Asilia, had walked.
"So I've received one more thing from you."
And yet, I am going to take my eyes off you. Though with a meaning entirely different from before. Because there is a presence right before my eyes that I must resolve right now.
Sharon picked up the bloodied sword.
— Squelch.
Her hand grew wet. Ian's blood. The crimson trails down the blade.
Drip. Drop.
The snowfield stains red.
When I turned my head, I saw things I hadn't seen before. Just like the day I lost my mother. A man stands beside the fallen Ian. Richard Pierce. The patriarch she had once served. And the man who had never once acknowledged her as his daughter. Father. Now making no effort to hide it, his hair even dyed red. A Blood Rock cultist.
"...You were the Blood Rock cultist."
Sharon clenched her teeth.
"The Blood Rock cultist my mother told me to be wary of... was you."
Because I only looked ahead, I couldn't see. The evil right beside me, I projected onto a completely different person.
"...Just how."
How much of a fool was I?
As Sharon's expression crumbled, Richard's mouth opened.
"Sharon Pierce."
"Don't you dare."
Sharon raised her sword.
"Don't you dare speak my name with that filthy mouth."
"Consuming your mother was an inevitable choice."
"What do you—!"
"Sasha Asilia. She was a fool." Richard let out a snicker. "She threw herself at me without any measure of caution."
"That was a sacrifice."
"Regardless. But now, it seems you're about to follow in her footsteps."
Sharon's lips trembled. Then her expression hardened into stone.
"Do not insult her. I was a fool, but my mother was not."
"Is that so? Why do you stand before me, then?"
"...I don't know."
"No. You do know. You are about to sacrifice yourself. A meaningless sacrifice, just like your mother's."
"This is not a sacrifice."
"How so? Even now, you could simply walk out of this snowfield. The fact that you did not choose that path—how is that not a sacrifice?"
"Because I am finally repaying, even if only a speck of dust's worth, a debt that must be repaid."
"Foolish."
Richard moved. His blade brutally crushed its way toward Sharon's heart. Sharon did not retreat. Her blade, too, shot forward sharply, aiming for Richard's head.
"Sharon! Your swordsmanship is so similar to mine!"
It was true. The sword style she had honed resembled Richard's. The Pierce family style.
— Chaeng!
And so, it was blocked. Blocked by awakening, blocked by growth, and thus blocked by Richard.
— Slash!
Her side was cut open. Sharon immediately froze the wound shut to staunch the bleeding, simultaneously releasing a burst of frost to envelop Richard's sword.
— Crang!
A part of his blade shattered. But a long ice spike pierced through Sharon's left arm. Every time she used a technique, blood spilled from her mouth. Richard was no different. No one in this snowfield was untouched.
"You cannot defeat me!"
— Gagagagagak!
Sharon narrowly blocked Richard's strike. Her estoc bent like a twig. The gap in power was insurmountable.
And then. Sharon remembered. A bent sword. Ian's blade, which had drawn a small snow blossom. The sword art her mother had tried to complete. That path of the blade unfurled before her eyes.
Sharon's estoc bent like a twig.
"Where do you think you're looking!"
Richard violently unleashed a volley of razor-sharp ice. Sharon's whole body was torn, blood spraying upward. Yet Sharon's gaze did not waver. Her blade moved. Flowers began to bloom. Amidst the pouring snow.
One.
Two.
The flowers that began to bloom started filling the world like a blizzard.
"Wh-what—!"
Countless flower-petaled snowflakes rained down, slicing Richard apart. Pure white snow blossoms filled their vision. An absolutely overwhelming sight.
"Keuk!"
Richard's blade crumbled helplessly. He resisted, resisted, until—
— Kuung!
Richard collapsed. Not a single drop of blood that could melt the snow trickled from his fallen form. Only blackened powder stained the white snow.
"Sharon."
He opened his mouth. Even with half his face warped beyond recognition and snow creeping into the gaps to freeze him solid, his mouth opened greedily.
"With this, you'd easily rank within the top five even in the Blood Rock Sect. I failed to recognize it. I failed to recognize your talent."
Sharon gave no answer. She only looked down at him.
"Do you not want to see the pinnacle of martial arts?"
"Do you not want to cleave a snow-capped mountain with your blade? Do you not want to raise a family line that has only ever played second fiddle to the Emperor, and place it upon the throne? Do you not want to stand at the peak of the Empire—no, the entire continent—and look down upon the world!"
"Sharon, Sharon. You are a child who can become the greatest on the continent, no, the greatest in history. I am certain of it. You can become that. You must become that."
"For you are a child who received both the blood of the Snow Flower Sword Empress and my blood, Richard Pierce."
"Sharon. Sharon Pierce. Listen to me."
"The end of the path you walked will ultimately lead to that place."
"The Cult Leader would be pleased."
"She will make you into an existence without precedent. You shall become the Cult Leader. It is sufficient. With your Five-Star, it is more than sufficient. Thus, all the continent's history will be built around you."
"Let us go."
"Take my hand and let us go. I will introduce you to the Cult Leader. She will welcome you."
"Come. To the place where you belong."
Richard's eyes were still brimming with desire as he concluded.
"Let us become Sword Gods."
Sharon, who had been silently looking down at him, moved her lips.
"No. It is you who must face punishment."
Sharon's answer was cold. So cold that it held back her fury. She was enraged, but she had not definitively taken Richard's life.
"My child. You are making such a wrong choice once again."
Richard chuckled.
"I have never once truly disciplined you."
"......."
"For your first scolding... yes. That seems fitting."
Richard, who had been collapsed on the ground, launched his body forward. His target: Ian.
"Ah."
Sharon flung herself in front of him. It was pure instinct.
— Fuuuk.
Her stomach burned. A blade punched through the other side of her pierced abdomen, but it did not reach its mark. She had desperately tensed her core. Thanks to that, Richard's blade only mangled Sharon's tangled organs.
"Cough."
— Hududuk.
Blood gushed out. And yet, Sharon looked at Ian. The blood spilling from her stained Ian's outstretched arm. Richard's sword had not reached him—he had somehow risen to his feet.
Sharon stared into Ian's eyes. Deep, and dark. Eyes of unwavering resolve. They were not looking at her, but at a point far beyond. At the end of that gaze stood Richard. Because the sword Ian had thrust had passed right by Sharon's side. And therefore, it must be lodged in Richard's heart. Ian's resolute gaze told her everything.
"...What a shame."
It was a shame. If possible, she wanted to live. She had many debts to repay. Many sins to atone for. Many things to turn around and look at.
...And yet.
'In the end, at least I did turn around and look.'
The corner of Sharon's mouth lifted faintly. Because she had realized, even if late. Because she could repay, even just a little.
"......It was a relief."
Pure white snow fills the snowfield. The collapsed buildings. The pools of blood. The sins. The pure white snow covers everything. And so, the snow is cold but gentle.
Softly.
Sharon's eyes closed.