I'll Live Affectionately Alone with My Master
I'll Live Affectionately Alone with My Master
The snowy field before the mountain collapsed.
A massive chasm yawned open, pulsing with pale blue light.
"A spatial rift," Asilia said quietly.
"Looks like the one we saw when we were pulled in," Yergina noted, startling everyone except Asilia.
"I was out cold, meow."
"Same... Ian, did you see it?"
"Let's remember we're all cadets from the same year."
Whether he'd seen it or not, the conclusion was obvious. That rift would take them back to their own world.
The moment the thought settled, everyone glanced at Asilia, then at Ian. They all knew how close the two of them had grown here. And one of them clearly couldn't leave.
Asilia spoke first.
"Ahh, that feels good. Do you know how long I've waited to see this? You all worked hard. And thank you. Sincerely."
Her smile looked utterly, irreproachably happy.
"This disciple had a rough time, stuck with a sorry excuse for a master."
Squeeze.
As if to mark the end, Asilia pressed herself against Ian in an embrace. He gently peeled her off.
"Disciple... d-did you really hate this old lady's hug that much?"
Ian ignored her theatrical sniffle and turned to Danya.
"I'll be back."
Danya nodded.
He looked at Yergina. "That rift won't close right away, will it?"
"An hour, give or take. Plenty of time."
"Got it."
Ian spun on his heel, then dropped to one knee in front of a bewildered Asilia, presenting his back.
"Climb on, Master."
"Mm, I think my disciple might be a little confused. Your master can't pass through that thing, remember? I don't have much left as it is..."
Ian shook his head at once.
"I'm not asking you to come with me. I've prepared a place for you to rest for a while."
"A place to rest? I was planning to see you off, and now you're trying to dump me somewhere..."
"Enough jokes, Master. I'm serious. Get on. We don't have much time."
"Disciple. Stop wasting your energy and go. I'm truly beyond hope. There's nothing left to try."
Asilia's smile turned pained, but Ian's answer came without hesitation.
"Then I won't go either. I'll stay right here and live with you. Now get on."
"...Honestly."
Resigned, she let him lift her onto his back.
"Where are we going?"
"Somewhere you can close your eyes for a while."
Ian broke into a run, retracing their path as he spoke.
"No matter how skilled Richard is, he can't create a world like this from scratch."
"..."
"Knowing his methods, he almost certainly took an actual location in the North and linked it to his own dantian through a series of barriers and other spells."
"That..."
"Which means when Richard dies or dispels whatever bizarre sorcery he's using, this space will reappear in the real world."
He felt his master flinch against his back. There was no way he'd miss a change that small.
"You knew already, didn't you."
"It's... a spatial distortion spell."
"And you tried to hide it."
"That... in case..."
Her words trailed off. Ian finished the thought for her.
"In case I started looking for a way to save you."
Silence settled between them. Ian just ran.
He ran until they reached the cave where he'd first met his master. Everything on the other side had collapsed, but the cave still stood.
—Step. Step.
He passed the place where they'd first rested, where he'd met her, where she'd shown him the hot spring. Then he stepped into a small, solid chamber deeper inside.
Asilia, who'd been silently studying the back of his head, twitched her nose. A deep floral scent filled the air.
"Th-this is..."
Over Ian's shoulder, she blinked, dazed.
Snow-white flowers filled the cave. Hundreds of them, and in their midst, a bed had been made. Ian lowered his master onto it with care.
"A-are these all snow blossoms? All of them?"
"Danya worked hard."
"Why would you go this far..."
Because a single flower wouldn't be enough to sustain her mana.
—Then just make a whole bunch of them! Enough to support her mana, even a little! Meow!
That was how Danya had put it, and that was what she'd done.
When Ian asked if she was doing all this for him,
—Wh-why would I? It just bugged me that my ability wasn't enough, so I made more! That's all!
That was her reply, but Ian thought he understood her real feelings. He'd have to thank Danya properly someday. But right now, his master came first.
"You know those masters from the old tales, right? They reach the peak and say, 'No one under heaven is worthy of my sword! I've grown weary of this world, so I'll enter hibernation until the next worthy foe appears!' People like that."
"Your master isn't quite following."
Ian beamed at her, as if she were being adorably slow.
"You should sleep here too, Master."
"Excuse me?"
"Go into hibernation."
Asilia understood exactly what her disciple meant. If she hibernated here, he was saying, he would come back and save her someday.
But he shouldn't. Carrying that weight in his heart would distract him in battle. More than anything, she couldn't bear the thought of her disciple wandering the frozen wastes, searching for a place he might never find.
"...Still."
"If you aren't asleep in thirty minutes, I'll settle down right here and live with you."
"...What?"
"Since you seem so keen on us living together, nice and cozy. Sure, you're a bit of a scatterbrain, so I'll have my hands full, but that's just the master-disciple bond, isn't it? When you really start to decline, I'll take care of you. Let me start by laying out my own bedding. Since we'll be living together, should I put it right next to yours?"
He began busily spreading a second bedroll, and Asilia tugged at his sleeve.
"Honestly... how did I end up with a disciple like this?"
Her grip was achingly weak, her life force nearly spent. Ian let the gesture rest against him, still and patient.
Asilia's smile cracked.
"You never listen to a word I say, you're stubborn as a rock..."
Sorrow welled in her eyes, and Ian met them quietly.
"And you weaponized the fact that a master can't beat her disciple."
Tap. Tap.
As if she wanted to hit him, Asilia's hand landed lightly against his chest. He wrapped his own hands around it, hoping to warm her ice-cold fingers.
Her lips parted in infinite sadness.
"A disciple more precious to me than anything in this world... why did you have to appear so late?"
A dry cough wracked her. Struggling, she pushed on.
"...I thought I'd locked my heart away in this place. But now you've given me hope."
A single tear slipped from Asilia's eye. Ian wiped it away carefully.
"You should have hope, Master. You're talking to me, after all."
"...And who are you, exactly?"
"The disciple of Sasha Asilia, the Snowblade Empress."
"Honestly..."
Her lips moved, barely trembling.
"Now I'm just a burden. I'm your master... but I'm useless. Taking up space for nothing."
"Not a burden. A treasure. No matter how heavy, it can't be thrown away. Although right now, you're awfully light. I'll have to fatten you up later to raise your value."
Slowly, a smile fought its way onto Asilia's face. Even the sound of her breathing had grown so faint it barely reached his ears.
"...Joking even now."
"I meant it, but thank you for smiling anyway."
"...Thank you."
Asilia's eyes traced every corner of his face, as if she were etching him into memory.
"My disciple."
Softly, her eyes drifted shut. Her upper body gave way, leaning into him.
"..."
The breath beside his ear was peaceful.
Among the riot of full-bloomed blossoms, Ian laid his master down with care.
"Sleep well, Master."
◆
"Did you finish what you needed to do?"
Ian had returned to the rift. Yergina stood waiting.
"It won't really be finished until I've seen Richard's end."
"Fair enough."
She'd been worried about his state of mind. His bond with Asilia had been short but profound. Yet Ian's expression was calm, even resolute. With a bloodbath against Richard looming, his composure left nothing to be desired. Yergina nodded in satisfaction.
"The moment you step through that rift, there's a very high chance you'll face Richard directly. No—you will face him. He'll likely attack immediately."
"The terrain and the situation outside are the big unknowns. Though if my theory's right that the snow out there is his mana, he's probably already fighting someone."
Ian studied the blizzard, which was growing fiercer by the moment. "The real question is how severe his internal injuries are."
This place was Richard's dantian. Using the array Asilia had carved, Ian had destroyed more than half of the snowy plain from within. That was functionally the same as shattering a dantian from the inside. But a dantian manifesting in this form was anything but ordinary, which made gauging Richard's condition nearly impossible.
"An imagized dantian has been broken. His injuries won't be minor. It's safe to say roughly ninety percent of it is gone."
"In that case."
"Yes. Right now, Richard can't muster even a tenth of his power. Even a tenth is still greater than my own."
Richard Pierce. Northern Archduke. Final boss of Chapter Two. And a senior figure within the Blood Rock Sect.
In the original scenario, the most Ian could have done was gather evidence tying him to the sect. But now—
"This is our chance. We can take him."
A situation had materialized where they could hunt him outright.
Yergina's voice crackled with battle-lust. "Everyone, stay sharp. I'll take point."
She stepped into the rift and vanished. Ian hurled himself after her. The landscape warped in an instant.