A Frost That Cuts, A Wager That Binds
“Ghhk……”
The pain dragged a groan out of me against my will. It felt as though ice had replaced my blood in every vein, as if my whole body were being torn apart — for a moment, I nearly lost consciousness.
I have to pull it in.
I raised the Extreme Forging Art to its absolute peak and pushed both the Essence of Frost and the effects of Cold Heart to their very limits.
The greatest reason I had chosen to take the Ice Pill in the first place was precisely that technique.
Before learning it, I wouldn't even have been able to move my mana. Now was different.
Shhh-
Even amid an energy so immense that frost bloomed around me, I kept guiding that power toward my dantian, again and again.
It almost felt as though ice, not mana, was swirling through my mana circuits.
“Haa…….”
The moment I exhaled, I could see my breath misting in the air.
The inside of my body had turned impossibly cold — but I couldn't stop here.
Just as a body dies the instant the blood stops flowing through its vessels, if I stopped now, I would most certainly die.
Even in the middle of all this, what surfaced in my mind was a scene from the game.
No wonder there were penalties stacked all over it.
Who would have guessed this damned agony was waiting on the other side?
Forcing such stray thoughts away, I clenched my teeth. The cold that had spread through my entire body in an instant was now hurtling headlong toward my dantian.
The critical thing at this point was controlling that speed.
Even if mana carried the frost attribute and I could use it naturally, actually digesting a condensed mass of mana like the Ice Pill was another matter entirely.
Now comes the truly important part.
I focused harder still, driving the Extreme Forging Art to its very edge.
At the same time, the temperature of the room — already low — dropped further, and I could feel the things around me beginning to freeze over.
Warm it up.
When I heated the circuits instead, the damned cold surged through them all the faster.
The circuits expanded through the Extreme Forging Art, my mana affinity, and on top of that, the mana efficiency multiplied by the Frost's Blessing.
I had to put everything to use.
Not merely perceiving it, but taking what I had gained and making it a part of my body.
How much time passed like that, I couldn't say.
Suu-
The sensation of freezing from the inside out had, at some point, transformed into a strange tranquility, and I gradually felt the mana in my dantian swelling.
When the cold air of my small exhale spread through the empty room, I was finally able to open my eyes, slowly.
“It's… over.”
Sweat poured off me like rain, and the droplets froze into little beads of ice before dropping to the floor.
After settling away every last trace of residual mana, I calmly examined my dantian.
Whoa.
Materialized mana swirled around my body.
The sheer quantity was on another level from before.
It was no longer the faint, thin film from when I'd first obtained the Extreme Forging Art — it felt like a proper barrier of mana wrapped around me.
“Young Master Ian!”
Whether he had sensed the change in my mana or not, Tarian, who had been waiting outside, quickly stepped into the room.
He looked flustered, as if recalling the danger of mana backlash — but the moment he saw the barrier of mana enveloping my body, his expression changed.
“You've made an achievement.”
“Phew. I got lucky.”
“I knew you had become a Sword User, but I can hardly bring myself to call you simply that anymore.”
“That good, huh?”
“It exceeds what most knight cadets could manage.”
A small, wry laugh escaped me at his words.
Knight cadet, hm.
When we first met, I had been weaker than an ordinary foot soldier.
Then, through countless covenants, I had climbed to the level of a Seed.
And now I had become someone to whom the words knight cadet actually applied.
“I'll have to make you say 'knight-level' soon enough.”
“Keep this up and I fear you may truly surpass me one day.”
At the words Tarian spoke with a smile, I laughed in return and looked at him.
“Someday, without fail.”
“Then I had best redouble my own efforts.”
He had already been throwing himself into training with a sharpened edge of late.
If he took even greater fire from this, all the better for me.
“Thanks to you, I finished it safely. Get some good rest today.”
Forcing my heavy eyelids open, I said it to Tarian.
It was the moment I had claimed every last reward the long Subjugation Festival had to offer.
The next day arrived, and the main tournament of the Subjugation Festival began.
True to form, the participants of the main tournament were every bit as illustrious as the rising stars had been.
“You're not competing?”
“It is hardly a stage for a knight. Unless it were a matter of raising my lord's honor, perhaps.”
My honor was something I had raised quite well on my own, thank you.
Feeling a little sheepish at Tarian's swift excuse-making, I waited for the main tournament to proceed.
The championship went to Larissa Bahen.
At this point in time, she really is Tarian's equal, isn't she.
Main tournament or not, they could hardly unleash monsters dangerous enough to require actual knights within the territory.
And so the main tournament was, in practice, a matter of claiming victory against the Bahen knights who stood in as proxies for monsters.
“She's certainly exceptional.”
“That is what a knight looks like.”
I nodded at Tarian's remark, which carried a hint of could you manage that?
“Still, she doesn't look as far out of reach as she did back then.”
“I knew you'd say that.”
And so the main tournament concluded as well, and on the third day, another banquet was held — just as before.
Since the entire festival existed to prove that the Bahen house still stood strong — a gathering to cement old bonds — I supposed it was only natural.
“You aren't attending the banquet tonight?”
“I went the last two nights. That's enough.”
“There will be many nobles waiting for you, Young Master Ian.”
“Then they can come find me themselves.”
I had no intention of seeking anyone out.
Tarian burst out laughing at my words and nodded.
“Fair enough.”
“Forget it — let's have a spar instead.”
With that, I gripped my sword hilt.
The Grand Ducal house — and the Bahen family, who bore the North's martial might above all — naturally possessed a great many training facilities.
They were superb beyond any comparison to the fairly well-kept training grounds back at my own territory.
“Are we permitted to simply use this?”
“We'll be fine. I've already gotten permission.”
“You haven't actually asked yet.”
“Then why did you follow me here?”
I snorted at Johannes Bahen, who had likewise slipped away from the banquet and latched onto my side.
“Those sorts of gatherings are nothing but tedious. Besides, you are someone I have acknowledged — my rival. All the more reason to keep an eye on you.”
“I was your rival?”
“Hm……”
Watching Johannes sulk for some reason, I turned my eyes toward Tarian instead.
And sure enough, Tarian smoothly looked away.
“Less a rival, more a competitor walking the same path of the sword.”
“Right. Ian, you are my strongest competitor!”
I let out a small sigh at the sight of him recovering his spirits so late.
Maybe it was because he was still young, but the boy wore his heart on his sleeve, plain as day.
He was a bother, true — but perhaps his redeeming quality was that I couldn't quite dislike him for it.
-Return me at once! Send me back, I beg you!
Everything would have been fine if not for Winterbane, which wailed loudly in my arms every time I met this boy.
With that thought, I stepped into the training grounds used exclusively by the Bahen direct line.
“We should use it quietly. I brought us in here without permission, after all.”
“That's… oddly touching.”
“Heh. Bestowing this much favor on someone I have acknowledged is no trouble at all.”
Johannes strode forward proudly, chest puffed out — but I had barely finished watching his back before I sensed movement from deeper inside the training grounds.
Glancing over, I saw that Tarian had noticed it too, a faint tension on his face.
And when Johannes — the only one present who felt nothing at all — bounded inside with an excited expression, what awaited was……
“Johannes?”
Larissa Bahen.
I had barely begun to wonder why the star of today's banquet, of all people, was here —
“S-sister?”
“Why are you here? And beside you… Ian?”
She asked back with exactly the same expressionless face as when we'd first met.
At first glance I thought she might be angry, but the way she tilted her head made it look more like simple curiosity.
“What brings you here, sister?”
“I asked first.”
“Ah, that is… I've made some good friends of late, so I came to train with them! Ah, and beside you is——”
“I know. Ian. And Knight Tarian.”
As she looked between me and Tarian, Johannes's face brightened slightly.
“Will you teach Johannes again?”
Apparently because of the acquaintance she'd formed with him during his time serving the Bahen house, Larissa Bahen addressed Tarian without any hesitation.
“No. I serve Young Master Ian now. Though a brief word of advice, I could certainly offer.”
“Really, truly?”
It was Johannes, of all people, who reacted with fervor.
At his response — as if he'd seized an opportunity he'd never even dreamed of — Winterbane's wailing grew louder still, but I ignored it and stepped forward.
“Forgive the intrusion, Your Highness the Grand Duchess. If this disrupts your training.”
“…….”
I could feel Johannes's gaze on me, flustered at being treated so differently from his sister.
Larissa Bahen looked at me, then shook her head.
“No disruption.”
“Then I am glad.”
“It's actually convenient.”
Just as I was about to wonder what she meant by that —
“Spar with me too. A bet.”
The words came out of nowhere as she walked toward me, and I looked at her slowly.
“Very well.”
If anything, this was exactly what I wanted.
The time had come to test my newly gained abilities.
“Young Master Ian, will you truly be all right?”
The moment I accepted Larissa Bahen's proposal without a second thought, Tarian looked at me with worried eyes.
“I want to see a real Bahen blade with my own eyes.”
“Still……”
“I know.”
I had a rough idea what he was worried about.
My opponent was strong.
And since our ages weren't far apart, he was probably fretting that a defeat might break my spirit.
“After seeing me all this time, you still don't know?”
“It seems I worried over nothing once again.”
I shrugged at Tarian's wry smile.
Meanwhile, beside us, Johannes was looking back and forth between me and Larissa with eyes full of anticipation.
“C-can I watch too?”
“Watch away, I suppose.”
At my permission, Johannes's face lit up visibly.
“Are you… finished talking?”
“Thank you for waiting.”
I gave a slight bow, and she answered with a wordless nod, her face utterly blank.
“About this bet, though——”
“I'll help you. With your goal.”
It was a remarkably simple sentence, but the moment I heard it, an undignified expression slipped across my face before I could stop it.
Help me — with the unification of the North?
Considering her influence and the strength she commanded, her aid would be an immense boon, without question.
“In exchange, if I win… give it back.”
As she spoke, she pointed at Winterbane, and I nodded slowly.
I had already gained an Epic skill; that alone was more than enough.
But if I could put her help on the table as the price of this wager——
She's someone who will eventually leave the North.
If so, merely keeping her here was already a gain in itself — but if, beyond that, I could secure her help, the whole calculus changed.
The question was, what exactly were the terms of this bet?
“What are the conditions of the wager?”
“If… I like the way you fight.”
An offer that couldn't have been more vague and ill-defined.
But I wasn't worried.
My heart was already pounding at the thought of actually wielding the Extreme Forging Art with the power of the Ice Pill flowing through me.
“Shall we begin right away, then?”
“Good.”
Though I couldn't fathom why, she was looking at me with a rather favorable expression anyway.
Raising my sword without hesitation, I faced my opponent.
“Then — I'll have the honor of your first move.”
It was a fine opportunity to bind Larissa to the North.