“Ugh…”
“What do you think you’re doing? Are you out of your mind? Your body’s already not in the best shape, and you’re just throwing yourself around like that!”
Kaon hurriedly approached Alessia, who was groaning in pain. Curled up from the pain, Alessia raised her barely functioning left hand and pointed to a spot.
“…From here to there. It should be somewhere in between. Could you help me look?”
“What were you thinking, doing something like that all of a sudden?”
“I roughly calculated it. I couldn’t know the exact speed or angle from when I fell that day, so I just experimented. There’d be quite a difference in height compared to being struck by the monster, and inertia would play a part too, but since I can’t get an exact value, I aimed for the closest approximation…”
Alessia, struggling to continue, finally gritted her teeth. Even though she fell to the right just like that day, the pain in her injured left arm was unavoidable. Having been bedridden for a while, her body was even stiffer, making the pain worse.
“Calculated? You can calculate something like that? And right now? No, more importantly, you threw yourself like that in your current state… Should I call you a genius or just plain foolish?”
Kaon, who had rushed to her side, carefully helped her up, still grumbling with a dissatisfied expression.
“If you needed an experiment, you could’ve asked me to do it. Why did you have to do it yourself?”
“Because we have different weights and heights. The speed and height of the fall would be different.”
The results of the calculation would vary entirely based on the mass and height of the object. As Alessia explained the basics of physics, Kaon shook his head, completely exasperated.
“…Forget the calculations. We can just search around this area. If you’re so smart, at least spare your body some pain. You’re using your brain and hurting your body at the same time. Honestly, who lives with their nose buried in books like a mage…”
He trailed off, realizing it wasn’t appropriate to say that to her.
Understanding her desperation, Kaon let out a deep sigh, but he didn’t say anything more. He just started searching the area she had pointed out.
Alessia, too, continued to search silently, dragging her shaky legs. Even though she roughly knew the location, finding the ring was another matter. Fortunately, the forest’s snow had melted.
As she moved forward, clearing leaves within the calculated range, something glinted faintly a short distance away.
“Step back!”
Startled by the sudden shout, Alessia halted her approach towards the glint. In that moment, Kaon dashed over, scooping her up and moving her back swiftly.
Alessia instinctively reached out towards the receding glint, but then her eyes widened at the sight that came into view.
“A herd of deer?”
A herd of deer, seemingly panicked as if they were being chased, was rushing from within the forest. As they neared the monster’s carcass, they abruptly changed direction and started running desperately again.
“Deer usually don’t run around like that in winter…”
Kaon’s low, uneasy voice tickled her ear. Just as Alessia was about to tell him to put her down, she froze. In the path where the deer had run, she spotted a creature that shouldn’t have been there.
“…That.”
A monstrous bear, which should have been hibernating, stood before them.
***
“Damn it, no wonder the deer were running wild.”
Muttering a curse under his breath, Kaon, still holding her, took a few more steps back, as if planning to run all the way to the forest entrance. Whether due to the long war or simply the distance, the monster seemed reluctant to leave the forest.
“Wait! I think the ring is over there.”
Alessia urgently spoke to Kaon. She couldn’t shake the feeling that the glimmer she saw was the ring. It was within the calculated range and the first unique light she had found since entering the forest.
“What? Where?”
“Over in the direction I mentioned earlier. I’m not sure, but I saw something shining. If that thing starts rummaging around the carcass, who knows where it might end up, so hurry…”
As she kept her eyes on the direction of the glimmer and rambled on, Alessia bit her lip. She realized how selfish her words sounded even to herself.
Kaon was alone. Even though she was beside him, she couldn’t participate in the fight, so it was as if he was alone.
So, her words were essentially telling Kaon to face the giant monster alone, something the entire knight squad had struggled with. She didn’t need to ask to know how burdensome that would be.
“…Let’s go back.”
Alessia, biting her inner lip until it bled, made a decision. The glimmer might not even be the ring. She couldn’t risk putting someone else in danger based on uncertain evidence. That was what Ingelos and her family had done to her.
As Alessia, who had been gripping Kaon’s neck in preparation for a run, paused, Kaon gently set her down. He looked back and forth between the monster and Alessia, gauging the distance, then nodded as if deciding it was far enough.
“Stay close to this tree.”
“What are you planning to do…”
“I’ll lure it deeper into the forest, and you look for the ring and aim for its core.”
Alessia’s eyes widened at his unexpected response. He must have been paying attention to her thoughtless words.
“What are you going to do alone? If it’s because of what I said, forget it. I might have seen wrong, so…”
Alessia shook her head hastily. She tried to calm herself, but she couldn’t stop her voice from trembling. She didn’t want to throw the kind-hearted Kaon Ferdinand into danger.
After all, it could have just been a trick of the early morning light filtering through the leaves. Her mind was now even denying what she had seen.
“I can handle it alone. The cleanup might be tricky, but with you here, that won’t be a problem.”
Kaon calmly stated that he could do what Alessia thought was impossible, then looked straight at her.
“You’re probably right about what you saw. I know you’re observant and don’t miss things like that.”
Kaon drew his sword and ran towards the monster, fully trusting what Alessia couldn’t even believe herself. Alessia couldn’t bring herself to respond and just kept her mouth shut. No words seemed adequate to answer that trust.
***
‘Will it really be okay?’
Leaning against the tree, Alessia anxiously watched Kaon’s back. The monster, noticing the approaching human, let out a fierce roar.
She already knew that Kaon was a prodigious talent and one of the top knights in Ferdinand.
But the bear-like monster was among the strongest creatures in the forest. It was puzzling why a monster that should have been hibernating had appeared in this season.
Subconsciously wondering if she was just unlucky, Alessia quickly shook off the thought and focused on watching Kaon. She remembered the location of the ring, so as soon as he lured the monster away, she planned to run over and check.
As Kaon and the monster clashed, both swung their weapons simultaneously. Alessia forced her eyes to stay open, resisting the urge to close them.
‘Sword energy…?’
In the next moment, Alessia’s eyes widened. Kaon’s sword was enveloped in sword energy.
Sword energy was the force that condensed mana from nature onto the sword. Unlike mages who used inherent magical power to stimulate mana, knights generated this force through pure physical training.
As far as Alessia knew, only a few elite knights in Ferdinand could produce sword energy. Even then, it was just enough to enhance their swords, but that alone was an incredible feat.
She knew Kaon was one of those few, but seeing it in action made her feel incredibly confused.
‘The sword energy is too vivid.’
Kaon’s sword was glowing white. It wasn’t merely reflecting the natural light; it seemed to be emitting a strange light of its own. If all that light was sword energy, Kaon wasn’t just at the level of an elite knight.
No, he wasn’t just any elite knight. He shouldn’t be content with being called the young master of Ferdinand; he could easily report to the king and take charge of a royal knight squad.
Yet, Kaon wasn’t doing that. He wasn’t even showing his full abilities within Ferdinand.
‘So, this is how he fought alone in the mist that day.’
Alessia finally understood how he had managed to deal with the monsters so quickly. It made sense if he only used his full strength when no other knights were watching.
‘Why is he hiding such skills?’
Her mind was a chaotic mess. To support his sister who would become the duke? But that alone couldn’t explain it.
Kaon landed lightly after neatly cutting off the monster’s ear. It was a movement that left her in awe. His skill was so tremendous that she no longer felt any jealousy. It was too overwhelming to even feel envious.
“Alessia!”
The enraged monster chased after Kaon, moving further away from Alessia. Snapped out of her daze by Kaon’s voice, Alessia quickly started moving. Despite her confusion, she hadn’t forgotten where she needed to go.
Finally reaching her destination, Alessia frantically searched for the ring. She was sure this was the right spot, but she couldn’t see the ring. The strong wind had scattered the leaves and possibly moved the ring along with them, especially after the herd of deer had passed through.
‘There it is!’
Using her stiffly bandaged left arm, Alessia dug through the leaves and dirt with her hands, which quickly became covered in soil. Her eyes caught sight of the red gemstone. It was less than five steps away, shining alone amidst the leaves.
Just as Alessia grabbed her throbbing arm and forced herself up to run towards the ring, a fox suddenly appeared and blocked her path.
“Keeeng!”
The unexpected appearance of the fox startled her.
🍉🍉🍉
