Chapter 65
Kaon, answering with confidence, climbed the stairs up to the wall. Step, step. His footsteps echoed through the quiet dawn until his figure appeared atop the battlements.
He’s not really planning to jump, is he?
Alesia looked up at him with uneasy eyes. The wall was easily over ten meters tall—high enough that even gazing at it from below made her dizzy. Yet Kaon, standing on top, looked utterly calm.
He glanced down at Alesia for a moment, then suddenly walked away from the gate, putting some distance between them. Once he judged the gap sufficient, he looked back at her again and began stretching his neck as if to loosen up.
Then, as his gaze dropped downward—
“…!”
Without the slightest hesitation, Kaon leapt from the wall.
Alesia was so stunned she couldn’t even scream. She simply clapped a hand over her mouth, her crimson eyes shaking violently.
He’s insane— I thought he was just a kind fool, but he’s crazy on top of it…!
Overcome with shock, she could only stare wide-eyed for a moment before rushing toward the place where Kaon had fallen. A cloud of dust rose like fog, obscuring everything, and through it she could barely make out a faint silhouette. Anxious now, Alesia broke into a run.
“You haven’t even recovered fully—why would you jump? Are you trying to hurt yourself again?”
“You!”
Kaon suddenly burst out from the dust and grabbed her. She was so baffled she couldn’t speak. Her lips merely parted in soundless astonishment as she hurriedly looked him over, but he showed no sign of injury.
“I told you. Just jumping down is fine for me.”
He seemed a little embarrassed at her scrutinizing gaze, his reply somewhat sheepish. Meeting her eyes at last, Alesia demanded,
“How? What did you do?”
Even after witnessing it with her own eyes, she couldn’t believe it. There had been no device, no magic. Kaon had simply jumped.
“If you’re asking how… I guess you could say I just dispersed the impact?”
Kaon frowned slightly, as if he himself didn’t know how to explain it. That made Alesia all the more dumbfounded. Was he really saying he couldn’t explain the principle, only that his body had somehow learned it?
“Do all knights jump down from there?”
“Of course not. Maybe Maurice, Yvonne, or Nils could. But Maurice would never agree to do it.”
So—only elite knights, then. Among hundreds of knights, there were fewer than ten such individuals. And Kaon was the youngest of them all.
Alesia closed her mouth, abandoning her next question. If that was talent, there was nothing more to be said. She’d seen enough in Ingellos to know that age didn’t always match ability.
“You don’t have to make that face. I’m really fine.”
Sensing the tense atmosphere, Kaon spoke carefully. Alesia nodded slowly, then pushed against his arm as he tried to lift her again.
“Not in your arms. Just give me a piggyback.”
“You’re sure?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’d have to look down anyway, so this way is better.”
Kaon immediately lowered himself, offering his back. The bluish light of dawn spread across his broad shoulders.
Alesia hesitated, staring at that back for a moment, then awkwardly crossed her arms around his neck and let herself rest against him. Kaon rose, supporting her firmly with one hand while picking up their pack with the other.
“Should I carry it?”
“If I can’t even carry this much, I might as well quit being a knight.”
When she reached for the pack, Kaon shot her a curt reply, as if telling her not to say anything unnecessary. Strangely, he wore armor only on his lower body, having packed the rest away.
“Isn’t it uncomfortable, riding like this?”
“…I’m fine.”
The clattering of metal plates inside the pack rang in her ears. Then Alesia realized—he hadn’t worn his upper armor at all, just so he could carry her more easily. He’d planned to do so from the start.
Always too kind, aren’t you.
A faint sigh escaped her. He had been deceived and even threatened by her, yet here he was, helping her at dawn, burdening himself for her sake.
If he exploded in anger and swore to stop all this nonsense, no one could blame him. Yet he still noticed these small details and adjusted for her. That kindness was baffling.
I envy it.
She envied that ease with which he could give his whole heart to someone else. Alesia was always restless, anxious, with no time to truly look into anyone. All she ever did was skim the surface and respond by instinct.
But Kaon—though outwardly brusque and indifferent—had a subtle sensitivity beneath it all.
Alesia had always envied him: his composure, his upbringing that allowed him to grow so guilelessly kind, his extraordinary gifts, and even the way he seemed to take all his blessings for granted. She envied it all.
She pressed half her face into his shoulder. Kaon flinched, but she ignored it. At least this way, he wouldn’t see the twisted expression born of her inferiority.
As they walked on, Kaon suddenly turned his head toward her, only to startle like a man burned and whip his gaze back ahead. Feeling his awkward movement, Alesia lifted her head just as he hastily spoke.
“…Uh. Without the ring, you can’t use magic at all? I mean—what I’m asking is, is there a spell to track the ring itself?”
His ears, visible without his helmet, were flushed red. She relaxed against him again, and his jaw instantly stiffened. Alesia chuckled despite herself—his reactions were far too honest.
“No. I can’t. There’s no such spell. They told me never to take it off, not even for a moment.”
Her voice, tinged with laughter, carried an undertone of heaviness. Each time she had to expose her own incompetence, her heart sank.
Lishar had told her that with the ring, she could use magic. And it was true. Alesia would never forget the first time she’d worn it and cast a spell.
Once the sensation became familiar, she had dared to hope: Maybe now I can feel mana myself? Even if the power wasn’t hers, using it through the ring might have fostered some affinity.
But when she nervously removed the ring and tried the same spell with trembling hands, nothing happened. Not once, no matter how many times she tried. In the end, she had to accept failure again.
Without that ring, I’m nothing.
Swallowing the bitter truth, Alesia bit down hard on her lip.
It was still before dawn. The forest was wrapped in a dim, bluish glow. After walking a long while, Kaon—now wearing the rest of his armor—finally set Alesia gently on her feet.
“It should be around here.”
“Yes. This is the place.”
Alesia, who had been scanning the woods carefully the whole way, nodded.
The fierce battle from that day had left lingering scars in the forest: carcasses of beasts, heaps of blackened leaves poisoned by monsters’ venom, and grotesquely burned remnants of creatures.
She began examining the area in earnest. As Kaon had said, wild animals avoided the path of monsters for some time, so the battlefield remained relatively preserved. Only the fallen leaves covering the corpses hinted at how much time had passed.
“The ring might be buried under these leaves.”
“After a week, that’s likely. But your ring isn’t light enough to blow away, so it shouldn’t have gone far.”
He clearly had already considered the possibility. Using his sword scabbard, Kaon sifted through the piles of leaves. Meanwhile, Alesia spotted an unusually large monster corpse and moved toward it.
It was about this size. If this is the one, there should be another corpse nearby…
Piecing together hazy memories, she searched methodically until her gaze fixed on something. Not far off, she found another carcass. And beyond that, on a large tree, scorch marks scarred the bark.
Thump, thump. Her heart pounded with nervous anticipation as she drew closer. Near the rotting remains, she saw an oddly deep impression in the ground.
“Here.”
“Here? Are you sure?”
The forest floor was thick with leaves, soft enough to record footprints. And the spot where Alesia had been struck down was no different. But this depression was far too large to be a footprint.
Without hesitation, Alesia lay her body against the mark. The size fit perfectly. This was where she had fallen under the monster’s attack.
After confirming it, she sprang to her feet and moved to where she had been standing before leaping into the monster that day.
Then, taking a few steps sideways, she drew in a deep breath—before hurling herself toward the sunken spot, just as she had done then.
“Alesia!”
Seeing this, Kaon shouted, his voice a sharp cry of alarm.
