CHAPTER 175………………………………..
The Three Meet Again in the Land of Winter (2)
Three years ago.
Leaving Sion’s side had been painful enough to feel like death, but at the same time, Ares had been confident.
“I’ll restore the honor I lost at the tournament.”
Leading the knights of his house, he believed it was more than possible.
But reality was never the same as imagination.
Though they were from the same country, the people of Akidalia slaughtered their own kind.
At times, they even killed demonfolk who lived in small villages near the border.
For no reason at all.
And just before reaching Styx—
“…Ah.”
Ares knew he would never forget the horrific sight he witnessed in one village.
No matter how many times he rubbed his eyes, no matter how many days he tried to drown it in sleep—
In the end, he caused a surge of mana.
It wasn’t large, but it was enough to eliminate every one of the bastards responsible for the massacre.
“Ah, damn it.”
Looking up at the pale white sky that day, Ares muttered to himself.
‘So Sion knew from the beginning I’d end up like this.’
Eighteen years old. An adult. Commander of the Kore Knights.
It was an age where he could have everything.
But on the battlefield, it was an age that meant nothing.
“I don’t know what you expect to see there, but if you want honor that badly, go see for yourself.”
Sion—who had always been like an older sister—had been angry because she already knew he would witness such horrors.
After he realized that—
That day, Ares’s hair turned white like the northern sky.
He never wrote about it in the report to the royal family.
‘Who would report something like “my hair turned white”?’
He merely made sure to silence the mage-knights who had witnessed the massacre with him.
‘Someday… before I return to the capital, I’ll have to deal with it somehow.’
Until then, his changed appearance was at the bottom of his priorities.
And now.
Seeing Sion cry like a shattered ice lake, he realized something again.
Even if it was embarrassing, this was something he should have told her himself.
He shouldn’t have exposed the truth like this, without giving her any time to prepare.
“Why… why didn’t you tell me…?”
From the moment she arrived at Styx, Sion’s face had been cold—but now it was stained with tears.
“You didn’t write even a single line about it in the report to the royal palace…!”
“Well, that’s, um.”
“If you say it’s because you were embarrassed, I won’t let you off.”
“……”
“Ismenios. Answer me.”
Instead of replying, Ares awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.
Damn it. She’d caught him before he could even think of a decent excuse…
Avoiding her gaze, he muttered,
“When has a person’s nature ever changed?”
“You—!”
“And what about Your Highness?”
As for him, fine.
If white hair was unpleasant to look at, he could just dye it.
‘But what about Sion?’
If what Nestor and Eunomian said was true, then Sion had been just as stubbornly foolish.
“You said you were too sick to leave the palace.”
“……”
“The image crystals were all stand-ins? And yet you’re angry only at me?”
And not once had she asked him—even briefly, even after returning from the front—to come show her his face.
Sion’s lips trembled before she frowned.
“It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m fine now.”
“Yes. Of course…”
Ares bit his lower lip and closed his eyes.
The pain burning down his throat wasn’t because he was angry she hadn’t told him.
“Sion.”
What hurt him was that when the most precious person in his world had been ill, he hadn’t known.
It wasn’t pride.
He hadn’t been able to suffer in her place.
He hadn’t even been able to nurse her.
Swallowing against the sting in his throat, he dropped to one knee.
Before Sion could flinch and speak, Ares opened his mouth first.
“I was wrong about everything.”
“……”
“Please forgive me, Your Highness.”
“Do you even know what you did wrong?”
“Leaving the cabin like that. Not properly discussing my decision. Not asking more… asking properly how you were doing.”
“……”
Sion glared at him.
But Ares could tell her gaze was no longer cold.
“…What? You knew all that?”
“I had plenty of time to think it over.”
“If you knew you were wrong, then why were you acting like that even after I came here?”
“Because when Your Highness first arrived…”
Ares lifted his head and looked straight at her.
“…I thought you didn’t like me anymore.”
“……”
Even if he always acted confident, it didn’t mean he wasn’t afraid.
After the year he thought would be perfect ended in disaster—
Sion stared down at him for a long moment, then muttered,
“You coward.”
“You’re absolutely right.”
“You’re… so smart, and yet why are you like this…?”
Covering her eyes, she let out a sigh thick with emotion.
Silence filled the room.
Not cold and heavy—
But taut with tension.
A silence that felt as though, with one proper pull, it would snap and melt into heat.
Then Sion spoke again.
“…Do you remember the day you were injured in Beled?”
“Pardon?”
“The day I was granted that land, and you came to my room crying even though you were hurt.”
“Ah.”
Ares recalled the memory from their childhood.
It was quite embarrassing for him—
But before he could rub his neck, Sion’s hand gently cupped his left cheek.
It was still small and pale.
When he felt it trembling slightly, he quietly held it in his own.
“Back then, I thought that no matter what you did to me, I would forgive you.”
“……”
“I still feel the same, Ares.”
At those words, Ares slowly closed his eyes.
He had thought Sion had changed while they were apart.
But she was still impossibly generous with him.
“…Your Highness.”
“Yes?”
“I love you. Back then, and now.”
And she was still the most precious being in his world.
From the moment they first met until now.
But Sion said nothing.
“……”
Looking at her tear-stained, dazed face, Ares thought,
‘Maybe her feelings have changed.’
Perhaps what worked three years ago had only been childish first love.
Before he could say that it was fine, that he just wanted her to know his heart—
Sion frowned slightly, then smiled.
“My feelings have never changed either.”
And her smile was as beautiful as ever.
After putting the princess and his superior in the same room—no, serving them in the same room—
Haemon felt extremely anxious.
‘I did what she told me to, but was that really the right call?’
Why someone like him, the lowest of Styx, had to do something like that—he felt like crying from fear.
But what could he do? It was the demon princess’s order.
“If one of my close aides goes to call him, he’ll probably stubbornly refuse for no reason.”
Faced with her icy authority, he had no choice but to obey.
But what if the demon princess froze the commander solid?
‘I kind of want to see that…! But if he freezes completely, that’d be a problem too.’
Reading the atmosphere nervously, Haemon headed toward the castle’s main gate.
Just then, Lunai, who had gone out on reconnaissance, came rushing in.
“Hey, Haemon!”
“Lunai? Why are you back alre—”
“Where’s the commander? I can’t reach him!”
“Uh, he’s probably getting scolded by the princess.”
“What…? Good. No, wait—not good!”
Lunai’s curious face instantly darkened.
“There’s a fight nearby. The commander needs to come.”
“A fight? But didn’t the commander already clean up everything around here?”
“Akidalian bastards who believe in the New Faith showed up.”
“O-oh…!”
Haemon’s eyes widened.
Countrymen who believed in the New Faith.
He’d heard that where they lived, beyond the demonfolk’s reach, chaos still reigned.
But had their influence really spread this far?
‘Still, if it’s the commander, he can handle it quickly, right?’
He could unleash mana flames endlessly, and the mage-knights here were all strong.
So why did Lunai look so pale?
“Let’s go where the commander is…! But is it really that serious?”
“Well… actually, it’s related to the princess.”
Biting her lip, Lunai continued,
“Those bastards are stirring things up, shouting that the Witch of Tartarus should get lost.”
