Chapter 159

Ripples (2)

My Weakness Hunt[M] training continued at the Frost Trial Grounds.

The training was simple.

1. Use Weakness Hunt[M].

2. Destroy the overloaded part of my brain with Dragon Burst[E].

3. Use Regeneration[B+].

That was all there was to it.

But it was only simple in words.

'Argh—!'

... It was anything but easy.

Even controlling the calories I used for Dragon Burst[E] was a major hurdle. More importantly, simply destroying my brain and using Regeneration[B+] wasn't the end of it.

I had to reconnect the neurons and synapses in the regenerated neural network. They often became tangled in the process, mixing up my memories, senses, and even thoughts.

... It was extremely dangerous.

One wrong move could kill me. My brain was one of my fatal weaknesses, after all.

I had three fatal weaknesses in total.

My heart. Hunger.

And my brain.

First, my heart was the core of Predation[S+]. If it was destroyed, I couldn't use any skills, including Regeneration[B+]. The same went for Hyper Regeneration[A].

The Memorier that had copied me had made that clear.

That was why I'd wanted the ogre's Organ Replication System[A]... but unfortunately, I hadn't obtained it.

Thus, my heart was my most fatal weakness.

Then came my second weakness: hunger.

If I ran out of calories, I couldn't use most of my skills, including Regeneration[B+], making that another fatal weakness.

The third and final weakness was my brain.

A fatal weakness any human naturally had. But mine was a little different.

An indirect weakness... I supposed I could call it.

I could heal any bodily injury with Regeneration[B+]. In other words, I could regenerate my brain too.

And activating Regeneration[B+] required two things: nutrients and will.

I could activate Regeneration[B+] by expressing my will to use the skill.

But if my brain was destroyed?

I would no longer be able to express that will.

I could regenerate a damaged brain, but if the damage went beyond a certain limit, reaching the point where I lost my will... I would die.

I wouldn't even be able to think that I needed to use Regeneration[B+].

My heart. Hunger.

And my brain.

Since it involved one of my fatal weaknesses, I repeatedly practiced Weakness Hunt[M] as though treading on thin ice.

How much time had passed?

◆Surplus Calories - 4,150Kcal

Before I knew it, my calories were nearly depleted.

I could have taken oil out of The Infinite Inventory to replenish them, but...

'Let's stop here for today.'

... I didn't think I could take any more.

As I slowly opened my eyes, I found someone staring at me from one side of the Frost Trial Grounds.

Apparently, he'd been waiting quietly in a corner so he wouldn't disturb my training. Judging by that, he seemed to have been standing there for quite some time.

But I'd been so focused on destroying and regenerating my brain that I hadn't noticed him at all.

At any rate, the handsome man with blue eyes and long blond hair—Kai—strode over to me.

"I heard you had awakened."

"As you can see."

"Are you feeling well?"

"Again, as you can see."

In truth, I wasn't feeling well.

Anyway.

"Is there something you want to tell me?"

"There is something I would like to ask of you, Lord Adrian."

"... Ask?"

Out of the blue?

"What is it?"

"I would like to receive instruction."

"... What?"

My face twisted in an instant.

Instruction?

The Kai I knew would never say such a thing. For starters, he wasn't someone who needed instruction.

The Legion Commander of Bitter Cold.

What instruction could the lich who had plunged the allied army into terror possibly need?

Of course, the current Kai fell far short of the Legion Commander of Bitter Cold. But he was growing at a speed incomparable to that of my previous life, with the potential to perhaps even reach Sovereign level.

And while he rarely showed his emotions, he was immensely proud. Kai wasn't the sort to swallow his pride and ask someone to teach him.

More importantly...

'Kai doesn't even like me all that much, does he?'

His affinity was at [Trust], but that was entirely because of Seraphia. He'd merely acknowledged me in order to protect her.

Rather than trusting me deep down, he'd only accepted me because she needed me.

Kai would have to be mad to ask me for instruction.

Could he mean he wanted instruction from someone other than me?

"Instruction? From whom?"

"I would like you to teach me, Lord Adrian."

... Had he really gone mad?

"Are you serious?"

"I am."

◆Activating fusion skill, Weakness Hunt[M].

A quick check told me all I needed to know.

... He was one hundred percent serious.

Barely holding on to my consciousness as it threatened to slip away, I spoke again.

"... Why?"

Kai lowered his gaze at my question. His lips moved repeatedly, but he couldn't quite bring himself to speak.

There seemed to be something behind this.

I waited calmly for his answer.

"... I want to keep a promise."

Biting down hard on his lower lip, Kai continued.

* * *

Once, Kai had sworn an oath as Seraphia's guardian knight.

Even if everyone on the continent abandoned her.

Even if Seraphia herself lost who she was.

["I, at least, will always remain by your side, Lady Seraphia."]

That single resolve had sustained him until now.

Others didn't understand. But he sought no one's understanding.

Since when had following one's heart required anyone's understanding?

Through every threat and ordeal, his devotion to Seraphia had sustained him.

But reality wasn't so forgiving.

Devotion alone couldn't keep him by her side.

["I'll accept House Veneron's proposal."]

He hadn't been able to protect Seraphia from a marriage that was little different from being sold off.

["I'm... sorry. Sir Kai..."]

He hadn't been able to protect her from the lycanthrope.

That was when he'd realized it.

Half-measures in strength and martial prowess couldn't protect Seraphia.

To be blunt, Kai couldn't do what Adrian did. But he possessed innate talents for aura and swordsmanship that were no less remarkable.

So he had vowed to grow stronger and stronger, until he could effortlessly cut down the likes of the season of bitter cold or a lycanthrope.

He had made that vow and worked toward it.

But during the recent fight with the ogre, Adrian had warned him over and over.

["An ogre won't die even if its head is destroyed. So never let your guard down, even after landing a fatal blow."]

Yet Kai had ended up forgetting that warning.

Living without a head.

Even he couldn't readily grasp the existence of a monster like the ogre, whose biological structure was fundamentally different.

A mistake.

But on the battlefield, a single mistake could lead to fatal consequences. And Kai's mistake had done exactly that.

["It's not over yet!!"]

BOOOOM!

At the same moment Adrian shouted, the ogre's fist struck Kai squarely.

... After that, there was a gap in his memory.

When he opened his eyes, his blood-soaked body had already been hurled to the ground.

His limbs wouldn't obey him. Pain tore through his entire body, repeatedly breaking his awareness.

["... Urgh."]

Forcing his blurred vision into focus, he saw Adrian facing the ogre alone.

He saw Seraphia and Brumbar desperately trying to control the Arcanoheart's runaway energy.

... Things were going terribly wrong.

None of it would have happened if Kai hadn't let his guard down. If he'd only remembered Adrian's warning, they could have slain the ogre without difficulty.

... But he hadn't.

As a result, everyone had nearly died.

Without Brumbar, they couldn't have held the ogre back.

Without Seraphia, the Arcanoheart would have exploded.

Without Adrian, they couldn't have slain the ogre.

And without Kai... there wouldn't have been any trouble at all.

In the end, Seraphia had been bedridden once more.

And Kai... had once again been powerless to do anything.

Afterward, it was Adrian who had assessed her condition and devised a solution. It was Leon who had summoned the Saintess.

Kai had done... absolutely nothing.

... Far from protecting Seraphia, he'd put her in danger.

That was why.

["There's a festival going on right now! Come with us, Sir Kai!"]

["I'm fine, thank you."]

["Huh? Why?"]

Standing beside Seraphia now... might only mean holding her back.

["You've been so busy lately that you haven't had a chance to rest either, Sir Kai. So at least this time, come—"]

["I'm fine. If you enjoy yourself, Count, that will be enough for me."]

Perhaps it would be better to leave her side instead.

["H-huh? Sir Kai!"]

... Kai had no choice but to flee from her hand as she reached to stop him.

* * *

Kai's story had been almost a confession.

It was fairly long, but the gist was simple.

'So it's all because of Seraphia after all.'

He was just a lunatic obsessed with Seraphia.

A complete lunatic, at that.

In other words, he was exactly the same Kai. The very same man he'd always been.

As expected, the only thing that could make him cast aside all his pride was something involving Seraphia.

That made me curious.

"Let me ask you one thing."

"Please do."

"Why do you want to protect Seraphia so badly?"

At first, I'd wondered whether it stemmed from romantic feelings for her.

'But that doesn't seem to be it.'

That was what I'd confirmed in Frecce last time.

Still, I couldn't be sure. Kai might have been hiding his feelings for her.

"It isn't something I seek anyone's understanding for."

Kai evaded the question.

Unfortunately for him, I now had a way to find out even if he hid it.

◆Activating fusion skill, Weakness Hunt[M].

I intuitively grasped Kai's emotions.

They were too desperate... to be mere fondness or romantic love.

As though protecting Seraphia was his very reason for existing.

A knight's loyalty? A sense of duty?

No.

It was an emotional compulsion that ran far deeper.

This obsessive emotion was so excessively deep that it tied his very reason for existing to Seraphia...

'... I don't get it.'

Kai hadn't twisted the laws through sheer will to become a lich for nothing.

Perhaps that was why I suddenly wondered: if his devotion ran this deep, how had the relationship between us gone wrong?

The memories were so old that I couldn't recall them.

They were memories of my previous life, too. The horrors of the battlefield had tainted and stained them, leaving me unable to remember much of what had happened at home.

'... Forget it.'

Who could understand what went on in a lunatic's head?

Wouldn't understanding him make me a lunatic too?

More importantly, it was all in the past. To me now, Kai was simply the Legion Commander of Bitter Cold.

Shaking off those thoughts, I considered his story again.

There were... a few things to correct.

First of all.

"You're blaming yourself too much. Kai, I couldn't have done anything without you either."

Back then, the recoil from Dragon Impact[E] had left me unable to move. I'd needed time to pull myself together and replenish my calories.

But Brumbar had reached the limit. The dwarves had bought us time, but not much.

So the one who had actually bought me that time was Kai, who had pressed the ogre at the very last moment.

"If you hadn't held the ogre back at the end—"

"Even without me."

Kai cut me off and continued.

"If another Master knight had been there instead of me, they could still have held the ogre back."

"..."

"But the same isn't true of you, Lord Adrian. If another Master knight had stood in your place, they couldn't have slain it."

... I had no answer to that.

But it wasn't as though I had nothing at all to say.

Only Kai could have fought again after taking a direct hit from the ogre.

Immortal Link[E].

Thus, his ability to press the ogre at the end hadn't come from being a Master knight, but from being Kai.

But Kai didn't seem to see it that way.

"And if it had been another Master knight instead of me... things would never have reached that point."

He still couldn't forgive himself for failing to protect Seraphia.

He was even questioning his reason for existing—whether he deserved to remain by her side when another Master knight could replace him.

"So... you want me to teach you?"

He wanted to overcome those doubts and surpass his own limits.

"Yes."

"Kai, as you know, I don't use a sword."

"I know."

"And you still want me to teach you?"

Kai's swordsmanship was a cut above mine.

No, not one cut—several.

If we fought with swords, I couldn't beat him.

"I didn't mean that I wanted to learn swordsmanship."

"Then what?"

"I want to learn your methods, Lord Adrian."

"... My methods?"

"To be precise, I want to learn the methods underlying the techniques you use."

"Ah."

The martial principles I'd learned from Ian.

That seemed to be what he meant. Apparently, he'd glimpsed the martial principles imbued in my evolved skills during the fight with the ogre.

'Can you really see those just by watching?'

A genius was a genius, after all.

Lucas, the commander of the Royal Guard, hadn't coveted him for nothing. Nor had he become the Legion Commander of Bitter Cold who plunged the allied army into terror for nothing.

'Me, teaching Kai.'

Naturally, it had never even crossed my mind.

Could teaching the Legion Commander of Bitter Cold even make sense?

But now that I'd decided not to kill Seraphia, there was no longer any need to kill Kai either.

That aside, though...

"I can't teach you."

"... Understood."

Kai calmly bowed his head. He backed down surprisingly easily.

But his emotions told a different story.

Disappointment.

There was nothing I could do about it.

For starters, I didn't properly understand the martial principles myself. I knew even less about how to imbue a sword with them.

What was I supposed to teach him, and how?

So...

"All I said was that I can't teach you."

This was actually perfect timing.

I could practice Weakness Hunt[M], test the physical abilities that had evolved through using Predation[S+] on the ogre, and experiment with Mana Predation.

I needed combat experience myself before entering the empire.

"Kai, learn from me firsthand."

* * *

The festive atmosphere had spread throughout the county. Everyone gathered in the square was brimming with anticipation.

Seraphia quietly steadied her breathing.

All the preparations were complete.

Iliana and Isolde.

The two allies who would leave Adrian no room to refuse were already at her side.

Only one thing remained.

"Is everyone ready?!"

It happened just as Seraphia shouted with a determined look on her face.

KA-BOOM!

An explosion sounded somewhere. The air shook violently, followed by another blast.

BOOM!

The successive explosions instantly chilled the festive atmosphere.

"Was that... an explosion?"

"What's going on?"

"Did something blow up at the runesteel refinery?"

"No, that's the wrong direction."

The crowd began to stir.

BOOOOM!

Another explosion rang out, fiercer than the last.

"Huh...?"

Confusion crossed Seraphia's face, while Iliana's and Isolde's expressions instantly stiffened.

And at that very moment...

"Little Monster Brother and Wolf Brother are fiiighting!!"

A dwarf's booming cry rang out from somewhere, echoing throughout the county.