CHAPTER 148
Aranseol’s confession.
What is the proper way to respond to a confession?
“Aranseol.”
I couldn’t repeat the same mistake I made with Babiyen.
“...What am I supposed to say right now?”
I was an idiot.
Honestly, my mind had gone completely blank. I had no idea what to say.
Aranseol is a precious person to me.
And so is Babiyen.
Over time, they both became the most important people to me, and if I had to prioritize them… In any case, my brain wasn’t sharp enough to give an immediate answer to their confessions.
More than anything, they are the two people I trust the most. Answering now would shatter my relationship with one of them.
For me, that meant losing one of the most important people I trusted.
Naturally, my future would become uncertain.
I used to mock the indecisive male leads in novels and comics, but now I felt like I was that idiot.
As I was wallowing in self-loathing at my own pathetic state, Aranseol, for some reason, covered her mouth with the back of her hand and let out a laugh. Was she feeling relieved now that she’d gotten it off her chest?
“Harua, what kind of person am I to you?”
“A precious person.”
That, I could answer in a heartbeat.
“Do you have romantic feelings for me, Harua?”
“...I don’t know about that. It feels like it’s gone beyond that.”
At some point, that’s the place Aranseol had come to occupy in my life.
“Did Babiyen want an answer from you?”
“No.”
She hadn’t.
Babiyen had simply been honest with me about her overflowing emotions.
She hadn’t expected an answer.
………No, that’s not right.
This is just my own selfish thinking.
A selfish heart that’s afraid of moving forward in a relationship.
The days I spent living in this world, treating its people as uncivilized and looking down on them.
It was a self-imposed restraint that had continued since then.
I had taken a small step forward after defeating Bloody Crown, but it was only a small one.
In the end, I was the type of person who couldn’t rest easy until the problem of Black Dawn was resolved.
So I had vaguely postponed dealing with the problems in my own relationships.
It was a vague hope for a future where things would be okay after Black Dawn was finished.
Aranseol, just like Babiyen, wasn’t forcing me to answer.
I could vaguely understand why.
“...I really am a pathetic guy.”
Her confession then, and her confession today, were purely out of consideration for me.
Both of them knew I was shackled by Black Dawn, so they had deliberately stepped back for me.
“I know that I’m a precious person to you. And…”
Aranseol raised her hand and felt my chest.
“I also know why you can’t be certain, and I’m sure part of what’s holding you back is in here, too.”
“So you knew I don’t have a heart.”
“Who do you think has been by your side the longest?”
She was right. Aranseol had been by my side even before I learned to artificially create a heartbeat.
It wouldn’t have been difficult for her to notice.
“I know the heart performs many functions. And I suspect that the reason you never revealed anything to me, even if you set aside the other this-worlders, is because of that.”
“Aren’t you a little too confident in your own charms?”
“Heehee, my life hasn’t been smooth enough for me to be ignorant of it.”
True, exceptional beauty isn’t always a blessing.
There must have been no shortage of people who started with blunt confessions and moved on to revealing their desires.
Even in modern society, exceptional looks attract stalkers.
In this uncivilized world with its shattered ethics, it was likely worse, not better.
It was only less severe for Aranseol because of the strength she possessed, and because a man like me was always with her.
But the discomfort from unwanted gazes was a constant companion.
“I think you can give me your answer after you find your heart.”
“It’s a well-known fact that No-Nameds are missing body parts.”
“Even so, I don’t want to let you live your whole life without a heart.”
Aranseol took my hand, and a warmth spread through my body.
“I want your daily life to be one that makes your heart race, Harua.”
“It’s already so brutal every day that I’m terrified.”
“Including that, I mean a person who can open their heart and live freely in our world.”
The ideal that Aranseol envisioned.
It seemed vague, yet at the same time, not so far away.
Above all, the idea of getting my heart back didn’t feel entirely impossible.

I recently heard the secret of the Transferees from the Saintess.
Since we were ultimately brought to this world by Transcendents, I figured the answer must lie with them as well.
“Just don’t let your heart burst later when it’s time for an answer.”
“And how would you know what kind of answer you’ll get?”
“That…”
Aranseol’s lips curled into a sly smile.
“Let’s save that for then, shall we?”
For some reason, I felt like I could see a fox tail wagging behind her back.
The more time passed, the more she tried to tempt me by using her charm.
This… wouldn’t this be dangerous if I actually had a heart?
It seemed I would have to work tirelessly to avoid being ensnared by Aranseol.
“That’s all I wanted to say. I’ve introduced you to Mom and Dad, too.”
Aranseol trotted over and wrapped her arm around mine once again.
She was clinging to me a little more than usual. I couldn’t tell if it was just because I was more conscious of it, or if she was doing it intentionally.
“Let’s go get something to eat.”
“Dates are long, I see.”
“You have to spend the whole day with me, okay?”
Just the whole day?
I could give her a lifetime.
But that aside, there was something I wanted to ask.
“Aranseol, you know I can revive your parents, right?”
The Resurrection magic I was given.
With it, I could bring Aranseol’s parents back.
Aranseol was silent for a moment.
She couldn’t have been unaware of this fact.
“Could you wait just a little longer for that?”
Hearing her next words, I looked at her.
“If my parents came back to me now, I feel like I would become weak.”
I had a vague idea of what she meant.
The source of Aranseol’s resolve was her parents’ death.
That’s why, though she must want to see them more than anyone, she wanted to steel her will for now.
“Besides, won’t the desire to revive my parents make me protect you even more diligently?”
Perhaps she was afraid of facing her parents.
The person she had become.
The memory of the moment her parents were murdered.
All of it was likely holding Aranseol captive.
“I promise.”
I pulled Aranseol, who was holding my arm, into an embrace.
“Let’s defeat Black Dawn, and then we’ll come see your parents.”
At that time, I would give Aranseol her family back.
At my answer, Aranseol smiled brightly.
After that, Aranseol and I finished a pleasant meal and returned after looking around Wolun.
It was a delightful time that would remain deeply etched in my memory.
And upon returning to Soun’s estate, the training began once more.
Exactly three months later…
Soun disappeared.

Soun was gone. The truth was, the signs had been there for a while.
Given the circumstances surrounding him.
That’s why I knew in an instant who he had gone to find.
“Sohan, is it?”

Soun had undoubtedly gone searching for Sohan.
Was Sohan that important to him?
Or perhaps, believing that Sohan, a disciple he had already accepted, had fallen onto the wrong path, he had gone to set him straight.
He was such a stubborn and frustrating man.
He could have at least consulted Aranseol, his other disciple.
“He thinks it’s his responsibility, right to the very end.”
Aranseol also sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead.
“Harua, Asheria Eve has some kind of brainwashing ability, right?”
“You don’t think Sohan was brainwashed, do you?”
“Coming from Master, that’s a high probability.”
That was a very dangerous line of thought.
Asheria Eve herself had once said that No-Nameds were difficult to handle.
It was uncertain whether Asheria Eve had truly brainwashed Sohan.
“And he’ll take it one step further.”
Aranseol slowly pressed her fingers to her lips.
“If Sohan wasn’t brainwashed, but made the choice himself…”
Conviction filled Aranseol’s eyes.
“He intends to kill Sohan with his own hands.”
My eyes widened.
The decision Soun had made.
It was, in effect, to kill Sohan.
“Sohan is a sword that Master taught personally. He’s the kind of person who would readily eliminate his own sword rather than let it be used for evil.”
I knew Soun was that kind of man from my own experience with him.
He was more than capable of doing it.
Had he been lying low all this time just to make this decision?
Soun must have resolved to cut down Sohan countless times in his head before finally concluding that he could do it.
It was just like Soun, if you could call it that.
“How in the world does he plan to find Sohan?”
Black Dawn’s movements were more elusive than one might think.

Even the Regular Army, with its global intelligence network, couldn’t find them.
It would be one thing to wait until news of them surfaced, but moving alone was a miscalculation.
“I don’t know. Lord Soun has always been like that.”
Even after rising to the rank of Sword Lord, he still caused trouble.
I covered my face and sighed.
If we chased after him now, could we even find him?
It would be impossible.
I had personally ridden on Soun’s back as he flew through the sky.
That wasn’t a speed a human could achieve.
Soun had likely left Wolun’s territory long ago.
And he would probably visit and destroy every location where news of Black Dawn surfaced.
“...Should I consider this a blessing in disguise?”
Soun would uproot Black Dawn until he found Sohan.
Considering only that, his unilateral action wasn’t bad.
In fact, for Black Dawn, it was a worst-case scenario.
But it was also true that we had lost a trump card we could always rely on.
I wracked my brain for a moment, but ultimately came to no conclusion.
As long as we couldn’t go find Soun, it was a meaningless exercise.
More than that, I was worried about Aranseol.
“Aranseol, what about your training?”
Aranseol had returned to Wolun to train under Soun.
Now that she was without his guidance, I wondered what she would do.
“That’s fine. He gave me instructions for all the training I need to do before he left. I think Master took this period into consideration.”
Aranseol had already built up a solid foundation.
Although she said she had no talent for the sword, she had years of practice swinging one.
Now was a time when her own enlightenment was more important than Soun’s guidance.
Soun must have known that, which was why he left Aranseol behind.
If so, it was a silver lining to this misfortune.
“More importantly, Harua, there’s something I want to ask of you.”
“A request?”
It was rare for Aranseol to ask for a favor first.
“Master always forbade it, but there’s a place I believe I must go to now.”
Hearing that Soun had forbidden it made me nervous.
If he had forbidden it, it must have been for Aranseol’s sake.
“What is it?”
When I asked quietly, Aranseol raised her hand.
There, behind Soun’s estate, was a mountain of dizzying height.
I had heard it was Mt. Cheonryun, the highest mountain in the 1st World, Astrape.
In the first place, Wolun itself was actually part of Mt. Cheonryun.
Wolun was at a much higher altitude than ordinary countries, a nation carved out of the mountain itself.
“At the peak of Mt. Cheonryun, there is a sword. It’s a sword that many have challenged, but none have succeeded in drawing and returning with.”
“You want me to help you find it?”
To my question, Aranseol shook her head.
“No, I need your Resurrection magic.”
“What?”
For a moment, I asked back stupidly.
But Aranseol’s eyes were serious.
“If I fail to draw the sword and go mad, I want you to kill me and resurrect me. Then I’ll try to draw it again.”
So, right now…
She was suggesting we do an infinite respawn.
After spending time with me, Aranseol had really lost a few screws.