Chapter 929 - Companionship and Responsibility
The entrance to the city of Yohan was through a small canyon.
Passing through it and entering the city revealed many impressive scenes.
'He said they were just people.'
To Ropord, the surroundings looked different now.
The meaning of the "just" that Ragna had used struck him with a newfound sincerity.
"Everyone swings their swords with an expression similar to the Captain's."
They all looked intoxicated with joy.
"This is the Yohan family. That is the default here."
The answer came from Ragna's sister.
Grida, who had a wanderlust streak, had traveled far and wide, so she understood how outsiders viewed them.
Well, knowing this companion was a member of the Madmen Knights, she had expected he wouldn't be too shocked.
"What? It's Ragna."
Magrun passed by briefly, and Ropord exchanged a polite greeting before following Ragna.
Ragna went straight to the Head of the Family.
***
"You mean you came to teach us what you learned?"
Blitzkling, Alexandra Yohan's eyes widened.
His father was similarly surprised.
Tempest Yohan dropped the teacup he was pouring.
Of course, he snatched it back out of the air before it hit the ground.
"Who are you?"
His father asked.
Ropord listened to the heavy joke and read the bewilderment contained within.
"You're saying strange things. It's me."
Ragna furrowed his brow as he retorted.
"Right, you're my son. That's why I'm asking. Because that's not something my son would say."
The Yohan family was never stingy about sharing techniques and teaching each other.
But hadn't his son possessed habits completely unsuited to this place?
He was a guy who only knew himself.
That Ragna came all the way here on purpose to teach techniques?
Tempest and Alexandra Yohan exchanged glances.
"Is it an evil spirit?"
Odincar Yohan, who appeared behind them, also stiffened his eyes upon hearing Ragna's words.
"Were you, like, the black sheep of the family?"
Ropord whispered the question.
Ragna's brow furrowed even deeper.
"It should be fine to lose an arm, right?"
He answered in the style of that bastard Rem, which was enough to shut Ropord up.
Two stupid remarks would cost him an arm.
Ropord closed his mouth.
Ragna didn't know how to persuade them by reciting his life story piece by piece.
'Maybe that King could do it.'
What about Krang?
He was the kind of person who could seize control of the situation with just a few words here.
He would express his will eloquently.
Seeing him in the South, he was a human who did such things as if they were nothing.
'No need to do what I can't do.'
For the next three days, Ragna faithfully carried out the purpose of his visit.
It was a process of teaching and learning.
He explained the concept of Will Density to his father and mother.
"Fine. I don't understand a single word. You damn little brother."
Grida got angry a few times, but everything went smoothly.
Ragna felt awkward throughout this entire process.
In the process of teaching what was necessary, he realized his own change anew.
'Walking alone.'
It's fast.
Since there is no need to explain to anyone while building skills, one just has to move to the next step.
Ragna was the possessor of such talent.
That was why he had walked alone without worry until now.
And he lost.
'Defeat.'
It was Ragna's first defeat.
Yet, he didn't feel resentful.
Didn't the opponent spare him because he ignored him?
'Then why don't I feel resentful?'
Since when was it?
Even while walking the set path, Ragna wanted to walk fast.
He expected something new to appear when he reached the end.
It was a way of life he realized alone after seeing Enkrid.
And now he realized a new principle.
'Walking alone is fast, but you cannot see properly.'
It is a walk without looking around.
'Walking together.'
It is slow, but you look around.
'It harbors not just fun, but meaning.'
The benefit gained by looking back.
'Meaning.'
For what did his father swing his sword?
'To protect the family.'
In other words, for the people standing behind his back.
Thoughts scattered.
Ragna caught his thoughts splitting into several branches.
He knew that meaning now, too.
So what he should look at now wasn't meaning.
It was time to learn how to turn his head to the side.
'As much as I catch my breath, I see the path I passed.'
Did he always make the right choices?
No.
Looking back, he could see.
Like that, he looked back on himself and looked around.
'It's not slow.'
Being with everyone isn't slow.
When a storm rages, two hands cannot build a dam, but if those hands become a hundred, over a thousand, they can block even an overflowing river.
'Not slow, but wide.'
Widen the vision.
Accept a new world.
Thoughts difficult to express in words settle in.
Ragna picked up the firewood ignited by his defeat to Enkrid.
Now he looked at the flame, digging into the meaning contained within.
"No one talk to me."
Ragna had fallen into his own world before anyone knew.
In Yohan, this was rare, but at the same time, a familiar occurrence.
Alexandra dismissed everyone around.
'Son, your eyes have improved.'
She thought inwardly, feeling proud.
It was thanks to seeing the appearance she had so desperately hoped for in Ragna.
***
Fel had a dream.
It must have been because he naturally recalled his shepherd days while ruminating on his resolve to beat up that bastard Ropord before going to sleep.
"Fel, you bastard, lead them properly. That's a cliff."
He heard Ropord's voice, but he was standing next to a flock of sheep.
"What are you talking about? Do you know how long I've lived as a shepherd?"
Fel said, looking ahead.
As expected, it was indeed a cliff.
Looking back, strange creatures with Ropord's head on sheep bodies looked at him and spoke.
"It is you who led us here."
"Thinking of running away? Indeed. It's not your responsibility."
"Actually, it wasn't you who guided us either."
"You can just go. Since we came here on my own."
Dozens of sheep with Ropord's head spoke again and again.
Then, their faces distorted, and they charged forward.
"There's a cliff ahead!"
Fel shouted.
The sheep with Ropord's heads all looked back.
Yet, their feet didn't stop.
"Then catch us."
The falling Ropords said.
Fel woke from the dream.
"What a dog like dream!"
He shouted, sitting up instantly as he woke.
Several servants lived together within the Madmen Knights quarters.
Some of them were also part of the recruits.
The recruit assigned to Fel this time was opening the door and asked back in surprise.
"Pardon?"
A stupid expression that seemed to show this is the standard.
At that single question, Fel's mind returned to reality.
"It's nothing."
Fel got up.
'Unpleasant.'
Not quite a nightmare, but a thoroughly unpleasant dream.
Fel went outside, closed his eyes, and felt the wind.
The cold wind washed his head clean.
'Responsibility.'
The word from the dream still remained in his heart.
It felt like a tangled skein was knotted somewhere near his heart.
When he told Luagarne about his worry:
"In front of a frog you must call it 'it'. You moron."
He gained the opportunity to demonstrate the talent of making a calm Frog like Luagarne angry.
Fel spent a few days like that and then took charge of the unit.
It was Krais's request to fill the vacancy left by Roford.
"Glory."
Fel was still awkward receiving military salutes.
"Uh, yeah."
Although his affiliation was a Knight Order, maybe that was the case because he had lived more comfortably without formalities than with military salutes.
Krais organized the infantry of the Border Guard in a peculiar form.
Should say he implemented the characteristics of the affiliated knights as they were?
Except for the direct unit he handled himself, it was so.
Rem and the Assault Unit, Audin and the Martial Arts Infantry, the Swordsman Unit under Ragna.
Plus the infantry unit written as Enkrid's direct guard but read as the suicide crazy bastards squad.
Excluding Jaxen, he configured them similarly to the colors within the Knight Order.
Fel took charge of the Swordsman Unit under Ragna.
Specifically, he taught the top ten within the Swordsman Unit.
If the Assault Unit was rough and the Martial Arts Infantry was steadfast, the Swordsman Unit was sharp.
'Are they about Squire level?'
Especially among these ten, the skill gap was significant for a few.
"Spar?"
It started with light sparring.
As he did so, something tormenting his head approached as a clear question.
What is responsibility?
The worry that had started while watching Ropord hadn't found an answer yet.
'Duty, responsibility.'
He hadn't lived a life suited to such words.
Meaning they were very unfamiliar words to Fel.
'So is it okay to pass by without knowing?'
An ominous intuition flowed down his spine.
That bastard Ropord wouldn't rest learning and mastering something, especially not while in Yohan.
Being pushed back when the bastard returned was unacceptable.
Fel worried about what was important for days.
Through the answer gained like that, he was trying something new.
He rubbed shoulders with the soldiers.
Teaching, eating, sleeping, and rolling together.
When the initially awkward relationship became much more comfortable, Fel knew why he lost to Ropord every time in group battles.
'We are entwined with each other.'
Believing while watching what the one leading from the front showed.
The difference between a unit commander carrying responsibility on his back and one who didn't was too great.
Responsibility, the way to do one's best in assigned work.
'It is better to show once than to say believe me.'
Advice heard from Enkrid before starting all this work.
Fel followed those words.
He knew responsibility now.
***
"It was quite a long way, wasn't it?"
At Audin's words, Theresa nodded.
"It was a far walk, but it was enjoyable."
On the surface, Audin looked like he would only read scriptures and give sermons every day, but he was unexpectedly good with words.
He knew many interesting anecdotes and knew how to be considerate of others.
Theresa appreciated that consideration as they reached Legion.
They had just passed the Pope's castle, adorned with gold decorations on white, and entered inside.
"Welcome."
It was a small reception room.
The one greeting the two was Pope Noah.
The Pope himself came out.
"Seeing friends makes me happy."
Noah treated the two with a beaming face.
Theresa doubted if she could sit with such a person, but didn't step forward.
'It's not my place to step forward.'
She was a sword of the Demonic Realm Holy Cult, a heretical sect.
She fought by their orders.
The past does not disappear.
Therefore, her sin was forever bound to her body.
That was why she was full of doubt whether she could set foot in Legion until she came.
No matter how much the Pope welcomed her, this place was still a seat harboring anxiety for her.
Noah was a busy man.
He barely drank a cup of tea and vacated his seat quickly.
"Tell me more about that friend Enki later."
Then, the person called Audin's adoptive father stepped up and guided the two.
"We cut out most of the rotten bastards within Legion, but you never know. Where they might be coiling. We caught remnants of the Demonic Realm Holy Cult until recently."
"Do they still remain?"
"They deceived many neighbors around. Saying they repented, that they aren't a threat anymore, repeatedly asking to protect their safety."
Listening to the story, Theresa thought it didn't sound like someone else's affair.
She was in the same situation.
Then, Paladin Overdeer also sought the two.
"Did you come to beat up some guys with slack mental states?"
Overdeer had taken charge of Paladin training within Legion recently.
Therefore, it was too natural to say this seeing Audin.
"If it's sparring, I welcome it happily."
"Right, some guys don't seem to believe your reputation. Some even say you were hiding in the back during the Southern War."
"Haha, interesting brothers."
"Uh, interesting, very interesting."
Theresa naturally joined them too.
Audin massaged the Paladin Order talents revealing fighting spirit towards him.
In the process of cultivating themselves, those who hadn't abandoned childishness yet abandoned it in real-time.
Theresa didn't think much even seeing that.
She was careful with her behavior in everything.
'My existence becomes a nuisance.'
From some day, Theresa made fighting and dying her sole duty.
'May I stay by the side of the God of War.'
Her prayer always started the same.
When the time comes to risk her life, she will step forward unhesitatingly.
That was her goal.
"You look pitiful."
On the third day since coming to Legion, Noah came abruptly and said to her.
"What do you mean?"
Audin vacated his seat saying he had business.
She felt burdened by the Pope coming alone without guards.
Thought he shouldn't be alone with her like this.
"Did you say you are from the Demonic Realm Holy Cult?"
The Pope asked without changing his expression.
Theresa felt a stinging pain in her heart.
Everyone has parts they want to hide, but that shame was revealed clearly.
Moreover, it was words brought up by the Pope, the highest person in charge of Legion.
***
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