"Who did you just lay your hands on?"
Astin's eyes were like a beast wearing human skin.
Like a rabbit before a lion.
Azelin's breath caught at that chilling murderous aura.
"A-Astin..."
Before she could even move her trembling lips.
Thwack!
Astin's dress shoe struck Azelin's face mercilessly.
"Aaaagh!"
The noble Young Lady who had never been hit by anyone even once.
The precious jewel of the Rosenthal family screamed and rolled on the ground.
Even then, Azelin could not grasp the situation.
"H-how dare you put your foot on a lady's body...! Are you not afraid of Rosenthal!"
The moment she mustered her courage and snapped back.
Thud!
"Aaaagh!"
Azelin thrashed under the barrage of kicks.
Dirt and blood quickly spread across her white, once-smooth cheeks.
Astin did not stop, regardless.
He mercilessly kicked down at Azelin's nose bridge, eyes, and both cheeks without discrimination.
"Aagh! Stop! Stop it!"
'Why on earth?'
'Why had it come to this?'
'And how does he plan to deal with the aftermath?'
Those thoughts of Azelin's were wiped away by the physical impact.
A shrill scream echoed as if tearing through the training ground.
There was not even a trace of wavering in Astin's eyes.
With cold, sunken eyes, he crushed Azelin's face as if stomping on an insect.
Crunch!
"Guhh...!"
Azelin had lived her whole life surrounded by the flattery of handsome men and flower beds.
Such ruthless violence was unimaginable to her.
The pain of her nose bone being crushed, the metallic taste of blood seeping through her torn lips.
Azelin, terrified, covered her face with both hands.
Unable to endure it, she grabbed Astin's pant leg and begged for her life.
"Stop! Astin! Please, stop— Aaaagh—!"
But it was no use.
Thwack—! Crunch!
And Astin's kicking continued without pause.
"Y-Young Master! Please calm down!"
"At this rate, something really bad will happen! Calm down!"
The knights, belatedly realizing the severity of the situation, rushed in urgently, but…
"Let go?"
When Astin irritably shook his shoulders, three huge knights were flung away like autumn leaves.
Astin approached Azelin again, who was sprawled on the ground.
With her face covered in blood, Azelin scrambled backward.
The more she did, the darker Astin's shadow fell over her.
"This is the last time. Never set foot here again."
Crunch!
The last thing she remembered was the sight of that dress shoe before her consciousness went out.
That day, Azelin, called the precious jewel of Rosenthal, was hit by a man for the first time.
***
Old books displayed on the bookshelf.
A desk without a speck of dust, showing the user's obsessive cleanliness.
Neatly arranged fountain pens and documents stained with ink spots here and there.
Don't people usually have times like that?
Like observing the floor tiles when getting scolded sharply by a parent.
I was the same.
"Are you listening, Astin?"
"Yes."
Father pressed his brow and took a breath.
I stood stiffly at parade rest in front of him.
My feet were starting to go numb.
"The fault for the broken engagement lies solely with the Young Lady. Confiscating the dowry and gifts is a given, and if we add defamation and insult to the family, we could extract two or three times that."
"That works out well."
"Yet there was a chance to take even greater profit."
Bang!
Father slammed the desk.
"We could have received part of Rosenthal's prime territory. We could have pressured them to hand over southern trade rights. And only Rosenthal and the Young Lady would have borne the disgrace."
If only it had ended with giving Julian a thorough beating.
At some point I saw red and put my hands on Azelin too. No, my feet.
I delivered a front kick to the Young Lady's stomach and trampled wildly on her fallen face.
Was it after about five kicks?
The knights who saw blood on the Young Lady's face rushed out and blocked me with their whole bodies.
If not for that, I would have made Azelin look like Julian too.
Though if I had, the matter would have blown up much bigger.
"That woman touched Celine first. I only did what I had to do."
Haa—
Father let out a sigh as if for me to hear.
The position of Head of Household is a hard one.
Among Father's black hair, which had once been as majestic as a mountain, gray hairs had increased quite a bit.
'You have suffered a lot all this time.'
How much I must have troubled him in the past.
Thinking of my past scoundrel behavior, guilt pricked at me.
Of course, the Azelin matter was unrelated.
'That... that... that crazy bitch cheated first!'
Even if I were given two more chances to regress, I would have done the same.
"Gossipers only listen to gossip and scandal. No matter who was at fault, you will be left with the stigma of having beaten the Young Lady."
It was a fact I already knew.
The nobles will mock Young Lady Azelin's promiscuity while exaggerating my violence and criticizing me.
"But honestly, she deserved to get hit."
"Do you expect a normal way of thinking? They want to open the wounds of a young noble and see blue blood. Because that becomes a weakness."
That is the nature of this world. I know that better than anyone.
Before I became aware of my past life, I was like that.
"The opponent is Rosenthal. Alimony and compensation are no issue. Our prestige has been damaged, but they are still Rosenthal."
Rosenthal was a prestigious family rivaling Kardenos.
Father's assessment was accurate, as expected.
"It is not a great gain for us either. They lost what they deserved to lose, and we received the price we were owed. Rather, Rosenthal alone should have borne the disgrace. To a noble, honor is worth that much."
Father calmly assessed the situation.
"Now it is a mud fight. This incident has spread from a lovers' quarrel to a matter between families. Of course, the Young Lady's sin is far greater for bringing in an outside man and talking about breaking the engagement."
Father's voice sank low.
"The Rosenthal lot are thick-faced by nature. Compensation is compensation. They will treat the severity of the crime separately from that. Far from admitting fault obediently, they might shamelessly respond that their precious daughter was assaulted."
"They won't do it right away. They will hold back for the time being."
"Rosenthal remembers grudges and favors clearly."
It meant they would certainly take revenge someday.
Kardenos, the Empire's prestigious swordsmanship family. Rosenthal, the prestigious magic family.
The two pillars supporting the Empire had clashed unprecedentedly.
Moreover, this incident ended with only the reputations of both families being damaged.
The two families would continue their mud fight, and those around them would obviously use it as gossip.
I want to just bulldoze it all away.
"If this matter spreads that far, you must step back. It has gone far beyond a problem between just the two of you."
The last words were soaked with fatherly affection.
I shook my head firmly.
"I cannot do that. It is something I caused and a problem I started."
I was the eldest legitimate son of Kardenos.
I had never intended to hide.
I had started this with the intention of bearing it all.
"And Father, why should we worry about Rosenthal?"
I had gone through all sorts of trials to the very end of destruction.
The problem with Rosenthal could be suppressed sufficiently by me alone.
"Rosenthal chose to become Kardenos's enemy first. They should be the ones afraid of us."
Rosenthal cannot handle Kardenos—no, not even me alone.
As long as I am here, Kardenos has no reason to be wary of Rosenthal.
Father stared at me for a while, then slightly relaxed his stiff lips.
"That feels refreshing."
He crossed his arms and leaned back against the chair.
"I will say this now. I hoped you would break off the engagement yourself."
A fool of a son who gave up all his courage after being bewitched by a woman.
That was exactly how I assessed him.
"Even if it ended in ruin, it is a good thing. Better than chasing after the Young Lady's heels like before. Giving those two a blow was the right thing to do as a human being."
"It wasn't just one blow, was it? I gave Julian dozens of blows and Azelin about five or six."
"Well said. If you do wrong, you must be punished. Moreover."
Thump—
Father placed his fist on my chest.
"I saw well the ring of fire you wove."
I had wondered when he would mention it.
The look in Father's eyes then was soaked in sentiment and childlike wonder.
He had the eyes of a knight who could not forget the honor and glory of his youth.
Someday Father would also weave a Solar Ring.
"You have set fire to this father's heart."
"Ah, yes?"
I understood well what he meant.
It must mean he had rekindled embers in firewood he thought had gone out forever.
I understood the meaning clearly, but the word choice was a bit…
Isn't that a line lovers usually say when setting the mood?
When I looked at him with odd eyes, Father seemed to notice the strangeness and cleared his throat.
"That's enough. Go out now."
"Yes."
I gave a light nod and turned toward the door.
As I was about to leave, Father stopped me.
"I forgot one thing. A carrier pigeon flew in from the north this morning."
"The north?"
If it was the north, it was the good news I had been waiting for.
"News came. Selena, who joined the war at the northern front line, will return soon."
Selena.
The only blood relative above me and the eldest daughter of Kardenos. In other words, she was my sister.
"When will she arrive?"
"She finished preparations in the north yesterday, so it will take about fifteen days. If she changes horses at post stations along the way and rides hard, it will take ten days."
About ten days or so.
"If your sister saw you now, she would be proud. Just as this father is."
"I hope so."
Even after regressing, regret still remained.
In the first run, after becoming aware of my past life, I left the family.
I turned my back on Father and Celine and abandoned the family.
Wandering the Empire aimlessly alone, I happened to encounter Selena.
-Astin, a runaway loser. I do not think of you as my brother. Get lost. Never appear before me again.
The last words she left me echoed in my head like an auditory hallucination.
The next time I saw Selena was when I returned to the family.
A corpse so damaged it was unrecognizable. I still cannot forget that cold body temperature.
My mouth tasted a little bitter.
***
"Hup!"
"Hup!"
The Kardenos training ground was filled with shouts today as well.
Knights hung sandbags and devoted themselves to swordsmanship training, while others circled the training ground.
Wooong!
Among them, the knights who used Luna were lost in deep thought.
'It is shabby.'
Their gazes naturally lowered and stayed on the floor.
The stone slabs of the training ground, hardened after melting in places.
Traces of the desperate duel remained intact.
Though they were definitely looking at the floor, the crimson-gold Solar Ring flickered before their eyes.
The afterimage of Solar that Astin had shown would not leave them.
"Isn't the Young Master truly amazing?"
One knight briefly broke the silence.
Then everyone, without exception, added a word.
"He is amazing. I was thinking the same."
"I still cannot believe how he could overwhelm the Three Paths with a single ring."
I replayed Astin's duel in my head dozens of times.
It was an absurd feat that shattered common sense.
Leaving aside the quantity and quality of his Aura, his innate combat sense flowed with minimal movement and pierced gaps.
His superhuman senses and genius intuition were like those of a veteran who had crossed countless lines of death.
"He truly seems to be of Kardenos blood. As far as I know, it takes ten knights with a single ring to beat the Three Paths."
"He didn't just win, he overwhelmed them. If anyone heard, they'd dismiss it as bullshit."
"Of course. Even I, who saw it myself, can't believe it."
"The Young Master is amazing, but something about the Solar Ring too…"
Astin's martial prowess was astonishing, but something else caused a greater upheaval.
An old relic of a past era, demoted and pushed aside by Luna's efficiency.
The Solar Ring, ignored as a self-destructive ring that gnawed at one's own body.
A new question rose in the knights' hearts.
"Perhaps Solar has been underestimated all this time?"
Doubt bred confusion.
Was everyone not wandering, trapped in the dead end of comfort, having missed the fundamentals for the past twenty years?
If you endure the heat of ascetic training, the body of the sword becomes firmer, and if you overcome trials that cross life and death, the tip of the sword becomes sharper.
Every path has an end, but a ring has no end. It circulates infinitely.
Astin's words reached not my ears but my heart.
"...Should I try weaving a ring too?"
A murmur someone let out as if possessed.
Everyone's eyes turned to him.
Flustered for no reason, he made an excuse fluently.
"D-Didn't the Young Master say it? Stopping and dying versus dying and stopping. It's obvious which is the more worthwhile death."
"Yeah, the Young Master is right. I don't want to die comfortably like everyone else."
"I have already decided. I will weave a ring, not take the comfortable path."
"What the hell, a man dies once, not twice. Those northern barbarians go crazy wanting to die over Valhalla or whatever."
Some apprentice knights who had not yet opened their Mana Circuits renewed their resolve.
They would leave the peaceful first path behind and weave a ring as a Fire-Wielder.
Until recently, such nonsense would have been treated as the ravings of a madman desperate to die.
Now it was completely different.
Even the senior knights were listening to them seriously.
"But does anyone know how to weave a ring?"
"......."
Of course, there was one fatal problem.
Lighting a fire in the Core was a dangerous process that could cost one's life.
It was not something to rush into without knowledge.
At present, all of Kardenos's elite knights had opened a Path.
None of them could pass on advice or knowledge about rings.
The remaining Fire-Wielders were only retired knights who had stepped back from the front lines. Old veterans who had broken their swords.
"There's no help for it. I'll have to ask the Young Master directly when he comes to the training ground later."
"Let's go together, senior!"
Fierce fighting spirit rose in the eyes of the apprentice knights and squires who had not opened their Mana Circuits.
Meanwhile, the knights who had opened their Mana Circuits and were listening nearby felt gloomy for some reason.
'Why am I jealous of them?'
'Of all times, I opened three Paths the day before yesterday. I really opened them. If it had been two, it would have been worth trying.'
'Damn it. I can't exactly close my Mana Circuit now…'
The more Paths one opened—two or three—the stronger the backlash against rings.
Just days ago, knights who had opened their Mana Circuits received envious looks.
But now that common sense had been completely reversed.
By Astin, a single person.
***
As soon as I returned to my room, I sat cross-legged.
With my eyes closed, I sank into my inner world.
The Solar Ring beating faintly in my Heart Core.
A ring was not finished just because it had been woven once.
For more rings? Not that either.
'Just maintaining it takes a lot of effort.'
Solar's nature was fundamentally destructive and unstable.
I had to contemplate and tend my inner world whenever I had time. Like poking a wood fire with a poker.
Otherwise it would fade or run wild beyond control. You melt to death from the inside.
I had seen hundreds of such people, easily.
"Whoo—"
Feeling the flame become somewhat softer, I let out a thick breath.
As expected, one ring was easy to handle.
It was not because of me; in reality, the mortality rate for a single ring was only 3 percent.
Most died during the process of weaving the first ring; once completed, maintenance was on the easy side.
Now I had to weave a second one.
Honestly, I had made the ring I had now entirely on my own. Flame Thistle was a cheap wild herb sold in the market.
I had no intention of weaving the second ring by my own power alone.
I felt I could weave about four more by myself, though.
Just because one walks a difficult path does not mean one is desperate to die.
There were many things needed to weave a new ring.
The hidden pieces in my memory were a given.
Learning from the Outer Sword would make it smoother.
There were very few people several levels above me in handling skill, but they existed.
The one I remembered right away was Hendrickson the Outer Sword.
In my own way, I used to call him the crippled Swordmaster.
In the first run, he was not exactly my master… but someone who had given me some teaching.
If I learned formally from that old man, five rings within a year would be entirely possible.
Knock knock—
The sudden knock broke my thoughts.
"Come in."
Creak—
The door stopped while opening.
Through the slightly opened gap, the other person peeked out her head.
"Brother, is it really okay for me to come in?"
I wondered who it was; it was Celine.
She hesitated. Tension showed in her wavering eyes.
Still, that agitation had become fainter than before.
"Yeah. You can come in."
I barely held back a smile from escaping.
I thought I knew why Celine had come to see me.
