The private room was steeped in heated silence.
It was shortly after the Sword Duke had encountered Instructor Mu (無).
The two had stared at each other for a long while without saying a word, and after leaving the scene just like that, the place they headed to was the room where I was staying.
Even then, Instructor Heo (虛) had still been lying on the dirt ground, groaning.
It was quite a pathetic sight, but his existence no longer seemed to remain anywhere in the Sword Duke’s mind.
The greatest swordsman on the continent silently paced around the room.
The sight of the man repeatedly wandering in circles, his face filled with a measure of anger and at times anguish, was truly rare.
The Sword Duke had revealed his emotions plenty of times before.
He was an honest and unpretentious person, after all.
But this was the first time I had ever seen him so agitated.
It was different even from when I had been told that I had only a limited time left to live.
Back then, his expression had been more strongly colored by sorrow and regret.
Now, however, the Sword Duke’s face resembled ash containing a hidden flame.
Embers waiting for the day they would meet the wind and ignite.
The spark came abruptly.
“……Why didn’t you tell me?”
His tone was packed tightly with suppressed heat.
The blue gaze directed at me was stained with faint anger and a sense of betrayal.
Suddenly finding myself treated like the accused, I immediately proclaimed my innocence.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden……?”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to claim you didn’t know?!”
The Sword Duke…