Chapter 136: Apology

Thirty minutes after the meeting ended, Isaac was back inside the Grandmaster’s tent.

“…….”

“…….”

A delicate hush wrapped itself around the canvas walls.

One woman stood there with wolf ears, her tail flicking lazily as her arms stayed folded.

The other slipped off her bamboo hat, revealing a pair of round ears on top of her head.

At first Isaac wasn’t sure what he was seeing, but a closer look told him they were bear ears.

‘So that’s why she doesn’t have a tail,’ Isaac thought, nodding to himself in belated understanding.

Number Two and Number Ten.

Just their presence turned the air inside the tent razor-taut.

Watching them, Isaac silently congratulated himself for insisting she leave her sword outside.

One misstep and blades really would’ve been flashing.

The only reason Nameless was allowed in camp at all was because—whatever else—she’d once helped their party.

She didn’t look like she wanted a fight, and yes, she was in shackles, but…

‘…the atmosphere is still lethal.’

Swordsmen of their caliber could draw a blade even while handcuffed.

“Now then—”

The chill standoff finally cracked when the Grandmaster spoke, voice cool as frost.

“Quite the sight, isn’t it? Captured like some common bandit. In the end they tossed you aside after all, did they?”

‘Wow…’

The smirk on her lips was pure ridicule, and Isaac could only marvel at how small-minded his teacher looked.

Couldn’t she have phrased that differently? Right now, honestly, his master was a little embarrassing.

“Hah.”

Nameless lifted an arm, snatched Isaac clean off the floor, and hugged him tight against her chest with a sunny grin.

“This kid wouldn’t let go of me. I meant to stay over there, but he’s learned so much from me he clung to my pant-leg and dragged me along.”

For the record, Nameless had been sucked into this place because of her mixed blood:

The Silver-Clock spell targeted humans, and being half-human, she’d been caught in its sweep.

“What are you—!”

Isaac tried to deny the outrageous story, but Nameless’s strength was unreal.

She mashed his face into the valley of her chest, smothering any protest.

“You little—!”

That single act slammed the Grandmaster’s temper straight past its limit.

“Unhand my disciple this instant! S-scram! Step away!”

She grabbed Nameless’s arm and yanked, but Nameless clung to Isaac like a barnacle.

‘I-I’m going to snap in half…’

Caught between two titans, Isaac felt like a shrimp crushed by battling whales.

Oblivious, the two seniors kept bickering like children.

“If what you taught him were any good, he’d have proper fundamentals! What did you teach him—nothing but shortcuts?”

“W-what did you say?! As his master I guided him step by step so he could forge his own understanding—exactly as a true mentor should!”

“The boy’s obsessed with iaijutsu; he can’t even handle a straight fight!”

“That’s part of the plan! First he survives stronger foes with the quick-draw, then builds the rest at his own pace!”

“And if he just keeps relying on dumb luck? What then?”

“Do you take my disciple for a fool? Do you know how brilliant he is? His knowledge already runs deeper than ours combined—he’ll master it in no time!”

“Oh? Is that why his eyes sparkled so brightly when I taught him?”

“……What did you say?”

Something audibly cracked—probably the Grandmaster’s pride, Isaac guessed.

Poke.

A hand came down on Isaac’s shoulder, fingers digging in with unmistakable anger.

“I-Isaac? Step outside with me a moment. We—ah—need to talk.”

“…….”

“You didn’t learn swordsmanship from her, did you? No, of course not. You and I, we’re master and disciple across the ages, right? Hm? Right?”

“…….”

“I’ve already prepared ten secret techniques just for you. Sounds tempting, doesn’t it? Curious? Don’t you want to learn them?”

“Do you even know what ‘secret technique’ means? It refers to a single ultimate—”

“The masters are talking—keep quiet!”

Isaac sealed his lips, praying Nameless wouldn’t let go.

Naturally, she didn’t. Still squeezing him, she poked his cheek with a finger and chuckled.

“No need for secret techniques, Grandmaster. I teach him every day. Thanks to me, he shot up in the Abyss Realm. Right, my little disciple?”

“L-little… disciple?”

Shaken, the Grandmaster jerked a step backward, her eyes quivering.

With lips that trembled just as hard, she roared at Isaac.

“Th-this is treason—treacheryyy! Have you ever seen such an ungrateful disciple? A master’s grace is higher than the heavens and deeper than the seas—how can the sword of a traitorous student not weigh a thousand tons!?”

“…….”

“What did you say to me just a moment ago? You were exhausted— you begged me not to leave you! The bawling brat who clung to his teacher’s chest—where did that disciple disappear to?!”

“…….”

“Was it all a dream!? Empty, so empty—no more than a butterfly’s dream! Meaningless, doubly meaningless! Oh, the tragedy! Why did I ever raise a pupil!”

“…….”

“Answer meee!”

***

After she finally calmed down,

—and after the conversation had wandered a bit—

Isaac faced the Grandmaster and Nameless and spoke from the heart.

“I want to save Rihanna.”

They’d had a few minutes to catch their breath, so his voice was steadier than before.

“That’s why I’m going back to the Abyss Realm.”

The two women reacted very differently.

The Grandmaster accepted it with stoic calm; Nameless frowned.

“Oy, little disciple. I get that you see hope because we pulled it off once. But right now you’re talking about the impossible.”

“How can you dash the child’s dream so?” the Grandmaster chided. “A teacher should only illuminate that dream—also, stop calling him your disciple. He’s my disciple.”

“Will you shut up for a second? I’m being serious. Does this sound simple to you?”

Arms folded, Nameless shifted her weight onto one hip, the motion creaking like a rusty hinge.

“Fine, call the first attempt a miracle—technically it was the goddess, or rather the star, helping us. But there won’t be a second time.”

“…….”

“You want to charge back into the Abyss Realm just to rescue Rihanna? That’s the same as saying you want to die.”

“Then what—am I supposed to sit on my hands and do nothing?!”

Eyes blazing, Isaac shouted his frustration.

Her voice still echoed in his ears.

Her scent still grazed the bridge of his nose.

His tears soaked his heart, making it heave.

If he could, he would return to the Abyss Realm this very second.

“Isaac…” The Grandmaster looked at his disciple with sorrow-filled eyes.

Nameless sighed and added:

“I’m not telling you to give up. I’m telling you—wait.”

“Wait?”

“It was a spell cast at the cost of Hellic sacrificing an arm. Way stronger than a normal Vassalization. The one bit of luck is… she’s a Helmut.”

“Helmut…” Isaac echoed.

“For an ordinary human it would shatter the mind, forcing total obedience.”

Involuntarily, Pollu of Blackthorn came to mind—ruined truly was the word.

“But a Helmut, with Transcendent blood, is different. She should be able to resist—at least a little.”

Isaac’s eyes widened. Arandel Helmut, too, had seemed to fight against his Vassalization.

And in his past life, Alois—also subjected to a Transcendent’s Vassalization—had once said:

『Maybe this rite and I are oddly compatible. Ah, Helmut! Great Helmut!』

Dots connected into a line inside Isaac’s head.

“To them, Rihanna is precious firepower bought with the price of an arm. Even if she’s hard to handle, they won’t waste her.”

Hard to handle—but overwhelmingly strong.

And there’s a simple way to use such a weapon:

“Drop her in the middle of the enemy’s territory,” Isaac muttered.

“Exactly,” Nameless affirmed. “I’m sure of it: Rihanna will return to this land—as an enemy.”

As an enemy. The weight of those words was crushing, yet

Isaac accepted them calmly.

If he could meet her again, it was enough.

That alone was enough.

Seeing Isaac steel himself, Nameless added one more line—not that she needed to.

“As far as I know… there isn’t a way to undo Vassalization.”

“…….”

That matched what Isaac had heard.

Even so, he didn’t break.

He had far too much to do to fall apart now.

“I’m going to the Mage-Tower.”

The Silver Clock had been clear: regression was rooted in magic.

The secret of his return, a way to break Rihanna’s Vassalization—

The time had come to lean on magic, not on ritiuals.

The path ahead of Isaac was suddenly, blindingly clear.

****

A dark underground cell.

A woman knelt, shackled in iron chains behind iron bars, her head hanging low.

Hair the color of fresh-spilled blood flowed down to the stone floor.

Rihanna Helmut knelt, staring at the ground.

Even Vassalization, she had fought back, battling the Transcendents until they subdued her.

Her savage red aura and murderous aura had so terrified them that they’d thrown her into this subterranean prison.

They couldn’t kill her—

She was a weapon purchased with Hellic’s left arm.

“Isaac…”

Like droplets from a leaking faucet, one name escaped her lips over and over.

“Isaac…”

Because of the Vassalization, whatever words lodged in her head spilled out unfiltered.

“I want to hold your hand.”

Thinking of him conjured a tide of longing.

“I want to hold you…”

Perfectly normal desires for any human—

Desires they usually hide behind polite facades.

“I want to kiss you.”

But Vassalization crushed even such basic restraints.

“I want to feel you again.”

What poured from Rihanna’s mouth were the pure, repressed desires she’d always suppressed.

“I want to make you mine—make you mine all over again.”

Needs everyone harbors, yet no one can condemn.

“I don’t want you with another woman. I want to satisfy you. I want to ravish you. I want to bear your children. I want us to be together—”

With every confession came another wave.

“Ah… ahhh…”

Ashamed of her own “ugly” nature, ashamed of feeling such things for a former husband,

Rihanna Helmut bowed her head

“Forgive me, Isaac.”

And wept her apology.

“I’m… sorry…”

– – The End of The Chapter ––

 

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