Chapter 380

The ferryman continued.

“It ends when you kill her with your own hands.”

It meant this wall wouldn’t end unless Aisia died.

“Really?”

Encrid asked before he realized it.

“I gave you the clue from the beginning.”

At the ferryman’s words, Encrid closed his eyes for a moment and thought.

‘What happened to Aisia beyond the hallway?’

She must be dead. Probably.

It was a guess, but it felt close to certain.

So did Aisia’s death itself trigger the repetition of today?

Encrid recalled Aisia’s death from the first today.

“That’s right.”

The ferryman answered as if reading his mind.

Encrid instinctively felt there was no falsehood in his words.

In the first place, the ferryman had never manipulated him with lies.

He always said the correct thing. Encrid just hadn’t taken it at face value.

“Kill her. Then you will pass.”

With those words, his vision blurred.

Beyond the blurring vision, the ferryman’s voice came again.

“Enjoy this as well.”

It was filled with anticipation.

Encrid opened his eyes. It was a new today.

‘Do I have to kill her?’

The ferryman said that was the wall, and that he had to overcome it.

It was dawn, before sunrise. Encrid moved as usual. He went outside and moved his body. Isolation Technique. As he did, he kept thinking.

Moving the body makes the mind work better.

‘Do I have to kill her?’

The question kept sticking.

Encrid couldn’t concentrate. He knew it himself, but he couldn’t help it.

‘Why?’

He asked for a reason. The answer seemed like it would come, but it didn’t. The time he spent thinking only grew longer.

Andrew came by and said something, but Encrid answered vaguely and continued the monotonous movements.

He started today with a distracted mind.

“You bastard!”

He met the Chief of Public Order and repeated what he had repeated countless times in previous todays, as if retracing his steps.

‘If I kill her, I’ll pass.’

The answer was decided. It was clear. Then he just had to pass.

How many people had died by his hand so far?

In an era of war, killing couldn’t even be called a crime.

Aisia blocked his path.

She was a member of the Royal Guard and a Junior Knight. She knew she could die if she confronted someone. She must have been prepared for that much.

So he just needed to kill her.

“Kill her. Then you will pass.”

He heard it like a hallucination. The ferryman’s voice clung to his ear and echoed.

Facing Aisia like that, the same opportunity as before didn’t come.

There were too many stray thoughts. He couldn’t overwhelm her with skill.

“You’re drained. If you don’t want to fight, go back.”

A Junior Knight uses at least a Fragment of [Will]. It’s a part of willpower. A person with a complicated mind is bound to have a messy sword.

Aisia pointed it out.

“I don’t want to.”

Encrid answered without thinking and drew his sword again.

He endured with technique and swung on reflex.

That was how one today passed.

A today where Encrid couldn’t kill Aisia, but Aisia couldn’t kill Encrid either.

A day that felt meaningless.

The guilt of wasting time.

All of it filled his chest.

It was only once, but it was a today where he entrusted himself to familiarity instead of struggling and resisting.

It felt like someone had hit him in the back of the head.

No—he actually got hit in the back of the head.

Thwack!

“…I think I need an explanation for what you’re doing.”

Encrid asked, still in the same posture after being struck, his neck bent awkwardly.

“I could tell at a glance that a curse was planted in your head. My palm is the medicine and divinity for such curses.”

Rem raised his palm to the sky. Sunlight shone on it.

“Bless it, the divinity dwelling in my hand.”

A crazy bastard doing crazy things.

“…Why does that guy live?”

Jaxson, who rarely spoke, said a word.

“If you want to die, come at me.”

Ragna kindly informed him that he had the intention to kill Rem.

“Those who don’t know anything should just shut up.”

Rem retorted.

Encrid watched and thought.

‘Should I just kill this bastard? If I was told to kill Rem instead of Aisia, my mind might be a little more at ease.’

Of course, he wasn’t the kind of guy who would die just because Encrid said he’d kill him.

And if Encrid was told to kill Rem, he wouldn’t even think about following it…

Lightning struck through his head.

The shock of being hit stirred the inside of his brain beyond his skull.

“A curse?”

That was the only word that came out.

“Don’t have unnecessary thoughts.”

Rem said, poking his head with an index finger.

“Is there anything to complicate?”

“Ah.”

An exclamation slipped out.

Why did he feel guilty for wasting a day?

Why couldn’t he spend the best today?

It was as if chains were tied to his arms and legs.

Those chains started from the ferryman’s words.

‘If I kill her, I’ll pass.’

Because he didn’t like that proposition.

His heart didn’t move.

He knew he had to kill her, but he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to do that. So his heart wouldn’t stir.

This wall wasn’t something to be achieved by killing Aisia.

Encrid decided that.

With that feeling, his mouth opened, sincere and honest.

“I hate it.”

Three words.

A word that cut off everything before and after.

But it was sincere.

If words can hold power, it’s only when they come from someone who has proven them through action.

The days, the todays—everything Encrid had experienced so far—gave weight to his words now.

So there was resonance.

Words spoken with a completely unified heart went beyond his own heart and into the hearts of everyone around him.

Rem scratched his head with the same finger he’d been tapping with.

“Then keep doing it.”

How could he stop him when he said he hated it that much?

There was no perfect person in the world. Even his captain would have moments where he needed to think like this.

“Yeah. I hate it.”

Encrid said with a smile.

“I get it.”

“I hate it.”

He smiled brightly, met his eyes, and said it.

“Ah, geez. I said I get it.”

“I hate it.”

“No, I said I understand?”

“I hate it.”

“I understand, it’s my fault. Hit me.”

Rem stuck out the back of his head. Encrid looked at it and said,

“I hate it.”

“Damn it!”

Then he laughed.

He hadn’t said it to Rem.

Rem’s misunderstanding didn’t matter—whether today repeated or not didn’t matter.

He was the kind of guy who’d forget it soon anyway.

Today repeated again.

He endured and endured in the same way.

This time too, there was a chance to kill Aisia, but he let it go.

The ferryman appeared in his dream again and said,

“You must be saying that to me.”

Nod.

Encrid nodded.

“Then you will be trapped in today. Do you think that’s better? Are you going to give up your dream just because you have a connection, just to save one person?”

The ferryman spoke of dreams.

His words were a sharp blade, aimed at the heart.

But Encrid’s heart was covered with Frok’s breastplate, so the blade was blocked.

“I’ll just subdue her perfectly and go.”

“What?”

Encrid’s dream was to be a knight.

And it was also an old-fashioned idea of chivalry.

What he learned about knights was poetry and song.

That was the standard. It was good. It was a belief. A vow to protect the weak and comrades.

Hadn’t he said it to the Marquis too?

“I came to reduce monsters and Demon beasts. I came to protect those who know how to cherish my people. I came to punish those who oppress others with force. I came to protect the weak and protect the dreams of those who have dreams.”

Aisia had circumstances. He had vaguely felt it through the countless repeated todays.

“I’ll subdue her without killing her and go.”

“Do you think that’s possible?”

What else wouldn’t be possible?

Encrid spoke with his eyes, and the ferryman said nothing more.

He closed his eyes again and opened them.

It was the same today, but his mindset had changed. More accurately, he had a goal.

He wasn’t going to kill Aisia. He was going to subdue her.

He decided that.

He hated killing.

‘You crazy bastard.’

He heard the ferryman again like a hallucination, but this time he ignored it.

So he faced another today that began with the Chief of Public Order and ended with Aisia.

And so two hundred and forty more todays passed.

—

“What?”

Aisia reacted to the words he had just said.

“I’m asking why. Why are you blocking my way?”

He had felt it from the beginning. Was Aisia here willingly?

‘Half and half.’

If she truly turned into an enemy, she could just defeat him and watch him die. But she didn’t. She blocked his path again. She said there was no need to kill him, yet she risked her life for it.

She had even talked about her younger sibling before she died. He remembered that.

Above all, he could feel it as they exchanged swords.

Everything he had seen, heard, and judged while repeating today.

Encrid mixed it all together in his head. He silently untangled the knotted threads and arranged them one by one.

As Krys always said, Encrid was born with something in the realm of intuition and gut feeling.

“Is your younger sibling being held hostage?”

Aisia’s hand twitched.

She was a Junior Knight—he knew it because he’d fought her so many times. She wasn’t someone who would be shaken by a few words or provocations.

But her reaction was different.

Her younger sibling meant something to her.

As soon as he finished speaking, something like murderous intent poured out of Aisia. It was a denser aura than anything she’d shown so far. Oppression surged and pressed down on him.

The [Will] of Rejection within Encrid naturally activated.

He shook off the pressure, straightened his chest, and met her eyes.

Aisia’s momentum settled.

No—the momentum was the same, but the dense murderous intent thinned.

It was replaced by fighting spirit.

“Yeah, there’s no way I’d be involved with those bastards. How did you know?”

“Guesswork.”

“…Anyway, you’re good with your head.”

Aisia remembered talking about her younger sibling back when she had been in Andrew’s mansion.

He must have guessed from that.

Of course, Encrid had been able to find out relatively easily because he had repeated today. There was no way Aisia could know that.

“Half of it is that.”

Aisia continued.

Encrid also thought she wasn’t here just because of one hostage.

She would have had other options.

So why did she block his path like this?

“What’s the other half?”

Aisia hesitated a few times. Then she took a breath and spat the words out.

It was a more vivid reaction than any other today.

“If you don’t want to die, go back. That’s all I have to say.”

Her tone was stiff, like she was forcing the vibrancy down.

“Why? Because I’ll just die if I go?”

It was guesswork again, but he was right.

“Did you learn mind reading or something? That’s going to be a problem.”

“Not really.”

He just knew because he repeated today.

There was someone behind Aisia, cutting off the source.

What was his skill?

He’d be at the level of Rem and Ragna. If not, he wouldn’t be able to catch Aisia so easily, no matter how exhausted she was.

That was probably why Aisia kept dying.

Encrid had to reach that first.

He adjusted his sword.

The tremor in Aisia’s eyes stopped the moment she saw it.

“Just go back. Half of it is a request.”

Another half?

Encrid thought, met her eyes, and asked.

“What’s the other half?”

“It’s blackmail.”

Encrid nodded.

“I respect your judgment, Junior Knight Aisia.”

He meant it. As always, it was a sincere statement.

And because he respected her judgment that much, he was going to go beyond it.

“You’ll die even if I let you go.”

Aisia spoke again as her momentum changed, but Encrid didn’t listen.

He took a deep breath and adjusted his sword belt. He shifted his stance and etched everything he could see into his memory.

He had repeated today more than three hundred times. Most of the time, he remembered the layout with a single glance.

Everything—the decorative fake sword hanging nearby, the window, the position of the vase.

“You can’t stop me.”

Encrid said, taking his stance.

Even if not today, he would overcome it on another today. In the end, she couldn’t stop him.

In Aisia’s memory, Encrid couldn’t even overcome Sword Tip Aiming.

“Prove it.”

A smile formed on her face without her noticing.

Wasn’t that kind of confidence, that unwavering attitude, pleasing?

Becoming a Junior Knight of the Royal Guard meant living with that kind of intensity.

Above all, this man named Encrid carried an enthusiasm that stirred everyone around him.

Of course, it affected Aisia too.

Because she sincerely hoped he wouldn’t die here, she wouldn’t send him away.

And she wouldn’t kill him either.

She held her sword out in front of her and aimed it.

Sword Tip Aiming.

If he couldn’t overcome this, he couldn’t even start the fight.

Aisia unconsciously expected it.

She thought he might overcome her skill.

‘Am I… hoping?’

Was it because the momentum he was showing was so full of confidence?

He’d consistently shown that side even while sparring, so why did it feel different now?

She didn’t know.

It was just a feeling.

A feeling a Junior Knight had.

She focused more than ever and drew up her [Will].

She even gave up the pressure of refusing to back down, pouring her [Will] solely into Sword Tip Aiming.