I Obtained Sword God Level Talent

41 – 041. Frozen Heart

“There’s something I want to ask you.”

……Something she wants to ask?

The subtle atmosphere and soft voice.

A strange, ticklish feeling arose within me, and I quickly nodded.

“Yes. Go ahead.”

“Your friend, you have one, right?”

A friend. She was probably talking about Ariel.

“What kind of… relationship do you have with him?”

“Relationship?”

“Yes. The way she looks at Frey-nim, there seems to be a certain… fondness, so I was just asking.”

“…….”

A straight, unstoppable question pierced me right through.

“We’re the closest of friends. We owe each other our lives.”

“You must be referring to the ‘Innate True Qi’ that was… depleted.”

“Yes. If it weren’t for her… I wouldn’t be here today.”

“…….”

Maria nodded silently.

“A friend, a friend….”

Maria muttered softly, looking troubled.

“I have one more question.”

Again?

It was a good while after the silence that Maria spoke.

Outside, thunder and lightning still raged with torrential rain. Maria’s steady eyes, with a strange shadow cast over them, turned towards me.

“What kind of person is Frey-nim?”

“…….”

This time, a rather philosophical question came flying my way.

I couldn’t tell what Maria wanted to hear. I just spoke honestly, in a low voice.

“Let’s just say I’m a stranger, from a distant land, far, far away. A foreigner who can never return home. That’s me.”

“……?”

Maria tilted her head, as if she couldn’t quite understand.

Well, that reaction was perfectly natural.

I was someone who lived in the modern 21st century Earth and, for some unknown reason, fell into the world of ＜Silvering＞…

Who would know that kind of fact? They wouldn’t believe me even if I told them.

“In that case,”

“……?”

“Does that mean… no one exists around Frey-nim?”

Her voice, devoid of inflection, echoed through the hut.

The straight shot flew again, and I let out a faint laugh.

“Yes. As for those around me… Lancelot has wandered off, Ariel is receiving treatment at the Vatican. And finally, there’s Lady Maria, that’s all.”

“Ah…”

Was it because of the bitter smile?

A small sigh escaped Maria’s lips.

Seeing that made me feel more emotional than usual. It was because I could see that she, who usually can’t understand other people’s feelings, was, at this moment, genuinely feeling sorry for my situation.

“Maybe that’s why. I value relationships. Cause and effect, unbreakable… invisible bonds.”

“……Then.”

Had she made up her mind about something in that short moment?

With a soft rustle, Maria rose from her seat and stood directly in front of me.

Her rain-soaked hair, her clear blue eyes, focused on me sitting on the bed.

“I will become the most perfect bond for Frey. An absolutely unbreakable tie.”

“……!”

My mouth hung open.

It was because I couldn’t understand what she was saying for a moment.

‘Was Maria…always like this?’

I don’t know. That wasn’t a line that the ‘Maria Theresia’ in my memory would ever say.

But…

I felt good. More than can be expressed with just those words, it was a huge comfort to me, adrift in a different world alone.

*Ssk.*

And it was at that moment.

Rising from her seat, Maria’s transparent, white hand reached towards my face. The hand, extended as if to offer a handshake, was trembling slightly, surprisingly.

This was a truly unconventional move for Maria. I guessed that she was showing great courage on her part.

“Handshake.”

I wondered if she thought that I didn’t understand what she was doing.

From Maria’s expressionless lips, a calm voice popped out. I burst out laughing loudly once more and took her hand.

“……”

*Clench.*

The hand I grasped was incredibly rough.

It was the hand of Maria, who had trained in swordsmanship since she was a child.

That hand, despite its pretty shape, was distressingly rough. As if the years, hardened into calluses, were proof of her toil.

“…Hiss!”

“……?”

But it was the moment their hands clasped. A somewhat peculiar exclamation slipped from Maria’s lips.

When I promptly met her with a questioning gaze, she hastily pulled her hand away for some reason and simply sat back down across the bed from me.

‘Is she embarrassed?’

Nah, no way.

Isn’t this just being utterly immune to the opposite s*x?

Swaaash-!

And just like that, a moment of silence descended.

The damn rain showed no sign of letting up. It looked like we’d be spending the night here after all.

“Pray-nim.”

In the midst of all that, Maria called out to me again.

“Yes.”

“I apologize.”

“……For what?”

“Just now, a current flowed through my heart. I showed you a somewhat ugly sight.”

“Huh? A current?”

Her words were hard to grasp at first.

‘…There shouldn’t be any electricity flowing through my body, right?’

If not that, then did lightning strike from the sky or something? No, that makes even less sense. We’re currently taking shelter from the rain inside a shabby hut.

‘I don’t know. Maybe this is also because of the difference in hierarchy.’

After a moment of contemplation, I relaxed. If she’s okay, that’s all that matters.

* * *

“…….”

Before long, dusk was upon us.

Still, the rain showed no signs of stopping. Within the awkward silence, Maria glanced sideways at the man sitting next to her.

Pray.

A unique man who appeared in the capital of the northern Grand Duchy, Loven, like a comet.

There was always a radiant light around him. To her, who could see through the “blessings” people possessed, he was an especially unusual and special person.

“……”

Maria’s current feeling was somehow strange.

She’d never felt like this in her entire life. To put it bluntly, the awkward air was so suffocating she wanted to bolt outside.

“Frey-nim.”

After hesitating for a long while, Maria uttered in a small voice.

Come to think of it, she’d been the one to initiate conversation ever since entering the cabin. It was a surprising change, even to herself. She’d always been one to keep to herself.

“Yes?”

“…Earlier, what you said….”

A bit cautiously.

Maria carefully broached the topic. Immediately, Frey’s eyes turned towards her. For some reason, she felt a faint jolt of electricity in her heart again.

“That you can’t go back home.”

“Ah, yes.”

Frey nodded in response to the additional explanation.

“Is there… another connection there?”

“……”

A flurry of emotions flickered across Frey’s face as he quietly opened his mouth.

Loneliness, forlornness, isolation. The fear of living in an unfamiliar world.

Why was it?

Looking at that expression made Maria’s chest tighten. Frey’s figure, as if trapped in an inescapable prison… it felt terribly pitiful.

“Yes, that’s right. My parents… other friends… colleagues, I won’t be able to see any of them. Guess I’m just unlucky.”

His bitter smile squeezed Maria’s heart.

“……”

Maria realized, through ‘learned’ memories.

She knew what action she needed to take, right now. That’s why Maria opened her mouth. She was driven by the thought of wanting to offer him even just one warm word of comfort.

However.

“……Huh?”

No comforting words came out of her open mouth.

Her heart, which had lost the value of ‘empathy’, made it impossible for her to offer even one warm word in this moment.

“…? Maria-nim?”

Like a poor lost soul, fallen into darkness.

Frey watched Maria, her mouth just gaping, his gaze heavy with worry.

“Aah….”

Maria’s face twisted.

Like she’d swallowed a chalice filled with bitter poison, the way Frey looked at her, so concerned, made her feel suffocated, a strange illusion.

‘I….’

Why, why is it?

Why can’t I offer him a single warm word, a single look of pity?

This agonizing reality tormented Maria.

She wanted to help him.

She wanted to comfort him.

She wanted to tell him not to worry, that she was here… to say those warm words.

*Kuuuk!*

Maria’s torment, clutching her knees, wouldn’t subside easily.

Sadness and empathy. These feelings she was facing for the first time… took on an unexpected form right in that moment.

*Drip.*

A piercing pain manifested as tears. A single, thick tear rolled down her alabaster cheek.

“Maria-nim?”

Perhaps it was because of this sudden shift?

Frey was calling her name, his face etched with bewilderment.

“It’s… pitiful.”

A trembling voice escaped Maria’s perpetually distorted mouth right at that moment.

“So wretched.”

“……!!”

“Frey-nim… you’re so miserable….”

The voice pouring out of Maria, heavy with emotion, was utterly desperate.

Suddenly, Frey’s breath hitched.

Because clear tears were falling from Maria’s eyes, eyes he thought devoid of feeling.

Maria understood Frey’s feelings. She was grieving. She was empathizing.

*Crak—!*

A fine, tiny crack had formed in his frozen heart.