The Son-In-Law Of A Prestigious Household Wants A Divorce-Chapter 45: Conflicting Paths

A group of warhorses galloped through the snow.

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Though it was clear that they were exhausted, the riders showed no signs of stopping. Instead, they kept on shaking their reins.

At the forefront were Rianna Helmont and Silverna Cardias.

They marched forward, even further from the commander-in-chief, Uldiran, himself.

Disregarding the formation, they urged their horses forward, showing how urgent their situation was.

“Why did you let it escape in the first place?!”

Silverna spat out her complaint, clearly irritated.

Because the leader of the Great Colony had chosen to flee from the start, the battle hadn’t lasted as long as expected, so they could easily break through the Demonic Beasts’ encirclement.

Boom! Rumble!

At that moment, the sound of thunder clap echoed from afar.

As they approached the Malidean Wall, the beast’s devastating mana pricked their skin like sparks.

Isaac...!

Rianna’s grip on the reins tightened.

Please, Isaac...

She wished that he had already fled.

The leader of the Great Colony wasn’t an entity he could just face.

No, not just him. The forces remaining at the wall couldn’t face it either.

“Hah! Hah!”

After forcefully riding like that for a while, they finally caught sight of the Malidean Wall.

The wall looked different from usual.

Hazy white mist billowed like clouds, while the wall was frozen over, covered in large frost crystals.

At that moment, Uldiran’s words flew in, explaining the root cause of this phenomenon.

“It’s the wall’s defense magic. It’s designed to activate naturally during a crisis.”

He continued to explain that it would cease its activation in a few hours, but his words went unheard.

Because the two women were focused on the ‘crisis’ part of his words.

“Krwaaaaaah!”

A roar of rage, accompanied by the noise of lightning spreading in all directions like flames.

Brikala, its body covered by lightning, stood atop the wall.

It was too far to see who the other person standing at the wall, facing the beast was.

But, that distance didn’t hindrance a certain woman’s sight in the slightest.

“Isaac-!”

Rianna’s eyes widened.

The Demonic Beast’s electricity flew towards Isaac without a moment’s hesitation.

Then, the moment it was about to engulf him—who shouldn’t be able to resist it—and burn him to ashes...

In the sky above the Malidean Wall.

A silver line was drawn.

Unwavering, beautiful like an ice crystal, delicate like a master’s brushstroke.

The line advanced, as if testing its limits.

“Wow...”

Forgetting the situation, Silverna couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.

Even Uldiran watched it advance with wide eyes.

A great flash created by the sword, not Aura.

Those who witnessed it all gasped with their mouths open, while...

The one that stood closest to it...

Fell to its knees as its head hit the ground. The beast probably hadn’t even realized that it had been cut.

*   *   *“Aaargh!”

The first thing Isaac did when he opened his eyes was letting out a scream of pain.

His right arm felt like it was being twisted.

He hurriedly checked its condition, only to see that it was being supported by a splint.

“Haa! Haa!”

Though his arm was still there, he felt like his muscles and bones were being twisted and swirled.

He gritted his teeth, that was when he realized there was something like a thick cloth in his mouth.

Someone probably put it there to prevent him from biting his tongue due to the pain while he was sleeping.

“Ptui.”

He spat out the cloth in his mouth and looked around.

The place he was in was familiar to him.

It was the medical room.

“Is...anyone... Is anyone there...?”

Since his voice wouldn’t come out properly, he called out in a soft voice. Not long after, hurried footsteps were heard from outside the medical room.

“Isaac?”

The one who opened the door with a clatter was Rianna.

When he saw her, Isaac felt an unconscious sense of relief.

Seeing how Rianna was all fine like this meant that the situation had more or less been resolved.

“Are you alright? How do you feel?”

“I’m fi–! ugh, I’m fine. More importantly, what about that thing?”

He asked, enduring the pain in his right arm.

His memories were hazy, so he wanted to confirm if the only part of them that remained vivid was real.

At his question, Rianna nodded her head slightly.

“It’s dead. You killed it.”

“...I see.”

He never thought he’d accomplished something so amazing.

Hearing those words came out from Rianna’s lips as she held back tears, Isaac felt something well up in his chest.

“You did it. You really did it.”

Relief and disbelief both swirled in Rianna’s words.

Since his regression, he had only fought strong enemies in the North.

But this was the first time he had fought and won against such a fierce existence that was clearly out of his league.

“I...did it...”

He covered his face with his left hand.

The emotion welling up in his chest was of a kind that couldn’t be easily explained.

The hundreds of hours of effort that had made the impossible possible were now telling him that he had finally earned his qualification.

“I saw your sword.”

Rianna, who had hesitantly opened her mouth, looked at Isaac.

With complex emotions, she carefully placed her hand on his right arm which had delivered that miraculous strike.

“To be honest, until yesterday, I thought it would be better if you never have to hold a sword.”

“...”

“I thought you were blinded by your obsession, and swordsmanship remained as a wound in your heart. When I saw you using Helmont’s sword while swinging a sword that was completely opposite to Helmont’s, that impression only grew stronger.”

During his time at Helmont.

Isaac had tried to learn their greatswords. Many times.

The reason why he accepted the direct lines’ invitations for duels—which were, at the end of the day, just one sided beatings—was so that he could learn.

So that he could somehow become a son-in-law worthy of the name Helmont.

So that he could become someone who wasn’t lacking as Rianna’s husband.

“Do you remember when you were bedridden for a week after the duel with Lohengrin?”

“How could I forget?”

A bitter smile formed on Isaac’s face.

Back then, Rianna had defeated Lohengrin in a duel.

Because of that, the next day, he had intentionally called out Isaac and demanded a duel.

And beat him up thoroughly.

Afterwards, when he was lying in bed, Rianna had come to him stoically and uttered just one sentence before leaving.

“I told you to quit the sword.”

“...That’s right.”

Rianna took a deep breath.

Her expression looked pained, but she knew that she wasn’t the one who should be in pain here, so she suppressed her feelings and continued.

“I wanted you to stop trying. What you’ve been doing back then was hurling your body against a mountain. You looked like you could break at any moment.”

But, now I know that it was wrong.

I shouldn’t have said such things.

Now, Rianna realized.

“I was wrong.”

Tears welled up in her eyes, but they didn’t fall.

It was as if she was declaring that she didn’t have the right to shed tears for him.

“I...”

She slowly met his gaze.

On her lips was a smile, twisted by the bitterness of regret.

“Should have told you...that you could do it...”

In truth.

On that day when Rianna told him to give up.

He cried. He didn’t even know how much she cried.

Because he felt like the person whose recognition he wanted the most had given up on him.

The spark of effort that had been burning brightly was extinguished with surprising emptiness.

“I didn’t want you to break...”

Trying to hide her flowing tears, Rianna covered her eyes with her hands.

“But in reality, I-!”

Unfortunately, she couldn’t stop her burst of emotions.

Her hot breath and the scorching regret contained within.

“Was the one who broke you.”

Hardships were part of the process in moving forward.

However, the moment the purpose of moving forward itself was lost.

There was nothing to do but sit down.

Rianna was Isaac’s purpose.

And all the other additional things were simply hardships for him to overcome.

“Now, I understand.”

Forcing a smile, Rianna slowly straightened her back.

She sniffled as she apologized for her misunderstanding.

“You...really overcame everything. Before we, who hurt you, even noticed your wounds.”

Already...

“You’ve...overcome it all.”

There was nothing she could do.

Rianna painfully realized.

“...It wasn’t easy.”

Due to his regression, the misunderstanding between them had accumulated.

While in a way, one might think that with his regression he could shake the misunderstanding off easily, but...

The truth of the matter was...

“It was a terrible time.”

In his previous life, he hadn’t overcome it so easily.

After his leg got injured due to Alois’ scheme...

For a year, he had locked himself in his room, refusing to meet anyone.

There was only one reason for that.

He didn’t want to show Rianna the sight of himself losing all of his future.

But now...

“Rianna, I admired your sword.”

All of that had ultimately become hardships he had overcome, and...

He blossomed. Before Helmont could cast him out.

“My sword. How did it look to you?”

He asked such a question, to hear the impression of the swordswoman who had set him on the path of the sword.

“It was...”

Rianna smiled brightly, not even thinking to wipe away the tears flowing down her cheeks.

The great flash she had seen...

Was etched grandly into her mind.

“Magnificent.”

Rianna wasn’t good with words, she couldn’t add flowery phrases even if she wanted to.

But...

Just by hearing this simple answer.

“At last...”

A gentle smile formed on Isaac’s lips.

“You’ve finally recognized me, Ria...”

*   *   *“It was... Magnificent.”

Beyond the door.

The moment she heard Rianna’s tearful confession, Silverna felt her breath get caught in her throat.

“At last...”

She closed her eyes tightly.

Though she was just hearing his voice from outside the medical room, she could almost see what kind of expression he was wearing in her mind.

“You’ve finally recognized me, Ria...”

Because his feelings were clearly expressed in that response.

“...”

Silverna’s head dropped.

Though her falling hair obscured her vision, the silver earring in her palm remained clearly visible.

She tried hard to hold back the tears welling up in her eyes.

Clench.

She gripped the earring Antonio had made for her in her fist.

As if trying to hide what she had been about to do until just now.

Then, she walked down the corridor.

Deliberately muffling her breath, she tried to tell herself to not disturb the two’s time together.

There were words she wanted to say.

But, she swallowed them all down, along with her tears.