“...Where else would you find a drift like this?”
“......”
“D-Don’t look at me like that.”
“What’s wrong with my eyes?”
“They—they’re the eyes of someone looking at a criminal.”
“You’re very perceptive.”
“!!?!”
The deeper he immersed himself in the story, the more shocking it became.
Was this what it felt like for a child reading a fairytale, only for an adult to hand them the original grim version and say, “Here, read the real thing.”?
In other words...
This is absolutely insane.
Child abuse was practically a staple trope in romance fantasy novels, but hearing about it firsthand made it nothing short of exhausting.
Ihan felt himself teetering on the edge of genuine disgust.
“W-Wait! I can see you’ve misunderstood something, but please, stop! It’s all a misunderstanding!”
“That sounds like something a criminal would say.”
“I swear it isn’t! I won’t deny that I was a terrible parent, but there were valid reasons! Just hear me out a little longer!”
“......”
“...I appreciate that you’re willing to listen, but could you at least soften that stare? It’s... really starting to hurt my feelings.”
Felicia looked genuinely aggrieved, her expression bordering on a pout as she continued her story.
“I had already exhausted my heavenly mandate. It would have been stranger if I didn’t retire.”
***
Felicia was dying.
Her coughing fits grew worse, her hands trembled so violently that she could no longer wield a sword, and her vision had become so blurry that even seeing clearly was a struggle.
She was sixty-five years old.
Considering that the average life expectancy for women in Pendragon was fifty-five, it would not have been wrong to say she had lived a long life.
...But living long was not necessarily a blessing.
Rather—
“Guhhh...!”
“Madam, hold on!!”
“E-Elza, fetch the medicine!”
“But that’s—”
“Hurry.”
“...Understood.”
Felicia had spent decades rolling across battlefields, accumulating hundreds of scars. She was a knight who had braved war, an adventurer who had explored countless perilous regions, a hero who had prevented calamity.
It was a past she took pride in—one that had made her who she was.
But just as a body that endures too much strain eventually collapses, hers had been pushed far beyond its limits.
And now, old age—the one adversary no living being could defy—had begun to claim her.
Each day was a trial.
Every breath was agony.
Death could come at any moment.
And yet, despite it all, she clung to life for one reason.
“...Ah, I just want to swing my sword one more time.”
It was absurd, but she wasn’t holding on for the sake of her family.
She wasn’t desperately fighting to live for her child’s sake.
No—
It was for the sword.
She simply wanted to wield her blade one last time.
So she took painkillers laced with narcotics just to keep going.
She knew it would ruin her body even further, but she didn’t stop.
And when even the drugs could no longer suppress the pain—
“Iliad, I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, Mother. You’ve done more than enough.”
“Heh, I’m not dead yet.”
“T-That’s not what I meant...”
“Enough. My son, come here.”
“......”
“I’m sorry for being such a terrible mother. Truly, I am...”
“...To me, you have always been more than I could ever deserve. I only wish for you to remain yourself until the very end. That is the mother I admire and love.”
In the end, she relinquished her position as family head and went into seclusion.
Though calling it “seclusion” was generous—she was no different from a withered leaf, waiting for the wind to carry her away.
“...It won’t be long before I join you,” she had whispered, thinking of her husband who had gone ahead to Avalon.
And then—
“One day, it struck me. Was I truly incapable of wielding a sword anymore?”
“......”
“If my body couldn’t swing a sword, then why not do so with my mind? Why not continue pursuing the sword through sheer will alone? So that’s what I did.”
“......”
“And at some point, I became an Aura User.”
“...You skipped a few steps there.”
“Heh, I wouldn’t recommend listening to that part. I’d rather not have a promising young one like you attempt something foolish and end up dead.”
“......”
***
Felicia became an Aura User.
At the age of seventy-one.
Among all recorded Aura Users in history, she was the oldest to ever achieve it.
And she was the first woman to do so.
Once again, the God of War sought her out.
Baltar and Albert sparred with her to confirm that she had indeed awakened as an Aura User.
“Hah! So this is what it means to defy fate? Senior, you are truly incredible.”
“In the past, present, and future combined, I doubt anyone like you will ever exist again.”
A knight unlike any before her.
A life that no one could ever hope to replicate.
That was the evaluation of two Aura Users who stood before her, and the entire continent was shaken by the revelation.
After that—
“Lady Felicia, please grant me your guidance!”
“How can I become a knight like you?”
“C-Can I become an Aura User too?!”
For a time, she was swarmed by countless disciples seeking to learn from her, and House Offen’s prestige soared to unprecedented heights.
After all, they had produced an Aura User.
It was only natural that their influence would explode.
Aspiring knights flocked to them in droves.
Merchants scrambled to secure connections.
To exaggerate only slightly—House Offen’s power had begun to rival even the royal family.
...And Felicia knew that this was not a good thing.
“I remain retired, and I have no intention of returning to active duty. Anyone seeking something from House Offen, leave. You will gain nothing from me.”
With those words—both warning and declaration—House Offen was finally allowed to return to normalcy.
Well...
With the reputation of producing an Aura User, they had already surpassed their previous golden age, so maybe normal wasn’t quite the right word.
Regardless, with time, the family stabilized.
And with her body now brimming with Aura, Felicia—who should have been in her seventies—physically regressed to her prime in her forties.
And the first thing she did?
“...I can finally train again.”
She didn’t care that she had regained her youth.
She didn’t care that she had become a superhuman.
All that mattered was that she could once again wield her sword with her own hands.
“Isn’t it funny? I spent my whole life being betrayed by the sword. And yet, because I never let go, because I loved it until the very end, I was called a great swordswoman. It’s ironic.”
“Isn’t that an unfairly self-deprecating assessment? You literally became a superhuman.”
“Heh, I can’t help it. My swordsmanship is still terribly lacking.”
“...That level of false modesty is criminal.”
“I-I’m only stating the truth! You’ve experienced my sword firsthand, haven’t you? You know my techniques are nothing like those of true geniuses.”
“...Were they?”
“...Ah, right. You weren’t exactly blessed with talent either. It seems I’ve chosen the wrong person to commiserate with.”
“...You absolute menace.”
She knew that to others, her words might sound like false humility.
But the truth was that despite all her years of training, her swordsmanship had never been anything special.
And that was only natural.
She had been the worst talent in House Offen’s history.
A dullard among dullards.
Someone who could barely grasp 0.1 of a lesson when given 1.
And yet, she had become Sword Duke.
She had become a hero by the time she reached her forties.
Not because her swordsmanship was remarkable—
But simply because she had become strong.
In a way—
“You’re a lot like me.”
“...Hmph.”
A swordswoman who endlessly honed nothing but slashes and thrusts—until they became so powerful that no one could stop them.
That was the essence of Felicia’s swordsmanship, and it remained unchanged even after she became an Aura User.
Felicia was still a challenger.
A seeker who walked the infinite path of the sword.
And yet—
“Mother, is this how your sword technique works?”
“......”
“Mother?”
“...So this is what a genius is.”
“...Huh?”
Watching her son, Iliad, replicate what had taken her seventy years to master in just ten days, Felicia felt a mix of pride and helpless resignation.
A man loved by the sword more than anyone else—her son, Iliad.
“It was astonishing. He saw my most ideal swordsmanship once and immediately copied it. Within a week, he grasped its meaning. And by the fifteenth day, he had completely absorbed it and even created a new technique of his own.”
“...You’re not exaggerating because he’s your son, are you?”
“Not in the slightest. I witnessed it in real time, and there are plenty of witnesses in the family. Ask anyone.”
“...That’s insane.”
“Yes, it was.”
At the time, Iliad had just turned twenty.
He perfectly handled his duties as family head, sought out old records, met with Felicia’s former comrades for advice, and—on top of all that—even wrote The Female Knight Series, the legendary masterpiece that would go down in history.
All while training in swordsmanship.
What an unbelievable level of talent.
Felicia couldn’t help but believe that her son might become the greatest swordsman in history.
He had already surpassed her.
In ten years, he would surely be among the top ten in the kingdom.
In twenty years, he would be the greatest.
It wasn’t just blind parental bias.
“Mother, is this how you control intent?”
“You’ve already mastered it?! Incredible! Amazing, Iliad!”
“Th-Thank you.”
Yes.
Iliad didn’t just rely on talent—he devoted himself to his training with relentless diligence.
And on top of that, he even mastered Willpower Manipulation.
“What do you think of this? It’s a copy of an ancient sword technique I obtained from an old temple.”
“Hah, I’ll give it a try.”
“Yes, you will surely become a great swordsman. Even this talentless mother of yours managed it—so there’s no way you can’t.”
“...Yes, Mother.”
Iliad continued to grow.
He refined the family’s sword techniques, recreating and improving them—dozens of times over.
Felicia couldn’t have been prouder.
Then, one day—
“Mother, how does one become an Aura User?”
Iliad asked how he could take the final step.
“Hm? Oh, you already want to reach where I’ve arrived? There’s no rush.”
“It’s not about ambition. I simply want to understand the process. There are no records of it anywhere.”
“That’s... for a reason. Becoming an Aura User means risking your life.”
“...Risking my life.”
“Heh, think of it like a caterpillar undergoing metamorphosis to become a butterfly.”
“Then, could you at least tell me how it works? I’d like to record it.”
“Hm...”
“Mother.”
“...Alright. You wouldn’t act recklessly.”
Felicia trusted her son.
He was extraordinary—someone who had always exceeded her expectations.
Surely, nothing would go wrong.
And that decision—
“—became the greatest regret of my life.”
***
I—Iliad! Wake up! Please, Iliad!!”
The day she saw her son dying—Felicia nearly lost her mind.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freewebnσvel.cøm.
Her entire body trembled.
Her thoughts were consumed by fear.
Her judgment had all but vanished.
“Why... Why would you do this to yourself?!!”
Even as she questioned him, she found no answer.
Why hadn’t he told her?
Why had her wise, brilliant son made such a reckless decision?
But finding an answer could wait.
Felicia—
“...I simply poured Aura into him like a madwoman. The purest, most powerful life force a human could possess. Fortunately, I had an ocean of it within me. I delayed Iliad’s death just long enough to use every ancient elixir I had ever gathered from forgotten temples. And only then... did he survive.”
“That’s a miracle.”
“Yes. A miracle. For the first time in my life, I thanked the gods.”
“......”
“But... was it the price for defying death? Iliad could never wield a sword again.”
A crippled body.
His legs would never function again.
Considering he had escaped death itself, perhaps it was a small price to pay.
“The day Iliad the swordsman died.”
But... strangely, even as he was told he could never fight again—he looked relieved.
Almost as if he was glad.
And that was when Felicia began to wonder.
“...Had he ever truly loved the sword?”
“......”
“Had he only trained because of me? Because of his incompetent parents?”
That guilt gnawed at her, never leaving her mind.
“...Did you ever ask him?”
“No. I never did.”
Even after Iliad recovered, he never gave her an answer.
He simply carried on—as a wise family head, as a writer.
And she... convinced herself that it was enough.
“You’re a coward.”
“Heh... When you become a parent, you’ll understand. Every parent is a coward when it comes to their children.”
Felicia smiled bitterly.
Ihan chose not to rebuke her any further.
...Or rather—
“...But why? Why did he do it?”
“...”
“That brilliant, radiant child—why would he make such a choice? I still don’t understand.”
“...What?”
Ihan had no intention of scolding her anymore.
But hearing those words—he had to say something.
“You really don’t know?”
“Hm?”
“You truly don’t understand? Or are you just pretending not to?”
“???”
“...This is ridiculous.”
Even I can see the reason.
And yet, the person at the center of it all—his own mother—was completely oblivious.
It was absurd.
And in that moment, Ihan realized something.
Felicia de Offen—Sword Duke.
A legendary knight.
A warrior who had walked the path of hardship and emerged victorious.
“...You might be a great hero.”
“Hmm?”
“But you were never a good parent.”
“...?”
Because as a person—she was woefully lacking.