Chapter 29: Weight

“Past matters…? What exactly did you recall?”

Gro rarely spoke to Ileil without his usual frivolous tone. He strode in front of the girl, his eyes filled with indescribable worry.

“Nothing but ordinary memories… I just felt a bit nostalgic because of the scenery, that’s all.” Ileil turned around. The moonlight stretched her shadow long and twisted.

“Under this moonlight, I recalled the night after my first time stepping onto the battlefield and fighting the enemy—that night’s feeling was similar to tonight.”

Ileil suppressed her rage, hiding all emotions behind a calm exterior and weaving lies that could fool Gro.

—She absolutely could not let Gro know about the black-haired witch’s existence.

“What a coincidence. I just felt nostalgic too.” Gro chuckled lightly. His deep blue eyes looked especially profound in the shadows.

“I still remember—you threw up for half the night back then and finally fell asleep in the tent hugging your sword. For a boy not even twelve years old, killing an enemy taller and stronger than himself on the battlefield was truly a task as difficult as climbing to the heavens.”

“Back then you told me—vomiting means your conscience is still intact, and that’s a good thing.”

“That really is a good thing, Ileil.”

Gro called the girl’s name. He restrained the smile at the corners of his mouth and said with emotion, “If your nature were as rotten as mine, you wouldn’t be like Isende’s son.”

“……What do you mean?”

Ileil had no intention of continuing the conversation with Gro, especially after learning the “truth” of how she became a witch. But what surprised Ileil slightly was that Gro actually brought up her father on his own.

“Your father believed in the inherent goodness of human nature until his death.” Gro raised his hand and brushed away a withered leaf that had landed on Ileil’s shoulder. This overly natural action made the girl tense all over.

“As Kastit’s ‘Blade Ghost’—that idea was truly naive to the point of being unbelievable. Even when I held a sword to his throat, he still calmly told me, ‘Hatred only breeds new hatred.'”

Ileil’s pupils shrank sharply. The knuckles gripping the scabbard turned white from the force. She stared at Gro, trying to find any flaw in his expression, but the man’s face looked solemnly unlike his usual self.

It was as if he truly felt regret over her father’s death.

“So?” she asked coldly. “What are you trying to say?”

Gro did not answer immediately. Instead, he reached into his chest and took out a heavily worn gold coin, flipping it between his fingers.

Ileil recognized that gold coin—it was the “spoils” Gro had casually tossed to her after her first kill. At that time, Ileil had not accepted the enemy’s charity and had viciously thrown the gold coin to the ground instead. Gro had sighed, then bent down in front of Ileil and picked the gold coin back up.

What surprised Ileil slightly was that Gro had actually kept this gold coin with him until now.

“Sorry for saying so much—I was just like you, feeling a bit nostalgic about the past.” Gro spoke slowly, but his gaze locked tightly on her reaction. “What I wanted to express is that whatever could make the usually calm you ‘feel nostalgic’ must be quite interesting.”

Ileil’s heartbeat quickened slightly, but her expression showed no fluctuation.

“I said, it’s just some insignificant memories.” She shifted her gaze toward the distant dark forest. “If you only wanted to ask about this, we can head back now.”

Gro stared at her for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled.

“Fine, kid.” He put away the gold coin and turned toward the direction they had come from. “Since you don’t want to say, I won’t ask.”

His tone was relaxed, as if he had only mentioned it casually. But Ileil knew that Gro had said these words because he had noticed something.

The two walked in silence for a stretch until distant chaotic footsteps and the light of torches came from ahead. Kaze’s rough voice called out from afar.

“Gro! Ileil! Where are you?”

“Ileil and I are here, Kaze!”

Gro responded loudly. Upon hearing Gro’s voice, Kaze quickly walked toward him.

Soon, Alyssa’s figure and several scouts also appeared behind Kaze. She pushed up the glasses on her nose, her gaze sweeping between Gro and Ileil. She seemed to sense some strange atmosphere but said nothing.

“Any new discoveries on your side?” Kaze panted. He glanced at Gro, then shifted his gaze to Ileil, whose expression was exceptionally gloomy.

Gro spread his hands. “Same as before. Nothing except a few axe marks.”

“Where the hell did Kol’s idiots run off to…” Kaze scratched his hair. “They couldn’t really have been captured and sacrificed by some believers of the True God of Death, could they? That would be too ridiculous.”

Alyssa pushed up her glasses and said calmly, “Calm down, Kaze. That was just one-sided talk from bandits.” She took out a strangely shaped compass from her waist pouch. The compass needle trembled slightly but never pointed clearly in any direction.

“Continue searching for traces of residual magic nearby.” She lightly tapped the edge of the compass with her fingertip and spoke in a low voice. “But it’s strange—the magic fluctuations are very chaotic, as if deliberately scattered.”

Upon hearing this, Kaze immediately instructed the scouts behind him to spread out and search. Torchlight swayed between the trees, illuminating every suspicious corner—broken branches, trampled bushes, marks on the rock wall—but beyond that, there were no more clues.

Ileil stood to the side, watching everything with cold eyes. Her thoughts still lingered on Gro’s earlier words—’If your nature were as rotten as mine, you wouldn’t be like Isende’s son.’

She still could not understand why Gro had suddenly brought this up. And he had used the same excuse as her: ‘feeling nostalgic.’

What a terrible excuse.

If Gro had truly sold her out as shown in the memory from the black feather, why would he now voluntarily mention her father?

According to Gro’s consistently shrewd style of doing things—to control her more conveniently, Gro should have used lies to cover his crimes.

But in his attitude toward Ileil, Gro’s actions were completely the opposite. Gro had never hidden the dirty things he had done from Ileil—from how many innocent people from Aressto he had killed as a plunderer from Kastit, to personally ending Isende’s life. Gro had never minded telling Ileil these things.

—This made Ileil unable to help doubting the authenticity of the memory she had seen earlier.

The memory provided by the black feather had been too real. Gro’s back as he counted the money pouch and left, the heretics’ sinister smiles, the agony of twisting bones—every detail was so clear it felt as if these things had just happened to her.

…….

“Hey, kid!” Gro’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Any discoveries on your side? Don’t tell me you’re daydreaming!”

Ileil said expressionlessly, “None.”

Kaze beside them sighed and turned to look into Gro’s eyes. “Searching like this is pointless. Should we withdraw for now?”

Gro looked toward Alyssa, apparently considering her judgment more authoritative. “What do you think, Grand Mage?”

Alyssa put away the compass. Hearing Gro’s address, her brows furrowed slightly. “Continuing to search would only waste time. Although the residual magic here is abnormal, it is not enough to track.”

Gro nodded. “We’ll listen to you and pull back then.”

On the way back, Ileil walked at the very end of the group. Kaze and Alyssa discussed possible clues while the scouts vigilantly scanned the surroundings. Only Gro occasionally glanced back at her, but Ileil kept staring at her own toes.

The outline of Renn Town emerged in the night. The group had reached a fork in the road on the outskirts of Renn Town when Gro stopped, turned, and blocked Ileil’s path.

“By the way, I almost forgot one proper matter.” He slapped his forehead. Just as the group was about to turn toward the temporary camp, he asked proactively.

“What exactly did you say today that offended the princess and got you kicked out?”

“Because I said she was a burden.” Ileil answered truthfully. “My exact words were: Dorias’s biggest flaw right now is you. Then she got angry and told me to get out and clear my head.”

“No wonder. You really are a big idiot, kid.” Gro laughed out loud. The moonlight illuminated Gro’s outstretched hand. That old gold coin lay quietly in his palm, its edges showing faint verdigris.

“Take it. Even children understand the principle—spoils should be kept on you.”

Ileil did not move. “You… why did you keep it.”

Gro flicked his finger lightly. The gold coin drew an arc in the air. Ileil subconsciously caught it. The cool metallic touch made her fingertips tremble slightly.

“Because every warrior’s first time is worth commemorating. Just like what your father always said—’The weight of killing must be weighed with a lifetime.'”

Gro softened his voice, as if reminiscing about the distant past. “This gold coin is your first weight.”

Ileil’s pupils contracted tightly. She gripped the gold coin, its sharp edges digging into her palm.

The familiar teaching. She had never expected to hear these words again, and from the mouth of her father’s killer no less.

“Wait, how do you know my father he…”

That was exactly the words her father had told Ileil when she was a child—

“Now, get back to your post, kid.” Gro did not answer Ileil’s question. He had already turned toward the camp and waved without looking back.

“Remember to coax Her Highness the Princess into a good mood.”