Snowy Mountain Covered in White Snow. A woman traversing the snowfield alone spotted a person buried in the snow and cautiously approached.
“─Found you.”
The woman who discovered the man immediately cast a spell, blowing away all the snowflakes covering his body.
The snow piles covering his face and body vanished completely, revealing Kail beneath. Kail, dazed and buried in the snow, realized the weight pressing down on him had disappeared and carefully moved his eyes.
“……Who?”
“Let’s go back. Kail.”
“Oh, it’s Yuri….”
Hearing Yuri’s voice, Kail weakly rolled his eyes again and stared blankly at the sky. The clouds heavy with falling snow obscured even an arm’s length of visibility, much like his own life.
“Come on.”
“……Leave me be.”
“Kail.”
“─I said leave me alone!”
Startled by Kail’s sudden outburst—something she’d never heard before—Yuri flinched as she looked down at him. But Kail, oblivious to what he had just done, continued to mutter.
“That guy was right! I’m worthless trash, garbage! So just leave me here!”
“……What are you suddenly talking about?”
“What meaning do titles like Sword God or Grand Master have!? I couldn’t even save a single friend! If that guy reaches out to you all, then─ then….”
Kail muttered, lowering his head deeply.
“Then what the hell am I supposed to do…?”
He had failed to save Sera—his most precious friend, his childhood companion from Earth.
And yet, he had failed. He could do nothing but be tossed around like a toy and lose her.
How could someone like him—who couldn’t even save a friend—possibly protect his wife or child? If something like this happened again… what could he possibly do?
“I can’t… I don’t have the confidence to protect you all… If everything is going to be taken away so meaninglessly, maybe it’s better to just let it all go….”
“─Kail. I don’t know what nonsense you’re spouting, but look at me for now.”
“……Huh?”
Thwack-! Kail felt a sting on his cheek as Yuri slapped him, his eyes snapping wide open. His expression was one of utter confusion.
Yuri, who had thrown the punch, winced slightly as if she’d hurt her hand and lightly shook it off.
“H-Huh? Yuri, did you just…….”
“Stop spouting nonsense. Who asked you to protect us anyway?”
“Well, obviously…….”
“A husband should obviously protect his wife and children, right? Yeah, correct. Then stake your life on it. Even if you can’t protect them, stake your life trying. ─Don’t sit there like a fool giving up before you’ve even started!”
Yuri shouted as she grabbed Kail by the collar. Kail blinked slowly after hearing her words.
His spirit, which had been crushed by the despair of his first defeat, was slowly awakening. She was right. What kind of idiot gives up thinking they can’t protect something?
Whether you succeed or fail, no matter how powerful the opponent is. If you’re a father, a husband, a man…
Even if you know you might fail, you still have to stand in the way.
“─Sorry, Yuri.”
“Are you back to your senses?”
“Yeah… Sorry for saying such useless things…….”
“Then let’s go. Caël cries every day, saying he misses his dad.”
“……Really?”
“It’s a lie.”
For a moment, Kail brightened at the thought of his son missing him, but upon realizing it was a lie, he immediately slumped into a pout.
Yuri found Kail’s shifting expressions amusing and chuckled softly, laughing more exaggeratedly than usual.
Belatedly, Kail realized that Yuri was pregnant with their second child. She had dragged her heavy body all the way here to find him.
‘……This is bad.’
And that meant Yuri had urgently searched for him despite her condition. Whether it was because their son really missed him or because she desperately needed him…
Either way, it meant Kail would need to provide significant emotional support. Thinking about the impending energy drain, Kail already looked exhausted as he gazed at Yuri.
Just as Kail foresaw his future, Yuri noticed that he had come to terms with his fate and smirked. Shortly after, nothing remained on the snowy mountain.
* * *
Creak- Creak-
……Creeeak.
After a long reunion, Kail collapsed onto the bedside. Smoke wafted from his body, proof of how intense their encounter had been.
Sighing briefly and staring at the ceiling, Kail smiled faintly as he felt Yuri gently stroking his stomach.
He then mustered the strength to comfort her.
“─So that’s how it is. That’s what happened.”
Having finished recounting everything, Kail told her the story. After listening to it all, Yuri nodded and expressed her somber mood.
“Sera, in the end…….”
“I thought I could stop it. I had confidence…… but in the end, I failed.”
“It’s not your fault. The opponent was a god-like being. No matter who came…….”
“─No matter who came, we probably would’ve failed, but I shouldn’t have failed.”
Kail was the only man in this world who had ever stood against the gods. He was the man who had slain the Evil God. Of course, he had help from the Sovereign God, but without Kail’s blade reaching the Evil God in the first place, success wouldn’t have been possible regardless of any assistance.
Kail held confidence in that fact. He was the man who had killed a god. This time should have been no different. That baseless confidence……
“I shouldn’t have failed…….”
His first-ever defeat. His first-ever failure.
A defeat that others might have experienced long ago had grown overwhelmingly large, finally crashing down on Kail. The first wound was unbearably painful and bitter.
Without any tolerance for failure, this was an excruciating experience for Kail. And so, he regretted and berated himself.
“It’s okay, Kail.”
“……But Sera died.”
“Well, the Kail I know isn’t the type to give up.”
“Huh?”
“The type of man who, even after failing once, getting beaten, and crumbling, never gives up.”
Though this overwhelming defeat was his first, it wasn’t as if Kail had never come close to losing before.
Back when he wasn’t yet an Aura Master, he nearly got killed in one strike by Chantalka. There were also several other perilous moments.
And through all those situations─ Kail never gave up.
“You’ve only lost once so far, right?”
“……Yuri.”
“It’s not like you can’t challenge them again. Your arms and legs aren’t chopped off, and you’re not dead. ─Do you have any reason to give up and fall into despair?”
Upon hearing her words, Kail silently pulled her into a tight embrace. Yuri, pressed against his muscular chest, gasped for air and smacked his shoulders repeatedly, but Kail didn’t let go.
After holding her for a long while, Kail finally realized he was squeezing her too tightly and released her.
Then he spoke.
“You really are the best woman, Yuri.”
“Of course.”
Watching Yuri puff up proudly, Kail chuckled softly. She was right.
To dwell on a single defeat.
To be utterly crushed to the point of immobility.
He couldn’t mope about it forever.
He wasn’t that kind of insignificant man.
The reason Kail Meyer always emerged victorious was because he never gave up.
* * *
“─Sera has been kidnapped.”
Next, Kail gathered his acquaintances in one place: the Virgin Saintess, Arthur, Rizelotte, Merlin, and others.
Upon hearing that Sera had been kidnapped, Merlin hummed knowingly.
“That guy from back then?”
“Yeah, that damn bastard……!”
“What was he?”
“A god, or perhaps a demon.”
“Wow─ Are you seriously calling us to fight something like that right now?”
Merlin stared at Kail as if questioning his sanity, but Kail nodded confidently. After a brief pause, Merlin changed his expression and smirked.
“You crazy bastard. If you’re going to die, do it alone.”
Yet no one stood up to leave. Everyone here owed Kail more than just their lives.
Even if Kail now asked them to die alongside him, none would refuse. None even considered refusing.
“So? How are we going to find this guy?”
“If he’s a demon or something, we’ll find a demon and chase after him.”
“So where exactly are we going to find this demon?”
Kail first drew the Demon Sword Apophis hanging at his waist. Inside it, a demon was sealed. Of course, getting cooperation from a sealed demon was no easy task—but─.
“We know another demon, don’t we?”
“Who? Oh, right. That’s true.”
Merlin snickered, recalling a certain demon in his mind.
The one who was probably living happily with a woman by now….
