Academy’s Barbarian

“You… knew…?”

Orhan couldn’t help but ask, doubting his own ears. The psychology of Hersela, which he thought he understood, was rooted in a misunderstanding—that he had neglected Ai-mel-ra. Her words, implying that his hatred was based on a misconception, left him stunned.

“How…?”

“About five years ago, Glar hinted at it. He said the hatred I harbored was nothing but an unjust misunderstanding.”

Glar, the War Chief of the Black Armies. Once Orhan’s trusted captain, he understood why Orhan had to act as if he neglected Ai-mel-ra. He believed that restoring the twisted relationship between father and daughter was for Orhan’s sake. Though, in the end, it meant nothing.

“He told me. That you neglected Mother to divert the warriors’ hostility away from her. That you didn’t even show up at her funeral because you were hunting down the culprit.”

Hersela spat out the words, her brow furrowed as she recalled the mental turmoil and disgust she felt upon learning the truth. Back then, she had been shocked. But now, only disgust remained.

“So, he told me to let go of my hatred and understand the Khan’s heart!”

Disgust turned to anger, and anger to murderous intent.

Despite declaring she wouldn’t speak to him, Hersela continued the conversation while relentlessly attacking Orhan with killing intent. She hurled a massive boulder at him like a throwing spear, sharp and deadly.

“Then, why…?”

Orhan didn’t even look at the incoming boulder as he asked. Even knowing it was a misunderstanding, why did she still hate him?

“Why? Does the reason even matter now?”

Hersela sneered at him.

“Answer me!”

Orhan roared, taking the boulder head-on. The massive rock shattered against his Indestructible Body, pushing him back. His heels slid through the lava, parting it like the Red Sea before Moses.

“Fine, I’ll tell you. It’s not like I can’t.”

Hersela lifted another boulder and slammed it down toward Orhan’s head.

“Even if your neglect of Mother was a misunderstanding, you’re still responsible. Responsible for her death.”

Even after learning the truth, she still despised him.

“You dragged Mother into a world that hated her and her people, and you couldn’t even protect her. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s…!”

Orhan, about to leap and strike the boulder, hesitated for a moment. Hersela’s words and the boulder struck him simultaneously.

“You kept her at a distance to protect her? Ridiculous. What was the result? Did distancing her save her?”

Her voice dripped with disgust. Orhan was momentarily speechless, unable to find a response.

“No, it was the opposite! When you distanced her, the warriors thought she had lost your favor and began to scorn her without hesitation. They thought they could kill her without consequences!”

Hersela pressed the boulder down, burying Orhan’s body in the lava. The ground’s tears surged around them.

“I had no choice!”

Orhan tore the boulder in half and stood up.

“Ludwig’s attack had pushed the warriors’ anger to the limit. If I had kept Ai-mel-ra close, they would have called her a witch who bewitched the Khan and tried to kill her! There was no other way!”

His voice was filled with passion, unable to accept his daughter’s accusation that he was responsible for Ai-mel-ra’s death.

“I knew you’d say that. You still don’t get it. There was another way. A simple one, if you truly wanted to protect Mother!”

Hersela had realized it immediately upon hearing Glar’s explanation, but Orhan hadn’t even thought of it. That very fact—that he hadn’t even considered it—was the root of her hatred and disgust.

Fiercely, Hersela leaped back, putting distance between them and scanning the area. Most of the boulders had melted, leaving no usable weapons. The ceiling, now pillarless, glowed red, dripping lava and shaking.

Orhan seemed mentally shaken, but his body remained unscathed.

No longer able to fight by throwing boulders, Hersela draped herself in lava like a dress and gripped Durandal with both hands.

Perhaps because she changed tactics or held back her rising anger to continue the conversation, she had bought considerable time. But now, she had to return to her original fighting style.

The style of enduring blows until the Indestructible Body shattered.

“The warriors’ anger was at its limit? They would have killed her as a witch who bewitched the Khan? So, you had to keep her at a distance to protect her?”

Hersela glared at Orhan with contempt.

“You truly are the ‘Khan.’ You can’t escape the Khan’s way of thinking. As Ai-shan’s Khan, Ai-shan Gi-or Orhan, you had no choice but to appease the warriors to prevent unrest. To keep Ai-shan stable.”

As the Khan leading tens of thousands of troops and ruling hundreds of thousands of people, it was inevitable. Hersela understood that much.

But—

“So what? What does that change?”

That didn’t make it forgivable. Because—

“You never even considered giving it all up to protect Mother!”

If the Khan’s wife was from an enemy nation, it was natural for the warriors to rebel.

If the Khan’s wife was seen as bewitching the Khan and destabilizing the nation, it was natural for the warriors to want her dead.

If she was the ‘Khan’s’ wife.

—In other words, if Ai-mel-ra Median hadn’t been the ‘Khan’s’ wife, but just the wife of a commoner, there would have been no issue.

If Orhan hadn’t been the Khan ruling Ai-shan, what did it matter if the warriors resented her? They were people who no longer had any connection to him.

In Hersela’s mind, if Orhan had truly cherished her mother above all else, he could have left Ai-shan with her—or even included Hersela—and lived in seclusion.

In this vast Great Plains, surely there was a place for the three of them to live in peace.

But Orhan didn’t do that. While claiming to love Ai-mel-ra, he couldn’t let go of his position as Ai-shan’s Khan, choosing a hesitant and half-hearted neglect.

The price for that was paid not by him, but by Ai-mel-ra Median. A final moment filled with scorn and suffering.

That was what Hersela couldn’t forgive.

“Mother’s life, her very survival was at stake. Yet even in that situation, you couldn’t give up your position as Ai-shan’s Khan. That is your sin. That is your responsibility. You weighed yourself as the Khan against yourself as a husband and chose to remain ‘Ai-shan’s’ Orhan!”

Hersela’s fury shook the Underground Cavern.

As always, speaking with Orhan filled her with endless rage, making her forget even the faintest sense of human shame.

“No. I didn’t mean to…! It wasn’t like that…!”

Orhan, who had tried to stop the fight with words, was now retreating, muttering incoherently under Hersela’s relentless accusations.

Her probing struck at parts of his mind he hadn’t even considered, sharp as a needle.

He had never even thought of abandoning Ai-shan to choose Ai-mel-ra. Not back then, and not until this very moment.

‘Did I weigh Ai-mel-ra against Ai-shan and choose to abandon her?’

Without even that self-awareness, Orhan couldn’t refute Hersela’s reproach. It felt like the ground beneath him was crumbling.

“And you didn’t even take responsibility for that. Because of your choice, Mother died a death filled with disgrace and scorn, while you, as Ser Khan, basked in the warriors’ praise and continued to rise! How can I forgive that?”

Of course, Hersela had no interest in Orhan’s despair. She charged at him like a beast, thrusting Durandal toward his chest.

Orhan’s combat instincts as a warrior reflexively defended and counterattacked, but his strikes lacked the precision they once had, reflecting the turmoil in his heart.

“No one held you accountable. Not even you yourself! Because as Ai-shan’s Khan, it was the most natural and correct choice!”

That only fueled Hersela’s rage further.

The fact that he had been unaware of his own sin until now, only to be shaken by the revelation, was despicable to her.

“That’s why I decided. If you chose to remain Ai-shan’s Khan rather than Mother’s husband, then I, as Ai-mel-ra Median’s child and not the Khan’s descendant, will hold you accountable for abandoning her!”

Her boiling, surging, fiercely burning emotions. Her soul, steeped in resentment, merged with her murderous intent and exploded forth.

The pinnacle of the Life Force Technique. The world of the living and the dead unfolded atop the lava.

—

It was a mistake.

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