Chapter 468. You Lie About Pain Like It’s Your Second Language

Chapter 468: 468. You Lie About Pain Like It’s Your Second Language

"A system," Lia repeated, the word tasting foreign in her mouth.

She looked at him as if he had suddenly sprouted wings or horns. "This whole time."

"All those moments where you moved too fast, where you survived things that should have killed you... it wasn’t just instinct."

"It wasn’t just you being stubborn."

"Harem Training System," William said, grimacing as the words dragged across his teeth.

Even saying it aloud made him feel like he was exposing something deeply absurd beneath the gravity of their situation.

Lia stared at him for a long, excruciating beat. Her expression was caught in a strange limbo between genuine disbelief and that particular brand of exasperation she reserved for a student who had pulled off something impossibly foolish yet undeniably effective.

Then, breaking the heavy tension that had been suffocating the room, she let out a short, surprised laugh that sounded almost hysterical.

"That is the most ridiculous name I have ever heard in my entire life," she said, shaking her head. "You’re telling me the fate of this kingdom and our lives is tied to something called the Harem Training System?"

"I didn’t choose the name, Lia... Trust me, I’ve considered filing a formal complaint with the universe."

"I’m aware," she shot back, though the corners of her eyes were crinkling. "I’m simply saying it out loud so you know that I noticed."

"I want it on the record that I find it completely absurd."

"Noted," William muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Consider it filed away with all the other things you’ve noticed about me that I’d rather you hadn’t."

"That list is considerably longer than you’d like," Lia countered, and for a fleeting moment, the corner of her mouth curved upward despite the storm clouds still gathering behind her eyes.

But as quickly as the levity had appeared, it vanished. The warrior returned.

Lia’s gaze sharpened, turning cold and analytical as she followed up on the part of the revelation that was gnawing at her gut. She stepped into his personal space, forcing him to meet the intensity of her stare.

"Doubling every one of your combat statistics sounds extraordinary on paper, William."

"It sounds like a gift from the gods," she said, her voice dropping to a dangerous murmur.

Her eyes narrowed with the exact same focus she used when she was dissecting a flaw in a sword stance, the kind of look she gave a problem she intended to dismantle with brutal efficiency. "But that warning you read?"

"The one about ’drastic strain’? That isn’t something you get to wave off as some technicality."

She stepped closer, her hand unconsciously drifting toward the hilt of the greatsword at her back. "I have watched you push past your own limits more times than I can count on both hands."

"I have seen you bleed from places you didn’t even know you could hurt, and every single time you told me afterward that you were ’fine.’"

"You lie about pain like it’s your second language."

"This is different, Lia," William said quietly, though his own inner voice was arguing with him.

’Is it? Or is it just a bigger fire to walk through?’

"I’m not going to use it carelessly... I’m going to test it."

"I’m going to understand exactly where the breaking point is before I ever need to touch it."

"That’s not good enough," Lia snapped, her arms crossing tightly over her chest as if she were physically bracing herself against the possibility of losing him. "Testing the breaking point means you have to break."

"You’re talking about pushing your heart until it stutters, pushing your bones until they splinter under the pressure of your own muscles." Her voice wavered, just once, revealing the raw terror beneath her bravado. "Promise me."

She held his gaze with terrifying intensity, refusing to let him retreat into his usual stoicism. She wasn’t asking as a lover or a companion; she was demanding it as a soldier who knew exactly what happens when a weapon shatters in the heat of battle.

William didn’t look away. He let her see the absolute steadiness in his eyes, the iron resolve that had carried him through countless impossible odds.

He reached out, taking her hands in his, feeling the calluses earned from years of training.

"I promise," William said, and the words carried the weight of a vow. "I won’t let the power consume me."

"I won’t let it break what I’ve built."

Lia studied his face for several heartbeats longer, her sharp eyes scanning every muscle twitch and minute shift in his expression as if she could detect a crack in his resolve.

She was hunting for the lie, the subtle tremor that would betray a man who planned to sacrifice himself.

Finally, she exhaled a long, shaky breath that signaled she was willing to trust him. Her shoulders dropped, the warrior’s tension bleeding out of her frame as her posture eased into something softer and warmer.

"Fine," she said, a small smirk playing on her lips. "But if I see you bleeding out from internal damage, I’m not helping you up."

"I’m just going to sit there and judge your poor life choices."

"Duly noted," William replied, the corner of his mouth quirking upward.

To break the residual solemnity of the moment, Lia began to recount her journey. She spoke of the Royal Greatsword Corps with a vividness that made them feel the exhaustion alongside her.

She told them about the monstrous greatsword Ardyn had thrust into her hands on her second day, a slab of enchanted steel that she swore felt as though she were trying to lift a small horse.

She described three straight hours of relentless drills under a punishing autumn sun that had left her arms shaking like leaves in a storm, her muscles screaming in protest, yet somehow leaving her spirit more alive than it had been in years.

"And then there was this idiot recruit," Lia said, her eyes dancing with mischief. "Thought he could outlast me in an endurance drill."

"Five minutes in, his legs gave out, and he just... folded."

"Face first into the dirt... Didn’t even have the dignity to grunt."

"Just went down like a sack of grain." She mimicked Ardyn’s deadpan delivery: "’Pathetic... Even the horses have better stamina than that.’"

Kaela laughed so hard at the image that she nearly knocked her cup over, the sound bright and infectious.

For a precious while, the four of them simply talked, weaving stories together and letting the crushing weight of politics, systems, and impending war be set aside on the table like discarded armor.

But Catherine, ever the tactician of social dynamics, knew the conversation wasn’t truly complete. She waited for the perfect lull before she leaned forward, her gaze shifting between Lia and Kaela.

"Since we’re sharing truths and revelations today," Catherine said smoothly, "perhaps Lia should know about the other developments here."

"About Kaela and William."

The effect was instantaneous. Lia turned toward Kaela, her entire face lighting up with a radiance that rivaled the morning sun.

Before Kaela could even formulate a reaction, Lia had crossed the room in two long, predatory strides, gathering Kaela into a fierce hug that nearly knocked the wind clean out of her lungs.

"Finally!" Lia cried, her voice muffled against Kaela’s shoulder as she squeezed with the strength of someone who had spent weeks swinging heavy steel. "I have been waiting for this since the rain, Kaela!"

"Since the very beginning."

Kaela laughed, breathless and slightly disoriented by the force of the embrace, but she squeezed back just as hard, anchoring herself to the girl she had missed so dearly. "You could have said something months ago and saved me a great deal of anxious standing around wondering!"

"And spoil the moment? Absolutely not." Lia pulled back just enough to frame Kaela’s face in her hands, her eyes bright and suspiciously wet at the corners. "Some things a person has to arrive at on their own."

"I wanted you to feel it." Her voice softened, becoming something raw and unguarded. "I’m happy for you, though... Both of you."

Kaela blinked, a playful smile tugging at her lips despite the emotion in the room. "Heh?"

"You’re not even a little jealous?" she asked, half teasing but with an undercurrent of genuine curiosity.

Lia let out a snort, rolling her eyes with theatrical affection. "I gave William my blessing for this back at the academy, Kaela."

"I meant it then, and I mean it now." She glanced sideways at William with open amusement. "There’s more than enough of him to go around, apparently."

"And frankly, I would much rather share him with people I actually like than watch him wander through life pining after someone from a careful, lonely distance the way he used to."

Her expression shifted to one of mock disgust as she turned back to William. "You were unbearable before Catherine came along, you know."

"Absolutely insufferable."

William raised an eyebrow, adopting his most innocent expression. "I have no memory of being unbearable."

"That’s because you were the one being it," Catherine interjected smoothly, sipping her tea as if she hadn’t just dropped a tactical emotional grenade.

Kaela burst into renewed laughter, leaning back in her chair, the sunlight streaming through the windows as the four of them shared a moment of rare, uncomplicated peace.