Chapter 152: The Night Sovereign

A little later, Ethan made his way to the guest suite where the Ashwood family was staying. Elena would follow with Aisha shortly after, and he wanted to let the family know beforehand so they could prepare themselves.

As he turned into the corridor, he spotted a familiar figure standing outside their door, a heavy claymore resting against the wall beside him. Dark circles marked his eyes, and his face had grown pale. Iron Wolf had been standing with his arms crossed, but the instant he saw Ethan, he straightened and strode over at once.

"Young Master?"

Iron Wolf looked him up and down, then slapped himself hard on the cheek, the sharp crack echoing down the corridor, to make sure he wasn’t seeing a ghost and that exhaustion wasn’t playing tricks on him. Only after confirming that it really was Ethan did he breathe a sigh of relief. "Where were you, Young Master? I couldn’t find you no matter how much I searched! Sir Van and Lady Aisha told me you were fine, but all of us were worried," he said, pouring out his complaints one after another.

Ethan was surprised by his sudden antics, but he calmed himself and replied, "It’s nothing... I just needed some rest."

"But still, you should have—" Iron Wolf was about to say more, but Ethan gave him a serious look, and he could only swallow his words nervously.

Ethan then asked him about the family, along with how the squad was doing, and Iron Wolf quickly began to explain everything that had happened while Ethan was away. After learning that the sisters had spent every waking hour cultivating and that the squad was recovering well, a small burden lifted off his shoulders.

"You’ve done well. Take some rest," Ethan said.

"Yes, Young Master."

Once Iron Wolf had left, Ethan knocked on the door and stepped inside.

The room fell silent the moment he entered. William was sitting beside the bed where Elene lay resting, while Anna and Sepharina sat by the window, a bowl of untouched porridge on the table between them. For a second, none of them moved.

Then everyone moved at once. Anna and Sepharina rushed over, while William and Elene followed right behind them. Ethan could see the concern in their eyes, and it wasn’t because they knew who he was or because he had helped them. They genuinely cared for him, just as they had slowly begun to grow on him as well. Unlike with Iron Wolf, he patiently calmed them down and answered every one of their worries.

Finally, he told them why he had come.

"It’s time we cure Lady Elene."

For a moment, no one spoke. The family simply stared at him, as though they weren’t sure they had heard him correctly.

Ethan then told them that his mother would be here shortly and gave them a few instructions. It took them a moment to come to terms with the fact that the Marchioness herself would be curing Elene, but unlike when they had first learned who Ethan was, they reined in their surprise much faster. The sisters quickly helped their mother into a fresh, loose robe and tidied the bed, while William kept glancing at the door as if he expected it to open any second.

It didn’t take long. There was a soft knock, and Aisha stepped inside, followed by Elena. The family turned towards the door at once, a little flustered at the sight of the breathtakingly elegant woman beside Aisha.

"This is my mother," Ethan said.

William quickly bowed, and the sisters followed, but Elena only smiled warmly and told them there was no need for formalities. Her gaze then settled on Elene, and after a brief look at her condition, she turned back to the others and gently asked them to wait outside.

William hesitated for a moment, glancing at his wife, but when Elene gave him a small nod, he bowed again and led his daughters out of the room. Ethan handed the crystal vial to his mother. He took one last look at Elene, gave her a reassuring smile, and followed the others out, closing the door behind him.

The corridor fell quiet.

Anna and Sepharina stood beside the door, glancing at it every few seconds, while William sat on the bench outside, his eyes fixed on the floor.

Ethan leaned against the wall beside the door and closed his eyes. Even from outside, his keen perception let him faintly sense Elena’s energy flowing within the room. Elene’s body had been strengthened by the elixirs, but the mana pathways of an unawakened person were far too thin. Guiding the elixir’s concentrated potency through such fragile pathways required absolute control, and it would put considerable strain on Elena.

"Young Master... will Mother really be okay?" Sepharina asked quietly, finally stopping in front of him.

Ethan opened his eyes and looked at her. "Don’t worry, she’ll be fine."

Sepharina nodded and went back to watching the door.

Nearly three hours passed in silence. Then, at last, the door slowly opened.

Elena stepped out with Aisha beside her, a thin layer of sweat covering her forehead. A faint tremor ran through her fingers, though the smile on her face was gentle. William rose to his feet at once, and the sisters stepped forward.

"It’s over," Elena said softly.

"Thank you! Thank you for everything!" William bowed so deeply that his head almost touched the ground, and the sisters followed... Then they quickly turned to Ethan and did the same.

For the last few years, watching Elene’s condition deteriorate had slowly broken them... but since they met Ethan, things had changed considerably, and a new hope had bloomed in their hearts. From the day Ethan saved William and Anna in the Deadwood Thicket to the moment he finally brought Elene her cure, they could only feel enormous gratitude towards him.

At that moment, not even a trace of doubt remained in the sisters’ hearts. They made a silent vow to follow Ethan for the rest of their lives, no matter where his path led.

Ethan lifted William, whose eyes had grown moist, while Aisha came over to lift Anna and Sepharina, who remained bowed like statues.

"You should go in," Ethan said with a gentle smile.

They hurried inside, and the moment they saw Elene, all three of them froze.

Elene was standing beside the bed. She no longer looked like someone who had been ill at all. The sickly paleness that had clung to her for years was completely gone, replaced by a healthy glow, and the dullness in her hair and eyes had vanished along with it. Her face looked fuller and brighter, her posture straight, as if several years had been lifted off her in a single hour, and every breath she took was deep and clean, without a hint of pain. She was looking down at her own hands in disbelief, flexing her fingers again and again as though she couldn’t believe they were hers.

Elene looked up at her family, and a trembling laugh escaped her lips even as tears rolled down her cheeks.

The room broke apart at that moment. Sepharina threw her arms around her mother, sobbing into her shoulder, while Anna clung to her from the other side, unable to say a single word. William walked over slowly, as though afraid it might all disappear if he moved too quickly, then wrapped his arms around all three of them, his broad shoulders shaking as he wept without a sound. Aisha quietly wiped the corner of her eyes, and Elena simply watched them with a soft smile.

Ethan stood by the door and let them have the moment. Seeing the family like this, a quiet warmth settled in his chest.

After their emotions had settled, Elena examined Anna and Sepharina’s physiques and checked their mana sensitivity. When she finished, she gave Ethan a subtle, impressed glance. He hadn’t exaggerated even a tiny bit.

———

Meanwhile, all of Northwatch was busy preparing for the Awakening Ceremony.

Even though it was still a few days away, hundreds of families had already begun arriving from every corner of the Northern Frontier, bringing their children along in the hope that they would awaken a talent that could change their future. Carriages lined the roads leading into the Outer District, and the inns and guest halls that had been empty only a few weeks earlier were now filled to the brim. Children who had never left their villages before stared wide-eyed at the towering walls, while their parents whispered prayers under their breath, hoping that this year, fortune would smile on their family.

Anyone arriving now would never have guessed that a Beast Tide of that scale had struck the city only a short while ago. The few damaged sections of the wall had already been rebuilt, the battlements had been repaired, and the mountain of beast corpses that had piled up on the plains beyond the walls had long since been cleared away. Merchants had returned to the streets in even greater numbers than before, their stalls crowding every corner as they shouted over one another, eager to make the most of the crowds. Soldiers who had fought on the walls only days ago now walked through the streets with their heads held high, and the people greeted them with smiles wherever they went.

Not a single scar of the Beast Tide remained. Once again, Northwatch’s walls stood tall over the Northern Frontier, facing the Winterveil Mountains as they always had.

———

Riverwood Town

Long after the last lamps in the miners’ quarters had gone out, a small room at the edge of the town sat in silence.

Kael Mercer sat cross-legged beside his bed, the Twin Wind Daggers resting on the floor within reach. He drew in a slow breath and began circulating the Night Sovereign Art, following the breathing method Ethan had given him. The faint pressure his body had always carried withdrew inward, layer by layer, until nothing of it remained. His heartbeat slowed. The rustle of his clothes against the floorboards faded away. Little by little, his presence sank into the darkness of the room, until even his own senses struggled to tell where his body ended and the shadows began.

He had done this countless nights since that morning in the clearing. He could have broken through weeks ago, when the barrier that had held him at Great Knight for years first began to crack, but he had held himself back. Instead, he had kept circulating the art night after night, compressing his aura again and again, letting it accumulate within his core until his core could barely contain it. A single step forward wasn’t enough. If he was going to break through, he intended to push through as far as his foundation would allow.

Tonight, that time had finally come.

Kael let go of the restraint he had kept on his aura. The dense energy he had accumulated for weeks rushed towards the barrier all at once, and with a dull tremor that only he could feel, it shattered. Knight Commander. But the surge didn’t stop there. His aura kept rising, flooding through his pathways and widening them as it went, and before the first realm had even settled, it crashed into the next barrier and broke through that as well. Intermediate Knight Commander.

Kael clenched his teeth and kept guiding it, slowly and steadily, refusing to let even a single thread of aura slip out of control. His body trembled under the strain, and sweat soaked through his clothes, yet the shadows around him never once wavered. Then, with one last cycle of the art, the final barrier gave way.

Advanced Knight Commander.

His aura finally settled, flowing far more smoothly through his pathways than ever before, and his senses sharpened so suddenly that the quiet room seemed to come alive around him, every creak of timber and every gust of wind beyond the walls reaching him with perfect clarity.

For a long moment, he remained completely still, letting the new strength sink into his body. Then he stopped circulating the art.

The shadows didn’t leave him.

Kael’s eyes slowly opened. Even without the art, the darkness still clung to him, wrapped around his shoulders and settled at his feet. He lifted his hand, and the shadows followed, drifting along his fingers the moment he willed it, so naturally that it felt as though they were a part of his own body.

It was his talent.

He had never been able to use it properly before. But now, with the Night Sovereign Art guiding it, the difference was like heaven and earth. His talent flowed together with the art so seamlessly that it felt as if the art had been made for him... as if he wasn’t merely hiding in the shadows anymore, but becoming one himself.

Did the Lord know about this as well...?

He remembered how Ethan had handed him the art without the slightest hesitation that morning, as though he had already known it would suit him perfectly.

Kael picked up the daggers and fastened them to his belt. Mira’s face surfaced in his mind, and his grip slowly tightened around the hilts.

It was time to leave Riverwood.