Turning Chapter 1259

There was no more reassuring response than that. Left to her, the matter would likely be resolved within a day or two.

He sensed other mbers approaching the training ground from afar. Their dawn training, just the two of them, was coming to an end.

As Yuder rose to start packing up, Ever spoke from behind him.

“It was honestly surprising. You asking for help like that—it’s the first ti.”

When he turned around, he was t with her bright smile. There didn’t seem to be any negative undertones to it.

“It made really happy. It felt like... I was finally recognized as soone trustworthy enough to be handed real responsibility—as a proper Vice Commander.”

...Is she really reading that much into it?

Yuder hesitated briefly, then responded, thinking she might have misunderstood sothing.

“Ever. I’m rely the Commander’s aide. While we do work together, that doesn’t an I outrank you. If you were thinking along those lines—”

“I didn’t an it like that.”

Ever shook her head.

“Hin and Pin may move around freely, but officially they’re under Sul and Vice Commander Steber, or even Kanna, who they’re closer with personally. You could have asked any of them. But instead, you asked .”

“I asked because I believed you already had the experience those two needed.”

Failure in the South—and overcoming it.

Not being crushed by that failure, but choosing to grow from it.

After hearing that brief yet aningful explanation, Ever nodded, her expression lighting up.

“Exactly. I’ve been doing my best to make up for things, but I still wasn’t sure if I was really doing okay. But knowing you thought of as soone capable of helping them... that made happy.”

So I really have been moving in the right direction... That kind of certainty brought a smile to her lips.

“Honestly, I still feel guilty about what happened in the South. I feel sorry to you, and of course, even more so to the Commander. I think everyone who was there with back then probably feels the sa—maybe not as strongly, but still. It just seems like Hin and Pin are taking it harder than the rest.”

What? After everything had ended, after they'd even had ti off—she was still thinking about it?

Were the mistakes and carelessness from back then really that hard to shake?

But if it ca down to hardship, the Cavalry in his previous life had gone through much worse...

And the mont he thought that, Yuder suddenly felt like he understood. The look in Ever’s eyes mirrored that very answer.

“We’d been doing so well until then. Honestly... maybe too well.”

“......”

“From the mont we joined, everything we touched succeeded without real hardship. No one except you was ever seriously injured. You recovered and returned to us. Every ti, we received rewards that far exceeded our efforts.”

So—

“At so point, we all got cocky. Thought we couldn’t fail... even if we slipped up, we figured it would all work out in the end.”

Ever turned toward the approaching footsteps of their fellow mbers.

“The truth is, even when we made mistakes or were sloppy, things turned out fine because soone was always backing us up from below. Soone was taking responsibility so we could keep trying without falling apart. And we forgot about that.”

“......”

“And the price for forgetting... was too steep.”

A cool wind blew. Her tied-up hair swayed silently in the breeze.

“Even one person letting their guard down can cause an accident. But all of us were complacent. And what made it worse was that none of us thought we were. Looking back, we thought training harder or having stronger abilities ant we weren’t being complacent.”

“......”

“But those strong abilities weren’t even fully our own. Soone had been relentlessly pushing us forward from behind to get them...”

She said soone, but her eyes were fixed on Yuder’s face.

There was no need to na who that ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) soone was.

“And yet we were lucky again... no, soone spilled blood, worked hard to the point of collapse—and thanks to that, we survived and got rewarded once more.”

“......”

“So I guess that’s why I keep thinking about what happened in the South. I’m scared that I’ll get cocky again—without even realizing it.”

In Yuder’s previous life, the Cavalry had been a string of failures from the start. Nothing went right. The atmosphere inside the unit kept spiraling down. Even when it felt like they’d hit rock bottom, the next day would bring a new, deeper low.

Even after Yudrain Aile’s reputation soared and they beca the Empire’s top military force, the atmosphere didn’t change like magic. The stronger they got, the more horrifying the disasters that ca. News of deaths and replacents beca daily occurrences.

Unlike back then, no one had died this ti. From Yuder’s perspective, that was a relief—but he hadn’t considered how that would change things for the others.

So that’s it...

Yuder was used to watching well-prepared plans fail from so unseen angle. In his past life, he’d often been the one who was the blind spot.

So when a few unexpected twists and failures had occurred in the South, he had simply adjusted course and moved on.

But not everyone could do the sa.

He suddenly rembered how much care Kishiar had been putting into reorganizing the unit after the Southern campaign. There was no way he hadn’t noticed the others' emotional state. He was probably working to address it.

And... perhaps Kishiar wasn’t much more immune to this kind of failure than Yuder himself.

Hmm.

In the past, discovering sothing outside his expectations would have imdiately chilled his head.

But not now.

Because now, he could trust there were others already working—quietly, behind the scenes—to resolve things.

And that was enough.

Yuder turned to Ever. She was still standing there, waiting for his response.

“Ever. To be honest, I’ve been complacent and arrogant, too.”

“...Huh?”

“I’m just stating the facts. If you were to na the person here who’s made the most mistakes from arrogance or carelessness, I’d be hard to beat.”

She seed to think he was trying to comfort her with a joke. But it was the truth. Yuder Aile had returned after learning, firsthand, that the result of complacency was death.

“I’m human too. So I try not to repeat the sa mistakes. That makes us all the sa.”

Yuder hesitated a mont, then added,

“So how about this—we make a promise. When either of us is losing focus, the other knocks so sense back in.”

“...What?”

“If you ever think I’m being careless again, co punch . I’ll do the sa for you.”

“...Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“You trust my judgnt that much?”

Ever Beck. Even in a world speeding toward apocalypse, she had remained rooted in the Cavalry, one of the last to stand.

Even if she didn’t believe his words, if he couldn’t trust her steadiness—then who could he trust?

Yuder nodded.

“I’m saying it because I do trust you.”

Ever was silent for a mont. Then, with no trace of a smile, she responded firmly.

“Alright. I’ll rember that promise.”

“......”

“I have a feeling I’ll end up punching you more, so I’d better train harder. That’s what you ant, right?”

It wasn’t.

But it seed she’d already drawn that conclusion, so Yuder chose not to say anything.

After wrapping up the morning training session that only Cavalry mbers attended, Yuder washed off the dust and headed straight for the Commander’s office.

Kishiar was there, cleaning the divine sword Orr.

“You’re here. You look a little brighter than usual—did sothing happen?”

Of course, Kishiar saw right through him. Yuder told him about the conversation and promise he’d shared with Ever.

“I hadn’t realized... none of the current mbers had ever truly experienced failure before. They’d never had a chance to reflect on arrogance or carelessness. I assu you knew that already.”