6kv Chapter 380
Chapter 380
The Ferryman continued.
“You must kill her with your own hands.”
This time, the wall was clear—unless Enkrid killed Aisia, the cycle would not end.
“…Are you sure?”
The question slipped out before he could stop it.
“I’ve given you the clue from the beginning.”
At the Ferryman’s words, Enkrid closed his eyes and thought.
‘What happened to Aisia beyond that hallway?’
She must have died.
Probably.
It was just a guess, but it felt close to certainty.
Then… was her death the trigger for the day’s repetition?
Enkrid recalled Aisia’s death from the first cycle.
“That’s right.”
The Ferryman answered as if reading his thoughts.
Instinctively, Enkrid knew the Ferryman wasn’t lying.
He had never deceived him before.
He had always spoken the truth—it was only that Enkrid hadn’t always listened.
“Kill her. Then you’ll pass.”
As the words faded, Enkrid’s vision blurred.
The last thing he heard was the Ferryman’s voice, brimming with expectation.
“Enjoy this as well.”
Enkrid opened his eyes.
A new today.
Do I have to kill her?
That was the wall. The Ferryman had said so.
It was the pre-dawn hour.
Moving as he always did, Enkrid stepped outside and practiced, flowing through the Isolation Technique.
Movement sharpened his mind.
Do I have to kill her?
The same question circled endlessly in his thoughts.
Enkrid couldn’t focus.
Even as he recognized his distraction, he couldn’t do anything about it.
Why?
He
If she had truly turned against him, she could have just killed him and moved on.
But she didn’t.
She kept stepping in his way.
She claimed there was no need to kill him—yet she staked her life on that belief.
Once, before dying, she had spoken of her younger brother.
He remembered that.
More than anything, he could feel it in their clashes.
From the countless days he had spent observing, listening, and analyzing.
Enkrid wove all those pieces together, unraveling the tangled threads and sorting them into order.
Just as Kraiss always said—intuition and instinct were things Enkrid had in abundance.
“…Is your younger brother being held hostage?”
Aisia’s hand twitched.
A knight—even just below full knighthood—wouldn’t be shaken by mere words or provocation.
Yet her reaction was telling.
Her younger brother mattered to her more than anything else.
The moment he finished speaking, a deadly aura surged from Aisia.
It was far denser than anything she had shown before.
The sheer weight of it pressed down like a force of nature.
Enkrid’s Will of Defiance activated instinctively.
He straightened his posture and stared back.
Aisia’s presence wavered.
Not that her spirit had diminished, but her killing intent had faded.
It had transformed—from a desire to kill into a desire to fight.
“…Yeah, I doubt you’d be working with those kinds of bastards. How did you figure it out?”
“Observation.”
“…Tch. You really are sharp, aren’t you?”
Aisia remembered.
She had spoken of her brother at Andrew’s estate.
That must have been what he pieced together.
Of course, repeating the day had made it easy for him.
Aisia couldn’t have known that.
“That’s only half of it.”
Aisia continued.
Enkrid had already guessed—her brother alone wasn’t the reason she was here.
She must have had other choices.
But why, then, did she stand in his way?
“What about the other half?”
Aisia hesitated, then sighed.
This reaction was more alive than in any of the previous days.
“If you don’t want to die, turn back. That’s all I have to say.”
Her voice was firm, deliberately suppressing emotion.
“Because if I keep going, I’ll just die?”
Another guess.
Another hit.
“…What, did you secretly learn mind reading? That’d be a problem.”
“I didn’t.”
He just knew.
Because he had repeated today.
Because he had seen what came next.
There was someone behind Aisia—someone who cut off loose ends.
Their skill level?
At least as strong as Rem or Ragna.
Otherwise, no matter how exhausted she had been, Aisia wouldn’t have been taken down so easily.
That must have been why she kept dying.
That was where Enkrid needed to go next.
He adjusted his grip on his sword.
Aisia, seeing that, steadied her gaze.
She spoke.
“Just turn back. That’s half a request.”
Half again.
Enkrid met her eyes and asked.
“The other half?”
“A threat.”
Enkrid nodded.
“I respect your decision, Knight-Errant Aisia.”
He meant it.
As always, his words carried truth.
And because he truly respected her choice—
He would go beyond it.
“If I let you go, you’ll die.”
Aisia repeated her warning, but Enkrid didn’t listen.
Instead, he exhaled and adjusted his sword belt.
He reset his stance, committing every detail to memory.
He had repeated today over three hundred times.
By now, he could recall details at a glance—
The decorative swords on the wall, the window’s placement, the location of the vases.
“You can’t stop me.”
Enkrid stated.
Even if not today—some other today—he would pass.
Eventually, she wouldn’t stop him.
Aisia only remembered previous versions of Enkrid.
The one who had failed.
The one who had never broken through her sword-tip precision.
“Prove it.”
Aisia found herself smiling without realizing it.
That unwavering confidence.
That posture, completely unyielding.
It was a sight she enjoyed.
Becoming a knight was about carrying that kind of spirit.
And more than anything—
Enkrid had a fire that ignited everyone around him.
That included Aisia.
She genuinely didn’t want him to die.
That was why she wouldn’t let him pass.
And why she wouldn’t kill him either.
She leveled her sword.
Sword-tip precision.
If he couldn’t surpass this, he wouldn’t even start the real fight.
And Aisia—
Somewhere deep down—
Wanted to see him break through.
‘Am I really hoping for that?’
Was it because his presence was that overwhelming?
He had been showing that same drive all along.
Why did it feel different now?
She didn’t know.
It was just a feeling.
A knight’s intuition.
More than ever before, she focused.
She summoned every ounce of Will.
She abandoned intimidation.
She abandoned killing intent.
She poured everything into her blade.
If he couldn’t pass this—
There would be no tomorrow.