Ed didn't know what he wanted to hear - a lie or the truth was just as much a deception to him.

He respects Sean, he likes Eric, and he believes in them...... Now all the trust he has given has turned into arrows to his chest, one by one, piercing and unavoidable.

Maybe he really should have listened to Beyer's words, "Don't trust anyone." ”

Eric's voice was staccato and incoherent at first, with many trivial and useless details, interspersed with muttered prayers and confessions, but no one interrupted him impatiently.

He'd seen Herena Christus more than once.

The first time was five years ago. At that time, Eric had just entered the temple, and he was still a probationary knight in charge of guarding, and once when he returned to his room to rest after the handover at dawn, he met a young woman with long blond hair and a trance-like expression in the courtyard not far from the martial arts arena.

The woman was dressed in a blue dress, her complexion was snow-white, her beautiful face was not modified, and she walked and stopped in the courtyard alone, her mouth was full of words, and her empty eyes did not know where to look.

Her sanity clearly looked like something was wrong, but Eric simply thought she had come to the temple to pray in the company of her family, but strayed into the back of the temple and lost her way. He tries to get close to the woman, send her to the right place, and find her lost family, but Sean suddenly appears from the darkness and takes the woman away without a sound.

It's impossible not to be curious, but Eric didn't dare to ask anything.

Sean wasn't seen much of Collins at the time, only occasionally returning from Stamp Butch. He hurried away again, but to the young paladins, he was still the most formidable of the temple except for Sage Felicity.

"He doesn't say. That means you shouldn't ask. ”

It was a precept that the slightly older paladin had warned Eric before, out of nowhere.

Eric was a well-behaved young man with no particular curiosity, and if it hadn't been for another encounter later, he would probably have forgotten about it entirely. Especially the one that happened a few months later...... Much more impressive than a woman who got lost in the temple.

They captured Is, the ice dragon that had taken on a human form. When it was Eric's turn to be the guard, he couldn't help but peek through the window, only to see a man cowering in the corner. Thin and helpless teenager. The blonde hair, which still shone slightly in the dim light, reminded him of the woman who wandered in the faint light of dawn.

A few days later, he saw her again.

The silver-white dragon crashed through the temple's beneath. On the day he burst from the surface of the lake to the sky, Eric was the first to storm into what was once a dungeon, but was flooded by the water of the inverted lake.

He dragged out his wounded companion and was staring at the big hole under the clear water of the lake. When I was amazed by the power of that ice dragon. But I saw a strand of long floating blonde hair.

Instinctively, he swam over and rescued another person from the crack in the collapsed bricks—the mysterious woman he had met once.

He didn't know why she was still here...... He even thought she was dead when he grabbed her arm. Her eyes were closed, her face blue and her muscles stiff, but they snapped open as Eric prepared to take her to the surface.

The paladin was supposed to be fearless, but Eric was so frightened at that moment that he almost threw her away.

The woman had blue eyes that scorched in the dim waters of the lake. Fixedly staring at him, his gaze seemed to penetrate his skin. judging his soul...... It seemed to pass him and stare intently at another world.

Eric shivered as he dragged her out of the water...... And that's not just because of the cold.

He stared at her blankly, not thinking about what to do, and someone said coldly behind him: "You haven't seen her." ”

Without looking back, Eric could hear Icabird's voice, even though the priest rarely spoke and his voice wasn't particularly ...... But that unheaving tone is unique to Icabard.

He couldn't speak, just sat there trembling as he watched as Icabold pulled the woman up and teleported away in the blink of an eye, without even glancing at another injured and unconscious paladin not far away.

This time, Eric couldn't contain his doubts and anger anymore - he could understand the danger of keeping a dragon in a dungeon...... But what unforgivable crime did such a weak and harmless woman commit?

While everyone was busy finding and killing the ice dragon, he began to cautiously inquire about the woman. But almost no one in the temple knew about it, and he wasn't bold enough to ask Icabird...... Or Sean, who rushed back from Tonbuch.

For several years, he searched almost every corner of the temple, but he never saw the woman again. He guessed she might have been sent to Spoon Butch...... He wondered if Felicity, the Sage who had stayed in the depths of the temple and had never seen anyone but Sean, knew about this...... In the midst of chaos and unease, he became the last of the midshippers to enter the temple at the same time, and his first mission was to hunt down the ice dragon who had finally been exposed again.

The young paladin realized in horror that his faith was not strong - he even had a vague feeling that the dragon was not evil enough to kill. It did destroy the temple...... But they locked it in the ground first.

He prayed all night in the sanctuary, hoping that the Goddess would give him some guidance. And then...... Perhaps in response, one of those nights, he saw the woman for the last time.

He couldn't see her face, but he could make out the overly long blonde hair. The long hair, once as shimmering as a golden thread, now dull and pale as the moonlight, hung from the crook of Sean Fletcher's arms and dragged almost to the ground.

She's dead.

There was no need to confirm in any way that Eric felt the breath of death - he just didn't dare to wonder how she had died.

He involuntarily sneaked up and saw Shaun in the distance, holding her and disappearing into the fog around the island of the Holy Sepulchre in a boat.

When he returned, Sean was alone, his face gloomy.

Eric stood petrified in the shadows, unable to react until Sean stood in front of him.

For a long time, Sean didn't say a word, just looked at Eric quietly. The young paladin couldn't read his complicated eyes, and he couldn't tell the difference.

For a moment, he even felt a cold killing intent...... And he has no power to resist, and he has no intention of resisting. If the head of the Paladin, whom he had always feared as a god, would be a murderer, perhaps death would be a relief.

He remembered Sean's lips moving slightly, as if he wanted to say something...... Then he lost consciousness.

When he woke up, he was in his room, his roommate was snoring profusely, and he sat up in a daze, completely unreminiscent of what had happened last night.

He lost all his memories of that night - and ironically, he simply lost all his memories in a strange plague and became a believer in another god.

He didn't hide anything, not even the fact that he had lost his powers, including how Ed pulled him back from the gates of hell.

He just never told Ed that at that moment, he actually wanted to die—in the memories that came back to his mind little by little, including the night that he had somehow erased and that he would rather forget forever. Those long, messy hair, strands entangled in his soul, made him uneasy.

"Fate" ...... It seems that everything can only be described in this word.

When he returned to the temple, he could only pretend that he still didn't remember that night, and be his silent and faithful paladin. He knew where the woman's body might be hidden, but he never dared to look for it, as if he could continue to deceive himself as long as he couldn't see the body, it was just a nightmare.

But not long ago, when Ed burrowed into the island's old tombs out of curiosity, he had to follow in.

He knew what Ed was looking for, so he had been distraught to find the old surname, Christus, hoping to leave as soon as possible.

What he found was a name that could not possibly belong to the king who had died two hundred years earlier.

Herena Christus, a woman's name, a small line of words, hastily carved into the edge of the lid of an inconspicuous wooden coffin.

The coffin looked very old, but the notches were new - and Eric instantly realized whose name it might be.

The old Chrissian family, most of whom were blonde and blue-eyed, knew it when he grew up in Visa.

In his panic, he blocked Ed's view before ...... He lost Ed.

In the ensuing chaos, he never had a chance to confirm whether it was the woman lying in the coffin...... I didn't dare to confirm it.

He could only pray without stopping...... Pray when he thinks he's alone. He didn't have the courage to seek the truth, nor did he have enough indifference to ignore it.

So when his prayers were heard and he was pressed to ask all he knew, he was relieved. At least...... He doesn't have to do it alone.

The person he vaguely mentioned seemed to be a paladin, a fact that sent chills down Ed's heart - the temple might have begun to fall apart before they knew it.

...... But does that have anything to do with him?

"Ed ...... He doesn't know anything. ”

After stating everything, Eric lowered his head and whispered, still not daring to look at Ed: "He may not be a true Sage...... But as His Majesty said, he was simple and kind. He didn't do anything wrong...... It's us ...... that's wrong."

Ed looked at his rickety back in a daze, with mixed feelings.

He was grateful that Eric remembered to defend him at such times, but he was wrong. Even at the moment when he told the truth, he chose a completely wrong time, and a completely wrong way.

Even though he might have no choice, he turned himself into a sword that slashed at the temple...... In the hands of the enemy.

(To be continued......)