After too many torments of hope and disappointment, after Iss turned into an ice dragon and flew north, Alan has actually given up on finding Scott and devoting more energy to finding out where Lydia and Is. But what he didn't expect was that when he had lost all hope, news of Scott came from Stonebug.

The news came from Patrith, Nia's friend, a female thief who had worked with Alan and the others several times. Her greatest pleasure at that time was to flirt with Scott, who had just joined Allen's team, and to taunt each other with Lydia. The female thief had seen the ring and even made fun of Scott without knowing it, in exchange for Nia's nervous stop and Scott's generous smile.

That made her recognize the ring the moment she saw it. It was lying on a counter that would buy and sell small things of unknown origin, and even the letters on the inner circle remained. The shopkeeper was quite amusemented about the origin of the ring, which had been sold to him by the grave keeper of Charlin's tomb not long ago, just after the bizarre fire.

Located in the east of Tonbuch, the Tomb of Charin is beneath the ancient temple of Sawyer, the god of death, and is usually buried. Those unclaimed corpses, no one knows which god they worshipped during their lifetime, no one even knows their names, and only in the presence of the god of death will they receive an absolutely fair trial.

After the Civil War, Alan and his friends also went to the grave of Charlene, but whether Scott died in the middle of nowhere, was looted and thrown into some cemetery. People don't usually do this to paladins - Scott's armor and the emblem on his sword indicate his identity. But that was in the midst of war...... You never know what terrible things people will do out of despair and greed.

At that time, the grave keeper of Charlin's tomb, Sirio, was a middle-aged man with thinning hair, who was quite cheerful and talkative in terms of what he had to face every day, and even thought that he was humorous and kept telling jokes that made ordinary people feel more creepy but not funny. He was sure he had never seen a blond hair like Scott as they described him. A sturdy and decent young knight was sent to him.

"The people who came to me were poor people who had not had enough to eat for most of their lives, or were so rotten that they didn't even recognize him. There's a blonde guy or two, and if you want to see it, I can show you there, but you're not going to like that. He said.

Alan didn't like it at all—but he could at least confirm that it wasn't Scott. Sirio didn't seem to have to lie, and he couldn't have looked at every grave underground. I can only leave with both relief and disappointment.

Thinking that he might have been deceived at the time, Allen, who got the news of Beatrice, immediately rushed to Ston Buchi in person. And the grave keeper has already told the truth under Patrice's "skillful" questioning.

He wasn't lying—he did get the ring from a corpse, but he had no way of knowing if the corpse was some "blonde-haired, blue-eyed knight" when he was alive.

It was just after the end of the war, and there were still many corpses thrown at him every day. He was cleaning the body, wrapping it in a shroud and stuffing it into the grave. The ring was found on the chest of a corpse that had been burned beyond recognition. It was almost completely sunk in half-charred flesh, and he wouldn't have been able to spot it if it hadn't been for a faint flash of blue light in the firelight.

Sirio wasn't a greedy man who would keep even the last bit of the deceased's possessions for himself, but at that time his only daughter had taken a fancy to a beautiful little ring in a trinket shop in the west of the city, and she was pestering him almost every day, and a grave keeper didn't have the spare money to buy any rings.

After some hesitation, Sirio pried the ring out of the corpse, washed it and gave it to his daughter, trying to convince himself that it was a gift from the god of death for his years of hard work—the letters engraved on the inner ring of the ring. It happens to be an abbreviation of his daughter's name.

When Alan came looking for Scott, it immediately occurred to him that it might be the same person...... A wanderer doesn't usually carry such valuable things on his body, but Alan has never mentioned any rings from beginning to end, so why should he take the initiative to bring it up?

It was indeed Alan's negligence. But at the time, he also thought that if Scott had really been thrown here, there was no way something as valuable as the ring would still be on him.

Sirio's daughter loved the precious gift her father gave her and wore it on her hand even after she got married. Sirio faded into oblivion until the sudden fire.

No one knows why the flames are burning in the depths of the tomb. The ancient tombs, which had piled up the bodies of countless nameless deceased over the centuries, were burned to the ground, and flames even burst out of the ground and poured into the temple of the god of death. But the cold stone was nothing to burn, and the fire caused no casualties - except for Sirio's daughter.

She had come to visit her father. No one knows why she ended up in the catacombs. Sirio, who returned from shopping for groceries at the market, found her charred body near the exit of the tomb...... The ring still shimmered on her finger.

Sirio couldn't lie to himself anymore about what it was - it was more of a curse to him now. But even with grief, life has to go on...... He sold the ring, and it ended up in Ellen's hands.

Scott is dead—dead when he disappeared ten years ago—and Alan finally has to face such a nightmare. After ten years of searching, he accepted the news almost calmly, while also carefully concealing it. In any case, it is more acceptable to be "missing" than a very undignified death, where even the body will never be found. Is's transformation back into an ice dragon has already given some people a reason to secretly slander Scott, and there is really no need for such news to make matters worse.

Then, returning from the North, Philip Zeri told him privately that he had seen Scott.

Scott, who is alive, looks almost as young as he did ten years ago.

Alan couldn't describe how he felt at the time. Surprise, unease, doubt, and even fear......

For this, and for the young men who had really broken into the ice field, he put everything aside and hurried north as fast as he could, got news of Naria and them at the mouth of the Kuz River, and finally found them in Balach.

He just didn't expect to find Isis at the same time...... and Scott.

“...... He can't be dead!" was the first thing Ed said after a long day, "Even if I don't know if it's really Scott, I'm at least sure of this!

"The body was probably not him at all. Naria nodded in agreement, she had returned shortly after Eren had just started talking, scissors still in her hand, and had completely forgotten what she had meant to do.

"I thought about this. But if he doesn't...... No accident, who could take the ring his mother had left him from Scott's neck?" said Allen.

"Maybe he was injured and couldn't resist, or even lost consciousness at all?" Naria guessed.

"That doesn't explain why he's missing, why he's still young when he reappears, or why the fire in Charlene's crypt ......," Alan whispered, "he must have been in his forties...... Do you think he looks like him?"

“...... Not like. Naria could only reply, Scott looked to be in his thirties at most, but Philip Zeri also looked younger than his actual age, and Celebrian looked like he was always twenty years old by looking at his face, and she always thought it was because of the blessing of the gods or something.

"You don't really think we're seeing a dead man, do you?" she asked, annoyed. "He's treated me for frostbite! When will the undead be able to be a priest?"

"No......" Ed involuntarily touched his chest, "he may really be dead, and then ...... and was resurrected again. ”

"The dead don't rise again, Ed. Naria frowned at him.

Ed had to laugh. His companions thought that he had only been stabbed in Miaz-Vis and then healed by the god of water...... But he himself knew very well that Huo An's knife was absolutely fatal.

He just didn't know if he had a breath or if he was dead.

But it took nearly ten years of death to resurrect...... It's a bit unbelievable indeed.

He thought that Eren would have the same thoughts as Naria, but Eren nodded slowly: "It's hard for me to believe it too...... But it's possible. ”

"That would also explain why he converted to another god!" Ed, who had received rare approval, was slightly excited, "Maybe it was Nether who saved him instead of Nyo, so he became Nethers's priest!"

Alan looked at him with some speechlessness: "It's a miracle that you can get Ni'o's recognition...... How much do you know about the gods and their priests and paladins?"

“...... Seldom. Ed admitted ashamedly.

"What you say may be true, but it's not going to be that simple. Alan's face has not been very good-looking, "No god is so merciful as to resurrect the knight of another god for no reason...... Not even about mercy, it's like Lutegar using his wealth or power to lure a knight who had sworn allegiance to Anktann to defect...... And Scott was never the one to betray Ni'o so easily. Whether he came back from the dead or never died at all, there must be something wrong with this, if Keller Brian is here ......"

If the half-elf was here, he could pry something out of his mouth, and he was the only one he believed wouldn't use these secrets to hurt Scott or Is, and who knew about magic and the gods...... But once again, hell, he disappeared out of thin air.

"Is?" Narya, realizing that the person who should have cared most about all of this had not said a word from beginning to end, she couldn't help but ask, "You've been with Scott for so long...... Didn't he reveal any secrets?"

Isis finally raised his head, his gaze swept over everyone in the room, and slowly but surely spat out every word:

"All I know is that he lives. He's back...... And I'll find him. ”.

(To be continued)