She Will Never Know

Gale glanced at the armor lying on the ground and mocked, “Seth, it seems you haven't made much progress over the years.”

“Heh, don't think you can keep winning just because you got the upper hand for a move or two!”

Seth raised his sword once more, but his fingers gripping the hilt were no longer as steady as they had been at the start. His strikes became hurried and heavy, as if he were trying to use sheer force to compensate for the gap in their skills.

But Gale had already felt out his true strength. With just a few simple parries, he completely neutralized Seth's offensive.

This was utterly unacceptable to Seth.

“Impossible! Absolutely impossible! You cheated! You're cheating!”

“Cheating? Do you think we're in a knight trial? This is a duel to the death, Seth!”

Gale took a step forward and flicked the tip of his sword, forcing Seth's blade upward. Then, Gale lunged forward and delivered a heavy elbow strike to Seth's chest. Seth stumbled backward frantically, his legs buckling, and only managed to support himself by driving his sword into the ground.

Just then, a metallic sweetness welled up in his throat. Clutching his chest, he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

Staring at the pool of blood on the ground, he froze before his face twisted into a look of sheer madness.

“I won't lose! I won't lose! I am a Church Knight! A Church Knight forged through countless grueling training sessions! How could I possibly lose to a mere territory knight?!”

The pride of being a Church Knight—an elite—made it impossible for him to accept losing to someone he deemed inferior.

He scrambled up from the ground and slashed downward once more. However, Gale no longer took the current Seth seriously. With a simple side-step, he easily dodged the slash and repelled him with another elbow strike.

“Is there truly anything noble about being a Church Knight?”

Gale took another step forward. Seth raised his sword to block, but the overwhelming force pressed down on the spine of his blade, sliding inward along the notch. Seth's wrist began to tremble violently.

“We territory knights crawled our way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood!”

As the words left his mouth, Gale's blade slid right into the gap between Seth's hilt and guard. The relentless pressure continued until Seth, his strength completely exhausted, finally let go.

The longsword clattered to the ground with a sharp ring. Seth looked down at his empty right hand, where a chunk of flesh had been torn away, blood now spurting from the wound.

The examinations and trials for Church Knights were indeed strict, and the mortality rate was by no means low. However, ever since Seth had attained the rank, he had become thoroughly engrossed in the wealth and power his status afforded him, completely losing the will to train.

Without him realizing it, both his swordsmanship and physical conditioning had deteriorated significantly.

Though he was ostensibly a Rank Four, his actual strength barely scraped the threshold of Rank Four.

On the other hand, becoming a territory knight was easy—one only needed to apply for a knight's license. Yet, not a single renowned territory knight had achieved their fame without carving a path through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

They were far stronger than ordinary Church Knights, possessing a much more resilient resolve.

And this was precisely the reason for his defeat today.

Cold sweat dripped from Seth's forehead from the pain of his wound, and the looming threat of death made his legs turn to jelly. Under the moonlight, he watched Gale approach him step by step, the longsword in his hand dripping with warm blood.

He stumbled backward two steps in a panic until his back hit the damp wall. His sword lay within arm's reach, but he no longer had the courage to reach out and grab it.

Gale stopped right in front of him.

“Gale, Gale, I am... I am a Church Knight! You... you can't kill me!”

Gale smiled. “And why can't I kill you?”

His question seemed to offer Seth a glimmer of hope for survival. He stammered frantically:

“Because... because the Church will investigate and find out the truth! You'll die too!”

“Don't worry. ‘Church Knight Seth died a tragic death while conducting an unauthorized investigation into the territory's contamination.’ That will be your cause of death. No one will ever uncover the truth.”

Gale's words drained the remaining color from Seth's face. His fingers clawed at the ground in a mindless panic as he shrieked in terror:

“No, impossible! My brother—my brother is in Sido territory! He is also a Knight Captain! He will definitely find out the truth! The moment I die, he will know!”

Hearing this, Gale lost his patience. He raised his longsword high, seemingly preparing to impale Seth through the heart. Unable to take it any longer, Seth scrambled frantically toward the other end of the alley.

Suddenly, a flurry of footsteps echoed from ahead of him.

He looked up and saw the black-haired Mia. She was also clad in the Church's light armor, but hers was far more ornate than that of a standard knight.

A Holy Knight—the Saintess's Holy Knight!

He was saved!

“Lord Holy Knight! Lord Holy Knight! Save me, save me! I am a Church Knight! This man wants to kill me! He wants to kill me!”

He pointed his finger behind him. In his dazed state, he almost envisioned the Holy Knight slaying Gale. But with a cold flash of steel, he realized the Holy Knight had drawn her sword against him.

“Y-you... what are you doing? I... I am—ah!”

Before he could finish his question, Mia swung her sword, severing Seth's right leg.

“My leg! My leg!”

Seth rolled on the ground in agony, clutching the area above his knee. Dark liquid gushed through the gaps between his fingers, slowly coating the surrounding stones.

“This is your retribution for torturing Her Highness.”

Her blood-red eyes were filled with murderous intent. Mia pulled her sword back an inch before swinging it down once more. This time, it was Seth's left leg. Blood erupted from the wound, splashing across her face and making her look as terrifying as a demon.

“Ahhh! My brother... my brother will avenge me! He will avenge me!”

Seth's voice rose and fell in the night. After repeating himself several times, his voice finally fell silent entirely as he lay on the ground, his head severed from his body.

The mouth of the alley fell silent once more, save for the whistling of the wind and the faint rustling of dried grass scraping against the walls. Watching Seth die, the young Zane felt no fear; on the contrary, he felt a deep sense of gratification.

A man like this deserved to die!

Gale also stared coldly at the corpse. Sheathing his longsword, he asked softly:

“Should we tell the Saintess about this?”

Mia remained silent for a moment, looking up at the moonlight in the dark sky.

“There's no need. She wouldn't want to know about these things.”

“True. If she found out, she would probably scold us.”

Gale shook his head, his tone laced with earnest concern.

“With a kind nature like hers, she is bound to suffer in this world. The Blood-Bestowal Ceremony this time was proof of that. If only she could change.”

“If she changed, she wouldn't be the Church's Saintess anymore.”

Mia's words caught Gale off guard, but he quickly realized she was right.

If Lovene changed, she would no longer be the Church's Saintess. There wouldn't be so many believers who worshiped her, and they wouldn't be killing these Church Knights for her sake.

A Lovene who never changed was the true Saintess.

“Therefore, we will do what the Saintess cannot.”

Saintess Lovene only needed to maintain her gentleness and kindness; everything else would be left to Mia.