"Only when I was a bit older did I realize I could never return to the northern fief."
Glen spoke up. "I remember my elders mentioning that Duke Deer desecrated the faith of the Sun Church. As divine punishment, he willingly returned to the Royal Capital to accept his sentence."
"He was later sent to the guillotine, and everyone implicated was hanged. After that, the Miers Clan never recovered. Even Luca Castle, once the most prosperous city in the Furnace Zone, fell into decline because of it."
He paused, recalling, "They say several other families were implicated, among them... the Valentinian Clan, that famous family of Warriors."
Only then did Lid glance at him, his gaze perfectly calm. "Valentinian. That is my surname. It has been cursed, viewed with suspicion by the royal family, and forbidden from setting foot in the Royal Capital."
"We were even placed under strict surveillance, forced to live like vagrants in the old district, a place of nothing but sewage and trash. We were like rats hiding in a gutter, always scurrying, always hiding, afraid of every listening ear in the shadows, terrified that a single wrong word would bring utter ruin."
"My father even wanted me to escape the whole affair. He exhausted his last favors and his remaining wealth to obtain a special pardon for me from the crown prince. While I still couldn’t return to the northern fief, it allowed me to study at the academy in Fey City Smaragdum. I was to become a scholar, detached from worldly affairs, and live out the rest of my days in peace."
"But I was already eighteen. I wasn’t content to live as an exile over some inexplicable crime, and I refused to believe the truth was as simple as ’blasphemy.’ So, against his objections, I concealed my surname, joined the Knight training program, and became a Knight."
Hearing this, Calvin raised an eyebrow. His tone was laced with scorn as he asked, "So that’s the reason you willingly sold your soul to a Demon?"
"Not even close." Lid shook his head, sinking deeper into his memories. "After becoming a Knight, I was assigned to an insignificant border town to stand guard and record monster activity. Because I performed well enough, I was later transferred to the Fifth Legion, stationed in Shield River City."
"By day, I trained, patrolled, and stood watch. By night, I used every opportunity to secretly investigate the details of that ’blasphemy incident.’"
"That was also the year the harsh winter known as the ’Winter of the Wolf’ descended. Famine swept the Kingdom, and the piles of corpses left by the displaced triggered a terrible plague. My father... a man with little talent for Magic, just an ordinary Warrior... he didn’t make it."
His voice remained calm, but Glen felt his heart tighten.
"He left me with only a few words before he died."
Glen couldn’t help but ask, "What did he say?"
Lid’s gaze seemed to pierce through time and space, fixed on some distant point. "He said... God no longer answers the prayers of his Believers."
Glen was shaken to the core. He had a vague inkling of what Lid meant, but he pressed on, "What do you mean? What really happened?"
Lid retracted his gaze to look at Glen. "You wouldn’t want to know," he said faintly. "If you seek the truth, go to the Furnace Zone in the northern fief. There, you will find everything you wish to know. But you must bear the consequences yourselves."
"After that, the Demon’s reach gradually extended to the Storm Fief, to the Garrison Legion, to the Royal Capital... The Sun Church showed no reaction whatsoever. Even the Crown of Ignis, the symbol of royal authority, was taken."
"I witnessed it all with my own eyes."
Arthur seemed to have recovered from the burning in his chest. His voice was hoarse as he spoke. "So when did you yield? For power? Status? Or money?"
Lid smiled. "Regrettably, it was none of those."
"Just as I said at the beginning, Valentinian is a cursed surname."
"After the clan was forced to leave the Furnace Zone, having witnessed certain ’events’ there, a kind of spiritual decay began to spread."
"These despairing thoughts, like foul sludge, pass down through the blood, even through the soul, from one generation to the next. They gradually erode a person’s sanity, ultimately obliterating them from within. This is the true reason for my father’s death. He did not die of plague, but from the complete exhaustion and collapse of his soul."
"It was eleven years ago that I first discovered the inexplicable signs of decay appearing in my own body."
"Even though I had already entered the realm of the Extraordinary through my own effort and talent, I still could not stop this decay, which stemmed from the soul itself."
"So, I gave this worthless, sludge-like soul to a Demon in exchange for the chance to continue living. A fair trade, wouldn’t you say?"
The three were silent for a moment, but it was Calvin who stepped forward again. His gaze was unwavering, his voice as cold and hard as ever. "If you think this story will earn our sympathy, or serve as an excuse for your corruption, you’ve gravely miscalculated."
"I’m not interested in your so-called story, and I don’t care about your cursed destiny."
With that, he lowered his stance and charged. A turquoise storm swirled around his Knight’s Sword, which let out a sharp screech like that of an eagle.
Each step was propelled by the wind, and his sword sliced through the air, aimed straight for Lid’s throat.
Lid let out a soft sigh. His body swayed, and he effortlessly dodged Calvin’s seemingly inescapable strike. Then, his rapier darted out at an unorthodox angle, tapping the inside of Calvin’s sword wrist.
A jarring force shot through his arm. Calvin’s wrist went numb, and he nearly dropped his sword. His assault dissolved in an instant.
"I admire your spirit, Calvin. But truly entering the realm of the Extraordinary is not so simple. You have not yet found the path that is yours alone."
Just then, Arthur made his move.
Before the frost had even receded, ghostly blue Undead flames bloomed like flowers across the ground and burst into life.
He thrust with his sword, a strike carrying both biting cold and searing heat, and began to alternate attacks with Calvin in unspoken coordination.
For a moment, sparks flew as blades clashed. Besieged by the two of them, Lid’s rapier was no longer so casual; he began to seriously parry, dodge, and counterattack.
Surprisingly, Arthur seemed to possess a strange sort of combat instinct, allowing him to anticipate some of Lid’s subtle movements and effectively hinder him.
Meanwhile, with Arthur providing cover, Calvin was finally able to unleash even more ferocious power.
Their coordination grew increasingly seamless. They actually managed to temporarily hold off Lid’s assault. Though still on the defensive, they were no longer as helpless as they had been at the start.
The two exchanged a look in the heat of battle, an unspoken understanding passing between them. After switching positions, Calvin pulled back his sword arm a fraction of a second too slow, revealing a gap in the armor beneath his ribs.
As expected, Lid’s rapier was like a shark that had scented blood. It instantly became a silver streak, thrusting straight toward the opening.
"Now!"
At that same moment, Arthur’s sword, wreathed in biting frost, silently stabbed toward Lid’s back.
However, at that critical moment, Arthur’s movements faltered. It was as if his mind and body fell out of sync for an instant, or as if something inside him had given a sharp tug.
In that infinitesimal moment, a sharp glint flashed in Lid’s eyes. The rapier aimed at Calvin’s opening retracted at an impossible angle. With a flick of his wrist, the blade bent and whipped forward like a striking serpent.
BANG! BANG!
As if struck by an invisible sledgehammer, Calvin and Arthur were sent flying backward once more, crashing to the ground in an even sorrier state than before.
A deep dent had appeared on Calvin’s chestplate, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. Beneath Arthur’s helmet, his soul-fire wavered violently, as if it had suffered a direct impact.
Lid stood in place, slowly lowering his rapier.
The speed and power he had unleashed in that single moment made him seem like a different person entirely. The gap in their strength was despairing.
Calvin struggled to a half-kneeling position, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and glanced at Arthur. "What’s with you today?" he asked in a low voice.
Before Arthur could answer, Lid spoke for him. His voice was calm, yet it struck them like a clap of thunder.
"Haven’t you noticed yet, Calvin?"
"Arthur is undergoing a Hero’s Trial."