Only the Party Members Returned, Not the Hero

25. The Unforgiving Saint (2)

25.

Eli moved her steps swiftly towards Errantera’s garden.

She didn’t go that way for a reason, she just had to go to the least crowded one.

If she hadn’t been able to control her emotions a little longer, she would have cried unsightly in front of Ellen.

The moment she took a step closer to him, as if she had crossed the line he had set for herself, the expression Ellen made.

The way she looked at me with her empty, open eyes was not the look of Ellen, who had been bickering and joking around until now.

A boy cut to pieces by cold words and sharp emotions.

He felt himself sitting still in it.

He was quietly giving up himself for the future, not expecting anything, not wanting anything, just like a machine, casually throwing away his squeamishness and mood to achieve one purpose.

Damn it.

It reminds me of terrible memories.

The betrayal of the first meeting.

The times I tried to reform Ellen.

Ellen, who never believed in Elanterra.

And finally, the saintess who was betrayed by the goddess.

El was stupid enough to choose the wrong target to make an enemy of.

Only for the reason that he did not recognize Errantera.

What is that?

After arduous training, he returned to his lodging in exhaustion and turned a blind eye to his sleepless night, grunting with muscle pain and magical overload.

I turned a blind eye to him staring emptyly at the empty space, exhausting his energy due to his discord with his party members.

When he returned with a wound and asked for treatment, he treated him with a reluctant expression and sharp words.

One-sidedly harassing him who neither blocks his ears nor refutes it.

He was dissatisfied with the fact that he had to use divine power, the crystallization of faith, against someone who had no faith.

Belief in the goddess Erantera.

The belief in mothers who can abandon their children at any time.

What the hell is that?

El loves Ellen.

His words and actions, his thoughts not like a warrior, his arrogance not like a nobleman, from his head to his face and body to the tips of his hands, his blue mana that makes his eyes sting – even his heart like an old tree that will never fall.

Loved everything.

It wasn’t like that from the beginning.

Ellen made EL that way. So that she could not help but love him.

Even more so, his own face reflected in those hollow eyes when he put the pocket watch in his hand on the threshold of his death.

I cried a lot because I was afraid that my face, which faded with life, would disappear even in his memory. I cried a lot until I went back to the past.

So.

After returning, when I met his young face again in the garden of the warrior.

I vowed never to cry again.

She thought she would never see Ellen again, and nothing could be more sad than that time.

To the extent that it would be better for me to die.

“…… Whoa.”

EL shook his head.

The tears that formed in the corners of my eyes fly away into the air.

People cannot change the past.

Thanks to the miracle of Ellen’s pocket watch, she was able to return to the past, but there must have been a reason why she returned to right after graduating from the school of bravery rather than her first meeting with him.

That may not have been Goddess Erantera’s arrangement, but she at least had a chance for herself.

Didn’t I assure you?

I promise to make Ellen believe in herself.

Lee El recalls Raihandro and Darhan in her head.

And many other futures that Ellen suffered once.

I had to solve them one by one, starting with somehow getting rid of the obstacles standing in front of Ellen.

That’s how I live this life.

I want to live for him.

***

The elders’ private hospital room.

Of course, it was rare for anyone to lie in a private hospital room because no one aimed a sword at an elder of the Errantera Church.

Occasionally, after leaving a long pilgrimage or a distant service path, he came in for a break.

As it is now, it was truly rare for a colostrum to be brought in with bandages wrapped around the body almost half asshole.

I wonder if the priest who treated Darhan’s physical condition had anything like this besides the war personnel.

Darhan was defeated in Dalian.

That’s too much.

The dog was smashed.

All of Ellen’s evaluations that Darhan judged were wrong.

Rather, Darhan suspected that the eyes of the aristocrats and informants who had dismissed such monsters as commoners and novice warriors might be artificial eyes.

But he himself was also deceived.

Perhaps, there was a chance that the hero did not intentionally show his skills.

Then what for?

The more a warrior boasts of his feat, the more people praise and envy him, the greater he becomes. This applies not only to warriors, but to all human groups.

The strong are envied.

But why didn’t the warrior boast about his strength?

Tack-

The door to the hospital room opens, and a familiar face walks in.

“You are suffering, priests. If there are no problems with the treatment schedule, may I speak with the Knight Commander separately?”

Rayhandro Lergen.

He was several ranks higher than the Healer Priests, but he bowed respectfully and said so in a pleading tone.

Since it was Raihandro who put Darhan Knight Commander up to the elder-level ward, the priests only knew him as a good person.

Tak.

The door to the hospital room closes.

Rayhandro’s smiling face slowly returns to expressionless as if ice melts under the hot sunlight.

Darhan gets caught in his eyes.

An unsightly figure with bandages wrapped almost all over his body and holding a specially made splint in one hand.

“… Sorry.”

Darhan said so in a low voice.

His own misstep.

If he judged that the usual attack didn’t work, he had to end the sparring on the spot.

Raijandro instructed him to find out Ellen’s strength, not to destroy her or destroy her like now.

Besides, the leader of the knights showed an obsession with victory while violating the rules of irregular sparring.

As a swordsman, it could be said that he had a great sense of humor, but as the leader of the knights of Erantel, it was impossible.

It was an act of disgracing the face of Raihandro, who had strongly recommended Darhan while the saintess had entrusted her qualifications for the expedition.

“Sorry?”

“… ….”

“Hey, I must have been an idiot. It’s all solved with one word of sorry, but until now I’ve been praying and going on pilgrimages like an idiot. Right I’m sorry if I get caught saying I’ve done everything roughly, I’ll be fine if I do.”

“… No.”

“You can just stab him to death with the Pope’s knife and then say sorry, huh?”

“… ….”

Obvious anger.

It’s shameful that the knight commander he arranged was destroyed in Dalian.

That, too, was smashed to pieces in front of the saintess EL, whom she had personally kept in her heart.

That, too, was caught in a cowardly surprise attack.

“Why did you bring out that f*cking sword at the end, no, no.”

Raihandro paused for a moment and put one hand on his chin.

“What I took out is good.”

There was no need to try to regulate the Darhan here.

Since he had to calculate including the appearance of Darhan, who acted recklessly when he was moderately angry, he did not have to make himself more cautious.

As a tool should be, you just have to consistently do the assigned job.

“But shouldn’t I win if I took it out, or at least look at the hero’s fund? If everything that is cowardly is cowardly and nothing to be gained, can we make a deal?”

“I have no face.”

“Win next time, please. Don’t lose after doing all the stupid things to be embarrassing.”

Raihandro pulled a chair and sat down by Darhan’s head.

“You know, we. Even if you do all the dirty things, if you win, it’s enough. You have been living like that until now.”

His voice gets lower as he gets closer.

“Why are you afraid of the goddess’ punishment? Darhan. I’ve been living like that too By the way, what the f*ck is wrong? But what are you afraid of?”

“I am not afraid.”

“Yeah, you shouldn’t be scared. If you know everything you know and see everything you want to see, but you’re still scared, then that’s a coward and idiot.”

Raihandro wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t.

Darhan has been dishonored, and he has a high chance of sparking himself.

That’s it, even if I was just plain smooth, I couldn’t even properly grasp Ellen’s skills.

I just couldn’t figure out anything other than how incredibly strong it was.

El.

El Porzesca.

Obviously, until now, he had been reluctant to talk about Ellen with the excuse of not getting along, and even when checking the progress of the Hero Expedition, not only Ellen, but even Ergenuke and Charlotte did not properly report Ellen’s skills.

At this point, I started not understanding.

How can we get along so badly?

To the extent that the expedition team didn’t even talk about their skills?

If it’s common sense to get along that badly, why the hell did you create an expedition?

Since Ellen is a commoner bastard, and the child of an apostate, let’s say I did it because I thought I would be lost if I didn’t do the expedition.

What do you miss about EL, Tania, and Elish?

“Darhan.”

“Yes, sorry….”

“Don’t use unnecessary apologies, I’m just asking you something in case you feel that way.”

“Yes, I will listen.”

“Maybe, maybe.”

Raihandro’s gaze meets Darhan’s, only one of which can be seen through the bandages.

“The fact that Ellen had a bad relationship with the other members of the expedition, I thought she might be lying. Didn’t she feel anything there?”