184 – If-1
It is said that the reason the ban was banned was because it was considered blasphemy to obtain divinity through a method such as bargaining.
But I know that I used the ban.
I understand better than anyone else that that is a superficial reason to hide an accident.
Forbidden Sacred Art is based on the faith of perseverance.
Therefore, how much you endure determines the quality of divinity.
Those who have a lot of appetite give up their sense of taste to create strong divinity, and those who have a lot of appetite for sleep can gain more divinity by continuing to have nightmares.
That’s why it was banned.
Those who use the forbidden drug commit suicide within 10 years.
The prohibition once engraved can never be removed, so they want to escape by dying.
In order to prevent such a situation in advance, the temple designated forbidden alcohol as forbidden alcohol.
But I had a different idea.
If suicide at the end is the problem.
Wouldn’t it be enough if the condition of not committing suicide was banned?
***
[…Why are you so awkward after beating people up?]
The wise man whose spiritual body was restored looked at Ain and Leo who were flying awkwardly and clicked his tongue.
Even after losing his memory, he kept his distance from Leonardo and all his friends.
However, even for a sage without notice, the current situation was more cold and alien than that.
“You have nothing to worry about.”
[No, I do care even if I don’t want to care.]
“Shut up before you ask the kid to get rid of it again.”
[I think he will listen again if I tell him?]
As he said, Ain flew silently without interfering in the conversation. He just carries out the commands he receives like a machine, and he never reveals his own emotions.
“…Arriving. We will prepare for landing.”
The day gradually brightened, and a small village came into view under the rising sunrise.
“…It looks fine.”
Leonardo admired it so much even though he had never set foot in the town. Only with that admiration could he guess what became of his hometown in the first playthrough.
“… Drop me off at the clearing in the forest. Everyone here is old, so if you see a wyvern, you’ll faint in surprise.”
“I see. All right.”
Ain lowered his altitude towards a place away from the village, hiding his body in the clouds. Upon landing in the clearing of the forest, Ain slowly returned to his own self.
“Thanks to you, I arrived quickly.”
[If you are going to give a compliment, be kind. Bad for the child’s mood.]
“It’s an order.”
It was not what the sage would say, but it was as he said. Ain gave a businesslike answer while returning to a stiff attitude.
“Are you going to meet the villagers now?”
But on the other hand, he also harbored anticipation. People in Leonardo’s hometown only heard about it, but he never met him in person.
The only ones I know are Dean and Anus.
The other villagers had never met face-to-face.
“No.”
However, Leonardo’s answer was surprisingly heterogeneous.
[…What? Then what did you come here for?]
“I just came to see if he was alive. Just check that and look around the house, and you’ll be right there.”
“…But isn’t that inefficient? There will be no need to avoid it.”
It wasn’t cool advice, but Ain’s words weren’t particularly wrong. He didn’t have to meet, but he didn’t have to avoid it either.
“Okay. There’s nothing nice about knowing that I’ve lost my memory, either.”
I felt the distance from the word you.
From noble mtl dot com.
However, Ain, who heard the conversation with Marken, couldn’t talk about Leonardo like that.
[You will regret it again.]
However, the wise man was different. He was the only one who expressed his thoughts directly to Leo without hesitation.
“Shut up. What do you know…!”
[I don’t know what you are. Because I did too.]
The sage said so briefly and boldly.
There was no frivolity like usual.
In that solemn attitude, a strange familiarity passed through Leo’s head.
It must have been like this before…
“…I’m just going to watch it for now anyway. You won’t get noticed if you’re inside this forest, and you’ll see beyond the village.”
As if he couldn’t think of anything else to counterattack, Leonardo looked at the village beyond the forest, evasive.
This forest is also familiar to me. He said that Dean sometimes taught him how to hunt, and he secretly took Leo and taught him how to use a bow and trap.
When my mother and grandmother caught me later, I was scolded for being dangerous, but it was a useful experience and a memory for me when I was a mercenary.
…Crusk…!
In that brief moment, the bush rustled.
Originally, there would be nothing strange about rustling, but Leonardo, whose senses were developed due to divinity, could tell.
‘…Neither a beast nor an ordinary person.’
Those who were quite skilled, with skills comparable to Reinhardt’s regular knights, were lined up in this forest.
‘At least two people…’
Leonardo held the black stone. He stretched the length as long and thin as possible to make it look like a single thread.
Saint Poen This form was suitable.
Choo!
The black wire seemed to fly in a straight line, and then it moved itself like a snake and rushed toward the opponent.
“What is that!!”
A scream resounded and the person hiding in the bush was picked up as if fishing for a water cocoon.
“I want to ask you, what are you doing in the bush? What are you…”
The interrogation ended bluntly, unlike the momentum.
Leonardo was unable to do anything when he saw the face of the knight he had fished out of the bush.
That man’s face.
Leonardo couldn’t forget, and he tried not to forget.
“Bennett!”
While Leo was frozen, another knight in the bush called his comrade by name and his comrade fired an arrow.
f*ck…!
“Father!”
Although it was an attack that could be avoided, Leonardo was hit by the arrow as if he did not feel any pain.
At that action, Ain formed wyvern claws on his both hands and showed a hostile attitude towards the direction he fired.
“Step 3 Situation! I need help right now!”
The female knight who came out of the bush said that and pulled the bowstring. Step 3 of Reinhardt’s guard guideline meant that he was engaged in combat with an enemy who would threaten the target of his guard.
“…Wait… You…”
The expression of the knight who was hanging upside down like a caught fish instantly hardened when he saw Leonardo. Looking at it backwards, even with his bleached white hair, if he was Reinhardt’s character, he couldn’t have known that man.
“What happened!”
“A raid already…!”
The two knights also quickly rushed to support. Even at the end, as if to prove that he was Reinhardt, he formed a triangular formation.
“…Wait a minute, that person…!”
“Do you know someone? The attacker…!”
“Leonardo!!”
All the knights were shocked at that one word. Leonardo, embarrassed by the hopeless astonishment of the party, put down the priest he held on to.
“…Leonardo?! He has his hair black!”
“You classify people by hair color!? You can tell just by looking at the face!”
“You idiot…! Leonardo-sama, I’m escorting his family! If it goes like this…!”
“…Uh…The shoulders…! I’m sorry… I’m sorry!!”
Even at the sight of a clown playing, Leonardo dazedly opened his mouth with an arrow stuck in his shoulder.
“…Bennet, Olga, Lane, Philip.”
As he called out the four knights in turn, Leonardo studied their faces. It was a face I had seen in my nightmares, but seeing it again in person, I wasn’t sure.
“…Yes! Yes?!”
“How do you know people like us?!”
I couldn’t help but know.
[…Those guys…]
When Leonardo was demoted from the Enforcement Knights, he was a member of the scout team he met.
And also the knights in charge of guarding and escorting Leonardo’s family.
“…Alive…”
They were also colleagues who died because Leonardo did not anticipate the existence of the Balrog.
***
In Reinhardt, I wasn’t extremely surprised by Leonardo’s disappearance.
He had already told me where he was going, and since he had already told me the time to return, he decided that it would be unwise to look for it.
And now, Reinhardt had a lot of problems to deal with externally as well.
“…Huh… Have you finished processing the paperwork for the Imperial Palace? Chris?”
“No. Yet…”
“What if I wander there? I haven’t even properly handled the magic tower gun yet!”
Leading on Gladio, the head of state, Rios and Chris had to deal with all kinds of files related to the temple, the magic tower, and the imperial palace.
Dealing with the owner of the enemy pagoda, even if he was a criminal, had that much ripple effect.
Perhaps the entire empire will dispatch personnel to clear up the vampire crisis.
As such, even Reinhardt, who was said to have the strongest knight in the empire, had no choice but to move.
“…If my brother had memories, it would have been fine…”
As he was organizing the files related to the Mage Tower, Rios unintentionally spit out those words. With that one word, the office fell into depression again.
“…Sorry…Sorry. This means…”
About half of these problems were due to Leonardo’s amnesia.
The work was inevitably more complicated because Leonardo himself had to step up and explain or check, save or solve problems in the form of documents.
“…It can’t be helped. This is the karma of the fate that befell Reinhardt.”
It sounded pretentious, but Chris was genuinely feeling guilty.
The reason Leonardo changed so much was because they were incompetent in the first round.
He had to be respected enough to go through such hell and keep his senses and emotions.
“But Aria must be heartbroken…”
As the head of the household and his father, Gladio, he was just as concerned about Arya’s feelings as Leo was.
The fact that the person you love has lost her memory and her personality has changed will come as much hurt and shock.
And the less hopeful the recovery is, the greater the pain will be.
And that guess wasn’t wrong.
***
“…Are you okay? Are you Ariaspil?”
Looking at Aria Spiel, who returned to her mansion, Lumine looked at her expression.
Ariaspil’s complexion darkened rapidly even though it had not been long since he went out to see off Leonardo, who had suddenly disappeared.
“…Ah, it’s okay. I’m just a little… Tired.”
{If you have any concerns, tell them. There’s nothing good about being sick.}
Angela tried to ease Arya Spiel’s worries with her benevolent gaze.
You must be still young, but since you have shouldered various incidents and trials as a hero, there is nothing strange about collapsing from the burden and responsibility.
“…If only…”
However, the emotion that suppressed her aria spill was not in her own. Her concern was with her responsibilities as a hero, but the basis was elsewhere.
“If only.”
This was after her guilt had fully sprouted and grown, if she thought.
“…What if Leonardo hadn’t met me?”
“…That’s why…”
Since she didn’t know what she was hearing from outside, Lumine couldn’t easily answer that assumption.
If I hadn’t met Ariaspil and Leonardo, my fate would have been different.
I could be sure that the fate of not only Ariasviel, but also Reinhardt, the Mage Tower, the Shrine, and the world including the Empire would have been completely reversed.
“…If only we hadn’t met.”
However, the what-if future that Ariaspil thought did not focus on organizations and groups.
It’s really selfish, but maybe there was a life that could be taken for granted.
“Wouldn’t Leonardo have lived an ordinary life?”
“…Yes…?”
At that assumption, Lumine was taken aback.
That was probably the imagination Ariasviel hated the most.
“…I was hoping that at least I wouldn’t have gotten involved in an unrelated mess like this.”
Leonardo did not inherit the blood of a warrior, was not chosen by the gods, and did not draw the holy sword.
Originally, he might have just led a normal life in the countryside.
Even if he wasn’t, he would have died a normal death.
I wouldn’t have had to go to all kinds of training or frontlines to help the hero, and I wouldn’t have lived a contradictory life without self-determination due to the prohibition.
“…If only you hadn’t met me.”
Even after he was over 100 years old, he would have lived a life worthy of a human being, not even fighting back and not knowing the cruel secret.
{May I ask why he imagined that?}
“…For some reason, the words of my ancestors came to mind.”
As Leonardo said, it was natural for Ruben to despise himself so much.
“I think my ancestor said meeting Leo was a misfortune.”
I suddenly remembered the time when I was inside the holy sword while listening to Leonardo’s words.
I didn’t explain it properly because my consciousness was dim and it wasn’t clear, but it’s only now that it’s clear.
“…I can’t deny it. Really…”
Aria’s forcibly trying to regain her strength was pitiful. She had to force herself to stay focused on her work without being buried in her guilt.
“…Leo…”
Even in the midst of her worries, Lumine felt a little uncomfortable with this situation. It was an unfounded guess to the last, but intuition usually came from such a place.
‘…Could it be that Ruben-sama called Knight Leo ‘Leo’?’
Leo is only a nickname between acquaintances, and if there is no one-sided relationship, it is correct to call him by his real name.
And
Leo and Ruben have never met in person.