As she grew upset with such thoughts—

“Bellota.”

When his voice called to her, Bellota’s distant gaze turned toward Seiden. Watching her gaze that still couldn’t quite look at him directly and remained slightly off, Seiden continued speaking.

“I have something I want to ask.”

At those words, Bellota’s expression grew puzzled. Seiden asked in a low voice, never taking his eyes off that lovely face for a moment.

“Is it alright to desire something beyond my station?”

This time, faint bewilderment crossed Bellota’s face. It was quite a strange question to ask during a sick visit. After pondering for a moment, Bellota carefully asked back.

“What…… do you mean?”

“Something that shines so brightly I feel I shouldn’t dare to grasp it.”

The girl he desperately desired filled Seiden’s eyes completely.

“But if you tell me it’s alright to desire it, I will give everything I have to the gods who permitted it.”

When his quiet voice ended, a peaceful silence fell over the sickroom. After a moment, Bellota’s voice, tinged with awkwardness, softly flowed into the room.

“Though I’m not a god……”

Though her face was full of apology for daring to answer such a question as she fidgeted with her fingers, Bellota gave a steadfast answer without turning her gaze from Seiden.

“The Holy God is merciful, so He will permit it.”

Her voice was soft but filled with certainty. Without even a trace of doubt. Nodding slightly as if it would surely be so, Bellota hesitated for a moment before adding one more thing.

“And though I cannot see……”

A faint smile bloomed on her hesitating lips.

“Rick must shine just as brightly.”

His voice held affection and gentleness. Seiden stared intently at Bellota while feeling the pain that clung to and squeezed his heart again.

“I see.”

That was the end. There remained no reason or time to hesitate anymore.

When Seiden immediately stood up, Bellota sensed his movement and raised her head in confusion.

“I will return to the capital today and volunteer for the subjugation force. I will fight with everything I have for the god who has permitted this selfish desire.”

At Seiden’s words, Bellota’s shallow breath stopped.

The subjugation force was an army organized by the imperial family to end the war against dark mages trying to resurrect the demon god, fighting them at the northwestern frontlines where dark magic was strongest. Yet he would volunteer there? A mercenary who hunted monsters?

The subjugation war offered nothing but honor and had a high mortality rate. It was the most avoided place by hunters who only pursued material gains from monster hunting. Yet Seiden was now saying he would volunteer to go there.

“And I will return. To come get you here.”

At those words, Bellota’s shallow breath stopped completely. Seiden took in every moment of her delicate face that had frozen at his unexpected words.

Now he had to leave with this face buried in his heart. Seiden still had no desire to live relying on his family’s prestige. Moreover, his father would never welcome Bellota who could not see.

So he had to start over from the beginning. He had to build everything with his own hands and use them to guarantee Bellota’s eternal peace. Only then could he pay for the sin of selfishly holding her in his heart.

Seiden had not the slightest intention of making Bellota’s already long and weary life more difficult. The battlefield was the only place where one could build honor and power in the shortest time, and he would bring back honor for Bellota from there.

He would surely return to her side. So……

“Until then, you must not go anywhere.”

At Seiden’s firm plea, Bellota’s ears reddened in embarrassment. Then Seiden placed the veil’s hide into Bellota’s arms as if it were a doll. Her shoulders flinched at the soft touch.

“Even if you don’t wait, I will definitely return. I will hear your answer then.”

The flustered Bellota moved her lips without being able to say anything.

Seiden didn’t bother adding more words. He simply gave a polite final greeting as if about to leave right then and turned around. When he was about to leave the room, he stopped turning the doorknob and looked back at her as if remembering something.

“My name is not Rick.”

At that sudden confession, Bellota’s frozen eyes trembled slightly.

“I will tell you my name when I return as well. So if you’re curious, you’ll have to wait for me.”

Leaving those mischievous words, Seiden suddenly left the sickroom. A flush of red belatedly rose to Bellota’s face as she remained alone in the room.

As Bellota clutched the veil’s hide with trembling hands, she soon noticed something inside the belly pocket. When she carefully reached inside, she felt something round and hard. Bellota’s lips slowly parted as she realized what it was.

That night, Bellota couldn’t sleep a wink trying to calm her pounding heart until dawn. News that the mercenary band staying in the village had left came the next day. After that, Bellota could not see Rick anymore.

Rick, no, Seiden immediately returned to the capital as he had sworn to her, reclaimed the Blackwood name, and departed for the northwest after volunteering for the Imperial Subjugation Force.

Seiden’s skills proved truly remarkable. Within half a year of joining the war, the entire continent knew the name Seiden Blackwood. Everyone regarded and praised him as a messenger sent by god, believing without doubt that he would end this long war and save them.

Seiden’s father rejoiced greatly, thinking his son had finally accepted his wishes, but three months passed, then one year, then two years, and still Seiden did not return. Unlike his father’s flimsy plans, Seiden eliminated the dark mage groups and the endless monsters pouring out at the northwestern frontlines.

And finally, after slaying the deckdragon said to be the source of magic hidden by the demon clan, he became the third to join the realm of Swordmasters, of which there were only two in the continent. Even after obtaining that honorable title, Seiden remained on the battlefield for another half year as if determined to slaughter all the monsters in the northwest down to their bones.

Thus, Seiden Blackwood only returned to the capital after leading the seemingly endless long war to victory. Now no longer needing his family’s wealth and honor, Seiden immediately tried to find Bellota. However, a strange fate once again completely twisted his life.

One month before Seiden’s return, a divine revelation had come down to the Pope and priests. The revelation was as follows:

‘I choose Bellota Rosebeth, who stays at the small temple of Hubern, as Saintess.’

By the time Seiden heard the news, Bellota had already held the Saintess ceremony and became the one and only Saintess of the Rundhardt Empire.

Along with the holy power bestowed by god.

* * *

Seiden slowly rose to his feet. Then he looked at Bellota, who had frozen with shock, betrayal, or perhaps…… joy.

It was natural. After making such a promise, Rick ultimately did not return to Bellota. And a full nine years had passed. As payment for that time, he could now see his reflection in Bellota’s blue eyes.

“Why……”

The faintly trembling voice trailed off. Seiden knew what Bellota was asking him. Why hadn’t he confessed everything?

“……”

He too had initially intended to reveal everything. After hearing that Bellota had become Saintess and was at the Grand Temple, he had firmly resolved to find her and desperately beg, telling her he was Rick and had returned to keep his promise. However, that hasty determination vanished without a trace the moment he encountered Bellota attending the victory celebration banquet at the imperial palace.

Seiden remembered the moment he reunited with Bellota whom he had dreamed of every day for two years. The young girl with the innocent face he had known was gone, and standing before him now was a woman so breathtakingly beautiful. He remembered the moment her eyes, tense as if everything was unfamiliar and frightening after becoming Saintess just a month ago, turned toward him.

The gaze containing a mesmerizing blue light no longer glanced past Seiden’s face. The moment he met those blue eyes containing that dazzling light, the hasty determination and selfishness bundled up inside him simply vanished. The pain that had clung to his heart without fading even slightly for two years hardened as it dug into his heart.

At that moment Seiden realized. That this was as far as god would permit him. That his only allotted share was the rapturous yet sorrowful honor of being able to gaze upon the radiant Bellota.

“……”

It was Seiden who first turned away from Bellota who had been staring at him as if sensing something strange. At last, he resigned himself to everything.

After the banquet ended that day, Seiden declined the Emperor’s offer of the position of Imperial Knight Commander and declared he would become a holy knight. From that moment until now, Seiden had made constant efforts to humbly accept the fate given to him, but astonishing fate once again shook and twisted his resolve.

“How……”

Bellota’s face distorted as she exhaled heavily, seemingly still unable to believe it.

Bellota too remembered the moment she first saw Seiden Blackwood, called a war hero. The figure of a man who seemed as if he would never crumble to anything. And also how she had felt an inexplicable strange feeling when she first saw Seiden. Though knowing it made no sense, she had even suspected he might be Rick.

But making that illusion meaningless, Seiden did not approach Bellota. Even after Seiden became a holy knight, even as seven years passed, he did not come closer than a certain distance to Bellota.