“Bang!”
With a dull impact, the towering figure in armor collapsed on cue. The matron stepped out of the shadows, cursing under her breath as she weighed the spiked club in her hand—a club almost as tall as Pero, and far thicker than he was.
“Damn it. Have these Royal Knights really gone mad? What on earth happened? Has the entire city been affected?”
“S-Something must have gone wrong, I guess.”
On the other side, Pero looked at the scene and instinctively shrank his neck.
No wonder the matron could always pick him up with one hand like she was carrying a chick.
He had known she was fierce, but even Pero had not known she was this fierce. So all this time, she had been going absurdly easy on him. Otherwise, how could he, Pero, possibly have escaped the matron’s demonic claws whenever he ran away, skipped work, or climbed the wall in the middle of the night?
“Matron, so you were actually...” Even the other nuns beside her were extremely surprised.
“It’s nothing. I only attended the Former Saintess’s lessons before. I understand that aside from the spirit, a strong body is also required coursework for an excellent nun.”
“Is... is that so?”
The nuns exchanged glances, deeply feeling how far they were from this so-called excellence.
“But speaking of which, even Royal Knights have turned into this, and they’re actually attacking ordinary people like us. This is no small problem.”
The matron kicked the Royal Guard Knight twitching on the ground, her brows tightly furrowed.
With her experience, she naturally knew what a Royal Guard Knight meant. They were this city’s final and most elite defensive force. Every single one of them was an elite among elites.
In truth, she also knew she was no match for a Royal Guard Knight. It was only that this knight currently could not use magic, had no intelligence, and only had instinct left. He had purely turned into a beast. Because of that, as long as they used a little method, he was actually very easy to deal with.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
The matron said to a young nun beside her,
“If not for you using Holy Light to suppress him, I wouldn’t have dealt with him so easily.”
“T-That’s wonderful.”
The young nun let out a breath of relief, though her small face was still deathly pale.
“As long as I was useful. Just now I was still thinking, what if I slacked off too much before and my training was too poor...”
“That is indeed something you need to pay attention to.” The matron’s face turned stern. “You can’t slack off again!”
“Yes...”
The young nun lowered her head. After going through something like this, there was no way she would dare slack off in her studies again...
“I need to thank you too.”
“Huh?”
The young nun looked in confusion at Pero, who had walked over to thank her.
“Did I help you?”
“You didn’t just help me. You saved me.”
Pero’s expression was serious.
“Thank you very much.”
“???”
The young nun was even more bewildered. In her memory, there had been no such thing.
“Oh, right. What’s your name?”
“Huh?”
The young nun grew even more confused.
“I... I remember I introduced myself the first time I came here.”
“Hehe...”
Pero scratched his head shyly.
“I probably skipped work and slipped away at the time.”
“...”
The young nun was somewhat speechless.
“My name is Nina.”
“Thank you, Nina.”
Pero clasped his hands together according to Church etiquette, incomparably serious.
“You’ll become an excellent nun.”
The nun named Nina was extremely at a loss. She did not understand why Pero was being so solemn, but she still returned the gesture with equal solemnity.
Because she could feel that Pero was not joking.
“All right, the fourth knight has already been dealt with. While no new enemies have come here, let’s hurry and leave,” Pero said.
“Are you sure that was the last one?”
Aviva, who had come along with them, had a grave look on her small face.
To be honest, when she had helped persuade the matron earlier, she had only chosen to give it a try out of trust in Pero. She had not expected Royal Guard Knights to actually come attack their perfectly ordinary orphanage.
And their positions and timing had all been predicted by Pero. That was how the ambushes afterward had happened. After three ambushes, by the fourth one, they had already become extremely practiced.
“Yes. I’m sure that was the last one.”
Pero nodded, certain that he had not missed anything, and absolutely would not miss anything.
Because those scenes had already accumulated in his memory too many, far too many times, until he knew every detail like the back of his hand.
“Then let’s listen to you and leave quickly. Have you decided where we’re going? According to Nina, the streets outside may all be unsafe now.”
“Of course I know where to go. That place isn’t exactly great, but I’m as familiar with it as home. After all, who knows how many parties I’ve held there.”
Pero patted his chest.
“But I think we should wait just a little—”
Rustle, rustle.
Pero was just about to say they should wait for that guy Bruce.
But suddenly, a fine, fragmented sound rang out behind him.
It sounded like sand and gravel... no, like dense metal rubbing against itself, giving people a sudden chill.
That was... the sound of armor scraping!
The others here were not very familiar with that sound, so they did not react immediately.
But Pero was different. He knew that sound far too well. So well that in some of the dreams he had had until now, he would still recall it again and again...
Flashes of blades, shadows of swords, splashing blood, roaring impacts.
And this sound of armor scraping, accompanied by the howling cold wind of that night.
“Careful!”
Pero suddenly turned his head.
“That Royal Guard Knight isn’t dead yet!”
Click, click.
The knight’s figure was crooked and twisted.
His helmet had already fallen off. The instant young Nina had suppressed him, the other nuns who knew magic had taken off his helmet from a distance. Only then had the matron launched her ambush.
And the matron’s ambush had clearly been highly effective. Half of the knight’s skull had caved in. If he were a normal person, he would have already been dead beyond dead.
But this knight was not.
Although his eyes had rolled back, foam spilled from the corners of his mouth, and red and white matter flowed from his nostrils and ears, he had not truly “died.”
He slowly stood up, like the living corpses described in certain picture books used to frighten children. His limbs were twisted, yet his movements were extremely swift.
“What’s going on...”
Pero’s small face turned deathly pale.
He did not know this. He did not know this knight’s vitality was so tenacious. In his memories, there were no related scenes at all.
Naturally, the knight would not give him time to understand.
As if remembering the Holy Light aura that had caused him to be ambushed earlier, the moment the knight rose, he did not hesitate at all. He pounced directly at young Nina to the side.
His speed was fast, and his momentum was terrifyingly fierce.
The matron’s expression changed. The spiked club in her hand smashed sideways, but the knight relied on instinct and easily dodged it.
Clearly, the matron, who had not truly fought in a very long time, really was inferior to this elite knight.
At least in terms of techniques, movements, and experience, she was far inferior.
After dodging, the knight rushed straight at Nina, unobstructed the whole way.
“Holy Light... Holy Light... Holy Light...”
Nina was so frightened that her hands and feet went into chaos. The Holy Light she had finally managed to condense scattered before she could cast it at all. She could not help regretting again why she had not practiced properly in ordinary times, causing her to fail at the critical moment.
But regret was useless now.
There was no way out.
This was only an orphanage.
Aside from the matron and the other nuns who had once trained in the Church, there were only children here with no strength to truss a chicken.
So whether it was the others or Pero, they could only watch helplessly as the knight pounced at Nina, like a beast pouncing on its prey.
“It’s over.”
This scene was reflected in Pero’s pupils as he subconsciously murmured in pain,
“Did I get her killed again?”
But if she still died...
Then wouldn’t his reckless choice be meaningless?
Instead, it would have been a choice that placed everyone in danger.
Was there any way to save her?
Please, save her.
Even if I have to pay a price, save her...
Save...
Pshh.
As if hearing his plea.
A cluster of pitch-black flame suddenly appeared, blocking the knight’s path.
At first, it was extremely tiny, so small it was only a minuscule black dot.
Then it grew slightly bigger, though not much bigger, only about the size of a fingernail.
It burned there quietly, utterly inconspicuous. In fact, no one even noticed such a tiny flame.
But when the knight charged through it, his body suddenly stiffened.
As if time had frozen.
Then, abruptly, frozen time restarted. The flame surged violently larger, swallowing the knight completely.
The knight instinctively struggled, but it had no effect whatsoever.
In only an instant, that knight who had seemed impossible for everyone here to defeat was devoured entirely by the flame, leaving not even ashes behind.
“Huh?”
Only after quite a while did someone finally react first and cry out in surprise.
The sight of an unmatched Royal Knight suddenly disappearing before their eyes was truly too shocking for the nuns and children of this orphanage.
“This... What is this?”
Pero was also stunned. He stared at the flame in surprise, not understanding why this flame had appeared.
He only felt a sense of familiarity.
He raised his hand, and the slightly enlarged, swaying black flame took the initiative to land on his fingertip. It was cool to the touch. This strange flame that could easily kill a Royal Knight did not make him feel the slightest danger. Instead, what replaced it was an incomparable sense of peace.
“What is this?”
Even the usually calm Aviva could not help looking nervously at Pero.
“Where did you get something so dangerous?”
“This is...”
The others did not know where this flame came from.
Or perhaps, they had already “forgotten.”
But Pero remembered it with perfect clarity.
In every scene where the savior appeared, it appeared with him.
It was not some ominous fire.
It was a fire of salvation.
This was Mr. Bruce’s fire.
But why would his fire...
“Huh?”
A figure suddenly appeared, looking around with puzzlement.
“What’s going on? This scene is a little different from what I expected.”
“Mr... Bruce...”
Pero raised his head blankly. The flame was still leaping on his fingertip.
Muen’s gaze swept quickly across the surroundings, analyzing the situation. But the scene before him was far too different from the one in his memory. Before he had time to analyze a result, he saw Pero’s face turn pale, and the boy suddenly collapsed weakly to the ground.
“Pero!”
Aviva’s face changed drastically, and she hurriedly rushed over. But before her, another figure had already arrived first.
Muen supported Pero with one hand, his expression grave. Naturally, he had also seen the black flame in Pero’s hand.
“What exactly happened?”
“I-I don’t know...”
Aviva’s expression was anxious as she quickly said,
“This black flame suddenly appeared and burned a Royal Knight to death. Then Pero... Pero became like this. Mr. Bruce, he’ll be all right, won’t he?”
“Don’t worry. He’ll be fine.”
Muen quickly checked him and let out a light breath of relief.
“He’s only exhausted himself.”
“Exhausted?”
“That’s right. The magic in his body has been exhausted. His mental strength too...”
“But... why? Pero didn’t use magic.”
“Because...”
Muen lifted his eyes.
Black flame.
The appearance of the black flame had drained all the power from Pero’s body.
Even such a tiny cluster was not something the current Pero could bear.
Fortunately, he seemed to have an exceptionally good foundation and magical talent. Otherwise, right now, it would not be as simple as exhaustion.
“How strange. Why can Pero use black flame?”
Muen was utterly bewildered, and felt rather strange as well.
Come to think of it, just now, he had indeed felt as though something had touched him. It simply had not been very clear. That touch had been too tiny, merely causing faint ripples to rise across the black sun in his mental space.
So, all of a sudden, had he been cuckolded too?
Was this how the Withering King had felt back then?
No.
Muen hooked his finger, and the leaping cluster of black flame obediently fell into his palm.
Cuckolded, but not completely cuckolded.
The black flame could still be controlled by him.
It was indeed his black flame.
In other words.
“The source of this cluster of black flame is me, but the reason it was born was not me.”
Muen looked at the sleeping Pero.
This was his first believer...
A flame born from prayer.
