Faith

Amid Dulin's furious outburst, Tamik didn't back down or get angry. He simply stood straight, listened until Dulin was done, and then gave him his answer.

"Captain, I know I'm still weak compared to you and so many others in the Knights Order. I still have a lot to learn, and there are many things I don't understand. But the one thing I do understand is this—"

"As a knight, I must follow the Saintess's teachings and take Lady Stia as my example. I must protect those weaker than me. I must stop the Corrupt Calamity from spreading and wreaking havoc. I must hold fast to my faith!"

"That's what I understand!"

The young knight lifted his chest with pride. The silver-gray cross beneath his uniform seemed to shimmer faintly in the light, as though answering his resolve.

But—

"Heh heh heh. The Saintess? Her teachings? I'm warning you, don't you dare say 'Saintess' in front of me! There's no Saintess in this world anymore! Even if she really does exist, she's long since fallen. She's already mixed in with the dark and the vile!"

"In my heart, the Saintess of the Holy Kingdom from five hundred years ago is dead. And there's no faith left on this land. The teachings and maxims of Stia you keep going on about are a joke. Do you understand? A joke!"

Dulin screamed until his voice was hoarse, his face flushed red. He had once clung to hope, however faint. He'd even imagined that Black Cave was simply so remote that the priest had been able to take advantage of the place, and that was why the Saintess's holy light hadn't reached them. But one day, one day, the wicked would be brought to justice and receive the punishment they deserved!

But what had happened?

Today, the priest had slapped him in the face with the truth. Even the Saintess's direct descendant, the Light Bearer of Lady Stia herself, had chosen to side with the priest, abandoning her faith for the power of a Relic.

At that moment, Dulin truly felt something inside him shatter.

Even the highest ranks of the Church had become like this.

So what were little people like them, at the bottom, still holding on to?

"Dulin, I need you to apologize to Lady Stia for what you just said!" It was the first time Tamik had called Dulin by name without adding "Captain."

For once, anger showed on the young knight's face. Tamik could put up with anything from Dulin, his mentor. The one thing he couldn't tolerate was Dulin blaspheming the Saintess and insulting his faith.

"What, you're angry? Think you're a big shot now? Want to fight me? Fine, come on! Let's see if your Saintess can grant you the strength to beat me into the ground!"

Just as the two of them grew increasingly combative, their emotions spiraling out of control and threatening to push things past the point of no return—

Creak.

The ward door opened a crack. A blonde woman in a hospital gown stepped out weakly. She looked at the two knights, both red-faced with anger, and shook her head at the older one.

"Dulin. Don't."

If there was anyone who could make this knight drop everything in an instant, it was his wife.

"S-Susan! What are you doing out here? Damn it! It's my fault, my fault for being so loud. I must've woken you up! Quick, go back! The doctor said you still can't get out of bed!"

Susan ignored Dulin's frantic protests. Though weak, the blonde woman summoned her strength and turned to the other person there.

"Tamik, I-I'm sorry. No matter what your mentor said, I'm sure he was just angry. I-I apologize to you on Dulin's behalf, and I apologize to Lady Stia for what he said just now. Cough, cough, cough."

Susan broke into a coughing fit at the end. It was clear she was in very poor health. Just making it to the ward door and stopping their argument had taken all her strength.

"N-no, Susan, it's my fault. Don't blame my mentor. I-I got too worked up. I didn't understand enough to see what Captain Dulin meant."

"I'm fine now. You should listen to Captain Dulin and get back into bed!"

Susan clearly held even more sway with Tamik than Dulin did. At the blonde woman's gentle words, the young knight immediately put an end to the argument. But before he left, he said—

"C-Captain Dulin, I'll leave you in peace. But I still want you to know that I won't give up on investigating the C-class Corrupt Calamity object in Kalleva or Mr. Liao Ji! If the Knights Order won't let me do that, then—"

"Then I'll leave the Knights Order! So what if they strip me of this uniform?!"

"Maybe you're right. The Saintess may really be gone, and Lady Stia may no longer be able to protect us as she once did. But so what? What I believe in, what I hold fast to, what I understand—it isn't the Saintess or Lady Stia herself. It's her will: the resolve she showed five hundred years ago when she drove out the Corrupt Calamity and carved out the Holy Kingdom's pure land for us!"

"The body may perish, but the Saintess's spirit will never disappear. Even if everyone in the Church forgets, at least I—I, Tamik—will hold fast to it! As long as I do, the Saintess hasn't left us. Lady Stia still lives in my heart!"

"That is all! Tamik, trainee knight of the two hundred and eighty-seventh class, takes his leave!"

After delivering his words, the young knight gave Dulin a flawless knight's salute. Then, without giving Dulin a chance to respond, he left the hospital without looking back.

Dulin carefully helped Susan back to bed, laid her down, and tucked in the covers. Then the woman took his hand.

"Dulin, don't you think... he's a lot like you?"

"What?! Susan, you must be delirious with fever. Me, like that brat? Don't be ridiculous!" Dulin affectionately stroked her blonde hair and made an exaggerated face, trying to make her laugh.

And he succeeded.

"Pfft!"

"Hee hee hee. See? You say you're not alike, but you're both so stubborn and hardheaded. You could've been cut from the same mold. Hee hee hee... Cough, cough!"

"Susan, don't talk. You need to rest. Oh, right! Here, take this medicine first!"

When Dulin saw his wife coughing again after saying only a few words, his heart clenched. He took out the medicine the priest had given him and carefully helped Susan swallow it with some water.

"Dear, don't worry! I went out of my way to get this special... special medicine. As long as you keep taking it, you'll get better. How do you feel? Don't you feel a lot better already?"

Susan nodded at the sight of her husband's concerned face. But soon, she shook her head.

She stared at the ceiling and murmured, "Dulin, you know, when I had surgery today, I wasn't completely unconscious. I could feel that no matter how hard the doctors tried to help me, the life inside me was draining away fast, like... like a punctured balloon. At that moment, I really thought I was going to die. I'd never see you again. Cough, cough."

"Dear, don't say such things! You're doing just fine! Trust the doctors at Chenhui! And stop talking. Close your eyes and get some rest!" Dulin scolded her, sounding a little angry.

But the blonde woman stubbornly shook her head. Despite her discomfort, she insisted on going on.

"You have to let me finish, Dulin. Cough, cough. Just when I felt like... I really wasn't going to make it, do you know what I saw? The Saintess. Lady Stia..."

"Susan, that was a hallucination. You should—"

"It wasn't a hallucination, because... cough, cough, this wasn't the first time. Whenever my illness flared up, I could see the Saintess. She wrapped me in her holy light, and every time, she brought me back from the brink of death. Cough, cough."

"Susan..."

"Dulin, do you remember how we met and fell in love? We met beneath the Saintess's statue at the Church. I still remember how I was... working on my thesis. Its title was... 'The Romance of Lady Stia and the Great Emperor.' Cough, cough. Looking back, those really were the good old days. Even something so embarrassing and childish could completely absorb us."

"We used to arrange to meet every day at dusk and discuss my thesis. I still remember how red in the face you got as you argued with me, insisting your Saintess was pure and untainted, and would never... fall in love. You said Stia could never love that Great Emperor. Cough. Cough, cough."

No matter how much Susan coughed or how badly the illness tormented her, it couldn't hide the joy on her face as she remembered the past.

"I truly fell for you on our first date. Dulin, I don't know if you remember. I was all dressed up and full of anticipation, waiting for you at our meeting place for over two hours. In the end, the person who showed up was a clueless knight with bandages around his hand, covered in grime, and with bloodstains on his clothes."

"You kept apologizing, saying you'd suddenly received a report that a family's child had been abducted. After you led your team and rescued the child from the criminals, you finally remembered you were supposed to meet me. Hee hee hee... Every time I think about that, it makes me laugh. Cough, cough, cough."

"Yeah, I remember thinking, 'That's it. I've blown it for good.' But then you—you actually..." Dulin was drawn into the memories along with Susan. He shook his head with a sigh.

"Mm. I kissed you, Dulin, because you don't know how dazzling you looked to me in that moment, how handsome. That was the Dulin I loved: the man who would argue with me without end to defend the Saintess, and who would set aside even his first date without hesitation to protect the people."

"I'm telling you all this because I want you to know, Dulin: I've read a lot of books, and I learned that before she met the Great Emperor, the Saintess was fragile and incomplete. It was the Great Emperor who filled some of the emptiness in Lady Stia. Now, five hundred years have passed, and the Great Emperor has disappeared. I believe that must have hit the Saintess hard. Just like if I disappeared without a word one day, how would you feel, Dulin?"

"I can feel that the Saintess's power is growing weaker by the day. Lady Stia is struggling to hold on. That's all the more reason we shouldn't blame the Saintess for being unable to protect us or drive out evil. We should help her. It's our turn to save Lady Stia, just as the Great Emperor once did. Cough, cough."

"Don't say any more, Susan. I... I..."

Did Dulin really not understand any of this? He did. He was just running away from it.

And the reason he was running away was—

Susan's hand touched the knight captain's face, tracing his cheek and his beard.

"Dulin, if one day you have to choose between your faith and me, I hope you'll choose your faith."

"Because that's the Dulin I love. That's the Dulin I truly love."

By the time she finished, Susan's eyelids were already drooping. Saying so much had completely exhausted her, and as the medicine took effect, her hand slipped limply from Dulin's face.

Susan turned her head and fell into a deep sleep on the hospital bed.

All that remained in the silent ward was the knight captain, his fists clenched, his face full of confusion and anguish.