Zhang Tie had no idea that, as he departed, Phyllis's teacher, Knight Leo, had held him in such high regard. Watching the ship sail away, thinking of the friends and companions he had met in the Norman Empire, now scattering in every direction and separated by vast distances, Zhang Tie felt as though something had been lost from his heart.
This was the Holy War—always tangled up with countless partings. Some partings did not feel like much at the time, but as time passed, they could become final farewells.
Zhang Tie did not know whether he would ever see those friends again—Reinhardt, Guderian, Alice, Hannah, and Pandora, who had appeared like a fleeting glimpse of a swan before vanishing...
If they never had another chance to meet, Zhang Tie had only one hope: that they would all live well. Especially those three girls. Hannah was already married, and Zhang Tie hoped she would have a happy, fulfilled family. As for Alice, he hoped she would find the true love meant only for her. And Pandora...
Thinking of Pandora filled Zhang Tie with complicated feelings. In his heart, three women each occupied a corner that no one else could replace. Pandora was one of them.
Compared to ordinary girls like Hannah and Alice, Pandora was shrouded in far too many secrets and mists, so many that even Zhang Tie could not see through them clearly. If time could be turned back, then before the Holy War began, Zhang Tie would have rushed to the Sacred Golden Orchid Empire to see Pandora, no matter the cost. Yet a series of twists and accidents had delayed them then, and that delay might have turned them into an eternal farewell. Whenever he thought of it, a faint pain stabbed at his heart.
Zhang Tie