"Y-You clearly could have—"
"I could."
Higashino Makoto cut him off.
"But I had no obligation to."
The man's face flushed bright red. His lips trembled, tears and snot mingling together as he looked utterly wretched.
"What kind of paladin are you?!"
He roared.
"Paladins are supposed to protect the weak! They're supposed to save the innocent! You—"
"No. A paladin is only supposed to protect the part they have sworn to protect."
Higashino Makoto interrupted him again.
Those words left everyone stunned.
"I call myself a paladin in this country."
Higashino Makoto's voice remained calm.
"Only because it is more convenient, people can accept it, and it will not cause unrest. But I have never told anyone that I would protect everyone."
He looked around, his gaze sweeping over every bystander.
"You think that because I have strength, I should protect you?"
"You think that because I can kill demi-humans with a swing of my sword, I should act at once? Or do you think that because I am a 'good person,' I should bleed and die for you?"
He shook his head.
"That is all something you imagined yourselves. I never promised anything."
The man collapsed onto the ground and burst into tears.
He was not crying out of anger, but because—
He realized he had no grounds at all to refute Higashino Makoto.
This man truly had no obligation to save his son.
This man truly had never promised anything.
He had merely forced his own grief onto a stranger.
A stranger who had helped them, yet had never been obligated to do so.
Higashino Makoto looked down at the sobbing man in silence for a moment.
Then he crouched down, took a handkerchief from his clothes, and held it out to him.
The man raised his