anwhile, after Arendt was practically kicked out, an ergency eting of the knights was held in the dining hall.
“That bastard’s condition is definitely weird, isn’t it?”
Rider nodded as Glenn muttered seriously.
“He doesn’t seem that different from usual… but lately, he keeps zoning out.”
It was impossible for Arendt, who was ticulous in everything he did, to accidentally break a glass.
Not long ago, he dropped his sword during training, sat alone on the sofa in the lobby in the middle of the night, or was even caught taking untily walks outside the dormitory in the middle of the night.
“He doesn’t look well. From what I can tell, he’s not sleeping properly either. Lately, it seems like he’s been wandering around outside every night.”
“No matter how busy he is, isn’t this a bit much? No, what the hell is he doing in the first place?”
No one fully knew what exactly Arendt was doing.
The knights’ gazes naturally fell on Richt and Arthur. Richt looked troubled at the gaze that seed to ask if they knew anything.
“He’s helping His Highness with his work. Other than that, I can’t say anything specific.”
“We know that as well, but…”
Glenn muttered with a look of disbelief on his face.
“It feels like he’s been pulling all-nighters for at least a few weeks now. If he’s still that swamped with work, doesn’t that an it’s more than he can handle alone?”
“It doesn’t seem like a good idea for soone who is still a rookie to be taking on so much work to begin with.”
When Rider chid in in agreent, the other knights also nodded. Looking at them with a conflicted expression, Richt spoke reluctantly.
“Even though they talk about killing him every day, they’re actually really worried about him.”
“…”
There was a mont of awkward silence. As the reproachful gazes began to pour down on him, Richt hesitated and stepped back.
“…I made a slip of the tongue.”
“Honestly, isn’t it ridiculous that a knight belonging to the Imperial Knights would die not on the battlefield but from overwork? He even received the protection of Lord Luce.”
Glenn tried to bring the subject back to its original topic, but that didn’t seem to be a very good choice either. The reproachful gazes that had been directed at Richt changed to Glenn. This ti, Richt and Arthur were among them.
Glenn hesitated for a mont, then shouted in frustration.
“Why? Why are you doing this? No, it’s not like I’m wrong!”
“That’s true, but if you say that in front of Arendt, you’ll imdiately turn into an ice statue.”
Richt pointed out calmly. Faced with a statent he couldn’t possibly deny, Glenn clamped his mouth shut again.
This could have been resolved by first catching the person involved and asking what the problem was, but no one had the courage to do that.
‘It’s not that I don’t understand.’
Richt swallowed a sigh inwardly.
Even when he looked worn out, the mont soone approached or spoke to him, Arendt would put on a perfectly normal expression.
‘For soone who’s shalessly nosy…’
But the mont soone crossed the line even slightly, he would imdiately pull back, so they had no choice but to be cautious. If they weren’t careful, he might end up hiding even the faintest cracks they could glimpse now.
If that happened, there would be no more excuses to interfere.
“…First of all. Is it true that he can’t sleep because of the workload?”
Suddenly Rider spoke.
“If he was so busy that he couldn’t sleep for weeks, there’s no way the captain would just sit by and watch. He would have taken the job away from him long ago or gone to see His Highness. No one is more sensitive to his condition than the captain.”
It didn’t make sense that Laius didn’t know about sothing they had already noticed. That would an that Laius was just observing the situation.
Glenn added with a sour look on his face.
“And to begin with… he’s not the type of bastard who would listen obediently to orders. He’s the type of bastard who wouldn’t even look at sothing he doesn’t want to do.”
That was right. Now there was only one possibility left. Richt frowned slightly and muttered.
“Is it not that he’s saving ti by cutting his sleeping ti, but rather that he simply can’t fall asleep?”
It’s just that they couldn’t bring themselves to say it, but in fact, everyone was focusing on the possibility.
Rider said with a sullen expression.
“It was right after we returned from the Nephele Kingdom, right? That’s when his condition started to worsen.”
“I didn’t realize it at the ti, but if you think about it, that’s true.”
Glenn nodded. The only thing that ca to mind was contact with Nikephoros.
Nikephoros, who had fallen for Arendt’s trickery and suffered a terrible fate, cursed him before returning to his own domain.
The knights at the scene rembered those words clearly.
“Even if you live, you won’t be living, and even if you die, you won’t be able to rest… That’s what he said. Does he really care about those words? Or maybe the dragon’s words themselves have co true as a curse. There are also sayings that dragon language has special powers.”
“He’s not the type of person to care about the enemy’s words, and more than anything, Lexion was right next to him at that ti. If it was that kind of curse, Lexion would have done sothing.”
Having all these conversations without the person involved wasn’t likely to lead to any clear answers.
Just as everyone was starting to get fed up with all the endless speculation, soone suddenly murmured.
“It’s not a curse…”
Arthur had been strangely quiet since earlier.
“Wasn’t it already a reality for Arendt?”
For a mont, the air beca chilly as if cold water had been poured over it. After a while, Rider stamred and asked.
“Hey, hey. Wait a minute. What does that an?”
“Huh? No, just…”
Arthur suddenly lifted his head and trailed off vaguely. Then, one by one, the knights began to frown and pressure him.
“Do you know anything? You’re the one who hangs out with that guy the most.”
“What do you an it’s not a curse? Why don’t you explain it to right now?”
“Please don’t get so close. It’s uncomfortable.”
Arthur stepped back in disgust as his seniors approached him step by step.
“I don’t really know anything about it. I just have a rough guess.”
“So what do you an by guess? What do you an by saying that it might already be reality to that guy?”
Arthur quickly waved his hand as Glenn urged him.
“No, just. That’s what Nikephoros was saying back then. He even said he sympathized with Arendt…”
“That’s right.”
Richt nodded, frowning.
“Rather than talking about sothing that was going to happen in the future, he spoke as if it were happening right now.”
His gaze naturally fell on Arthur. Arthur stopped as he t Richt’s eyes.
“Why are you looking at ?”
“Arthur. Do you really not know anything?”
Arthur hesitated for a mont at Richt’s question.
There was sothing.
In the prayer room of the darkened Great Temple, Arendt revealed a fierce, blazing anger toward the statue of Luce, while Lexion quietly watched him as if testing him.
‘It may be related… I guess.’
Arendt, who rarely showed his emotions, revealing pure hatred so openly was still etched like a brand in Arthur’s mind.
“Arthur?”
“Yes, yes?”
Arthur, who had been lost in thought for a mont, suddenly ca to his senses at the sound of Richt’s voice.
“What is it?”
At so point, everyone’s eyes were fixed on Arthur.
Arthur was montarily at a loss for words. It was because he felt he shouldn’t just straightforwardly say what he had seen.
Arthur paused for a mont, then shook his head with a troubled expression.
“How could I know? He’s not the type of guy who easily reveals his feelings to . I just made a guess. Just…”
Arthur, who was trying to gloss over it, trailed off.
It was because he happened to enter Arendt’s room a while ago and the sight he saw was bothering him.
Arendt was still asleep when Arthur burst through the door and ca in, calling his na.
He woke up in surprise as soon as darkness fell into the room.
The mont Arendt turned off the light that had been brightening the room, he woke up startled and, as if he had just experienced a severe sleep paralysis, couldn’t calm his breathing for a while.
‘He went back to normal in an instant, though.’
However, that didn’t feel like a coincidence either.
Arthur hesitated for a mont, then added briefly.
“…Doesn’t he look a little anxious sotis?”
“You think he looks anxious? That guy?”
When Richt asked again with a puzzled tone, Arthur nodded instead of answering. Glenn wore a look of disbelief.
“Anxious? Where can you find soone as confident as that guy?”
“I think I know what you an.”
But Richt seed to have a slightly different opinion. Richt added with his arms crossed and a displeased expression.
“The very fact that we’re having this kind of conversation among ourselves proves that guy rarely lets anyone get close to him. The person who really matters isn’t even here, is he.”
It was a sentence he could not deny. Richt glanced at the knights lost in thought and glanced at Arthur.
Arthur looked down again, looking quite distressed.
Richt, who had taken his eyes off him, clapped his hands once to get everyone’s attention.
“It’s almost ti for work. Let’s get going.”
It didn’t seem like a problem that could be solved right away.
Arendt, who had been shut in his room since morning, unsurprisingly couldn’t hold out until the afternoon and returned to work starting then.
The knights who could not break his stubbornness had no choice but to give up today as well.
As usual, a peaceful yet noisy day passed, and night finally ca.
After bedti, Arthur changed his clothes and crawled into bed to get so sleep.
But that didn’t an he could fall asleep easily.
“…”
The darkness of the night, which usually felt comfortable, felt sohow gloomy and ominous. Trapped in the silence peculiar to the night, he naturally recalled the conversation he had with the knights.
‘The curse that Nikephoros talked about must have sothing to do with the gods.’
Arendt was a person who did not like God and had a more cynical view of him than anyone else.
Sotis, as a citizen of the Holy Empire, he would say blasphemous things that were unimaginable and would startle people.
‘I don’t think he showed any disgust until then.’
Starting with his experience at the Great Temple, Arendt began to move beyond cynicism to aversion to God.
And Lexion even vowed to support Arendt right next to him.
‘…Also.’
He thought it was ti to slowly admit it.
It was clear that Arendt and Lexion, like the Chernion cult, felt that God Luce was a threat.
The mont he reached that conclusion in his head, he felt his stomach turn.
Still, Arthur tried not to stop thinking. For so reason, he felt that he should not avoid it.
‘Is that what Nikephoros ant?’
If you don’t have the protection of either light or darkness, you will never find peace of mind.
Perhaps Arendt had been in that state for a very long ti.
He must have hidden it very ticulously, but recently the situation had gotten worse and he had started showing unsightly and disheveled signs.
“Ah.”
But Arthur soon had to stop thinking.
His nerves that were already on edge caught the presence sensed from outside the door.
It seed that the junior who hadn’t gone to bed again today couldn’t bear the boredom and had started moving around.
‘…No wonder it felt so quiet.’
Arthur sighed and got up from his bed without a second thought.
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