After a great deal of effort, Lintis finally managed to persuade Shilo.
Although the man still looked somewhat skeptical, it didn’t matter.
“Alright, Mr. Shilo, please explain it properly.”
“Why is it that as a Knight, you don’t even know the most basic Holy Arts? Don’t tell me all you can do is weapon enchantment?”
At those words, Shilo’s expression stiffened. He waited for about two or three seconds before slowly nodding his head.
“You’ve got to be joking…” Lintis covered her mouth, her voice filled with disbelief.
“No matter how isolationist Isol City has been, that’s only been the case for the last twenty years. The Holy Arts of the Knights should have been passed down, shouldn’t they?”
Shilo did not answer her immediately. Instead, he posed a different question. “Saintess, what do you mean by ‘isolationist’?”
“Uh… it’s just a description. Simply put, it means a country closing its doors and strictly limiting its travel, trade, and communication with other regions.”
Shilo nodded thoughtfully. “That is indeed a very accurate description of Isol City’s current state.”
“Anyway, let’s not talk about that! Hurry up and tell me what’s going on!” Lintis couldn’t help but pull the topic back.
“…It is because there was no one to teach me. There have been no new Knights in Isol City in recent years. Most of them are old-timers from twenty years ago. I am the only new Knight joined in recent years, though I don’t consider myself one at all.”
Lintis blinked. “Why would you say that? Aren’t you a genuine Knight, Mr. Shilo?”
Shilo looked at the curious Saintess. After hesitating for a few seconds, he asked, “Saintess, what is the usual process for becoming a Knight on the outside?”
“Hmm… that depends on the policies of the local churches, but the ‘Three Trials’ ritual is generally the most popular. As the name implies, it consists of three assessments.”
“The first is an assessment of strength, the second is of character, and the third is of will.”
“I see.” Shilo nodded. “Thank you for the explanation, Saintess. It seems my assumptions were correct; by those standards, I cannot be counted as a Knight.”
“Because… I obtained the status of a Knight without any assessment. The process was so simple that I merely went to apply, and the qualification was delivered to my home the very next day.”
“What? That’s possible!?” Lintis was extremely shocked.
“Perhaps it’s because I was very important to them at the time…” As he spoke, a trace of imperceptible sadness flickered in the depths of Shilo’s eyes.
However, Lintis, who had been watching him closely, captured it perfectly. Her mind raced, connecting this to recent events, and she asked tentatively.
“Is it because of Mr. Thor?”
Shilo’s eyebrows shot up instantly as he looked at the Saintess in surprise.
“Did Sery tell you?”
“Yes.”
“…”
Shilo remained silent for a long time. His lips parted and closed repeatedly, cycling through the motion until he finally seemed to let something go and let out a sigh.
“You guessed correctly. It was because of my adoptive father, Thor.”
“My father once led the adventuring group he founded to strip away more than half of the Isol City Church’s and the Lord’s prestige. In their eyes, the outsider Knight Thor was a thorn in their side. They couldn’t wait to get rid of him.”
“Although my father was not killed by them in the end, not one of those parasites was innocent.”
“I did not become a Knight because I admired the profession. It was simply the best outcome available at the time. I don’t like Knights. I never have.”
“Naturally, since I joined the Church for such a reason, no one came to teach me, and I wasn’t about to make a fool of myself by asking them. Everything I know about being a Knight comes from the basic sword techniques my father occasionally taught me.”
Shilo lowered his head, continuing in a somewhat self-deprecating manner, “So, are you satisfied, Saintess? I apologize for such a boring reason.”
“Mr. Shilo!”
The girl’s voice made Shilo look up, meeting her eyes directly.
Her brow was slightly furrowed, and a faint worry lingered in her gaze as she looked at him quietly, her expression soft and focused.
“Mr. Shilo, although I said you should apologize when you’ve done something wrong, I didn’t mean for you to apologize for something like this.”
For some reason, the Saintess looked a little angry, and Shilo didn’t understand why.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s our fault for not noticing the abnormality of this city. I’m the one who needs to apologize.”
“Since there is no one to teach you, then I will. I’ll tell you everything that belongs to a Knight. I promise you’ll come to like them after that!”
The Saintess broke into a smile. Her tone was confident and firm, carrying an air that brooked no argument.
Seeing her like this, Shilo felt an inexplicable sense of amusement, and the corners of his mouth curled upward slightly.
“Are you referring to yourself? The runaway Saintess? How come I don’t see you fulfilling your responsibilities at all?”
“Ugh…”
Lintis was instantly choked up. However, she quickly saw the teasing look on Shilo’s face. Pouting with dissatisfaction, she raised her small fist and stepped forward to give him a light punch to the gut.
The force wasn’t great, but Shilo put on a bitter face and repeatedly begged for mercy. It was the first time such a vivid expression had appeared on that icy face.
“Hmph! Teasing the Saintess — this punishment is considered light!”
“Yes, yes, my violent Saintess.”
“What did you say!”
“Nothing, Saintess. You misheard.”
Facing the huffing Saintess, Shilo retreated a few steps in a gesture of weakness. He even found it strange himself — he didn’t know how he had ended up speaking his mind like that.
“Hmph, you’re so rude, Mr. Shilo. Let me say this beforehand: just because I know the Holy Arts of Knights doesn’t mean I’m a master of them.”
“So, if you dare to be disrespectful to your teacher during the lesson, don’t blame me for being unkind!”
Lintis rolled up her sleeves, revealing a section of fair, smooth arm as she made her threat.
In Shilo’s eyes, this posture only seemed funny. She was already calling herself a teacher, though the fact that such a small arm could hold such great power was truly exaggerated…
Lintis felt that there was something wrong with the way he was looking at her, but she couldn’t figure out the reason right away. She fortunately decided to just start teaching.
“Listen up. The Holy Art I used just now is one of the three major basic Holy Arts for Knights, called **[Enhancement Art: Piercing Sword]**.”
“You’ve already seen its specific manifestation. Besides that, there are the Divine Sword and the Judgment Sword. The Divine Sword balances offense and defense, while the Judgment Sword is pure offense. The Piercing Sword represents large-scale area attacks or long-distance sniping.”
“And the reason they are called Enhancement Arts is, as the name suggests, because they are Holy Arts applied directly to the blade. Aside from these three Enhancement Arts, I have also mastered one high-level Holy Art. That is the extent of my knowledge.”
Seeing the Saintess talking endlessly while putting on the serious air of a teacher, Shilo wanted to laugh, but he held it back.
“Saintess, do you only know those few?”
Lintis became unhappy. “What do you mean ‘only those few’? This is a lot, okay? As basic arts, these three Enhancement Arts can be expanded in many directions. I just haven’t researched them deeply. And as for my strongest skill, I also have—”
Reaching this point, Lintis suddenly stopped and blinked. Then, she looked at Shilo with a somewhat mischievous glint in her eyes, causing the latter to step back two paces.
Lintis put on a brilliant smile and slowly walked over. “Mr. Shilo, would you like to feel it?”
“Feel what? And can you please stop coming closer?” Shilo felt like the Saintess was about to do something to him and kept retreating.
He didn’t expect that in the time it took to speak, the Saintess had somehow moved behind him. Just as Shilo was about to turn around, a soft sensation came from his back, and his movements instantly froze.
In the next second, he saw a pair of small hands reach out from behind, grabbing his own hands and placing them on the sword’s hilt.
After completing this action, those small hands did not leave. Instead, they pressed directly onto the back of his hands with a somewhat cold touch.
A warm breath brushed past his ear, feeling like a small electric current passing through him. His heart couldn’t help but tremble slightly as the Saintess’s highly recognizable voice rang out.
“Mr. Shilo, your Holy Power is in disarray~”
Shilo could easily hear the teasing tone in the Saintess’s voice, but at this moment, he had no strength left to argue back.
The sensations from his back, the backs of his hands, and his ear were constantly attacking his psychological defenses. His brain was a bit of a mess, and a thin layer of red had already surfaced on his cheeks.
“Hehe, you’re quite shy, aren’t you, Mr. Shilo?”
“You—!”
Lintis stopped Shilo’s attempt to resist.
“Alright, alright. Experience it well, Mr. Shilo. This is my favorite Holy Art, and one that only a Holy Knight can master.”
As she finished speaking, before Shilo could react, he felt the Holy Power inside his body being mobilized. Like a child seeing its mother, it began to circulate under the guidance of another strand of Holy Power.
In the next second, pure white holy light erupted from the sword, coating it in a dazzling radiant enchantment. Countless golden runes manifested in the air, and golden streams of light extended and converged along the blade, finally forming a two-handed greatsword composed entirely of Holy Power, roughly 3 meters in length.
The Saintess gripped his hands tightly, swinging the greatsword along with him in a horizontal slash. The blade of light trailed a long tail of flames.
And the target of this strike was the Golem that had somehow finished its self-repair!
At that moment, the Saintess’s voice rang out by his ear once again, carrying a peerless, holy pressure.
“Divine Smite!”