Only the Party Members Returned, Not the Hero

21. The Unforgiving Saint (5)

21.

Darhan looked at Ellen with a frown.

You don’t like it? Why?

I looked at Darhan’s face and clicked her tongue.

Tsk.

He looks like a bandit, so why is he wearing armor that looks like he’s covered in silver?

At this level, even a goddess needs to develop her eyesight. You know just by looking at her face. What kind of ulterior motive does he have, whether he has a bad heart or not.

Her face is said to be the window to the heart.

It was more like that because he frowned like that. Looks like I’ll take some money

“No, it’s burdensome because it’s called teaching. How could it not be just sparring? I also want to relax a bit after a long time.”

“… Ah.”

That’s what you meant, troublesome bastard.

Thinking so, Darhan nodded, saying sparring was fine.

“Dalian is also good. Coincidentally, today is the regular training day for the Knights of Erantel, so let’s arrange a place in the training hall. Wouldn’t the knights learn a lot from the hero’s inaction?”

“If you keep learning something, you can use the place as you like.”

Still, it was nice to see his face wrinkled with laughter and anger in an attempt to be polite.

“Oh, by the way, this is a different story.”

“Do you have anything to say?”

“As you know, I am a commoner-born warrior. That’s why I’m not familiar with the formal ‘fighting’ that aristocrats often do. Rather, it can be said that he is more skilled in street fighting.”

One of Darhan’s eyebrows twitched.

According to EL’s information, Darhan was also from a commoner, and there was a high probability that he was fed up with the battle between the ladies, which the nobles call sparring.

And, it was obvious that Darhan himself, who had always rolled in the real battle, had a better advantage in an irregular fight than me, who had graduated from the school of bravery.

“So, why don’t you try irregular sparring? Anyway, this is in the middle of the temple, so even if you get a tolerable wound, you will be able to recover in a day or two.”

Darhan put on a worried expression while trying to hide his joy.

It couldn’t have been better for Darhan. He will be able to check the bottom of the hero in non-rule sparring rather than formal sparring with various restrictions.

Raihandro also didn’t have a guiding personality to the point of insisting on regular sparring.

“As the leader of the Knights of Erantel, I have been steadily training both regular and unruly sparring. If that’s what the warrior really wants, I’ll prepare for the unruly sparring.”

Darhan seemed to be in a good mood as he mentioned the captain of the knights and captured Gao.

Raihandro and Darhan, although only EL knows what tricks the two are up to.

It seems that sparring with me was also part of their plan.

I wonder if ELLE was calculating that far, she was thinking about it.

I lay comfortably on the sofa and closed my eyes.

***

Kikki-

The large door of the reception room opened and EL and Raihandro came out side by side.

Darhan immediately got up from his seat and bowed his head to the saintess and Raihandro.

I looked at the two of them with a half-dream expression while lying comfortably on the sofa.

“…… The interview is over, Ellen.”

I got up slowly at EL’s words

.

“Uh, yes…. The sofa is nice Is it because it is expensive?”

“… ….”

Eli seemed to want to chat with me as usual, but she had to maintain her saintly dignity in front of Raihandro and Darhan, so she only pursed her lips and then turned to Raihandro. .

“It was an honor to be able to spend a time full of blessings, Holy Lady.”

“It was also nice to be able to see the elder after a long time.”

After cutting off the ostentatious greetings, I raised one hand to attract people’s attention.

Two pairs of male eyes and one pair of female eyes.

“Saintess, I want to have a sparring with the knight commander, is that okay?”

EL’s big blue eyes looked at me dreamily, blinking a few times.

At the question in my eyes asking if I had made that much progress already, I shrugged my shoulders once.

Anyway, I can’t help but be a model student.

Rayhandro and Darhan were also exchanging glances with each other. Unlike EL, who was somewhat surprised, Raihandro did not show much emotional agitation as expected, and Darhan did not show a different reaction.

“It seems that the two of you have become very close in the meantime. Wouldn’t it be okay? Captain Darhan, are you really confident? The opponent is that famous warrior. You are the one chosen by the goddess.”

Rayhandro, who was going as he wanted, tried to put a wedge between the couple before EL put a stop to it. Darhan, who naturally passed the ball over to himself, spoke very politely.

“Although it is clear that my skills will be low compared to that of the warrior, the swordsman’s heart to learn even a little bit like this is boiling over. Please allow me, saintess.”

As if really, he had no ulterior motives, and the meeting of a worthy rival called a hero ignited the old swordsman’s passion that had waned a long time ago! As if to say

I looked at EL with such an impudent expression.

EL is immersed in her worries as she gently closes her eyes.

At least to the two of them, he must have seemed troubled.

I could understand that after seeing EL for a long time. EL’s expression now, the corners of her mouth almost rising, is the confident, elated, cocky cat look I sometimes get when I admit her defeat in a debate.

“What is there to worry about, when will I receive the sword of someone like you again? If you win, it’s good as long as you win, and if you lose, you learn something as much as you lose, so there’s nothing to lose.”

When I went further and said that to EL, EL had no choice but to let out a sigh and nod her head.

“Okay, you two said yes…. However, please do not forget that both of you are precious assets of the Erantera Temple and the country, and do not get hurt. I hope that this saintess will know that she is worried about her.”

To become a high-ranking aristocrat, should I start with acting classes?

The four of us, including myself, shamelessly smiled while hiding each other’s ulterior motives.

***

“I didn’t expect to have sparring right away like this.”

Lee El, who was walking next to me, said.

“Anything faster is better. More than that, you’re really good at acting.”

“What acting?”

“I want you to know that I am worried about this saintess…. Evil.”

I held her hands and imitated EL’s voice, but stopped when her elbow poked her side.

A saintess glaring at me with an embarrassing expression.

“Should I do it like that? And, it’s not acting.”

“What is it if not smoke? Mimicry?”

“You can really worry.”

“Someone cares about who.”

“I am the warrior. EL Porzesca may be worried about Ellen.”

El Porzesca.

With EL, Tania, and Elish.

It is still unfamiliar to me whenever I call a woman whose family name is attached to the end of her name.

Is it because I don’t have to call you by my full name?

Or maybe it’s because I’m a commoner, so I don’t have a last name.

“I’m a warrior, why don’t you make a castle and give it to me? It’s embarrassing when you think about it. If you’ve been chosen by a goddess, shouldn’t you be given a title?”

“Thinking the opposite way, even a hero who frowns at not being given a title….”

“No, when did I frown? I’ll make a castle too. Can’t you just stick it on something?”

“… A surname is a family mark, a kind of protection you can give to your family. What is the difference between a group of thugs and a group of thugs? .”

That’s what I heard.

There were groups like that in the back alleys as well. We are family! Groups who show off with the same tattoo on their shoulders while doing it.

Of course, loyalty like grains of sand didn’t last long, and while we were talking about who was who’s younger brother and older brother, when a robber broke in, they ran away in a panic and never saw each other again.

“It’s sad, it’s unfair.”

“Don’t think too much. s*x is, perhaps, also a responsibility. It can become the shackle you hate so much.”

“Well, yes, but….”

“Or what….”

El takes a break.

I don’t know what I want to say, but I look at the floor and put my lips together.

“Then, how about this one?”

Beat, beat, beat.

There are two people walking down the street.

On the bamboo road leading to the training ground, there were no other people besides EL and me.

So EL looked around him a few times and took a step closer to me.

The steps stop each other, and I feel her soft, warm hand in mine.

She raised her hand with both of her hands, stopped her hand in the distance just before her lips touched the back of her hand, and closed her eyes as if in prayer.

When the wind stroked the bamboo leaves and her golden hair a couple of times.

She opened her blue eyes and said so.

“Ellen Porzesca.”