Wearing a white paladin uniform, he looked this way. A refreshing smile hung over his face as if it were a breeze when he found Damia.

“Damia? Oh my god!”

Kael jumped over the railing without any hesitation. Despite his height, he was gentle in his movements as he landed on the ground. The man looked down at Damie and nagged her affectionately.

“Long time no see. Why haven’t you sent me a letter?”

“Just. It’s been a while.”

A sad smile came over Damia’s face. After she heard that Kael was becoming a paladin knight, she felt a great loss and fell into a deep depression. Under such circumstances, she had no confidence to keep up the farce and face Kael as his childhood friend as she did before.

“I see. You didn’t come to play like before, and I thought something had happened. I was worried.”

The voice that touched my ears was warm. Kael was a little indecisive, but it was because he was a friendly person.

Dami had fallen in love with him because of the warmth of that smile and his kind disposition.

Damia looked up at him without a word. The way he spoke was as if he was upset with her, but Kael smiled down on her pleasantly. So Dami knew with even more clarity:

She’s simply not that important to him.

“You heard the news, right? Me. I passed the test… I want to finish my training as soon as possible and leave to clean up the ‘contamination’ that is rampant in the South. To help the frail Saint.”

Kael’s gray eyes were all shining with anticipation of a new future. In particular, the eyes filled with longing for the Saint seemed to be screaming at Damia. The fact slowly and cruelly mutilated Damia’s chest.

“But today is the last day. You came to my farewell party. I’m so glad. Lady Damia! I will never forget you even after I join the church.”

Kael displayed the unique greeting of a knight who draws a sign in front of his chest and bends his waist. Of course, it was a joke, but it looked great on him, making him look noble. The uniform of the church is neat, except for the ceases made by all his formal greetings.

Damia’s eyes were blurred as she watched it. According to the code of the church, a paladin could not get married. It was to prevent a conflict of family, politics, loyalty, and faith—one should only be devoted to God and not be muddied by affection.

By tomorrow, Kael will be leaving for the Great Goddess of War, participate in a ceremony to join the Saint’s Knighthood, and Damia will lose her chance forever. She will never be his lover or wife.

Never

“Kael.”

Damia called his name with a cracking heart.

“Huh? What’s wrong Damia? What’s with that look on your face?”

A dull Kael was still smiling brightly in this situation without even an inkling about what was about to come out of her mouth.

I couldn’t let Kael go without confessing.

Damia knew himself well. Her long-standing unrequited love had already festered to the point of pain and was bound to become a deadly poison unless it exploded.

“… …You asked me before, didn’t you, Kael? ‘Why aren’t you dating?’”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah…. I think I remember. Didn’t you say there was someone you liked?”

Kael, who had been agonizing to recall the conversation for a while, raised his head as if it finally came to mind.

Damia’s desperate eyes looked into Kael’s face. He looked back into her beautiful eyes as if he had been possessed for a while, and then suddenly, he hardened with a late realization.

“No way! The man Dami said you liked…”

“That’s right.”

Though he was confessed to by Damia, the North’s greatest beauty, Kael’s face did not look a bit pleased. Instead, he looked as if he was being punished. His face was distorted by surprise and guilt.

Damia couldn’t have done anything. She managed to swallow the hot tears in her heart, and the taste of the broken heart in her mouth was so salty that her face unknowingly distorted. But she managed to split her chest and open it up.

“It’s you I like, Kael Roysten. I’ve always liked you.”

***