A Wish to Grab Happiness - Book 11: Chapter 289

Chapter 289: Someone Close to God

Helot Stanley. Seeing him, who used to be her schoolmate, wielding a white blade while radiating strength, Filaret La Volgograd narrowed her eyelids involuntarily. A small sense of pride floated in her skull. At the same time, she felt a sense of loneliness as well.

Filaret had no recollection of Helot Stanley showing that kind of expression when he was still at the academy in the walled city of Garoua Maria. Rather, he always had a relaxed expression on his face, and he had plenty of room to deal with difficult things that made everyone stop in their tracks.

In that way, everyone said they couldn’t deal with the problems unless he was with them. They said he was the only one capable of succeeding every time a problem appeared.

He was like the sun that brought all to their heels with his bottomless talent. That was the essence of the gold named Helot Stanley.

If you tried to get too close, your skin would burn, your eyes would go blind and your will would shatter. That’s why no one in the academy placed him on the same level as themselves, nor did they chase after him.

That man, the sun, was now swinging his sword with all his might, with his eyes wide open and his teeth showing. He sometimes tore his muscles and sometimes cracked his bones to propel his body. There was only one person in front of his eyes.

The hero of the Heraldic Order, and the one whom the Filaret once vowed to turn into gold, and follow… Lugis.

Lugis was an unmistakable mediocre person like herself, who did not create brilliance like a talented person. The world would say that he was like lead and copper. The world would’ve even declared that he was not capable of becoming anything at all. It was so disgusting that it made Filaret sick.

“I won’t let anyone speak those words anymore. I will not allow that behavior.”

“I once swore. I said that I would stretch my fingers to make Lugis, who is my own ideal itself, a hero and gold without fail even if my body decays. I said that I would make it happen even if it means rewriting the world.”

That’s why the spectacle of Lugis and Helot fighting each other was a blissful sight for Filaret. Her comrade, the one whom she created, was now standing in front of that sun without taking a step back.

It was completely different from the sword fight she saw in Garoua Maria. In that night’s act, Lugis spat out both flesh and blood as Helot cut through the sky.

Still unable to get out of mediocrity, he was fighting against the white blade, even betting his life on a single swing. Filaret remembered that she was looking at that scene with a feeling that his heart would be cut directly.

But not now. Right now, it was just a head-on battle with that gold, no matter how noble and talented that gold was. Just by looking at it, ecstatic thoughts appeared in Filaret’s mind. Her cheeks relaxed and her small lips formed a smile.

“Oh, I am so proud. He is my comrade, my hero. His own magical power that resides within him unmistakably conveys that strength. No matter what happens in the future, that alone shall never change.”

If possible, Filaret would like to keep staring at Lugis for as long as she could. She wanted to keep watching his behavior and his way of being. However, that would be disrespectful to Lugis. Didn’t it sound like she had some kind of anxiety?

“He trusted me and I trust him, too. No matter where he goes.”

“In that case, what I’m going to do isn’t to just stare at Lugis’ battle, but to prevent any undesirable side characters from entering it.”

Filaret’s black eyes tightened as if they were frozen, and she stared at what was standing in front of her.

A gorgeous golden hair that never lost its elegance. Shining eyes that showed the unmistakable torch of a brilliant will. Saint Ariene was there, with her beauty that seemed to be like no other.

「And here I thought I would be facing a very violent person. But the person now standing in front of me is the so-called saint. I’m now unsure how to behave in front of such a mighty person like you.」

In response to Filaret’s words, Ariene blinked her eyes and ripped her lips.

“Her movement is the same as when I saw her briefly before, and even the behavior of her fingertips is sharpened and refined. Her expression is also graceful. It was exactly what I imagined when I heard that she was a saint.”

However, Filaret’s appearance and voice was filled with indescribable anxiety. From the bottom of her heels up to her head, something that resembled an incomprehensible dread eroded her entire body.

It would be reasonable to feel that way when meeting the saint candidate of the Great Holy Church.

But the quality that made up Filaret’s voice was something else; it was unmistakable heterogeneity in itself.

It was no longer the same as before. Filaret couldn’t really describe it. It was almost as if the saint was no longer human. Filaret’s eyes distorted involuntarily.

Whether it was the voice or the atmosphere, the saint had little more humanity than now.

Spit slowly slid down Filaret’s throat. The toes of her feet were strongly sewed to the ground.

「Is that so? Then, like the moon and trees, I would like you to stay still where you are.」

Ariene replied as if to eat Filaret’s words.

「That’s not the behavior of a saint. A saint should be a helping hand, and if there is an existence to save, she’d even touch the mud.」

In that case, Filaret murmured in her heart that she shouldn’t remain a quiet person.

It was the same when Lugis and Ariene exchanged words in Belfein. Rejecting the voice of Mordeaux, the Lord of Belfein, and the words of Caria, Lugis confronted Ariene, who did not show any retreating behavior towards Filaret, who possessed explosive magical power.

Ariene didn’t look like the kind-hearted person she imagined her to be when she heard that Ariene was a saint. Rather, Ariene looked like someone who stuck to her own will. It seemed that she wouldn’t hesitate no matter what.

In other words, Ariene was a person that resembled Lugis’ fierce ego in some way. Filaret widened her sight as she pressed her fingertips.

During this brief exchange, Ariene remained calm, but the Cathedral Knights who stood on her left and right sides were different. They wielded their swords and shields in both hands, piercing Filaret with their sharp eyes.

Filaret wondered if they saw through the fact that she was a Sorceress. The shields made her feel the distance between them. It was as if they portrayed hate and disgust.

Their shields were probably treated with magic resistance. For normal humans, it would be nothing, but for sorceresses and wizards, who were familiar with magic, just viewing it in their field of vision would make them feel uncomfortable.

In other words, the magical power that was supposed to fill the world was removed, and its true form was exposed. Filaret felt annoyed. It was now clear that the shields they wielded were created to repel magic.

However, Filaret shook her fingertips as if such thing was truly out of her sight. As if it was a lighthearted, natural response to this menace.

After all, it was modeled to be anti-magic technology. Even though it removed magical nature, it had no resistance to things outside that framework.

So, it was like breaking a piece of paper, Lugis said. For Filaret, there was no doubt that if Lugis had said so, then it was the truth. If his words were wrong, then the world would be wrong.

Therefore, Filaret invoked magic from the tip of her mouth with the ease of tearing a thin paper. She did so while turning the world over and forcibly rewriting it.

Her black eyes swayed. Only then did the world exist beneath that blackness, transfiguring it.

「I’m sorry, but… 」

Yes, while Filaret’s lips were speaking, her fingertips drew letters in the air. Filaret could only see the Cathedral Knight’s eyes flickering for a moment. The knight on the right was raising his sword towards Filaret. In a few moments, the blade would pierce her skull.

But before that, the world froze. There was no sound, no tearing and no blood flowing.

It looked like it was the end of everything. The two Cathedral Knights were frozen, unable to move, unable to breathe or even blink. With their swords raised and still, they solidified like sculptures.

They were no longer alive. No, they were just immobile and not dead, though it was something similar. Only their bodies were frozen, but their souls were still alive. Therefore, the flesh did not rot away, and without a single sob, they stopped in time.

Could they be called dead or alive? It was up to the person who saw them to decide. Filaret moved her lips as she flicked her fingertips.

「…I won’t let you get in the way of Lugis. I’m his comrade. 」

The black eyes no longer saw the knights but the girl who was called a saint. An ecstatic smile appeared on her cheeks, and magical energy swayed throughout her body.

The saint looked at the Sorceress standing in front of her, and her lips rippled slightly.