This knight is too perfect

Chapter 18: Fergus's Past [Two in One]

In the Baron's Castle, Fergus's private training ground.

Fergus looked at Rhine, who had woken up and sat up.

I understand that he must have completed the extraordinary ritual of 'Dream of Destiny'.

So he walked down the steps next to him and came to Rhine.

And when he noticed the 'crow feather emblem' slowly disappearing on the back of Rhine's hand, Fergus realized that Rhine must have completed the unknown and strange fate ritual.

When I think about how I spent a lot of time and resources with the help of the "Church" to finally complete my own extraordinary ceremony.

Fergus's mood at this moment was extremely complicated.

The gap between people is really huge.

However, although Fergus envied Rhine's talent, it was just envy, not jealousy.

Because after experiencing a series of things, Fergus has now become more open-minded.

After all, he is no longer the arrogant, overconfident and incompetent church knight of the past.

Now, he is just an ordinary apprentice knight in the Territory of Thorns, receiving a meager salary.

Although my living standards and status are much lower than when I was in the church.

But Fergus is still very satisfied with his current life.

Especially after meeting a talented disciple like Rhine.

This made Fergus feel something called "hope" for the first time in a long time.

Because if it was Rhine, maybe it would be possible to help him remove the "curse" that was cast on him.

Let him return to the world called 'Extraordinary'.

Is it really enough to rely on just Rhine alone?
Fergus wasn't sure, and he didn't dare to be sure.

Because he was afraid that the hope he had ignited with great difficulty would be extinguished again.

"Lord Fergus, you seem... nervous?"

These sudden words immediately brought Fergus back from his chaotic thoughts.

He turned to look at Rhine, who was looking concerned, and his heart gradually calmed down.

Then he sighed and responded with a smile: "You figured out all this?"

Rhine nodded. As he possessed the Knight's Protection of 'Mercy (Listening to Everything)', he was extremely sensitive to the 'voices' of others.

And this so-called "voice of the heart" naturally includes the emotional changes of others.

Therefore, although Rhine had just woken up, he could clearly sense the complex emotional changes in Fergus' heart.

That complex emotion from surprise, to envy, to sadness, and now to nervousness.

Although Rhine didn't know the source of Fergus's complicated mood, he knew that he should do something at this time, and he did so.

In response to Rhine's concern, Fergus thought for a moment and decided to tell the secret that had been sealed in his heart for many years.

After all, this secret is closely related to the Rhine to a certain extent.

“Rhine, I think you must be confused. I am just an apprentice knight without even a formal rank, but why do I know so much about the extraordinary world?”

"And the extraordinary background I possess is far beyond what an apprentice knight can possess."

"You don't have to deny it. I know you are smart and you should have noticed this problem a long time ago."

Rhine nodded, indicating that he had indeed noticed this.

Fergus didn't care about his image. He just sat on the grass in the training ground in front of Rhine and talked about his past.

"Rhine, as you can see, I am now just an ordinary trainee knight under the command of Baron Angelo of Thorn Territory."

"But ten years ago, I actually had another identity. That was a Knight of the Holy Light Church, and I was a Black Iron Knight of the Holy Light who had already entered the extraordinary world."

Black Iron Order·Holy Light Knight?
Rhine thought that if he remembered correctly, Fergus had said before that he was on the extraordinary path of the 'Punishment Knight' of the Principality of Morton.

In other words, Fergus has not only changed his identity, he has also directly changed an extraordinary path.

And this extraordinary path, can it be changed?

Fergus's small words brought great shock to Rhine.

What Rhine didn't expect was that this was just the appetizer thrown by Fergus.

Because Fergus's next words directly refreshed Rhine's worldview of the extraordinary world.

For the first time, he truly understood the mystery and...cruelty of the extraordinary world.

"Rhine, generally speaking, it is impossible for an Beyonder who has entered the rank to change his Beyonder path. The principles involved are very complicated, and even I only have a partial understanding of them, so I can't explain it to you clearly."

"You only need to know that changing the extraordinary path is no less than a rebirth for extraordinary people."

"And the reason why I changed from the original Black Iron Rank Holy Light Knight to the current Non-Rank Punishment Knight is related to something that happened to me ten years ago."

"Ten years ago, that is, in the third year after I was assigned to the town of Xavier in the Territory of Thorns as a church knight, the church discovered that there was a witch hiding in the town where I was at the time, so they specially sent a high-ranking priest of the church named Lark here."

"After the priest spent a month trying to find the witch hiding in the town, he came up with a method that now seems extremely twisted to me."

"The method is to seal off the entire town while spreading the 'plague' within the town."

"Because this will not only prevent the possibility of witches escaping, but also as the town's population decreases, witches with extraordinary characteristics that are immune to ordinary plagues will naturally appear."

Hearing this, Rhine said in a rare low voice: "Even if the price may be the loss of thousands of lives and the destruction of a small town?"

Fergus gave a wry smile and nodded.

"Yes, even if the price may be the loss of thousands of lives and the destruction of a small town."

"You never imagined it, Rhine. A church pastor who pursues holy light and mercy in the eyes of the world, would choose to treat the people of Xavier Town in the darkest and cruelest way."

"But I knew all this and not only did I fail to stop him, I even became his accomplice in slaughtering the townspeople."

"This is me, Rhine, a person whose hands are stained with the blood of countless innocent people..."

Fergus looked down at his hands, as if he could see countless souls of those who had died tragically, lurking around him.

Rhine always felt inexplicably familiar with Fergus's past.

It was so familiar that he felt as if he had seen it with his own eyes.

But Rhine was very sure that he had never been to the town of Xavier and had never experienced a similar situation.

Not only that, Rhine didn't even have much memory of what he had just done in the dream of destiny, or how he completed the destiny ritual.

At this moment, he only had a vague feeling, as if he had made an agreement on something with someone or an existence in that dream.

But Rhine couldn't remember what this matter was or who that person was.

It was as if something was blurring Rhine's memory of that part.

The reason why a dream is a dream is that it will become empty after you wake up.

However, driven by some intuition, Rhine asked inexplicably.

"What happened to the witch you were chasing?"

Fergus raised his head, looked at the sky above with complicated eyes, and spoke softly.

"You mean the witch named Anna?"

"The story about that witch is what I am going to tell you next. It is also the real reason why I changed my extraordinary path and came to the Baron Castle..."

Speaking of the witch Anna, Fergus's expression gradually became struggling.

Obviously, even though many years have passed.

But just talking about the other person made Fergus feel resistance from the bottom of his heart. He was resisting the memory that brought him pain.

But even in such pain, Fergus continued to talk about the witch Anna.

"I don't know much about the witch Anna."

"Because the mission Pastor Lark gave me at the time was to contact the Lord of Thorns and have him send troops to surround the entire town."

"This meant that during that huge exorcism ceremony, I was actually outside the town and did not really participate in it."

"Generally speaking, although there are some believers in the Holy Light Church in the Principality of Morton, the number of these believers is not large. After all, the Principality of Morton is a country built on knights, and they do not rely on the Holy Light Church."

"So it's not easy to convince a lord of the Principality of Morton to give up a small town in order to help the church priest suppress a witch."

"Fortunately, the Lord of Thorn Territory, Baron Angelo, and the Church of Holy Light seemed to have reached some kind of agreement, so I didn't encounter any problems in the end and completed the task very easily."

"Now that I think about it, even if I hadn't come at that time, Pastor Lark would have sent someone else to contact Baron Angelo, so the outcome of the town would not have changed at all."

"But if that's the case, then why was I the one sent here?"

As he spoke, Fergus's hands began to tremble uncontrollably, and two lines of tears slid down his cheeks without him noticing.

It is obvious that Fergus, who was standing at that critical juncture of fate, made a decision that went against his own will.

Although this decision had been made long ago, every time he thought about it, he felt extremely regretful.

But Fergus quickly adjusted his mentality.

He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and tried to speak in a calm tone about what happened after the 'night of exorcism'.

Although Fergus tried his best to appear calm, Rhine could still clearly hear the "pain" in Fergus' heart.

“I and the other soldiers surrounding the town don’t know what happened exactly on the night of the exorcism.”

"All we know is that there were many screams in the town that night, and an unusual fire that engulfed the entire town."

"The fire not only destroyed the only church in the town, but also killed many people in the town who were not infected by the plague."

"Because of the previous orders from the lord and Pastor Lark, we finally went to the town to check the situation after daybreak."

"I can't describe how I felt at the time. There were bodies everywhere in the town."

"Among these corpses, I saw many familiar and unfamiliar people, including Lark, a high-ranking priest of the church."

"But just when we thought that the exorcism had ended with the witch's victory, a surviving choir nun named Nona took the initiative to tell us what happened in the town."

"It turns out that the fire was caused by the extraordinary battle between Reverend Lark and Witch Anna. In order to protect the remaining people in the town, Reverend Lark was forced to die together with Witch Anna."

"Although I noticed a lot of unusual things at the time, such as why, except for the nun named Nona, everyone else had a vague memory of what happened on the night of the exorcism."

"For example, why is the body of Pastor Lark, who was clearly protecting everyone, not with everyone else?"

"But even with so many strange circumstances, I and all the soldiers present at the time finally chose to believe it and firmly believed that this was all that happened in Xavier Town."

“Even in this story, there are so many things worth pondering.”

"But you have to admit that this is the best ending, an ending that both the church and Baron Angelo can accept."

"The priests who practiced the Holy Light selflessly sacrificed themselves to save the people and proved their faith."

"The baron who was guarding the territory finally eliminated the evil witch who entered his territory and completed the protection of the territory."

"Look, what a great story, what a perfect ending."

At this point, Fergus' tone changed, becoming full of sarcasm.

Rhine understood, because in this perfect ending, both the church and the baron were extremely satisfied.

The only one who was hurt was Fergus, the knight who still had a conscience.

And those innocent residents of Xavier who died in the fire.

After making fun of himself, Fergus began to talk about the most crucial part that happened to him.

This is the key reason why he changed his extraordinary path.

"Rhine, I don't know what decision you would have made if it were you at that time."

"I only know that after what happened, my faith in the Holy Light began to waver."

"For a Black Iron Knight walking on the Path of Holy Light, this is more terrifying than death."

"Because the source of our extraordinary characteristics is our faith in the Lord and the Holy Light."

"As my faith wavered, I naturally began to slowly lose this power."

"I concealed this matter and left the Church of Holy Light with a lame excuse."

"Because I know that once the church knows that my faith has wavered, there will be only one outcome for me... and that is purification."

"So-called purification is roughly equivalent to death. I don't want to die, Rhine. I don't want to die."

"So I ran, like a wild dog, here to seek refuge with Baron Angelo."

“In the days that followed, I found that my Holy Light Essence was getting less and less.”

"I am unwilling to go from extraordinary to ordinary."

"It was also at this time that I made the second decision that I deeply regretted."

"And the decision is to return to the town of Xavier again to look for the extraordinary treasure that may have been left there, belonging to the witch Anna."

"Because someone told me that the witch who is good at playing with fate has the means to deceive even the master."

"Although they do not believe in the Holy Light, they have the ability to use it."

“I have no idea whether this rumor is true or not, but for me at the time, it was the only way for me to keep my extraordinary power.”

"So for my own ugly selfish desires, I called my best friend in the castle at the time, who was also a Black Iron Knight in the castle... Wayne."

"And the result is that I succeeded, but I also didn't succeed..."

As he spoke, Fergus raised his left hand.

I saw a black ring on the index finger of his left hand.

On the surface of the ring, the word "Ortiz" is written.

Rhine didn't know the meaning of these four words, but the moment he saw these four words, Rhine suddenly heard a voice coming from his mind.

'Rhine, you and I will meet again at some destined node in the future.'

The voice was sudden and unfamiliar.

But for some reason, Rhine was very familiar with this voice.

While Rhine was trying to recall the source of the voice, Fergus raised the ring in his hand and said in a trembling voice: "... Rhine, although it did not allow me to deceive my Lord and keep the power of Holy Light, it gave me the opportunity to choose Extraordinary again."

"But this is not a blessing to me, it's a curse, a vicious curse that cannot be easily removed!"

Having said that, Fergus suddenly knelt down in front of Rhine and kowtowed to him continuously.

Fergus knocked his head so hard that blood came out of his forehead.

In the face of Rhine's stunned expression, Fergus bowed his head to the ground and said humbly in a tearful voice: "Rhine, please forgive me, forgive my dirty selfishness, because I helped you with a purpose from the beginning."

"And the purpose is to ask you to help me take off this ring."

"Because only someone with a pure soul who is willing to bear the curse of this ring can help me remove it."

"I am very sure that you, Rhine, are such a person, a person with a pure soul."

"But...are you willing to help me remove this curse?"

(End of this chapter)