What kind of nonsense is this, that you'd be chosen by the gods and favored by all the gods?

Were you seen through?

This old man has quite a story; he's a veteran with a keen eye for talent.

Lyle raised an eyebrow slightly, not particularly surprised by this.

Even if there were precautions taken when the supplies were confiscated, it is not surprising that professionals could easily spot the clues.

He was prepared for this.

Helena, sensing danger, immediately stepped in front of Lyle to shield him.

Then Lyle pressed him back down by the shoulder.

Lyle's expression shifted slightly, revealing a sincere look:

"As you can see, these things did not originally belong to us."

He took out the symbol of the Holy Covenant Church and displayed it to Pud.

"To be honest, my real name is Timo. I was called to the front lines and had no choice but to leave the church to bless the soldiers who bravely fought for the Bern Empire against the northern nations."

"However... this is an unjust war. I embrace the doctrine of mercy and cannot tolerate this unjust war of aggression, so I left the front lines without permission."

"The woman beside me lost her voice in the war, and now I'm taking care of her. These suits of armor are from the dead..."

I hope you understand—

Pud looked intently at the talisman in Lyle's hand.

An unjust war...

After a long silence, he finally picked up the talisman.

"Hmph... I can understand your situation. Even in our city, we often receive fleeing soldiers..."

"Never mind, there's no point in saying all this... Your Fate Charm needs repairing too... and..."

"If you don't want to get caught by those annoying conscription officers again, I suggest I help you remove some of the marks on this talisman and engrave your current name on it."

Lyle breathed a sigh of relief, having finally gotten through this ordeal.

Thank you.

"As for these things..."

Pude glanced at the chainmail and longsword.

"If you add some money, I'll give you a complete makeover."

"It's bad luck for you to keep the things of the dead, but in my hands, they can be forged into something else."

Lyle pretended not to ask the price and poured out most of the money from his pocket.

The old blacksmith only picked through some coins and then stopped, not even glancing at the rest.

A few minutes later, Helena and Lyle both received new clothes.

Even though Helena had no right to ask, the old blacksmith still chose a tight-fitting leather armor for her, with chainmail protecting her waist, abdomen, shoulders, and arms.

She seemed quite pleased with this.

"Sigh... You're so weak, you should eat more good food."

"How can there be such a weak swordsman?"

Pude frowned, squeezed Helena's arm, and tossed her a short sword.

Lyle, on the other hand, was completely different from Helena. Whether considering his priesthood or practicality, he received a heavy black robe.

However, this robe has another secret: underneath it is studded leather armor, and chainmail covers the waist and abdomen, with a suitable weight and considerable defensive power.

Seeing how good Pude's skills were, Lyle suddenly thought of something.

"Helena, go and have Arthur tally up the chainmail sets we picked up and bring them over here."

Once Helena left, leaving only Lyle and the old blacksmith Pud in the room, he composed himself and became serious.

He then handed Pud to the recurve dagger and the shattered talisman from the Northern assassins.

"Take a look at this. This is a weapon and talisman I obtained from a heretical sorcerer. Can you tell what it's for, or which god it represents?"

This matter has been bothering Lyle for some time.

Pude, a veteran, merely glanced at it before frowning.

"These talismans... are truly unique."

The symbols of the Covenant Church are generally the emblem of the goddess of fate, which is a circular symbol composed of beautiful broken arcs and split lines.

However, when the old blacksmith pieced together the broken shard given by Lyle, he couldn't make out its shape.

It looks like a distorted eye with ribs wrapped around its sides.

"I have never seen such a symbol before; at least, there is no such emblem in mainstream beliefs today."

"And this knife, it's more of a ritual tool than a weapon for combat."

"You may have just encountered a follower of a remote, primitive religion."

Remote, primitive beliefs?

Lyle nodded.

"Do you have a way to fix it?"

If such heretical symbols could be repaired, it might benefit Lyle's research into his own "Book of Prayer of the Nameless."

"repair?"

"If you had come earlier, I could have fixed it for you, but now, I've lost all my tools."

Pude shook his head.

"Tools?" Lyle asked, puzzled. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing serious," Pude sighed. "It was only mentioned about two weeks ago."

"That night, I returned to Reed City from another city. It was dark and windy, and I couldn't see the road."

"On the way, I unexpectedly encountered a wild boar foraging for food... Hey, I was lucky and wasn't injured. But when I got home, I found that I had lost my tools somewhere."

"Without those tools, I can't do delicate work right now."

I see...

After a moment's thought, Lyle smiled confidently.

"No problem, I'm good at finding lost items."

"you?"

Pud glanced at Lyle and shook his head.

"I've heard that followers of the goddess of fate can receive revelations from destiny, but who would use such important revelations for something as simple as finding something?"

"Stop making fun of me and just leave."

Lyle walked to the side and picked up a nice-looking cane.

"Don't worry, I dare to say that because I'm confident in my abilities."

"..."

Pud looked at Lyle strangely and gave a disdainful snort.

"If you can really find that set of tools for me, I'll waive the forging fee for you this time, and um, I'll also waive the fee for repairing the talisman."

"Just you wait and see, let me borrow this cane for a moment."

Lyle wasn't making things up; he took the cane and walked out of the blacksmith's shop.

As the old blacksmith said, what believer in the goddess of fate would use the revelation of fate in such a place?

But Lyle is different.

I've won the favor of the goddess!

Finding something is a piece of cake, isn't it?

However, this kind of thing cannot be divined using coins, and Lyle uses a cane instead, which is another method of divination.

Divination stick method.

He slightly raised his hand, letting his cane hover on the ground, and then focused on the holy symbol in his other hand.

"Goddess above, please enlighten me..."

"In what direction do you want the tools?"

The cane that had been hanging there suddenly began to tremble.

Immediately afterwards, it fell towards the city gate—

Beautiful goddess.

After muttering a silent murmur, Lyle picked up his cane and walked towards the door.

Along the way, whenever a fork in the road appeared or after traveling a certain distance, Lyle immediately used his divination staff to find the way again, and soon arrived at a deserted forest path.

"It should be around here."

After using the divination stick method twice to determine the direction and calculating the exact location in my mind, I finally determined the location.

Lyle found a leather bag under a large banyan tree, which was filled with strange tools that he did not recognize.

It was a bit far, but we finally found it.

OK, task completed.

But just as he was about to turn and leave, he suddenly heard a slight noise.

That sounded like a painful groan.

anyone?

His expression shifted slightly, and he bent down, cautiously looking around.

After finding nothing amiss, he placed his sturdy cane in front of him and cautiously reached across to the other side of the banyan tree.

On the other side, a girl with a familiar face was seen lying on the ground.

"Elsa?"