Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

Charles took out the ring, knelt down on one knee in front of her solemnly, and said in a somewhat unnatural voice:

"Although... I still want to see your rare frankness, but..."

He shook his head, smiled bitterly, and told Lacier frankly:

"Seeing you crying makes me sad too, so I can't pretend I know nothing anymore, I..."

He had never been as eloquent as Rachel, and his eloquence had never been very good because he had always been accustomed to practice rather than preaching. From beginning to end, what Charles was best at was action.

So, he picked up the ring and grabbed Lacie's right hand at the same time.

"I like you, too," the brave man said, looking into the stupid witch's eyes, and said seriously and solemnly, "So, please stay with me."

An unprecedented sense of happiness filled Lacier's chest, but along with it came a heavy sense of guilt that made her feel suffocated.

She wanted to push Charles away, but she felt she was not qualified, so she tried to pull back her right hand, but Charles held it so tightly that she could not break free.

So she had to clench her right hand into a fist and lower her head, like a fool - no, she was a fool, so she sobbed and talked to herself:

"No, that's not right... The one you like is not me at all... You like the pastor... the enthusiastic, cheerful and lovely guy..."

"But I'm not a priest... I'm the Witch of Twilight... I'm dark and mean... I refuse to be honest with myself... I only want to escape... I'm that kind of person... How could you possibly like a bad thing like me..."

Finally, she could no longer suppress her grief, and she threw herself into Charles' arms, crying and saying:

"You, the priest you like is just a fake...but why, why do you like her...Obviously, obviously I am the real Rachel...In this case, I, I am the fake..."

Charles said nothing.

Maybe I didn't know how to answer her for a moment, or maybe I thought of something else about the definition of "fake".

After a long silence, he suddenly couldn't help laughing, with a bit of inexplicable bitterness, as well as indescribable emotion and relief.

Just like what Laceel did a long time ago in Kangkel, when all the other members of the brave team returned home and only the two of them were left alone to gather together for warmth and welcome the New Year...

Charles suddenly hugged the stupid witch tightly in his arms, leaned close to her ear, and shared with her the secret that he had never told anyone else and had kept hidden deep inside:

"But in fact, I am also a "fake" - I am not a real hero."

"Now," he gently touched Lacie's head again, his voice gentle, "we are accomplices."

Lacey was stunned.

But before she could recover from the news and ask Charles what he meant, she heard a crisp cracking sound.

The dream created by the limited wishing machine finally couldn't bear the burden and collapsed completely, but the last straw that broke the camel's back didn't seem to be Charles's stunning sword, but someone else.

It's steel and steam.

After the dream collapsed, the witch and the hero finally left Diesel and returned to reality. However, what greeted them was not the advance team of the White Tower, but dozens of people fully equipped with pure black steam armor.

Those huge and ferocious machines surrounded the witch and the hero like an indestructible, silent iron wall. The emblems on their chests were engraved with patterns of gears and pistons, and Charles recognized it as the national emblem of Victoria.

No one knows what these steam armors from Victoria are going to do, but everyone knows that -

They are probably here with ill intentions.

[To be continued]

-

74. Brave Hero

The armors made of steel and steam surrounded the hero and the witch.

No one knows how they got here or what they want.

They are like ghosts, a group of ghosts covered in steel armor that are constantly spewing hot steam. Their bodies are as heavy as mountains, but they move extremely lightly and silently.

Ciel sensed hostility in these steam armors.

But he did not draw his sword immediately. Instead, he lowered his voice and asked Lacier in his arms:

"Can you still stand up?"

After a brief panic, with red eyes, Lacie nodded gently, quickly calmed herself down, took out her wand, and displayed the demeanor of a Witch of Dawn and Dusk.

She hid in Charles' arms and used the magic of changing clothes to put on a new dress. Then she stood up with Charles' help and faced the group of steel ghosts with ill intentions with him.

The emblem of gears and pistons, plus the news that Victoria had formed a steam armored troop, spread among human countries...

There is no doubt that the group of steel ghosts that now appeared before them could only come from Sheffield.

But why did Victoria's steam armor appear in Diesel? And why did it surround them?

Lacey was completely confused.

But she remembered what the black cat Nicholas Kate told them before they left Diesel:

"Only Victoria. The Emperor of Victoria told us that he had sent reinforcements."

“So, this steam armored troop in front of us is Victoria’s reinforcement?” Lacier thought, “But now that Diesel’s anomaly has been contained and the incident has come to an end, aren’t these guys coming a little… too late?”

But she soon felt that it was good that she was willing to come. After all, there is no harm without comparison. After the White Tower informed the human countries of Diesel's situation and asked for help, Victoria was the first and only one willing to send reinforcements to Diesel.

So she had no reason to blame this steam armored unit.

Even the White Tower, which represents the pinnacle of magic, paid such a terrible price to solve Diesel's abnormality...

Therefore, Laciel did not think that this steam armored unit, which had not yet achieved any substantial combat results, could play a big role.

Just as she was thinking this and was about to contact the steam armored troops in front of her as one of the founders of the White Tower, Charles stopped her.

"Don't go over there." He gently grabbed her collar, his tone serious.

"Huh?" Lacie was stunned and stopped instantly.

She didn't understand why Charles wanted to stop her, but since Charles said so, she would... just listen to him and wait and see what happened.

Then Lacele retreated to Charles' side.

Charles took half a step forward calmly and protected Lacie behind him.

Then, he raised his head and looked at the only machine painted dark red and almost black that was the leader among the group of steel ghosts. He calmly grasped the hilt of the holy sword and asked in a low voice:

"Are you the Victorian Steam Armored Troops who came to reinforce the White Tower in response to its request for assistance?"

After a long, suffocating silence, an emotionless, hoarse, and dry voice came from the crimson machine:

"It should be..."

Then, before Ciel and the witch Laciel could understand the meaning of these three words, with a short and subtle sound of steam gushing out, the visor of the crimson machine underwent a simple deformation, slowly cracking towards the sides, rising upwards, and bending backwards.

The Iron Ghost's head cracked open.

An old head with sparse short gray hair, a wrinkled face, and a hideous scar piercing through the left eye appeared in front of Charles and Lacie.

He looked at Charles with an indifferent gaze that made people unwilling to meet his gaze, and looked at... the holy sword in Charles' hand.

He seemed to be very interested in the holy sword that symbolized the identities of the heroes of all generations, even more interested than in Charles and Lacie behind him.

After observing the holy sword for a long time, he withdrew his gaze and looked at Charles again.

"The living hero..." He said to himself in a rough voice that seemed to have been torn by sandpaper, "In Sheffield, I have heard of your legend more than once..."

"I have fought against monsters, mediated wars, and even saved a country from destruction..."

"Even in Victoria, there are your supporters everywhere. They spread your deeds, act in your name, act recklessly, and disregard rules and the constitution..."

There was no emotion in his voice, which made people wonder whether the body was attached to the old head. Or, could it be that the flesh and blood that made up the old head actually grew from the body of the Iron Ghost?

Therefore, it is more like a verdict than a statement.

—He seemed to be judging Charles.

A chilling light flashed in his slightly cloudy, scarlet pupils. He looked down at Charles from above and questioned him:

"If you who are standing before me are a real-world hero, then tell me! Who was the man who claimed to be a hero and was killed by me fifteen years ago?"

"He told me his name is Elvis, and he is a brave warrior in this world. He carries the holy sword that proves his bravery. Just like the legend says, he has a strong body that is comparable to or even far superior to that of the dragon race..."

The ghost of steel and steam said this, reaching out and taking down the giant sword hanging from the weapon rack on its back.

Several pipes connect the giant sword to the steam core of the machine, providing it with power, allowing it to gain acceleration and impact when swung. Even without a sharp edge, its terrifying weight is its most destructive quality.

Like the brave's holy sword, it is also called the "Holy Sword" - it is a "standard holy sword" born in the womb of steel and steam, and created by Victoria with the whole country's strength.

Naturally, those steam armors equipped with the "standard holy sword", those steel ghosts, were given the internal code name of "artificial heroes".

Now, this unit codenamed "Artificial Heroes" has met their prototype, the real heroes. As if by fate, their commander, the old man in the dark red machine, pointed his standard holy sword at the real heroes and uttered the unbelievable truth that has been buried by history:

"As early as fifteen years ago, the last generation of heroes had already perished, and the inheritance of heroes has been cut off since then. It is impossible for the so-called heroes to appear in the Pan-Continent..."

He stared at Charles, and the blade of the standard holy sword was about to touch Charles' chest.

"Tell me, false hero," the old man ordered coldly, "who are you?"

Charles did not answer him.

Behind Charles, Lacie was so shocked by the sudden information that she was speechless.

"Ciel is... a fake hero?"

She thought in confusion and subconsciously grabbed the hem of her shirt.

Her sensibility told her that this was impossible. Obviously, Charles was the most qualified person to be a hero that she had ever met in the Pan-Continent, but...

But her reason told her that perhaps the old man was right. After the truth was revealed, based on this established fact, she seemed to be able to find a lot of evidence on Charles -

Why is Charles' physique so much inferior to that of previous heroes; why is Charles' mastery of forbidden magic far inferior to that of previous heroes; why can Charles use light magic in addition to forbidden magic...

Even though the light magic that Charles mastered was taught to him by her after she "cracked" the loophole in the forbidden spell, she, as a witch, probably would not be able to easily crack the true forbidden spell.

So what the old man said was true.

That's why Charles told her:

"But actually... I am also a "fake" - I am not a real hero."

Because he is a fake.

He is... a fake hero.

For some reason, Lacie's eyes felt sore again.

She bit her lip, raised her head, stared at Charles' back, and couldn't help asking in a low voice:

"But why...if you are not a true hero, then why do you act like a true hero...doing those thankless tasks? You clearly...clearly..."

She recalled that during the three years in the Brave Team, Charles had been seriously injured and on the verge of death more than once while trying to save others, but every time he recovered from his injuries, he would continue on the path of being willing to die to save others.

Like a candle, he is burning himself desperately to give as much light and warmth as possible to the world.

But that was not his innate duty. He had no responsibility to be a candle burning hard, so why did he...

At this moment, Charles' usual deep voice rang out.

"who am I?"

He seemed to be asking the old man a question, or perhaps he was asking himself.

But no one could give him an answer, so he could only answer himself:

"I don't know either... who I am. When I was seven years old, my hometown was destroyed by a disaster. My family, my friends, the village I lived in... all turned to ashes. Nothing is left."

"Just like that, I lost the 'past'."

"Then I met Uncle Elvis, who rescued me and allowed me to stay with him, and we spent a brief time together."

"Those were probably... the only days in my life that made me feel happy."

"Some time later, one day, when I was expecting Uncle Elvis to come back for dinner, he broke the door and stumbled in front of me, seriously injured and bleeding."

"He didn't tell me who attacked him. He just told me to run, run quickly... He gave me the holy sword and told me to take good care of it and never give it to anyone else... He also touched my head and said to me, 'Char, you probably won't be able to become a hero, but promise your uncle that you will work hard to become a hero.'"

Ciel said this, slowly raising the holy sword that the previous hero had entrusted to him, and at the same time recalling the question he had asked the previous hero when he was sad, angry, and confused:

"Uncle Elvis, what is a hero?"

Memories suddenly overlapped with reality, and the answer of the previous brave Elvis and Ciel's voice were intertwined at this moment.

"The so-called hero..."

they said: