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

His tone was calm, without any sign of abnormality.

[To be continued]

-

12. It’s all up to you

Lacele used the warp spell to send Charles to Conker.

Kanger is a magical city.

Although its size and level of development are far inferior to other big cities in human countries, as the birthplace of the first generation of heroes, this city has always been shrouded in a wonderful romantic atmosphere for many years.

Bards sang its praises, respected scholars included its name in textbooks, and countless young people across the entire Pan-Continent were looking forward to setting out from the city of Kangkel to replicate the legend of the first generation of heroes.

The successors of the first generation of heroes all chose Kangkel as their base. Perhaps that is why so many young adventurers come from all over the continent every year to join in the fun.

"An adventurer who doesn't want to be a hero is not a good adventurer!"

They always say that.

However, there can only be one hero in the world at a time, and the contemporary hero, Ciel, is a very competent hero.

Most of the adventurers in Kangkel City recognized his character and admired his righteous deeds.

The pastor lady beside the brave man is even more popular in Kangkel City than the brave man himself.

After all, she can do things that a hero cannot do at all, such as providing free help to injured adventurers with extremely sophisticated healing spells.

To quite a few adventurers, Miss Lacier, who often wore a white dress, looked like an angel, beautiful, lovely, kind and reliable. The occasional smile on her lips made them fascinated, and the lingering sound of her exhortations lingered in their ears for a long time...

It is said that there are many adventurers in the tavern of Kangkel City who get drunk and shout in public "I am Miss Rachel's dog", but what is even more strange is that such remarks will not lead to ridicule and mockery. On the contrary, after a dog wails, a group of dogs will often respond.

Perhaps because they were really drunk, sometimes this group of drunks would quarrel and even fight over the title of "Miss Rachel's dog".

But Rachel herself didn't know this.

The reason why she helped those adventurers heal their wounds for free was simply to practice her own healing spells.

Not long after she joined the brave team, she realized that she might have come at the right time - before her, there were many priests who admired Charles and asked to join the team, but later, they all chose to leave the team without exception.

Because Charles doesn't know what it means to be gentle and considerate to women. As long as a new priest joins, he will dare to squeeze all the surplus value out of them.

Relying on the strong physique unique to heroes, he would always be the first to rush forward no matter what danger he encountered. However, his physique was far inferior to those of his predecessors. After each fierce battle, he would always end up covered with bruises.

But for the brave, danger is always commonplace.

Before Lacele joined the brave team, Charles was almost always injured.

The old has not gone, the new has come.

Even with his terrifying recovery ability, Ciel, who was always in a state of combat, could not regain his vitality. In fact, it was just like the most classic reservoir problem.

Ciel's healing ability is to fill the reservoir with water, while the injuries he received in battle are drained through another pipe.

Both are carried out at the same time, and the question is, what will be the final outcome?

The answer is, if Laciel had not joined the team of heroes, it would not be long before Charles would collapse one day and become the first hero in the history of the Pan-Continent to die from overwork.

Lacele didn't know why Charles was burning himself so hard, as if he was completing some mission that had to be accomplished. In fact, she still didn't understand the reason until now.

But for her three years ago, this was not important. What was important was that Charles could die, but he must not die at the hands of others.

So in order to prevent Charles from dying in her hands, she had to find a way to heal Charles first.

To this end, she specially improved the healing spell.

Traditional healing spells were too inefficient, with the maximum utilization rate of magic being only about 15%. However, after a series of live experiments (referring to helping adventurers treat their injuries free of charge), Laciel successfully increased the utilization rate of magic by healing spells to 35%.

Only such a healing spell could heal Charles' injuries in a short period of time. But even so, ordinary priests could not afford the high consumption of magic power. It would require a powerful witch like Rachel to do it.

"If you explain it this way, a lot of things will make sense."

Thinking this, Charles stopped in front of a shop in the city of Conker, raised his head, stared at the sign on the top of the door for a moment, lowered his head again, wrapped the wide cloak that concealed his identity tightly around him, and walked in.

The shop was small and remote, so it was deserted and business was slow. Charles was probably the first and only customer of the day. But even with such a distinguished guest, the young owner sitting behind the old counter was unwilling to stand up to greet him.

At most, he just raised his head from the piles of spell scrolls and tomes on the counter, glanced at Charles through his glasses with primary metal frames, and then quickly looked away.

The young boss had a very strong physique. The two arms resting on the counter were muscular and bulging. The parts not covered by clothes were covered with criss-crossing scars, and there were thick calluses on the palms. It was obvious that he had been through many battles and had faced death more than once.

But his appearance did not match his past experiences.

He was wearing the standard uniform that only White Tower apprentices would wear, and on his overly mature, resolute and upright face, he wore a pair of small, delicate glasses, which looked a little out of place, even weird.

But the young boss didn't care about other people's eyes at all - although Charles never cast a questioning look at him.

Ciel looked at him, as calm as he had been yesterday.

And he - the young boss lowered his head, hid his already weak smile, tried his best to make his voice sound normal, and then asked:

"You back, Captain?"

"Ah."

"Did the witch lady agree to help you revive Lacea?"

"...Hmm." Ciel's tone was hesitant.

Perhaps thinking of the strange suspicion between the witch lady and Rachel, Charles' mood suddenly became complicated.

Could it be that he is the last person to know the truth?

But Charles did not say this out loud.

Instead, he nodded, leaned against the counter with some reluctance, and said:

"She promised me."

Hearing this, the young boss, who was not surprised at all, raised his head, showed a rather surprised expression to Charles, and said in a simple and honest way:

"That's great! Will Lacie be able to return to the team after a while?"

When it comes to playing dumb, young bosses have a natural advantage.

His upright and resolute face, which looked like a paladin, helped him a lot. No matter who replaced him, it would be difficult for them to have too much doubt about him.

Charles used to think so too.

But now, he didn't think so, and he couldn't help but feel a little suspicious of this old friend.

"Joseph, where did you hear that the witch lady could help resurrect Rachel?" he asked.

The young boss called Joseph slapped his head and started to play dumb:

"Well... oh, I heard it from those adventurers when I was drinking in the tavern! Those guys are not good at defeating monsters, but they are good at passing on all kinds of gossip."

"They say that there is a very powerful witch in the depths of the Forest Sea. Although not many people have heard of her, it is said that she has mastered many amazing spells, including a forbidden spell that can resurrect the dead."

"..."

Charles was silent for a moment, then asked:

"Really?"

After being suspected, Joseph immediately put on a righteous look and answered decisively:

"That must be true! More true... more true than a hero like you!"

"..."

Charles didn't know what to say for a moment.

He suddenly felt a little amused, so he lowered his head and gently stroked the hilt of the holy sword at his waist with his thumb. After a while, he raised his head again, looked at Joseph, and said:

"Okay, I believe you."

It would have been fine if he hadn't said this, but after he said this, Joseph's expression immediately became subtle.

Then, the burly man sighed, closed the book in front of him, stood up, looked into Charles' eyes, and said calmly:

"I really can't tell you where I got this information from, but Captain, just tell me if this information is true or not. As long as that witch lady can help us revive Lacie, then that will be all good."

What he said did make sense, and Charles couldn't refute it.

So he hummed softly and didn't question anything further.

Joseph breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this.

"It seems that the captain hasn't realized that the witch lady is actually Lacier?" He thought, feeling a little helpless, "These two people are really worrying!"

Perhaps because he had already regarded himself as a good brother, or a male mother, Joseph felt more and more tired. He even began to hesitate whether to tell Charles the truth directly.

But if he told the truth to Charles, then Rachel, whose disguise had been exposed, would definitely realize that something was wrong. After all, without the help of outsiders, it would be better to expect Rachel to admit that she liked Charles than to expect Charles to find out the truth on his own.

The likelihood of both is equally slim.

So if he told Charles the truth, Rachel would definitely ask Charles how he found out. Then, given Charles's personality, he would definitely tell Rachel that he was the one who said it.

That's a bad thing!

By then, the angry and humiliated Lacie might come to settle the score with him.

Obviously, he was the benefactor of this young couple, but in the end, he was the one who had to bear the brunt of the consequences.

It’s so hard to be a matchmaker!

It seems that you can only rely on yourself in the end, captain!

With unspeakable feelings, Joseph gave Charles his best wishes.

Then, he suddenly heard Charles ask:

"Is the ring I ordered from you... ready?"

[To be continued]

-

(1/3)

13. Finally back

Joseph seemed to have guessed that Charles would ask such a question.

"Of course I have."

He replied as he pulled out a small box and pushed it across the table towards Ciel.

Charles took the small box, opened it, and looked at the ring embedded in the velvet inside.

The ring was made of star silver and sparkled, and the setting was carved with a lifelike golden rose in heavy gold - that was Rachel's favorite flower, and Charles remembered that its language was all-consuming love.

He didn't know whether Rachel would like the gift, he didn't even know whether Rachel liked him.

Perhaps it was because in his heart, Miss Witch and Laciel were always two different people.

Even though they had the same nature, even when he was with the Witch Lady, he always vaguely felt that the shadow of the past was shrouding him, so he could not help but imagine the Witch Lady as the familiar Rachel.

But no matter what, he would put the ring on her finger, and then make sure she could never leave him again.

Although he was at fault for not paying back the debt he owed her, it was clear that her fault was bigger and more serious.

——She deceived his feelings.

Charles thought about it, closed the jewelry box, and then put it away carefully.

"Thank you for your trouble." He thanked Joseph.

Joseph waved at him and smiled brightly:

"Although Star Silver and Sunken Gold are not easy to obtain now, since it is your request, I will find a way to get them for you even if it costs my life."

Then he introduced:

"I even commissioned a master engraver from Victoria to make this ring so that it would be perfect. Captain, if you are a girl, I'm afraid it would be hard for you to refuse a ring like this..."

Joseph almost slipped up and said the second half of the sentence:

"So, Captain, just go for it and use this ring to propose to Lacielle. She will definitely agree."