Nola saw the fanaticism in her eyes, which only deepened her confusion.
“Isavel did what? To make you protect her like this?”
“Protect her? Lady Viel doesn’t need my protection; it’s the other way around. She’s the one protecting me. The only reason I dared to stop being my family’s puppet is because of her help.”
Fili tilted her head and asked, “Duchess Nola, don’t you think you’re misunderstanding Lady Viel?”
To be honest, Fili was just as puzzled as Nola.
Having stayed in the Oracle Hall all these days, listening to the maids praising Isavel and based on her own impressions, she had thought the whole world regarded Isavel as the perfect Saintess.
That was, until Nola suddenly barged in.
Nola seemed inherently biased against Isavel; from the moment she entered the Oracle Hall, she was hostile toward the maids and even Renia.
Why was that?
In Fili’s impression, Nola was supposed to be a calm and rational noble heiress.
“A misunderstanding? Is the abuse of Selis also a misunderstanding?”
“Abuse Selis?”
With a hint of confusion, Fili looked at the maid Renia.
To be honest, she didn’t believe Isavel would abuse Selis, but she wanted to hear what Renia had to say.
“That’s just a rumor in the Imperial Capital. The relationship between Lady Viel and Lady Selis… is very close. If you don’t want to believe it, you can ask Lady Selis yourself.”
“Hmph. Who knows if she was forced? And Selis is so kind, she might choose not to tell the truth because she doesn’t want to ruin my relationship with the Oracle Hall.”
Nola said coldly, “I only trust my own eyes.”
“Then please go to the Temporary Encampment of the Rose Knights. Lady Selis is there right now.”
After saying this, Renia dispelled the magic aura around her, her tone rare tinged with helplessness.
Having learned Selis’s location, Nola lost the reason to stay in the Oracle Hall any longer.
Taking her maid Jenny with her, she sneered coldly at Renia and the others before striding out decisively.
Once they disappeared from view, Fili’s expression soured. She said, “Why don’t these people understand Lady Viel’s good intentions?”
“If they did, Lady Viel wouldn’t be the Saintess of the Oracle Hall.”
Renia’s explanation made Fili pause.
That’s right—if everyone understood Lady Viel’s saving grace, she wouldn’t have been chosen by the goddess to be the Saintess.
The more ignorant people were, the more noble Lady Viel appeared.
The perfect Saintess was like that, wasn’t she?
But… Lady Viel’s perfection was lonely.
Just thinking about how others misunderstood her as the villain made Fili inexplicably sympathetic.
Perhaps Lady Viel didn’t have to fight alone—perhaps Fili could be there to help her.
Just like the night sky, besides the fullest, most beautiful moon, there were many stars hanging alongside.
Looking up at the sun in the sky, Fili’s heart felt something new for the first time: the thought of leaving the Oracle Hall.
……
When Nola arrived at the Temporary Encampment of the Rose Knights, even before getting close, she felt the ground tremble slightly and sensed an extremely obvious presence of Beasts.
With a wave of her hand, her longsword appeared in her grip.
No matter when or where, whenever she sensed the aura of Beasts, she never let her guard down.
This reflex was ingrained in her bones.
But as she truly stepped into the training grounds, her pupils dilated in disbelief. Her maid Jenny, following behind, wore the same expression.
In the not-so-large open-air training ground, a dozen or so girls were running with sweat pouring down like rain.
Some of them had pale lips, seeming to be nearing their physical limits.
Yet even so, they dared not stop—because behind them was a ferocious Demonic Tiger.
This was madness!
They would die!
Immediately, Nola drew her sword and slashed, killing the Demonic Tiger with one stroke.
Though the girls running ahead noticed this, they didn’t stop their pace.
The leader, Leanna, wiped the sweat off her forehead and came up beside her.
With some confusion, she asked, “Who are you? Why did you kill that Beast?”
“Why? Because it’s chasing you!”
“This is our training.”
“Training?”
Nola thought she had misheard.
Confirming that the girl’s words were indeed about training, she asked with a mixture of suspicion and doubt:
“Do you know that if you reach your limit, that Beast can easily trample you to death? At worst, it could seriously injure you by ramming you!”
“We know, but if we don’t train like this now, the only ones who will die on the battlefield are us.” At that moment, Joina stepped forward.
Though she knew Nola was doing this for their own good, she was displeased because she felt Nola was ruining their training.
Right now, she believed that to survive on the battlefield, such training was essential.
Knights who hadn’t experienced life-or-death crises would only lose their lives on the Abyss battlefield.
Nola did not agree with this approach.
“Even so, where is this kind of training done? It’s completely disregarding your lives!”
“Who said that? Lady Viel values our lives very much, which is why she trains us like this. Otherwise, on the battlefield, will you come to save us?!”
This time it was Meilin who spoke.
Ever since she learned that Isavel and Selis were the same person, Meilin had truly become Isavel’s biggest fan and understood the true hardship behind her villainous facade.
But to help keep this secret, she never mentioned it.
Whenever the girls inside the Order of Knights spoke ill of the Saintess, she pretended not to hear and didn’t join their conversations.
Yet the more she stayed silent, the more she pitied Isavel and felt stifled inside.
Her villainy was only to protect them.
Behind the scenes, she had invested so much effort to save them.
Usually, when her teammates badmouthed Isavel, she feared they would misunderstand, so she held back from arguing.
But now, an outsider was speaking ill of Isavel, and she could no longer bear it.
Nola certainly hadn’t expected that after helping them kill the Beast, she would receive accusations instead of gratitude.
Especially when she expressed dissatisfaction with Isavel, the accusations only became harsher.
This was unbelievable.
At the Oracle Hall, Fili and the maids spoke up for Isavel, which was understandable since they lived together and Isavel, as Saintess, probably wasn’t too harsh with those close to her.
But even these Rose Knights defended her?
Couldn’t they see that this kind of training was playing with their lives?
Could it be that Isavel possessed some special brainwashing ability?
That anyone who came into contact with her would defend her?
Then… what about Selis?
As if recalling something, Nola grew even more worried.
“All right, I don’t care about the others. Is Selis here? I want to see her.”