Chapter 116: The Meaning of Wielding a Sword
Peiya looked around. On the snow-white dining table, there was all kinds of food.
While she was wondering what to eat, she suddenly smelled a faint, unusual fragrance.
It seemed to be coming from her own body.
Peiya raised her hand and smelled it. It was clearly perfume. She bit her lip lightly, and her eyes suddenly turned to Elise.
The source of the scent was her.
“You sprayed perfume on me? I smell so strong… it’s exactly the same as yours.”
Elise put down her silver fork and wiped her fingers with a napkin. A small smile appeared on her lips, and she couldn’t hide her happiness.
“You forgot what happened just now…”
“Just now?”
Peiya thought for a moment, and then her face quickly turned red, like boiling water.
How did she fall asleep on Elise like that? The perfume must have rubbed onto her at that time.
It had really soaked in.
“I get it. Don’t mention what happened just now ever again. Forget it. Forget it immediately!”
Peiya took a bite of a dessert, trying to calm her racing heart.
Her heart was beating fast, like bullets being fired one after another at a distant target.
Elise laughed softly. “What if I can’t forget?”
Peiya turned her head and met Elise’s eyes, which were very close.
“Then replace it with a new memory. For example… like this.”
She fed a small piece of cake directly into Elise’s mouth. Elise showed a hint of surprise.
“Use a new memory to cover the old one. How does it taste?”
Elise took a bite. “I’m already tired of these cakes. But your fingers taste quite sweet.”
“Huh?” Peiya looked down and noticed some cream on her fingertip. The middle part had a small missing spot, with a bit of shine on it.
This situation somehow felt even more awkward.
But Elise didn’t seem to care at all and calmly continued eating the other desserts.
Peiya could only lower her head and accept it quietly. Though if she really thought about it… maybe she didn’t lose anything?
While thinking randomly, they had already eaten more than half of the food on the table.
Peiya then remembered what happened in the forest and coughed lightly.
“Even though this might not be the best time to talk about it, when I went to the Calamity Forest this afternoon, I noticed a large number of monster corpses above the river. Someone used some method to hide their traces. After that, I found the red tiger you mentioned before. From it, I concluded that someone is planning something related to monsters.”
Elise frowned slightly while eating and put down her utensils.
“Do you have any suspects?”
“Yes. The Beast Tamer Association, and also the Church members we met at the cave last time. I don’t think they were just looking for a witch.”
“For this matter, don’t get too deeply involved. It’s not something we are responsible for. But if you really want to get involved, I won’t stop you,” Elise said.
“I don’t want to get involved. It’s just…”
Peiya thought of everyone in the Calamity Forest.
“They are too close to us. Those corpses will eventually pollute the whole town. And if danger comes in the future, you will likely be the one pushed to the front. I don’t think you’re the kind of person who can just sit still.”
“No.” Elise interrupted her. “I don’t have that kind of strong sense of justice. The reason I keep fighting… is to keep the sword in my hand burning. If I don’t fight when needed, my blade will eventually rust. And when a real crisis comes, I would be no different from a weak insect. And of course… I don’t want to waste my life like that. So, I don’t fight for others. Everything I do is for myself. That’s also why I didn’t want to involve you in danger before.”
“So that’s the reason? Compared to you, my reason for fighting is much simpler. I want to seek ultimate knowledge. I even once imagined that I would be drowned in endless knowledge, buried in an ocean called truth.”
“Would you regret it?”
Elise put a cherry into her mouth. The taste was a little bitter.
She remembered a huge golden bell she saw as a child. Beside it, priests in red clothes would pray.
They were sending off the souls of dead believers.
That scene left a deep mark on young Elise.
It was her first time experiencing the feeling of death.
The fallen lay quietly on the ground, and flies would gather first, feeding on the bodies of heroes.
Some women cried. Others held hands and sobbed in the crowd.
At that moment, Elise felt numb. A selfish thought rose in her heart.
People who fought for others were called heroes. But she had already seen the darkness of the Church.
Those so-called bloodstained heroes were nothing more than dust under the balance of the gods, only brought out when needed.
People would cry for the heroes, swearing to defend their honor.
But when the bell tower collapsed in war, she saw many of those same people running away with their treasures.
Instead, it was the ordinary, unnoticed people who stood up.
From that moment on, Elise felt there was no need to protect those who only spoke for heroes.
Since then, every time she swung her sword, it was to seek strength.
The giant elephant spirit that harmed a region, she killed it.
The massive sea whale that fought for dominance, she killed it too.
Only when facing the Ice Demon Eagle did she finally fail once.
But all this time, what stayed in her heart the most was still the original question.
What is the meaning of swinging a sword?
“I won’t regret it.” Peiya looked up at the ceiling with hope, then turned her head, her smile staying on her face. “As long as it’s something I chose to do, I won’t regret it. Before the sun rises, it always has meaning.”
“And after the sun rises?” Elise’s eyes seemed covered with a faint, lingering haze.
“Then I’ll find a new meaning. A scholar’s desire for knowledge is something they are born with. Maybe one day it will backfire. But if I do nothing, time itself will backfire on me sooner or later. Compared to shining brightly at the end of life, I would rather slowly lower myself during the journey, even if I started out small and insignificant…”
“That’s really nice. I actually envy your way of living for yourself. My own beliefs have shaken many times. At one point, I felt like I could no longer light the fire within me. But your appearance made me see a possibility again, even if it seemed impossible. To be honest, I once thought that after defeating the Ice Demon Eagle, my journey would come to an end.”
“Then where do you plan to go next?”
“First, I’ll go see my parents. Then I might go to Blackwater City. A terrible disaster happened there. In a prophecy, I heard that my ‘flame’ would be lit in Blackwater City. Of course, I thought it was just nonsense at first. But later, my mother told me she is a priest in charge of rituals and can hear the voice of angel messengers. So it’s probably real. Still… I feel like they just want me to go work there.”
“When did this happen?” Peiya’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Half a year ago, during my birthday celebration. She gave me that strange prophecy as a gift. That’s also when I learned that my parents once had royal blood from Blackwater City. Hundreds of years ago, it was once a powerful kingdom. Then a strange plague spread through the capital, and the kingdom fell…”
“...Its descendants scattered across the world. Because of their strong bloodline, they rose again in history. And my father, thanks to our ancestors and generations of effort, finally gained a noble title recognized by the royal family.”