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Holding the ring in his hand, Lucien said to Natasha sincerely, "Thank you, Natasha. Your mother was a real genius. I hope one day I will be able to make such a contribution as well."

"Yes, she was, and I believe you will as well." Looking at the distance, Natasha was immersed in the memory of her mother, "When my mom won the award, she was only a junior-rank mage, but later she left the best place for studying magic and came to the city, a city which was notorious for its way of treating sorcerers and sorceresses, all for her love."

"For the grand duke... Your parents’ love story is probably the most romantic story across this continent." Lucien smiled.

"My mom was clearly aware of what she wanted." Natasha nodded, "After she tried many times to use different potions to awaken her Blessing, but failed because of her fragile health, she found her own path in the world of magic, which matched her perfectly well."

"Each person has his or her own value." Admiring the grand duchess very much, Lucien asked out of curiosity, "May I know what happened later to your mom?"

"I’ve mentioned my mother’s health was fragile, and it was not getting any better after my mother and father got married. Her body and soul had been corroded by many magic elements over the years, and when my elder brother died in battle, her health condition took a sudden downwards turn and since then she never really managed to recover from it."

"I’m very sorry, Natasha. I believe she must be very proud seeing her daughter becoming such an outstanding knight in heaven," said Lucien sincerely.

Natasha slightly shook her head and grinned, "You’re a sorcerer. Do you really believe in heaven?"

"... I’m not sure." Lucien was speechless for a while before replying, since this question never occurred to him.

"I wonder if my mom believed in heaven, as a sorceress." Natasha looked up in the sky, "But I know that after she got married with my father, she was still secretly studying magic."

"Really?" Lucien was very surprised, "What about the Church?"

"She missed Holm so much, the wonderland for learning magic, and my father loved her too much to forbid my mom from doing her magic experiments. Besides, her health condition didn’t really allow her to do something else too much. And the Church..."

She put on an ambiguous smile.

"This ring must mean a lot to you, Natasha." Knowing that Natasha somehow could not explain the reason for him, Lucien switched the topic, "I don’t know if I should accept it."

"It’s okay, Lucien." Natasha also lowered her head and looked at the ring, "The object is not important. What’s really important is my love for my mom. Whether the ring is with me or not, my love for her is life-long."

Lucien nodded and put the ring back into one of the pockets of his robe.

"By the way," Natasha reminded him, "don’t casually just show this ring around. Sometimes an extra help can also bring you trouble, you know."

"I understand," said Lucien seriously, "Is the vampire’s blood affecting you right now? Let me carry you back to Aalto."

"I appreciate it, but look at me... I’m fine now." Natasha waved her hands, "You’d better leave as soon as possible. People from the Church might be on their way here right now."

"Then... Natasha, you take care." Lucien suddenly had no idea how to say farewell, especially he was not sure if they would see each other again.

In contrast, Natasha remained relatively calm, and something just occurred to her, "Lucien, you want to keep using your current identity, Lucien Evans, the musician, after you leave?"

"Can I?" Lucien was very surprised. He was planning on changing to another brand new identity when he arrived at Holm, in case the people he knew would get into any trouble because of him.

"I believe it’s fine. After all, your name’s not unique at all, even in Aalto. Just don’t tell people in Holm that you are a musician." Natasha shrugged, "I suggest that you continue to publish some new music pieces, if you can send any to me, which will be a pretty good disguise for you."

"I’ll try my best." Lucien also did not want to just give up his music completely after leaving Aalto.

After agreeing on how to send letters, Lucien took the Fire Weaver Bracelet, Aaron’s Asthenia Dagger, Grimsteel Dagger and Alert with him, and left the triple-headed flail to Natasha, since it was too clumsy for him to carry.

"I’ll take care of your friends. No worries, Lucien." Natasha smiled.

"Thank you. I’m so lucky to have you as my friend, Natasha." Lucien expressed his heartfelt thanks, then he turned around.

"Lucien..." Natasha called his name from behind.

"Yes?" Lucien looked back.

"Remember, life is more than just magic. You have music, and you have friends." Natasha waved her hand.

"I’ll keep that in mind." Lucien grinned.

...

After a while, when Lucien had completely disappeared in the woods, the smile on Natasha’s face faded, and she commanded seriously,

"Show yourself. You’ve been listening for quite a while."

"As you wish, Your Grace." Salvador, the leader of the night watchers, slowly appeared in the sky and landed in front of Natasha. His hand was tied with a piece of white handkerchief.

"Why didn’t you take any action right away?" asked Natasha directly.

"Apparently, you care for this guy a lot, Your Grace. I wouldn’t have any chance of killing him in front of you, although, yes, I wanted it very much... This damned Professor."

"I see," said Natasha coldly. "Then why did you choose to stay? You want to talk to me?"

"Yes, Your Grace." Salvador answered, "I want a deal for keeping this secret for you, Your Grace."

"Ah?" Natasha was almost amused, "You don’t want to take revenge for the dead night watchers anymore? I thought you were pretty determined."

"I was and I still am," said Salvador calmly. "But I cannot miss this chance... the chance of climbing up towards a higher status in the Church, and cooperating with the princess. I already gave up so many things and now I’m walking in the darkness... all because..."

"Not interested." Natasha cut him off directly.

"All right..." Salvador paused a bit, "Let’s get to the main point. To be more specific, I want...!!!"

Before the next word jumped out from Salvador’s mouth, Natasha rushed and hacked her sword directly toward him, without any hesitation.

In the next second, Salvador was split into two halves by the sword.

"No one dare threaten me," said Natasha coldly.

There was no blood coming out of Salvador’s body, and his body was dissolving into small shining pieces in the air. Before his body completely disappeared, his last remaining awareness turned into his voice, "Radiant... knight?"

After another ten minutes, Camil showed up from the other side of the forest, carrying Wyon and Cacharel under her arms, who were both unconscious.

"Natasha, you’re a radiant knight now." Camil recognized Natasha’s change right away, "It seems like this bitter fight turned out to be your great chance to make this breakthrough. Congratulations, Natasha. I’m very proud of you."

Natasha smiled, but in a sad way.

...

When Natasha and Camil came back to Aalto, the sun was rising above the horizon. After comforting the grand duke who had been tortured by his worry and anger for the whole night, Natasha went directly to the Golden Cathedral.

In a confessional, Natasha found Sard, who was praying silently there.

"Grand cardinal, I need to confess," said Natasha in a low voice.

"God’s here." Slowly, Sard opened his eyes.

"I killed a night watcher... I killed Mr. Salvador." Natasha crossed herself.

"I don’t see your penitence." Hearing that the leader of the night watchers was killed, Sard showed no emotion.

"I feel no regret. This was my choice, and I’m willing to accept the punishment for the choice I made," answered Natasha seriously.

"Why did you kill him?" Sard asked.

Natasha did not answer.

Sard slowly stood up. Compared with yesterday, he looked much older, "I’ll report to the pope. He will be deciding the punishment to your sin. You stay here, Natasha."

After Sard left, veins in Natasha’s face and her hands started to swell and burn. Her beautiful face contorted out of the great pain. However, she kept kneeling on the ground in front of the big cross without giving out a single groan.

...

In a bright, simple study, there was a white-haired elder sitting in front of the desk.

He said to the cardinal gently, "Natasha confessed her sin, and God forgives anyone who’s willing to confess. Natasha’s honest, and now she’s a radiant knight. The punishment shall not be too harsh. Send her to the lowest abbey in Aalto for three years."

"Yes, my pope." The cardinal slowly left the room.

The pope picked up a small pile of paper in front of him, on which there were a bunch of fractions of words which did not really make sense,

"He seemed to be okay with my speech..."

"He often looked confused..."

"Maybe he started to vacillate now..."

...

Following the instruction for anti-tracking given by Natasha, Lucien came back to Massawa around nine in the morning. The sun was already shining brightly in the air.

Before entering the small town, Lucien took out all the stuff from the pockets and burned down his black sorcerer robe.

Lucien did not see Joyce and his coachman around. After talking to the owner of the hotel, Lucien got to know that they all fled away because of the chaos happened in Bonn last night.

Putting on a worried look, Lucien was actually cheering in his mind. He said to the hotel owner, "That’s too bad then. I gotta hire another coach and some guards on my own. Can you please send word to the association that it was me who terminated the contract with them on my own? This way, the association won’t trouble them. After all, I understand their fear."

"What a kind gentleman you are!" The owner of the hotel took out a pen and paper and praised Lucien, "And it won’t be too difficult for you to hire some new people, sir, since lots of adventurers and residents from Bonn are right now staying in our town."

After signing his name on the letter written by the hotel owner, Lucien went back to his room and started to prepare for his new journey.

(The End of the First Volume)