Elena agreed to Clement's request.
She stood up and left the meeting room to instruct the servants to prepare a carriage. In the hallway, Clement leaned closer to Lovene and said in surprise, “How impressive. Haven't you been busy treating patients these past few days? How do you know the situation of the territory so well?”
After investigating for several days, he had only barely realized that the anomaly in the territory was related to Marcus. He had obtained almost no other deeper information.
What Lovene knew clearly far exceeded his own understanding, and she had even come close to the truth.
But hadn't she only been treating patients lately?
How on earth did she manage this?
It truly made him curious.
Lovene did not answer him. Instead, Mia crossed her arms and said rather proudly, “Hmph. How could someone like you possibly comprehend Her Highness's abilities?”
Mia's attitude made Clement's lips twitch.
“Yes, yes, yes. It was my mistake.”
While giving such a perfunctory reply, he secretly took a deep look at Lovene, finding her more and more mysterious.
...
On the western side of the territory, near an abandoned mine shaft, stood a lopsided wooden cabin. Three rows of tiles were missing from its roof, held down precariously by a sheet of oilcloth.
A faded wooden sign was nailed to the door, with four words crookedly carved into it: “Do Not Disturb.”
The light from a blue-light lantern leaked through the cracks in the door, so dim it looked ready to go out at any moment. A few empty wine bottles were piled at the base of the wall beside the door, their mouths covered in a layer of dust. Some were half-shattered, their fragments embedded in the dirt.
According to Lady Elena, this was Gale's home.
When Lovene and Elena pushed the door open and stepped inside, a sour, rancid smell of alcohol rushed at them, mixed with a heavy stench of mold.
The cabin was small, consisting of only a single room. A wooden board bed sat against the wall, its sheets crumpled into a ball, so dirty that it was impossible to tell whether they were gray from dust or if that was their original color. On the table opposite the bed stood four or five wine bottles, three of which were empty.
The one on the very edge lay on its side, the leftover liquor spreading into a dark brown puddle on the tabletop.
Gale sat on the only wooden stool with his back to the door. His hair was long enough to cover the back of his neck, hanging messily over his shoulders in a very disheveled state. However, his build was exceptionally sturdy, though he was missing his right arm.
Hearing the door open, he did not turn around.
“The sign on the door says ‘Do Not Disturb.’ Can't you read?”
Elena did not answer his question. She walked over to the table, set the overturned wine bottle upright, and said softly, “Gale.”
Gale's fingers paused. He slowly set down the wine cup in his hand and turned his head.
His face was even more weathered than Lovene had imagined. His eyes were deeply sunken, his cheekbones protruded, stubble from several days of not shaving covered his chin, and his lips were chapped and dry.
Only when he saw Elena did a faint glimmer of light appear in his eyes.
“...My Lady, why have you come?”
“I came to ask for your help.”
“I cannot help with anything.”
Gale's gaze shifted from Elena to Lovene, pausing for a moment, before finally landing on Clement. It was as if he had laid eyes on something he had no desire to look at.
“The fact that you brought someone from the church already makes your intentions clear.”
Elena sat down on a wooden chest opposite him, her hands resting on her knees and her back straight. “She is here to save Marcus.”
“My Lady, do you still harbor such wishful thinking? The church saving Marcus?”
Letting out a scoff, Gale took a sip of wine and said, “They are here to kill him. Every single person in a white robe is here to kill him. My Lady, you have seen plenty of them already, haven't you?”
He had heard that the clerics sent by the church to purify Marcus were all bastards.
They had not come to purify him at all, but rather for their own experiments.
All the church's clerics were like this, so what difference would a Saintess make? She was probably just better at deceiving the public.
“She cured Dorothy,” Elena said quietly.
Gale froze. He then threw his head back to drain the last few drops from the cup in his hand, before placing the empty bottle on the table with a sharp clack.
“Then she has already treated the person she needed to treat. She can leave.”
“Gale,” Elena looked at him. “She can save Marcus. This is also Marcus's very last chance. I beg of you.”
“The church will kill him,” Gale shook his head. “If you insist, My Lady, you had better find someone else. My life is of no use anymore. If you want someone to go into the mist, find someone who still has a right hand.”
As he finished speaking, his left hand twitched slightly, as if he wanted to reach for the empty sleeve at his right shoulder, but he stopped himself.
“Gale!”
Elena suddenly stood up.
“Besides you, who else can enter the mist and return safely?”
“The fact that you could come out of the mist proves that even though Marcus has become a monster, he did not want to hurt you. You were brothers-in-arms who went through life and death together. He still remembers you, doesn't he?”
Gale gripped the wine bottle in his hand tightly.
Elena was right. The only reason he had been able to walk out of the mist alive was because Marcus still remembered him and had no desire to harm him.
Otherwise, he would have vanished into the mist forever, just like the others.
“...And that is exactly why he cannot die. He is the hero of this territory.”
“But have you ever considered Marcus's feelings?”
Elena continued, “The lord who once saved countless people has now become a monster that harms his own subjects. Because of his existence, the Oswell territory is gradually falling into ruin, and the number of destitute, ragged commoners is constantly growing...”
“Is this really what Marcus would want to see? If he still retains even a shred of his consciousness, wouldn't he be suffering terribly because of this?”
Her questions left Gale momentarily speechless.
As his brother-in-arms, he knew best what kind of man Marcus was.
Trustworthy, benevolent, brave... every word of praise seemed to fit him perfectly. He was like a legendary knight who strictly upheld the chivalric code, radiating his own light at all times.
It was also under his leadership that the Oswell territory had truly prospered.
If he knew that he could trade his own life for the continued prosperity of the territory, he would probably plunge a sword into his own heart without a moment's hesitation, letting his blood spill upon the fertile soil of his land.
“Gale,” Elena's voice returned to a calm state, but it was a calm that seemed to suppress a deep well of emotion. “This is the last chance to save Marcus. If the purification fails, I... will find a way to kill him myself, to give him the end he would have wanted.”
Gale's breath hitched upon hearing this.
“For the sake of the brother-in-arms you went through life and death with, please help him one last time.”
The room fell into a long silence. Lovene and the other two looked at each other, none of them speaking, as the light from the blue-light lantern flickered silently against the wall.
Finally, Gale let out a long sigh.
“...Fine. I promise you.”
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