PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Tousling Kyuru’s hair, Desmond made the faerie pout adorably, the smile on his face still calm and the twinkle in his blue eyes barely flickering as he replied, “My name is Desmond Astryd, this little girl here is Kyuru. don’t be fooled by its adorable appearance; this little girl is extremely naughty and playful”

Cecilia was satisfied with Desmond’s answer because at least until now, she hadn’t detected any lies in his words; so she decided to introduce herself before continuing the conversation: “Nice to meet you Desmond, my name is Cecilia Laezir, as you know Laezir is the last name that the church gives to the orphans under they care; I have spent my whole life inside the church so you will have to forgive my inexperience”

With the formalities finished, Cecilia continued: “To be honest, I’m dying to ask about your little friend, but for now there is a question I need to ask you; Why are you here?”

Her serene face together with her figure, gave Cecilia an almost maternal mature air, but her words went straight to the point, she still distrusted Desmond and she wanted to find out his true intentions; Being the simple and honest girl that she is, Cecilia asked directly.

Having expected to have this kind of conversation, Desmond didn’t even show a trace of surprise, his entrance had been unexpected enough not to say aggressive; so it was normal for Cecilia to have doubts about his identity and intentions.

Unfortunately, Desmond had no idea how Cecilia’s eyes worked, unaware of how his lies were exposed almost instantly, Desmond made up a story about himself without much thought.

“I’m just a traveler, my partner here and I were passing through the city looking for a way to make a living, I casually heard about the tournament, but I arrived too late to register; so I took advantage of the situation seeing that someone dared to insult a character as illustrious as the holy priestess.”

Cecilia’s expression darkened, he was lying again, almost every last word was a lie and that bothered Cecilia a lot; especially because of the natural way Desmond lied.

.....

Having already decided in her heart, Cecilia just looked at Desmond with a detached look, the golden gleam in her eyes darkened, and even when she wasn’t interested in the answer; Cecilia said: “I see, in that case, tell me, what are you planning to do now that you are my knight?”

Noticing the coldness in Cecilia’s words, Desmond looked taken aback for a brief moment, but quickly felt a tug on his sleeve, looking into those purple eyes Desmond understood; lying probably wasn’t the best of ideas.

“The answer is very simple Miss Cecilia, as long as I am your knight, I will protect you from any harm, I will keep your honor intact and I will retaliate against those who dare to offend you; I will faithfully do my duty... simple as that.”

The sparkle returned to Cecilia’s eyes and a warm smile grew on her, he was telling the truth, she didn’t understand why Desmond lied so much about his identity, but at least when it came to his intentions; he was sincere.

Another thing she had noticed was that the feeling Desmond gave her became much less dark and sinister, at least as Desmond stroked the fairy′s hair on his lap, he felt warm and soothing.

Cecilia found it strange to find someone who gave such contrary feelings, but she had a compassionate and benevolent nature so she chose to pay more attention to positive feelings.

Other questions were asked during the conversation but Cecilia wasn’t able to find out much about Desmond, mainly because Desmond had started answering many of the questions vaguely and unclearly; although at least he didn’t lie so blatantly again.

Sensing that it was already too late to continue in the room of a member of the opposite sex, Cecilia went on to leave, but not before giving Desmond one last look and saying in a low voice: “I hope your time here helps you to atone for your sins.”

She stepped back immediately so she didn’t get to see how terrifying Desmond’s expression had become, even Kyuru felt a chill as the waves of negative emotions washed over her like a waterfall.

“My sins? Stupid girl, it’s sinners like me who keep naive saints like you alive.” Desmond commented chillingly even though he knew that Cecilia was no longer here to hear him.

It was natural, Desmond had a complicated past and his hands were stained in blood, the list of sins on his account was certainly not small and this list was only bound to get longer in the future, but Desmond never felt he needed atonement or anything similar.

He was aware of the weight and price of his sins, Desmond had never taken his decisions lightly, he could always make the most practical decisions prioritizing Claire’s well-being and his own, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel the weight of his actions.

The point was that Desmond didn’t seek forgiveness or rather, he didn’t think he needed it, to some extent Desmond didn’t respect anyone enough to believe that someone else could forgive him for his sins.

From his point of view, even the saints sinned because of their indecision and weakness, so no one had the authority to judge his actions, hence why Desmond was so upset by Cecilia’s words.

But at the end of the day, Desmond knew that Cecilia had no other intentions, she was just a naive woman of strong faith, so Desmond decided to put the matter in the past and better concentrate on his current task.

“What do you think of her?” Having finished fixing her hair, Kyuru asked curiously.

“Nothing but a naive woman,” Desmond replied sarcastically.

Kyuru just looked back at him, she knew that Desmond hadn’t been satisfied since he received this mission and it only got worse when he read the objectives of the mission, she knew that deep down, Desmond still had some problems and concerns regarding his actions and his morality; so having to interact with a woman who is considered a saint was difficult for him.

Feeling a bit sorry for Desmond’s moral conflicts, Kyuru still made her judgment about Cecilia: “I like her.”

“At the moment we have more important things to worry about, you noticed that, didn’t you? this is the only tower in the entire area with practically zero guards, there are even few staff inside; it seems that she is being alienated”

Hearing Desmond’s comment, seriousness returned to Kyuru’s face as she replied, “That’s not all, the emotions of the people in this place... are unpleasant, almost every knight we saw on our way here had some sort of Negative emotion directed towards Cecilia and even half of the staff inside this tower have ulterior motives.”

Even Desmond didn’t expect things to get to this point, it seemed that his task of protecting Cecilia would be much more difficult than expected, it wasn’t just about fighting one or two individuals, Desmond knew enough about history to know that the conspiracies targeting the holy priestess would be endless.

“That Katya, to think that she gave me such a complicated task, wouldn’t it be easier to just take Cecilia out of this world? surely she has some absurd reason for not doing it. Damn, I never thought she’d get me a headache trying to protect a martyr.”

“You plan to do?”

Kyuru’s question came, but Desmond was already thinking about his next move, since the approach to his target turned out to be easier than expected, now Desmond had to concentrate on protecting it and if Desmond’s assumptions were right; he would soon have to deal with the consequences of his dramatic entrance this morning.

His emotions were unstable, Kyuru could feel it, for some reason ever since Desmond had been given this mission, his mood hadn’t been the best, it wasn’t just the difference in ideals, at least Kyuru felt that Desmond’s dislike for Cecilia was due to something else.

But none of that mattered to her, Desmond was her home, her other half, from that day, their emotional relationship had advanced to another level, and Kyuru saw Desmond differently, for her, the only thing that mattered at this moment was to make Desmond feel better.

With the sunset beyond the horizon visible through the window, Kyuru began to emanate all kinds of warm emotions, like waves crashing over his body, washing away his bad mood, Desmond had a genuinely kind smile and without much thought, he took Kyuru in his hands and kiss her cute little face.

“Thanks, but save some of that for later...we’ll have visitors soon.” The friendly smile hadn’t left his lips, but the coldness in Desmond’s eyes grew ruthless as he noticed a small shadow slip away from the low part of the tower.