How to Live as a Knight After the Ending

Chapter 189: Ashes (1)

"Why are you surprised?"

Alpheos said this, then quickly drew his pistol and aimed it at Osian.

Although a sacred defense barrier stood between them, Osian instinctively felt the danger.

Osian's body melted and disappeared in mid-air, and the bullet fired by Alpheos crossed the empty space.

Despite the shot missing, Alpheos was not flustered and spoke.

"Even though I might not look like it, I'm someone who knows a few things. I've seen something similar in the old books of the order. Stories about knights who use light dwelling in the sky."

To people nowadays, this would be nothing more than an absurd, old folk tale but Alpheos sincerely believed in it.

"The words of the elders always have their reasons. Of course, my re

Martinez stared at her with a bewildered expression.

-You seem too obsessed with being extraordinary.

-Me?

-Yes. You pretend otherwise, but you always do this. "This is amazing." "That's amazing." When in fact, it's nothing special.

Martinez hunched his shoulders, feeling his inner thoughts were being exposed.

Dorothea's words were not wrong.

While verbally claiming he was nothing after being demoted, he subtly believed himself superior by praising others' actions because he was actually extraordinary.

He became the youngest 13th Judge and was born with the highest talent.

Though he came to Tirna following the Pope's order and claimed to willingly follow, somewhere in his heart, dissatisfaction remained about why he was here.

Lowering himself was not from truly feeling his own inadequacy.

He just wanted comfort and sympathy by superficially appearing to recognize his own shortcomings.

-You don't need to be obsessed with being special.

-Sister Dorothea...

-You don't need to be fixated on being extraordinary or doing what others can't. You don't need to worry about heavy things like righteousness or doctrine. Just do what you want to do.

-Why are you saying something so irresponsible? We must follow the will of our Father in Heaven. That is our purpose.

-Our Father in Heaven is great. Of course, He's God. No matter what we do, we won't even touch His feet. Because in His gaze, we are nothing but dust.

Martinez bit his lip.

How could the Father treat little lambs like dust? Isn't this blasphemy?

But at Dorothea's next words, Martinez could only swallow his breath.

-But He would love even such dust.

-...

-So, don't suffer from the obsession of having to be special. You don't need to be too righteous. What if you're a bit crooked?

He would still love us.

Dorothea showed a shameless, confident smile.

-We're just dust anyway. Isn't that okay?

Returning to reality, Martinez opened his closed eyes.

And he began to smear the ash he had grasped onto his robe and hood.

Martinez, who had voluntarily become covered in ash, said to Osian:

"Right now, I am nothing."

"Is that so? Then what should I call you?"

While creating weapons with sacred alchemy in both hands, Martinez said:

"Just call me something like 'Ashes’ will do."