Juan smirked and shook his hands in refusal, “In other words, I refuse.”

“Think over this again. My suggestion to you does not have any ill intentions. While you are exceptionally strong right now, you still have areas to improve on. The knight order will be able to help you polish your skills, and with proper guidance, you’ll definitely improve much more. You might even... become a templar if you do well, and have Grace bestowed upon you despite being a black-haired barbarian,” Sina told Juan in a serious tone.

“Grace?” Juan questioned.

Sina replied, “Yes. It’s usually something that only those affiliated with the Church can receive, but His Majesty is magnanimous. Even though I’m no longer a templar, I still have the Grace that was bestowed upon me. I’m sure you’ll definitely become one of the strongest people within this empire in the near future. You might be black-haired, but there can always be exceptions. Sir Barth Baltic is also a demi-human after all.”

“What’s a ‘grace’ though?” Juan asked.

“...I can’t believe that someone who doesn't even know His Majesty’s Grace has the same name as His Majesty, and is able to use the Baltic Sword so well. Did your teacher not teach you these things?” Sina exclaimed.

“As I said, I’m self-taught,” Juan replied.

“Your attempts to come up with excuses to protect your teacher is admirable. But I don’t care about that anymore, so think carefully before speaking from now on. Grace is a power that is bestowed by His Divine and Holy Majesty upon the followers who obey his will. Using that power, one can demonstrate a portion of His Majesty’s power,” Sina explained.

Juan smiled and said, “Looking at you, it doesn’t seem like his grace or whatever has helped you much. Seems like you don’t like the emperor as much as you claim.”

“You little brat, I already told you to watch your words...” Sina spoke as she stood up with a stiffened expression.

She exasperatedly continued, “Get up. Maybe the reason why you’re so condescending towards His Majesty is that you’re from beyond the borders, so you haven’t seen His Majesty’s power before. I didn’t even use his Grace in my fight with you.”

“Are you the type that gives excuses like, ‘I’m actually left-handed’ when you lose? I’ve seen a few guys like that,” Juan taunted Sina.

“I might be lenient towards behaviors that arise due to ignorance, but as you head towards the empire’s capital, you need to be more careful about how you behave. I want to help you polish your skills no matter what, so I’ll teach you a lesson this time around and show you the greatness of His Majesty,” Sina told Juan.

“You don’t think that long-winded talks make you look more dignified or something, do you?” Juan snickered.

“Silence!” Sina exclaimed.

Sina’s face reddened as she raised the sword in her right hand. She then tilted it sideways and held the metallic blade in her left hand. Juan was interested in the female knight’s actions. While it was a little different from what he remembered, it was similar to a stance he had seen before.

Sina bent down and abruptly swung her sword. A sudden burst of light filled the whole training ground. Juan couldn’t help but be surprised when he saw that.

Mana condensed onto Sina’s blade and shot out as a beam of energy when she swung her sword, as if to tear apart space.

Crack!

The wooden dummies that were on one end of the training ground split in half and fell to the ground. Other than the three dummies that were over ten meters away from her, all the dummies to the right of Sina had been split open.

“Did you see that? This is the power that His Majesty’s Grace grants. And this is just a small fraction of the power. Grace can manifest in many different forms. If you come along with me, you might be bestowed this power too.”

Sina didn’t look tired at all, despite having discharged so much power. She had a triumphant look on her face as she saw Juan’s surprised look and thought that Juan felt intimidated by the power of the Grace.

But Juan was surprised for a different reason.

‘Isn’t that my mana?’

The light that came from Sina was indeed Juan’s mana from when he had been the emperor. Mana carried the inherent scent of its user and Juan’s scent could be detected from the mana that Sina had just discharged. The ‘Grace’ that Sina had mentioned, Juan’s mana that had been mostly lost, and everything he’d experienced so far only led to one explanation.

His mana still existed somewhere in the world and was being used.

While Sina called it ‘Grace’, it was just simple magic. But the casting method and the mana it used, everything was stolen from the emperor. A type of magic activated via prayers. That was the ‘Grace’ that Sina and the Church were talking about. And this ‘Grace’ was distributed among a very small group of people, like the templars and the priests.

Usually upon one's death, one’s mana would disperse into nature; but somehow, someone had managed to capture and maintain the emperor’s mana. That person was even distributing the mana as they pleased and was blatantly calling it ‘Grace’.

“Oh my, you look so surprised,” Sina said sarcastically.

“It’s more like you’ve piqued my interest,” Juan replied.

Juan was curious as to who dared to steal his mana and use it, but he still had no intentions of accepting Sina’s offer.

“That’s all there is to it. I have no intentions of joining the knight order.” Juan continued.

“What? Why...?” Sina was puzzled.

If one became a templar, they would obtain a high social status, even if they had been at the bottom of the society beforehand. Very few could become templars, and there were a lot of people trying to become one. In order for one to become part of any knight order, they needed to have a certain level of strength.

“I told you already. I can’t tell you who my teacher is because I don’t have one. And I don’t intend to learn from anyone,” Juan replied. If he really had to mention a teacher, it could be said that he had a teacher in the art of magic, but none for swordsmanship. Hence, he didn’t think it was a lie to say that he didn’t have a teacher who had taught him swordsmanship.

Sina bit her lips. If Juan didn’t cooperate, then she wouldn't be able to convince Daeron to spare the boy. If Juan revealed his teacher and followed Sina, it’d be reason enough to spare Juan.

On the other hand, Juan’s rebellious attitude was just proof of heresy. Even though she felt like it’d be a great pity to lose Juan here, Sina didn’t want to feel like she owed Daeron anything.

‘It’d have been better if I could just force him to do things my way.’

But Juan was hard to deal with and Daeron’s soldiers were watching them.

Sina sighed. “Words really don’t get through to you, huh?”

She hesitated for a while before removing the ring she was wearing and giving it to Juan. Although it was a woman’s ring, Sina could put it on Juan’s finger because his fingers were thinner than hers.

“This is a ring that my mother passed down to me. If you have this, it should help you survive this place a little longer.”

It was a silver ring that had exquisite designs carved on it, and while the ring was a little scratched, one could see that it was well maintained. The moment Juan wore the ring, he could feel a boost in vitality and an increase in his physical abilities as the ring’s mana circulated through his body. Juan felt like he was now as strong as an average young man even without using his mana. The difference was apparent to him, since his body was extremely weak to begin with. If an adult man wore this ring, he’d only feel an increase in strength of about 30%.

Juan looked at the ring and asked, “Did your mother serve as an imperial guard?”

“What? How do you know that...? Have you seen this ring before?” Sina was stunned.

‘That’s because I’m the one who gave these rings out to the imperial guards...’ Juan swallowed the words that were about to escape. If he said those words aloud, Sina would definitely make a fuss and tell him to watch his words. Juan was starting to get sick of Sina making a fuss about everything.

Juan asked, “I think I’ve heard of it before. But isn’t this a ring that an imperial guard only passes down to their successor?”

“How do you know such random information when you don’t even know what the emperor’s Grace is...? Well, I’m glad that you at least know the value of this ring. The symbolism of the ring is indeed more important than the magic that’s imbued in it,” Sina explained.

The ring was something that Sina’s mother had given to her in hopes that she would become an imperial guard. However, Sina had failed to prove her faith in the capital and had been sent to the empire’s outskirts. It was unlikely for her to become an imperial guard in the future.

“It’s a ring that one always carries on themselves, and passes it down to a youngster who might become their successor. Once one becomes an imperial guard, the strengthening magic in the ring becomes basically useless. Needless to say, owning the ring doesn’t necessarily make one an imperial guard, so there are a considerable number of these that have been lost over time. There were three hundred rings originally, but I heard there are fewer than a hundred left now,” Sina explained.

“Is it okay for you to give this to me, though?” Juan asked.

“You...” Sina trailed off and sighed as she felt that Juan was so clueless about her intentions.

Sina continued, “Survive. I’m telling you to survive and make it to the capital.”

“Oh, is that it?” Juan smiled as he shook his hands dismissively, “I was intending to go there even if you didn’t give me this.”

Sina’s face brightened up at Juan’s reply. However, Juan hadn’t said that to make her happy; in fact, it had been for selfish reasons. Someone had been making use of his name in the capital, inciting people to worship him all the way to the outskirts of the empire, and even making people perform blood rituals in his name. And there were also ridiculous things going on, like the templars, the church, and the ‘Grace.’

The man who used to slay gods was now being worshiped as a god himself. Things couldn’t get more ironic and nonsensical than this. A dark emotion filled Juan’s heart. He had to see for himself what on earth was happening in the capital.

His second goal after killing Talter was going to the capital. He was going to show the people in the capital how gods were killed. He was going to make those who ruined the empire he had left behind suffer by dyeing the capital with their blood, just like how blood had been spilled across the colosseum arena.

Sina flinched at the smiling Juan, as she suddenly felt like she had just made a mistake. It felt like she had awoken something that shouldn’t have been awoken.

Juan asked Sina, “You said the manager is an entertainer, right?”

“What? Yes, he does have such a personality...” Sina replied.

“That’s great. I guess I’ll play along with him then,” Juan said.

Before Juan went back to the capital, he had to take care of this darn god of blood and madness.

***

Juan was escorted by Daeron’s soldiers to his prison cell. Meanwhile, Sina remained behind and stared for a long time at where Juan had been sitting. A weird feeling lingered from their meeting.

“Dame Sina,” Ossrey called out as he revealed himself from his hiding spot behind a wall.

“Everything’s fine,” Sina replied.

“Will this be okay? The boy looks really suspicious even at first glance. He might cause some problems,” Ossrey asked.

“Just leave him be. He’s not a bad kid. I’ll take care of this matter,” Sina told Ossrey.

Just as Ossrey had mentioned, Juan did look suspicious in various aspects. However, Sina felt something beyond just a sense of familiarity from Juan, and that triggered something intrinsic within her.

‘This feels like when I saw His Majesty’s holy body.’

However, Sina immediately shook her head because it was a foolish and heretical thought. She then spoke to Ossrey to shift her thoughts elsewhere.

“Did you find any clues in regards to Talter of Madness?”

“Oh, yes. We were able to find some leads, thanks to you diverting their attention. While nothing is certain yet, the majority of the colosseum’s structure definitely matches the blueprint you showed us. Based on the blueprint, the colosseum itself is some kind of large-scale contraption,” Ossrey explained.

Sina asked, “A contraption”?

“Yes. We still need to look further into this but... based on the blueprint, there’s an underground space in the shape of a pyramid below the colosseum, and it’s even bigger than the colosseum itself. It seems to be some kind of underground cistern, but we’re unable to find out why or how it’s being used. However, if Daeron knows what its function is and is using it, then this is more than enough evidence to suspect him of heresy,” Ossrey explained again.

“I see. Since the event is tomorrow, I’m sure there’ll be some movements. Let’s continue looking into it until then,” Sina said.