PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

The field of starlight that was helping Desmond heal his wounds flickered, dimming the same way Cecilia’s eyes did. From Desmond’s vague understanding, Cecilia displayed this power on multiple occasions; and it was strongly related to her emotions. Desmond could already imagine that Cecilia was quite disturbed to see what he did with the corpses of their enemies.

Kyuru showed no such reactions; although her childish appearance could fool many, the fairy had seen enough of the world, both the good and the bad. So much cruelty was not new for her; Kyuru had even witnessed Desmond execute a man, hanging him in his own cell in cold blood. Anything Desmond did to a corpse didn’t bother her.

Instead of adverse reactions to the scene, Kyuru let the mana illuminate her precious wings before extending her cute little hands. After muttering a few words, a greenish glow gathered around Desmond speeding up his healing.

Kyuru’s action snapped Cecilia out of her daze. Despite still feeling uncomfortable, she reasserted her will, which once again solidified the field of starlight around her.

To be honest, Desmond was surprised at how quickly Cecilia recovered from the mental shock. Before, whenever Cecilia witnessed an act of cruelty or tragedy, the girl would freeze like a deer in a car’s headlights. Furthermore, in the past, Cecilia has always shown clear revulsion at Desmond’s violent actions; Now, besides a slight discomfort, Cecilia does not show any reactions.

Desmond attributed this to the recent tragedies Cecilia had been subjected to. After all, following Nana’s death, Cecilia had changed too much. Since Desmond had invited Cecilia to be part of his family, he didn’t want any misunderstandings or tensions, so he explained his reasoning; at the end of the day, he understood that his media was too violent and dark.

Desmond exclaimed, letting out a contented sigh due to his recovery from his injuries. “Child, you are still too naive.”

For some reason, being treated like a child made Cecilia very angry. She puffed out her chubby cheeks and replied. “Don’t call me a child. Also, I still don’t understand why you provoked them like that. Now, what you need is to rest and recover.”

.....

Shrugging, Desmond responded. “That is precisely why I provoked them.”

Seeing the utter confusion on Cecilia’s face, Desmond couldn’t help but shake his head. Desmond found a large piece of shattered wall and sat down to explain more comfortably.

“I’ll put it this way: If I were your enemy and you knew I was at the end of my rope, you would surely do everything you could to get my head on a stake as soon as possible.”

Cecilia listened attentively, understanding such simple reasoning; her starlight field dimmed for a brief moment due to lack of concentration, but she quickly adjusted her mood and listened. Kyuru, for her part, took out some berries from somewhere and ate them carelessly while maintaining her healing on Desmond; the fairy seemed to be taking a walk in the park.

Desmond was secretly surprised; Until now, he speculated that Cecilia’s abilities in this state were innate, not something carefully developed by herself. So her understanding and control over them were highly rudimentary. The fact that she was improving at a rate visible to the naked eye was surprising even to Desmond, whose talent was a bloody bug in the system.

Desmond put his current surprise aside and stretched his body, feeling him recover before continuing with his explanation. “Now that you have that premise. What would you do if the person who was supposed to be on the ropes suddenly jumped up to taunt you? What’s more, he does it so drastically, as if he can’t wait to put you in a grave alongside your recently killed comrades.”

Cecilia pondered the question, still keeping part of her concentration on the star field, which this time remained stable. Still, she couldn’t answer when the fairy intervened.

Licking her fingers to taste the berry juice on them, Kyuru nonchalantly answered the question. “In the first instance, you used the corpses to scare the troops with the brutal display and remind them that even powerful holy knights can fall into your hands. On the other hand, your threat made it seem like you still had plenty of fuel to go on. Like you said, you could do this all day. Even if they believe it to be a bluff, they are still obliged to exercise more caution; no one wants to die after all.”

Desmond closed his eyes, feeling his body getting closer to his peak state, and with a smirk, he responded. “Bingo. That little seed of uncertainty is what just bought me these last few minutes to get me back on my feet. Otherwise, only seconds had passed before this room had been besieged by those holy knights and their army. If we hadn’t intimidated them a bit, all of us here would be desperately fighting for our lives right now.”

Although Cecilia was surprised by how Desmond took advantage of human psychology to manipulate his enemies and control the situation. She still understood that their position was far from good enough; when all was said and done, Desmond was still unable to fight nine holy knights alone.

It was also necessary to consider that among those nine holy knights, there were the three strongest, who, to be honest, were not enemies that Desmond could defeat. Even in a one-on-one duel, Desmond would have to put everything on the line to prevail against these three strongest knights. Fighting them all together was nothing more than suicide.

Desmond clearly understood this point, but he didn’t seem too concerned about it, which intrigued Cecilia. Unable to contain her curiosity, Cecilia asked the reason behind Desmond’s confidence. Still, the answer she got from him left her dumbfounded.

“Why should I be worried? Even if they hadn’t let me recover, I would still have buried everyone in this tower. The only difference now is that our exit will be much easier and safer.”

Cecilia nodded absently for a moment as she answered. “I see... Wait, were you serious? How the hell do you plan to do that?

Her surprise was not unjustified. She couldn’t understand how Desmond talked about it as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Cecilia didn’t understand that Desmond wasn’t from this world, and his way of thinking differed. Specifically, Desmond was a hunter and not a warrior;. However, he was passionate about martial arts, and pragmatism was carved deeper into his soul than anything else.

As a hunter, Desmond would not go out and compete with his prey when he was at a disadvantage, nor would he try to outmatch his prey in his fields of experience. On the contrary, Desmond would always try to be the one to choose the terrain, even alter it in his favor if possible. Desmond would wait for his prey to fall into his web like a spider.

In the same way, Desmond would always try to make the most of his strengths while exploiting his prey’s weakness; whether these were weapons or tools, Desmond would use them all. Because that’s what a hunter would do.

Desmond was not going to fight with raw power against his current situation. In fact, from the beginning, he did no such thing. From the way Desmond pretended to side with the church to catch them off guard to the way he rigged the room beforehand by filling it with aquatic mana crystals. Desmond was using more than brute force.

Although he knew that he was strong, Desmond never believed himself invincible. He always tried to use all his power, wisdom, resources, and means to have the winning hand.

Kyuru deeply understood this fact as well; she had come to appreciate in their time together on Serafia the first time Desmond had been here and something she had witnessed on more than one occasion on earth.

Cecilia continued to think about the conversation she had just had with Desmond; she apparently took everything he had said very seriously. Although their opinions constantly clashed, she still recognized that she was inferior to Desmond in too many things. Cecilia was painfully aware that Desmond would never have been as cornered as she was had he been in her place.

She just had to see what Desmond had accomplished in just thirty days on Serefia; even the church sought to side with him at some point, though that plan didn’t pan out as well as they hoped. Had he had the power and influence that Cecilia once had, it was hard to predict what kind of accomplishments Desmond would have had.

It had to be remembered that, at some point, Cecilia actually had quite a bit of power and influence within the church. Despite her weakness, she had a lot of tools in her hands at some point, but she hadn’t known how to use them. She quickly lost it, with her authority being eroded and eventually taken away by other higher-ups in the church.

Beyond any subjective guilt, Cecilia knew that Nana’s death was almost entirely her fault. She had been unable to wield the power she once had, not even able to defend herself due to her incompetence. Her friend Nana was the one who paid the ultimate price for it.

Cecilia had done everything possible to cultivate her intellect and wisdom for months. But to go from a simple nun in charge of mundane tasks to someone capable of fighting for power with those old foxes in the church; wasn’t something she was capable of. Therefore, Cecilia wanted to change, learn from her mistakes and grow into someone who could protect her faith.

Speaking of faith, Cecilia wondered what her faith was now. She knew that her church’s religion was an invention, and she had nothing to do with the celestials or any other higher forces. Even Katya’s presence was due to other factors that occurred long after founding the religion of the holy light. Now that even her church values ??had been proven corrupt, Cecilia needed a place to put her faith.

Then she looked at Desmond, this strange man who had entered her life with great fanfare, promising to protect her. He was a cruel and ruthless man towards his enemies but loving and caring towards his loved ones. Desmond was a man of unshakeable convictions and a confidence that even she found inspiring; the man of the prophecy. Cecilia no longer had any doubts; Desmond was her destined person. Although she did not fully understand what this meant, she would follow this new faith even if it led to her death.