A False Truth
The blindfold covering the eyes of the man before me was a pristine, flawless white, much like my own dress and gloves.
Well, except for that blindfold, he was shrouded entirely in black—a stark contrast to myself.
His hair was the color of ink, a shade said to be common in the East.
The sleek black coat draped over his shoulders paired perfectly with his uniform, making him look like a figure stepped straight out of a classic black-and-white painting.
I had offered Zeto a cup of tea, and he had readily accepted.
A cool breeze swept through the area, carrying the fresh scent of grass.
To think we could enjoy a quiet teatime in the middle of a forest... I wondered how Ecklin had managed to find such a spot.
I had instructed Ines and Ecklin to keep watch nearby for a moment.
Though Ines had tried to dissuade me, I wanted to speak with him alone.
I felt that only by doing so could I truly begin to unravel his secrets.
"I thoroughly enjoyed watching your duel, Cadet Zeto."
Sitting directly across from me, Zeto set his teacup down and offered a faint smile.
"Thank you for your kind words."
An ominous energy still lingered around him as he spoke, but I decided to set that concern aside for now.
Pouring purification magic on him the moment we met... What was I thinking?
I apologized for my rudeness, and he graciously brushed it off, saying, "All's well that ends well."
From what I could gather during our brief interaction, Zeto was not a man of many questions.
Given my unannounced visit, he ought to have had plenty of things to ask.
Yet, he acted as though he had been expecting this meeting all along.
Does he really not have any questions?
A Saintess was, by all accounts, a figure not easily met.
Despite such a figure showing personal interest in him, he seemed largely indifferent.
He was simply gentle and polite, just as Geras had described.
I quietly returned his gentle smile.
It might have meant nothing to him, but I couldn't help the way my lips curved upward.
A power that puts people at ease...
My gaze drifted to Zeto's face as he sat opposite me, his head slightly tilted.
His eyes were hidden.
The pure white blindfold wrapped around his face took their place.
And yet, he was undoubtedly 'gazing' at me.
As we spoke, I noticed that his head was always turned precisely toward me, giving the distinct impression that he was hanging on my every word.
Every single one of these small gestures must be the result of immense effort...
I had heard he possessed a special ability called Ki Sense, but I doubted it was something he had been born with.
"This might sound a bit cliché, but do you not find your lack of sight inconvenient, Cadet Zeto? Your swordsmanship is truly remarkable despite it."
"My eyes... are fine. And I owe my ability to wield a sword entirely to my master."
"A master... You must have a wonderful teacher."
It wasn't particularly strange that he had a master.
However, his use of the word 'fine' lingered in my mind.
Fine.
Unlike a casual remark meant to reassure or dismiss concern, I could strangely perceive that his words were the absolute, unshakeable 'truth.'
He truly, genuinely meant that he was fine.
Just what kind of life has he lived...
...to be able to sincerely say he is fine with losing the light of the world?
Whatever accident or tragedy had robbed him of his sight, it meant he harbored absolutely no resentment over it.
When I had briefly examined his condition from a distance earlier, I had judged it incurable.
I felt no trace of anything that could be healed.
...Naturally, in every sense of the word, it was already far too late.
"Saintess?"
When I fell silent for a long moment, Zeto called out to me.
We had barely exchanged a few sentences, yet he already had me lost in deep thought.
Closing my eyes tightly for a brief second, I cleared my mind and continued.
"...My apologies. Shall we get to the main point, then? The reason I sought you out, Cadet Zeto... is because I have been searching for a certain person. An acupuncturist who wears a white blindfold over his eyes."
"An acupuncturist... May I ask why you were looking for him?"
Zeto asked cautiously.
I wasn't here to arrest him for some crime, so what was he so worried about?
His cautiousness struck me as rather endearing, and a soft chuckle escaped my lips.
"Hehe, simply to express my gratitude. I felt deeply thankful to him for healing a sick lamb in my stead. I couldn't shake the feeling that I owed him a debt of gratitude."
"...I see."
"And then, by chance, I heard about you from Ecklin, who attended the open classes in my place. I have a strong suspicion that the person I've been looking for is you, Cadet Zeto. Does that ring a bell?"
At my question, Zeto tapped his fingers lightly against the table.
He seemed to be weighing his options.
Was he wondering just how much I knew?
Soon, as if he had finished his calculations, he spoke.
"...How is young Lady Emilia doing?"
Zeto asked in a quiet voice.
It seemed he had decided not to hide it anymore.
Perhaps he realized there was no longer any point in doing so.
I took a sip of my tea and smiled.
"I knew it was you, Cadet Zeto. It would have been much simpler if you had left your name, but now I understand why you didn't. To think you were an Academy cadet... Antony would be absolutely shocked if he found out. Hehe... Thanks to you, young Emilia is in excellent health."
"That is a relief."
"I had no idea mana exhaustion could be cured with acupuncture... You must possess quite an extraordinary knowledge of the art, Cadet Zeto."
"...It is nothing so grand. I was merely fortunate enough to have had experience treating it once before."
His quietly spoken words were the truth.
I understand it to be an incredibly rare condition, yet he has treated it before...
The more I learned about him, the harder it became to grasp what kind of path he had walked, or what kind of person he truly was.
Even as we conversed, the shroud of 'mystery' surrounding him showed no signs of fading.
"But... how did you happen to seek out Antony in the first place, Cadet Zeto?"
"I simply learned that a poor, suffering lamb was there... and my only thought was that I had to heal her."
Zeto offered a wry smile.
He rarely, if ever, spoke a lie.
Normally, people tell lies—big or small—quite often during a conversation, yet he spoke nothing but the absolute truth.
Even though he laid himself bare like a pane of clear glass, he remained impossible to fully comprehend.
But with those words, I finally understood why he was called the 'Blind Saint' wherever he went.
There was a singular consistency in his actions.
He healed the sick without asking for any reward.
After curing Antony's daughter, Emilia, Antony had tried to give him the promised reward, but Zeto had refused to take it all.
Antony had told me he barely managed to persuade him to accept a fraction of it.
It was the same in the village.
He had gone around the village, treating the residents for their minor ailments, and again, he had accepted no payment whatsoever.
Chief Thomas had confirmed that he never gave him a single coin.
"He was like a Saint! Just like the Saint in this storybook!"
The memory of Emilia thrusting a storybook toward me with her tiny hands flashed through my mind.
Was it a famous fairy tale?
Perhaps the people had seen the Saint from that fairy tale overlapping with him.
Both Zeto and the Saint of the tale brought hope to those they touched.
Even his way of speaking... is somewhat similar...
...But surely, that was just my imagination.
In any case, it was now certain that he was the blind acupuncturist.
My meeting with him was proving to be far more satisfying than I had anticipated.
"Regardless, I express my deepest gratitude for your benevolence, Cadet Zeto. May the blessing of the Lord be upon you."
I placed a hand over my chest and bowed politely to him.
"Please, there is no need. I merely did what had to be done."
What had to be done.
Did he, too, carry a sense of calling, much like myself?
As the peaceful chirping of birds drifted past and the grass swayed gently in the wind,
I set down my teacup and spoke.
There was still one crucial question left to ask.
"Cadet Zeto, tell me..."
"...Yes?"
"This is a very important question, both for myself and for my knight order, so I must ask you to answer with absolute accuracy. Cadet Zeto, have you recently..."
After a brief pause, my question struck like an arrow.
"...slain a demon?"
My serious tone echoed softly through the quiet forest.
"......"
A heavy silence fell over us.
Whether or not he was connected to the demons was a matter of utmost gravity.
After all, there was information that a man with a white blindfold had been spotted in the very city where a demon's corpse was discovered.
Zeto turned his head toward the forest.
At last, his lips parted.
"...I have."
"Then, the reason you did not take the demon's horn with you..."
"Because I do not belong to any official organization."
Truth.
Once again, it was the absolute truth.
Setting aside the fact that he, an Academy cadet, subjugated a demon entirely on his own... more importantly...
Leaning slightly closer to him, I asked,
"Even our intelligence had absolutely no record of that stage actor being a demon."
As I spoke, the faint smile vanished from Zeto's lips.
"He was someone I had been pursuing for a very long time."
An indefinable trace of anguish bled through his voice.
"...Was it a personal grudge?"
The demon's corpse found at the scene had been brutally and messily slaughtered. If it was driven by a grudge, it would certainly explain the state of the body.
Whatever history he had with demons, it was hardly rare to find those who harbored deep-seated hatred for them.
After all, a massive war had raged just ten years ago.
It was not unheard of.
Those who, unaffiliated with any institution, hunted demons driven solely by the burning desire for vengeance.
Yet, Zeto's response deviated slightly from my expectations.
"I cannot say there is no grudge... but more than anything, it was to save someone. ...To save people."
Zeto tilted his head as he spoke.
As if he were stating the most obvious thing in the world.
And he was still speaking nothing but the truth.
To save people?
It wasn't a wrong statement.
Demons grew stronger by draining the life force of humans.
Wherever they went, death inevitably followed.
That was precisely why I, too, sought to subjugate as many demons as possible.
"...While hunting down demons hiding in human territories cannot be considered a crime, it is still highly recommended that such subjugations take place under the supervision of a nation or an official institution."
Perhaps, because he was a man revered as a Saint, he looked toward the same horizon as I did.
Demons harm humans.
From that incredibly simple premise, he had set out to hunt them.
I was deeply curious about his source of information... but pressing him on that would likely be overstepping.
He was not mine yet.
Therefore, my next words were already decided.
It was an idea I had been harboring for some time.
I gently reached across the table, taking Zeto's hand in mine, and spoke.
"...In that light, I would like to recruit you into my knight order—the Silver Wing Knights, Cadet Zeto."
"...Recruit me?"
"Yes. Considering your character and martial prowess, I do not think it is an unreasonable proposal at all. I have been in dire need of a talented individual like you."
I offered him a bright, warm smile.
Zeto tilted his head, looking utterly dumbfounded.
Through his hand, which I still held, I could feel his sheer bewilderment.
Yet, he did not pull his hand away.
Instead, he scratched the back of his head with his free hand and spoke.
"Are you saying... you wish to bring me, a 'man,' into the Saintess's personal knight order?"
"It would certainly be unprecedented. A male knight in the Saintess's order..."
"No, more than that, I am currently an Academy cadet. I have no intention of leaving the Academy..."
"Hehe... Indeed. An active Academy cadet cannot officially belong to a knight order... Which is why I have given it some thought. What if you were to join us 'secretly'? You already seem to roam outside the Academy quite freely anyway... And if you plan to continue hunting demons, wouldn't it be wise to have a safe 'shield' to protect you?"
"A shield..."
Zeto murmured, repeating my words.
Was something bothering him?
From where I stood, this arrangement offered him nothing but benefits.
"Ah, I did hear that the Sword Saint showed interest in you... Is your hesitation perhaps because of him?"
"No. Nothing happened between myself and the Sword Saint."
"...Well, that is a relief."
It seemed the Sword Saint hadn't beaten me to the punch just yet.
Given that the notoriously disciple-less Sword Saint had taken an interest in him, his martial talent was beyond question.
It would be wiser to ask about his sources of information on demons once we had grown closer.
"Well, there is still plenty of time left in the open class period, so please take your time to think it over."
"...Understood."
Zeto gave a somewhat lukewarm response.
I decided to give him some space.
This must have been incredibly sudden for him, and pushing too hard might only make him feel burdened.
Having discussed everything I wanted to, our conversation naturally wound down.
After that, we chatted about trivial matters regarding the Academy before I finally let him go.
Our conversation had been quite pleasant.
Zeto was a truly mysterious man.
To the very end, he had not uttered a single lie to me.
While that in itself felt almost unnatural, it wasn't entirely impossible for someone to be completely honest at all times. Ines was a prime example.
At some point, a powerful urge to bring him under my wing had taken hold of me. Because of that, I had impulsively made up this concept of a 'secret knight' without even consulting Ines or Ecklin... but it shouldn't pose any major issues.
"How was your conversation with Cadet Zeto, Saintess?"
Ines approached and asked the moment Zeto departed.
I stretched lightly and rose from my seat.
Then, I answered Ines in a bright, cheerful voice.
"...He was exactly like the Saint from the fairy tale."
"The storybook you read back then...?"
"Yes. I think I might have just made a fellow 'Saint' friend. Hehe."
"Saintess, you go too far."
"I only mean that I took quite a liking to him."
Leaving a frowning Ines behind, I stared intently in the direction Zeto had vanished.
In the end, I had to swallow the words: Though there is still one thing that bothers me.
That negative energy never fully dissipated...
It was so faint that it was almost imperceptible, as if the energy had been meticulously refined, which only made it more concerning.
I highly doubt someone who hunts down demons would wield evil power, though.
To find out more, I would need to grow closer to Zeto.
Closer...
At the sudden question that popped into my head, I stared blankly at Ines and Ecklin.
Unfortunately, there were almost no men in my immediate circle.
The two of them blinked, returning my gaze with blank stares.
Still, surely they knew more about men than I did. I recalled occasionally seeing Ecklin chatting with the other knights about men.
"...Um, how exactly does one go about getting closer to a 'man'?"