Chapter 4: The Holy Towers

After we found suitable weapons and equipment for Grey, the priestess girl came in at the exact time we finished—almost like she had been keeping an eye on us the whole time. Despite the uneasy feeling, we stared back at her without showing a hint of doubt.

“Sir Hero, Sir Grey, please follow me. I prepared some tasty foods for you two,” she asked politely.

With quiet satisfaction, we followed her back to the room where we had been resting. On the nearby table, everything was neatly arranged. There was a basket of bread, a bottle of honey, and some variety of creams too.

The tension in the air had barely settled after our time in the weapon storage room. Even so, the hunger gnawing at us was impossible to ignore.

The priestess girl stood by, her presence quiet but unmistakable, almost like the caretaker of some royal banquet rather than just another companion. For a moment, it felt like we had stepped into a different world—one where we didn’t have to worry about dark kings or looming dangers, at least for now.

When Grey saw the breads, his mood almost turned sour because of his childhood trauma of eating bread every day. But when he actually tried them, his face turned to delight. He started to devour everything like he’d never tasted anything like this before. When I tried some myself, I understood why—it really was tasty... the fillings, the creams, and the honey. The taste was almost heavenly.

As we started to eat, she remained standing to the side, poised and attentive, just like someone serving royalty. She watched over us quietly, making sure everything was in order, but made no move to join in. When I invited her to eat with us, she hesitated, clearly unsure if it was proper. Only after some gentle urging did she finally agree, taking her place at the table—still a little reserved, but slowly relaxing as we welcomed her.

Then I said, “I’d like us to be friends. As you said earlier, please try to be friends and speak without formalities. And call us by our names.”

Then, with a hint of a smile, she said, “Yes, Sir Kaito!”

She only replaced the word "hero" with my name. Did she really respect heroes that much, or was there another reason? I had no idea, so I kept the question to myself. Then Grey spoke up, “Please call me Grey—drop the ‘sir’ act. I’d prefer that,” he said, flashing a toothy grin.

This time, she showed her full smile and said, “Yes, Grey!” Then she started to eat the bread with us. She seemed to enjoy the honey a little more than the other fillings like cream and jam, and her eating habits were elegant. But Grey and I, both raised in a village, showed no mercy to the breads—we devoured them all.

Grey always acted grown up, calm and collected, but when it came to food, he was like a child. He’s like me in a way—my childish side shows when I’m cooking or gathering herbs, but for him, it’s all about eating. It was the same whenever he ate my father’s cooking too.

He also cried a lot when my father died. It wasn’t just silent tears, either—I remember that night, he gripped the old kitchen table and sobbed hard enough that his shoulders shook. I had always seen Grey as the one who kept himself together, but that day his grief poured out, raw and honest, like all those years of quiet strength finally broke open. Seeing that side of him changed how I saw him. It made me realize how much he really cared.

Watching Grey let go made me feel a little less alone in my own pain, too. Somehow, his sorrow gave me strength to keep moving forward. It was comforting, knowing I wasn’t the only one hurting.

That’s when I truly started to see him as more than a friend—as a brother. I feel comfortable whenever he’s around.

Aria noticed me watching Grey eat in that childish way of his, and she saw the warm smile on my face. That brought a gentle smile to her own lips. Then Grey caught both of us smiling and, grinning in a really teasing manner, asked me, “Are you fallen for me?”

I smiled at him and said, “Maybe?”

His smile froze for a moment before vanishing, and his face twisted into an overly dramatic look of disgust, clearly not used to being the one teased instead of me. The surprise on his face was almost as amusing as the way he tried—and failed—to hide being caught off guard.

The basket of bread between us was already empty from our hunger, so Grey asked the girl for some more food. He wasn’t close to being full yet—typical Grey, always hungry like he hadn’t eaten in days.

She smiled warmly, already holding another basket full of fresh bread that she had taken from a nearby shelf. Without hesitation, she set it gently in front of him.

Even though they barely knew each other, Grey was quietly surprised by her kindness.

“I brought it for myself, but I ate with you too. So you can have mine as well,” she added with a warm smile. As always, her smile was captivating—the only thing that kept convincing me to believe every word she said.

As she offered, Grey grabbed the basket with a swift motion, causing her to flinch slightly. But when he took the bread and happily began eating, her body relaxed, and her smile deepened.

“What’s our next plan? From the looks of it, you’ve got something in mind. You’re not actually asking me to fight the Lord of Darkness, right? If you were, you wouldn’t be letting me rest like this. So, just spill it, Ay!”

“Ay???” she exclaimed, clearly caught off guard.

“Yeah, that’s your new nickname—from now on. So, you like it?”

She blinked, a startled flush rising to her cheeks. She replied, “Yes, Sir Kaito.”

Grey gawked at me, ready to tease, but I cut him off with, “Here, take this jam. It’s sooo tasty.” He took it from me curiously and happily.

Suddenly, the girl Aria said, “Wait, I didn’t bring this… how did it—”

Then I turned around and slipped off the table for a quick escape.

With his mouth full of food, Grey said, “It’s good! Did you make it by mixing honey and jam?”

Satisfied that I’d shifted the teasing away from the girl’s nickname, I happily showed him how I made it.

“You’re good at cooking as always, bro. Hahaha, it’s really good.” With the second praise, Grey asked me to pass some more bread to him. He was eating a lot, as always. I just smiled.

After some time, when my attempt to ask her about her plans failed, the girl suddenly started to speak herself, as if she thought this was the right moment.

“Sir Kaito, our world is plunged in darkness. That darkness created many monsters that attack humans, animals, whatever they see. On top of that, we have to protect ourselves against the demon armies and their leaders.

But their lord never showed himself in front of anyone. Even to his own followers. That’s what we found from the captured.”

“That’s suspicious,” Grey added. I nodded in agreement.

“If he wanted, he could eradicate human lives without lifting a finger. But he never has. That’s why we thought his goal was just entertainment.

But now, I think he has other plans. So we have to find out what they are. This might be the key to finding the answers we seek!”

The girl explained the situation of the world. As I had suspected—someone was guiding her. She once mentioned that he isn’t a god either, as if she knew him.

But this wasn’t the time for confrontation. So, I kept my thoughts to myself.

The place we were in was a village called Luna—our holy land. It was the only place free of monsters.

I had an obvious question: If that's true, then why aren’t there many people here? Does anyone even live here?

“We have no idea if any outsiders entered here, this place would stay the same. So only a very selective few people with holy powers—like nuns, priests, and priestesses—are here. We just don’t want to risk our last hope. That’s all.”

“That’s reasonable,” I added.

Grey, with his mouth full of food, said, “Yea, bro.”

The nuns in the cathedral, with sincere devotion, delivered prayers to the heavens, hopeful that the god would send a great leader and a hero who would save us all.

“But now that you are here, they can focus on expanding the holy barrier. We have to help them by going to every holy tower on every continent to light them up with the power of your holy sword. Their source of holy power has been drained by the darkness, so this is our first priority.”

“That sounds great,” Grey said, again with a mouthful of food.

Is he even listening? He’s acting just like me when I’m cooking and collecting herbs. He is such a pain. Let’s get to the main problem at hand, I thought to myself.

“Going to every continent? How many are there? And obviously, it won’t be easy.”

“There are four main continents. Focusing on them is enough. It may not be easy, but it is essential.”

With that, my heart, which had been pounding fiercely just moments before, finally began to slow, a calm settling over me as the weight of the situation momentarily lessened.

For a moment, I thought I would have to light up countless towers. It nearly sent me into a panic...

After finishing all the food, Grey’s focus returned. “Now I’m full, let’s start from the start.”

He said that without any hint of remorse. Ay and I both brought our hands to our heads in frustration.

“Hey, look! You guys are in perfect sync,” he said, hoping a playful remark would make us forgive him. But we didn’t.

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