Esmond frowned slightly at the fallen book. He clothed Su Shi with one hand, then turned around and leaned down to pick up the book, but Shi Shi’s pupils shrank in horror. “No–”

He hurriedly rushed forward; trying to grab the book back, but suddenly felt a fierce dizziness and his body abruptly fell down.

Before he could hit the icy hard ground like he’d imagined, Esmond caught him in a steady embrace, took the book into his arms, and carefully helped him sit down in a corner. Then he picked up his clothes and draped it over Su Shi.

Esmond had the ability to make fires, but he still needed combustible materials. He was about to get up to pick up some wood, but suddenly found that his cuff was being pulled tightly.

The young man in his arms did not seem to be completely clear-headed yet. There was not a drop of blood left in his pale face, but he was still turned towards Esmond, and the expression in his eyes looked close to despair and pleading.

“You don’t want me to see the book?”

Esmond froze and vaguely understood what he meant. He went back on a half-kneel and comfortingly supported the young man’s thin back.

“There was a lot of stuff in that treasure cave, but you only took this book—actually, when I heard the sound of the upgrade, I realized that it was not a seal, but an advanced formation that could improve one’s strength. I can vaguely guess that there must be a secret in this book that you must hide.”

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

He simply stopped looking for wood, and instead sat on the floor, steadily enclosing the young man in his arms. He used a tiny bit of his powers and the surrounding air gradually became warm and comfortable.

It wasn’t a service package promoted by the system, so why on earth did that spell circle have a recorded voice notice with it?

Su Shi’s breath caught in his throat. He blinked incredulously. A light taste of blood emanated from his throat.

“I know that you cannot say it. Holy Paladins can never betray the papacy of their own initiative. Even if you assassinate the pope, as long as you have not fallen, you will still be under the fetters of magic and cannot say anything that is not good for the papacy.”

Apologetically meeting those fearful blank eyes, Esmond spoke slowly, his eyes gradually dimming. “Before you left me in that cave, you said that high-level Fallens also knew how to play pretend—at that time, you actually wanted to tell me something, right?”

Su Shi could not speak, his chest was undulating, and his eyes were fixed on Esmond.

“Don’t be afraid, you have never betrayed your allegiance. You are using your own strength to guard all the light of the entire continent.”

Putting the book back into Su Shi’s arms gently, Esmond still did not look at it, but instead gently touched the young man’s short black hair, and the light in his eyes went dark.

“Anyone who is a Fallen must be purged. You already did very well. From now on, can you leave this matter to me?”

“No–”

Su Shi gasped for two quick breaths. His accumulated power burst out all of a sudden, trying to forcefully knock the other party unconscious.

This was violating the rules a bit, but he really couldn’t care too much about that at this point.

Sharp sirens immediately rang in his ear, alerting him that there was a threat to the protagonist’s safety. The shrill sound shook him and made him dizzy, but he still did not intend to stop.

He was already an arrow at the end of its flight*, but the other party should have also suffered a minor trauma, so he should still have a chance of knocking the other man unconscious. They were right next to a hot spring. There was plenty of water. As long as he could trap the other person for one day, he would still have a chance to complete his mission.

[*T/N: No more strength left.]

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After all the hard-to-accumulate power was exerted, the ice-blue light burst into a flash, but in a blink of an eye, a dark flame silently devoured it.

Esmond did not seem surprised. He stepped forward and took hold of Su Shi’s shaky body. There was no anger in his eyes, but instead a very quiet, bleak sadness.

“You forcibly interrupted the upgrade… why didn’t you get hurt?”

In this case, no matter how he looked at it, the other party was not only intact, but his strength had also made leaps and bounds.

Su Shi blinked unbelievably. His vision turned black and he held the other man’s wrist firmly.

He didn’t expect that the other person’s concern was actually this issue. Esmond was stunned. He carefully helped Su Shi sit back down and slowed his tone to speak truthfully.

Translations by Vanilla Muse.

“After the upgrade prompt, it suddenly made me choose whether to continue the upgrade or suspend, I was worried about you, so I suspended the upgrade, and gave chase to you first…”

Before Esmond could finish speaking, the young Holy Paladin’s body suddenly seized. On his face was an extremely pained expression. He raised his hand and instinctively clenched at the clothes right above his heart. Fresh, red blood was already flowing from the corner of his mouth.

“Ivan!”

Esmond’s breathing suddenly stopped, and he hugged the other side in his arms, his eyes almost showing a rush of blood.

But the young man’s head had fallen down weakly, and he leaned unknowingly on Esmond’s shoulder. Blood rushed from his mouth without stop. The offensive dark red color spread everywhere.

The author has something to say:

Su Shi: spitting-blood-from-anger.jpg

System: … |ωQ`)

#Just wanted to be a bit more considerate, ah.#