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Part 3

"I seemed to see Leah..." Venus said with a little anticipation and fear in her tone. "She has been with me since I was a child. She is my best friend... I don't know if she came here to catch me, or maybe I was wrong..."

Venus's voice became lower and lower.

Leah... Venus's childhood best friend?

"Is that the reason why you left us all of sudden? Were you looking for her?"

"I hope it is not her..." Venus nodded lightly, "Leah knows the things that the church has done. She will definitely not..."

Knock, knock...

The sudden knock on the door interrupted Venus's words, and the knock on the door at this point made everyone nervous.

Obviously, the "closed" sign had been hung up at the entrance of the pub. Who else would visit at this time?

The curtains have been put down in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, and people outside couldn't see the inside of the store. But the lights in the store would more or less pass through the curtains, and it was impossible to pretend that no one was in.

Knock, knock...

The polite knock on the door did not give up because no one responded the first time.

Nia quietly took the three girls to the second floor, while Aker and Gurley went to the door with vigilance.

"I'm sorry, our shop is closed today, please come back tomorrow."

Without knowing the identity of the other party, such a statement should be the most appropriate.

The person outside the door was silent for a long time, and then passed a small note through the gap of the door.

Aker took the small note. In the lights in the pub, he recognized the row of small handwritings above.

——Leah, from the Church, I have something to discuss, and there is no one else with me.

…………

.

"So, what do you want to discuss?"

The other party didn't want to use force but offered a chance to discuss with them. This was something Aker wanted. At present, everyone was only inferring the thoughts of the Church based on a little bit of information. It would be nice if they could find out what the church wanted.

Waiting outside the pub was a girl about the same age as Venus, with long silver-white hair hanging down to her waist like Venus.

She was wearing pure white shawls and cape, blue and black fitted tops, a skirt, and black knee socks.

Although the silver-haired girl's appearance was still immature, this exquisite dress highlighted her inner composure.

If she hadn't taken the initiative to identify herself, Aker would never have imagined that such a small girl would be an enemy that must be faced.

Even though the other party was just a young girl, the cautious Gurley did not let down his guard at all. On the contrary, the silver-haired girl's special dress made him more vigilant.

"Based on your uniform, you are the blue-clothed knight of the church?"

The silver-haired girl bowed slightly to indicate she was sorry to disturb them, and then calmly walked into the pub.

"Yes. I didn't realize that there are people who can recognize this uniform here. Are you involved as well?"

"No. I am just an ordinary man who owes money to this place, and now work part-time to pay off debts."

"Oh," the girl didn't continue to pay attention to Gurley, she turned to look at Aker, who had been silent, "can I talk to Venus and the girl from the Heinz family, I know they are here. Don't worry, I mean no harm. I just want to find out what Venus is thinking."

Unlike Venus, Leah gave off a completely different feeling to Aker.  If she stood together with Venus, she would probably be mistaken as "Venus's elder sister".

After seeing this girl, Aker finally understood why Venus hoped that it would not be her.

If it was a close friend, Leah may have no other choice when she was ordered to come here. This was the task she must complete.

…………

The four people in the stairwell on the second floor could hear the voices from the lobby of the pub.

Venus immediately recognized Leah's voice. When she heard that Leah wanted to talk to her, she finally couldn't hold back.

"Venus, what are you doing?"

Nia grabbed Venus who was about to stand up and asked her in a low voice. But Venus did not answer. After being stopped by Nia, and the courage she had finally gathered began to waver again.

"She won't be fooled by them. She knows we are here." Lynn couldn't sit still, "Sister Nia and Loulou, you two stay here first, I will go and see her. With those two, we won't lose."

Now that the enemy had appeared in front of her, continuing to hide here to eavesdrop was not in line with Lynn's character. Nia who knew this had no choice but to nod her head in agreement.

"Be careful."

"I'll go too……"

"Up to you."

Ignoring Venus, Lynn took the lead and walked down the stairs.

Although Loulou also wanted to accompany them downstairs, she knew that she could not help at this time, so she could only choose to stay behind and watch them leave in the end.

P4

After Lynn and Venus came to the hall of the pub, silence instantly enveloped the hall.

Aker and Gurley stood in front of Venus and Lynn. But after seeing Leah with her own eyes, Venus passed between the two of them and trotted to Leah.

"Leah, are you really... really here to take me back?"

"I am sorry!"

Standing in front of Leah, Venus looked upset like the younger sister found by her sister in hide-and-seek. Leah also looked away. Raising her hand, she seemed to want to stroke Venus, but in the end, she lowered her hand.

"So it is really this..."

Venus murmured with a sobbing voice. If it were someone else, Venus might resist, but she didn't want to make any resistance that might hurt Leah.

Leah panicked in front of Venus who was sobbing. She hurriedly took out the small square handkerchief from her uniform, and she couldn't help but reach out and wipe the tears from Venus's face.

"Don't, don't be like this..."

Leah may have forgotten her real purpose for coming here, she just wanted to make Venus stop crying.

"Hey, you two, what are you doing?"

Lynn's patience was beginning to wear very thin. Obviously, it was the people from the church, but they were actually having an emotional drama at the critical moment. However, she really couldn't regard this scene as a pretense. It was this contradictory feeling that she found hard to accept.

"You are 'Heinz' family's..."

"I have a name," Lynn interrupted Leah unceremoniously, "it is Lynn."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be disrespectful." Leah did not shrink away from Lynn's attitude, she immediately adjusted her emotion, "Miss Lynn, you are the holder of magic gear Light Flame Sword, right?"

"Aren't you looking for me because of it?"

"I am the blue knight of the church, Leah. My mission to Puffa Town this time is to take...Venus and you back with me. As for the mission organized by the church last time, I was not involved, so I may not be able to answer your questions, I hope you can understand."

"That's easy for you to say!"

Lynn was always unable to control her emotions well in front of the people of the church.

"Calm down, now she is here to talk to us peacefully." Aker had no choice but to suppress Lynn, who seemed to be able to draw her sword at any time. He whispered in her ear, "If you fight here, you know what will happen right?"

Indeed, if a fight broke out here, the pub would definitely be ruined, and many innocent people in the vicinity would be injured.

Lynn was well aware of the serious consequences, but she just couldn't suppress the anger in her heart.

"So, let's go back to the original question," Aker asked Leah instead of Lynn, who was unable to calm down to negotiate, "what exactly do you want to discuss with us?"

…………

"In short, now we know what we can do." Aker patted the table and said. "What do you think about this request made by Leah?"

Because of Leah's late-night visit, everyone no longer felt sleepy. As a result, everyone started to discuss "that requirement" put forward by Leah.

Leah's request was to let the person protecting Venus now fight her. If they could defeat Lynn, she would not intervene in this matter again, and the church might also give up continuing to look for Lynn and Venus because of the defeat of the blue knight.

"Tomorrow night, in the wasteland at the entrance of the town? Could it be a trap?... Venus, can she really be trusted?"

Loulou was still a little worried, after all, she didn't know Leah at all. She just knew that she was Venus's best friend.

"Mhm..." Venus nodded hesitantly, "If it's Leah... then she can't be trusted..."

"In other words, as long as we can beat her in the battle, then this hunt will be over, right?"

Finally, from Leah's proposal, Aker saw a chance of solving the problem once for all.

"Do you think it will be that easy?" This time Gurley didn't joke with Aker like how he did in the past. "She is a blue knight of the church, one of the seven knights second only to the Pope in strength and status. She is as strong as Venus. To make her lose, you have to risk your life. Do you think you can do it?"

Hearing Gurley's "warning", Venus immediately raised her voice nervously.

"Please don't hurt Leah!" After everyone looked at her, she hesitated again, "Leah, she is actually a very gentle person. She probably has no choice but to accept this mission..."

"If she really doesn't know anything, I don't want to spend so much effort on her," Lynn said dissatisfiedly. She seemed to be in a bad mood after Leah appeared, "we didn't even do anything to Venus, what could we possibility to do her who took no part in that mission."

"Since you know this... I guess you don't plan to take out your anger on her?"

“……”

"Leah's magic power level is only slightly lower than mine... She specializes in elemental magic in the church, and she is also very good at fighting without using magic..."

Venus's words made everyone tremble.

P5

With the support of powerful magic power, it was a well-known fact that how destructive one's power could be. Besides, she had other ways of fighting besides elemental magic.

"By the way, Venus, isn't your magic level higher than hers?" Loulou noticed a contradiction, "Why do you still think she is more likely to win?"

In the end, no one knew what the magical power rating of the church represented. If the people here participated in the magic rating, how different would they be from the blue knight?

"I only know domain magic. Although there are many kinds of domains, I have never used a domain that can hurt people... Leah's attack speed is very fast. If I face her alone, there will be no chance of winning... …"

"In this case, I have an idea." an idea suddenly appeared in Aker's mind, "It seems impossible to win without injury, but if she can't continue fighting, then we will win, right?"

Venus still wanted to say something, but...

"Don't worry, we will try not to hurt her. At that time, you will also need to cooperate with us."

After Aker promised, Venus closed her mouth and nodded obediently.

Having a head-on battle with an opponent of Leah's level, if he wanted to end the fight without injuries, one of them must admit defeat before the fight began, but no one would do that.

"So, let's try to make Leah unable to continue fighting, then she will have to admit defeat."

Gurley took a sip and grinned. It seemed like he knew what Aker wanted to do.

…………

In the sunny courtyard, dozens of children were frolicking around a large flower bed.

Two girls in blue dresses were sitting on a small hill in the distance, looking enviously at the carefree and frolicking children.

Before getting this symbolic and important uniform, the two of them were also members of the group of children.

"Say, why do we have to watch them play?" The silver-haired girl was very dissatisfied with the status quo, "I also want to play with them..."

"Leah, you need to stop complaining... We will have to practice later." The white-haired girl snuggling next to her hurriedly comforted her, "If we go to play with them now, Dad will definitely punish us..."

"All that man talks about is practice! He obviously said that as long as we don't fall behind, we can use the extra time to do what we want to do! "

"Dad indeed said this, but..."

"We waste so much time every day practicing those magics, what's the use of it?"

"This question seems to be asked by dad before... Didn't you say 'I want to save the world' at that time? Leah?"

"I was joking... Actually, I don't know what I want to do with this power." The silver-haired girl took out two candies from her uniform and stuffed one of them into the white hair girl’s mouth and said, “If I knew it would be so boring, I would rather stay in the orphanage to help grandma dean manage the garden."

The eyes of the silver-haired girl shifted back to the orphanage below the hills, and the children's laughter faintly spread here.

That was the home they used to live in. When Pope Sirtis came there and let Leah and Venus make their own choice, Leah chose to enter the church because she thought it would be interesting. Moreover, she also wanted to find the so-called "self-value."

"Actually, I..." The white-haired girl said softly and vaguely with sugar in her mouth, "I came to the Church because I hoped to change my destiny... Since there is such a possibility, I think l better make good use of this opportunity... Leah, you should also set a goal for yourself. Then you will be motivated... Hehe."

"Even if you say that..."

The silver-haired girl looked at her empty hands and did not continue.

In fact, a little fire spark had already appeared in her heart, but she couldn't confirm it by herself. That was the vow made in her heart when she shouldered Venus' destiny and became Venus' sister.

"Leah, if you are in danger, I will protect you..." The white-haired girl did not notice the entanglement in the heart of the person next to her, and said to herself, "Dad said that the domain can withstand any attack. It can also heal wounds, so I chose to study domain magic... Of course, I hope I will never get to use this kind of magic."

The little fire spark was fueled by the white-haired girl's words.

"Then I will learn Elemental Magic, so you don't need to protect me."

"Eh? Leah, doesn't want to be protected by me?"

"I don't mean that. What you are thinking!"

The silver-haired girl blushed and looked away, while the white-haired girl was chasing her gaze, not giving her a chance to escape.

Seeing what the white-haired girl wanted to know, the silver-haired girl coughed slightly, and then told her what she hadn't finished.

"If you are my shield, then I want to be your sword."

That was the vow made by the two young girls in the past.

…………

The arrival of Leah reminded Venus of some past events.

The more she hoped that time could pass a bit slower, the faster the time would run counter to her desires.

Venus raised her head and looked out the window of the pub's hall. The sun had set, and the brightest star had begun to shine above the sky.

Aker walked to Venus and patted her on the shoulder lightly. After recovering, Venus turned her head and realized that everyone else had already arrived in the pub hall.

Lynn had changed into a set of light clothes prepared by Nia, while Aker was still wearing a black trench coat. They were about to face the first real battle so far.

Venus jumped off the seat, adjusted her clothes, and looked at the afterglow in the sky.

She had made up her mind to solve the confusion in her heart by herself.

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