The memories were finally connecting, and now he was no longer confused about where and when he was, as he remembered them himself.

“That’s right, it was the Garden…”

He had just been accepted into the Church as a follower, but due to his initial shyness and skepticism, he had not talked to anyone at all save for a few polite greetings, and he had simply kept to himself, retreating to private areas like the library and the Garden whenever he had the chance to.

It was in one of those many times that he was hiding away from everyone when he met her, the moment that was currently being shown to him in the recollection.

“I had thought that no one would disturb me then, but you saw me.”

“I saw him,” the Renare figure concurred, “sitting by the pond, calm and at peace with his surroundings, yet something about him bugged me.”

The past and the present quickly began to mesh together as the two of them took turns speaking in turn with their past projections, creating a cycle that flowed surprisingly well.

“Hello, are you by yourself?” the projection of Renare asked.

“Huh? Who are you?” Simon’s projection asked in shock.

“I don’t think that’s important for you to know. I’m just a passerby. What I really want to know is, what do you dream of?”

“What kind of question is that?”

“I wanted to know what you were like,” the Renare figure explained, “dreams can tell a person what they really think about, and what they are worried about, even if they aren’t always the most clear to understand.”

“Yeah, I figured that out after a while,” Simon gave a light smile as he remarked, “still, it was weird that you asked me that question at first, it really caught me off guard.”

“What a fascinating dream.”

“Hey, don’t judge me, alright? I didn’t want to answer you anyway.”

“Regardless of how little I knew about him at the time, that first meeting I had with him made me happy, even though I did not tell him that, of course.”

“… you did, huh?”

Simon’s smile slowly began to grow wider the longer he listened to her, but it soon faded away as soon as she added something else.

“As we talked, I had realized that he and I were similar in so many ways. The both of us were emotional messes, and did not really like talking to people, although he eventually managed to become more confident on his own. In that way, we soon became friends very quickly, and we trusted each other.”

“Similar…”

Having seen almost her entire backstory at this point, he could not help but agree with her statement. He had obvious suspicions before, but he had never focused on them before, but now, if just for a little bit, he could understand her.

“You see? What did I tell you?” Anten finally spoke again, seemingly appearing to have read his thoughts as a triumphant smirk appeared on her face.

However, despite this clarity, he was not fully convinced, and he still had not gotten a massive revelation as to why he needed to see this recollection. Fortunately for him, it was still going, and now it had switched to another scene, one that he knew vividly as well.

“What do you want to do, Brother Simon?”

They were now in his room, and there was no mistake about it; it looked exactly the same as when he had left it earlier before the second trial, with only some minor differences.

He remembered that he and Renare were talking, laughing, having fun when the question was suddenly asked by her and to him out of the blue.

“Uh… well… I don’t know, but…”

“I told her that what I wanted to do at the time was to repay the Church that took me in, as much as I could. I believed that that was the only thing I could do,” he filled in the blank automatically.

“The same goal as I had years ago,” the Renare figure continued, “only this time, he had someone who wanted to help him in any way she could, to make sure he reached it.”

“I think it was at that moment that something had changed between us. We were no longer just friends, because I had things I wanted to do, goals I wanted to achieve. So, I figured it was around this time that we decided to learn from each other together.”

“Like this?”

“No, no. It should be like this.”

“Ah, got it.”

“There, see? You’ve gotten the hang of it now.”

“Thanks, Sister Renare.”

The recollections that showcased the both of them continued to play, changing as the time quickly progressed. Perhaps due to the fact that he was seeing her memories, he could sense the pure emotions coming from her, much stronger than what he could normally tell before.

However, as Simon noticed that the details of each scene were becoming more and more easier for him to recognize, and he could now vividly remember them more and more clearly, he had realized something had changed as well.

“…”

As the three years flew by through the displayed projections, the Renare figure had gradually stopped speaking in favor of the Renare projection, who began to speak more instead.

Whether it was due to the fact that she had nothing to add on for the memories that he already knew, or it was because she was still hiding her true thoughts from him even at this point, he did not know.

As it went on, the memories became duller and more uninteresting for him to see due to their recency. While there were some that he was not present in, those usually consisted of Renare talking to herself about nothing important, thinking out loud about her time with him and sharing her personal feelings.

“… in other words, I love him for who he is, I hope he will never change, and I wholeheartedly believe that to be the case.”

“Wait a minute…”

A certain sentence from the Renare projection suddenly caught his attention just as he had begun to wander off, and he put his full and undivided focus back onto the memory that was currently playing.

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He had no clue where the timeline was for the scene, but based on a hunch, he had a strong feeling that it had occurred just a few weeks ago, during the period of the Church trials.

The person she was talking to was none other than the angel currently standing beside him, but that was not a concern right now. The main thing he was specifically drawn to was her direct confession, which seemed to be entirely genuine and not a lie.

“Love?”

Admittedly, he had not once considered the prospect that she might have had stronger feelings of affection towards him. As far as he had always believed, the two of them were nothing more than close companions, and he had always treated her with respect and slight adoration.

Obviously, that was no longer the case as their current relationship had been thrown into jeopardy, but now that he had heard her true feelings, it made him begin to feel slight pangs of guilt as he watched her projection continue speaking without the knowledge of him having already learnt about it.

“Maybe… I was a bit too rash? Should I have been more understanding?”

“…” the Renare figure remained quiet.

“Clack… clack…”

As the library memory ended and another one began to play, he suddenly began to hear a strange whirring and clacking noise in the background. It almost seemed as though something was different about this one, and as it played, he soon figured out why.

“Simon! Simon! Simon!”

They were on the elevated stage in the arena used for the Second Trial, and as the sound came on, he could hear the frenzied chanting of the crowd below them, clear and hard to misinterpret. As such, he already knew the time that the memory was taking place.

On the same stage before them, he could once again see the two recurring projections that had appeared throughout the entire recollection, Renare and the Elder, standing by the side and talking. Considering that he had seen her in the crowd when he fought Anten in the final match, he guessed that this conversation had taken place sometime during the short break.

“I need to ask you for a favor, Elder,” he heard the Renare projection ask, with a strong sense of urgency and panic that he could sense, “I don’t know what else I can do.”

In response, the Elder projection loudly sighed before asking, “… listen, I am very busy right now, so make it quick. What is it?”

“I know this may be hard to implement, but I want you to remove Brother Simon from the final trial.”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

Both the Elder projection and Simon expressed their confusion out loud at the same time, taken aback by her sudden and abnormal request that had seemingly come out of nowhere.

“I mean it,” she firmly doubled down, “I don’t think Brother Simon should fight anymore. I need you to make sure he doesn’t fight Sister Anten.”

“… what the freak?”

In an instant, all of the remorseful feelings about her disappeared from Simon’s mind and were replaced by shock and anger as he stared in horror at her, unable to believe what he had heard.

It was not only unprecedented and absurd for her to make such a brazen statement, but most importantly it was selfish. She had gone behind his back to speak to the Elder directly, a feat that he knew would not have been possible if she had not been in his Elite Circle before.

“Was everything a lie then? No, that can’t be possible, I know some memories did happen, so it has to be true… but then, why the freak would she do this? Out of love? Does she not want me to hurt myself? Because of something stupid like that?” he muttered to himself.

“Hmm, I see,” the Elder projection responded, echoing his own doubts, “but, if I may ask, why would you want to give such a request? Is it because you are afraid he will lose? Do you think he’s not strong enough?”

“No, I do.”

“…”

Once again, Simon’s mind was quickly thrown into disarray by the Renare projection’s reply, forcing him to stop his train of negative thought as she continued speaking to the Elder projection.

“I know deep in my heart that Brother Simon is strong. He’s the best person I know and trust. I know he will go farther than I can ever reach, and I want to be there to support him in whatever he does. But… I think I made a mistake. I should not have encouraged him to pursue his goal of giving back to the Church, as it has made him skeptical, competitive, and cruel.

I never wanted him to be this way. I always thought that I wanted him to succeed on his own merits, to do what I couldn’t, and to believe what I was unable to bring myself to believe. But I think in the end, I was just using him to fulfil my desire to achieve something I could not. I thought that if he was at least happy, I would have done my job, and that would give me a good reason to stay.

I don’t think he’s happy anymore. The trials have changed him. His strong belief has made him lash out at other people, think the worst of them, and strive to beat them no matter what. Regardless of whether he wants to or not, I don’t want him to act this way.

Maybe I am being selfish. Maybe I should not stop him from making his own decisions. However, I don’t want him to get the Goddess’ Gift. It doesn’t matter to me anymore whether or not he becomes the Champion of the Church, and I don’t care if he doesn’t reach his full potential. What I want is for him to live his life freely, not be tied down by any big responsibilities or beliefs.

That is what I wish for him now. So, please, I have to ask you to stop him. Don’t make him go through with this and go easy on him when you do so. I just… don’t want to see him be like this.”

“…”

“You realize that I can’t do that, Sister Renare,” the Elder projection coldly replied, “the final match is about to start, and the people are expecting a glorious fight. What you are asking for at this stage is simply impossible. In the end, no matter what you request, Simon Bailey will be in the match, no matter what.”

“… I see. Thank you,” the Renare projection was silent for a while before she finally accepted his harsh truth.

As she slowly walked off the stage with her head slightly lowered, the clacking grew deafeningly loud for a few moments before the entire landscape and the scene rapidly disintegrated into thin air, leaving Simon and the others back in the pure-white hallway once again.

“… Sister Renare…”

The memories had finally ended, but Simon did not know whether to feel hurt, touched, or sad as he stared into the white, empty space. There was simply too much new information for him to fully know what he wanted to do with it.

With him at a complete loss, the Anten figure stepped in and began to speak again, taking note of his conflicted emotions and as a result going gently with her tone and words.

“This is the Unbroken Truth, a way for people to understand one another by going through their true memories, thoughts, and emotions. When you were brought here, I figured that you would have already known your own past inside and out, and that you weren’t in denial of any of it at all, so I chose to focus on Sister Anten and what she really felt instead, based on what she had told me and my friends before.”

“I… I don’t…”

“I didn’t want to have to do this, Brother Simon. I thought that I could appeal to you in the real world, but I think you were simply too far gone. This was the only way left that I could think of to try and reach you, aside from beating you down and forcing you to listen.”

“… you did this. You did this!” Simon responded to her explanation by clutching his head in a panic and moving away from her, “why did you do this to me?”

“I did it to help you,” she insisted, although she realized his stress and kept her distance from him, “as I said before, I knew what Sister Renare really felt about you, and it would be pointless if I didn’t at least give you her real feelings and allow you to calm down.”

“… I knew it. That’s been your plan this whole time. This was a trap, designed to get me to lower my guard! You want me to stop fighting, don’t you? You want me to just give up on taking you down, huh?” Simon shouted, his volume continually rising with each new sentence as he hurled accusation after accusation at her.

“No, Brother Simon.”

The Renare figure’s monotonous voice suddenly cut through his protests, causing him to turn around furiously and glare at her in response.

“What did you say?!”

“She’s right. I never wanted you to give up, because she didn’t want you to,” the Anten figure jumped in, “I just wanted to give you an understanding. That’s all my technique can achieve. If this still does not convince you, then I’m sorry. You can beat or stab me all you like if that’s the case. Whatever happens, I just want you to be at peace, like her.”

“Then—”

Simon stopped himself, as he stared into the Renare figure’s pale violet eyes before looking back at her golden ones, sensing no malice whatsoever from either of them.

“I…”

Slowly but surely, he finally realized that she was being genuine in her real objective. There was no ulterior motive, no trick, she really felt that bringing him here was her last resort.

He wanted to reject it. He wanted to leave and beat her up as she had allowed him to do. However, even as he tried to recover his strong belief and willpower to fight back, he could not do it. He wanted the truth, and he had gotten it, it was as simple as that.

“… I just wanted to repay the Church, to help Sister Renare…”

“But I’m sure you already know deep down,” the Renare figure calmly replied, “that the Church is not what you knew it to be, and that I will be fine. You don’t have to worry about me anymore, I promise.”

“Yeah, I know…”

He fell silent for a few moments before the Anten figure stepped in again.

“Brother Simon?”

“… heh,” Simon finally laughed for the first time in a long while, “I guess I really can’t beat an angel after all. You win again, Sister Anten.”

“No,” the angel shook her head and remarked in response, “you never lost to me. I was the one who lost to you. You made me learn something today, and I will never forget it. You are stronger than me, Brother Simon.”

“Well… then I guess I really did my best, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

As the white hallway began to darken, Simon smiled as he serenely looked at the two girls, who had begun to disappear as well. His time was up, but he just had one thing left that he wanted to say to the person who he knew really needed it the most.

“Thank you for believing in me, Sister Renare.”

And with that, once he let go of his heavy responsibilities and his staunch beliefs, Simon Bailey was finally at peace, and not just with himself, but with the people he knew too.

**********************

“He’s gone.”

In the cold, damp alley of the Church compound, as she gently cradled his head in her lap, Anten solemnly delivered the news to Renare with a heavy heart and a reluctant tone.

Simon’s angelic features had already begun to disintegrate on their own, leaving the Particle he had on him free for the taking, but no matter how hard she tried to heal and fix him, he remained motionless and not breathing. His hands were pale and clammy, and his eyes were shut.

“I guess… it was all too much for his body to handle in the end.”

However, despite that, they still noticed a serene smile on his face, as though he had been content with everything before he left. The expression, though it was not much, gave them some slight peace as they gingerly laid his body down on the ground.

“…”

Renare kept quiet as she looked away, but even as she hid her face from everyone’s view, she could not stop a small tear from rolling down her cheek, and her lips from slightly trembling.

“… I’m sorry, Brother Simon. I will never forget you,” she spoke under her breath. In her heart, she firmly promised herself to keep the vow with her for as long as she lived.