In a room with a knight sitting right in front of Maric. The occasional sunlight made the tears on Maric's face fade a little but it didn't take away from the expression Maric was showing.

Maric still wore the same frightened face as before. Even so, Maric's pupils were only focused on paying attention to every movement of the hand holding the pen and paper in front of him.

From the delicate hands and neat uniform, the knight in front of Maric now probably came from a noble family, and he was also very young.

'18 years old, he's about 18 years old.'

As a result of the war, the quality of knights and their age became very varied. It became very common among knights to see young officers walking around them.

Ability and quality cannot be determined by age, but for jobs that require experience, age is a definite benchmark.

There will be so many problems that require precision and experience, that whoever serves as the commander of the knights should be filled by older people.

But as Maric knew, those elders had mostly been swallowed up by history years ago.

All that was left now were the easy children who were still very green.

'At least, this knight is six years older than me.'

As Maric thought that, the knight in front of him then stopped writing.

"What did you find out, how things came to be like that..."

Maric immediately answered while shedding tears as if he was extremely frightened:

"I don't know what happened, I just saw a group of hooded men killing each other... they grabbed the man and cut off his hands."

"A group of hooded men? All hooded?"

"Yeah, those guys were all wearing hooded coats... they were really creepy."

There was a kind of serious aura from the knight, even though he was still very young, the cold and meticulous look in his eyes made one believe that perhaps the knight was a talented person.

He went back to writing, the knight went back to taking down Maric's every word. After finishing, the knight asked again.

"What did you see... for example, why the group of hooded men were fighting or where they started fighting from."

"I don't know, I really don't know... They just appeared out of the darkness like something I've heard in a story."

As Maric watched the knight's hand movements, he realized that the knight was probably trying to erase Maric's information from his notebook.

Just because Maric mentioned something similar to a story.

While slightly panicking, putting on a much more natural expression than before.

"Please, sir knight, believe me, I can't be wrong. They all do appear from the darkness."

Maric then lowered his head, the trembling pupils of his eyes now looking at his own two palms. His fingers seemed to be grasping for something.

"Those hands... Those black hands, long and terrifying hands emerged from under the shadows, they then dragged several corpses into their own shadows and left that poor headless man...sir knight, once again please, you must believe me, What I just told you is what I saw."

The knight in front of Maric then opened his notebook again to take notes. After finishing, he immediately closed the notebook in his hand and slightly raised his head.

At the same moment, a knight from behind the door entered.

"Captain Rey..."

Answering the greeting, the knight captain named Rey replied to his subordinate with a slight nod of the head.

"I see... let's end it here."

Rey then got up from his chair to leave Maric. Before Rey stepped out, he then opened his mouth to speak to the knight beside him.

"Tell me... Were the houses near the battle destroyed because they were hit by someone and not because of magic or sword techniques?"

"How do you know? Yes, all the damage was probably caused by some sort of blow, it's just that the position of each damage was so strange, that we originally thought that it might have been caused by some sort of magic shot from a meter away..."

Hearing that, Rey was silent for a while before her eyes then looked at Maric.

"Looks like what that boy said was right..."

...

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Sitting on the long wooden chair, Maric bowed his head down while looking at his palms that had not stopped shaking.

It had been a few minutes after Maric had been interrogated, even so the pressure he had been subjected to was still deeply imprinted.

"..Uncontrollable?"

Life was truly unpredictable. Everything can happen in unexpected situations, and often most people who don't prepare anything can be destroyed in an instant.

Without proper handling that incident would have probably ruined Maric's life right now.

'I can't trust those people, what would everyone say if they knew that I killed that hooded man? No, the knights wouldn't have thought of that, of course hearing of a child killing an adult still sounds absurd....I'm still alive...'

Maric looked back at his trembling palm and then patted his hand a few times.

He tried to calm himself down even though he knew that it was very difficult.

'I've seen death and people's corpses many times, but killing someone with my own hands still makes me feel scared... damn it...'

It still took some time. Maybe a while longer.

As Maric's head bowed and his palms closed. Maric's eyes looked down to make sure that the shadows under his feet still looked normal.

After Maric confirmed that, he then exhaled.

'Alright, this is really easy, I just have to think that the incident never happened to me.'

The sunlight above his head and the wind blowing slightly cooled Maric's head from his warm body.

Until the sunlight was now blocked by something.

A black umbrella was above his head and a girl Maric hadn't seen in a long time was standing right in front of him.

"Olivia..."

In the luxurious black dress she was wearing, Olivia then smiled slightly before asking Maric.

"Maric... what were you doing in the knight's office a moment ago?"

"Arrested by them..."

Maric answered briefly.

Olivia blinked a few times as she heard what Maric was saying. After she understood something, she then looked around to make sure that no one had heard them.

"Hmm... Four years is a long time... but who would have thought that time could turn you into a thief..."

Maric's eyes narrowed slightly. Before things got complicated, he quickly replied.

"No, they just wanted to ask me a few questions..."

"Yeah, whatever, whatever... come with me."

.....

The last time Maric met Olivia was about four years ago, that was right before she became a member of the Noir family.

Because Maric sometimes used Olivia as a daycare center. She had asked Deana and Viscout Franz about the Noir family's relationship with Olivia.

And from there, Maric then heard that Olivia did come from some kind of merchant guild, that was also the reason why Olivia wore luxurious clothes despite not being a noble.

After the war ended, the cooperative relationship between the merchant guild and noble families including the Noir family stopped, since then, Maric never heard of Olivia's whereabouts again and they never met again until now.

"So that's it... now, Olivia has her own jewelry store in the capital. And because of that, you never tried to meet me and Tina."

"Hi... Don't say that, I've been looking for you guys but you just disappeared."

"I don't believe it. With all the money you have you should be able to find out that Tina and I were adopted by the Noir family. For example, by paying some people to gather information."

"Ah! I never thought of that... I'm sorry, I'm just stupid."

Leaning back into the chair, Maric then reached for the cup of tea on the table to drink it. After the sweet taste stuck to his tongue he then put the Cakir back.

He was now silent, before opening his mouth again when he saw Olivia sitting nearby.

"Tina missed you once..."

"Haha... Of course, Tina will miss me, after all, I am a big sister to her."

From behind Olivia's hand, there were three small dolls made of cotton. Those were dolls that seemed to be made by professional craftsmen and of course the price must be expensive.

Olivia then moved the dolls near Maric.

"Do you still remember, I once told you that I would give Tina a birthday present but I didn't have the chance to give it. Now that we meet again, maybe it's time."

'She remembered that, I even almost forgot when Olivia said that. Ah.. it seems my memory is really troubled.'

Maric nodded while looking at the three dolls in front of him. There were two knight-like dolls and one female doll that looked like the princess.

Each doll seemed to have been made at a different time, it was probably some kind of proof that Olivia had planned to give only one doll but as time passed, there were now three dolls for each of Tina's birthdays.

'For two or three years, Olivia seemed to be looking for me and Tina, then in the fourth year she gave up. I never thought that Olivia would be so naive, she also thinks that she has some kind of strong bond with my sister.'

It was very difficult to describe what Maric was feeling, everything seemed so complicated as Maric continued to think about it.

Yes, of course Maric never thought of any ill will towards Olivia, but she also never intended to have a deep enough relationship with Olivia other than making Olivia a temporary friend of Tina.

In the past, having a friend to keep her sister's sanity was essential. Now there was no need for that and Maric never expected that she and Olivia might meet again.

But if fate brought them back together, Maric wouldn't blame her too much.

"I'm sure Tina will be delighted with these dolls. thanks Oliv."

"No problem."

Olivia replied to Maric with a smile. After a few moments of smiling sweetly, for some reason her expression now changed.

"I forgot... I should have gotten you a birthday present too... how did I get so careless over the years."

"Ah... It's okay, the magic stone gift you gave me back then means a lot to me... look, look at this, I always carry it around. I made the gift you gave me as my lucky necklace."

Maric took off the necklace around his neck and placed it on the table.

Olivia grabbed the necklace with sparkling eyes.

"You kept it all this time? Ah...it turned black, that means you've been using it..."

On her face, there was a glow of burning enthusiasm. Olivia then turned to Maric while clutching the necklace in her hand.

"Tell me, what did you see?"

"I can't remember anything, maybe I never saw my future or my destiny that the magic stone showed me..."

"No way, you must have seen it. Try to remember again, maybe you'll remember it again."

Maric shook his head once more. He wasn't sure how many times he had to shake his head just to convince Olivia that he couldn't remember anything.

Memory? That was the key word, even if Maric could not remember what she saw, as long as she could remember a little, wouldn't that be enough. Maric remembered that she could only feel things when she dug deeper into her memories.

"All I remember, just the feeling that I might be in a very cold place or in a very hot place. That's it."

"Cold and hot? Which one? A cold place or a hot place?"

"Maybe it's filled with some kind of meaning. Hey... Olivia, you gave me that stone, right? You should know the true meaning of what I'm feeling."

Olivia paused for a moment, she too was now shaking her head, indicating that she did not know the meaning of cold and heat that Maric was referring to.

"Well forget it... I'm only interested because according to what Lady Slivani said, what the magic stone shows will definitely happen in the future, one way or another."

'Oh...Really? I might start being curious about the dream I saw if only you could explain something more reasonable.'

Maric opened his mouth to try to bring the conversation to another topic.

"Haha... it might have been a side effect of the magic stone. If I could remember the dream, I would probably prevent it so that the future of the dream would never happen to me."

"You're right, mid-level sacred artifacts sometimes have dangerous side effects, if it wasn't dangerous, it would probably be useless."

'Harmful artifacts will become very useful and harmless artifacts will become useless artifacts. Are you playing games with me?'

Maric smiled sweetly while pretending not to hear anything.

"Hmm..You're saying that it's a mid-level artifact? In that case, there should be a high-level artifact, right?"

"Yes, of course there is... But please don't ask me to tell you."

"I see, so it's a trade union secret?"

"No..."

Olivia answered briefly. From the way Olivia spoke, Maric began to feel that the girl wanted to avoid this topic.

Maric did not mind that, after all, the business secrets of a company did not interest Maric.

Everyone obviously had their own little secrets, it would be rude of Maric to start finding out just out of curiosity. Even if Olivia was starting to act strangely at the moment.

"Maric, give me that artifact..."

Maric then gave the black stone called the artifact to Olivia. Olivia with sparkling eyes began to look at each side of the black stone as if she was looking for something.

"The writing is missing? So that's it, it's only a one-time use artifact."

Olivia placed the black stone on the table and stood up from her chair and then sat back down after carrying a small box nearby.

The small box looked very luxurious with a red lining and a hint of gold color. Inside the box, there was an untreated stone with a rough surface and an orange color like oranges.

At first glance, the stone seemed to have been directly taken from the quarry without going through some sort of refining process. Raw manterial or something like that.

Olivia immediately lowered her head.

"I feel guilty giving away that useless artifact, in exchange, I will give away another artifact that is more useful... Lady Slivani told me, if this artifact can show the thread of destiny to the chosen people, I believe you are the one who deserves it."

"Olivia, this is a bit much, I don't want to accept."

"Don't worry, this artifact is much more useful than what I gave you before, you should accept this."

'Gosh, it's a rock, it's just a rock. Don't keep saying that it's so special. If the stone is indeed special, then why did you give it to me.'

Because of Olivia's persistence, Maric decided to accept the stone without the fancy box it came in..

It would be ridiculous for a luxury box for nobles to only contain a hunk of stone that looked useless. Maric didn't want the Noir family's reputation to be ruined just because of this stupidity.

So before Olivia might give Maric some strange items. Maric immediately looked for an excuse to get out of Olivia's jewelry store.