CH 91

Chapter 91: Lars-sama’s past

I had heard that Lars-sama had a younger brother.

Since it was talked about in the past tense and I had never heard about any family from anywhere, I thought he was already dead.

I had also been careful not to ask about those things until Lars-sama talked about it.

“Isn’t it strange? I talked about having a younger brother, but there’s not even a portrait of him in the house. There aren’t even portraits of our parents. That’s because it was all to protect my brother. The beginning of it all was when I was discovered to have healing skill when I was very young and was welcomed to the temple as a Saint.”

He explained it simply like that.

Lars-sama, from a very young age, had to live in the great temple that was located away from here.

At that time, it seems they explained Lars-sama’s absence in the Duke Svald household as “being sick and staying on the territory”.

Because if it became known who the Saint was, there might be people who would threaten his family to heal them.

That’s how rare the healing skill were.

The royal family knew about it, but only the king and his closest subordinates knew.

Even when moving to the Grand Temple, Saint would meticulously pretend to travel to a territory and have someone from the Grand Temple come and pick them up during a stopover, taking them away in the middle of the night.

All of this was done so that Saint could act without delay.

In order not to be troubled by people who might recognize them by accident, they also burned all of their portraits.

——Even so, there were people who noticed.

Young Lars-sama felt pitiful that he never met with his parents and so, the former Duke and Duchess Svald met Lars-sama once a year at a different estate in the territory.

Of course, his younger brother was also there.

Especially at the age of thirteen, Lars-sama felt that his healing skill were weakening and was anxious, so the people of the Grand Temple allowed him to interact with their family for the sake of his mental stability.

At that estate, there were intruders.

They said they wanted Lars-sama to heal their illness with his healing skill and pointed a sword at them, making demands.

The Duke and Duchess Svald tried to protect Lars-sama.

As a result, the two of them were killed by the sword of the intruders.

Lars-sama thought he at least wanted to protect his younger brother.

Even though he couldn’t do it, he lied and said he could heal the illness, and thought they should leave this estate first. At that moment, his younger brother was captured.

“And at that time, finally the temple knights in charge of protection came. The intruders were killed and my younger brother clung to our parents. And he said to me, ‘Big brother, can you heal injuries? Heal it quickly!’ But I couldn’t. It was only once a day, that was the condition of my healing skill at that time.”

Unfortunately, Lars-sama had already used his skill on his injured younger brother while he was playing that day.

His younger brother, who realized it was his own fault and grieved, clung to their parents.

That was the time.

“My younger brother used the healing skill. Although my father couldn’t be saved because the healing was too late, my mother somehow managed to hold on to her life. And my younger brother could use the skill multiple times, just like when I first could use the healing skill.”

As a result of this incident, Lars-sama demanded that the Great Temple apologize for failing to protect him.

One is to make his brother who has stronger healing skill than him a the Saint.

The second was to hide his mother’s life and death and let her live with his younger brother in the temple.

“As a result, I inherited the Duke house, as a pitiable noble who lost his family.”

“That was to protect your younger brother and mother, right?”

If he becomes a saint, his younger brother will be protected deep in the Great Temple. His mother who accompanies him will also be protected.

“And Lars-sama chose the lonely path to protect them.”

To avoid danger like the time with Lars-sama, he made the decision to lose his family.

So he won’t see his brother again and everyone will believe that he’s dead.

Meanwhile, his younger brother made sure that his mother could stay by his side. He also experienced the horror of being attacked by bandits while he was still a child and carried the grief of losing his father because he could not save him.

In order to ease those things, he probably decided that his mother should always be by his side.

I also think that this is the best way.

“That’s why I couldn’t find the courage to tell you, Linea. Even though I had such a skill and was even worshiped as a saint, I couldn’t save my parents.”

Lars-sama may belittle himself, but I shook my head.

“That’s not true. If the lives of family members are at stake and you love those family members, it’s only natural that you can’t say anything.”

Unfortunately, I never felt that kind of affection from my only family, my father. So it’s just imagination for me.

If it was necessary for me to keep my mouth shut to protect the lives of Lars-sama, Asher-sama and Katie, I would do so.

“…I’m glad you told me that. It was good to talk.”

Lars-sama had a slightly dejected look, but he smiled.

Then he returned to the side of Asher-sama and Kvasir.