"The divine statue, you must go and make sacrifices to the Radiant divine statue at the beginning of every month. As long as you sign this blood contract, then afterward, hmph, we can spare that Hero."
"..."
After a brief silence, she nodded. Although she knew this would mean losing a lot, but...
"Alright, I am willing."
[Your teammate "Freya" has left the party.]
----
The light of the Sage's Stone gradually dissipated.
Reji's consciousness returned from the memory of the "Emperor" in the gem to reality.
In the night of Darran City, Reji was momentarily at a loss for words, with a strong sense of discomfort welling up in his heart.
In the initial achievement summary, it could be seen that the Saintess would have a long period of hostility towards him in the future.
And the starting point of this opposition was right here.
It began with the system prompt: [Your teammate "Freya" has left the party.] Experience tales with empire
Reji still remembered it very clearly.
At that time, he was indeed a bit surprised by this sudden prompt, but it was only surprise and nothing more.
Back then, he naturally assumed that it must have been because he had accumulated too much sin value in the city, always smashing cans and opening treasure chests, which made the righteous Radiant Saintess dislike him, with her favorability towards him decreasing until she eventually left the party.
He didn't take it seriously.
If she wanted to leave, then so be it.
After all, in order to delay the main storyline, he had been deliberately avoiding the Radiant Saintess and intentionally not talking to her, so whether Freya left the party or not made no difference.
But now, after seeing the Emperor's memories, Reji finally understood the truth of that year.
Freya had never once said she would give up on him from beginning to end.
Instead, she had been doing her utmost to help and protect him.
She even went against the entire Council of Elders of the Radiant Temple without hesitation.
Reji took a deep breath.
Looking at the bright moon in the night sky above, he knew that rather than feeling remorseful and blaming himself here, it was better to take action now.
In addition to marveling at the powerful and unknown strength his student from the future had attained, he also expressed deep regret and sympathy.
After all...
Malvin was certain that for his student to use magic so irritably, someone must be in for a lot of trouble tonight.
...
"Elder Lina, the latest intelligence is all here!"
A Templar Knight respectfully handed the documents to the elders and quickly left.
The Radiant Temple at night was different from during the day, no longer dazzling with light. Shadows enveloped the hall.
The six elders were now gathered together, holding a meeting about Freya even at night, working overtime.
"The Hero has already obtained the Holy Sword?"
"Is that true?"
"Based on the intelligence, the Hero seems to have never used that sword. I have doubts about this."
"Forget about the Holy Sword, using a small twig as a weapon? What is this nonsense! What on earth is Freya doing?!"
From the previous Emperor's memories, it could be seen that the Temple had actually been keeping an eye on him all along.
However, this "third playthrough" Hero was a bit unconventional.
Due to fast-forwarding and speedrunning many plot points, the current Council of Elders was a bit at a loss and puzzled by this Hero.
But...
"Look at this magic imprint. This is the talent selection of the Academy's grand competition. Did you notice the young man holding the child with 'eight-segment' talent?"
"This... this seems to be the Hero?"
"That's right, it's him. I remember it clearly. They went on stage right after Freya."
"So who is this child?"
Malvin falsely claimed that eight segments was an easter egg, but some forces behind the scenes obviously didn't believe it, thinking that Vielsia was truly a legendary-level genius, including the Radiant Temple.
Therefore, the six elders now also had their sights set on Vielsia.
"How about ordering Freya to bring the Hero and that child back immediately?"
"Agreed. If that child really has such potential, bringing her before the divine statue and cultivating her into a new Saintess, the radiant blessings we can obtain will definitely be even more than when Freya was chosen!"