Chapter 673: Loyalty and Trust

Of course, this girl’s problem was not just about swordsmanship, she only wanted the right to choose.

"What about your brother? Does he disagree with your decisions too?" Lian finally asked.

This time, Alicia shook her head without hesitation.

"No. My brother has always treated me well."

She smiled for a moment.

"Actually, that day, he was the only one who first asked about the result of the exam, instead of asking why I took part in it."

"What did he say?" Rindo gave a small smile.

"When I told him I passed, he just said he expected it."

"He sounds like a confident person." Noah laughed.

"He is, sometimes even too confident."

"But unlike everyone else, my brother never tried to turn me into another version of himself." She laughed too.

She looked at her sword for a moment.

"Even when many people only knew me as Alistair Sterling’s sister, he had no problem with me following my own path."

Lian nodded.

Such a relationship among influential families was not very common, at least based on his own experience.

He had brothers who sometimes even saw each other’s existence as a threat to their own future, Cassias was the only exception, and that guy had no ambitions at all.

But Alistair, despite his fame and position, apparently did not treat his sister that way.

At least in that regard, she’s lucky.

Alicia continued.

"I never wanted to become stronger than my brother or take his place, I just didn’t want to spend my entire life living a life that others had already chosen for me."

Lian looked at her for several seconds and then said.

"I think I understand you to some extent."

The girl raised her head.

"Really?"

"Families usually think they know what’s best for you better than you do, sometimes they really do have more experience, and I’m not ignoring that."

He glanced at Alicia’s sword.

"But in the end, you’re the one who has to live with the result of that decision, if you regret your choice one day, at least it should be a choice you made yourself."

Alicia looked at him for a few moments, and then a gentle smile appeared on her face.

"Exactly."

Lian continued.

"Of course, that doesn’t mean you should ignore everything your family says, they’re your family, and you should still listen to their advice, but the final decision should still be yours."

"That’s what I think too." The girl slowly nodded.

For a few moments, a comfortable silence formed between them.

Alicia did not expect Lian to completely understand her problems, their lives were very different, and even the reasons for their disagreements with their families were not the same.

But at least he had listened to her without trying to change her mind, and that meant something to her.

Noah, who had remained silent until then, looked at both of them with a smile.

"Well, I think if your families ever meet each other, they’ll have a very interesting conversation."

"I’d rather not be there that day." Lian laughed, he more or less did not have a family.

He had lost his mother during childhood, and he had seen his father fewer times than the number of fingers on his hands, and the rest of his family members had never cared about him either.

Perhaps the only exception was Damian, his uncle, and even then, his uncle was not going to replace his father or mother, he was more like a friend.

However, Alicia had grown up surrounded by a family, her family seemed to love her, and she loved them too, the only problem was that the girl wanted to make her own decisions about her life and thought her family’s worries were too much.

He was not in a position to say which side was right, but at least he could give her a little advice.

"Me too." She smiled as well.

Some time later, the group reached a wider path.

One moved through the broken pillars with steady steps, while Two moved beside him.

In the distance, several Withered were moving toward the center on a lower platform, but none of them approached the group.

Rindo examined the path for a moment and then looked at Noah.

"By the way, we’ve talked about Lian and Alicia’s plans, what about you?"

Noah raised an eyebrow.

"Me?"

"Yeah. What do you want to do after graduation?"

The young Frenchman thought for a moment and then answered with fake seriousness.

"First, I want to sleep for a week, then eat a proper meal, and preferably stay away from anything that looks like a monster for at least a month."

Rindo laughed.

"I meant after that."

"After that?"

He looked toward the horizon for a moment, his smile was still there, but this time it took him several seconds to answer.

"I want to finally serve someone I’ve dreamed of serving my entire life."

Lian turned his head toward him.

Serve?

He had not expected such an answer.

Noah usually talked about a comfortable life, food, and travel, with his friendly and humorous personality, Lian had imagined that his goal would be something like joining a good Guild or having a free and peaceful life.

But now he was talking about serving someone.

"Who?" Alicia had become curious too.

The young Frenchman gave a small smile.

"Someone I’ve admired for a long time."

"A Celestial?" Rindo asked.

"Maybe someone who’s even more important to me than a Celestial."

Lian looked at him for a moment.

It was a strange statement.

Most Awakened dreamed of reaching a position where others would follow them, but Noah apparently had decided years ago to serve someone else.

"I didn’t think you had a goal like that."

"Why? Because I talk too much?" Noah laughed.

"Partly."

"You’re so cruel, Vorhelm."

Then he looked at the closed umbrella beside him.

"I know it’s a strange answer, most people want to become famous, make money, or join a powerful Guild after graduation."

He paused for a moment.

"But I’ve known for a long time who I want to work for, for some people, reaching a high position is the most important goal, but for me, what’s more important is being able to become useful to that person one day."

"Does that person know you’ve made this decision?" Rindo asked with interest.

Noah gave a short smile.

"I hope so."

His answer was so unclear that Rindo raised an eyebrow for a moment.

"You hope so?"

"Well, I haven’t graduated yet, before talking about the future, I’d better get out of this prison alive first."

The young Frenchman laughed, but Alicia was still looking at him.

"One question."

"Go ahead, Lady Knight."

"If that person asks you to do something that’s different from what you want, what will you do?"

This time, Noah did not answer immediately and looked at the path ahead for several seconds.... then he said quietly.

"I guess then I’ll have to decide what’s more important to me."

He gave a small smile.

"But I hope I never have to choose between the two."

Lian kept his gaze on his friend’s face.

Over the past few days, Noah had made jokes many times; even in situations where most people could barely stay calm.

But now his tone was different, he was not exaggerating or trying to cover his answer with a joke, at least it seemed that he was talking about a goal he was completely serious about.

’So even you have a clear goal.’

Lian did not know where this loyalty came from.

Perhaps that person had helped Noah in the past, perhaps he had admired that person for years, or perhaps there was something more personal that he preferred not to talk about.

But there was no reason to push him, everyone kept parts of their past to themselves.

He was the same.

At that moment, Noah turned his gaze toward him.

"Well, now that we’ve talked about my goal, can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"Since you don’t like serving under someone else’s banner, do you think it’s even possible to serve beside someone and work with them without completely trusting them? Or even serve under them?"

"I’m curious about your opinion too." Alicia also became interested in the subject.

Lian remained silent for a moment.

It was not a simple question.

Especially for someone who had experienced betrayal and hostility, but had also survived dangerous situations many times thanks to the help of others.

He looked at the stone path ahead.

Trust, hmm?

An old memory appeared in his mind.

The Special Area, the Giants’ Forest, and the huge bird whose nest he had been trapped in.

At that time, Lian had met three siblings, they still did not know each other very well, but the situation had forced them to make decisions together.

If each of them had only thought about saving themselves, crossing that forest and escaping from that bird would probably have been much more difficult, perhaps even impossible.

But in those circumstances, they had trusted each other, and the result was that all four of them survived.

Then he remembered the Giants’ Graveyard.

Seris.

Their cooperation had played an important role in getting through the dangers of that area, at certain moments, Lian had been forced to trust Seris’s decisions, just as she had trusted him.

And finally, the battle against Black Silence.

A battle whose result had not depended only on Lian’s physical strength or skills, without the cooperation of others and mutual trust in that battle, reaching the final result would have been much more difficult.

Finally, he answered.

"I think power can solve many problems, but not all of them."

Noah waited for him to continue.

"When several people fight together, you can’t keep looking behind you every moment to make sure no one has run away or made a stupid decision."

Lian looked at Rindo for a moment.

"Sometimes you have to make your own decisions based on the belief that the person beside you will definitely do their job properly, if you can’t do that, even a powerful group might be defeated very easily."

"So you think trust is necessary." Alicia slowly nodded.

"Yeah, but there’s an important difference."

Lian turned toward Noah.

"Trusting someone isn’t the same as obeying them without thinking, you might trust someone but disagree with some of their decisions, anyway, that depends on the relationship between those two people."