Never Heard It from My Father
Where is it? Where is it...?!
The oath... the oath... It has to be in the ancestral records!
If I can't find it... No! No way! I won't accept that fate!!
Inside the library of the Rhys family estate.
A room filled with everything from legal documents to ancestral journals. Buried under a mountain of papers and books, Bell had been digging through the archives for nearly two hours straight.
She said it was a Rhys family oath... If Lady Alicia said so, then it must be real.
Which means there has to be a way to break it! There has to be...!
...
There has to!!
Ever since that chaotic first encounter, Bell has been showing up to training exactly as promised.
...It's not like I'm blowing off the Journey.
If I didn't care, I wouldn't have accepted the invitation in the first place.
The Rhys family has always supported NOA, after all.
Completing the Journey and inheriting the power of the Star Savior... that's an honor to our house, and—
...Wait.
I never said I didn't want to train! Hey, YOU! It—
Hey?
I-I mean…
Captain!
There it is.
Nnghh...
…Those birds won’t shut up.
All happy and carefree!
Meanwhile I'm dying here in training...!
So unfair... So annoying...
I'll curse you... May the Curse of the Clenched Black Thorn be upon you!
Each time you try to perch on a branch, may the black thorns pierce your feathery—
EEP—?! C-Captain?! Wh-when did you get behind me?!
O-of course not!
Y-yep! Of course I remember!
T-totally keeping that in mind!
Good.
Grgh... nngh...!!
Captain... hasn't training time already ended? Why are we still doing—
But that was because of YOU, Captain!
Because of... me?
Oh, um.
W-well, I mean... that's...
Because of... me?
I mean this is...
No...
Because of... me...
...
...There has to be a way out!!
If I stay like this for a whole year, I'll break...!
I'll lose myself! My identity! My entire way of life!
...Ah!
Here it is! This is it!
A passage from the ancestors of House Rhys, addressed to their descendants concerning duty, obedience, vows, and oaths.
The Duty of Obedience... The Duty of Obedience... Found it!
...
...And so, I was bound to obey him.
The ones who carry the Rhys name must uphold this vow for generations to come.
...But he also showed us a way to break free from the chains of this fate.
Which is...
If the command-giver says, "I believe in you," then the listener can be freed from the Duty of Obedience.
...I believe in you?
All it takes is hearing... I believe in you?
Hah... Haha... Hahaha!
Seriously?! That's it?!
Hahaha, Just a few words...?
That's... not... even hard...
...Hold on.
...I believe in you...?
...
Wh-what...
What even is that supposed to mean?
Y-you're telling me I have to hear something that disgusting?!
People actually put their trust in each other?
There's no way...
That can't be real...!
No one has ever said those words to me.
And I have never once considered saying them to anyone else.
The sentence "I believe in you..."
How... How do I even get someone to say that to me...?
...
What do I have to do to hear that?!
Bell's voice echoed through the vast halls of the Rhys estate library, lonely and hollow.