Chapter 260

"Camus, come back to the sanctuary."

After Camus learned how Lancermello treated himself and Aphrodite in the past, and threw the new blond disciple together with Elzak who had been trained for a year, he received a recall order from the Pope of the Sanctuary. Seven years ago, the Pope who ordered the Gold Saints to leave the Sanctuary issued an order for the first time to the Aquarius Gold Saints who remained in East Siberia.

"I'm going back to the sanctuary. You two stay here and don't cause any trouble." Camus folded the letter he brought back from Kohotik Village today, put on the holy suitcase and walked out of the door of his residence. "Elzak will be responsible for helping Hyoga learn some theories and master some basic vocabulary. I'll take the exam when I come back."

The wooden door closed in front of the two children, and Camus walked into the snowstorm alone and arrived at the foot of the Sanctuary at the speed of light. The interior of the Twelve Zodiac Signs had been empty since that night seven years ago. The Aquarius Saint, who was already wearing golden armor, walked past the trainees who were not much younger than himself around the Sanctuary and stepped onto the stairs in front of the Aries Palace.

——Aiolia... is in the corner of the training ground.

Camus used his Cosmo to do a simple search, and after ignoring the Cosmos of the Silver Saints he didn't recognize and a Cosmo in the Papal Palace that he was too familiar with, he finally captured the Cosmo belonging to the Leo Gold Saint Ioria in the corner of the training ground.

"Is this... fate?" Camus narrowed his eyes after withdrawing his attention from Eolia, and used his own Cosmo to greet the familiar Cosmo in the Pope's Hall. "Your Excellency the Pope has a big team this time - that idiot, how come he has defected to the current Pope?"

"Do you need me to go and get Camus, Your Holiness?" Aphrodite, who was already growing taller, leaned against the side of the Pope's chair, casually playing with a pure white rose in his hand. "Since it has been decided to summon all the Saints, there is no need to give Aquarius such a big favor, right?"

"You can stand here because of the privilege I give you - don't get carried away, Aphrodite." Saga, whose true face was blocked by the triple crown, sat in the Pope's seat and calmly stared at the stairs leading from the Pisces Palace to the Papal Palace. "Don't reveal my true identity in front of him - since you already know it, you should learn to keep it a secret."

"Yes, yes, I know, Brother Saga——"

Teleportation is prohibited inside the Sanctuary - so by the time Camus walked all the way from the Aries Palace at the bottom to the Papal Chamber, Aphrodite had already thrown aside the white rose he was holding in his hand, and changed his posture to stand beside Saga, facing Camus who had just returned to the Sanctuary, in the posture of guarding the Pope.

Camus stopped at the door of the Papal Chamber, his eyes fixed on the Pope - Saga, who was used to sitting on the Pope's throne, felt a little guilty when facing Camus's sharp and clear gaze like a glacier. When Aphrodite began to daydream, Saga even felt sweat oozing from his palms.

Camus turned his gaze away from the Pope, and after seeing Aphrodite's obviously empty eyes - he sighed softly, knelt on one knee and bowed to the Pope who was sitting high on the throne.

——Fate... Humans cannot change the thread of fate held by the goddesses of fate, so humans cannot resist their own fate...

Camus finally grasped the real clue in the misty instructions left by his teacher before his departure, and vaguely guessed Lancelomero's plan based on the contents of the various courses in the past. After making a simple judgment on the true situation of the Pope based on Aphrodite's condition, Camus chose to become the second person to submit to the current Pope.

Aiolos is now branded a traitor, so it is impossible for Iolia, who is still in the Sanctuary, to listen to the current Pope... Moreover, the Pope himself obviously has no intention of recalling all the Gold Saints for the time being - for Camus, this is a great opportunity.

——A great opportunity to understand the true dynamics of the Sanctuary.

It wasn't a big problem that the Pope didn't reveal his true identity - he would use the magic he had learned to figure out everything before meeting Lancelmero again.

And before that——* Camus, who chose to bow to the current Pope, hid a note in the library of Aquarius Palace with a guilty conscience, canceled his original plan to go to Jamil on the way back to learn about the latest situation with the Aries Gold Saint, and then went directly back to East and West Siberia, where he caught Hyoga and Elzak watching the hunting of polar bears on the ice field.

"It seems that both of you forgot that I will have to take the test after I come back." Camus returned to the residence with one person in each hand, put down the holy robe box and looked down at the two people, "Let's forget it this time. Hyoga has just come into contact with the world of the Saints, Elzak - you talk to him about the most basic content about the Saints."

"...Yes." Elzak lowered his head and replied to Camus, pulling the always indifferent Hyoga to start explaining -

Legend has it that when evil attempts to invade this world, the Saints who represent hope will surely appear to fight against it. It is said that their punches can split the sky and their feet can shatter the earth. They have been guarding Athena since the mythological age. In order to protect Athena, who does not like weapons, the young men wear protective gear called "Sacred Cloth" that imitates the 88 constellations in the sky and fight the enemy with bare hands.

"…So, in short, we chose to become candidates and participate in the Saint selection in order to protect the peace of this land." Elzak pointed his finger at Hyoga and concluded in a serious manner, "So, no matter whether it is you or me who becomes a Saint in the end, we must fight to protect this land."

Camus glanced at the silent Hyoga and keenly realized that this candidate sent by the Gurado Group was completely different from Elzac, who was training hard with all his passion for the possibility of becoming a Saint in the future to protect the earth and Athena - just like the feeling that Lancer Mello inadvertently revealed to him, Hyoga exuded a sense of putting his own goals before other goals.

"Let's not talk about this today." Camus sighed and ruffled the hair of two boys who were not much younger than him. "Let's talk about your common goal - the Bronze Cloth of the White Bird Constellation. The Pope called me back this time to inform me that I can decide on the official Saint quota."

"You two are very lucky. It's not like the Greek sanctuary where more than a thousand people had to fight for a bronze vestment."

Before leaving the sanctuary, Camus obtained the reserved list of participants for this holy war from Aphrodite.

It seems that the current Pope, who had revealed his identity to Aphrodite, condoned Pisces's willfulness, so Camus got a very strange list - there were a total of thirty-nine constellations written on it, but half of the constellations corresponding to the Gold Saints were crossed out, and only three of the constellations corresponding to the Silver Saints were not crossed out. The only ten bronze constellations were the only ones that remained intact in the three levels.

Among them, the Pope informed Camus through Aphrodite that the quota he could give to his disciple was the Ice Cloth, which existed in the permanent ice wall that had never melted since the Quaternary Flood Period - that is, the Ice Age millions of years ago, and was in harmony with the Cross constellation in the north sky.

Camus also understood the meaning of the list - although he suspected that Aphrodite did not understand the meaning of the deleted lines at all, he finally chose to trust the elder's intuition.

After all, Aphrodite had the rare opportunity to accompany Camus from the Papal Palace all the way to the gate of the Sanctuary - Camus had reason to believe that even Aphrodite, who was occasionally ridiculed as a muscle-head by Lancermelo who let the cat out of the bag, had a bad feeling after seeing this list.

"But, precisely because I know his true identity - so you don't have to worry about me." Before Camus left the Sanctuary, Aphrodite leaned against the door of Aries Palace, looking down at Camus who had not yet grown up, "I have decided that no matter what the outcome will be, I will always stand by his side."

"Your choice today is wise, but we do not regret forcing you to stay on our side..."

"It doesn't matter - I don't need you to remind me of this." Camus stopped and turned back to look at Aphrodite with his back to the light. "By the way, since you know who he is, please remind me that I won't be returning to the Sanctuary in the past few years - unless it is a battle that I absolutely cannot miss."

"As for the meeting... forget it."

The deleted lines on the list - just as Lansemello said, those deleted lines on the list meant the death of the corresponding Saints.

But Camus still remembered what Lancermello said to him when he said goodbye two years ago -

"If you can do this, we will all meet in the Sanctuary in the future - including the previous generation of Gold Saints who have passed away."

"Including the previous generation of dead Gold Saints... This kind of words really makes people feel subtle." After the two children fell asleep at night, Camus sat at the door of his residence in the wind and snow and began to ponder, "Sure enough, those deleted lines represent the death of the Saints - if fate does not allow me to control such freezing air..."

"...Then let's find a way to create a force that can overturn fate." Camus smiled helplessly, shook off the snow on his body, and walked back to his residence. "I hope what they are hiding from me is not a big deal... No, even the Pope has exchanged without knowing it. It's better to think that they are doing something big, right?"

"Don't give out this kind of thing next time." Lansemero sat under the statue of Athena, smiling and reminding Saga who was standing behind him with his back to him, "I spent at least three years teaching Camus alone - if the person himself knew about this, the failure rate would increase greatly."

"Haven't you chosen to reveal this to me who will die on the same day?" Saga chuckled, overlooking the entire sanctuary from a high place, "From the moment that boy from Japan gets the Pegasus Cloth, our plan will officially begin. What are your plans next?"

"No - unless you do anything of this magnitude again, I will not return to your sight before 1986."