Edmun picked Grey up by his shoulders and made a move to spin him around before he realized Grey was far too heavy for all that and just settled for lifting him up in the air and then back down.

That seemed to be the only part of his equation. He didn’t seem to care at all that Grey was practically at death’s door right now.

"We’re saved, we’re saved, oh glorious, glorious day. Her Holiness is so very wise and kind."

The old knight looked like he was about to shed some real tears.

"Are you finished or are you done?" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

This time, it was Grey who was unamused.

"Do you know what you have, boy?"

"No, old man. I thought I made that clear."

"Frames that cause physical changes to the body are incredibly rare—INCREDIBLY rare."

"This is basically not my body, and I’d prefer not to be fat."

"You’re not getting it. It only doesn’t feel like your body because it’s a blessing from the goddess. If you master it properly, it will be yours. You just haven’t. You need to reach Active Sync first. At that point, you can begin to integrate it properly."

"And not be fat?" Grey’s eyes lit up.

"You’re worried about the wrong things, boy! Most who gain the Mark of the Buddha choose to keep the robust—."

"Fat." Grey corrected.

"—Form because it is a sign of their blessing."

"I don’t feel blessed right now. And what the hell is Active Sync."

"When you enter the Vector Class, you gain an extra chance to control your—."

"VECTOR? YOU WANT ME TO BE FAT FOR THAT LONG?!"

"I didn’t see you for a few days and you came back with strength nearing the Vanguard Class. You’ll be fine."

"That’ll take me days. You can’t expect me to wait that long."

Edmun gave him a glare. This child was unbelievable.

"You will learn the use of that fat when you can actually control it."

"No thanks. I just want to get rid of it."

Edmun took a breath before he lost his cool again.

"Listen, Grey. This is a great blessing. Keep the fat, get rid of it, at this point it doesn’t matter. All that matters are the—take your mask off."

Grey raised an eyebrow, but did as he was told.

"Yes, yes... yes, this is right. This is perfect. All that matters are the markings on your head. Even the Valdi won’t dare to touch you right now. Not until a grace period is through."

"A grace period?"

"I will not lie to you, Grey, the amount I know about the Mark of the Buddha is limited. I can tell you a lot more about becoming a High Tier Knight."

"High Tier Knight?"

"One thing at a time." Edmun said with a wave of his hand.

"Then stop fucking mentioning things I don’t understand. This is your fault."

"Every Mark of the Buddha is special in its own unique way. Usually, they are tied to an Enlightenment, and this Enlightenment has to be grasped within a certain frame of time or else they fall from the tier of Buddha to the tier of the Monk.

"Monks are superior to Priests, but they are still weaker than Buddhas. A Monk could not save us from the rank of Duke, but a Buddha certainly could." Edmun continued as though he hadn’t heard. This was clearly his get-back.

"What does it mean to reach Enlightenment?"

"Three months. You have three months to reach Vector Class. Upon doing this, if you successfully achieve Active Sync, you will achieve Enlightenment and ascend to Vanguard."

"Oh, that’s easy, then."

Edmun gave Grey a look. "Yeah, you think so?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Where are your Abilities, then. Show me."

"There’s probably just one of those trial thingies to do, no?"

"Yes."

"Then I’ll just do it."

"Yeah? And where will you do that?"

"... Here?"

"We don’t have a Buddha Trial."

"Don’t you have a Priest one? You made it sound like they were extensions of one another."

"They are. But the Buddha is the closest to the Goddess other than the Legendary Paladin—."

"Wait, wait, wait, does that mean I can’t take the Paladin Trial here either?"

Edmun made a weird face. "The Paladin Trials are different. You could take them here, but you would need to successfully become a High Tier Knight first, and then there will be one final trial. Forget that, that’s not relevant right now.

"The problem is that the Buddha Trial is an incredibly spiritual experience. It is only available in seven locations, only one of which is close enough to reach within a three-month time frame, and that happens to be—."

"The place that piece of shit’s family comes from? Oh splendid."

"They would not dare to kill you outright—at least not openly—but they could easily slow you down, and in the meantime they could still take out some of their anger on the city..."

The more Edmun spoke, the less excited he seemed to become.

"What was that you mentioned about High Tier Knights again?" Grey asked.

Absentmindedly, Edmun shook his head.

"High Tier refers to a level of clearance. Basically all the Holy Knights you’ve seen until now are Low Tier, including me. Terran is the only Middle Tier Holy Knight in the entire city."

"Was." Grey said with a grin. "But why was it important."

"We had been hoping that between Bishop Calixan’s breakthrough and the presence of a High Tier Knight that our Church’s branch would have enough pull to not get steamrolled."

"Well, a Paladin could do that too, no?" Grey asked.

"Yes, theoretically," Edmun said absentmindedly, "but how do we get you to one of the central cities... even without the Valdi, the journey is treacherous. There are large stretches of unmanned lands and very few outposts sprinkled between..."

The old man was rambling at this point.

"Then let’s just take the Paladin Trial." Grey said. "What’s the big deal."

Edmun made an annoyed face. "Can you just be serious for once in your—."

He completely froze.