The knight had insisted Louis be moved from the fire and settled inside a prepared tent, which one of the knights had erected in minutes.
It was small but efficient, offering total privacy from the men outside.
Leon had given him firm instructions to stay and rest inside and better get some sleep.
The golden-haired commander lingered only long enough to inform Louis of their immediate plans.
They would head to the nearest village to get his wounds healed by a priest before going back to the holy empire.
Louis was left alone, lying on a surprisingly comfortable bedroll. He closed his eyes and tried to sort through the chaos.
He remembered the rest of the conversation as well.
The man had explained that this world was known as Eden, the same name of the game.
The chilling detail was the confirmation of his identity: Louis was the saint ordained by Goddess Lumina herself.
That explained the name Louis Caelum de Luminaris, the last part likely meaning 'of Lumina.'
It made his presence in the village to 'facilitate a prayer' make sense, too. This was not just a powerful character; this was a religious figure.
Slowly accepting but not fully, Louis was beginning to acknowledge his situation.
He was inside the game Eden, and he was trapped in the body of a seventeen-year-old saint. He needed to survive, and to do that, he had to play the part of the amnesiac Saint Louis.
But the thing he cannot really accept was the kiss!
It had been so sudden, so tender, and so out of place. 'A sworn knight and a childhood friend kissing the Saint of the Goddess?
'What kind of relationship is that?'
Louis touched his lips, a phantom sweetness still lingering.
It was his first kiss, and it had come from Leon von Aegis, a devastatingly handsome, grieving, and confusingly affectionate commander.
Louis felt a flush rise to his cheeks even now, alone in the tent.
He wanted to dismiss it as the emotional turmoil of a reunion, but Leon's sad, apologetic smile when he did it suggested a far deeper, more complicated history between the two boys than just a friendship.
Louis suddenly noticed that the story about him being kidnapped and the demons was not the entirety of it.
He began turning the facts over in his mind, ignoring the blush on his face.
How come a saint was kidnapped just like that? It did not make sense.
Leon said the carriage was only accompanied by a village guard, but if Louis was the saint ordained by Goddess Lumina, he should have been traveling with a contingent of elite guards from the Holy Empire.
A figure of his religious importance would not be left vulnerable with only a handful of local soldiers, especially when returning from a demon-plagued border.
There must be some other stories not known. The official version Leon gave felt intentionally stripped down.
'Was it an internal ambush disguised as a demon attack? Did someone inside the Holy Empire want Louis Caelum de Luminaris gone, or at least compromised?'
The fact that the wolf beast attacked the moment Louis woke up in the forest also felt less like coincidence and more like a poorly executed cleanup operation.
He could not just ask either because they already told him the story.
To ask Leon directly would expose his pretense of total amnesia, revealing that his critical thinking was intact.
He needed to be subtle, to pry information without sounding suspicious.
The low whispers of the knights outside faded as a soft, crystalline light shimmered inside the tent.
The glowing panel appeared again right in front of Louis's face, making him flinch violently.
He almost cursed loudly but managed to reign himself in, clamping his teeth down on his lower lip.
Glaring silently at the one who caused him the situation—the intrusive, floating blue screen—the panel began to show words in different panels, replacing the previous tutorial message.
|╣Tutorial Completed.╠|
|╣Congratulating the Hero for successfully completing the Basic Survival Tutorial.╠|
|╣Tutorial Hidden Requirement Fulfilled!╠|
|╣Find and established contact with one of the 5 Love Interests.╠|
|╣Target Acquired: Leon von Aegis.╠|
Louis blinked rapidly. 'Love Interests?'
The blood instantly drained from his face, leaving a cold pit in his stomach.
The term was utterly jarring, a stark reminder that this was, indeed, a game, but a specific kind.
What love interest! There was never a mention about this being a harem. A boys love at that!
And it was even numbered in 5!
The gentle kiss, Leon's intense sadness, the sworn knight promise—it all clicked into a terrifying, awkward focus.
The final panel showed words not caring about him or his emotional turmoil.
|╣Reward Acquisition: Tutorial Completion and Target Acquisition.╠|
|╣As a reward for completing the tutorial and finding the target a reward will be given!╠|
|╣Skill Acquired!╠|
|╣Divine Hand (S). A skill to heal any types of physical injuries. Note: can't use to oneself.╠|
Louis stared at the final, concise line of the reward. Divine Hand (S). A powerful skill, and logical for the body of a Saint.
But the restriction—'can't use to himself'—was a strange, specific limitation. The last part bothered him.
He was the Saint, the one meant to heal others, yet he was barred from self-care.
It felt less like a game mechanic and more like a cruel piece of thematic commentary on the role of 'Louis Caelum de Luminaris.
The system panel appeared again. It completely overlaid the previous reward panel.
As him completing the tutorial, his system status was now available.
|╣System Status╠|
Name: Louis Caelum de Luminaris
Race: Blessed Human (S)
Title: Saint of Lumina (EX), Goddess Apostle (EX)
———
Skills: Divine Hand (S),???,???,....
———
Love Interest:
1. Leon von Aegis (A+)
2. ???
3. ???
4. ???
5. ???
Louis scanned the panel, utterly overwhelmed by the designations. He had been a gamer long enough to know what the letter ranks meant.
His gaze immediately snapped to the Love Interest section. Now he knows Leon was ranked A+.
That was really powerful in terms of games!
An A+ ranked love interest usually signified a key main character with an intense storyline and great difficulty to secure.
The empty slots beneath Leon made the realization stark: five main targets, one of which was already found.
'I am stuck in a BL romance fantasy game, in the body of a sacred Saint, and one of the capture targets kissed me within five minutes of meeting me,' Louis thought, staring at Leon's high rank.
'This is not going to be a simple "save the world" plot. This is going to be incredibly messy.'
He also had to worry about those question marks in his skill list and the four unnamed targets.
'There is no way out right now,' Louis realized, the chilling truth settling over him. 'If this is a game, the only way to escape is to beat the game.'
However, his immediate goal was not salvation; it was survival.
The fact that he was the Saint, the one the Love Interests were focused on, meant he was at the center of the danger.
He decided then and there that he would prioritize his life over the romance plot.
He would avoid all five Love Interests as much as possible, including the emotionally compromised Leon von Aegis.
'I must remain amnesiac and passive, focusing only on acquiring usable skills and avoiding any triggering events that might lock me into a romantic route.'
The first step was to escape the tent and observe the knights without arousing suspicion.
"But I think that's not possible right now."
The secondary goal was to find a safe, permanent ally.
An A+ ranked Love Interest was a huge complication, especially one who had sworn to be his protector.
If Leon was that powerful, he was also dangerous.
Louis needed to focus on the 'save the world' plot element, the core narrative, and use his game wits, not emotional leverage.
Louis pushed the system panel away and sprawl his legs the bedroll, wincing slightly as the motion pulled at his bruised muscles.
The sun had not fully risen when Louis woke, but the faint, pearly light of dawn was filtering through the tent fabric.
He heard the quiet clinking of armor and low, disciplined voices outside. When Louis finally stepped out of the tent, the camp was already fully functional.
The knight order prepared a good breakfast. Louis saw a separate cooking area where one man was expertly turning skewers over a controlled flame.
The meat looks fresh, glistening slightly with rendered fat. There was also a basket of simple, dense bread set out on a clean cloth near the campfire.
He accepted a plate of the fragrant grilled meat and a piece of bread from a polite, silent knight and found a spot near the warmth of the flames.
Sitting in front of the fire, Louis ate slowly, trying to project a calm, amnesiac demeanor.
But the silence around him was heavy.
He glanced up and saw the knights scattered around the camp, eating their own rations in small, distant groups.
Their attention kept drifting toward him, but they quickly looked away whenever he met their gaze.
Louis cannot suppress this feeling. It was obvious that there seems no one have the courage to sit next to him.