Ten days later, everything had fallen into place.
Grand Duke Andrei, as Kayal's father, was surprisingly calm about his son's blindness.
He could accept it and understand it. As a subordinate, Kayal's choice was perfectly fine; it was his responsibility and his duty.
As a husband, Kayal had also done nothing wrong.
To put it bluntly, considering their respective roles, it was obvious which one—charging into battle or strategizing—required sight more.
Grand Duke Andre fell silent, but his mother, Marcy, was teary-eyed. Ever since Artoria's ascension, Kayal had been constantly on the move, campaigning in the east and west, and had never returned to see her. Today, he came back with a disability. Although Kayal continuously released and absorbed photons to receive images through photon feedback, allowing him to move without restriction, he was still, at the end of the day, disabled.
Marcy would burst into tears whenever Kayal was mentioned, and seeing him made her want to embrace him and weep aloud.
Kayal was extremely embarrassed. After staying at home for two days, he had no choice but to move back to his own small estate.
Jeanne was doing very well at the Knight Academy. The Scottish and Camelot people were treated equally, which was a strict requirement Kayal had for his students. It was precisely because of this atmosphere that Jeanne accepted her identity and settled down to study.
She was the only Scottish person who could still walk around the streets.
So, she calmed down and began to study, harboring a drive to bring honor to the Scottish people. Jeanne was excellent in both academics and character.
However, after seeing Kayal in his current state, she felt a pang of heartache instead.
C.C. always looked timid and weak, as if she hadn't woken up from the nightmare of that day.
Evangeline, on the other hand, was even more afraid of Kayal now.
For no apparent reason, Kayal seemed to have lost his eyes, his face as pale as a frail, blind man. Yet, relying on her vampire instincts, Evangeline began to keep her distance from Kayal.
Currently, she couldn't even defeat ordinary knights, let alone Kayal or the Claymores. This was why she resorted to ambushes and lived in the forest.
Now that he was free, Kayal did not rest or recuperate. Having given his eyes to Lily, he underwent surgery to replace them with Lily's eyes. One reason was to see if the curse would vary from person to person, and the other was that empty eye sockets were not ideal, as his eyelids would be sunken in.
Of course, the former was Kayal's primary goal.
It was proven that Red Dragon Igneel's immense magical power had completely transformed into a curse, intertwining with these eyes. No matter what, Kayal's dispelling attempts could not remove the curse, and light magic around the eyes was entirely dispelled by the Red Dragon's power. This result left Kayal with no choice but to smile bitterly.
Finally, unable to find a solution, Kayal brought C.C. and Evangeline to Gensokyo to seek medical help, or rather, to bring Evangeline to her ancestors, or to analyze the secret of C.C.'s immortality, or even agelessness.
There were many so-called immortal and ageless beings in Gensokyo, such as the Moon Sage Eirin Yagokoro, the Youkai Sage Yakumo Yukari, and Kazami Yuuka.
These Youkai, who were neither gods nor humans, had lived for countless years. No matter how intelligent Kayal was, he could never compare to the wisdom accumulated over such vast periods. As the saying goes, one person's wisdom is limited, but collecting the wisdom of many. Kayal still believed there was a good chance his eyes could be restored.
The light shield enveloping them made Evangeline feel completely uncomfortable, giving her goosebumps, as if a wave of irritability was washing over her.
C.C., meanwhile, looked around like a curious child.
Still by the lake, Kayal breathed a slight sigh of relief. Yakumo Yukari, as the boundary maintainer, often used her boundaries and gap abilities to prank others. Kayal had been played with many times and felt a chill in his heart. Today, his luck was relatively good.
He didn't know if Yakumo Yukari was sulking or off playing somewhere.
In any case, it was a good start.
Kayal nodded, holding their small hands as they walked along the lakeside, heading towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
However, a blue figure blocked their path after the trio had walked for a while.
"Hey!" The little girl shouted loudly, hands on her hips, looking very mighty. Six ice shards behind her emanated a chilling aura. Waving a frozen Frog in her hand, she yelled at Kayal: "Kayal, you've already…" She frowned and began to count on her fingers with the hand not holding the Frog: "One, two… three… one, two…"
"You haven't come to play with me for so many days!" After only three seconds, she gave up on the difficult problem and shouted at Kayal.
"Isn't Lancelot still here?" Kayal asked with a leisurely smile. Cirno had not noticed Kayal's tightly shut eyes the entire time.
"That Lancelot guy went back!" Cirno yelled unhappily, "He said he wanted to go back and see his country, and then he just left."
Kayal was astonished: "How did he get out?"
"That old hag Yukari sent him out…" Cirno pouted, saying unhappily.
Suddenly, a crack appeared nearby, and a small loli, only three heads tall, stumbled out, wearing a distinctive Frog hat with two huge eyeballs on top. The little girl looked at the frozen Frog in Cirno's hand and immediately became furious: "Aha! I knew there were more frozen Frogs! It's you and this idiot!"
"I'm not an idiot!" Cirno's attention instantly shifted; she didn't even care how the other girl had appeared.
Making a face, Cirno threw the frozen Frog towards the three-headed loli and flew into the sky.
The Frog-hat loli was furious. She immediately tossed her kin into the lake and then chased after Cirno.
Kayal shrugged. The unexpected news today was quite significant. He called out into the void: "Yukari, since you're already here, stop peeking. Peeking is very rude, you know."
"Not at all." A crack appeared in front of Kayal. Yakumo Yukari, sitting on the crack and covering her mouth with a fan, teased Kayal with a charming yet not lewd laugh: "Isn't there a saying that even gods will forgive a maiden's mistakes?"
"There's no such saying," Kayal shook his head and said, "And you're not a maiden anymore~"
Yakumo Yukari's seductive eyes narrowed, and a sense of danger immediately surged into C.C. and Evangeline's hearts. Both were startled at the same time, their legs trembling.
"Snap~" With a flick of her paper fan, Yakumo Yukari disappeared into the gap: "Never mind. Considering your disability, I won't argue with you about that statement." Otherwise, you'd be waiting for a gap~