"Please allow me to go. I'm confident I can persuade them."
Hinata wasn't confident about all the Templar Knights—there were simply too many, and she couldn't possibly know every single one.
But the one hundred eleven Templars and the six Saints under her command? She knew those people very well.
They had chosen to exterminate monsters purely because of their stance.
If Hinata switched sides first, the others probably wouldn't resist too much.
This was the so-called idol effect.
They believed in Hinata and were willing to follow her to the ends of the earth.
Even if it meant falling into hell and becoming demons, they wouldn't hesitate.
Compared to the vague, distant goddess Luminas, the Templar Knights and Six Saints trusted Hinata's judgment far more.
Just as Hinata had predicted, when she went to persuade them in person…
At first, many doubted whether it was really her, or suspected she was being controlled by the monsters here.
But this was the Central Continent—a world where souls and magic existed.
Whether someone was being controlled was impossible to hide.
Hinata easily proved her identity and won everyone's trust.
She then revealed the Holy Empire's greatest secret—that Luminas was actually the Demon Lord of the vampire race.
In that moment, the Six Saints and one hundred eleven Templars were all stunned speechless.
Shock turned to doubt, then to fury at having been deceived.
"I know it's hard for everyone to accept this truth."
"But please hear me out."
Next, Hinata explained her story with Luminas, as well as the relationship between the vampire race protecting humans and living in peaceful coexistence.
Even though Luminas wasn't a true goddess, what she had done for humanity was no different from what a real goddess would do.
"Besides, the so-called 'goddess' title was something humans imposed on her one-sidedly."
"It was a title we gave her without ever asking if she wanted it."
"..."
Hearing this, the previously noisy crowd instantly fell silent.
They thought carefully.
They put themselves in Hinata's position and asked what they would have done.
Everyone who had been chosen for the Templar Order had been personally selected and trained by Hinata.
Their ability and character were the best the Central Continent had to offer.
They didn't accuse Hinata of betrayal just because they had been deceived.
Instead, they thought, analyzed, and judged for themselves.
In the end, they reached one conclusion—Hinata had made the right decision.
If they had been in her place, they could never have directly confronted Luminas.
If they had, they would have died, the humans of the Holy Empire would have died, and the Western Nations would have fractured without their shared faith.
The human forces opposing other races and the Eastern Empire would have ceased to exist.
In other words, Luminas had single-handedly maintained the surface-level peace among countless human nations.
If they drove away a Demon Lord who was friendly toward humans, they would be the real traitors to humanity!
"I made a promise with Luminas."
"If one day she ever turns against humanity," Hinata said, "I will declare war on her and defeat her!"
"!!!"
The hall erupted again.
"So that's how it was?"
Reynald had lost his usual polished appearance, but beneath that disheveled look was a pair of eyes that had grown even more determined and bright. "Regardless of the process, only the result matters. Captain, you built the Holy Knight Order. We have all grown stronger because of you."
They were humanity's strength.
No one could deny that.
If Luminas ever fell, Hinata would lead all the Holy Knights in challenging her.
Just like right now.
Reynald and the others would only obey Hinata's orders.
They would fight to the death alongside her for humanity's survival!
"If this incident hadn't happened, in twenty or thirty years the captain would have trained even more top-tier fighters."
Humanity's power would have grown stronger and stronger under Hinata's leadership, and they answered to her—not to Luminas.
Looking at it from every angle, it proved Hinata's decision had been correct.
"But why?"
The Wind Saint Fritz asked in confusion, "Why did the captain choose to serve the Lord of the Monster Kingdom? Unless it was…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
After all, pretending to submit wasn't something you said out loud.
Fritz even wondered if there was surveillance here that might expose Hinata's plan.
"Don't worry. I have no intention of doing anything like that."
"Otherwise I wouldn't have said it openly."
Hinata wasn't really a traitor. After all, she and Luminas had made that promise from the very beginning.
As long as Luminas was willing to maintain order, Hinata would obey her completely.
And Luminas truly was a Demon Lord who was friendly toward humans.
"Then…"
Litus thought of something. "What if the Lord of the Monster Kingdom turns against humans…"
"No need to worry. I already know what kind of person he is. That's exactly why I came to persuade you."
According to Hinata's plan, she would persuade these one hundred twenty people, then bring them directly to meet Damien.
Damien would incorporate them under Artoria.
Artoria possessed the ability to turn worthy humans into heroic spirits.
Note: This wasn't turning them into full Heroic Spirits.
It simply gave the knights an extra skill for heroic spirit transformation and allowed them to join Damien's vassal system through their connection with Artoria.
This would guarantee that the Templar Knights could earn Damien's trust just like named monsters.
There was no helping it—they were humans, so they couldn't evolve through naming like monsters.
Of course, Damien could have taken all of them as vassals, just like he had with Hinata.
The problem was that doing so would be a huge waste.
Damien didn't have unlimited slots. He couldn't afford to waste vassal positions on people with little potential.
Among this group, the only ones truly worth recruiting were Hinata and the other six Saints.
As humans who had reached the level of Demon Lord seed, they did indeed have the qualifications to make Damien look at them with favor.
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