Not for us, Lord, not for us, but for the glory of your name.

"Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo ad gloriam" (Slm. 115:1)

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Hela finished drinking her coffee while enjoying the brief silence that was present after Ina and Hermes left.

After marrying Ina, silence became much less common.

She liked that, there was a distinct beauty in her new pace of life.

The days were not silent and still.

The house they now lived in wasn't much different from the previous one, but it was bigger.

It was definitely a typical house that you could live comfortably with your family.

Hela looked at the clock on her wall and it seemed like a good time to go out.

She would take advantage of her wife spending the day busy with Hermes to visit the university again.

Above all, Hela wanted to be able to get to know the environment and the employees.

She needed to get a quick sense of the environment she would be using.

After a few moments and a few goals, she put down her cup and walked to the entrance of the house.

She grabs her coat and a pair of gloves.

Long clothes would always be necessary as long as she was living in the same world as humans.

She stared at her reflection as she dressed in the most appropriate clothes for going out.

Always long clothes.

She carefully wore her long-sleeved blouse and along with that would wear two pairs of gloves.

There wouldn't be much exposed skin other than her face.

Her eyes were always drawn to the left side of her body, it was really hard not to compare one side to the other.

Before, she always lost hours and hours of her day looking at her fingers that were just bones.

It was like that until it simply wasn't, she was supposed to go one day after another.

People would still be scared even if she smiled or dressed beautifully.

At one point she chose not to look in the mirror anymore and got used to living that way.

In Niflheim there were no worries about it, she could walk comfortably in any direction.

She always admitted that it was really lucky her face wasn't affected like the rest of her body.

But everything that looked rotten could not be hidden from humans.

Exposing her body meant scaring humans and creating a fuss over her very existence.

She had cold resistance and heat didn't truly affect her.

It could be summer and an absurd heat sets in, she would still wear the same clothes that would cover her almost completely and without any kind of difficulty.

But all that didn't matter, her usual appearance was nothing compared to the little newness in her skin.

She could see the small mark left by Ina on her neck and it thrilled her somehow.

She smiled at the brief memory of what had happened the night before.

She felt happy.

Ina never showed any kind of disgust or fear.

She wasn't afraid of Hela's appearance and there was no way to explain it in words.

But it was an indescribable feeling of relief.

Her body still wasn't pretty in her eyes, but it wasn't that painful to stare at.

It was okay, many things wouldn't be under her control and she had gotten used to it.

And Ina's acceptance made things more comfortable.

They would now try to have children.

She smiled at the thought of seeing a small child running around in that house.

Yes, they would be good mothers.

She finally looked at her reflection one last time, her outfit was already as expected.

Her hands were under two pairs of gloves and her torso under two blouses plus a thick overcoat.

Her long blonde hair fell down her back.

She quickly left with university as her destination.

Hela had good thoughts about the next steps to be taken in her search.

Meeting Lauren the day before was unusual but valuable.

It was very easy to see that the researcher would speak for herself, all that was needed was a little encouragement.

Lauren spoke passionately about her research and her assumptions about the whereabouts of the Holy Grail.

It was very obvious that she dedicated her entire life around this quest.

But as a human she couldn't understand the greatness of finding the Holy Grail.

What was really understandable, there is no need for everything to be understood.

Some things need to be experienced and others even when experienced have some logic or explanation.

Perhaps that is the grace of faith.

Belief in what you cannot see is simply believed.

The Holy Grail is one of the rarest divine artifacts known and that not even the gods would know how to confirm its existence.

But despite Lauren's innocent way of thinking exclusively of academic merit, she had made great strides in pursuing what would be the final route to the Holy Grail.

Her research would be of immense help.

Of course, she had no idea what would actually happen when she approached him.

In reality, not even Hela would know.

There were two very different situations: a human approaching and another god approaching.

The reaction against Hela could be much more brusque and violent.

Yeah, maybe the angels didn't even think twice about attacking or not.

They had the sole mission of defending the Holy Grail and allowing none other than God to approach it.

Hela could take advantage of all that and with her own deductions she would arrive at the approximate location.

She was committed to helping Lauren and in the end both would come out with good results.

According to what little Hela knew the Holy Grail was out there somewhere, being carried by angels.

Angels protected by golden armor and who incessantly traveled on horses through the inhospitable lands of the world, protecting and watching over the small chalice.

The myth was quite simple, it was said that all that was needed was to deposit a little water and whoever drank the liquid using the Holy Grail would conquer immortality.

Hela had strong indications that it would not be easy to achieve that peacefully and she was obliged to have a good strategy.

Her time wasn't much, she needed to hurry on her quest, especially now that she and Ina were planning to have children.

The ideal for them would be Ina becoming immortal soon after the pregnancy is carried out.

Hela couldn't even dream of trying to bear a child in her womb.

If it weren't for some kind of miracle, she wouldn't have achieved this simply using human methods.

Her body was literally wasting away.

Their only option was Ina to try to get pregnant, which was exactly what she wanted.

Hela didn't know much about God or angels anyway.

But she would learn whatever she needed to know to be able to achieve what she needed.

Angels were not easily seen, extremely discreet they camouflaged among humans, but Hela would find them.

She was sure of that.

Immersed in her thoughts, she walked to the university and didn't have much difficulty getting there even this time without Hermes' company.

She took the same path, but this time she wasn't asked by anyone.

Jude smiled gently, she was still a little afraid of Hela, but curiously the new teacher didn't seem as threatening as before.

Hela nodded softly and then headed upstairs.

She wanted to get to her room quickly, which happened without any problems.

Hela stared at the door to her office which now had her and Lauren's names engraved on a metallic plate.

Well, there was a certain satisfaction in seeing that.

It was still a little annoying to see that her name was Hela Skygge Aleh... Really?!

Hermes was so creative that he simply reversed his first name to create a new one.

Hela stared at this with some disbelief and chuckled to herself.

She turned the doorknob and walked into the room to find Lauren hiding at her desk sunk among several piles of papers.

Maybe she really was a workaholic.

Lauren had to make an effort to see and be seen, but she felt excited to see Hela.

"Good morning Hela."

Hela smiled and walked casually towards Lauren's table.

There were papers on the table, scattered on the floor and even on Lauren.

"Good morning Lauren."

Lauren looked towards Hela a little confused. "You have class today?"

Hela denied it. "No, I'm here to see some more of the university, I officially start teaching next week."

Lauren smiled, she too wished she could work just next week.

Why the more she read the more papers came up for her to read?! It didn't make sense.

"I see... I envy your free time... I want to have a few days off... I need time to understand these maps, but I always need to do something that slows me down in my research..."

Hela smiled, feeling amused. "What are these maps about? Maybe I can help you..."

Lauren looked at Hela a happy, any help was appreciated.

Usually she had some of the students she mentored helping her, but especially this month everyone was very busy.

"Do you understand about maps? It makes me so happy..."

Hela took off her overcoat and hung it inside the small clothes closet in the living room, then turned her attention to Lauren.

"I needed to study a lot about cartography when I was studying Viking routes... They vary from people to people and range from North America to Eastern Europe..."

Lauren had a thoughtful face, that topic of study looked really interesting.

Yes, Lauren could only think of good topics for academic research. "... That sounds great for a master's thesis..."

Hela took one of the maps for herself and took the opportunity to memorize every feature that was on that piece of paper.

She didn't know what it would be useful for, but she would know everything regardless of its usefulness.

Lauren looked at the map Helas was holding and explained. "This map I finished studying a few days ago... It specifically talks about the route of the first crusade..."

Lauren focused at that moment on maps, to create a route and mainly to create guesses of places that could be targets or not if exploration.

She was willing to dig in the dirt if need be.

Hela pulled up a chair and sat next to Lauren. "How do the crusades relate to the Holy Grail?"

She was vaguely aware of all that, but she could see through the documentation that there was a huge time gap between the main appearances of the Holy Grail and the Crusades.

There didn't seem to be any apparent connection.

Half a millennium was enough for countries to be destroyed and new ones created, ideas and beliefs changed easily in that span of time.

"Well, we have many reports about King Arthur... After all, who doesn't know his story? But there is a gap of nearly 500 years and where has the Holy Grail been for all that time?"

Hela nodded, nodded easily, but there was still no clear answer to her doubts.

"I see, but when you think about it that way, you deduce that the Grail was found by Arthur at some point... Right?!"

The Holy Grail would need to be found by someone and that would be the starting point of the research.

"So it should be! But it is not! We have no indication that Arthur found the Grail... It forces us to think that maybe Arthur is not the person we need to study... But it makes the whole process even more fascinating."

Lauren hurriedly got up and faced her bookshelf full of books.

Without much need to reflect she knew exactly where what she needed was.

She knew every line written in every book.

She had already pored over each book so many times that she couldn't even say how many, she had lost count. Her life boiled down to reading each material over and over again until she was satisfied with each word, as if she were tasting it slowly.

That was the ambition of a lifetime, it became an obsession.

It was her longer life expectancy.

Deftly she picked up two of the books and opened them to exactly the desired pages.

She pointed to an engraving.

There was a king with his knights.

Some remained standing, but all the seats around the table were taken.

Hela stared at the paper and then looked into Lauren's eyes full of animation, she was genuinely curious about what direction this conversation would take.

"Okay, it might not be Arthur, but who could it be? This deduction does not help your research."

Lauren brimming with excitement pointed to the other open book and pointed to some of the lines.

The book had a detailed family tree of every known character in that entire plot.

But one of them stood out: Lancelot.

"Well... We have indications that King Arthur died and there was a successor... Initially I thought that the story had not been told correctly or maybe there was nothing to tell... Arthur died and didn't even have real success in his life. search... But over time I realized I was looking at the wrong people..."

Hela took the book for herself and carefully read the information written in it... It didn't take long for her face to light up and she finally understood the whole situation.

"... Merlin at one point says something about the existence of the Dangerous Seat and only a knight would be able to sit on it and not die..."

Lauren picked up half a dozen more papers and spread them out next to Hela.

All seemed to confirm her suspicions.

"... It's already known that everyone who sits on the chair dies afterwards, so why would only one person be capable of such a fact?! Besides, why would anyone risk sitting on that chair knowing they could be doomed to death?! Isn't that a high risk?!"

Hela took each book, each paper and read them carefully.

They all seemed to point in the same direction.

Lauren allowed Hela all the time to appreciate that content and they could finally share the same suspicions.

Hela looked at Lauren dumbfounded.

That changed everything. "Are you saying that the person who sat on that seat knew about your immortality?!"

Lauren clapped her hands excitedly, Hela had reached a crucial point in that whole train of thought.

"Exactly! Not only did he know of his immortality... He had possession of the Holy Grail!"

"… I always thought it was too narrow-minded to think the chair was cursed… But even if it were, it wouldn't matter if you knew your life wasn't in danger… Which brings us to the only knight who sat on it. that seat and remained alive: Lancelot's son, Galahad."

Hela finally sighed, it was all so much information.

She knew it would be difficult, but it was like playing puzzles.

"But where could the Holy Grail be?"

Lauren sat politely back in her chair and stared at Hela for a few moments.

She smiled gently and spoke pretending to tell a huge secret.

"Arthur dies and we have no evidence of his family tree... But unlike him we have Lancelot's... And curiously his descendants became Templars... Doesn't all this seem intriguing?!"

Hela stared into Lauren's arousal-filled eyes and smiled at the thought of her.

It gave her a very unexpected insight into everything and made her change her thoughts abruptly.

If Galahad was the one who had gained eternal life, he should be the target from now on.

It seemed so simple: finding him meant finding the holy grail.