Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 113

The expected uproar occurred.Cantares’ orders were given to Laius, who woke up at dawn.

Before the sun had even risen, Laius summoned his knights and delivered the orders given by the Crown Prince.

“His Highness the Crown Prince says that similar facilities to those discovered yesterday have been discovered throughout the Empire, so we will move straight from here to the scene.”

“Yes?”

It had been less than 24 hours since the cave was discovered. Even if they had started searching then, it was still too early.

But since it was the Crown Prince’s order, nothing could be done.

There were some points to nitpick though.

Arthur and Richt’s gaze briefly met Arendt’s and then dropped.

“Aren’t we in a hurry? It doesn’t seem like there’s time to waste.”

“…”

In the meantime, the guy was stuffing snacks from some unknown place into his mouth.

“…Are they delicious?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

Arthur just gave up because of that shameless answer.

At that time.

Knock knock.

A short knock made the individual’s presence known.

“I guess you are busy.”

Arcus was standing next to a smiling Henry.

“Are you leaving right now?”

“Yes, I’m sorry, but I cannot take you to the Imperial Palace.”

“It’s okay. It’s not something that Commander Laius needs to apologize for.”

Henry smiled kindly and waved his hand.

“Good luck, Sir Laius and the rest of you all. And Sir Arendt, I’ll see you at the palace next time.”

“I don’t want to. I think that person will follow you.”

Arendt answered curtly and nodded toward Arcus.

Henry’s smile instantly turned awkward.

“Haha. Then let’s meet among ourselves without Arcus.”

“I don’t want to do that either.”

“…”

Arthur, who had been quiet, swung his fist, aiming for the back of his head, but Arendt dodged it as if he had expected it, and struck his senior’s exposed side with his elbow.

“Ahh!”

Swallowing a sigh that was welling up, Arcus lowered his head towards Laius.

“…I apologize for the inconvenience, Commander Laius. See you next time.”

“Yes. See you next time, Lord Arcus.”

Even as he received Laius’ greeting, Arcus’ gaze did not leave Arendt.

Arendt met his gaze and spat out angrily.

“Anyway, go home and do whatever you want. It’s not my business.”

“I will look for a job in the palace, and I will apologize to my father.”

“I’m not curious.”

Arcus simply nodded calmly, perhaps having become somewhat immune to the harsh answers.

“I wish you good luck.”

Finally, after exchanging greetings with the lord, the knights rode out of the castle on horseback.

“Where are we going?”

“To the east. Let’s move as fast as we can. We’ll cross the wasteland.”

Laius answered Arthur’s question.

They hurriedly left the city and ran toward the open plains.

Clop, clop.

The horse galloped away, raising a thick cloud of dust.

“Arthur, is your side okay?”

“…It’s okay.”

“Your Highness.”

Jereon put down his teacup in front of Cantares and began to speak.

“I’m sorry to say this now, but… isn’t it a little dangerous?”

“What?”

“What is happening right now.”

Jereon gave a slightly tired look to the Crown Prince who asked calmly.

Only then did Cantares look up from the map he had been looking down at and look at Jereon.

“I know too how dangerous it is to move an entire force based on the words of just one apprentice knight.”

“But…”

“That’s why I’m thinking like this right now. I’m trying to come up with an excuse.”

The map showed the areas Arendt had named. There had been no word yet from the leaders who had left last night.

Jereon let out a short sigh.

“You intend to protect Arendt even if things go wrong.”

“What can I do? I made a mistake and it’s my responsibility to take responsibility for it.”

“Usually in cases like this, it would be common sense to cut off the tail.”

“That’s true. But I am a great man?”

“Your Highness is truly a great man. You are the sole heir to His Majesty the Emperor. You will be the one to shoulder the empire in the future.”

“I guess you’re trying to say that you don’t like the idea of ​​such a great bloodline being manipulated by a mere apprentice knight.”

Cantares sank into his chair.

“For all that, don’t you think you like him quite a bit?”

“Because it’s a different matter from liking.”

“He’s not the type of guy to talk nonsense. This time should be no exception.”

“That’s true, but…”

Jereon, whose words had been trailing off, smiled awkwardly.

“Can I ask you more about the reason?”

“The fact that he contacted me directly means that he trusts me. The fact that he didn’t tell his captain, who was with him, means that he doesn’t want to arouse unnecessary suspicion among his colleagues.”

Although the idea of ​​using the Crown Prince as a shield was a bit presumptuous, it probably meant that Arendt trusted him.

The aide, who had been listening quietly, opened his mouth again.

“Your Highness.”

“What.”

“Your Highness may consider this a show of confidence on the part of Lord Arendt, but I think…”

As Cantares looked at him strangely for a long time, Jereon continued speaking cautiously.

“So, isn’t he just treating you like someone who can be used…?”

“…”

He tried to say it in a nice way, but in the end, Cantares was likened to a fool.

Cantares, who had recalled the exact words his aide had been unable to utter, closed his mouth.

It was because he couldn’t deny it.

An awkward silence fell in the office.

Just then, a response came back from the communication crystal ball on the desk. Cantares glanced at Jereon for no reason before connecting the communication.

– Your Highness, this is Diana de Barraque.

“It’s been quite a while since you’ve contacted me. What happened?”

– Yes. We discovered an underground cave, and the unidentified monster you mentioned attacked us. I was late in reporting because I had to wipe out the remaining forces. I apologize.

Diana’s neat answer came back.

– I will leave now and move to the location Your Highness has mentioned. I have given instructions to divide my men and sweep each area, but there is one thing that is bothering me, so I will report it to you in advance.

“Go on.”

– We discovered an entity at the scene that was slightly different from the ghoul Your Highness spoke of.

“Another entity?”

The Crown Prince’s eyebrows furrowed.

– Yes. There wasn’t much difference in appearance, but compared to the others, it was an entity that looked more human. It was wearing clothes and seemed intelligent.

“It seemed intelligent…”

That had nothing to do with ghouls.

“Was it strong?”

– More so than other ghouls. It was on par with a knight for a moment… This is my personal opinion, but it looked like something between a ghoul and a human.”

“Hmm…”

It was different from what Arendt explained.

They targeted Count Stadler as a researcher who could create the perfect ghoul. However, Arendt prevented that from happening, and Vincent, who was likely to have played a key role, was long dead.

Then.

“It looks like there’s another guy up to some kind of trick…”

It didn’t really matter, because he didn’t think they’d just quietly suffer.

“Okay, I understand. Ask the nearby police to preserve the scene, and the police officers to move.”

– Yes, I understand.

The communication was cut off, and Cantares looked at Jereon.

“It’s worth being a sucker.”

“Ahem, that’s good. I’ll pass the message on to Count Stadler.”

“Tell him to come to the palace as soon as possible so that we can investigate as soon as the situation is over.”

“All right.”

Jereon bowed his head and hurriedly left the office.

Cantares looked back at the map and thought back to his conversation with Arendt.

– Something absurd will appear. You must send the captains in that direction.

The tone of voice of the man who said that was quite serious.

The situation was already mind-boggling, but what was worse?

‘How did he know this?’

Most of the work between Arendt and Cantares took the form of a ‘transaction’. Clearly, the price for revealing this information was to not ask about its source.

Still, he couldn’t help but be curious… but he decided to forget about gaining an answer.

The information was certain, so it was better for both of them to leave things be.

Now, and in the future.

“An intelligent ghoul?”

As they were almost at our destination, this news came flying in from the palace.

When Arthur let out a sound of surprise, Laius continued.

“Both Captain Diana and Captain Kendrick found them. They say that at least five of them came out from the area where they’re currently subduing them.”

It was definitely different from other ghouls.

Unlike the ghouls who rushed to any living creature that felt warm, these guys used their own tactics to fight the knights.

“Besides, they say that even if the nucleus is destroyed, those ghouls aren’t greatly affected.”

“If you say nucleus, are you talking about the magic stone of that pillar?”

Laius nodded.

When it broke, the ghouls stopped moving, but the newly appearing ones were not affected at all.

The ghouls could only move if they received magical power from the magic stone.

It was just a moving corpse, so to speak, with a power source.

But the absence of that meant…

“They’re alive. Those things.”

Arendt spat out briefly.

It was a completely different development from the novel.

The ghouls in “The Blue Knight of the Holy Sword” were very powerful. They constantly regenerated and bit the knights.

But the ghouls that appeared now did not have such abilities.

It was just a moving corpse made somewhat stronger.

“They made ghouls out of living beings. Things that have a beating heart and are breathing can have magical powers, unlike corpses.”

“…”

“…”

Richt and Arthur seemed momentarily at a loss for words at Arendt’s indifferent words.

After a brief pause, Arthur muttered absentmindedly.

“At first glance, it looked like a person, so…”

“It must have been made by humans.”

Richt responded in a complicated manner.

After riding for a while, their destination began to come into view in the distance. It was a temple that was no longer in use and was abandoned near the city.

The temple, which had been neglected for a long time, remained like ruins.

If they rode only an hour more, they would arrive at a fairly large city, but for some reason it seemed as if no human hand had touched it for a very long time.

As the distance grew closer, the knights realized why the temple had been abandoned.

The horses began to slow down, as if they were refusing to move forward any further.

Richt called out to Laius softly, grabbing the reins.

“Captain.”

“Yes.”

A strong, yet ominous presence swept over them. Even ordinary people who couldn’t sense magic would hesitate to approach.

Clearly, there was something.

The knights tensed up without realizing it.

Laius opened his mouth solemnly.

“Everyone, don’t let your guard down.”

“What does it matter when we can just cut it down?”

But the captain’s words were interrupted by an unpleasant voice, and his spirits suddenly slackened.

“Let’s go, stop talking nonsense.”

The sight of Arendt getting off his horse and walking unsteadily was amazing.

‘A guy who is more brave than necessary.’

It was a common thought among all three.

In the end, they had no choice but to get off their horses and follow him.