On the altar made of human and beast corpses, a fervent prayer resonated from In-yeong, who stretched out both hands toward the sky.
"Lord. Here they come. A monster created by a twisted will and a daughter of a false god. I earnestly pray, please give me the strength to overcome my ordeal."
Then, the darkness of the night crept into the mountain of corpses, and the corpses that had retained their warmth began to shrink rapidly.
"T-Don't think that this will be forgiven! You will surely fall into hell!"
"Shh, be quiet. Aren't you praying? Be quiet."
From the crevices of the mountain of corpses, a man with shattered armor and a broken sword before his eyes cried out in pain, but In-yeong paid no attention and continued to pray.
As even the voice of the sole survivor grew quieter, and the mountain of corpses, completely drained of life, turned into a tower of white bones.
"Yes, Lord. If that is your will, I will willingly follow. Even if this one body burns to pieces."
Inyoung slowly stood up from her seat, muttering her last prayer.
In the place he had left, only a few large and small beads with an unholy black light were rolling around feebly.
It was a peaceful morning, not much different from yesterday.
The surrounding terrain was still mountainous and sparsely flat, but the imperial road network laid down by His Majesty the First Emperor was still faithfully fulfilling its role for nearly a thousand years.
Thanks to this, except for a few unavoidable places, the party marching along the road was not interrupted.
However, even so, long-distance travel was originally quite boring.
Ophelia, who was sitting quietly in the carriage and looking out the window, grabbed Agnes who was passing by and started chatting. It seemed that she was tired of looking at the scenery.
"Hey, Sister. I've always wondered when I see those knights, isn't it heavy to wear full body armor? Your chest armor is especially thick, so it looks even heavier..."
"Hehe. That's okay. Knights who have trained in mana can overcome the limits of their bodies."
"Wow! So you can also uproot a beautiful tree with your bare hands like Sir Wolfgang? That's amazing... But I can't imagine someone as small and pretty as you doing that."
Agnes was quite flustered at first when a person who looked like a saint suddenly spoke to her, but thanks to Ophelia's friendly manner, she seemed to have become close to her quickly.
... But why am I an old man? I'm still in my mid-twenties, and Agnes and I are only two years apart at most.
I somehow feel a little wronged.
"Well, I think that's something that only the captain can do among the knights… but I can do this instead."
"Huh?"
—Suaah
Agnes smiled faintly at the girl with a bewildered face and handed her an elaborate rose made of ice.
"Wow! It's so amazing and pretty!"
"Ahem. It's just a simple technique, but I feel a little embarrassed that you're so impressed."
Her ability to utilize imagery was admirable. Until a few months ago, her immature use of imagery was considered a weakness for a precious manifestation-type holder.
I knew her skills had improved by leaps and bounds recently, but I didn't think it would be to that extent. Her growth seems to have accelerated even more since she overcame the wall. She really is a genius.
Unlike me, who tries to suppress everything with brute force. That picky teacher highly praised her, so I said everything.
If Agnes had met a great teacher like me, wouldn't she be a knight commander somewhere by now? Her skills were already far beyond those of any captain.
"Sister! But how did you do that just now? I learned that knights can't use magic or divine powers at all because of their mana cores."
"Ah, this is a completely different ability from magic. It's more advanced…"
The sight of the two beauties laughing and chatting happily made the viewer smile.
It was a sight that was much more pleasing to the eye than any other spectacular view. In fact, the two of them had a huge impact on the morale of the men just by their presence.
"Captain, I'm really jealous."
"Hmm? Captain of the 100. What are you talking about out of the blue?"
"Aren't you close with both of them, Captain? Please tell me the secret to becoming popular with the ladies. Living as an old bachelor, my sides are getting cold."
Thanks to this, the overall mood of the group was very cheerful.
"Wow, I didn't expect you to say such nonsense. You're not even the captain of the 300. You must be quite bored."
"No... I'm quite serious."
Even the captain of the 100, who doesn't enjoy pointless conversations, joked with me without hesitation.
However, the peaceful flow of the large-scale mission ended there.
It wasn't long before an incident occurred that made the relaxed atmosphere of the group tense up to the max.
"Captain! There's something unusual from the reconnaissance unit."
"What's going on?"
The captain of the 200, Pascal, rushed to me from far away to report.
His expression was quite serious. I couldn't help but feel quite nervous at his attitude.
"The scouting party led by Captain Victor encountered a direwolf isolated from the pack. They managed to subdue it without much damage, but it was said to be unusually strong and ferocious compared to normal individuals."
The terrain was already rough with many mountains. Furthermore, my subordinates, who were not ordinary soldiers but knights, would not have made such a fuss over encountering a mere large wolf.
It was such a special individual that it was worth mentioning so emphatically. It reminded me of the mutant ogre that I defeated in Bartok's Countship.
I had a strong feeling of discomfort about this.
"I see. Is there any additional information or evidence that could be of interest?"
"Here, it is an item found in the monster's corpse."
"This is…"
I could only swallow my sigh as I received a cracked bead from the Captain of the Second Hundred.
Compared to what I've seen so far, its size is clearly smaller, but it was clearly a vessel that Eclipse's minions used to store their power.
Now, could it be used on monsters? No, maybe that ogre ate this too and went crazy.
"Good work. This is clearly not an ordinary matter, so increase the number of reconnaissance troops and report back immediately if a similar situation occurs."
"Yes!"
After I dismissed the 2nd Hundredth Captain, I thought about it for a moment.
Of course, I hadn't completely assumed this situation. The purpose of this mission was to root out cultists.
However, our current location was still in the Rosen Viscounty, a region quite far from the Argon Territory. There was still a day and a half left until our destination.
And yet, such an ominous situation had already occurred. All sorts of ominous assumptions began to swirl around in my head.
Was there another raid on the territory? Or was it a trick from the enemies? Or was it that the information from the Knight Commander of the Ropes that the situation in the Argon territory had calmed down was wrong?
No matter how you looked at it, it was hard to interpret it positively.
The mission that I had thought was nothing serious had become extremely complicated. Maybe something more serious than I had expected had happened.
For now, I should call a meeting at the next resting point, make major revisions to the operation plan, and prepare countermeasures for any variables that might arise.
'Haa… As expected, things can't be solved easily.'
Even though the mission was supposed to be something that could change at any time, it was unfortunate that something like this happened when I was with the saint's party. What a misfortune.
I didn't want to show my complicated feelings in front of my subordinates, so I just stared at the distant mountain.
"What's going on, young brother?"
The door of the carriage ahead of us suddenly opened, and a fearsome old man with pure white eyes filled with divine power strode toward us.
"Ah, Your Eminence the Cardinal! You're here at the right time. There's something I want to discuss…"
"I sense traces of evil magic in that object in your hand. It seems like something has happened."
Clearly, he was my most reliable ally in the current situation, but his fierce demeanor was reminiscent of a messenger from hell, and even I flinched for a moment.
It was inevitable that the subordinates nearby would waver.
"T-Top Inquisitor…!"
"What? Didn't you just say you were an advisor? What's going on?"
And then, Cardinal Malleus grabbed my wrist, which was holding the marble, and began to press me.
It was an incredible strength for a skinny old man. His physical abilities alone far surpassed those of an average knight.
"A demon? A cultist? What has appeared? Where are the ones who should be condemned by the fire of God?"
The strange behavior of the old man, which I had never seen before, was quite bewildering. He was clearly a calm old man. Why on earth is he acting like this?
Could it be that his eyes were blinded by the aura of the demon? He wasn't some wild beast that went berserk after smelling blood...
"Um, Your Majesty. It's just that signs of enemies have been reported. No demons or cultists have appeared yet."
"Hmm?"
As I carefully conveyed the facts after shaking off the emaciated grip that displayed tremendous strength, the old man, who had been emitting divine power from his entire body in addition to his eyes, finally became calm.
"Ahem. This, I unintentionally got carried away. I'm sorry. It's been so long since I've been in a real fight, so I guess I got a little excited. I won't have this happen again."
"...."
"Oh, really. What's with that unpleasant reaction?"
The old man coughed in vain as if nothing had happened and became calm.
Is this the 'personality flaw' of the Grand Inquisitor that I've only heard of? Contrary to the ominous rumors, I thought he was a pretty normal old man when I experienced him firsthand.
As expected, notoriety doesn't spread without reason. There must have been a reason for it.
They say that faith and madness are only a sheet of paper apart, but I feel like I've learned something I shouldn't know.
"Ahem. Anyway, please, if something happens, make sure to tell me. It's directly related to the safety of the saintess. I'm old, but I'll do my best to help."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Yeah, well. People can have flaws, right?
I'm also a person who gets a little carried away when I'm excited during battle, so I'm not really in a position to talk about it.
If that kind of madness is directed at the enemy, then that's a good thing. No matter what, when he's sane, he's definitely a wise and trustworthy old man.
So it'll be okay.
… It'll be okay, really?
Ah, I suddenly miss Alicia so much.
------------------
You can read +110 Advance Chapters on my Patreon
p@treon(.)com/NightNovels
TIER 1 you'll get +20 ADVANCE CHAPTERS
TIER 2 you'll get +40 ADVANCE CHAPTERS
TIER 3 you'll get +70 ADVANCE CHAPTERS
TIER 4 you'll get +110 ADVANCE CHAPTERS