Chapter 18 : Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Returning to the training grounds, Ian immediately sought out Lina and Reina to deliver his orders.
“So… my Lord, I’m sorry, but could you please say that one more time, just one more time?”
Lina asked Ian with her mouth agape in disbelief, and Ian replied with a smile.
“It’s simple.
For a few days, have our members investigate the rumors surrounding the cathedral.
Find out what kind of rumors are spreading, especially who the ones deserving of death are.
You must find out for sure, even if it means asking everyone in the vicinity of the Lord’s Castle.
Stop by the Auditor's Department and request any documented reports if there are any confirmed ones.”
“Yes, I understood that part.
The problem is what comes next.”
“I know you’re worried because it’s your first mission, but there’s no need to worry at all.
You won’t be doing anything but guarding the doors.”
“No, that’s not it!”
Lina beat her chest in frustration and looked at Ian.
“You’re going to kill clerics in the cathedral?
You’ll be punished by heaven!
No, more than that, what will change by killing the clerics?
More people will just die without receiving treatment!
Reina, you say something too!”
Unable to accept Ian’s unrealistic plan, Lina turned to Reina for help, but Reina just smiled softly and stood by Ian’s side.
“I will follow the Young Master’s will.”
Having spent quite a long time together, Lina could feel the madness peeking through that smile.
Whenever Reina smiled like that, unnecessary blood was always shed during their spars.
“You, you!”
As Lina glared at Reina with blazing eyes, Reina spoke nonchalantly as if it didn't matter at all.
“It’s the Young Master’s first command.
I will protect it with my life.
Then, Young Master, I will go and train a little more.”
Reina bowed politely and scurried away, clutching the flail as if it were a beloved doll.
What training was necessary when all she had to do was stand still and do nothing, and why was she hugging that damn flail again?
Lina couldn’t understand, but that wasn’t what was important right now.
With a dumbfounded expression, Lina looked at Ian, her lips moving as she searched for the right words, but no matter how much she thought, there was nothing she could say.
“Don’t worry.
I won’t do anything that will harm my people.”
There was so much to say.
Killing clerics meant making an enemy of the Holy Empire.
They were not opponents one could simply kill in a fit of anger; political and diplomatic positions had to be considered.
Dozens, hundreds of pieces of advice swirled in her mouth, but when she met Ian’s resolute gaze, not a single word could escape, as if she had eaten honey.
As Reina had said, this was the first command from Ian, whom she had chosen to serve.
With a complicated expression, Lina slowly nodded her head.
“I understand.
I’ll go and tell the others.”
“Ah, on your way, please bring Puck with you.
Let’s finish the rest as quickly as possible.”
“Yes.”
Lina turned and left, her shoulders slumped at the thought of falling into hell with the comrades she had finally met.
Ian watched her back and smiled faintly.
“She’s willing to follow even though she can’t trust me, with a trust level of -100?”
Lina didn't trust him.
Not just her, but everyone except Reina.
‘Perhaps even Reina doesn’t trust me.
It’s just that her affection for Ian might be large enough to cover her distrust.’
This was a curse.
Even if I taught Lina martial arts and showed her a completely different side of Ian every day, the deeply rooted distrust would not disappear easily.
Slowly building up her trust to 0 would be as difficult as making a comrade who would risk their life for me.
Therefore, what Ian had to have was a blind force that would move solely according to orders, without needing to be given trust or having it forced upon them.
“The loyalty of true knights……”
From Lina, who was trudging along like a cow being led to a slaughterhouse, I felt a slight taste of the characteristic loyalty of the knights I had cursed as stupid every time I played the game, and one side of my chest tickled.
* * *
A short while later, Puck, who had been summoned, greeted Ian brightly as soon as she saw him.
“Hello, Captain!”
The child who had threatened to poop in the hallway if she couldn't get an interview on the first day was gone, and there was no fear or impatience in Puck’s eyes as she looked at Ian.
“I heard that Miss Reina sent the castle’s healer to my parents.
Thank you so much!”
“Not captain, Young Lord.
You said you’ve decided on a weapon?”
“Yes.
I’ve decided, but……”
Puck bashfully picked up a wooden sword from a rack in a corner of the training ground.
“I just like the wooden sword the best.”
“Swords are good.
There’s a reason they’re called the King of Ten Thousand Arms , the king of all weapons.”
Unfortunately, there were just as many secret arts for the sword.
“There are too many secret arts related to the sword to pass on in just a day or two.
Let’s start with the downward strike first.
Downward strike, horizontal slash, thrust, in that order, just 10 times each.”
“Yes!”
With her answer, Puck began to swing the sword vigorously.
‘Hmm…….’
A slow but precise movement.
Even to Ian, who was not well-versed in swordsmanship, it was a clean downward strike, unbelievable for a fifteen-year-old’s movement.
‘The sword definitely seems to suit her, but…….’
Ian had a troubled expression.
This was because there was no discernible characteristic in Puck’s swordsmanship.
Just as Lina unconsciously aimed for vital points and Reina aimed for blood vessels, people with special traits would unconsciously find a sword path close to their trait, but Puck’s sword was steady, precise, and clean, but also monotonous.
‘It definitely seems like a hero-grade trait, but…….’
“Alright.
Let’s try it one by one for now.”
And so, their training began.
* * *
Two weeks later.
Puck ultimately failed to awaken her trait.
Neither Ian nor Puck had given up yet, but they couldn’t continue training indefinitely, so they decided to take a short break.
In total, 19 out of 20 traits had been awakened.
Unfortunately, unlike Lina and Reina, who had been lucky enough to awaken their traits through the secret arts, the other members were not able to master them.
They lacked the talent to learn the secret arts of heroes.
They had succeeded in awakening the traits they possessed during the training process, but that was all.
Not a single one of them had the talent to learn the secret arts of the heroes who were compared to one-man armies in the game.
‘Well, they learned the secret arts of the resistance army instead.’
Instead, the rest of them were in the process of learning the resistance army’s mana training method, swordsmanship, and footwork, which appeared in the later half of the game.
The resistance army’s secret arts, created under the grand plan of turning the entire population into a military force, were so effective that they were considered legendary items even in the game.
‘Except for the fact that its limits are clear.’
It could be learned regardless of one’s trait, but because progress was slow and it was difficult to achieve great success, in the actual game, by the time the secret art was created, the situation was often already irreversible.
But now, it was 10 years before the monster invasion.
There was more than enough time to prepare an ambush that no one would expect.
The preparations were now complete.
Ian left the castle with Lina, Reina, and all 20 members.
The officials and vassals of the Lord’s Castle were on high alert when the young lord, who had not left the training grounds except for his morning physical training, suddenly headed outside the castle, but they lost interest after receiving a report that he was heading to the cathedral near the Lord’s Castle.
They thought he would go to the clerics and cause a ruckus by demanding to be tested for poison, as he had often done.
After Ian, dressed in black polished leather armor and a plain white mask, and the 22 fully armed members arrived near the cathedral, Ian turned to his members and said.
“I’ll say it again, don’t do anything unnecessary.
You won’t get hurt, and you won’t have to fight.
All you have to do is hold your positions and not let anyone out.”
Although he had said it several times already, he spoke to the members once more, thinking that no one knew how things might get twisted once the operation began.
“The only ones who will flee here will be the clerics.
The paladins won’t be able to stand by and watch an enemy invade the sanctuary.
Don’t fight.
If you don’t feel like it, don’t even hold your weapons.
You can just block them with your bodies.
At least for today, there’s nothing you have to take responsibility for.”
After finishing his words, he looked around at the less-than-reassuring members.
An average age of 18, with a total of 3 weeks of training, a bunch of fledglings.
It was too early for them to hold weapons or to be thrown into actual combat.
He had no intention of burdening these unprepared individuals by ordering them to kill the fleeing clerics.
This was a kind of training and a culling.
A way to select useful talent before investing more time and money.
The path I intend to walk from now on will be littered with malice and disgrace, and those by my side will have to endure criticism, contempt, and ridicule, so isn't condoning the death of a cleric a rather plausible first mission?
With that thought, Ian adjusted his plain white mask and quietly muttered.
“Then let’s begin.”
Reina, holding a flail, followed behind Ian like a shadow as he slowly entered the cathedral.
* * *
“Sir Knight, please, please just let me see her once.”
“Get lost!
Your sister has decided to serve God!”
“No, my sister said she would bring the cleric, but neither my sister nor the cleric came back!”
“Hey, I told you to get lost!”
Thwack!
“Keok!
N-no, sister!”
“You little bastard, you should have listened when I was being nice.
I told you to consider yourself lucky and go back nicely!”
Crunch!
“Keo, keoheok!”
The child, who had been pleading while clinging to the knight’s leg until the end, was kicked by the paladin and tried to cling to him again, but the paladin punched the child in the abdomen and threw him out of the cathedral.
“Damn it, what an unlucky morning.”
The cathedral was already on high alert because of the news that the young lord was coming.
He had heard that the bastard had been up to strange things lately, so even the usually sedentary bishop had warned him not to provoke the madman.
‘Of course, what could he possibly do in God’s land?’
It was an open secret in the cathedral that around this time every year, the young lord, suffering from madness, would request an antidote and a blessing from the bishop.
‘It’ll be the same this time, everyone is worrying for nothing.’
Nothing special would happen, but the thought of the administrator drying up and dying in the middle of the market made him feel inexplicably anxious.
What should he do if the bastard pretends to be crazy and draws his sword?
As a son of God, is it right to show mercy, or should he punish the evil that dared to draw a sword in the hall of God?
As he mulled over such thoughts, he came to the conclusion that everyone was suffering because of the madman.
“Oh God, how can you just leave such a scoundrel be.”
After making a small sign of the cross and sending his resentment to God, he was about to return to his post when a man in a white mask blocked his path.
“Paladin Furist?”
A black coat that covered his entire body and a plain white mask that covered his face.
It was a somehow unpleasant combination.
He could say with certainty that this was not an attire one should wear in the hall of God.
“Who are you?
How did you get in here?
This is a space for the faithful to worship, and if you came for treatment, go that way.”
He had heard that leprosy was prevalent these days, and wondering if the bastard’s face had been ravaged by it, he was about to gesture for him to leave, but the man stood his ground.
Only then did he see the crazed eyes beyond the mask.
“Paladin Furist?”
By the time the man repeated the same question, Furist, tense from the coldness and the flesh-chilling killing intent in the man's voice, drew his sword and gripped it tightly as if it were his lifeline.
“How dare you say a paladin’s name so casually.
I don’t know who you are, but I will forgive you with my great generosity, so just leave.”
He spoke as if he were at ease, but the trembling of his body wouldn’t stop.
It felt as if a death more vivid than the dizzying threat to his life he had felt on the front lines when he was first assigned to the Moner domain was creeping up on him.
‘Dangerous.’
Every nerve in his body screamed at him to kill the opponent now while he was off guard.
Whatever purpose the man had for coming here, if he had to cover his face with a mask, his intentions were certainly not good.
‘Kill.’
Just as Furist, with mana imbued in his sword, was about to charge at the man in the white mask, the man’s voice, filled with malice, who had somehow gotten right next to him, echoed in his ear.
“Paladin Furist, God has asked to see you.”
Slice!
It was a futile end for a knight who, despite being of the lowest rank among the paladins, was a 3-star swordsman, the highest level of a sword user.
* * *
“Is this all there is to it?”
Ian shivered lightly from the surging adrenaline and then picked up Furist’s severed head from the ground.
“Paladin Furist, there were 32 reported cases of kidnapping, confinement, rape, and assault of a minor.
You did well.”
Reina, who had been hiding behind a cathedral pillar, approached with a smile, but then she flinched and stopped at the heat of the blood that soaked the floor, and turned her gaze away.
‘Is she scared of blood?’
Indeed, a head rolling on the floor and a corpse gushing blood was a sight that even she couldn't watch with a smile.
Thinking so, he was about to move on when he heard Reina whisper quietly from the side.
“Only the Young Master… is so lucky……”
Followed by the sound of gulping saliva.
Ian pretended not to notice and walked out briskly with the paladin’s head in one hand.