The Regressor of a Fallen Baronial House

Chapter 46. I Will Set Her Soul Free (1)

The five knights gathered here were those who served Neudorf with all their sincerity.

To tell such people to swear an oath in front of their lord was a remark that touched the pride of the knights.

No matter if Blanc was promised marriage to Ciella, Blanc was a person who had not yet officially formed ties with the Neudorf family.

Therefore, telling them to swear to keep the secret on Blanc’s sword right now could be judged as an excessively rude act.

"Understood. Baron Blanc."

However, these were not hot-blooded young knights, but seasoned knights who had protected Neudorf for decades.

They were people who knew well what was the most important thing to protect as a knight.

The most important thing to protect as a knight.

That was not something like pride.

"I am a sword that has protected the Neudorf family all my life. Even without making such an oath, I would not do anything harmful to the family, but."

The most important thing was the knight’s oath.

They had sworn. That they would protect the Neudorf family and protect Ciella Neudorf.

The girl with reddish-brown hair was crying in front of them.

The fact that she was over twenty and had married twice meant nothing.

To the seasoned knights here, Ciella was just a young girl they had to protect forever.

"The Knight’s Sword is an honorable sword. Bowing before that honor is not a shameful thing."

A knight with gray streaks in his hair stepped forward.

He was Knight Hopkins, the commander of the Neudorf Knights.

As he just said, he was a sword that had protected the Neudorf family all his life. Knight Hopkins was one of the retainers Berger trusted and relied on the most.

Such a man brought his fist to his left chest.

He lowered his pride and bowed to Blanc for the sake of Ciella, the flower they had been protecting.

"Knight Hopkins swears on the Knight’s Sword. I will take everything that happens from now on to my grave."

Hopkins raised his head and made eye contact with Blanc.

"I will bet all the honor I have built up until now."

Hopkins, who held the highest position among the knights of the Neudorf family, bowed his head.

When even the Knight Commander bowed his head, mere knights could not hold their heads stiffly.

As the lion who was the leader of the pack bowed, soon all the lions bowed and swore on the Knight’s Sword.

"Dame Tarania."

"I swear on the sword of Lord Aselheit, the symbol of the Torch Knights."

With Tarania’s oath as the last, everyone in this room swore to remain silent about what would happen from now on.

"……Begin."

Berger nodded and permitted the investigation of Ciella.

Hearing those words, Blanc stood in front of Ciella and made eye contact.

Ciella was still in a state where she could not come to her senses after hearing Blanc’s words just now.

However, from now on, it was the job of Tarania, a knight of the Torch Knights, not Blanc.

"Lady Ciella, please look at my eye."

Tarania completely undid her eyepatch and revealed the blue gem.

And she ‘opened’ her eye that had been sleeping inside the gem.

Normally, priests of the Goddess Order would be needed to draw out the Evil sleeping inside Ciella’s body.

However, it was possible for Tarania alone to specify that there was Evil and confirm its existence, rather than drawing it out completely.

"First, today I will confirm that there is Evil inside Lady Ciella’s body."

Finishing those words, Tarania soon began to carefully examine Ciella’s eyes.

While Tarania was looking for the energy of Evil hidden in Ciella’s eyes, Blanc thought about Tiday’s Brand embedded in his left shoulder.

Then he closed his eyes and looked back at his Mental World.

Until now, Blanc’s Mental World had been realized into reality through the passage called the White Thunderbolt.

However, from the moment the Brand heated up, Blanc could feel that another passage, thin and faint, had been created leading to his Mental World.

Blanc focused on that passage.

And through that passage, he pulled out what was sleeping inside his soul into reality.

Then, Tiday’s Brand embedded in Blanc’s left shoulder heated up red.

The energy of the red-heated Brand flowed down Blanc’s blood vessels and settled in his left hand. Then, dark red blood vessels began to pop out on Blanc’s left hand.

"Hwaaaa…… Haaah!"

"Lady Ciella! You must keep making eye contact with me!"

While Blanc was pioneering a new passage in his Mental World, Tarania succeeded in specifying the existence of Evil hidden in Ciella’s eyes.

Then she tried to draw it out from Ciella’s eyes.

While making eye contact with Ciella, Tarania was constantly reciting the prayer of the Goddess Order with her mouth.

"Kyaaaaak!"

With a scream that sounded like tearing, Ciella was lifted into the air.

It was neither physical force nor a magical device. It was due to the wicked energy hidden in her soul.

In an instant, the inside of the laboratory became dark.

The magic tools that had been turned on for Berger’s smooth research flickered incessantly, dyeing the surroundings with constantly repeating light and darkness.

Finally, Ciella’s toes completely left the floor and she levitated into the air.

From Ciella’s two eyes, which had rolled back white, black tears fell one drop at a time, then ignored gravity and went up to the ceiling.

One drop, another drop.

The black tears starting from her eyes flowed endlessly and flowed along the ceiling.

"I feel a wicked energy!"

The knights who were operating their Aura noticed that what was coming out of Ciella’s eyes right now was not ordinary.

It was really hiding.

Evil had really been sitting coiled inside Ciella’s soul all this time.

Blanc, the Knight of Aselheit, was right.

"Oh my God……"

Berger, who confirmed with his own two eyes that Evil had been sleeping in his daughter, covered his face and staggered.

How could he not recognize it? How could he not recognize the existence of the dog-like thing sleeping in his precious daughter until now!

"It is my fault! My fault!"

Berger could not hold back the resentment in his heart and ended up biting his lip.

Bright red blood flowed down between his lips.

"Kyaaaak……!"

Finally, the black tears took form and began to squirm in the air.

It looked like smoke, so it seemed like it would scatter into the air at any moment, but a single stream of black tears starting from Ciella’s eyes was holding onto it like a rope.

"Haa…… Haa……"

Tarania let out a rough breath and wiped the sweat drops flowing down her chin.

Her role was up to here. From here on, a priest following the sacred will of the Goddess was needed.

To cut that black rope bound to Ciella’s soul and completely draw out the wicked and ominous thing hidden in her soul into reality, someone who could handle the Goddess' blessing was needed.

"My role ends here. Baron Blanc, the power of the Goddess Order is needed to cut that rope."

Blanc, who was standing quietly behind Tarania, asked.

"If we cut it."

He spoke into her ear.

"If we cut it, is it the domain of the sword from then on?"

Blanc was asking if he could finish it with a sword once he cut that rope and dragged the Evil squirming above Ciella’s head into the real world.

"That is correct."

Tarania answered.

Dragging the Evil hidden in the poor host’s soul into the real world and then eliminating it.

That was the basic of the exorcism ritual.

However, how much safety could be guaranteed for the person sacrificed as a host in that process, and whether the dragged-out Evil could be certainly eliminated, were the factors determining the completeness of the exorcism ritual.

"Therefore, it would be correct to invite priests with high reputation for Grand Exorcism. The wicked energy surrounding Lady Ciella seems to have bound her for a long time, and thus it does not look easy to detach it from her."

Indeed, as Tarania said, the black tears that came out of Ciella were floating leisurely on the ceiling, looking down at the group as if mocking the people gathered here.

"What does that mean? Dame Tarania. Are you saying it will not be easy to detach that? Are you saying you cannot guarantee my daughter’s safety?"

Berger asked Tarania with a burning heart.

"……We will have to invite a renowned priest."

He also knew about exorcism rituals to some extent, though not in detail.

And even the fact that many people died during the ritual.

Berger was floundering, fallen into the despair that he might lose his daughter. Berger, blessed by God, the head of the Alchemy School and a Meritorious Noble of the Felix Kingdom, could do nothing for his daughter right now.

He was a more powerless existence than anyone in the world right now.

Seeing Berger like that, Blanc turned his gaze and looked at his left hand.

'It seems possible.'

He couldn't know the reason, but Blanc had a conviction.

Someone filled with fear deep inside Blanc’s soul was screaming that he could do it.

However, that sound was weak and only echoing from a very deep place in the Mental World, so it only approached Blanc in the form of simple conviction.

"I will put the Evil back in now. If we leave that alone while connected, Lady Ciella will be in danger."

Indeed, as Tarania said, Ciella’s face was gradually becoming pale.

It felt as if her life force itself was being exhausted.

Tarania, who achieved the predetermined goal of specifying the Evil and confirming its existence, decided to lock the Evil back into her soul for now for the safety of the host, Ciella.

The moment Tarania approached Ciella again and tried to make eye contact with her blue eye, Blanc grabbed her shoulder and stopped her.

"Lord Blanc?"

"Do I just have to cut that black rope?"

"You cannot cut it right now. It is impossible unless it is a priest with deep cultivation."

Someone howled that he could do it.

And every time he screamed in pain, Blanc’s conviction became stronger.

"Do I just have to cut it?"

At Blanc’s question, Tarania answered as if to say he couldn't do it.

"Yes. You just have to cut it."

Hearing those words, Blanc gripped Aselheit’s sword with his left hand.

CRACKLE-!

'The sword rejects it.'

Since Tiday’s Brand was an energy belonging to Evil, it was understandable that Aselheit’s sword, engraved with Peridot, rejected it.

'If so.'

Blanc closed his eyes and summoned the black passage connected to his Mental World more strongly.

Then, black energy spread out from Blanc’s left shoulder and wrapped around his left hand tightly.

Tarania was appalled seeing that sight, but Blanc did not give her time to be surprised.

Rushing at Ciella in an instant, Blanc set the blade of his left hand and swung it toward the black rope.

The moment Blanc’s left hand and the black rope starting from Ciella’s eyes clashed, black lightning began to flash loudly.

"Kuaaaak!"

Along with the ominous scream of the wicked thing, black lightning flashed and filled the laboratory.

What the people saw when they opened their eyes again after momentarily losing their vision was.

Blanc embracing the collapsed Ciella.

"Kieeeek!"

And the sight of the wicked thing crawling on the ceiling, completely dragged out into the real world as the black rope was ‘cut’.

"All personnel. Prepare for battle!"

And from then on, now that the wicked thing crawling on the ceiling was perfectly realized in the real world.

It was the knights' time.