Chapter 730

Chapter 730

There’s Something Here. (2)

In the dream, the face had been obscured, but that reverent aura and physique couldn’t be hidden. That’s why he could be sure.

Since it had come to this, Ghislain even wanted to confirm whether he was truly the Founder King. Having briefly introduced himself, he immediately asked what he was most curious about.

"By any chance… are you of noble birth?

"That is correct."

"May I know from which house you come?"

"I am a knight devoted to the Goddess. The name of my house has lost its meaning now."

He meant that he had no intention of using his family’s name for personal gain. Just like his appearance, his personality was stiff and principled. Ghislain clicked his tongue and asked again.

"No, I was just wondering if it was a house I know."

"…House Ladran."

He was startled by those words. He had thought it might be, and of course, it was.

‘What the! He really is the Founder King?’

Until he staged a rebellion and took over the kingdom, Ritania had been ruled by the Ladran royal family.

‘So that means when the Ritania Kingdom was established after the war, he kept the family name as it was.’

Many choose to found a new house when establishing a kingdom, to become the founder of a new lineage themselves.

But for some reason, Lionel seemed to have kept the name of the house he belonged to.

‘Well, I guess it doesn’t matter since he’s still known as the Founder King and the progenitor of the royal line.’

Still, there were puzzling parts.

—The Founder King… was said to be… the Saintess’s… servant.

That’s exactly what the former King of Ritania, Berhem, had said.

But no matter how he looked at him, Lionel didn’t seem like someone who would serve anyone. Even now, he was a noble of high standing and a Temple Knight.

‘That must’ve been a distorted version from somewhere. Maybe things changed later on.’

Just meeting the future Founder King was a great success. Feeling cheerful, he smiled brightly and extended his hand.

"Let’s get along from now on."

"…Understood."

As they shook hands, the Pope spoke in a gentle voice.

"Lionel is a knight of such rare talent that even the Holy Empire has few like him. He will surely be a great help on your journey, so place your trust in each other and illuminate your paths together."

"Understood."

"You seem to be around the same age. I hope you build a strong bond and friendship."

"I feel the same. I’ll do my best to get along with him."

After finishing the conversation with the Pope, things proceeded smoothly. According to the commission terms, my group received a hefty support fund. All the travel preparations were also taken care of by the Holy Empire’s officials.

And he demanded numerous artifacts as compensation for capturing Ismogen. He didn’t discriminate if it contained mana, he wanted it.

The Pope gladly handed over a considerable number of treasures.

Having thoroughly secured both the support fund and artifacts, he left the Grand Temple immediately. But the direction he was heading was quite different from the intended destination.

The newly joined Lionel cautiously asked,

“Are we not departing right away?”

“Oh, I’ve got something to take care of before we go. By the way, feel free to speak casually. That’s how we do things around here. We seem to be around the same age, too.”

“No, this is more comfortable for me.”

“The Holy Father told us to build close bonds and friendships, remember? I find stiff relationships awkward.”

“…Alright.”

True to his upright nature, he immediately changed his stance at the mention of the Pope’s orders. He seemed surprisingly easy to handle.

Seeing such a Lionel, Ghislain beamed with a broad smile. He now had a way to learn about the founding King of Ritania, which had long intrigued him.

Unlike the pleased Ghislain, Osval looked at Lionel with wary eyes.

‘Is he the youngest now? He must be, right? The vibe is no joke…’

Lionel exuded an air that was not just reverent but downright divine. That part unsettled Osval.

Not wanting to lose his place in the hierarchy, he deliberately walked up to Lionel with a scowl and said,

“Hey, you’re the youngest now. That’s how it works with mercenaries. Just listen to this man Osval and you’ll be fine. Got it?”

Lionel looked at Osval with a cold expression completely different from how he’d looked at Ghislain.

Seeing Lionel’s face, Osval flinched. The man was only looking at him, yet the gaze felt like it was slicing through his whole body.

After a brief silence, Lionel spoke in an emotionless voice,

“I am not a mercenary. So don’t waste your breath on pointless talk with me.”

Refusing to be intimidated, Osval tensed his stomach and replied,

“Oh, so you’re not a mercenary. Well, you should’ve said so earlier. I thought you were a newly hired one. If not, then whatever. Hahaha…”

Looking like he didn’t even get a fraction of what he wanted, Osval scowled as he sidled up to Kyle and whispered,

“Boss, that bastard is totally arrogant, huh? Let’s teach him a lesson, yeah? Osval the Man is with you till the end, Boss.”

“…”

“Tonight? Deal?”

“…Just stay put.”

“Boss, are you chickening out? From the newbie?”

“…”

Without saying a word, Kyle raised his fist, and Osval bolted away.

Though he didn’t take Osval’s side, Kyle also didn’t like Lionel one bit.

Everything the man did reeked of a strange mix of confidence and arrogance. It was as if his entire being screamed, ‘I’m not like you people.’

‘Tch. Show-off.’

And he really was exceptional. A noble by birth, a promising knight of the Holy Empire, and on top of that, a Temple Knight directly under the Pope.

He was a completely different breed from Kyle, who came from the countryside. Even his face had the refined features of someone high-born.

To Kyle, who saw him as having the very bearing of a hero, it was utterly infuriating.

‘Still, I’m stronger than him. Probably?’

He had undergone training under Ghislain that bordered on abuse(?) and had ample real combat experience. He had truly been forged like a weed in the wild.

So, if he fought someone like that, someone raised delicately in a greenhouse there was no way he would lose. He had to win.

Maybe Kyle had been glaring at the back of Lionel’s head for too long. Lionel, sensing the piercing gaze, turned around.

Their eyes met briefly. But Lionel turned his head again with an indifferent look.

‘That bastard…’

Kyle ground his teeth at the look that seemed to belittle him.

There are people who make you uncomfortable from the first meeting. For Kyle, Lionel was one of those people.

He instinctively sensed that they were cut from different cloth.

Unlike Kyle, Julien and Deneb were treating Lionel with kindness.

The two were even more concerned that the newly joined Lionel might feel out of place, so they kept chatting with him and trying to look after him. After all, the mercenaries under Ghislain’s command were quite rough and filthy.

Watching the two, Kyle scoffed.

‘Hmph, go ahead and treat him nicely all you want. That guy looks down on us. He’s only being polite because of the Holy Father’s orders.’

Lionel wasn’t openly rude to the members. But it was obvious he was keeping his distance from them.

At least he showed some respect to Julien, since he was the captain. Ghislain had personally negotiated with the Pope, so Lionel was formally courteous to him.

But he wouldn’t even meet Deneb’s eyes. Instead, Deneb kept glancing at Lionel nervously.

And with good reason. Lionel was a Temple Knight serving directly under the Pope. For Deneb, a lowly Apprentice Priestess from the countryside, Lionel was someone far beyond her reach.

In fact, Lionel treated Deneb like she didn’t even exist.

‘Seriously, he doesn’t even treat a bottom-rung priest like a person.’

It wasn’t just Lionel. Even though Deneb had once had an audience with the Pope himself, no one gave her any attention.

To them, Deneb was as good as invisible. No, she was someone too shameful to even acknowledge.

A mere Apprentice Priestess tagging along with a mercenary corps and tarnishing the Church’s reputation that was how they saw it.

So, they simply dismissed her as if she didn’t exist.

The other mercenaries sensed it too. But it was Church business, so no one dared get involved.

At least the priests from the Grand Temple would never cross paths with them again, so they could be ignored. But seeing someone they had to travel with, like Lionel, openly showing such disdain, it made Kyle boil with anger.

‘Arrogant bastard… Thinks he’s all that, huh? One of these days, I’m really gonna teach him a lesson.’

Kyle kept twitching his lips as he stared daggers at the back of Lionel’s head. His honest desire was to knock that smug bastard flat on the ground.

Because of the subtly overbearing aura that Lionel gave off, the awkward atmosphere persisted. The other mercenaries had also started to feel uneasy around him.

But Ghislain, though fully aware of it, didn’t mind at all.

‘I’ll just let him do as he pleases.’

Right now, Lionel was essentially the Holy Father’s informant. Ghislain wanted to understand how Lionel would end up fighting alongside the Hero and founding Ritania.

That’s why, for the time being, he intended to just observe.

The place Ghislain led the group to was the Grand Temple of Seraana, located in one of the most remote areas of the Empire’s capital.

“Wow…”

The group gasped in awe at the sight of Seraana’s Grand Temple.

Black stone walls towered into the sky, and the massive gray hall, devoid of a single window, seemed to silently warn the living to stay away.

An ominous stillness enveloped the area around the Grand Temple. Even their breathing seemed to sink into the heavy air. The silence alone inspired reverence in those who beheld it.

Shivering slightly, Osval whispered to the mercenary beside him,

“Man, this temple’s like a haunted house, huh?”

“You scared?”

“A man never gets scared. But ghosts… my attacks don’t work on them. That’s what’s scary. Nothing I can do about that.”

“…Right.”

The high priests of Seraana welcomed Ghislain’s party with expressionless faces.

“Welcome. You mentioned staying here for a while?”

Ghislain responded with a pious expression,

“Yes. Before setting off on our journey, I would like to offer a prayer to Lady Seraana and spend some time repenting for the sins I’ve committed.”

“…Here, of all places?”

The priest showed a slightly surprised expression.

Seraana was a goddess who symbolized death. Though she was one of the pillars of the Four Major Temples, the Church that served her was regarded somewhat differently from those that followed other goddesses.

Because they served death, the Church of Seraana was often treated as a taboo. Many even avoided stepping foot there.

So, to say he wished to pray here was naturally puzzling to the priest.

Ghislain smiled gently and said,

“Other places are fine as well… but isn’t there no better place than this to find quiet?”

“Hm, that is true.”

The priest nodded.

The Church of Seraana had the fewest followers, and unlike the other sects, their priests focused not on evangelism but on silent meditation and inner discipline.

Other than overseeing funerals, they hardly engaged in any outside activity.

Within the ever-silent sanctuary, they sought only to understand the principles of ‘the end’ and paid no mind to the chaos of life.

Indeed, there was no better place to quiet the heart and live in stillness if one could adapt to the eerie and heavy atmosphere.

With a blank expression, the priest said,

“Understood. We will provide a place for you to rest. You said you needed as much space as possible, correct?”

“Yes. A place large enough to hold at least a hundred people would be ideal.”

Ghislain was the only one performing the repentance ritual. The others would simply wait for him while staying in the temple lodgings.

Even so, the priest didn’t press further about why Ghislain had requested such a large space.

The priests here regarded maintaining composure and detaching from worldly curiosity as virtues.

They didn’t question Ghislain’s identity either. After all, he carried an ID personally endorsed by the Holy Father, and most of all, he was accompanied by none other than the famed Temple Knight, Lionel.

While they followed the priest’s lead, the group busied themselves whispering among each other.

“Why are we even here?”

“Who knows what the Deputy Commander is thinking? If you dwell on it, you’ll just get a headache. Let’s just pretend we don’t know.”

“And what’s with this prayer of repentance? The Deputy Commander’s the kind of guy who wouldn’t regret a thing even if he went to hell.”

“Crazy people say the craziest things, you know. It’s probably just more of his crazy talk.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t read into every little thing. If you start thinking too much, we’ll go nuts too.”

Hearing the mercenaries’ chatter, Lionel looked slightly taken aback.

‘What…? What kind of person is he, to be spoken of like this?’

Ghislain was someone entrusted with a crucial mission by the Holy Father. He seemed a bit arrogant, sure, but fulfilling the mission properly was what mattered so Lionel had decided to keep an eye on him.

But hearing him talked about like this by his own subordinates something didn’t sit right.

While Lionel stood there flustered, the others entered their assigned lodgings. None of them seemed the least bit concerned about what Ghislain was up to.

Ghislain was guided to a prayer room called the “Chamber of Silence.”

It was the most secluded room in the temple, a dark space even the priests were reluctant to enter.

Within the vast interior lined with towering pillars like shadows, gray walls and floors stretched without a single window in sight.

It was a dull, barren space with no decorations, no icons, nothing. Left alone in that chamber, Ghislain grinned and began pulling things out of subspace.

What he took out were corpses of knights he had collected, and objects imbued with mana given to him by the Holy Father.

“This place’s energy is so clean(?) and pleasant. I should be able to make plenty of wonderful friends.”

Even if Seraana was a goddess who ruled over death, her essence was still divine. It was fundamentally different from the grudge-filled and malicious nature of black magic.

And yet, Ghislain began producing Death Knights. He was creating unholy beings inside a sacred temple devoted to a divine goddess.

A day passed. As usual, the priests of Seraana continued their silent training throughout the temple but then, they began to tilt their heads.

‘What is this? Why do I feel so uneasy all of a sudden?’

‘Maybe I slept badly? Or… maybe I’m just lonely?’

‘Years of meditation must’ve piled up some serious resentment inside me…’

‘Feels like a demon’s descended upon the world.’

Unaware of what was actually happening, the priests merely struggled to maintain their inner calm as always.

But that only lasted a day or two. With each passing day, the strange sensation grew more intense.

By the third day, a palpable energy began to stab at their bodies. It felt eerily similar to their own divine power, yet fundamentally different.

Their suspicions deepened.

‘Who’s emanating this kind of energy while meditating? Are they going through something bad?’

‘This… feels like black magic, but also kind of like our own aura… Ugh, this is confusing.’

‘Come on, no way. Who’d be crazy enough to cast black magic in a sacred Grand Temple? That’s just absurd.’

‘It’s probably just a misunderstanding. Our divine power is a bit gloomy, after all…’

They tried their hardest to dispel such thoughts and reclaim their calm according to doctrine. But it was growing more and more difficult.

Grrrooooaaaan…

Now, they could even hear strange screams from somewhere. The sound seemed to rise up from some deep abyss.

In the end, the priests stopped their training and stood up. They had to find the source of this bizarre phenomenon.

Their eyes turned to… the “Chamber of Silence” where Ghislain resided.

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