Her condition was not exactly good, but simply having saved her life was an immense relief. When Elkein saw Walter
come forward and take Sarina from him, he immediately expressed his gratitude to Damon.
“For now, I thank you for sparing her life.”
“No need to thank me. She fulfilled the condition, so I spared her as promised, that’s all.”
A strange light flickered across Elkein’s eyes.
“Did Sarina, by any chance, eat the food?”
Damon shrugged with a faint smile.
“She threw up more than she kept down, but she did empty the bowl. Strictly speaking, since she vomited, I should have called it a rule
violation, but I decided to let it slide just this once.”
At those words, Elkein and the trainee knights gaped. Sarina might have been an outrageous tomboy,
but she was still undeniably a woman. And yet she had eaten food made from thoroughly boiled insects and venomous snakes……
Still, since she had come back alive, they had no choice but to believe it. Looking at them,
Damon’s eyes gleamed.
“Then you’ll be keeping your promise, won’t you?”
When he gestured toward the cave, Helbertron came out, bringing someone with him. It was Winterdale.
His face, still full of a vacant look, remained covered in scars, but the skin that had been oozing pus had improved considerably.
The way he merely grinned foolishly made it clear at a glance that he was not in his right mind.
Damon dragged him over and handed him to Elkein.
“I promised, so I’ll hand this fellow over as well. Take him and go.”
Elkein silently received Winterdale’s body, his face showing a complicated mixture of emotions.
For the moment, one could say that the purpose for which they had come here had been achieved. After all, they had captured
Winterdale, the wicked necromancer who had massacred the villagers.
But strictly speaking, they could never be said to have accomplished their goal. They had witnessed
an evil far more powerful than someone like Winterdale could ever be compared to. Elkein stared at Damon with eyes that seemed to burn
like blazing fire.
“We will leave today. But before long, we will return. Together with the mighty Crossen Order of Knights……”
Damon leisurely met Elkein’s gaze.
“As much as you like…… I’ll be waiting with bated breath.”
“You will likely regret letting us go.”
“No, I won’t regret it. Then I’ll see you later……”
Elkein, who had stared at Damon once with dazed eyes, turned without a word.
“Let’s go. We withdraw.”
The knights rose here and there and followed behind him. As if by prior agreement,
they glanced back at Damon again and again as they turned away. Among them was Sarina’s unfocused gaze.
When Damon entered the cave, the Death Knights began interrogating him in detail. To them,
Damon’s actions seemed utterly absurd.
“Why on earth did you let them go? By my common sense, I cannot understand it.”
“In principle, you should have killed them. Only then would the secret not leak out, would it? Why are you inviting
trouble upon yourself?”
At a glance, the Death Knights’ complaints seemed reasonable. Of the four of them, the only one who could fight
against a Sword Master was Helbertron. He alone had received an additional infusion of magic power,
and so he could be considered the strongest. But even he, in his current state, could barely handle three
Sword Masters on Elkein’s level.
The remaining Death Knights were still not strong enough to face even a single Sword Master.
Because they had not been infused with sufficient dark magic, they remained exactly as Damon had created them,
and at that level, it was difficult for them to display even one-tenth of the abilities they had possessed in life.
And yet Damon had deliberately drawn them out of Incresia and bluffed with them……
What was even more shocking was that the true strength of the Crossen Order of Knights was far greater than expected.
“To think there are as many as one hundred people in the world who can deploy a completed Aura Blade (Sword Gang)……”
By now, the Death Knights too had grasped the difference between a Paladin and a Sword Master.
They knew that in Arcadia, only those capable of using Sword Gang could be called Sword Masters.
If so, the fighting strength of the Crossen Order of Knights had to be viewed as surpassing the hero corps once dispatched to
Northwood in the past. Of the four hundred heroes, only forty or fifty at most
had been able to use Sword Gang. So it was only natural that the Death Knights grumbled at Damon.
“Even if only one-third of them swarm us, we have absolutely no chance of winning.”
“We are not prepared to face dragons at all yet. Why did you act so recklessly in such a state?”
At the Death Knights’ repeated reproaches, Damon grew irritated. They had no idea whatsoever that a prohibition preventing him from killing people
had been placed upon him. Since it was not exactly a pleasant matter,
Damon had not told them about the Sevenfold Severing Prohibition Art.
Therefore, for now, he had no choice but to bear the Death Knights’ complaints in full.
Unable to listen any longer, Damon scowled and shouted.
“Shut up. I’ll take care of everything myself.”
But the Death Knights did not withdraw meekly.
“This is not a problem limited only to you. Our revenge is also at stake here……”
“Until we take revenge on the dragons, we can never allow ourselves to be defeated. Why do you think we became Death Knights?”
In the end, Damon could only shake his head and explain the situation to them.
“Damn you bastards…… If I’d known it would be like this, I would have suppressed your intellect from the start. No helping it.
Listen carefully. Although I did let those fellows go, the Crossen Order of Knights will not come here under any circumstances.”
“Why is that?”
Damon glared at the Death Knights, who kept prying into the reason, and continued.
“As I said earlier, the Crossen Empire is currently in chaos because of a power struggle among the knights.
Some fellow named Perschtein or whatever is pulling every trick in the book to seize the emperor’s throne,
and the old emperor is so close to death that he cannot involve himself in state affairs at all. Therefore,
the main force of the order cannot leave the imperial palace under any circumstances. If they were to empty the court even by chance,
they would be giving the nobles a golden opportunity. So even if they send a new punitive force,
its numbers won’t be large. Ten at most, perhaps around twenty? Wouldn’t we be more than capable of handling
that much with our current strength?”
However, the Death Knights still responded with distrust.
“That information is certain, I assume?”
“Of course. It’s reliable information, so you can believe it.”
Damon nodded with a bitter smile. The thought occurred to him that perhaps it would have been better to create Dullahans on a large scale,
but he soon shook his head. It was troublesome for the moment,
but when it came to facing dragons, there was no existence more suitable than a Death Knight. Besides, if these fellows were capable
of judging the situation to this degree, they would more than do their part.
In fact, he had been obtaining information from Zengart. He had continued to keep in contact with
Zengart, who had taken Baron Romain’s position, and the circumstances of the Crossen Empire had also been passed to him
by Zengart. The real Baron Romain had already long since been sold off as an object of sodomy,
but Zengart was performing his role more than adequately.
Moreover, thanks to Zengart’s outstanding administrative ability and management policies, the Romain Company was flourishing more and more
as time passed. Because it dealt in jewels, the Romain Company
had close relationships with high-ranking nobles of various kingdoms. As such, high-grade information was bound to
reach Zengart’s ears.
Because of that, Damon would occasionally teleport to Lorvain to obtain information. Thus,
he was well-versed not only in the circumstances of the Crossen Empire, but also in those of several other kingdoms.
Looking at the Death Knights lined up before him, Damon spoke curtly.
“You lot go back in as well. I’ll infuse you with the mana I’ve gathered before long……”
“I hope you will hurry the work as much as possible. It will not be long before the dragons awaken.”
“I know. I said I know……”
Damon, having shoved the Death Knights other than Helbertron into Incresia as if pushing them from behind,
shook his head.
“Nothing much should happen, so I’ll have to make a trip to Lorvain today. To lift my gloomy mood,
if nothing else.”
The organization of Incresia had been completed to some extent. Since there was no way the Death Knights would sleep,
they had literally worked day and night, and had identified most of the locations
of the treasures stored within Incresia.
The revealed result was tremendous. Nearly ten percent of the wealth Truvenia had possessed in the past
was inside Incresia. It could only be called a truly enormous mountain of riches.
But in any case, those were things outside Damon’s interest……
“I’ll have to bring a few unremarkable treasures to Zengart. He must have spent quite a bit of money
obtaining information……”
Damon silently moved toward the magic circle. Winslut, who had been ordered to guard the dwelling flawlessly
while he was gone, was turning his body toward the entrance.
As Damon had expected, the Crossen Empire did not dispatch any further punitive forces. Because of the unsettled
domestic situation, they had no energy to spare for such matters. Elkein, who had returned to the capital,
laid bare everything about the peculiar necromancer of Sevain Territory and the forces he possessed. Of course,
the fact that Sarina had eaten that horrific food was buried as an eternal secret.
“G-Good heavens……”
When he heard that the man possessed as many as four powerful master-class Death Knights, the commander of the Crossen Order of Knights
gaped. If a ninth-circle master was not enough, and he also possessed four powerful master-class Death Knights,
this was no ordinary matter. Under normal circumstances, they should have eliminated the necromancer
no matter what sacrifice it required. That was the duty of the Crossen Empire, the suzerain state of Arcadia.
However, the knight commander, Marquis Williams, resolved to cover the matter up for the time being. Because he could not leave the capital
under any circumstances, he had no means to act. Since he did not know what sort of trick
Duke Perschtein might attempt, the main force of the order, including himself, must never leave the imperial palace.
The greatest factor in Williams making this decision was also the fact that the necromancer had not killed a single knight
from the punitive force.
“Judging from the situation, he does not seem to be such an evil fellow, so let us watch him for now. The subjugation of that man
seems to be a matter we can consider only after the empire has stabilized.”
Thus, the greatest threat that would have been directed at Damon finally fell silent. But
that was not the end of it.
The fact that a powerful necromancer lived in Sevain Territory spread widely in secret.
Of course, it was a rumor that had spread from the mouths of the trainee knights Elkein had brought with him.
Because of that, Damon ended up in an extremely bothersome situation……
Mercenaries seeking fame and trainee knights hoping to have their abilities recognized headed to Sevain Territory in great numbers,
and as a result, Damon had to face endless challenges.
“Uwaaaak!”
At the pain of his leg bone being snapped raw, Lanvain gaped and trembled all over. His fighting spirit
had already vanished as if washed away by water. So too had his resolve
to capture the necromancer no matter what.
“Uuuuuugh.”
With eyes filled with extreme terror, he stared at the dark silhouette approaching him.
An undead monster in the form of a headless knight. The dreadful being that had reduced him to this state—
no, that had beaten down all of his companions alone—was none other than a Dullahan.
Lanvain was a trainee knight from Pencelot, a wealthy kingdom in the north. Thanks to having a rich father,
he had learned swordsmanship from famous figures since childhood, and possessed sword skills uncommon for his age.
His innate qualities were not bad either, and before he had even turned thirty, he reached a level where he could handle mana.
To have his abilities recognized, he confidently headed for the Crossen Empire. He believed that with his skill,
he would be more than capable of obtaining Paladin qualification even in the Crossen Empire.
Of course, it was not as though Pencelot had no testing grounds for Paladin qualification, but Pencelot and Crossen
were on entirely different levels. If one was recognized as a Paladin in Crossen, one could receive even greater recognition
than obtaining the qualification of Sword Master in another country. For that reason,
knights from all over had no choice but to flock to the Crossen Empire, and Lanvain too had gone to the Crossen Empire
for that reason.
But that was clearly Lanvain’s miscalculation. At the Paladin qualification testing grounds located in the Crossen Empire,
there were swarms of knights who were not inferior to Lanvain in the slightest—no, who could even be said
to be a step above him. Looking at them one by one, it was difficult to find anyone weaker than Lanvain.
Thus, it was fair to say that there was almost no hope of Lanvain obtaining Paladin qualification.
But Lanvain was not someone who would give up because of that.
“If there is no way, I need only find one. No matter what, I will be granted Paladin qualification
by the Crossen Empire……”
He considered crossing over to the Truvenia Continent and hunting monsters. Since bringing back a powerful monster
he had hunted was the only way to obtain Paladin qualification……