Chapter 77
"Don't listen to him, Sister!"
"Y-yes sir!?"
Startled awake from her shock.
"Listen only to me. Then I'll show you something fun."
"W-what kind..."
"Hold on tight."
"Damn it!"
Swish, tap tap tap!
"Kyaaaah!"
Spinning through the air with the pilgrim named Maria, I sequentially stepped on the walls and ascended to the rooftop.
Thud.
"T-that scared me..."
"Callias!! Hand over the Sister!"
Still chasing even like this.
Thinking he was like a leech, I looked down and saw Brans waving his hand in front of the collapsed wall.
'Is he crazy.'
Waving at a time like this?
Or so I thought, but beside him was Vivi being held.
Vivi seemed to be telling me not to worry.
"Useful after all."
Now then, what should I do.
Killing them all seems a bit much.
After all, they were women who had said they liked me, so killing them feels a bit wrong.
"W-what are you going to do now?"
Maria asked cautiously.
Still held in my arms, her face was red and she was trembling so much that I could feel her heartbeat.
"What do you think I should do?"
"R-run away. Hearing the news that Lord Callias appeared, many Sisters are gathering. Even more paladins will assemble than now."
"Cute."
"W-what?! Haah..."
Maria's face exploded red and she fainted.
I was startled for a moment by the words that came out of my mouth.
But I soon regained my composure.
It seemed to be because of my trait.
In the North, the scoundrel trait was occasionally troublesome, and here the prodigal son trait seemed like it would be a nuisance.
"I didn't think about the trait."
While playing the inquisitor and thinking about killing corrupt bastards, I didn't consider the trait. A blunder.
Clang!
"Callias, you bastard!!"
The usual paladin.
As soon as he climbed onto the roof, he came at me swinging his sword.
Boom-!
I casually dodged, and he smashed the roof while I pulled Maria into my arms.
"What did you do to Maria!"
"Nothing."
I only said she was cute.
"Don't lie! She wouldn't collapse like this if you did nothing!"
"How unjust."
But it didn't seem like he would believe me, so I picked up Maria's sword.
Not a famous sword, just an ordinary sword.
The pale blue blade was proof of that.
A longsword with no particular characteristics.
But the sword the paladin before me held was a famous sword. It was similar to a sabre with the blade slightly curved upward.
"Callias. The rumor that you obtained a sacred relic must be true. Your movements are distinctly different from three years ago."
Was there such a rumor?
It doesn't really matter.
It's a rumor that will all disappear in a few days anyway.
"You certainly have a lot of interest in me. You should have just confessed with all your heart. Though I wouldn't have accepted it, of course."
Gnash.
"Shut up!! Not being able to kill you three years ago is my eternal regret. Even if you gained the power of a sacred relic, a scoundrel's swordsmanship cannot reach me!"
"A different charm from Maria. Did you come to my bedroom too?"
Unintentional nonsense keeps coming out.
The paladin, trembling with shame, kicked off the roof and charged.
"Die!!"
Divine power burst forth instantaneously.
Not bad purity of divine power, and the trajectory of the swung sword was concise.
Not bad swordsmanship, but.
Slide.
It doesn't work on me.
The clashing sword somehow spun and redirected from above to below.
Startled, the paladin stepped back.
"!"
He widened his eyes as if it made no sense.
"I clearly clashed swords..."
"There was no sound."
There was sound.
It was just hard to hear.
Right now, I wasn't using divine power or grace-enhanced strength either.
I simply deflected the opponent's force.
Before the military commander, with barely a handful of divine power left, I deflected his axe.
It was clearly the power of Sasijakbi, but I always wanted to make it my own.
'Not yet.'
It wasn't the deflection of that time.
When I fought the military commander.
With a body that truly had no strength in it, I deflected the military commander's fierce axe.
The sensation of that time.
I wanted to reclaim it, but perhaps it's still too soon.
It's far from satisfactory.
"What did you do!"
"Nothing."
Different sensations from before assail my body and dominate my mind.
The moment our swords clash once, countless information floods like waves.
That paladin's disposition.
The trajectory and habits of his sword swings.
I can feel how many long years he trained which movements.
No, I grasp it all at once.
It's a mysterious sensation, but because of it, I felt even more deflated.
That paladin's level is worse than a single orc warrior that came to the North.
I had expected it, but.
Karpe's level was quite low.
"Shall I help?"
At that moment, a familiar voice came.
"Helena. You haven't left yet."
"No, I was doing my business but it was noisy so I came to look and you're fighting. How about it? Want me to help like three years ago? If it's now, I'll give you a special sale and help for a thousand gold coins. You have a lot of money now, right?"
"I don't need it."
I don't need help to that extent.
It's just annoying.
"Paladin Helena!! Do you know how hard it was for me because I couldn't kill that bastard because of you back then!"
"Don't talk about killing people as if it's natural, okay? And everyone has their own circumstances, you know? You understand, right? Then here's my offer! If you give me a thousand gold coins, I won't help. How about it?"
A thousand gold coins.
How could a mere paladin easily hand over such a fortune.
"I don't have that much leisure to..."
"What a shame. If it's now, I could discount it to eight hundred gold coins."
The pondering paladin threw a pouch from his bosom.
"This is all I have right now!"
Whish. Helena, who caught the thrown gold coin pouch, stuck her tongue out slightly to measure the weight and said.
"My, only a hundred?"
"Make it ten minutes!"
"Oh, just stay still for ten minutes? Sure."
However.
"Callias is already gone?"
Callias had already disappeared at some point.
"Damn it!!"
After spitting out a curse and looking at Helena.
She was also gone.
With her gold coins.
* * *
Step step.
Pat pat.
Callias brushed the dust off his shoulder, left the commercial district, pulled up his hood, and melted into the crowd.
"Settling old grudges is fine, but the sacred alchemist comes first right now."
Approaching the area bordering the forest on the outskirts of Caladi.
All sorts of medicinal smells pricked his nose.
This was the area where the sacred alchemists in Caladi gathered.
Callias had to find one sacred alchemist here. One of the people who would later become the pillar of the Karpe Kingdom and create all sorts of powerful artifacts and holy wars.
"Beatrice."
If it was her, she would be more than capable of solving his concerns.
* * *
"A-aren't you Lady Esther!"
"It's an honor!!"
They were soldiers guarding the capital.
In Karpe, there is no one who does not revere the sword. Growing up watching knights who carry swords from birth, even with ears slightly open, stories about the spear bastards come up.
Therefore, a strong knight.
The respect for paladins was certain.
No matter how much the order's reputation has fallen, the sword is equal to all.
So they couldn't hide their reverence for Esther, called the genius of the century.
"I was deeply impressed seeing you fight and win against a paladin wielding a spiritual sword with an ordinary sword at the royal palace tournament!"
"Having a divine being like Lady Esther in the kingdom, everyone's expectations are..."
"Yes."
Their interest was quite uncomfortable for Esther, but the soldiers made excuses to strike up even a little conversation.
"What brings you here..."
"I was passing nearby and there was a commotion, so I came to check."
Commotion.
While passing through the streets, her keen intuition led her here.
"What happened?"
"Um... well. We also just arrived so we haven't exactly figured out what happened yet."
However.
"Judging by the traces, it seems a small-scale battle took place. We've also secured testimonies from people passing by."
The soldiers had faces that clearly showed their displeasure. Pilgrims swinging their swords as they pleased was a common occurrence.
Reading their expressions, Esther calmly pierced the core.
"Were they pilgrims?"
"Huh? Ah, yes. It was a group of pilgrims. I don't know what happened, but it seems less than ten people were fighting each other."
"May I take a look?"
"Ah, of course. This way..."
More than ten people engaged in a group battle in this narrow alley.
Esther didn't believe the soldier's words.
'It was one person.'
Many against one.
Over ten people attacked one person.
The chaotic sword marks left on the buildings and ground.
And looking at the footprints, how they fought was drawn in her mind.
"There were two."
"Huh? What do you mean..."
Esther ignored the soldier and fell into thought.
At first, two.
But one fell immediately.
With the wall collapsed, his footprints didn't remain.
And the remaining one.
"Fascinating."
"What's... fascinating?"
Clearly a many-against-one battle.
Over ten pilgrims attacked one, but strangely, that one person's sword marks and footprints didn't remain.
As if they fought a ghost.
'Of course, it's not that there are no traces at all.'
Suddenly, from here on, two sets of footprints overlapped as they fought.
They fought as if toying with their captured enemy. Unless one was a great master, they couldn't do such a thing.
"And..."
She could see it.
Stepping on the wall and ascending.
Ascended to the roof of approximately a five-story building in three leaps.
Even Esther couldn't easily do this.
Tremendous physical ability.
And with someone other than themselves.
"Who could it be?"
The person the pilgrims fought.
Perhaps an imperial knight hiding in Caladi?
It's possible.
He didn't draw his own weapon.
Swish, tap, tap, tap!
"Ah! L-Lady Esther!"
Leaving the soldiers behind, Esther stepped on the wall and ascended like the mysterious knight, climbing onto the building's roof.
"They disappeared here."
Even here, his footprints were absent.
A pilgrim's power transcends that of a normal human.
When using superhuman strength, it's natural for traces to be left on the terrain.
Yet even here, his were absent.
Clearly they fought someone, yet they couldn't find any trace of that person.
The final blow. Even from the paladin's powerful strike, his traces were nowhere.
Interesting.
There is a strong knight who can do what I cannot.
To Esther, who had trained only the sword, the strong were the only existences in this world that deeply interested her, a form of entertainment.
"Heave-ho, heave-ho..."
As she smiled with interest.
A cute voice came from somewhere.
Raising her head, a girl was carefully climbing up through the burst hole in the roof, cautious in case it collapsed.
"Made it!"
"Who are you?"
"Oh my!!"
Rumble! Crash crash!!
"Kyah!"
Perhaps she put too much force, she fell from the roof as it collapsed again.
"Wah! Waaah!! I almost... died."
"Are you alright?"
"Y-yes! O-oh, Lady Esther?"
"You're... Pilgrim Maria."
"Y-you know me?"
"Aren't we peers?"
"R-right! I didn't know you'd remember... Ah, thank you."
Pulled up onto the roof, Maria bowed her head to Esther.
"But why are you here?"
"Ah, I left something behind..."
As if just remembering, she looked around in a fluster.
A few years ago, even during her ascetic days, she was exactly like this, so she remembered.
With her kind heart and deep consideration, there were almost no people who disliked Maria.
However, Esther didn't find her warmth pleasant.
"By any chance, did you see a sword here?"
A sword. There's only one reason to look for a sword here.
"Were you the one who fought here?"
"Huh? Ah, that's... I did fight, but then again I didn't, it's ambiguous."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, that's..."
Esther's brow furrowed.
Because Maria's attitude was definitely strange. Her face was red, her fingers fidgeting, and her body was twisted.
'Like a cute earthworm.'
She looked like she was embarrassed about something. But that was only for a moment.
She started becoming restless.
"Lady Esther, did you see my sword? It's a really precious sword to me! Without it, I'll disappear!"