Bishop Akenar (2)

The knights recognized that what Azadine carried was a ceramite longsword, and they recoiled in shock.

“You bastard! Where did you get that?”

“Don’t tell me you did something to Sir Izmilla?!”

It seemed they assumed Azadine had taken Izmilla’s ceramite longsword.

“Honestly.”

Azadine clicked his tongue at the Rescue Knights, pathetic beyond belief.

Since childhood, Azadine had loved the tales of the Trinity Archangels.

Three Virtue Archangels who pitied humanity and descended from the heavens of their own will, and paladins who received their teachings and practiced virtue—protecting mankind with the power of white magic.

Born without eyes and with an incomplete magic book, scorned by his own kind, Azadine had clung to those stories of paladins fighting alongside the Trinity Archangels as a dream, as hope.

But what remained here now were nothing but swindlers—men it was embarrassing to even call knights.

Of course, Azadine was a realist; he knew humans could not be perfect. No matter how upright an organization’s ideals were, once humans gathered, corruption, decay, and distortion were inevitable.

Even so, weren’t these bastards especially low-quality?

‘To be honest, they were so powerless the entire pilgrimage band nearly collapsed—and now they think they can persecute me? With your skill, can you even handle me? If I didn’t owe Sir Plank a debt, and if I weren’t a Hospitaller in my own right after being knighted, I swear….’

Azadine considered himself, at present, both the Emperor’s messenger and a Rescue Knight of the Rescue Knights Order.

Sir Plank’s knighting had never been a meaningless gesture. Denying that was unthinkable to Azadine.

‘We’re fellow Rescue Knights, so I’ll let it go.’

Just then, the villagers stepped forward.

“Um, if it weren’t for him, we’d all be dead.”

“Yes. He defeated the lizardmen and saved us.”

The villagers bravely defended Azadine in front of knights armed with spears and blades.

“He was incredible! He took on all those lizardmen like—whoosh, whoosh!”

A child mimicked a sword fight, copying Azadine. It looked comical because he was a child, but he conveyed the core point well:

Azadine had backed away and dealt with a crowd of lizardmen with absurd ease.

“Hm.”

Even the paladins hesitated after hearing the villagers’ pleas—apparently they weren’t blind holes in a tree.

“You heard them, right? Don’t get in my way—go catch the lizardmen. If they’re too much for you, do you want me to go?”

Azadine said that and casually took a step. A spear shaft blocked his path.

“Hold it!”

“Our regular pilgrimage band was attacked in this area.”

“We’re investigating. Cooperate.”

“So you meant to say ‘Please cooperate,’ and you misspoke?”

At that moment, Izmilla and her group arrived late at the village.

“Huh?”

“The Rescue Knights Order?!”

Izmilla immediately raised her holy insignia.

“I’m Izmilla, a Hospitaller-Errant attached to the pilgrimage band! What’s going on?”

“Ah, Sir Izmilla.”

“You’re safe.”

The knights confirmed Izmilla was unharmed and rushed toward her.

“Sir Bellinz. Sir Sepheld? You’re alive.”

“Thanks to the protection of the Trinity Archangels.”

“Protection, my ass. You mean you ran for your lives.”

Camilla snorted as she listened. She deliberately kept her voice low—just barely audible.

If the knights complained that they’d heard her, she would play innocent; and if they repeated her words outright, they’d have to announce their own shame with their own mouths, which would be quite a sight.

Because she still vividly remembered it: the pilgrimage-band knights throwing the serfs and prisoners they’d brought along as arrow shields while they fled.

So hearing them invoke “the archangels’ protection” now felt laughable.

The knights glared at Camilla, but when they saw a massive half-orc scratching his chin beside her, they turned away and pretended not to hear.

Then Izmilla questioned them.

“Is it true the bishop is coming?”

“It is. The bishop is on the way by carriage, so it’ll be a bit late, but….”

Judging by it, they were scouts of the bishop’s escort.

“Then you really did run all the way to Coxhall.”

Even Izmilla’s question bristled with thorns.

They could dress it up as “going to call for reinforcements,” but in the end, the moment the pilgrimage band was attacked, these knights had bolted for Coxhall.

Otherwise, the bishop wouldn’t be arriving this quickly.

“Ahem. I knew our comrades were in danger, so… it couldn’t be helped. And we didn’t run all the way to Coxhall—His Grace learned there was an attack and had already dispatched troops to patrol the area. It’s not like we fled that desperately.”

Stung by Izmilla’s quiet condemnation, the paladin flushed and made excuses. The other one still couldn’t read the room.

“Haha. I used a vigor spell on my horse. Thanks to that, we could run away really fast.”

“And why is this man being treated like that?”

Izmilla looked puzzled as she noticed the knights wary of Azadine.

“Ah, Sir Izmilla. Do you know this man?”

“He was carrying a ceramite longsword…”

They glanced behind Izmilla. A ceramite longsword hung on her back as well.

Compared to Azadine’s, the leather on Izmilla’s hilt looked fresh, and the three-winged wheel crest on the pommel was crisp. Azadine’s ceramite longsword was clearly older, worn smooth by long use.

‘Huh?’

‘It’s different.’

When Azadine had the ceramite longsword, everyone assumed it was Izmilla’s. Now it was obvious the two swords were entirely different.

“He’s the Emperor’s messenger. The pilgrimage band was on the brink of annihilation, so I swallowed my pride and summoned him with the Emperor’s gold coin.”

“?!”

“What?!”

The knights immediately leveled their spears and blades at Azadine again.

“D-Drop your weapon!”

“Drop it, now!”

“No.”

Azadine snorted.

“Listen. You’re the ones who called me. I came to help the survivors when the Rescue Knights Order was in danger, and as you can see, I helped plenty. So on what charge are you trying to arrest me?”

“Th-That’s….”

“As he said, I summoned him. Per our contract, he faithfully carried out his duties, so arresting him is betrayal. And unlike the King’s Church, we do not treat the Emperor as an enemy—so on what grounds are you trying to detain him?”

Izmilla defended Azadine as well.

“But….”

Just then, a calm but powerful woman’s voice cut in.

“Because the Emperor’s followers destroyed Vthuma and the Korasar Kingdom.”

“Pardon?”

The door of a carriage that had arrived at the village entrance opened, and a woman wearing a silver noblewoman’s mask stepped down. It was Bishop Akenar of Coxhall.

“W-We greet you, Your Grace.”

Izmilla dismounted and knelt.

“I’m glad you’re safe, Sir Izmilla.”

“Y-You honor me.”

“Then the Emperor’s messenger….”

The bishop turned to Azadine.

“I’m grateful you saved Sir Izmilla. However, I’ve heard that the Emperor’s followers destroyed Korasar and Vthuma and massacred countless people. If that is true, then I’m sorry—but we will place you under arrest.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then we’ll have no choice but to use force. Of course, capturing a trained Emperor’s messenger may be beyond our strength, but if we claim we lack the strength to enact justice and therefore ignore evil—can that be allowed?”

Bishop Akenar spoke in an even, composed voice.

“You’re awfully harsh to knights who abandoned their comrades and ran. They probably did it because they wanted to live.”

Azadine twisted Bishop Akenar’s words into a jab at the knights who had fled after abandoning Izmilla, and he spoke with open sarcasm.

“What a joke. Paladins betraying and arresting a guest they themselves summoned.”

Jan, watching, couldn’t hold back and added a line.

At that, Azadine drew the ceramite longsword strapped to his back.

“You bastard!”

“What are you doing?!”

Mounted knights charged, thrusting spears at Azadine, but Azadine used the ceramite longsword to bat the spearheads aside.

Their bodies lifted from their saddles, though the stirrup straps kept them from falling. Instead, their spears snapped.

‘Weaker. Normally that would’ve unhorsed them completely.’

Azadine forced a bitter smile as he felt his own strength had diminished.

But for the knights, it felt like they’d been caught in sorcery. With that single exchange, they realized they could never stop Azadine.

‘N-No way! The bishop is here!’

‘The bishop is in danger!’

They had once thrown away comrades and fled to save their own lives, but this time they all threw themselves forward to block the bishop.

If Azadine harmed Bishop Akenar, no one involved would have any way to escape. When they’d fled the pilgrimage band, there had been room for excuses—this time there would be none.

Yet contrary to their expectations, Azadine flipped the sword and offered the hilt to the bishop.

“As Bishop of Coxhall, you’ll know whose sword this is, won’t you?”

Bishop Akenar took the sword and examined it. With trembling eyes, Akenar looked back and forth between the hilt and Azadine.

“I—I can’t believe it. Isn’t this sword Aurelia Dawn?!”

“Aurelia Dawn?!”

“Don’t tell me… Sir Plank’s sword?”

Everyone flinched at the name.

Sir Plank had been the teacher of the Northern Emperor, Cohen Rioneir. One day he vanished, later becoming a Death Knight who wandered near Coxhall and slaughtered countless people.

So many knights had challenged Sir Plank and died that people called him the Death Knight.

But in life, he had been one of the three Virtue Knights—the one responsible for Wisdom—and the ceramite longsword he wielded was one of four famed blades permitted to bear a name.

‘Was it really that big of a deal?’

Azadine himself did not think highly of the ceramite longsword. It was heavier than an ordinary steel sword, and the blade was dull enough that it didn’t “bite” well.

It couldn’t compare to a sharp, sturdy azure steel longsword, and it was even a bit worse than a finely made steel treasured blade.

Yet judging by everyone’s reaction, the ceramite longsword—especially the one Azadine had—seemed to be one of the world’s famed blades.

“How do you have this….”

“I received it from him directly.”

“What?”

“I was knighted by him, and I inherited the sword.”

“?!”

Azadine didn’t know the prophecy passed down within the Rescue Knights Order, but Bishop Akenar naturally knew it.

A prophecy that the knight Sir Plank knighted at the very end would become the flower of chivalry.

But the man before her was the Emperor’s messenger, wasn’t he?