Bishop Akenar (4)

“So, about that—how about we make it, on paper, that I was the one who knighted you?”

“With so many people here having heard and seen it, is that alright?”

“Well, I’m not a bishop for nothing. At least in official settings, that sort of talk won’t come up. But… hmm.”

Bishop Akenar rubbed her chin.

“It’s a little odd for someone wearing a mask to say this, but I want to see what’s under your mask.”

“Under my mask?”

“Yes. I don’t want to hear that I knighted a man whose face I don’t even know. Honestly, I don’t have to see it. Ah—this is pure curiosity. You don’t have to show me.”

“What?”

“B-But I do kind of want to see.”

Bishop Akenar squirmed as she spoke. She’d been introduced as someone lofty, but with behavior like that she looked like a teenage girl.

“I’m only hiding it because it’s a disgusting face.”

“Then you won’t show me? That’s such a shame.”

“Haah.”

Azadine had no choice but to remove his mask.

“……”

“You’ve seen it. Now then.”

“Ah, um—just a little more….”

Bishop Akenar started to rise to stop him—then a warning suddenly came.

Arael’s Voice, scouting the surroundings, sent Azadine an alert.

But even that warning was late. The enemy had used magic too, hiding their traces as they approached.

“Damn—excuse me!”

Azadine instantly braced himself by planting his feet on the seatback and the carriage ceiling, then pulled Bishop Akenar into his arms to absorb the shock.

-KWAAANG!

With a thunderous blast, the carriage bounced up off the ground.

“Kyaaaak!”

The carriage flipped and the roof shattered. As it began to collapse under the impact, Azadine burst out through a carriage window with the bishop.

Outside, a pack of wererats and hobgoblin crossbowmen were pouring on attacks. And the hobgoblin crossbowmen’s weapons were vicious: they were firing explosive canisters—bamboo tubes packed with black powder—sending the Order into chaos.

“Aaagh!”

“Y-You did this! If we’d had even an infantry detachment…!”

“Even with infantry, we’d have taken this.”

Azadine clicked his tongue at the meticulous assault.

Black powder was a costly dwarf-made commodity—more expensive than silver by weight—and difficult to store and maintain. They could use weapons like that only because Cohen Rioneir was behind them.

‘If I don’t deal with those crossbowmen first, there’s no answer.’

Cradling the bishop, Azadine scanned the area and spotted Izmilla.

“Izmilla!”

“Yes!”

“Take the bishop.”

Azadine handed Bishop Akenar to Izmilla and put his mask back on.

-Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon—Twilight Step!

Flowing along shadows and riding the darkness, Azadine’s body shifted in an instant—about five jang at a time—breaking through the enemy lines. A close-range spatial movement technique specialized for assassination.

He couldn’t believe he’d been unable to use it and had been crudely imitating it with brute body movement. Azadine found himself marveling again at the power of Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon.

Mezerry’s apostles, each gripping arming swords in both hands, swung like mad to keep the knights from approaching. Azadine lightly vaulted over them and reached the hobgoblin crossbowmen in a single rush.

The startled crossbowmen tried to resist, but Azadine knocked their fired explosive canisters back toward Mezerry’s apostles.

-PHWOOM!

With a deafening boom, Mezerry’s apostles were blown apart.

As wererats screamed and fell, Azadine drew the ceramite longsword and swung. A dazzling golden flame surged up from the blade, and hobgoblins dropped.

‘Ah. So that’s how it’s used. A sword that raises holy fire… but I shouldn’t use it here.’

Azadine snapped to his senses mid-swing.

If he struck someone holding an explosive canister with a burning blade and set it off, even he would be finished.

But the moment he resolved that, the flames vanished from the sword.

‘It can be controlled? Good. The blade’s dull so it doesn’t “bite,” but this is how the sword is meant to be used.’

Azadine cut down the hobgoblins with the ceramite longsword, now without flame.

The Kazas Grimoire had weakened, but thanks to fully mastering Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon, Azadine’s killing power became even more overwhelmingly dominant.

He moved from shadow to shadow, cutting down hobgoblins—then in the next moment his body stayed low and shot forward at high speed, carving through another cluster.

Two Twilight Steps, chaining Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon into the Kazas Grimoire—golden sword-light danced, and the hobgoblins were dealt with in an instant.

The dull ceramite edge mashed and nicked under the strain, but when Azadine lifted the sword, flame rose again—melting the blade and reforming it. A smooth edge, gleaming like new, reflected the moonlight.

‘So that’s it. This is Aurelia Dawn. It’s a fine sword.’

Azadine finally understood the ceramite longsword’s appeal.

A blade that burned itself away like a phoenix, then restored itself anew. For Azadine—who once had to replace weapons constantly because of the monstrous strength of the Kazas Grimoire—it was a perfect match.

“N-No way….”

Unlike Azadine’s private appreciation, the Rescue Knights watching his battle could only stand there, stunned.

‘Wasn’t drawing fire from a ceramite longsword something only true paladins could do?’

‘Why is that bastard’s ceramite longsword burning?’

‘It even melted its own edge and reforged itself!’

With the Order’s divine power waning, there were not many within the Rescue Knights Order who could draw flame from a ceramite longsword.

Yet Azadine wielded it with terrifying fluency, leaving everyone flustered.

And that wasn’t the only astonishing thing. The chained attacks—Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon flowing into the Kazas Grimoire—were brutally powerful. He’d wiped out the hobgoblin archers alone.

“Eek.”

“That’s impossible!”

“R-Retreat!”

Seeing the hobgoblins annihilated, Mezerry’s apostles tried to flee.

But Azadine picked up an explosive canister from the ground, struck it with the ceramite longsword, and launched it. With flame trailing, the canister exploded among Mezerry’s apostles.

“Gah!”

The fleeing apostles lost all composure. Azadine moved to pursue—

-Drip.

A drop of blood fell from Azadine’s chin.

‘Huh?’

When he wiped his chin, blood smeared across the back of his hand. Startled, Azadine touched his face.

Bloody tears were running from his eyes.

‘Ah.’

His body still wasn’t whole. Now that he had inherited Arael’s magical talent, Azadine’s power was enormous—but his body couldn’t endure it.

‘What a shame.’

Heat surged with a wave of dizziness. His head grew hot; the world swayed; and Azadine stopped the chase.

Then something flew in from behind him.

“Hm?”

He shot out a hand and caught it—astonishingly, it was a Moon Horn Bow.

“Hah.”

Azadine realized who had thrown it and tucked the Moon Horn Bow at his waist.

Jan—the ten-man leader of the Northern Aragasa—escaped in the chaos.

He had pledged himself to Azadine given the circumstances, but if he stayed by Azadine’s side like this, he would surely be interrogated in Coxhall.

Once torture began, even an Aragasa would have no way out.

He might be able to refuse to speak the truth, but torture tended to leave a person ruined. It was smarter to kill oneself before it came to that.

“But I didn’t expect you’d come to save me.”

Jan bowed his head to the one who had saved him.

“Of course. Father thinks of himself as the Emperor, after all. He wants to buy the Aragasa’s loyalty.”

Amid countless monsters, Mezerry’s apostles, and the apostles of Atra the Spider Queen, a silver-haired young man bearing the blood of the Yaegas God tribe stood there.

“Let’s talk on the way, Jan. I’m curious what kind of impressive bastard managed to capture you alive.”

On the way back to Coxhall, Azadine’s fever kept rising until he finally lost consciousness.

Fortunately, there were no further attacks. Concerned for the bishop and the pilgrimage band, Coxhall’s magistrate came out with his private soldiers to meet them, and thanks to that, the pilgrimage band and Bishop Akenar returned safely to the Rescue Knights Order’s headquarters in Coxhall.

The Order’s headquarters in Coxhall was a large estate composed of the diocesan building, the chapel, and the Order’s own facilities.

Upon arriving, Akenar assigned servants to Azadine and ordered that he be given the best room in the lodgings.

“Nurse him. Call a physician.”

“What? Your Grace—he’s of the messenger bloodline. And yet….”

“No. Right now, he is a brother of our Order. I knighted him, so he is under my guarantee. Do you understand what that means? To doubt him is to bestow dishonor upon me. If you make such remarks again, I will not overlook it.”

“B-But….”

There was no longer room to doubt that Azadine had become a member of the Rescue Knights Order.

Bishop Akenar had recognized his knighting, and officially, it was recorded that she herself had performed the ceremony for Azadine.

Even so, Azadine’s rank was only Hospitaller-Errant—barely a trainee knight.

For a bishop to personally assign her own servants to him and order nursing care was extreme favoritism.

“From this point on, I will not tolerate backtalk. Do as you are told.”

With that, Akenar hurried to the bishop’s office. There, an ancient relic—the Quartz Mirror—was installed; paired mirrors were linked by magic, allowing conversation across distances.

With this communication device, the Rescue Knights Order could operate tightly even with dioceses scattered across the world. It was a wondrous treasure that even the King’s Church coveted every time.

“Then I will inform the other bishops that the attackers who struck the pilgrimage band are vassals of the Northern Emperor. This may become a long council, so instruct the pilgrims and the other knights to rest within the diocese for the time being. There may still be raiders and assassins wandering outside.”

Leaving those words behind, Akenar headed into the bishop’s office.

“Hm.”

Watching her go, Camilla shrugged.

“The bishop’s awfully kind. But do you think the Order will believe the Northern Emperor attacked? Who would believe testimony from the messenger bloodline and suspect the Yaegas Divine King?”

“Y-Yeah….”

Izmilla answered, then glanced toward Azadine. Servants were lifting him onto a stretcher and carrying him to a bedroom.

“Oh, right—this is my chance to see his bare face. I’ve been curious. This bastard—what does he look like that he lives behind a mask? Heehee.”

Excited, Camilla followed after Azadine—only for her younger brother, Kuntachi, to stop her.

“Uh, sis. I’m hungry.”

“Go ask the priests for food. I’m going to see his face.”

“Wait.”

Izmilla stopped Camilla.

“Do we really need to bother a sick man?”

“If you’re going to nurse him, you’ll have to take the mask off anyway.”

“That’s true—no, wait. You’re not the one nursing him.”

Izmilla’s face reddened.

“You want to see too, don’t you? Right?”

“I-I mean… I did see him briefly, but only in the dark.”

“You saw him? What was he like?”

“I-I’m not sure. It was only a moment in the dark. But, um…”

“Was he ugly? Or does he have scars or something?”

“I couldn’t really tell. But I think he was handsome. And… um, that can’t be right. I must’ve seen wrong.”

“What do you mean, ‘can’t be right’?”

“Because he seemed ridiculously handsome.”

As she said it, Izmilla squirmed.

“What? That handsome? How much? Or is your taste just weird? Don’t tell me you like someone like my brother?”