Guide Of Miracles (2)

The chosen guide. There was a legend secretly passed down within the Rescue Knights Order.

A prophecy that one day, a great guide who would command all three knightly orders of the divided Benevolence, Courage, and Wisdom Orders, the three virtues, would appear among them.

No one knew when or from whose mouth it had begun, but that prophecy was not exactly a heretical teaching, and merely stirred people’s hopes, so everyone had passed it down only by word of mouth.

And yet the protagonist of that prophecy was here.

And of all things, he was an Aragasa. A soulless blasphemer, an untouchable, regarded as one who had committed the sin of murdering the Heavenly King!

‘The angels are truly spiteful. To think they would choose the lowest person among the people of Hubris as the guide!’

Ject could not help but burst into laughter at the angels’ decision to choose Azadine.

“Don’t be so noisy. I put the Angels of Corruption to rest, but there may be other monsters.”

“Ah, my apologies. Good grief. This is so absurd that I cannot hold back my laughter. Sir Azadine. You are the one chosen by the angels. Since when?”

“Rather than saying I was chosen in some grand way… well, it’s been a while. Ah, keep this a secret. It’s not exactly a good thing.”

Azadine shrugged.

“Why?”

Ject asked out of pure curiosity.

Azadine was a miracle-worker. A guide chosen by the angels.

He was someone chosen by the angels to lead the Rescue Knights Order onto the right path. Of course, if that fact was revealed, the established Orders would resist, but if he displayed the power of miracles, he would be able to gather followers comparable to Celestial Fire.

Power, strength, worship. Even if one could remain detached from those benefits… strength was absolutely necessary to accomplish one’s mission. Then why did Azadine not reveal that he was a miracle-worker?

“I can’t make the Rescue Knights Order like the King’s Church.”

“Pardon?”

“When the Three Archangels and the angels descended upon this land, people received the teachings of virtue with their ears, but chased after the angels with their eyes. They drifted away from virtue and worshiped only the angels. Souls that wish to become slaves of the God tribe and angels by their own will cannot reach virtue, so if I reveal here that I am the one chosen by the angels and perform miracles, people will only find another object of worship and drift further and further away from virtue.”

“Ahh. I see. Hm. In that case, you will absolutely never be compatible with me.”

Ject was a member of the King’s Church, and the King’s Church demanded that humans and lower races all devote themselves to the plans of the Yaegas God tribe for the sake of the great plan of the mighty God tribe.

“Humans need guidance. That is reality. Just as even the Three Archangels, who brought the promise of virtue, ultimately became objects of worship, entrusting oneself to a greater and more superior being is the very nature of humans. To ignore their nature and force your ideals upon humans… Azadine. You will fall to ruin.”

“Doesn’t matter, does it? You don’t really like me anyway. If I fall to ruin, just rejoice and clap your hands.”

“That is true as well. If that day comes, I shall shed tears of joy. Of course, if you are prospering, I may try to hasten that ruin myself.”

“Good grief. We don’t have time to stand around talking like this. Pursuers will come from behind. If you have a separate escape route, escape! I’ll see you at the Van Dyke Trading Company!”

“The Van Dyke Trading Company, you say?”

“We promised, right? I said I would share the information I learned above. I keep my promises.”

Azadine left those words behind and began to run. Ject looked at Azadine and gave a bitter smile.

As an inquisitor of the King’s Church, Azadine had now become someone he absolutely had to annihilate.

Officially, the King’s Church was cooperating with the Rescue Knights Order, but behind the scenes, it inwardly wished for the Rescue Knights Order and angel faith to collapse.

That was because it wanted the King’s Church to monopolize all spirituality on the Hubris Continent.

From the beginning, the faith of the King’s Church and the faith of the Rescue Knights Order could not tolerate each other.

Even so, their alliance had been maintained because most of the Rescue Knights Order were foolish people who worshiped the angels themselves rather than virtue, making them no different from the believers of the King’s Church.

But now, after all this time, a miracle-worker, a guide chosen by the angels, had appeared.

“Of all people, they chose the Emperor’s Messenger, and one who betrayed his own clan and ran away at that. The angels really are spiteful. Ah, is that why? Unless they chose someone of the lowest status, people would follow him rather than virtue?”

The current Rescue Knights Order would not be able to tolerate Azadine’s existence either.

The Rescue Knights Order and Azadine would end up clashing with each other, so there was no need for Ject to attack Azadine now and settle that situation for them.

“…Then!”

Ject also escaped from the underground sewer and ran.

Azadine had defeated the Angels of Corruption, but aside from the Angels of Corruption and the dead under their command, monsters were swarming in this place.

If he did not get out quickly, even Ject, who had exhausted his mana, was highly likely to make the same mistake as Verdam, who died after being struck by a goblin’s stone.

“Good heavens.”

After Ject left, another witness collapsed to the ground there.

It was Haine, the assassin of the Benevolence Order, a Guide to Rest.

In order to pursue Azadine, she had gone down the ladder first while avoiding the Wisdom Order’s pursuers and the wereboar, and at that moment, she had clearly seen what Azadine did.

She saw the scene of the Angels of Corruption entrusting their bodies to Azadine in order to gain rest!

And she had also clearly heard the conversation between Ject and Azadine.

‘Impossible. He is a foreigner who committed the great sin of murdering the Heavenly King! But.’

The word miracle lingered in her mouth. It was a word that would cause great trouble if spoken aloud.

A Holy Knight who performed miracles. The very person who performed miracles through the guidance of the angels.

The Guide of Miracles who would unite the Rescue Knights Order, divided into three Orders, into one.

There was a prophecy that someday, a great leader who would unify the Orders into one would appear. And people now regarded Karna, commander of the Celestial Fire Knights, as that very Guide of Miracles.

It was a fact the Benevolence Order could not accept, but the general trend could not be resisted. Yet now, a being who could overturn that board had appeared.

‘No. That is not the issue. This is.’

Haine felt her chest tremble.

In truth, she had lost her faith long ago. In fact, it was not only her.

All the other knights also worshiped angel’s blood rather than virtue. They turned away from the reality of the Order, which was losing its divine power, and began clinging even more to angel’s blood.

Even the prophecy of the great guide who would bring about grand unification had been dismissed as nonsense meant to deceive the masses. The Wisdom Order had used sorcery to create Karna, and the Benevolence Order had been trying to overturn that board through assassination and schemes so they could make power their own.

As a member of the Benevolence Order, Haine had lost her faith in virtue and merely fulfilled the duties assigned to her as a faithful tool of the organization.

‘Ahh, how cunning I am. To gain faith only after witnessing a miracle. But truly….’

Yet in her heart, faith was genuinely sprouting.

Haine trembled with the religious ecstasy welling up from deep within her chest.

Azadine regrouped with Ject and Scott in front of the Van Dyke Trading Company.

“Hah, hahah. Urgh. Captain. I-I need sugar!”

Perhaps because Scott had run on his own legs to escape, he was suffering from hypoglycemic shock.

However, Azadine snorted.

“You must think I’m a fool. How long has it been since you arrived? Seeing that you’re alive right now, you don’t necessarily need to replenish sugar, do you? Unless it’s that you just want to eat some.”

“Come on, captain. I really almost died.”

For orcs, who possessed bodies that seemed to have been favored by the god of muscles, sprinting at full speed meant staking their lives.

Because they had too much muscle, they required a lot of oxygen, and even if their lung capacity held out and supplied them with plenty of oxygen, hypoglycemic shock came next as if it had been waiting.

Since the threat to life from sprinting came suddenly… the fact that Scott was alive right now meant that he had already recovered for the time being.

“Here.”

Azadine threw Scott a caramel. Since Vthuma had been devastated and the sugar trade had been disrupted, the prices of sugar and sugar-related products had soared through the sky. This caramel was something Azadine had obtained while active in Vthuma.

It was an extremely precious treasure, but considering Scott’s achievements, this much was not a waste. Of course, he gave one not only to Scott, but also to Zebec.

“Did you accomplish your objective? Sir Azadine. What happened to Sir Ject?”

Zebec asked as he accepted the caramel. Instead of answering, Azadine took a spell scroll from his chest.

“What is that?”

“Well, about that. Ah, someone arrived at just the right time.”

Surprisingly, the person who appeared in front of the Van Dyke Trading Company was Sir Ject, the Holy Knight clad in golden armor.

Ject strode over alone, without his subordinates, and sat on the stone wall of the fountain built in front of the Van Dyke Trading Company.

“Caramel, is it? Might I receive one as well?”

“…….”

Azadine handed one to Ject as well, while openly radiating an air of reluctance.

Zebec gave a bitter smile.

“You do keep your promises, Sir Azadine. Do you intend to share the information with Sir Ject as well?”

“What happened in the underground passage was not my will. Sir Maya was beyond my control.”

Ject stated that the clash underground had not been his own intention. Scott sneered at him.

“You tried to capture us alive, didn’t you? Are the Yaegas God tribe half human too, so maybe they suffer from short-term memory loss? Phew. What a pitiful race. How stupid do you have to be?”

Ject became subtly angry at Scott’s rude words.

“Maya is my disciple and subordinate lieutenant. I tried to isolate you so that needless clashes would not cause casualties.”

“At least wet your lips before you lie, Sir Ject. If you have noble blood, you should preserve your dignity.”

Zebec also mocked Ject sarcastically.

“Then shall you tell us what happened inside?”

“One more person.”

No sooner had Azadine spoken than Haine of the Benevolence Order appeared. She approached in her usual appearance, with her face covered by a black veil and a robe draped over steamweave chainmail, but for some reason, her body was trembling.

“Sir Azadine. You were safe. It is truly a great joy that Your Sacred Person is in good health.”

“Mm?”

Azadine felt puzzled at Haine’s words, which referred to his body with extreme reverence. But soon, he simply assumed it was her usual sarcasm and let it pass without much concern.