Chapter 30 Paladin(1)

Editor: BaeBae

“God damn it. Can it piss down any harder.”

A man that looked like a merchant, entered an inn carrying a bundle on his back.

Water was dropping everywhere from his wet clothes.

The inn owner chuckled and took his bundle with an air of familiarity.

The unspacious inn was already full of people drying their clothes. The rain had drenched everyone.

“It’s not even the rainfall season, why is it pouring down so much.”

“Didn’t you hear? Something happened in the south.”

“What?”

“Apparently, a devil appeared in Tantil and slaughtered hundreds and the Gray tower also collapsed. Everyone is saying it’s a bad omen for the empire, and that this weather, it’s part of it. There’s even been talks of gods coming back.”

“Nonsense. The emperor’s corpse is still at the capital.”

The merchant went at the Inn keeper, but feeling some doubt he started fiddling with a rosary around his neck.

Juan and Anya were sitting at a table in the corner, looking on.

This village was located on the main road that passed through the Laus mountains. And so, there were many eyes and ears of those looking for information.

However, no one was paying attention to a mere woman and child.

“It looks like they haven’t arrived yet.”

“Would’ve been real noisy had they arrived.”

Juan indulged in some soup. It had been a while since he’d eaten meat. Feeling of warmth reaching his stomach didn’t feel bad.

‘There was one guy I was wary of.’

When Juan surveyed the village, there were traces of footprints belonging to someone far heavier than a normal person.

The body didn’t seem big in size. A normal human couldn’t hope to walk around with that amount of weight.

Juan had a hunch, this person would be formidable wherever he went.

“Do you know of people who are armoured heavily but aren’t restricted in their movements?”

“You talking about Paladins?”

“Paladin?”

He’d heard that of them before, from Sina. But he’d yet not come across one.

“Soldiers are trained individuals. And if knights are seasoned troops that have undergone specialised training, paladins are the special military force selected by the empire. The most fierce and dangerous. Only twelve holy knight divisions exist, each consisting thirty people.”

“Why is that?”

“Because dear, the emperor’s ‘grace’ shouldn’t be given out to just anyone. Shoe, belt, every equipment they carry contains the emperor’s ‘grace’. For anyone not part of the holy knight order, its a death penalty for even holding it and also if you damage the equipment. And for Paladins they may get executed for losing their gear.”

“…….Trained talents are killed just because they misplace their gear?”

“Misplacing equipment that has been bestowed with ‘grace’ is more serious than you think. It takes a lot of time and effort to make another one, once lost. There’s even talks that it’s impossible to replace them.”

In other words, they were the empire’s top of the elites. Juan recalled fighting the Blue rose knights but still wasn’t sure how strong Paladins could be.

He had only seen ‘graced’ equipment once when Sina had used it, so he still wasn’t familiar with it.

“How would you hold up against a Paladin?”

“I would never fight them in public.”

“Because they’re stronger?”

“Yes to an extent, but rather because it’s a heavy sin to fight a Paladin. If you damage a Paladin’s equipment, a bounty is issued for your head. And Paladins, desperate to not be defeated, they’d rather die than have their equipment be taken. And in the instance they die, other Paladins will look to revenge them. So it’s almost always a good idea to avoid any fights, if you can.”

So basically, they were a thorn to fight and even if you’d kill them, bigger problems will follow.

“But aren’t you already fighting against the empire..”

“Even my master told me not to clash against them if possible. Any confrontation could spiral beyond control. We’re already facing problems related to them as of right now.”

Master huh. This got Juan interested. He implicitly agreed on Anya accompanying him. He felt she wouldn’t hold him back at least.

In many ways, Anya was a little strange and empty, but she did listen and understand his words well. This made him curious to who her ‘master’ was.

“What kind of person is your master?”

“My master? Hmm…. doesn’t really speak about himself…..he served the emperor a long time ago. He’d served him until he turned into his current state, a corpse.”

“Hmm.”

“I don’t know about things that happened that long ago….. Can’t even begin to imagine that only about a century ago, it was the age where gods roamed these grounds and holy spirits and creatures were tangled in war. I still can’t believe it. But my master is someone that was alive at the time and saw the emperor. Oh and although he sounds old, his face looks quite young.”“I didn’t ask.… Did he mention specifically in what way he served the emperor?”

“I can’t reveal that sorry. Even if it’s you dear.”

Anya winked at Juan as she spoke.

“Although if you decide to join us, I’m happy to tell you!”

“You’re too carefree.”

Juan clicked his tongue.

“You said your master served the emperor, yet why are you going against the empire?”

“This empire is not the emperor’s empire. It is Vares Valte’s empire. You could argue maybe, the church’s. With your hair colour, wouldn’t dear have experienced all the rotten things about this empire? I’m certain that’s not what the emperor envisioned.”

“How would you know. You haven’t even seen the emperor.”

“Because my master has!”

“And Vares Valte has seen him too.”

“…..I guess so. I never thought of it that way…As expected dear is….”

The conversation was going nowhere.

Juan realised debating this topic with Anya was meaningless.

If Sina’s belief was hard as iron, Anya’s was clear as glass. She took in the opinions of others too easily.

But somewhere in her emptiness, Juan felt there was a single firmness that was so stubborn, it felt like it was never going to move.

“Okay but you’re still saying you want to topple the empire.”

“Because my master wants to do so. It’d be great if dear could help us.”

Juan smiled coldly and replied.

“Well, to solve a problem I’ve always reverted to the method of killing the problem on hand. The gods did this, I did this and sounds like you do this as well. Nothing has changed and won’t likely will.”

For a while Anya tilted her head to the side, then spoke.

“Well I’m good at doing that. Is there something wrong with fixing a problem with your strengths? The emperor exercised this to the greatest. Killed everyone from the past era and started a new age.”

“……….”

“A while back, I got to see a weapon that the emperor personally used, and looking at it, it was truly the ultimate tool to achieve his goal. I revelled knowing that the emperor did know how to solve problems like true authoritarian. My master does it decently well as well. Likely, because he was close to the emperor. He’s even got an item that the emperor frequently used.”

“Okay that’s enough.”

Although Juan was used to people fawning over him with praise, this method of flattery was unorthodox.

Rather than associating with terms ‘killer’ and ‘slaughterer’, people liked to use the terms ‘a heroic feat’, ‘legendary criminal record’ to justify their actions.

But unlike others, Anya expressed her view proudly.

There was one bit in Anya’s words that caught Juan’s attention.

She said her master possessed an item that was used previously by the emperor. While Juan didn’t know exactly what item it was, it did catch his curiosity.

‘It would be best if it was a weapon.’

Juan recalled all the tools that he’d used during his time as emperor. Most of it was designed for fighting, so it was hard to specifically recall every single one.

‘Spear would be most useful right now…’

Juan had a lot of weapons but the ones he cherished the most was a spear called Telgram and a sword called Sutra.

Both with meanings behind it. Telegram meant the lightning bolt and Sutra meant god’s humiliation.

Telgram was best suited to fight large armies, while Sutra was more appropriate for duels.

Because there was no one powerful like in the past, Juan felt Telgram was more than enough.

‘I’ll need to find out what item it is.’

Juan decided to dig deeper into Anya’s organisation later on.

Then the door suddenly opened. Another person drenched in rain walked in while mumbling some discontent.

The people inside the inn smiled bitterly and greeted the newcomer.

Juan eyebrows twitched. He could smell blood.

The innkeeper put on a smile as he took the man’s overcoat but then froze upon looking into his face.

“Uh, what? You see a ghost or something?”

“Uh, uuh, uuuhh. Fu, Fuck.”

The man wobbled for a few steps then toppled onto the floor. The atmosphere inside the room darkened.

Everyone inside the hall was a merchant, so in good faith they all crowded around to help the fallen merchant.

They took off his drenched clothes and wrapped him in a fresh towel before placing him beside the fire.

And after being fed some hot wine that the Innkeeper brought out, the man started to slowly come around.

“What happened. Are you in trouble? Did you encounter a creature or something? I don’t see any injuries on you though.”

“Wish it was that simple….”The man was shaking in fear.

“Then did you meet a monster or what? Where’s your party?”

“I’m alone. It wasn’t a monster…..I met a Paladin.”

The hall erupted at the man’s words. The innkeeper expression hardened.

“Paladin? Was it a White crow flag? If it was, you know they patrol these areas quite often. Although i agree, it would be creepy meeting them in the middle of the night.”

“It… they weren’t patrolling. There’s a small village that I frequently visit, and there they….”

The tension inside the room tightened. The man hadn’t finished his sentence yet, everyone knew what had happened.

They’d heard of the church’s act from time to time, but only a few got to see the scene of the crime with their own eyes.

“If they were heretics, cleaning them out is the right thing to do! Our Paladin knights are working hard even through this horrible weather! Those low lifes are all defectors! Defectors, I say!”

One of the merchants cleared his throat then started loudly speaking to himself. But he soon shut his mouth after receiving several glares from those around him.

Nobody reprimanded him. Everyone knew why he was saying those things.

Juan stood up.

“Looks like they’re finally here.”

“Then shouldn’t we leave? Now?”

“I’m not sure.”

Juan grabbed Taltere’s blade on his waist.

“Didn’t you say Paladin knight equipment is the best of the best?.”

*****

Paladin Arwen had followed the merchant and was now fast approaching a village.

Having seen purification being done, the merchant turned pale and ran off.

The fact he sighted wasn’t an issue but it became one when he’d run away.

There was no reason for an exemplary citizen of the empire to run after seeing a Paladin.

An interrogation was needed.

“You lot wait here.”

Arwen stood his soldiers just outside the village. The soldiers breathed a sigh of relief at those words as they were on edge, wondering if they had to slaughter an entire village again.

“Is that really fine? Shouldn’t we conduct a search operation?”

The captain spoke up but deep down he didn’t really mean it. The other soldiers gave him a look that said, ‘why did you bring it up’, but luckily for them Arwen shook his head.

“This is an exemplary village. They pay their taxes diligently and often perform prayer meetings for the emperor. Taking a large armed force into the village, I’m concerned it would cause unnecessary harm.”

The captain didn’t know what to say after hearing Arwen’s caring attitude.

It was hard to see that this was the same person that was using a hammer to crush people in the past village. The captain just nodded without a word.

Arwen walked into the village through the torrential rain. He was the youngest from one of the capital’s noble households.

Having aspirations for power and needing to have some ties with the central church, his father made his youngest who was most promising into a Paladin.

While the cost was high, for anyone who learned swordsmanship and lived in the empire, becoming a Paladin was the ultimate goal.

Arwen happily accepted the opportunity.

However, the happiness didn’t last long.

A Paladin life was dull and boring. He didn’t find opportunities to use his ‘graced’ equipment.

So naturally, he found himself interested in the field of heresy interrogation.

Folk beliefs and ornaments could be argued as a mark of heresy.

He always found one or two bits of this when he pillaged a village.

Having been gifted the emperor’s grace, everyone trembled to their knees in front of him. Arwen punished apostates accordingly.

Following each pillage, Arwen would always dream of himself becoming an emperor during the night.

A pleasant dream where the whole world surrendered to his power and will.

The soldiers that were guarding the village entrance, hurriedly opened the gates after seeing Arwen approach. There was no one that didn’t recognise the White crow symbol in these lands.

Arwen spoke to the guards.

“Did a merchant enter this village just now?”

“Ah. Ye….Yes. This village only has a single inn. He likely headed there.”

Arwen nodded and went on his way. His steps echoed heavy thuds throughout the village.

The villagers quickly closed their doors and windows and with fearful eyes peeked at the Paladin with the White crow symbol.

Arwen’s who was heading towards the inn came to a stop.

“……….And here I thought it was an exemplary village.”

Arwen muttered to himself.

“I wouldn’t have guessed that I would find you here.”

“Seeing your armor, it seems like you’re the person I’m looking for.”

In the pouring rain, a single boy stood in the middle of the town square. A boy with black hair, just as Kato said.