Chapter 326
Chapter 326
Chapter 326
The monk Bowle ran through the mountains carrying a basket with all his might.
"Huff, huff."
Though he was out of breath, he couldn't stop.
The pursuers kept chasing Bowle while shooting arrows.
Roban, hiding in the basket, said to him.
"Father, please put me down. If you're not careful, you too..."
Bowle didn't respond to Roban's words and only ran faster.
But then an arrow flew and pierced Bowle's thigh.
THUD!
"UGH!"
Hit by the arrow, he momentarily lost his balance and his speed significantly slowed, but he tried to flee while dragging his leg, holding onto the basket.
Soon, the black-clad figures gradually emerged from the forest.
Bowle fell into despair upon seeing their attire.
'Imperial soldiers.'
He remembered hearing rumors about an unnamed secret unit of the Empire.
They were said to be a secret unit called the 'Hounds' that handled all sorts of dirty work for the Emperor.
Bowle instinctively realized these were the Hounds sent by the Emperor to take Roban.
One masked Hound approached the monk.
The monk held onto the basket and grabbed a nearby tree, pulling his fist toward his chest.
"HAAAAAH!"
With a battle cry, the monk extended his fist with all his might toward the approaching Hound.
Whoosh!
The monk's aura-filled fist flew toward the Hound.
The Hound easily dodged the monk's fist.
"What nonsense."
He drew the sword from his waist and stabbed the monk's lower abdomen.
SQUELCH!
With a chilling sound, Bowle collapsed to the ground.
Thinking he had to protect Roban, he couldn't properly close his eyes and his body trembled.
Then the Hound stomped on his head.
CRACK!
Only after his head was crushed did Bowle stop moving.
"Damn bastard making me waste energy."
The Hound unit captain gestured to his subordinates.
Following his gesture, unit members approached to retrieve Roban from the basket.
But then a massive flame erupted from inside the basket.
WHOOSH!
The unit members who had approached suddenly backed away in surprise.
The captain shouted.
"He's using the Sun Order's power! Be careful!"
Roban, tears flowing, glared at the Hounds with flames enveloping his entire body from the burnt basket.
He clenched his teeth looking at the dead Bowle.
Roban emerged from the basket that turned to ashes and scattered, knelt before Bowle, and raised flames once again.
"May this noble soul become an eternal flame."
Roban burned Bowle's body, who died protecting him, with flames.
He believed this would guide his soul to the Sun God for a peaceful death.
The Hounds approached Roban.
"He's still young. Knock him out and take him."
Roban stood up watching the Hounds targeting him.
Though still young, Roban possessed the Sun's Mark as the Pope's successor.
Moreover, since the Sun Order's holy magic was the most powerful flame magic, the Hounds cautiously approached Roban slowly.
RUMBLE!
Four flame spheres rose around Roban's body, and he launched them toward the Hounds.
WHOOSH!
As the flame spheres flew, the Hounds rolled to dodge them.
BOOM BOOM!
Roban, still lacking experience, couldn't properly control the flame spheres. Though powerful, it was useless if they didn't hit the enemy properly.
"HAA, HAA."
Having used all his power at once, Roban breathed heavily while sweating.
The Hounds who had dodged the attack and waited for a follow-up noticed Roban had lost his strength, slowly rising from their lowered defensive positions.
"Catch him."
At the captain's order, the unit members approached to capture Roban.
Roban tried to stop them by raising flames, but already drained, the manifested flames were far too weak to be effective.
The Hounds were trained knights, so it was impossible to stop them with weakened flames.
Soon, the Hounds' strong hands grabbed Roban.
"EEK!"
As Roban struggled to break free, the Hound unit captain approached and struck his cheek.
SMACK!
The young Roban's cheek swelled red and blood flowed from his burst inner mouth.
Soon Roban lost consciousness and went limp.
The captain said to his unit members.
"If he causes more trouble, cut off his limbs and take him in a box."
The heartless Hound unit had no compassion.
Just as one unit member was about to carry Roban away.
WHIIIII!!!!
A whistle sound was heard from somewhere.
Instantly, the Hound unit captain took a defensive stance and shouted.
"Enemy! Be on guard!"
That's when it happened.
WHOOSH!
A black figure from the treetops dove toward the Hound unit captain in an instant.
SLASH!
The figure passed by as if grazing and cut the captain's neck with a thin sword.
THUD!
The captain died without even realizing his neck had been cut.
The black figure instantly vanished again.
"The captain is down! Find him!"
The unit members searched for the enemy while guarding all directions.
Then the whistle sound was heard again.
WHIIIIIII!
With the whistle, the black figure appeared again like the wind, and instantly cut the Hounds' necks.
THUD! THUD!
As the Hounds' necks fell simultaneously, the unit was instantly annihilated.
WHOOSH!
Only after confirming all Hounds were dead did the black figure reveal itself.
The mysterious figure wearing a black cloak and a bird-beak mask worn by doctors during the Holy Empire era approached the fallen Roban.
After confirming Roban was still alive, he carried the child and disappeared into the forest.
Only the dead Hounds' bodies remained scattered in the silent forest.
******
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Zeke and the Black Sword Knights, who had been stationed with the Imperial garrison in the Ghetto region, were heading to Iason with Helen.
They were going to take a ship from Iason, Kali's territory, to the Holy Kingdom.
When the Steel Legion made up of Orcs invaded the Holy Kingdom and threatened the Vadoka Holy State, Kali decided to dispatch troops here and designated Zeke as her representative.
That's what was known publicly. But in truth, Zeke had personally requested this from Kali.
He thought it was a perfect opportunity to strike when he heard news that the Emperor had personally led troops to the Holy Kingdom.
"My lord! Iason is in sight!"
Commander Decker said to Zeke.
Though they had made a forced march to reach Iason as quickly as possible, the members of the Black Sword Knights maintained their sturdy appearance without showing any signs of fatigue.
This was evidence that the battle in the Ghetto region had become great fertilizer for the Black Sword Knights' growth.
Although the knights were still composed of Blue Knights and Purple Knights, they had tremendous potential, so it was expected that they would soon break through their limits and achieve growth.
‘I’ll have to push the knights even harder’.
As Zeke made this promise to himself and arrived at Iason with the knights, a familiar knight greeted them.
"Sir Zeke. Welcome."
It was Luno, whose life Zeke had saved previously on the Sea God's Island.
Zeke spoke while looking at Luno.
"Sir Luno. It's been a while."
As Zeke was a senior knight of Draker , he spoke to Luno with a tone of superiority.
After the Sea God's Island incident, Kali had weeded out the traitors among her knights.
After the purge was complete, she appointed Luno as vice-commander and put him in charge of running the knights.
When Kali was absent, he served as acting commander.
"Seeing that you've come out, is sister not here?"
"That's correct, Sir Zeke. The commander was summoned to an emergency meeting and went to Atlas."
"That makes sense, since the Emperor moved personally."
At that moment, Luno approached Zeke and whispered quietly.
"Sir Zeke, the Black Corps is waiting to see you."
Zeke's eyebrows twitched at the mention of the Black Curtain.
He let the Black Sword Knights rest and followed Luno to where the Black Corps was.
When they entered the knights' building used by the Silver Knights in Iason, well-trained knights saluted Zeke. An attitude of respect emanated strongly from them.
The news of Zeke's accomplishments in the Ghetto region had spread across the entire continent, so his fame had reached even the Silver Knights here.
After all, Zeke had gone from being known as the 'Knight of Haejoo’ to occupying the front page of newsletters with his new title 'Knight of Salvation'.
While deliberately avoiding the knights' admiring gazes, Zeke headed toward the reception room where the Black Corps was said to be.
When Zeke entered the room, the person sitting there stood up.
"Sir Zeke. This is our first meeting. I am Souma, deputy commander of the Black Corp’s right wing."
Zeke's eyebrows twitched at the mention of the Black Curtain's right wing deputy commander.
'The right wing deputy commander would be someone who holds the Black Corp's intelligence in one hand.'
The Black Corps was a secret organization where even personal information was classified.
In particular, even the faces of the right-wing unit members who handled information were not properly known.
Even Zeke was seeing the Black Corps Intelligence Director for the first time.
At first glance, the middle-aged man with brown hair and a friendly face looked more like a mage than an intelligence agent.
Zeke greeted Souma.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Zeke Draker."
After greeting, the two sat down in the reception room.
As soon as they sat down, Souma got straight to the point.
"Sir Zeke, you must have heard about the situation in the Holy Kingdom."
Zeke nodded.
"Yes, I heard that a mysterious monster unit appeared and invaded the Holy Kingdom, and Emperor Rom personally led troops to defend against it."
Souma nodded and continued.
"Yes, to be more specific, it was revealed that the mysterious unit consists of Orcs, an ancient race."
Though Zeke already knew this fact, he put on a surprised expression at Souma's words.
"Orcs? Is that different from Orc?"
"Think of them as an ancient race that existed during the Hero King's era, like elves and druids who rarely show themselves nowadays."
Zeke nodded at Souma's words and said.
"Then why are these Orcs suddenly appearing and attacking the Holy Kingdom?"
"We haven't figured out the reason yet. We suspect it might be an anomaly like the monster outbreak in the Ghetto region where you played an active role."
"An anomaly..."
Zeke was still pondering why Souma, the Black Corps Intelligence Director, had come all the way to Iason to find him.
'He wouldn't have come just to tell me this news.'
Then Souma slowly opened his mouth.
"I heard that you will be leading troops to aid the Vadoka Kingdom in place of Lord Kali."
"Yes, that's correct. The Holy Kingdom is allied with House Drake and also gave the Silver Armor as a token of friendship to Lord Kali. Lord Kali decided to send reinforcements in return for that friendship."
At Zeke's words, Souma remained silent for a moment before speaking slowly.
"Return of friendship. What beautiful words."
After slowly finishing his words, he took out a scroll from his chest and activated it, creating a barrier around them.
"Sir Zeke, I have something confidential to tell you."
Seeing Souma's sudden action of creating a magical barrier, Zeke realized there was indeed something more.
Souma continued with a serious face.
"What I'm about to tell you is classified even within Black Corps. Will you swear to keep it secret?"
Zeke nodded at Souma's words.
Then Souma spoke again.
"Recently, we located Draker’s traitor, Bacchus, in the Holy Kingdom."
An unexpected name came from Souma's mouth.
'Bacchus? I heard he fled after killing his birth mother Carmilla in Lady Kali's territory.'
Souma continued.
"And it has been confirmed that the traitor Bacchus has kidnapped the Pope's successor and is holding him captive."
Zeke showed an expression of incomprehension at Souma's words.
'Kidnapped the Pope's successor? While being pursued by Black Curtain?'
Seeing his expression, Souma nodded as if understanding and said to Zeke.
"We suspect that Bacchus plans to negotiate with the Emperor using the Pope's successor as leverage and seek asylum under those terms."
At those words, Zeke spoke to Souma.
"Why would the Emperor want the Pope's successor?"
To Zeke's question, Souma answered.
"According to recent intelligence, the Emperor is targeting the ruins of Geo Lubern, the first Holy King."