The Holy Kingdom's Welcome

Entering the Holy Kingdom through a black mage's hideout was surprisingly easy. They must have been confident no one would find them, because aside from some illusion magic, there was nothing guarding the place. I approached the undead stationed at the entrance before they could even react and sliced through their necks. They collapsed like puppets with their strings cut.

"Since the undead have been killed, the necromancer inside has probably sensed it," I said.

"But even if they detect an intruder, what can they actually do about it?"

"Nothing at all."

At Owen's reply, we strode deeper into the cave with light steps. Just as he'd said, the moment the undead fell, the black mages' hideout erupted into chaos as they detected the anomaly.

"Intruders!"

"The skeletons at the entrance have been taken down!"

"Could it be a subjugation force?"

"Doesn't matter! We'll make them regret ever coming here!"

The black mages had panicked at first upon realizing someone had broken in, but they quickly regained their composure and came swarming toward us with overwhelming momentum. They appeared with undead at the forefront, spotted us beyond the cave passage, and shouted.

"You fools! You actually thought you could attack us with so few people? We'll capture you and use you for our experiments...!"

Crunch!

The unknown black mage's words didn't last long. Ikelos, summoned from a magic circle in midair, instantly wove between the undead and tore into the mage's face.

With one foolish black mage gone, the others finally grasped ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the situation and recoiled in horror, desperately gathering their dark mana. They looked ready to attack at any moment, but Owen turned to us with a relaxed smile.

"Shall I lend a hand?"

"No need. We'll handle this ourselves."

"How reassuring. In that case, I'll go rescue the captives."

At my words, Owen gave us a look of complete trust before vanishing from sight. As a Gold-class adventurer, there was no need for us to worry about ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠him. Confident he'd manage just fine, we focused entirely on subjugating the black mages.

"What the hell? Why are they so strong?!"

"Undead! Send the undead first!"

"Cast dark magic to keep them at bay!"

I charged forward, deflecting some of the incoming dark spells with my aura and taking others head-on with my body. Their pathetic reanimated corpses couldn't stop me. I carved through every undead that blocked my path with my sword, closing the distance until the black mages panicked and hurled every spell they had at me.

But their attacks were utterly useless.

Boooom!

"Grrrr!"

One Ikelos had blocked a threatening spell with its body and now bared its fangs. Four more Ikelos in the rear nocked arrows and fired. Four black mages instantly sprouted gaping holes in their bodies.

"Guhk!"

"Ugh!"

The mages whose vital points had been pierced collapsed, gasping their last breaths. It seemed even their shields couldn't withstand arrows infused with aura.

"This is insane! How can a summon use aura?!"

"They're putting aura on their arrows?!"

Witnessing their dying comrades, the black mages fell into disarray. The gap in strength was overwhelming. They'd assumed we were nothing more than greedy mercenaries or wandering knights blinded by fame, but we were at least knight-order level. Even the women in uniforms were channeling mana into their weapons for attacks. As their common sense crumbled before their eyes, the black mages retreated in terror.

The mage who'd run off to take hostages had gone silent—who knew what he was doing—and the strongest one in this lab, the director, had already been turned into a corpse. With no means of escape, pure fear spread across the black mages' faces.

"W-wait! I surrender! Spare me!"

"Treasure! I know where the treasure is hidden!"

"My colleague went to take hostages! If you kill us, those hostages won't survive!"

The black mages begged and threatened in every way they could to survive, but they all met the same equal fate—death before my aura. Whether because they were trash or not, they gave decent experience points. I harvested every last one of them without missing a single point and pressed deeper inside.

"If it has come to this, none of you are getting out alive either! We'll all be buried together! Curse Expe.....!"

Occasionally, a black mage overwhelmed by fear would attempt a suicide attack, but—

"Curse Darkness!"

"Guh?! A black mage, why...?"

"You wicked creatures! How dare you conduct human experiments on innocent people! As an officially recognized black mage, I cannot forgive this!"

Neon, a black mage himself, had seen through their tricks from the start and blocked them in advance. Having worked hard to suppress black mages and rack up achievements before receiving official recognition, Neon wiped the sweat from his forehead with a refreshed expression.

"Phew! Another day of cleaning up society's garbage. So fulfilling!"

"I've been thinking this for a while, but you really could survive anywhere, couldn't you?"

"Hey now! What are you saying! I simply cannot stand by as an officially recognized black mage and watch wicked beings run amok!"

Everyone looked impressed at Neon's bold declaration. At the very least, it seemed certain he would never be killed by the priests. With that thought, we walked toward the deepest part of the cave. We no longer paid any attention to further attacks. All the combat-capable enemies were already dead, and the remaining stragglers had been cleaned up by the Ikelos.

How long had we been walking while occasionally sensing the experience points flowing in?

"You've finally arrived."

In the center of an artificially created stone chamber, Owen greeted us with a smile. The flickering bonfire around him and the altar behind created the perfect atmosphere. The bloodstains on his cheeks as he spread his arms wide was the final touch. Anel, unable to watch any longer, held out her hand to me.

I quietly opened my inventory, placed a towel in her hand, and she tossed it to Owen.

"Please stop doing things that could be so easily misunderstood."

"Hm? Did I do something that could be misinterpreted just now?"

"Your entire existence was giving off dark overlord vibes."

Anyone who saw him would have been convinced he was the leader of a black mage organization. At Anel's words, Owen wiped the blood from his face with the towel and glanced behind him. The children rescued from the prison were staring at him with fearful eyes.

"I'll be more careful next time..."

Owen looked slightly shocked by their reaction and answered in a dejected voice. It was such a perfect comedy skit that I had to fight back laughter to maintain my composure. If I laughed here, the secretly soft-hearted Owen would probably get hurt.

"Ahem. Now that we've rescued the children, shall we check if they're injured anywhere?"

"Let's do that."

"We should collect the loot too, so let's split up."

At my suggestion, they scattered as if they'd been waiting for it. They moved so quickly it was obvious they were holding back their laughter. I inwardly sympathized as I approached the children who had been held as test subjects.

Thanks to the conditions of the biological experiments, they were all young. Not a single adult was in sight, which made me curse the black mages ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even more fiercely in my mind. Whether their captivity had been long or short, they looked emaciated or covered in wounds from their time in the black mages' laboratory.

Since they were at an age where wariness toward outsiders would be at its peak, I didn't approach recklessly. Instead, I raised both hands to show I meant no harm. I knew exactly how to lower their guard in a situation like this.

"Are you all hungry?"

"Yes... but why...?"

I maintained a gentle smile at the words of the girl who seemed to be their leader.

"How about we eat first and talk afterward?"

I took out all the preserved food from my inventory. Freshly baked bread, steaming soup, skewered meat and steak, salad drizzled with sauce, and various root vegetables. At the appearance of such luxurious dishes, the children's eyes widened as they stared at me.

"Eat as much as you want. It's on me."

With my permission, the children latched onto the food like they were possessed. All eighteen test subjects devoured everything as compensation for their long starvation. Even when their throats were full, they kept trying to shove more food down. To think these fragile children had been used as test subjects. They really weren't worth keeping alive. As my stack of hatred toward black mages grew, Owen approached me.

He placed a hand on my shoulder and gave me a thumbs-up.

"Shall we raid a few more black mage hideouts together?"

"Sounds like a great idea."

I'd been planning to do so anyway, but after seeing this scene, anyone who didn't feel motivated wouldn't be human. Thinking of the people still suffering in black mage hideouts somewhere, I checked the food that was already running out and opened the shop. No need to worry about supplies. I had a shop that could get me anything, anytime, anywhere as long as I had money.

While the children filled their stomachs, we gathered the loot from the laboratory and moved on to our next destination. For reference, we hired a trustworthy mercenary group from a nearby city and sent the children to the Harmun County. They were all from the slums or orphans. We also sent a letter to the guild asking them to handle it, so the margrave would take care of the rest.

With the cleanup neatly finished, we set off on our journey again with refreshed minds.

"Oh. Detecting a black mage response nearby."

"The animals say there's a human with an ominous power nearby."

"Wait, this trail looks suspicious. There are wagon wheel tracks heading into the forest."

As we traveled along the road toward the Holy Kingdom, we stopped at every trace of black mages we found instead of passing them by. Sometimes it wasn't black mages but some strange organization, but their backs were just as dirty, so we cleaned them up neatly as well.

After traveling like that for a week and experiencing Central's culture, I realized that the security in the Central region was far worse than I'd imagined.

"Is the Central region actually the Demon Realm? We've already taken down five suspicious hideouts."

"Don't these guys know any limits? Why is the security so terrible?"

Five and seven. Those were the number of times we'd discovered black mage or secret society hideouts, and the number of bandit encounters, respectively. I had no idea how many fights we'd gotten into in just one week. It felt like we were gaining more experience points here than from hunting monsters in the North. Of course, we were taking shortcuts through sparsely populated paths and cutting across forests to reduce travel time, but this still seemed excessive.

Owen, who was also aware of this fact, gave a bitter smile.

"It seems the Central region is in quite a chaotic period right now."

"A chaotic period?"

"There's a rumor going around that the Emperor's health has been poor lately. Since it's actually true that his body isn't well, the empire is in turmoil on multiple fronts due to the succession struggle."

The nobles were picking sides to survive, while neighboring countries were either being cautious around the chaos in the powerful empire or looking for opportunities. Naturally, as the world grew unstable, unsavory groups rose to the surface, and the citizens' lives inevitably worsened.

"Thanks to Orbis Academy, things are barely holding together, but even that is precarious."

"The academy has royalty and children of great nobles from various countries, so that's why peace is maintained."

"You're right, Miss Anel. However, even that is unstable now that the academy has been caught up in terrorism..."

"The current Central region is no different from a mage tower on the verge of exploding."

At Owen's worried expression, I thought to myself.

This is totally an academy story, isn't it?

The situation matched the setting of a novel ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠perfectly, which made me suspicious, but I decided to just ignore it. Even if something novel-like happened, it was ultimately a matter for the Central region. Besides, the academy had a pair of siblings I could trust more than anyone.

The Luci siblings definitely had main character vibes.

Recalling the genius siblings who had left me speechless, I set aside my worries about the academy and headed toward the Holy Kingdom.

"The Holy Kingdom is just a little further now."

Thanks to traveling steadily on Ikelos, even though the distance from the North to the Holy Kingdom was considerable, we arrived quickly. Once we crossed the border fortress along the river, we'd be in the Holy Kingdom. I'd heard that the Holy Kingdom was an incredibly peaceful and beautiful place.

I wondered just how wonderful it would be as I walked forward with anticipation.

"Welcome to the Holy Kingdom!"

"We've heard the stories! We will serve you with the utmost care, so please come in!"

What greeted us were corpses hanging on crosses centered around the fortress. And they were wearing desecrated priest robes and holy knight uniforms.

"......?"

At the scene that surpassed all imagination, I lost my words and stared blankly at Owen.

"It looks like Inquisitor Torso cleaned up quite thoroughly. Shall we go in?"

Owen, who seemed to have expected this sight, headed toward the checkpoint with a perfectly calm face.