The Holy Knight's Unexpected Offer
“Huh? Me?”
“Search the place.”
Thud. Thud!
“W-what are you even—.”
Had he heard the commotion from downstairs? The branch chief of the Enton Adventurer's Guild—who Juhan had seen in passing a few times—came rushing down to the first floor in a panic.
“What in the world do you think you’re doing!?”
He shouted as if he couldn’t believe his eyes, demanding they stop what they were doing right this instant. But…
“Check over there too. Make sure that window opens properly.”
Crash!
The Holy Knights were turning the entire adventurer’s guild inside out, as if they intended to dismantle and analyze the building piece by piece.
And the first thing that crossed Juhan’s mind as he watched them was this:
‘Looks like someone really important is coming.’
Exactly that. It seemed like a person of far higher status than he’d imagined was about to pay a visit. Otherwise, there would be no reason to conduct such a thorough search.
He wasn’t completely unable to understand their behavior, either.
‘If you had to pick the most suspicious, trouble-prone bunch in the village, this guild would obviously have the highest concentration of them.’
Though the guild branch chief clearly didn’t see it that way.
“No matter what, we’re not criminals…”
Creak.
“What’s going on here?”
“…….”
The branch chief’s mouth, which had been open to protest, snapped shut the moment the new arrival entered. Or more accurately, the moment he caught sight of the emblem on the man’s chest, he instinctively abandoned any thought of resistance.
“A-a Stigma Knight…”
“For real? Is that really a Stigma Knight?”
His face was hidden behind a helmet, so his expression was impossible to read.
But the wings attached to that helmet and the emblem engraved on his chest made it easy enough to guess his identity.
‘A Stigma Knight?’
Of course, Juhan had no idea what a Stigma Knight was, or what kind of position it represented.
‘Is it a newly created rank? I’ve never heard of it before.’
He simply observed the reactions of the people around him and concluded, ‘Must be someone pretty high up.’
‘He doesn’t seem all that strong, though. What’s going on?’
The aura he sensed from the Holy Knight didn’t feel particularly overwhelming. In fact, it seemed like even the weakest of his Karoon—Number 7—could defeat him without much trouble.
“Evans. It’s good to be enthusiastic, but there are ordinary civilians mixed in here.”
“…Yes, sir.”
“You could have calmed the people down a bit while conducting the search. There was no need to cause this much disturbance.”
“…Understood.”
The Holy Knight who had been addressed as a Stigma Knight was currently scolding the man who appeared to be the leader of the knights searching the guild.
He seemed to be warning him not to do it again, something along those lines… but honestly, none of it was really registering in Juhan’s ears.
“Sorry about that. This friend of mine is a bit too passionate.”
“N-not at all! We were the ones being uncooperative…”
The branch chief, realizing that the Stigma Knight was trying to smooth things over, shook his head vigorously as if to deny any wrongdoing. On the contrary, he looked honored as he clasped the offered hand with both of his own.
“The person visiting the village said he wanted to stop by the adventurer’s guild as well.”
“O-our guild?”
“Guardian. There’s no need to mention that…”
“It’s fine. He said he doesn’t mind. Besides, it just means we need to guard him even better, doesn’t it?”
“…….”
‘So he’s coming here.’
From that conversation, Juhan managed to extract one crucial piece of information. It seemed the high-ranking figure from the Order visiting the village wanted to take a look around various places in town.
‘If I just keep coming here every day like usual, I might end up running into him naturally?’
All sorts of thoughts were stacking up neatly inside Juhan’s head.
The possibility of seeing the man up close. Where he should run if things went wrong.
But what snapped him out of it was an unexpected remark from the Stigma Knight.
“Now that I think about it, we’re also looking for someone.”
“L-looking for someone! Is it perhaps one of our guild members…?”
“I’m not sure. We’ve been searching since he arrived yesterday, but we haven’t caught even a glimpse of him.”
‘Looking for a person?’
The Stigma Knight continued, saying they were searching for a young man. At first, Juhan didn’t think much of it…
“He had black hair and was wearing black clothes. His age is roughly early twenties.”
“A young man in his early twenties… We have quite a few of those in our guild. Do you have any more details?”
“Height is about this much.”
Swoosh.
The Stigma Knight raised one hand to roughly indicate the height, bringing it up to his own chin.
“…….”
And Juhan, who had been secretly watching, couldn’t help but think that the described height matched him exactly.
“D-did he commit some kind of crime…?”
“No, nothing like that.”
Shake, shake.
The branch chief had asked cautiously, but the Stigma Knight shook his head as if to say that wasn’t the case.
“There was an unusual incident at the Antonio Church not long ago. We’re currently investigating everyone who was present at the scene.”
“I-I see. An unusual incident… Are you referring to the time the bell rang?”
“That’s right.”
‘…Oh.’
Twitch.
The moment he heard those words, Juhan’s eyebrows twitched ever so slightly.
“As I mentioned earlier, there were more people with that appearance than we expected.”
“…….”
“We’re not planning to do anything serious. We just want to ask a few simple questions. So please don’t be too tense and help us look for him.”
“O-of course. We’ll help in any way we can.”
The Stigma Knight nodded in satisfaction at the branch chief’s reply. And the people around them who had been listening to the conversation…
“Black hair and black clothes… There are tons of people like that around here.”
“Sounds like someone really important is coming. But why would they bother stopping by the adventurer’s guild?”
They were chattering away excitedly among themselves. Typical behavior for those rootless adventurers. Even though they had been paying attention out of momentary intimidation, they were now completely back to normal—each of them busy talking about whatever they wanted.
“It’s nice to see everyone so lively.”
“…….”
The Stigma Knight didn’t seem particularly bothered by it. In fact, he looked rather pleased, nodding with a satisfied expression as if he found the scene charming.
On the other hand.
‘Looks like they’re looking for me.’
Juhan, who had watched the entire scene from beginning to end, couldn’t shake the feeling that the young man the Stigma Knight was searching for was none other than himself.
‘Of course, they can’t immediately point to me as the one who rang the bell.’
Still, who knew? In a world where a bell that detected the Great Catastrophe existed, there might be some unknown object that could pose a threat to him.
‘This is going to be annoying.’
But even that was enough. Juhan had a strong feeling that if he got caught, it would become far more troublesome than he wanted.
“Black hair and black clothes! That sounds exactly like Sir Juhan, doesn’t it?”
“…Y-yeah, I guess so?”
Whether she knew how he felt or not, receptionist Jennifer was chattering away cheerfully.
If he got caught and questioned. If some strange misunderstanding arose. And if that somehow got him entangled with the Order…
‘Ugh…’
Just the thought made his skin crawl. For now, it seemed best to stay hidden until the search for the young man they were looking for was over.
But there was another problem.
‘But… where do I go?’
The question of where exactly he should escape to.
‘Breaking a window and running would be way too obvious.’
The Stigma Knight was already standing by the entrance. And smashing through a window or wall to escape would be no different from shouting, ‘Come and catch me if you can.’
If he just stood here, he would eventually get caught.
“I’d like to see your adventurer registration card.”
“…Here.”
The subordinate Holy Knights who had been inspecting people had already reached the area near Juhan. It was only a matter of time before they spoke to him.
So the choice was either to stand still and wait for them to approach, or to make an attempt to slip outside.
‘Might as well try something.’
Standing here doing nothing would only lead to them closing in anyway. Deciding that making an attempt was better than doing nothing, Juhan slowly began to move.
Swoosh. Tap.
After giving Jennifer a casual wave, Juhan naturally walked toward the entrance.
Swoosh. Swoosh.
His movements flowed like water, perfectly natural.
He avoided them without looking like he was avoiding them, slipping through the Holy Knights’ line of sight with perfectly casual steps.
After all, young men with black hair in their early twenties were everywhere. There were quite a few such youths inside the adventurer’s guild right now.
‘If they ask, I’ll just say I don’t know. They wouldn’t bring that priest here to check every single person one by one.’
Besides, the only person who knew his face was the priest he had encountered that day.
A priest would be busy conducting mass or hearing confessions, wouldn’t he? He wouldn’t spend all day sitting somewhere identifying faces.
Tap. Tap.
Before long, Juhan had safely reached the entrance of the adventurer’s guild.
Just five more steps and he would be outside.
If only the man standing there like a stone statue—the one called the Stigma Knight—would let him pass without issue…
“Hey.”
“…….”
Of course, Juhan’s hopes were not fulfilled.
The Stigma Knight, who had seemed completely uninterested as Juhan tried to walk past, suddenly turned his head and called out to him.
“…Me?”
“Yes, young man.”
He was even looking straight at Juhan.
Yes, you. His actions practically screamed it.
“…….”
But something felt off. Even though the Stigma Knight had called him over, he didn’t ask any follow-up questions. He simply stared.
“Guardian…?”
On the contrary, the subordinate Holy Knight standing beside the Stigma Knight was giving him a strange look, as if this behavior was completely out of character.
This isn’t like him. Why is he acting like this all of a sudden? That was the feeling.
In the end, Juhan decided to take the initiative. He would ask why he had been called over.
If they wanted to inspect him, he had no choice, but he would respond as carefully as possible.
“Do you follow any religion?”
“…Pardon?”
But just before Juhan could speak, the question the Stigma Knight posed was completely unexpected.
Religion out of nowhere? And besides, was there even anyone on the continent who didn’t believe in the Bistro Order?
“What do you mean, suddenly—”
“Ah, I phrased that poorly.”
“…?”
And then came the Stigma Knight’s next words.
It was an offer that no one could have possibly predicted.
Not Juhan. Not the adventurer branch chief. Not even the other Holy Knights standing beside the Stigma Knight.
“Young man, would you be interested in devoting yourself to the Order?”
“…Excuse me?”
“As a Holy Knight.”
The Stigma Knight had suddenly asked Juhan if he had any interest in becoming a Holy Knight.