Chapter 84
Chapter 84
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 84
Chapter Title: Chapter 31: Conversation (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Cough, cough!”
“Don’t let go of the thread of consciousness!”
Riki kept pouring divinity into Beryl, who was coughing up blood and teetering on the brink of death.
Away from his wounds, too much life force had been depleted in the fight with Sable. He had pushed past his limits time and again.
“Can you do it?”
“......I have to try somehow.”
The Bell Marquis posed the question, but Riki couldn’t give a firm yes. Still, Beryl had risked his life fighting for them.
There was still plenty of the goddess’s divinity left, so he would pour every last drop if that’s what it took to save him.
“Big brother, you can do it......!”
Anna clenched her fists tightly at his side, cheering him on.
Riki smiled and nodded.
‘Please live, no matter what.’
As if his sincere wish had gotten through.
Beryl’s expression began to relax bit by bit. The frequency of his blood-mixed coughs gradually lessened.
The tangled meridians slowly realigned, and his unstable breathing steadied.
Only then could Riki catch his breath a little.
“Phew. It looks like we’ve passed the critical moment.”
“Thank you so much, Apostle.”
“What’s there to thank? It’s just what had to be done. You got like this protecting us.”
“Is it all over now, big brother?”
“Yeah. I could do it thanks to Anna cheering me on.”
“Hehe.”
Anna beamed at her brother’s praise.
Riki smiled back before turning his gaze to Beryl again. They’d passed the danger, but he needed to keep up the healing for a while.
No telling when his condition might worsen again.
“By the way, shouldn’t we check on Jamie?”
The Bell Marquis answered Riki’s question.
“I have no idea what that boy is thinking. He sent us here without giving us a chance to stop him......”
Just before Sable broke through Riki’s protective barrier, Jamie had sent telepathy to everyone.
-I have a good idea. Ras and I should be enough, so the rest of you, run.
-Jamie! What are you saying? You want your granddad to abandon you and flee?
-It’ll be fine. Don’t worry.
-Jam......!
Having already finished casting teleport, Jamie ignored the others and transported everyone except Ras to this spot.
He wanted to go back to where they were, but Beryl’s condition was too poor.
Riki muttered in a troubled voice.
“He got away safely, right......?”
“Jamie’s big brother, so he’s gotta be fine. Yeah, definitely.”
Unlike the two worrying, Anna alone had faith in Jamie.
They could only hope she was right.
At that moment, the sound of multiple hooves echoed from afar.
“Looks like they’re here.”
The place Jamie had teleported them to was a wide crossroads connected to the battlefield.
The Bell Marquis spotted dust clouds rising in the distance.
Soon, over a dozen horses and their mounted knights came into view.
Before departing for Mirene Forest, the marquis had assembled troops and ordered them to follow.
These must be the fastest ones to arrive first.
“We’ve spotted the marquis!”
“The Apostle, Saintess, and Sir Onyx are with him too!”
The knights quickly formed a protective formation upon arrival.
The knight leading them approached the Bell Marquis and checked on his well-being.
“Are you alright, Marquis?”
“Worry about Beryl and them first, not me.”
“Understood.”
Though Riki had given him some relief, Beryl was still a critical patient, so the soldiers handled him with extra care per the marquis’s orders.
They even safely mounted the still-young Riki and Anna on horses.
“You too, Marquis......”
“I’m fine. More importantly, Jamie and the holy executor haven’t arrived yet. We need to find them.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll bring them back somehow......”
“No need for that.”
A voice came from above then.
The marquis looked up in surprise to see Jamie and Ras there.
“Jamie! Ras!”
Riki, who had just mounted his horse, called out to them joyfully.
“Did big brother Jamie come back? What about big brother Ras?”
“Yeah. Both came back safe and sound.”
Riki kindly explained to the sightless girl, and Anna cheered with a big smile, pumping her fists in the air.
The marquis sighed in relief at the sight of them.
“I’m so glad you made it back safely. You’ve had a hard time too, Executor.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
Ras shook his head and placed a hand on Jamie’s shoulder.
“It was all thanks to Jamie.”
“Haha. So, what happened to Sable?”
“First, this......”
Before answering, Jamie pulled out Beryl’s severed arm he’d brought along.
It had been detached for a bit, but not too long. It could probably be reattached.
“Leave it to me.”
“Apostle!”
A soldier startled when Riki suddenly jumped off his horse.
Ignoring him, Riki approached Jamie, took the arm, checked its condition, and nodded with a smile.
“This’ll do.”
“Bring Beryl here.”
At the marquis’s command, the soldiers carefully laid Beryl before them.
Sable had cut it cleanly, so the stump was neat.
“I’ll hold it in place.”
“Thanks.”
With Ras assisting from the side, Riki invoked divinity to activate the cells on the severed surfaces.
“Oh goddess.”
One of the soldiers behind murmured.
The gentle divinity slowly knit the skin together.
No one knew how much divinity was needed to reattach a severed arm or how deftly it had to be handled.
But Riki was displaying the prowess befitting a divine apostle.
‘Not long since being chosen as apostle, yet he wields divinity better than most bishops.’
Jamie marveled at Riki’s growth.
Until recently, Riki had been a pitiful child cursed by misfortune. Even right after being chosen as apostle, he was still just an ordinary kid with a new position.
But coming here, he had grown by leaps and bounds.
Especially showing he could at least somewhat control Pyro’s divinity, if not freely.
And in the end, if the opponent hadn’t been Sable, leader of the Seven Knights, he wouldn’t have breached the divine barrier.
“Phew—”
Riki exhaled and withdrew his divinity.
Forcing a weary smile, he said,
“It’s attached.”
“Good work.”
Ras patted Riki’s shoulder.
“Thank you.”
“Like I said earlier, it was just what needed doing. Hehe.”
The marquis expressed his gratitude, but Riki shook his head and stood. Then he looked at Jamie.
His expression was like a puppy waiting for praise.
Jamie chuckled and nodded.
“Heehee.”
So thrilled to be acknowledged by Jamie, Riki’s grin wouldn’t fade.
The soldiers began moving Beryl again.
He’d finish healing at a Pyro Church temple.
“So. What happened?”
The marquis asked.
Jamie removed his necklace and showed it to the marquis.
“This protected me.”
“Tina’s necklace......”
The marquis’s eyes trembled faintly.
“I don’t remember, but it glowed. And when the light went out, Sable was gone.”
“May I see it for a moment?”
“Of course.”
Jamie handed over the necklace.
The marquis took it with a bittersweet smile.
“My wife protected us.”
He gripped it tightly and closed his eyes briefly.
Tina Bell, the marquis’s late wife, had been a high-level prophet.
But Tina hated her own ability. It ate away at her lifespan.
So even when she saw the future, she never told anyone.
Not even her husband, the Bell Marquis.
The marquis respected her wishes and never pried into her power.
But that day had been different.
-Honey. Someday, our home will be threatened.
-What’s that out of the blue?
-Take this.
-Where’d this necklace come from?
-It holds my power.
-Your body’s already weak—why make something like this? Tina, what are you so worried about...... I’m here!
-Of course I trust you. But that day, nothing will be able to handle it.
-What did you see? Something like that, dear?
-I don’t know when it’ll come, but you’ll......
About a month after that, Tina passed away.
That day she spoke of must have been today.
‘Just as you hoped, I protected our home.’
The marquis opened his eyes.
The once beautifully glowing blue gem had lost its color.
Tina’s final trace had saved everything and vanished.
The marquis placed the necklace in Jamie’s small hand.
“It’s lost its power, but keep it as a talisman on you always. It might protect you again someday.”
“......A keepsake from Grandma?”
“Yes.”
He’d guessed as much when the marquis said “wife.”
‘So that woman was......’
He still couldn’t recall her face clearly, but he vividly remembered her smiling at him.
It had been incredibly warm.
Normally, he’d have recoiled, but that time, he’d let himself bask in the warmth.
“Let’s head back now. Everything here is settled.”
Once home, he’d hold the Zenith Church fully accountable.
The international community wouldn’t overlook their crimes, and he’d brand them heretics who’d contracted with demons, burying them forever.
Then, Ras cautiously approached the marquis.
“Marquis. I have something to tell you.”
“What is it, Executor?”
“......The Archbishop has passed.”
The archbishop meant Sephira.
The marquis let out a low sigh.
He’d known him for so long. Even before he’d become archbishop—before bishop, really—over 30 years by count.
“Sable’s doing?”
“Yes.”
“That bastard took so much from me.”
What remained in this victory?
“We’ll hold a memorial for the archbishop and all who perished in this incident once we return.”
“Understood.”
Without time to savor victory’s joy, a memorial for the fallen proceeded.
Jamie gazed at the sun high in the sky.
Coming to Uptown, he’d been through so much, and so much had been lost.
The culprit was one of the 12 Gods he hated most: Zenith, holder of the seat of war.
‘Zenith.’
For some reason, he felt a bit closer to that bastard now.
But it was just psychological distance.
He was still weak, and Zenith abode in the heavens.
‘I need greater power.’
He’d felt it to his bones today.
His current magic growth rate couldn’t close that gap.
Magic growth would come with time anyway.
He needed new power.
Suddenly, Beryl’s suggestion came to mind.
‘The sword.’
His father was a Sword Master too, so the environment was perfect for learning.
But was holding a sword really right for him?
‘Once Beryl wakes, I’ll talk it over properly with him.’
He hadn’t been a match for Sable, but that was because Sable was an overwhelming superhuman.
Beryl was one of only five Sword Masters in Seldam Kingdom.
He’d refused before, but if he asked again, he might get good advice.
‘For now, let’s go rest.’
He just wanted to end this exhausting day quickly.
That was all Jamie wished for now.