Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 127

He couldn’t help but let out a short sigh at the sight.As expected, Laius was Laius.

There was a bit of an after effect though.

“Warren would have no problem. He wouldn’t hesitate when it came time to take action and would clean up after himself.”

“…”

“Anyway, no one knows that the prince is taking action at our request. Not even the secret agents he commands, at least for now.”

“So,” Arendt added absently, slinging the sword over his shoulder.

“We can clean it all up in one go, without a trace. Without getting our hands dirty.”

“…”

A cold silence flowed through the training ground.

Laius just stared blankly at Arendt, as if frozen.

The apprentice knight shrugged.

“Well, I hope that won’t happen. The prince is simple-minded, but he’s not stupid, so he wouldn’t do anything foolish.”

“…Ha.”

After a while, Laius let out a slow sigh. The captain, who had swept up his bangs to calm his anxiety, spoke in a complicated manner.

“You need to fix your speech.”

Laius added, straightening his stance and holding his sword.

“That won’t happen.”

“Yes?”

“You entrusted Prince Llewellyn to Count Stadler, believing he would not betray you. The reason you kept Warren by his side was to prevent him from being harmed while conducting a dangerous investigation, and there was no other reason.”

What the heck was this?

Arendt arched an eyebrow.

“Do I look like such a nice guy to you?”

“I can’t say that you’re kind, even as a joke. But it’s true that you have a bad habit of twisting your words on purpose.”

“…”

A firm response came back.

“It can be easily sorted out. I will take that as a warning that you have thought about the consequences and not to worry.”

After saying that, Laius smiled slightly.

“Warren must be having quite a headache guarding the eccentric prince.”

“…Because the captain is so naive, he keeps getting hit in the back of the head.”

“Don’t worry. You’re the only one who’s ever hit me in the back of the head.”

It was absurd.

Until he got to the position of captain, getting hit didn’t even count as getting hit?

He was an avid reader who had read the novel over and over again and watched Laius grow up. He didn’t even have to look back to vividly recall how badly he had been treated.

Of course, most of those who appeared as villains left the stage based on the theory of good triumphing over evil.

“If it’s your decision, you don’t have to give any specific reasons for it.”

“That’s just a pointless remark. It’s only natural to think about things after they go wrong.”

“I’ll take responsibility for what happens after it goes wrong. That’s not something you, a mere apprentice knight, should worry about.”

“…”

This time, the mere apprentice knight was left speechless.

“Captain, do you know you look like a total idiot right now?”

“Why?”

“Why, you ask?”

Despite Arendt’s absurd remark, Laius just responded blankly.

“Well, I don’t know.”

“…”

His usual expressionless face somehow seemed shameless. Arendt was sure that he knew what he was doing and was responding in that way.

“I couldn’t take the lead because you did it first, so I should at least take responsibility for the rest.”

Laius looked straight at his subordinate and continued speaking sharply.

“Don’t make me into an incompetent captain.”

“…”

As Arendt stared at the captain speaking in a grave voice, he felt uneasy.

Making him into an incompetent captain…

He never once thought of Laius that way.

He was a person who was naive and righteous and would never do anything bad, but that was why he could become the main character.

‘Anyone could do something bad.’

To remain unwavering and upright was the most difficult thing in the world, but he had no intention of lavishing such praise now. That was only his own impression, not something to be expressed in dialogue.

Instead, he chose something a little more fun.

“I’m glad you know.”

Laius became serious and twisted his body.

Arendt gave him a pitiful look and activated the artifact.

Pure white frost settled on the sword, and cold breath flowed out.

Now, he seemed to be quite used to handling magic power. Although his total magic power was still lacking, he seemed to have properly figured out how to use the magic stone installed in his sword.

It was a surprisingly rapid growth.

’10 years like this… No, it might take less than that.’

If things continued this way, Arendt would one day take the position of First Swordsman of the Empire.

‘But before that, he would have to defeat his seniors first.’

That guy was probably responsible for 80% of the recent bustle at the Third Division training grounds. Arendt’s growth must have inspired the other knights as well.

Laius, who had been watching Arendt with a happy expression, saying that it was a good cycle, soon thought of another possibility.

‘…I wonder if what they’re afraid of is the aftermath of not being able to subdue him even with force.’

They may have felt a sense of crisis recently seeing Arthur being beaten by Arendt.

Arthur was a lively, yet calm guy, but he’d been seeing him more often recently, pulling out his hair and going crazy.

It only took a moment for the proud gaze to fade.

“What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“No. Nothing.”

Starting tomorrow, he had to watch over the training of other guys. At least, he felt a sense of crisis that this guy shouldn’t become the strongest in the empire.

‘What if that guy becomes the strongest in the empire?’

It was clear that the discipline of the Imperial Knights would be in shambles.

When he thought about it that way, the captain decided that he needed to increase his personal training time.

When the aftermath of the event had completely subsided and the palace had become quiet again, Cantares called together the captains of the Imperial Knights.

“A call has arrived from the Kingdom of Lucain.”

As soon as the three leaders gathered in the conference room, Cantares brought up the main topic.

Kendrick asked with a puzzled look on his face.

“Are you talking about the Kingdom of Lucain?”

“Yes, the Grand Duke attended this event.”

The Grand Duke also returned to his kingdom with news of the Chernion Church. The King of the Kingdom of Lucain carefully checked the contents and sent a reply.

“A few months ago, there was a riot on the outskirts of the kingdom. It was resolved without much trouble, but there are still many mysteries…”

Cantares, who had been silent for a moment, frowned slightly.

“First of all, the leader of the rioters was strange.”

“What do you mean by strange?”

“A woman with scars all over her body led the mob.”

Actually, up until that point, it wasn’t anything special.

Cantares continued speaking slowly.

“It is said that she continued to fight as if she did not even feel pain even when she was shot by arrows and stabbed by swords during battle.”

“…”

The captains’ faces hardened.

“The mob revered her as a god. They must have been impressed by the way she easily shook herself off and got up, no matter how injured she was.”

“What happened to her in the end?”

“She fell down dead after being hit by an arrow in the heart and head, and the rioters were suppressed. But it didn’t end there.”

The Crown Prince continued his explanation.

When they tried to interrogate the surviving rioters, for some reason they were all insane. They were talking nonsense, showing strange aggression, and their memories were confused.

The Kingdom of Lucain explained that they could not even figure out why the riot had occurred or what its purpose was.

“The King, after seeing the official document we sent, caught a clue to the mystery and informed us. He said he would let us know if he found out anything else.”

If the Kingdom of Lucain was in this state, it seemed that similar news would soon be delivered from other countries as well.

The fight against the Chernion cult was no longer just an empire-wide affair.

Laius, who had been silent, opened his mouth.

“So you’re saying that there’s a possibility that that woman… was a ghoul.”

An intelligent and verbal ghoul that appeared on the battlefield.

Diana must have gotten lucky.

“But the ghouls we encountered didn’t seem to have the intelligence to lead people.”

“The person who appeared in the Kingdom of Lucain must have been the perfect product. They say she was good at speaking and leading people.”

Kendrick answered, stroking his thick beard.

The reason for the riot may have been that they wanted to test the performance of the newly created ghoul.

Laius thought for a moment and then asked.

“…Does Arendt know this story?”

“I was going to tell him, but he already knew. He heard it through Neumann’s informants a few days ago.”

“So where is that guy now?”

Cantares looked troubled at Diana’s question.

“I don’t know, he’s probably somewhere in the palace. Come to think of it, doesn’t that guy have any work to do? Even if he’s an apprentice, I don’t think the Imperial Knights have that much free time.”

“It’s amazing how he always does them without a single error.”

He was a guy who did all kinds of work inside and outside the palace, and he always completed his work as an apprentice knight perfectly.

“If he has to go out during work hours, he always gets permission to go out…”

Laius’ voice trailed off.

Recently, it seemed that even the person who gave the permission, Richt, had become annoyed and had been giving out a lot of permits to go out, telling him to do as he pleased, and then just walked away.

“It seems like that guy traded his personality for his work ability.”

“What a real shame.”

I guess God is fair…

Cantares nodded seriously at Kendrick’s words.

“Anyway, the Kingdom of Lucain has also said that they will expand their investigation net with the evil cult in mind, so we will need to keep an eye on it for the time being.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Cantares let out a short sigh as he watched the captains answer powerfully.

Arendt von Eckhart seemed to have already sniffed it out, so there would be another move soon.

‘What a disgusting guy.’

It seemed like he was going to put Laius at the forefront and take care of the dirty work himself… Well, it was uncertain whether things would go his way.

‘It seems His Majesty the Emperor is also interested.’

Cantares knew the Emperor would be quite interested in Arendt since he was such an odd guy…

At the banquet, he never imagined that he would speak to Arendt as soon as he entered the hall.

Afterwards, thanks to a long conversation between himself and Laius, it seemed like the matter was hushed up, but it seemed that some nobles were on edge because of it.

‘I understand what Your Majesty intended.’

Anyone could see that Arendt was no ordinary guy, so His Majesty probably wanted to see for himself the person who would expand his position within the empire in the future, and also give him some power. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on NoveI-Fire.ɴet

But thanks to that, flies got tangled up.

It was an element that could once again attract the interest of the nobles who had previously called him crazy and refused to associate with him.

Since he was already a busy guy running around here and there, Cantares thought it would be better to take care of it in advance before anything more troublesome happened.

‘It’s not that I’m particularly considerate of him.’

If Arendt was messed with for no reason, it was obvious that the palace would be turned into a wasteland in an instant.

And the consequences would be entirely Cantares’.

It was his job to clear up the mess so that the damned troublemaker could run wild.