Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 188

“That foxy guy.”“What a creepy bastard.”

Sitting around the dining table, Arthur and Llewellyn looked at the apprentice knight with wide eyes.

Regardless, Arendt simply cut up his share of salmon steak and stuffed it into his mouth.

“You wanted to see me lying down with my stomach open in the royal palace of another country, didn’t you?”

“…”

He was a guy who was incredibly good at figuring out where and when to act.

Richt let out a short sigh and soothed his parched throat with wine.

‘I’m glad Prince Matthias was absent.’

They almost showed an ugly sight.

Laius also seemed to have the same thought, as he just silently focused on eating.

Before visiting the elf territory, they decided to ease their regret by catching up with the Nephele royal family once again.

Seeing both the King and the Crown Princess showing such great interest in Arendt made him feel a stab in his stomach for the first time in a long time.

Thanks to Arendt’s excellent pretense, or acting, the two people seemed to have already decided that he was a just, courageous, and even polite young man.

Even Matthias, who had a little experience with him, seemed to think that he was ‘a bit of an eccentric person, but he’s actually a good young man’, so those who watched him couldn’t help but feel bitter.

‘Of course, since Arendt has decided to wear a mask, they would probably never see his true face…

Even that depended on Arendt’s whims, so he felt like he was carrying a powder keg that could explode at any moment.

“Is it delicious?”

“Yes.”

The apprentice knight, who had no way of knowing their intentions and in fact didn’t care at all even if he did, simply focused on eating.

“…Okay, eat a lot.”

Laius just decided to go with the flow.

The table was filled with fresh seafood dishes that were hard to find in the Caerleon Empire.

It was a splendid meal that others could have enjoyed to their hearts’ content if Arendt had not been present.

It was disrespectful to the person who prepared the dinner to talk about this and that and worry in front of him.

As the meal was drawing to a close, Llewellyn was the first to bring up the topic.

“By the way… What are you going to do? We have to go straight to the port tomorrow morning. Don’t you have to do something before then?”

It was a story about the elves who were still struggling and following in their footsteps.

Arendt nodded, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

“It’s about time for them to get a little excited. The medicine must have really taken effect… it’s a bit much to make a fuss in someone else’s palace.”

By now the elves would have realized that the knights had lured them on purpose.

Arendt looked around at the group and raised the corners of his mouth.

“In that sense, do you want to go for a night walk?”

“…”

His golden eyes sparkled mischievously.

When Arendt speaks with such a face, it should be assumed that they had no right to refuse from the beginning.

The group all let out a collective sigh.

“Lady Sylvian.”

A voice full of impatience urged her on.

“Are we just going to sit there and do nothing? Shouldn’t we do something?”

The servant urged her once more, but Sylvian did not respond.

Her emerald eyes, which seemed to embrace the blue forest, gazed quietly into the darkness.

Elf warriors, hidden in the darkness, climbed the tall clock tower of the Nephele Kingdom and spied on the inside of the royal palace.

The night in the peaceful kingdom was simply quiet.

But Sylvian’s heart was not like that.

‘Am I making a mistake?’

A thought suddenly occurred to her.

Even after releasing the reconnaissance bird, the knights showed no particular reaction.

It seemed as if they noticed their gazes, and they looked tense, but that only lasted for a moment.

She was taken aback by the sight of them fighting among themselves out of nowhere.

After that, they didn’t even dare to send out a reconnaissance bird and just followed the knights for a long time.

Eventually, they were unable to take any action until they reached the Nephele kingdom.

It was certain that they had the spirit stones.

Besides, since they had come all the way to the Nephele Kingdom with Prince Llewellyn, their destination was clear.

‘But why were they just watching us?’

At some point, they started following the knights blatantly without even hiding their presence.

It was an attempt to put psychological pressure on them, but they paid no attention at all.

They must have noticed the tailing.

Because they were the ones who reacted quickly even to the slightest sound of a tiny reconnaissance bird.

Are they pretending not to know, or…

‘Are they telling us to give it a try?’

This was clearly an act of disrespect towards them.

Her fist automatically gained strength.

“…Lady Sylvian, they came out.”

Her subordinate’s words brought her back to her senses.

As he said, the group was seen leaving the castle at a leisurely pace.

It was already a time when people were completely asleep.

They appeared on the empty streets at night, chatting idly, as if they were going out for an after-dinner walk.

At that sight, Sylvian couldn’t help but feel confused once again.

Could it be that they haven’t noticed our existence yet?

If not, they wouldn’t have been able to be so calm.

The subordinates also started to look at each other in confusion.

They were lightly dressed and the only thing that could be considered armor was a single sword at their waists.

Besides, it seemed like they had left behind a box containing the spirit stones.

“What the heck is that…”

“They’re coming this way.”

Sylvian, who had stopped her subordinates from muttering absurdly, quietly watched them.

While chatting and occasionally bickering, they approached the clock tower where the elves were hiding.

“What should we do? Now seems like a good time to make a surprise attack.”

“…Okay.”

Finally, Sylvian nodded slowly.

The elves began fiddling with the arrows on their backs, ready to take them out at any moment.

It was a shame about Prince Llewellyn, but she could not allow them to enter elven territory now.

She had to use force to take the spirit stones and make them abandon their journey.

They also need to make the knights pay for the way they’ve been ignoring them until now.

Sylvian put an arrow on her bow and took a deep breath.

She actually had no intention of releasing it.

Because just taking the initiative was enough.

At that moment, the knights stopped walking just before entering the square.

Sylvian also paused.

Although it was difficult to hear clearly because the distance was quite far, it seemed as if a particularly noticeable silver-haired knight was proposing something to the Knight Captain.

The captain looked puzzled.

But the silver-haired knight stubbornly handed him a dagger.

‘What are you doing…?’

The scuffle continued for a while.

But in the end, everyone seemed to agree with the silver-haired young knight’s words and stepped back, and the Knight Captain took a step forward.

He still had a look of reluctance on his face, but that only lasted for a moment.

The Knight Captain raised his head.

The moment Sylvian realized that her gaze had met the Knight Captain’s blue eyes.

The dagger, imbued with an aura, traced a long silver arc.

“Uh?”

After the blink of an eye,

Kkwaduk.

The dagger barely grazed Sylvian’s cheek and dug into the wall behind her.

“…”

No one spoke first.

A stream of red blood flowed from the scratch on Sylvian’s white cheek.

“How dare they…!”

One of her subordinates, whose teeth were clenched in frustration, pulled back the bowstring as if ready to fire an arrow at any moment.

But Sylvian stopped him.

“Wait.”

“Yes? But…”

“Follow me.”

The elf, who was about to protest, noticed that Sylvian’s voice had quietened and closed his mouth.

There was a subtle anger in her vivid green eyes.

“I guess we took them too lightly.”

Sylvian, having sheathed her weapon, straightened the body she had bent.

Her fair blonde hair was clearly visible under the blue moonlight.

Even though Sylvian suddenly appeared, the knights didn’t seem that surprised.

She left her subordinates behind and, with a light movement, jumped down from the clock tower, landing steadily on the ground.

Thud.

When she got up, only then was she able to properly face the knights who had been watching her from afar.

Llewellyn was the first to sigh when he recognized the familiar face.

“…It was Lady Sylvian.”

“I regret that we have to meet under these circumstances, Lord Llewellyn.”

Even as she answered like that, Sylvian did not take her eyes off Laius, or more precisely, Arendt, who was standing behind Laius.

It was that young knight who handed the dagger to the captain.

Even now, he was staring at her with his golden eyes, her mind unable to read what he was thinking.

And after a while.

The young man’s mouth curved into a mocking smile.

When she saw that sight, she felt her stomach turn.

After a while of standoff, her subordinates, who had come later, stood behind her.

Sylvian calmed down her boiling emotions and opened her mouth calmly.

“First of all, I apologize for the rudeness. My name is Sylvian, Captain of the Fog Forest’s Royal Guard. Are you Captain Laius de Winfried of the Caerleon Empire?”

The elf’s characteristically pleasant voice echoed through the dark streets.

Laius responded by taking a step forward.

“I’m sorry our first meeting wasn’t a good one, Captain Sylvian. I am Laius de Winfried.”

“To be honest, I feel extremely humiliated right now.”

Sylvian spoke calmly, without the slightest hint of disturbance.

Her gaze briefly rested on Llewellyn, then on Arendt, and then on Laius.

“I also know that I have acted dishonestly, so I will not do the foolish thing of judging right and wrong. However, I cannot help but ask this one thing.”

A cold anger appeared in her green eyes that were bathed in moonlight.

“Why did you lure us here? Since Lord Llewellyn is with you, you must know what the spirit stones mean to us. You intentionally let out a stream of energy to make us chase you, and you haven’t responded in any way since then.”

A deep anger began to creep into her refined tone.

“I don’t know how you got them, but you met a traitor from our clan, right? Were you trying to test how we would move? Is it because of that traitor that you can no longer trust the elves? Or…”

Her grip on the arrow was filled with strength.

“Are you mocking us?”

In the quiet street where everyone was sleeping, an indescribable murderous aura hung in the air.

The warriors of the other race glared at the knights with venom as if they were going to leap out at any moment, and Arthur and Richt also prepared to draw their swords at any moment.

It was a critical situation.

Sylvian and Laius also slowly reached for their weapons.

At that moment, a calm voice that did not fit the situation suddenly burst out.

“There’s no need for such grand mockery. It was just teasing.”

Sylvian’s hand that was tightly gripping the bow faltered.