Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 337: A sleepless night.

While those who were not injured went out to clean up the aftermath of the battle, the Imperial Knights gathered in the reception room provided by Marquis Raytar.Lexion clicked his tongue as he looked at Arendt’s tattered hand.

“This can’t be cured right away. If I try to cure it all at once with magic, the bones will end up reattached in a weird way.”

“Will this cause any problems with his movements later?”

Lexion grumbled angrily as Laius, standing next to him, asked anxiously.

“Usually, that would be the case, Captain. But it seems like you forget who I am sometimes. If we take our time and treat it little by little, we can fix it without any issues. It’s a bit of a hassle, though.”

In response, Lexion cast a healing spell on Arendt.

As light burst from his fingertips, the horrible burn scars began to fade, and his once blackened skin began to regain some of its color.

As Lexion stepped back, the healer waiting nearby quickly came over and bandaged the wound.

Arendt’s face wrinkled as the pain surged in.

“Ugh, that damn bastard really…”

Lexion gave him a scolding.

“You fool. I clearly told you not to do this. You reap what you sow.”

“Then who told you to procrastinate?”

But Arendt just responded with a blunt response. Lexion widened his eyes in bewilderment.

“This is ridiculous. You leave all the annoying things to me, and now you’re blaming me for this?”

“If you have any complaints, you should have moved more nimbly…”

Arendt tried to retort without backing down, but !

Before he could finish speaking, Laius hit him hard on the back of the head.

“Ugh!”

“Shut up before I get really angry.”

Laius warned darkly. His face was dripping with coldness.

Arendt shut his mouth when he saw the captain’s tightly clenched fist.

After all, he didn’t want to get hit multiple times by the Empire’s greatest swordmaster.

Llewellyn, who had been sitting on the sofa, interjected in an annoyed tone.

“You went around acting all high and mighty, look at you now. Seems like you won’t be holding a sword anytime soon. Good. Go hole up somewhere and recover. Need a cozy spot? Our kingdom’s prison is available. You might even find it quite snug.”

“If it’s that cozy, you too…”

Before Arendt could even finish his sentence, Laius struck again, glaring at him.

!

“Ah! Ugh, why do you keep hitting me?”

Arendt, who had been hit once more, touched the back of his head and let out a groan of irritation. Laius withdrew his hand and responded calmly.

“Because there doesn’t seem to be any sign of reflection.”

“Why should I reflect when I didn’t do anything wrong?”

“It looks like you want to get hit one more time.”

“…”

Only then did Arendt become quiet.

Laius let out a deep sigh as he made the apprentice knight shut up. His head was throbbing so much that it was almost painful.

After the healer left, Laius got to the point.

“Report what happened from the beginning to end, without leaving anything out.”

“. It’s exactly as I said before.”

Arendt rubbed the spot where he had been hit a few times and began to speak.

“Even if the Evil Cult had taken away all the residents of Count Motier’s territory, they probably wouldn’t have taken them to a place that far away. I thought their base must be nearby, so I asked Lexion to search for it.”

“Since when?”

“From the moment I realized that Grimson was a spy.”

Arendt responded bluntly to Laius’ question.

While they were dealing with the homunculus Grimson had brought in, Lexion and the elves searched Count Mortier’s estate.

From that point on, Arendt’s plot had already begun.

During the first search, Lexion collected clues to find Nikephoros’ stronghold without the elves knowing.

And when he and Llewellyn headed back to Count Motier’s estate, he said he would search in the sky and left.

“They were switched then. It wasn’t Lexion next to me, it was Stellar. I installed the defensive magic before I left for the second search and set it so that it wouldn’t activate before I was attacked, so the captain and Zakar didn’t notice.”

“…”

As Arendt continued his explanation, the group’s eyes began to lose focus.

In the end, it meant that it was a total joke from the beginning.

Lexion clicked his tongue.

“From the start, Nikephoros was most wary of me, so simply leaving my position would have been too risky. If he realized I was absent, he would have run wild, doing whatever he pleased.”

So it was necessary to thoroughly hide the fact that Lexion was away.

Arendt added:

“Nikephoros also thought that Lexion was here, so he must have been more cautious than necessary.”

If there had been no Lexion, he might have started by blowing up the castle first.

It was entirely possible to place a summoning circle around the area in advance to summon homunculi and then release them by surprise, or to infiltrate the castle with ghouls in advance.

If that had been the case, the battle would have been much more difficult.

But since all of that would be useless if Lexion was there, Nikephoros gave up on all of those methods.

“And while Nikephoros is causing a scene here, Lexion will raid his base while he’s away… that was the simple plan.”

Arendt shrugged.

“But it would be difficult for there to be casualties here. If there were, it would be pointless to work so hard. And it would be difficult for Nikephoros to notice Lexion’s absence, so I did my best to distract him.”

So Arendt put himself on the line, and it paid off.

Blinded by the provocation, Nikephoros became utterly fixated on chasing Arendt, leaving himself completely vulnerable to an unavoidable defeat.

Even though the explanation was over, the knights remained silent for a while.

Llewellyn also just stared blankly into space.

“You really…”

His heart sank several times while he was watching.

Yet the very culprit behind all this had the audacity to wear an innocent expression, making his blood boil uncontrollably. The sheer nerve of it was infuriating.

The other knights seemed to feel the same way.

Fierce gazes began to converge on Arendt, and upon noticing them, Arendt frowned in displeasure. The tension in the air grew heavier.

“What? If you have any complaints, seniors, you guys should have taken action first. Or you could have brought in a dragon to take your side.”

It was almost laughable to hear him say that while he was covered in wounds here and there and had one hand completely wrapped in bandages.

Laius calmly spoke on behalf of his subordinates.

“…Arendt.”

Although it was a calm and composed tone, it was a voice so filled with anger that a bit of murderous intent could be felt.

“It seems like you don’t understand, so I’ll explain it to you in my own way.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that your life was safe. But what if you had suffered irreparable damage, or if your movements were off for even a fraction of a second, and you had been fatally wounded?”

The captain suddenly walked up to Arendt.

“Is there even one person here who could be happy and satisfied that no one died and would satisfied with the victory?”

Arendt clamped his mouth tightly at Laius’ grinded out words.

“It was only recently that you came back from the dead. You must have seen me acting like a fool back then. Do you think that’s only limited to me? If something happens to you, the morale of the Knights will eventually drop significantly, and even lead to a loss of strength.”

Beneath his blue eyes, simmering anger was surging.

“If you think the damage you suffer is only yours, you are very mistaken. Do you understand?”

“…”

Instead of answering right away, Arendt just looked up at Laius with a sullen face.

Thanks to his expression of disbelief, Laius couldn’t help but become even more angered.

Finally, the captain clenched his fists again and struck the apprentice knight for the third time.

!

Arendt was struck so hard that he couldn’t even scream and just clutched his head.

“Ah, you…!”

“If you do something like this one more time, I won’t stay still.”

When Laius growled fiercely, Arendt did not back down and fought back.

“If I don’t stay put, what, are you planning to dismiss me?”

“No. I will ask His Highness the Crown Prince to throw you in the best resort in the Empire. You won’t be able to do anything.”

“…”

Arendt froze in place.

Even after that, Laius’s threats did not stop.

“No matter what happens outside, I’ll let you just watch from the safest place. If I exile you for a month or so, you’ll at least pretend to reflect on your actions.”

“…”

Arendt’s tightly sealed lips and uneasy expression spoke volumes. It was the moment when the nagging that had been ineffective until now finally began to shine.

“Does that make sense as a threat?”

Llewellyn muttered in disbelief. But Laius didn’t stop there.

“Lord Lexion. Please take your time with the treatment as much as possible.”

“Huh? Why?”

As Lexion tilted his head, Laius answered briefly.

“Since he can’t use his hands, he’ll be quiet for a few days.”

“Huh? No, wait a minute…”

A flustered Arendt tried to quickly intervene, but Lexion nodded first.

“I know what you mean. Let’s do that.”

“No, no, what?”

Arendt’s protests were completely unfounded. Lexion glared at him with unkind eyes.

“As I said before, you reap what you sow. Take this opportunity to remember this. Your body is not a rag doll. There is a limit to how much I can fix.”

“…”

The knights and Llewellyn watched Arendt, who was speechless, with some amusement.

But Arthur couldn’t just enjoy this moment.

Arthur was lost in thought as he listened to the voices of his colleagues who were reprimanding Arendt.

At first glance, it seemed like just a loser’s last curse. In fact, most of the others seemed to take it that way. It seemed like there weren’t many people who heard it properly in the midst of the chaos.

But Arthur couldn’t just let it go.

‘Is that also related to the deal between Arendt and Lexion?’

Suddenly, he remembered what happened in the Great Temple in the middle of the night.

Arendt, who had been open about his hatred for God Luce, and Lexion, who had only then said that he would completely trust Arendt.

It occurred to him that perhaps what happened then might have something to do with the damning words that Nikephoros gave Arendt today.

Furthermore, the reason why Arendt, who was almost killed by Roger’s sword, came back to life… and… coincidentally, the reason why Laius was able to get his hands on the Holy Sword at that very moment.

‘I guess we can’t argue about it now.’

At least it wasn’t a topic worth bringing up in front of other people.

Arendt wasn’t the type of person who would easily answer just because he asked.

Arthur glanced at Laius.

There was no way he didn’t know what he had noticed.

But it seemed that Laius too would remain silent for now.

“Ah.”

Just as silence was about to fall, Arendt spoke.

“Lord Lexion, what about those people?”

“I pushed them into several granaries. It’s still quiet, so I guess no one has found them.”

When Lexion responded like that, everyone’s faces turned confused.

Llewellyn asked on behalf of the group.

“Those people?”

“The people of Count Motier’s territory that Nikephoros secretly whisked away.”

Arendt answered coldly.

“Did you even listen to me? I told you that I took everything.”

“…What?”

A foolish sound came out of the knights’ mouths. Lexion, crossing his arms, added plainly.

“Fortunately, they are fine, except for being brainwashed. I just picked out those who seemed to be Nikephoros’ subordinates and dealt with them, and smuggled the rest away.”

Lexion and Arendt’s goal was to rescue the people of Count Motier’s territory from the beginning. Destroying Nikephoros’ base was just a bonus.

“He doesn’t really care how many of his followers die. But wouldn’t it be heartbreaking to see the granary he worked so hard to fill empty?”

By now, Nikephoros would be letting out a hollow, incredulous laugh in front of his empty base.

“That would be more effective than showing him a pile of corpses to provoke that damn reptile. If he thought this level of disgrace would be enough to settle it, he gravely miscalculated.”

“…”

“He should be laughed at to his heart’s content by those damn fake colleagues. He acted so high and mighty, but he looks so ugly now.”

An awkward silence flowed through the reception room.

Everyone realized it again.

Arendt was someone who gives shit to those who oppose him in some way.

“…You’re impressive, you bastard.”

After a long time, Arthur spoke in a tired voice.

Arendt leaned back on the sofa, smiling contentedly like a well-fed cat.

“I know that as well.”