Chapter 130
The night sky was lit only by the silent sparkling of the stars, and a figure was moving like a shadow beneath the moonlight.
‘This town—no, there’s something fishy with the whole eastern region of the Avalon Empire,’?Christian muttered to himself with bright eyes.
He had spent half a day hiding and keeping an eye out on the town where he met those robed men. He had seen no one, with the exception of the Magic Tower and the mages assumed to have been despatched by the Avalon Imperial Family.
Most importantly, there was this strange eeriness that kept on prickling Christian’s nerves.
A dilapidated town with no inhabitants in sight. The town was within the territory of the Avalon Empire, but Avalon didn’t do anything other than deploy a few mages, not to mention make the news of such a strange town public.
There was a high chance that the divine revelation High Priest Herald had received was true.
“There’s a lich here according to divine revelation, but if Avalon knew about that without doing anything about it, then…” Christian clenched his fists.
The undead and black mages had always been the continent's greatest problems. In other words, Avalon could attract the contempt and hate of every nation by harboring those creatures and individuals, and it could easily escalate into a Continental War.
“Right now, I should prioritize fact-finding. I can’t really do much because I’m in the territory of another nation.”
The presence of the undead and black mages couldn’t be ignored, even by a powerhouse like the Avalon Empire. In addition, there was no way Emperor Marcus would remain ignorant of such matters happening within his territory.
‘That’s why I have to be more careful than usual….’
“Emperor Marcus, just what are you trying to do?” Christian muttered to himself while staring up ahead.
There was a magnificent ancient castle in front of him. It was the source of the energy that had been prickling his nerves. It was a castle belonging to the ancient line of Count Rebrecca, and it was located west of the Tripia Region. Christian was familiar with this place since it was the wealthiest location in the Tripia Region due to the fact that it was situated close to Avalon’s border with Hubalt.
“Count Rebrecca was famous as a gentleman—even in Hubalt—despite being a nobleman from a neighboring nation.”
Christian only knew about the fall of the House of Rebrecca recently. It had been three years since they had fallen but there was a reason why Christian only knew it so late. Most assumed that the fall of a family would be due to a failed territorial war with nobles of the same country. The House of Rebrecca was based in Avalon and Christian, being in the Hubalt Empire, didn’t really care much about wars that didn’t involve the Five Dukes or the Twelve Families of Avalon.
With a determined look, Christian reached out and pushed the door open.?The side door on the other end of the castle wasn’t locked, so it slowly opened with a jarring creaking.
An entrance like this existed in most castles, and they were often used to deliver produce and ingredients for the kitchen.
‘Have I concealed myself enough?’
After traversing a long, dark tunnel, Christian arrived at the kitchen.
A low, spooky howl, like that of an animal, reverberated and pierced Christian’s ears.
‘That’s…’
Christian’s eyes had long gotten used to the darkness after traversing the tunnel, so he immediately saw the source of the howl. It was an unknown beast.
‘A ghoul?’
Christian frowned upon deducing the beast’s identity. The beast had glowing crimson eyes, a crooked torso, with razor-sharp claws and teeth. It couldn’t be anything else but a ghoul.
However, Christian’s eyes sparkled upon noticing something else.
‘It’s not a typical ghoul…’
A ghoul was an undead, so its body would always be at the advanced stage of decomposition.
However, the three ghouls in front of him had immaculate bodies. Aside from the characteristics of ghouls that they possessed, it would be easy to mistake them for humans
‘It’s a human being?’ Christian was disturbed by the idea.
Crrrrrrr.
While Christian was in a daze, a ghoul rose to its feet and sniffed as if it could smell the presence of something strange. Christian was even more astonished upon seeing that because a ghoul with a body at the advanced stage of decomposition lacked the ability to smell.
“...!” Christian gasped with wide eyes when the ghouls stood up. It was all because Christian could finally see the reason why they were gathered in one place. It turned out that they were feasting on a corpse.
“God…!” Christian was horrified.
The ghouls were feasting on a corpse of a woman. The woman had definitely just passed away, as evidenced by the scarlet blood flowing down her body as well as her crimson and torn innards in full display.
Crack.
A ghoul sitting on a ceremonial seat rose and approached Christian in a leisurely manner.
Christian had been holding his breath to extinguish his presence, but he could no longer hold back as he gritted his teeth so powerfully that they made crunching noises. The ghoul’s face was bloodied, and it was dragging along a lengthy object.
Christian easily identified the object.
The object was pristine white, and it stuck out like a sore thumb in this place filled with nothing but darkness. As the ghoul dragged it along, it made shrill noises along the floor. The object was none other than an immaculate pristine white sword.
It had a gold finish, and its unique hilt had a gold finish as well.
It was one of the two holy swords in existence. According to legends, the Knight of God Chrysler jean Sebastian once wielded two swords. However, he bestowed one of them on his disciple, who went out to explore the continent.
The sword was one of the seven Renowned artifacts, and its name was…
“The Holy Sword, Durandal!” exclaimed and inadvertently took a step backward.
Crack!
The ghouls shrieked upon noticing Christian’s presence.
Christian glared at the ghouls and coldly muttered, “I shall judge you in Hermes’ name!”
The three ghouls ran at Christian, and they moved so fast as if they wanted to prove that they were definitely mutant ghouls.
At the sight of that, Christian finally made his move. He calmly inverted his sword, pointing it down while bringing the pommel up.
Christian then muttered, “Hermes.”
Divine power surged when the words left Christian’s mouth, and a glowing cross of light manifested in mid-air, illuminating the place.
“May thou Holy Power purify the evil creatures that should not exist in this world.”
Christian’s eyes lit up. As the ghouls made a beeline for him, he yelled, “Holy Cross!”
Kwaaaa!
The ghouls shrieked as a burst of light vanquished the darkness.
***
“Let’s stop and establish camp here. We’re going to sleep here and continue on our way to the town when daybreak arrives.” Eiden, or rather Akshuller, commanded.
“Prepare to make camp!” The mercenaries moved according to his command.
Joshua finally jumped down from the roof of a wagon.
“The town is already in front of us, why make camp when we can proceed now?” asked Joshua.
“Baron Dubuer doesn’t really welcome outsiders, so we have to make do with this for now.” Akshuller immediately responded.
As time went on, Akshuller became increasingly more respectful toward Joshua, even though he was older than the latter. Of course, Joshua didn’t really mind it as he looked at Akshuller with a frown and asked, “Why is that?”
“You will understand when you get there. People like him are constantly under the threat of dying, so there’s really nothing that we can do about his cautiousness.” Akshuller said.
However, his words seemed incomprehensible to Joshua because the latter remained silent.
All of a sudden, Akshuller clapped his hands together as if he recalled something.
“As I said before, Baron Dubuer’s territory is huge compared to the territory of other barons. In terms of geographical size alone, it’s even larger than the territory of any count. It isn’t really strange because the territory of the late Count Rebrecca was swallowed up by Baron Dubuer.”
“Does that include Tripia?” asked Joshua, seemingly astonished. He had kept an ear to the ground during his five years in the capital, but this was news for him.
“The imperial family hasn’t really made a formal declaration about Tripia being a part of Baron Dubuer’s territories, but because he is already supervising the estates of Tripia as well as collecting taxes on his own, isn’t it just right to assume that Tripia already belongs to him?”
“...” Joshua didn’t know what to say.
“Anyway, there are few restricted areas within the barony,” said Akshuller in a low voice. Finally, they were about to address the elephant in the room.
“Restricted areas?” The whole affair smelled fishy.
“Yes, and that is where we are going. You have to go there if you want to complete your Quest.”
At that, Joshua’s expression softened. Joshua’s objective had always been to scour the entire far eastern region of the Avalon Empire, so he didn’t really mind tackling another objective aside from his primary one.
It would be better if there weren’t anything strange. Unfortunately, Joshua could still remember an undead horde walking along a road from his previous life.
“Where should I travel?”
“Rev. Next to Tripia, within Count Rebrecca’s territory and also where Count Rebrecca’s castle is.”
“I knew it.” Joshua nodded slightly upon hearing that. If one wanted to conceal something, then one should make sure to get the imperial court involved in the affair. It was even more important if it were a major affair that resulted in the demise of a family. If that were the case, then the imperial family could quarantine the entire place until the facts were established.
“So it’s a territory war…”
“It’s not.”
“...!” Joshua's eyes widened upon hearing a cold voice behind him. He then turned his head and saw a petite figure with their demeanor hidden behind the hood of their robe.
Nonetheless, Joshua still identified the figure, and he stared at them for quite a while before muttering, “Iceline.”
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