Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 273

“Gasp, gasp… this is crazy…”He didn’t even have the strength to get up.

As he lay sprawled out on the floor of the training hall, he felt the pitying gazes of his seniors, who were in a similar situation to him .

Arendt, who tried to escape like a loach, was ultimately unable to escape Laius’ clutches.

“Crazy human… Huh, what the… is a human… or a rock…”

Arendt did not try to suppress the tired voice that was flowing out of his mouth, but let it out like a curse.

In the midst of his daze, a shadow suddenly appeared over his head.

“Arendt.”

The face of Laius, which filled his field of vision, showed no sign of fatigue even after dealing with the entire Third Knights, from Richt to Arendt.

Seeing his face, which seemed to have become more lively as if he had loosened up, somehow made his anger flare up even more.

A weary voice came out of Arendt’s mouth.

“Such an annoying person…”

Regardless, Laius continued to say what he wanted to say.

“You learn too quickly. You should have built a solid foundation from the start, but by skipping the intermediate steps, your endurance is weak. Your reflexes are good, but in comparison, your strength is still lacking.”

“…”

Every word of what he said was correct, so he couldn’t refute it.

His seniors chimed in here and there.

“That’s right, as soon as we show it, you pick it up right away.”

“What an unlucky bastard.”

As Arendt’s face turned pale, Laius continued speaking.

“In real life, it seems like you can overcome problems by improvising, but the fact remains that your lack of strength is a risk factor.”

“…”

“And you should fix the bad habit of trying to overcome physical limitations with mental strength as soon as possible. I admit that the results are good, but it is not desirable to live with injuries all the time.”

“…”

“Lower your standards for yourself. The problem is that you truly believe you can do it. If you experienced a few harsh failures, you might develop more caution, but in your case, it might be a problem caused by having more real-world experience than training.”

“…What should I do if I’m just too great?”

“That’s not entirely wrong, but stop talking nonsense and be quiet.”

“Tsk.”

Arendt, whose chattering had been dismissed, lay down and slightly turned his head to look at his seniors.

Just a moment ago, they had faces that looked as if they were dying, but now their faces looked refreshed, as if they had scratched an itchy spot.

“…I’ll see you later, seniors.”

At Arendt’s cold voice, the looks of satisfaction quickly disappeared.

At that moment, Laius stopped and raised his head.

Soon, Arendt began to hear urgent footsteps coming from the entrance to the training ground.

“…?”

Almost as soon as Arendt sat up, Jereon barged through the door and entered the training ground.

He must have been running in a hurry, as he held onto the door to catch his breath.

“, I’m sorry all of a sudden. I have something urgent to convey.”

It was an unusual behavior for him, who was always calm and relaxed.

The knights’ faces hardened as they felt something was wrong.

Arendt frowned and spoke.

“Are you talking about the First and Second Knight Orders?”

“Yes, a report was just delivered to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.”

Jereon nodded with a pale face, his hands still on the door.

“The Evil Cult’s attacks have begun. They are targeting both the Lucain and Everan Kingdoms.”

“…!”

The knights scattered here and there reflexively jumped up.

Arendt’s golden eyes also became gloomy and sunken.

As soon as they hurried into the Crown Prince’s office, the elves who had arrived earlier and Cantares greeted Laius and Arendt.

Before the two could even settle down, Cantares started talking.

“Both the Lucain and Everan Kingdoms began to be attacked at almost the same time. It seemed like they had planned their attack timings in advance.”

“Have you also been informed of the damage, Your Highness?”

Laius asked hastily.

Instead of reprimanding him, Cantares calmly answered him.

“I heard that three soldiers and one knight from the Everan Kingdom Army, and two soldiers and two knights from the Lucain Kingdom Army were killed. I heard from the Second Knights that one of them is temporarily out of action, but his life is not in danger.”

Cantares added with a stern face.

“Fortunately, we were able to defend ourselves without any further damage, but it was a larger-scale attack than we had anticipated.”

The Crown Prince briefly reported the battle situation he had received.

“According to Captain Diana’s report, humanoid ghouls, who fired crossbows resembling spears with their bare hands, initiated the attack. Meanwhile, from Captain Kendrick’s side, well-trained troops used invisibility scrolls to approach stealthily and launch a surprise close combat assault.”

“…”

“From the Everan Kingdom, Prince Llewellyn used an artifact to block the attacks while launching a fire assault to drive the enemies back. Meanwhile, in the Lucain Kingdom, Captain Kendrick personally went to the front lines, and the First Knights and the kingdom’s army cooperated to fight against the enemies.”

Arendt, who had been listening quietly, suddenly asked a question.

“What about the enemy’s casualties?”

Then Cantares frowned.

“It seems like we took care of quite a few enemies, but well… after a few hours of attacking, they retreated without even collecting the bodies. According to Captain Kendrick, they didn’t seem to care at all about how many of their troops died. They just charged forward recklessly.”

Whether they were ghouls or trained warriors, the value of life before the God of Darkness did not seem to differ much.

“…They are some really dreadful bastards.”

Zakar muttered.

Ragnald also furrowed his brows.

“How strong is the enemy force?”

“They can literally produce troops, so counting their numbers is meaningless.”

Arendt, who had been silent, suddenly intervened.

Everyone’s eyes naturally turned to the apprentice knight.

“They can even scrape up the corpses that died on the battlefield and turn them into ghouls again. It’s impossible to know the full size of their forces, and it’s a waste of effort to find out.”

Arendt, standing with his hands shoved deep into his pockets in a relaxed posture, added.

“You should just assume they will pour out endlessly. In fact, that might be easier to handle.”

“…”

“In contrast, we have to fight with a limited number of people.”

Everyone stayed silent.

A map of the continent was spread out on a large table.

Arendt looked down at the markers left at the sites of the battles.

His golden eyes moved silently.

“…So you’re saying that they launched an offensive at the same time and then suddenly retreated? What do you think their purpose was?”

“Purpose?”

In response to Cantares’s question, Arendt gave him a look of utter contempt.

“Then do you think these bastards came to say hello?”

Salem, who had been looking at Arendt’s actions nervously, quickly intervened.

“Isn’t this an attempt to signal the start of a fight? It’s an attempt to seize the initiative by declaring war.”

“Lord Salem is a little better than Your Highness.”

“…”

Cantares clenched and unclenched his fist.

It was because he knew all too well that no matter how much he swung his fists, he wouldn’t be able to land a hit.

While the Crown Prince was suppressing his irritation, Laius opened his mouth.

“I suppose there is an intention to gauge our power, but that doesn’t really mean much at this point. They’ve already clashed with the Imperial Knights several times.”

“Is the why really that important?”

Ragnald, who had been listening quietly, suddenly interrupted, feeling frustrated.

“The enemy has attacked and we must respond. It seems necessary to sortie quickly rather than waste time.”

“Goodness, you’re so impatient. Just wait a bit. Who said not to sortie?”

However, a bored, youthful voice stopped him.

“I’m just asking you to think about it. Didn’t I tell you just a few days ago? The balance of power is important.”

Ragnald and Shekhinah’s faces crumpled at the tone of disdain in his voice.

Regardless, Arendt pushed aside even Laius and strode toward the table.

“There’s one thing missing here.”

“Something missing?”

“Yes.”

When Cantares asked curiously, Arendt simply nodded.

Arendt’s finger moved and then tapped, landing on a specific point on the map.

It was the location of the Caerleon Empire, or more precisely, the Imperial Palace.

“Here it is.”

“What is that… ah.”

Cantares, who had been raising his eyebrows, realized something belatedly and closed his mouth.

Arendt took his finger away and continued speaking in an indifferent tone.

“The Third Knights and the Elf Warrior Legion remain in the palace. And Lexion is also here. We can assume that the beings they are most wary of are still here.”

“…”

“Instead of attacking in earnest, they just hit and run. It’s like they’re trying to see if they can get a glimpse of us… or they’re trying to make their presence known by saying they’re here.”

Ragnald, who was about to refute, also remained silent.

“So, we still need to wait and see. They might be intentionally trying to drag us out, but we don’t need to just accept it, right?”

His calm, golden eyes scanned the map and then turned to Laius.

“Well, the decision is up to the captain and His Highness. I don’t think it’s my place as a mere apprentice knight to meddle in it.”

“Just because you say up to that point and then back out later doesn’t make it okay.”

Calmly placing his hand on the hilt of his sword, Laius raised his head and looked at Cantares and the elves.

“As Arendt said, it might be dangerous if everyone moves at once. Jin and Roger haven’t stepped in yet, and they haven’t deployed weapons of mass destruction like homunculi.”

“…”

“Since the First and Second Knight Orders have sufficient strength, it would be best to observe the situation for a while.”

Ragnald still had a displeased expression on his face, but when Laius said that, he did not argue any further.

Instead, Shekhinah took the initiative.

“That is a valid point, but I don’t think just sitting back and doing nothing is a good approach either.”

“I didn’t say anything about sitting back and doing nothing.”

Arendt shrugged.

“There’s a werewolf idling around, and I’m going to tell him to head towards the Everan Kingdom. He’ll be worth thirty soldiers— no, actually, he’ll be worth fifty.”

“A werewolf? Are you saying there are werewolves in the Holy Empire?”

Salem let out a gasp of surprise, as if he couldn’t believe it.

Shekhinah and Ragnald’s eyes also widened.

Arendt nodded to them roughly and added:

“Well, it just turned out this way. I would like Lady Shekhinah to head toward the Everan Kingdom, and Lord Ragnald to join the Lucain Kingdom, just like we divided the roles before.”

It was exactly as the conversation they had briefly before.

Shekhinah had already promised to head to where Jin was, and Ragnald was to go to the place where Roger might appear.

Arendt turned his gaze towards the remaining Zakar and Salem.

“Zakar and Salem, please wait with us at the palace for a while.”

“…It’s all good, but even if we leave right now, it might already be too late by the time we join. Isn’t it quite a long way from here to each kingdom?”

Shekhinah, who had been silent for a moment, spoke coldly.

It was not a very pleasant situation to be receiving instructions from Arendt, who was neither a Crown Prince nor a Captain.

But Arendt didn’t care.

“It’s okay. The palace just happens to have a really great means of transportation.”

“Yes?”

“The werewolf is going to run an errand for a bit, so you guys go ahead. Oh, and while you’re at it, Shekhinah, please give the stupid prince something.”

The elves looked puzzled at the mention of transportation.

Arendt met their eyes and added indifferently.

“I’m sure he’s recovered a lot, so we should definitely collect the accommodation expenses.”

“…”

Among the elves who still didn’t understand the situation, Laius and Cantares rubbed their temples almost simultaneously.