Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 175

The boy was a child who had been dragged from the village.The impression and the scent Warren had detected all pointed to him being the boy the group was looking for.

Since quite some time had passed since they had been taken away, deep down, they were assuming that the villagers might have turned into strange monsters.

But this was an unexpected turn of events.

“…Didn’t they say that he was taken away semi-forcibly?”

“Lord Arendt certainly said so.”

Roderick nodded reluctantly at Ken’s muttered words.

“Shall I guide you to Lady Jin? She should be in her lab by now.”

But who could have forcibly turned a boy in the prime of his life into such a docile lamb?

In addition, there was an abnormal ghoul next to him that anyone could see.

Llewellyn unconsciously clenched his fists behind his back.

Ppoduk.

Warren turned to him in surprise at the sound, but Llewellyn quickly regained his composure and smiled as usual.

“Oh, then thank you. By any chance… have you known Lady Jin for a long time?”

“No! I’ve only been here for a month.”

“Really? Where were you before that?”

“In the village below.”

Llewellyn’s heart grew even more heavy as the boy answered readily with a bright smile.

“Then your family is also in the village?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

The boy nodded obediently, though he asked in a puzzled tone.

It was a blessing in disguise that he still had intact memories of his family.

“…Haa. Okay, for now.”

There was no time to indulge in sentimentality.

To return them to their original state, they must first catch the evil cult.

But there was something more urgent than that.

Llewellyn, who had tried to calm his mind, smiled faintly and met the boy’s eyes.

“Don’t you want to see your family?”

“Yes? Well… I want to see them. But Jin said I can’t go back.”

“Yes. But if you want to bring your family, don’t you think Jin would be happy if you went down to the village and brought your younger sibling and parents here with you?”

“Ah…!”

The boy’s eyes sparkled as he was gently coaxed as if he were a seven-year-old.

“Isn’t it the same for other people? Don’t they want to see their families?”

“That’s right. That’s what my mother said yesterday.”

“Then I’ll go to Lady Jin for a moment and ask for permission, so would you like to wait in your room with the others?”

It was too dangerous outside to run away right now.

The moment the boy nodded without any doubt.

Kuuung!

A heavy rumble echoed throughout the building.

“What, what is it?”

“…I think something happened.”

As Roderick looked around in surprise, Warren, who had been on edge, blurted out a word.

Boom, wooooong!

After several rounds of shaking had stopped, Llewellyn spoke to the boy again.

“It won’t take long. Get ready to go home with the others.”

“Yes! Okay.”

Llewellyn’s heart became even more complicated as he saw the boy nodding his head as if nothing had happened despite the commotion just now.

Llewellyn pushed the boy into the room and gave an order that the boy couldn’t hear.

“Roderick, Ken. Protect the people here.”

“What? Then what about you?”

“We need to find a way to get the people back from that lab. If we do it right, we might be able to join Arendt. Guidance…”

Llewellyn’s gaze fell on the man who was leaning against the wall and mumbling.

“Do you know where Jin’s lab is?”

The man, who had been blankly staring, nodded his head quickly.

“Okay, then please guide me there. I’ll be back.”

“Wait a minute. Wouldn’t it be better for him to be with us? It’s dangerous.”

“No, I need a guide.”

As soon as Llewellyn’s firm words ended.

Kwaaang!

Once again a murderous roar erupted.

The two seemed to have a lot to say, but they kept their mouths shut.

Because they knew full well that the captain’s judgment in such cases was always right.

“…Follow me.”

As the hesitant man spoke, Llewellyn nodded once and disappeared down the hallway, leading Warren along.

Roderick and Ken, who had been staring blankly at the place they had left with complicated faces, also began to move.

Before thinking about anything else, protecting civilians was the top priority.

The loud noise that had been going on for a while was becoming more frequent.

In fact, there was no need for guidance.

Warren and Llewellyn simply ran after the sound.

The man who had been riding on Roderick’s back until just now was now tucked into Warren’s side.

“Excuse me, I can just go down to the basement from over there.”

“All right.”

The two headed straight for the stairs.

But just as he was about to turn, Warren sensed something and quickly grabbed Llewellyn by the back of the neck.

Kwaaang!

At the same time, something flew from the other side of the stairs and crashed hard into the wall with a loud noise.

Llewellyn, who was dumbfounded by the sudden situation, realized a beat later that the person who had collapsed was Richt.

“Lord Richt!”

“…I’m glad you are safe.”

Richt, who had barely managed to pull himself together, got up and grabbed his sword.

“Get out of here. It’s dangerous here.”

“What do you mean ‘get out of here’? I’m about to die from lack of help!”

But from inside, Arendt’s voice burst out, filled with irritation.

Unable to suppress his surging anger, Richt gripped his sword tightly and shouted back.

“Instead of talking like that, get moving!”

“Senior, come back quickly!”

But what came back was Arthur’s nervous screams.

Richt clicked his tongue and ran back.

Warren and Llewellyn, who suddenly came to their senses, also put the man down and followed Richt, and soon encountered a shocking sight.

“…”

“What is this…”

A huge monster of unknown origin was blocking the narrow corridor without leaving any gaps.

Dozens of eyes on the pitch-black skin were rolling, and thick, tree-root-like legs extended from the torso beneath them, confronting the knights.

“Keeeeeek!”

The mouth, which had reached close to the ceiling, let out a tearing scream as dead blood poured out.

“Shit!”

Arendt activated the artifact while spewing curses and cut off a large part of the bastard’s trunk.

In an instant, a part that had frozen white fell to the ground, but a stem that suddenly sprouted from another place quickly rushed towards him.

Kaaaaang!

Arthur deflected the attack, and Richt, who had re-entered the battlefield, cut off the legs of the disoriented monster.

Warren, who was watching the scene, let out a tired voice.

“You still have the presence of mind to argue in the midst of all this?”

The battle had been going on for quite some time already, and the monster was starting to lose its strength.

The floor was strewn with fragments of the ghoul, with frost marks all over the place, and the floor and walls were a mess with cuts and dents.

The spot that Richt had just cut down began to squirm as if it was trying to regenerate, but was frozen by Arendt’s subsequent blow.

Arendt landed on the floor with a light movement and jumped forward again, drawing on his magical power.

“Warren, follow me!”

“Tsk.”

Warren, too, puffed up at the shout and couldn’t help but join in.

The moment when the monster let out a long howl and attacked the werewolf and apprentice knight who were charging forward, the knights who had intervened in the middle blocked its path.

Kwaaang!

The stem of the thing that Richt had struck dug into the wall, causing a thick cloud of dust to rise.

Since it would just regenerate anyway if they tried to cut it, they chose to just block it.

“You go first.”

“What?”

Warren pushed ahead of Arendt, even as he asked curiously.

Now the monster’s body was within reach.

Warren, who was putting strength into his claws to cut down the bastard, was suddenly knocked to the ground by a strong stamp on his shoulder.

“Ugh!”

Boom!

Arendt used Warren as a springboard to leap forward, twisting his body in the air, uncaring of whether Warren fell badly or not.

Pure white frost traced a path along the sword and soon landed right between the eyebrows of the guy who was full of eyes.

Countless pupils were filled with astonishment.

“Keeeeeek! Keeeeeek!”

Its jaw, covered with countless sharp teeth, opened wide as if to swallow Arendt, and it let out a final scream.

“Keeeeeek! Keeeeeek… … !”

But that was the end of it.

From the point where Arendt’s sword touched, the giant was slowly swallowed by ice.

Arthur landed the final blow as Arendt landed lightly.

Thunk.

Its frozen skin cracked and soon shattered into chunks of ice that crashed down onto the floor.

Warren, who had fallen to the floor and been hit several times by the ice chunks, suddenly got up.

“Do you really want to die?”

“As expected of the werewolf, it was the perfect stepping stone.”

“At least tell me in advance…!”

“Why?”

“…!”

Just before Warren went crazy, Llewellyn intervened at just the right moment.

“The lab of a guy named Jin is across that hallway.”

“Jin?”

Arendt furrowed his eyebrows at the name he heard for the first time.

While the knights were catching their breath, Llewellyn told them the whole story.

Meanwhile, Arendt’s gaze was constantly on the man standing quietly behind Warren.

He simply nodded as Llewellyn finished explaining.

“…Let’s move for now.”

Although they were already tired from the repeated battles, Richt and Arthur also started to move without saying a word, stepping on the remains of the monster.

But they soon had to stop.

“It’s so damn persistent.”

The severed pieces of the monster began to move and then slowly regenerate.

Even the flesh that had become a block of ice was forcibly breaking through the ice that covered its surface and moving.

There wasn’t enough magic power to completely kill the bastard.

The fragments came together and soon became another monster, baring its teeth at the group.

“Kurururuk…”

“At this point, I guess I can’t even call it a ghoul.”

Arendt blurted out as he watched Richt cluck his tongue and grab his sword.

“I’ll go first.”

“Get out of here quickly.”

A blunt retort came from Warren.

He too was already ready to begin the next battle.

The enemies closed the distance between themselves and the group.

The moment Arendt took a step forward, the beasts came rushing at him all at once, growling fiercely.

But Richt and Warren moved first, slaughtering the bastards and opening the way.

Arendt ran straight towards his goal, pushing past those who were blocking his way, with Llewellyn and Arthur following behind him.

At the end of the dark, unlit hallway, a small door was visible.

That was probably the deepest part of this complex labyrinth.

Arthur ran forward with the same momentum he had been running at and kicked the door open.

Kwaaang!

The old door collapsed without offering much resistance.

A terrible stench wafted through.

As they forced themselves to catch their breath, the rising dust slowly settled and a quiet room came into view.

All sorts of documents were piled up and tangled haphazardly on the large desk.

Parts of some creature’s body, such as finger bones and a half-rotted tail, were strewn about on the desk and floor, as well as half-broken glass bottles, magic stones that had lost their light, and even food waste.

The room, strewn with random things, was chaos itself.

On the bookshelf, the heads and entrails of all kinds of monsters were soaked in an unidentified liquid, emitting a strange blue light instead of candles, illuminating the room.

And in the middle of the sofa, which was placed like a throne in this small world, there was a girl.

“…”

Her large eyes sparkled green even in the dim light, and her long blonde hair was disheveled and fell like a waterfall down the girl’s shoulders.

The girl stared at Arendt, leaning back on the sofa in an arrogant manner.

Arendt was uncharacteristically momentarily speechless.

It wasn’t because of her beautiful face that made him forget the situation for a moment, or because of her blonde hair that sparkled even in the dark.

His gaze fell on the pointed ears protruding from the girl’s hair.

Llewellyn and Arthur also discovered the same thing and froze in place.

“…An elf?”

After a long while, Llewellyn managed to move his lips.

Then, a deep smile appeared on the girl, Jin’s lips.

“Why? Is this your first time seeing a crazy elf?”