Chapter 40 – Ep.40 Smith, a Black Company in Another World
Moonlight flowing gently through the thick trees.
The silver knights who climb the mountains relying on the moonlight and the Holy Knights wearing even whiter heavy armor.
Vice leader Bellanis approached Ardella, who was walking in the center of the two groups.
“Captain. “I joined the paladins who went before me.”
“Then that means we’re almost there. Good night. “I will take my final rest here.”
“Yes.”
Belanis gave Ardella’s orders to another nearby knight, and soon a group of people walking in the mountains stopped in place.
Except for a few knights and paladins who would be on guard, everyone sat down on the floor and began to catch their breath and rest.
Ardella watched the scene and placed the necklace she had removed onto his palm.
The blue jewel hanging on the necklace was elaborately carved into an octagon, one side of which was shining and shining.
A necklace given by Amela, who is an adventurer but is also branded a criminal and cannot leave the city.
The shiny side of this gem is in the direction where Smith is.
“You did a great job making something like this.”
Location tracking magic.
Ardella shook her head, fiddling with her necklace, which she had no idea what powered it.
Because slaves were not that common, most people would know that location tracking magic is a real magic, but unfortunately, such magic or magic tools do not exist.
It is simply a lie used by slave dealers and undercover dealers to scare slaves and reassure customers who would purchase slaves.
The only way for a slave to confirm this is to run away, but even if a slave with a slave imprint stamped on a clearly visible part of his body runs away, he cannot cross the city gates, and the slave himself knows this, so no slave actually attempts to run away.
Customers who purchase slaves are similar.
Those who sell slaves warn their customers that slaves may kill their owners and run away, and promise to manage the magic tools themselves and use magic tools to capture runaway slaves without additional fees as long as they bring the slave certificate. And deceive customers.
As this lie persisted for so long, it naturally became imprinted in people’s minds that tracking magic was real.
Of course, just as Ardella herself knows this, those with a certain level of status or wealth know that this is all a lie.
This is because lies are all based on a person’s status.
“But now it’s no longer a lie.”
Ardella was truly dumbfounded.
Who on earth created this kind of magic and magic tool that will remain in history?
If this fact spreads, the Magic Tower will be overturned immediately.
Of course, Ardella has no intention of telling this fact.
Her knights here were also loud-mouthed, and there was no need to worry about the paladins who had no interest in this matter.
However, when Ardella returns it, she plans to ask Amela who made it.
“Captain.”
“… “Why do you do that?”
Ardella was awakened from her thoughts by the voice of her vice-captain calling her.
“Because you have a stiff expression on your face.”
“… I’ve been curious about this for a long time, Bellanis. “You are so good at understanding my feelings.”
“Because it shows on her face.”
“Haha, you’re the only one who says that.”
Ardella, taking off her helm, smiled faintly.
Bellanis thought that that smile, combined with the soft moonlight, was truly attractive even on the same woman.
“So. “Are you worried about something?”
“Not really. “I just thought there was still so much I didn’t know.”
“I didn’t know the leader would be so worried.”
“Me too.”
Ardella lifted her head slightly and looked up at the moonless trees. There was a woman sitting there wearing a white robe with six pairs of wings symbolizing the god of abundance.
Ardella recalled her memories of the day Smith was kidnapped.
Amela is very excited because Smith has been kidnapped.
Ardella naturally thought that she would go on a rampage, but contrary to her expectations, despite her outward anger, Amela’s behavior was very cool and calm.
She could not hold back her anger and damaged the property, drawing the attention of the adventurers on the second floor, but Amela’s fierce spirit was definitely effective in keeping the mouths of the adventurers quiet.
While Amela left for a moment to retrieve her necklace with a tracking spell, Cernax and Bellanis returned to the guild.
‘By the way, Kernax. His reaction was also unexpected.’
I wasn’t sure about Smith, but Kernax’s eyes as he looked at Smith showed deep affection.
However, Kernax was not greatly disturbed when she heard that Smith had been kidnapped.
Ardella knew how to get her word out that she would join the chase even though she knew she wouldn’t. But Cernax did not forget her duty until the moment her pursuing party left the city.
‘Still, the most surprising thing is…’
Because the situation was urgent, priests with low physical strength could not participate, but each temple supported all the paladins they had, except for the minimum number of people to guard the temple.
The fact that the Holy Knights were also willing to join this pursuit team must have played a big role.
Regardless of which temple they belong to, cultists are an evil that must be eliminated by all priests.
As such, even the temple of the hunting god, the weakest in Molingta, supported two paladins. However, only one person was dispatched from the Temple of the God of Prosperity, the most powerful on all continents, including Molingta.
And that’s someone who isn’t a paladin.
Ever since Ardella heard from her mother that a person favored by Lafitera, the fertility god, had come to Molingta and that she should befriend her on her behalf, she has been steadily stopping by Molingta to meet Agatha and her. We made friends.
That’s why Ardella was somewhat offended by Agatha’s choice.
Even though Ardella was used to hiding her emotions, she couldn’t help it at that moment and revealed her unpleasant feelings, and Agatha smiled quietly and went into the temple without saying another word.
‘Now I think I know why Amela is so wary of Agatha.’
Ardella thought that since she couldn’t understand people’s inner thoughts, she had no choice but to naturally become wary.
“I thought you would come forward yourself because you were ashamed of what was done to you by the cult. “I really don’t know.”
Bellanis glanced at where Ardella’s gaze was directed and fell silent.
“I wish I could have rested by now. “Bellanis.”
“Yes.”
Bellanis whispered softly to a nearby knight and headed toward where the paladins were. And soon after, everyone who was resting got up and started walking into the mountain again.
“Stop.”
The Holy Knights at the forefront were stopped by a woman wearing a white robe who suddenly appeared.
Her paladins had no idea when or how she, wearing her robe, blocked their path.
“What’s going on?”
“He showed up and stopped me.”
Her lead suddenly stopped and Bellanis, who ran to investigate the situation, saw the woman her leader, Ardella, had been watching closely standing with her back turned to her in the direction pointed by her paladin, and approached her.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s full of the disgusting fishy smell of pet mummies. “There must be a hole in front of here where those bitches are hiding.”
“Then we have to move even further forward.”
“No. You wait here until I give the signal. The opportunity he created by suppressing his anger… “I’ll have to cut off at least one of Sado’s heads.”
“What is that—”
Bellanis, who was trying to protest to her woman who was making unintelligible noises, cut her off mid-sentence and blinked her eyes blankly.
“Sarah… Lost?”
There were not even small footprints left where her woman had been standing just a moment ago.
***
“Ah, why did that guy change his plans midway? Hey!! “It’s crooked there!!”
The woman who was pointed out by the shouts of the woman wearing the robe with the inscription of the Petrum religion bowed her head several times, then erased the pattern she had drawn and started drawing it again.
“Anyway, you’ll do well when you do it once. It means that we have to bother each other twice. Tsk tsk.”
Chara-Thatta, the 13th apostle of the Petrum Church, placed his feet on the desk in front of him and yawned repeatedly with a rather bored expression on his face.
“What do you do if your rank is higher than mine? They are all bitches who don’t even know the electronics of combat. But do you really think I have to stand guard like this?”
Chara-Thatta soothed his boredom by criticizing the other apostles who were dispatched with him on this mission.
Naturally, he should have been busy preparing to welcome the next head of the Filoria family, who had been lured by now, but the Fifth Apostle suddenly changed his plans midway.
The plan they had prepared for three years was changed and they kidnapped a male child from the city.
This was done by mobilizing the grace of all the apostles dispatched to this work.
There are as many as four apostles mobilized for this incident, including Chara-Tatta himself.
Kalm Bloom, who received the grace of 4th Apostle Mimicry.
The fifth apostle, Sesti, received the grace of seeing the past.
The 9th Apostle, Kiamisa, received the grace to leap through space.
Chara-Tatta, who received the grace of being loved by the 13th Apostle’s flame.
All of the apostles except Chara-Tatta himself used grace to kidnap the man, and after using it, except for the four apostles, Kalm Bloom, who had the least recoil, the other two are resting in their rooms.
Thanks to this, Chara-Thatta, who should have been the most flashy and active, ended up boringly standing guard on the second basement floor.
“No~ I hid the entrance with illusion magic, but who is coming? In addition, I used grace to bring him back, but I have to track him down if there is any trace left. Ah~ I’m so annoyed~”
It was when Chara-Tatta kept making noises out of boredom and tapping her legs on the desk.
Pagak –!!
“Ok?”
Chara-Thatta’s eyes widened when he saw that one of the magic stones placed behind him was completely cracked.
“… “Why is that broken?”
The magic stone that supplied the magic power to maintain the illusion magic covering the entrance had just completely lost its function.
In this case, there are two reasons: one is when all the magic power contained in the magic stone has been consumed, and the other is…
“Invasion… Ruler?”
Someone forcibly removed the spell… No, that’s if you break it.
Chara-Thatta hurriedly infused magical energy into the crystal ball that was on the desk.
As her magical power was injected, her crystal orb turned transparent and projected an entrance where the illusionary magic was soon destroyed.
“… What? Wow, you’ve already been hit?!”
The crystal sphere projected the believers who were supposed to be guarding the entrance and passageway, already lying on the floor.
Simply considering their level as adventurers, they were all believers with skills equivalent to silver level.
I can’t believe that such believers suffered in less than a minute.
Chara-thatta was confused in her head.
It’s true that I was bored, but I really wanted to avoid an incident like now happening in a situation where I was unprepared.
Chara-Thatta quickly infused her magic into another crystal ball.
“W-here too?”
The central passage has already been opened.
Chara-thatta skipped over several crystal spheres and immediately infused her magical energy into the crystal sphere connected to the final area where the stairs leading to the basement were located.
“It’s still okay here…”
Before Chara-That Ta could finish her sentence, something white appeared in her crystal sphere, and at the same time, the believers guarding the place collapsed to the floor.
The pure white doll that had been vaguely projected onto the crystal ball turned her body and turned her head towards the place where the crystal ball was connected to the crystal ball held by Chara-Thatta.
The person wearing her pure white robe looked up at her crystal ball and took off her white robe.
“Hey—?!”
Chara-Thatta, seeing the woman’s face reflected in the crystal ball, was frightened and fell backwards.
“Apostle… Sir? Are you okay… Wow?!”
Her devotee, who was approaching to help her up her fallen Chara-Tatta, was startled by her jumping up as if in a fit, and fell down.
Chara-thatta shouted, turning her body towards the stairs leading down to her without even giving a glance to the believer who had fallen because of her.
“You guys!! “Stop everything you’re drawing right now, activate all the magic circles you can, and wait on the 4th floor!!”
Without hearing Shindo’s reply, Chara-Thatta rushed down the stairs frantically, her face turning white.
‘Fuck shit shit shit… !!’
A woman reflected in a crystal ball.
Her hair is reminiscent of the sun, and a long scar is drawn on her left cheek.
There is no need to see anything else.
‘Why is that crazy bitch here!!’
Ten years ago, the abominable things that called Chara-Thatta and its believers a cult held a bloody festival under the abominable name of Holy War.
At that time, the Petrami Church lost its only stronghold, the underground temple, and Chara-Thatta also participated in the battle.
And there she saw the woman reflected in the crystal ball.
Although 10 years have already passed, Chara-Thatta has not forgotten what happened then. No, she couldn’t forget.
How can we forget the maniac who appeared alone and slaughtered the previous apostles with a sword shining like the sun!!
‘Why is the Templar of the God of Fertility here!!’
A Templar who is known to never leave the Pope’s side without an order is coming here.
Chara-Tatta was on the verge of fainting due to the extremely unrealistic situation.
“We have to run away quickly, quickly!!”
You’re a new believer, and if you don’t run away right now, you’ll all be killed by that crazy bitch here.
Chara-Thatta almost jumped into the fifth basement floor, where the ceremony was in progress.
“Fifth Company…”
Chara-thatta froze in place with his mouth open in a daze, forgetting his fear of death.
“Hehe, hehe… Ugh♥”
Hehe~”
“Cock… Dick Joaaaaa…”
Tskbub tsk boop tsk boop—!!
“Yes! Ah! Ugh, ah, haan, ga, gaaa!! Gaaaaa again!!”
Dozens of believers are lying on the floor, exhaling excitedly.
On top of the altar, the fourth apostle, underneath a man shaking his back like an animal, was chanting like crazy.
Haha… ?”
Chara-Thatta laughed as if he had lost his mind at the incomprehensible situation, then turned his head to the heaviness he felt on his left shoulder.
“Heeeeek—?!”
There, looking down at Chara-Thatta, was a Templar with hair blazing like the sun.
