Chapter 157 - At the Crossroads of Evil (4)
For a moment, I didn’t recognize him without makeup, but he looked exactly like the illustration, so I could quickly identify him.
By the way, was the cross-dressing pervert bishop Nord the boss of the underworld here?
I thought it was someone with the same name, but I was surprised to find out it wasn’t.
How would I know that the pervert gag character would be wearing ordinary men’s clothes instead of a dress?
Even in the information Yard investigated, there was no mention of him cross-dressing.
“Nord! Why aren’t you cross-dressing?!”
I’m disappointed as a reader who enjoyed it! Nord!
At my anger, Nord got angry in return.
“Why should I do something like cross-dressing?!”
“Are you suppressing your desires right now? It must be difficult to go against your desires when dealing with black magic power. That’s impressive.”
It’s an amazing level of self-control that you wouldn’t expect from a mere back-alley thug.
At my exclamation, Nord jumped up and down excitedly.
“No, it’s not! No!! Why would I hold back on cross-dressing?!”
“Right? I knew you weren’t planning on holding back! I respect your preferences!”
So please fulfill my expectations as a reader!
A gag character should have the fundamentals of being a gag character!
“Ah, of course, when I say I respect it, I don’t mean that I have the same preferences as you, so please don’t misunderstand.”
I like watching gags, but I don’t like doing them.
“I don’t have those preferences either!”
“What? But…”
No, come to think of it, seeing that he’s not cross-dressing, his brain might not be properly pickled in black magic power yet.
Then has he not yet unleashed his inherent desires?
Or there was a possibility that he was inversely dyed by the demon he contracted with having such preferences.
Demon worshippers who contracted with demons had no choice but to be unilaterally influenced because they eat the demon’s dung scraps.
Of course, if the person themselves were strong, the influence would be minimal, but it didn’t seem like a thug would show such tenacity.
“Hmm, I see. You must think it’s a preference you want to hide for now.”
It seems more fun that way.
At my words, Nord exploded in anger.
“This bastard! Kill that bastard!”
Nord pointed at me and ordered the Death Knights behind him.
-Nord, high-rank believer. You have no authority to order us.
At the words of the Death Knight with the most ominous aura among the seven ranks, the other six Death Knights nodded their heads simultaneously.
“What?! Agistream entrusted you guys to me!”
-Wrong. The 6th Apostle said to move with you, not to follow your orders. Therefore, if you want to give me orders, become an archbishop. I’ll allow you to command Death Knights below my rank if you become at least a bishop.
At the leader-like Death Knight’s point, the subordinate Death Knights snickered and mocked Nord.
Indeed, at this point in time, Nord had not yet become a bishop.
Thinking that, I gauged the strength of the Death Knights.
Death Knights were a special force that the Dawn Star Cult treated specially.
If they followed the orders of an archbishop, they were transcendent-level, and if they followed the orders of a bishop-level, they were high-ranking knights who could freely handle sword energy.
-The order given by the 6th Apostle is to safely escort the one who will become our apostle. Lord Vermilion, if you respect yourself and Lord Frost and obediently come with us, we will send your friends safely out of the city.
It seemed that Frost, despite being a black magician, had warned them not to touch me and my companions, who were friends with Vermilion.
At the Death Knight’s words, Vermilion laughed cheerfully and raised his sword.
“I will never move together with the likes of you, who seem like the kind of bastards that maggots would crawl on.”
-How unfortunate. If that is your choice, we will respect it. Everyone, draw your swords!
At the leader’s command, the Death Knights simultaneously drew their swords and exuded a brutal aura of death.
-Lord Vermilion, no one but you will survive!
A blackish sword force condensed on the swords of three Death Knights, including the leader, and a deep sword energy coated the swords of the remaining four.
At the Death Knights’ drawing of swords, Nord also hastily drew his sword.
“Precia, you can handle walking corpses on your own, right?”
Although there are transcendent-levels mixed in, it’s ambiguous whether they’re really transcendent-level.
Basically, when one becomes an undead, their physical abilities decrease compared to when they were alive.
Moreover, if they were at a level that could be commanded by an archbishop-level, they must have been knights who did not reach the transcendent level when they were alive.
When they become undead, not only does their magic power increase, but they also receive magical assistance from a necromancer, so they must have reached the transcendent level.
Death Knights who had reached the transcendent level when they were alive were so few that they could be counted on one hand even in the Dawn Star Cult, and they were respected as former apostle-level.
They were not of the status to be summoned to a place like this.
“Of course.”
Precia also drew her Seven Stars Sword.
Thanks to applying top-grade holy water every night just in case, her sword force was filled with divine power.
“Gilbert, you take care of that cross-dressing pervert. He’s weaker than Malcram but much more tenacious, so be careful.”
I had done the same treatment to Gilbert’s sword.
The holy water of the Sun Church should work well against black magic power.
Just in case, I poured a whole bottle of holy water onto Gilbert.
The quickly absorbed holy water bestowed Gilbert with the power of anti-magic resistance.
With this, he shouldn’t die.
“Yes! Understood! Come at me, cross-dressing pervert!”
At Gilbert’s shout, full of confidence from the power of holy water, Nord’s face turned red as if it would burst.
“I’m not cross-dressing!”
-Ahem, our Dawn Star Cult doesn’t deny individual desires like other heretical groups. high-rank believer Nord .
“I said I’m not!!”
-O knight who reached the transcendent level at a young age! I pay my respects to your prowess, but it will not be easy to protect that frail man while facing all of us!
The Death Knight leader lightly ignored Nord’s protest.
-Come!
The moment Precia and Gilbert charged at the enemies, I grabbed the back of Vermilion’s collar as he tried to follow and attack, and stepped back.
“You have things to do with me, so stay out of the fight.”
“No! But still!”
Vermilion protested while his gaze remained fixed on Precia and the Death Knight’s sword forces, as if fascinated by the fight.
“I’ll go ahead so as not to be a hindrance, so finish up quickly and follow me!”
I placed Vermilion on the wooden board with semi-gravity magic and quickly pushed him with Navi’s power.
Precia glanced at me and smiled.
“Understood! The young master’s safety is top priority! Be careful!”
This city was already within the site of the black magic ritual.
She let me go without hesitation in a place where we didn’t know what might happen.
She must have tried not to let me go first even if it meant overexerting herself in order to protect me for certain.
Along with her overlooking my role as bait in the ruffian hunt without saying a word, I felt a slight change in her.
As she taught me, it seemed like my image was gradually breaking away from the fragile prince she had to cherish and protect.
It’s a good thing, but wait? Does that mean I have to keep receiving that hellish training?
-Where are you trying to go?! Catch him!
When the leader Death Knight, while exchanging sword strikes with Precia, gave the order, a transcendent-level Death Knight tried to chase after me.
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
Slice!
Without even looking back, Precia swung her sword force and cut down the Death Knight running past her to escape.
Normally, as long as the black magic core of the undead was intact, the restoration magic engraved by the necromancer should have been triggered to restore it to its original state.
However, the condition of the Death Knight whose upper body was rolling in the air was strange.
-Aaaargh. Ah. Aaah. Aaaaargh!
The Death Knight, whose waist was cut in half by the sword force of the consecrated Seven Stars Sword, screamed as if forcibly playing a stretched tape and was purified and vanished starting from the severed area.
“Wow~! The top-grade isn’t called top-grade for nothing.”
Holy water that couldn’t be obtained just by having money was vastly different in what it could do.
Indeed, people should use and experience good things.
Even Precia seemed to not have expected this, as she blankly stared at the process of it helplessly vanishing in surprise.
The Death Knights were also taken aback in the same way when a transcendent-level was helplessly defeated, or they trembled as if feeling the creeps despite already being dead.
-Everyone be careful! Even a graze is a fatal blow!
Precia began swinging her sword more boldly, and the Death Knights formed a combined formation and faced her carefully.
They had no choice but to let me go even though I was openly running away with Vermilion, that’s how filled with tension it was.
If they showed even a slight opening in an attempt to catch me, they had to be prepared to meaninglessly vanish.
Watching Precia’s consecrated sword force overwhelm the Death Knight’s black magic swords, Vermilion muttered a question.
“Isn’t that a bit unfair?”
“Oho! Unfair, you say? Let’s call it being excellently prepared! When you’re getting beat up, you need such item power to make it fair.”
If it weren’t for the holy water, we wouldn’t have been able to escape so easily, and Precia would have had to endure injuries to protect me.
Vermilion’s eyes never left Precia and the Death Knight’s sword forces even as we grew distant.
“Now then, shall we go and smash the ritual?”
If I get the chance later, I should try to find a saint or a holy maiden.
If that’s not feasible, I’ll have to catch a decent priest and plaster them with clergy items.
“Hmm, this is troublesome.”
Abassael sighed outside the city.
“Uncle El, I told you to end it moderately!”
Silua pouted and grumbled.
While they had gone beyond the city outskirts and completely outside, a barrier had appeared, enveloping the entire city.
“Phew~ I’m sorry.”
As she pointed out, the current situation was Abassael’s fault.
He had finished setting up the insurance as per Yuan’s instructions and was installing additional magic circles because he felt slightly unsatisfied, but he didn’t expect things to blow up.
The barrier made of black magic was the type that blocked entry and exit unless it was a predetermined number of people.
They seemed to have prepared thoroughly, and it looked like it would take a long time to break the barrier if one didn’t know the technique that served as the key for entry and exit.
“But at least we found out the identity of the sense of incongruity felt on the city outskirts.”
Abassael felt like his frustration had been relieved, as he finally understood the reason behind the sense of incongruity he had been feeling on the city outskirts.
He finally realized that the sense of incongruity was because they had hidden a barrier that isolated the city from the outside.
“That’s true! Now that the barrier has been activated, I think I know how they hid it. The magic pipeline here…”
“Haha, our Silua has keen senses. And there…”
With no one to call out the two magicians, the conversation shifted from dealing with the situation to a discussion overflowing with academic enthusiasm.
At that moment, sparks suddenly flew from Abassael’s shoulder, and a small white snake appeared.
“Huh? You’re the master’s spirit? Ah! I see! Spirits can pass through barriers! If it’s a spirit that’s a natural being, the dense magic will be block…!”
Biam slapped Abassael’s cheek with its tail, cutting off his academic fervor.
Then it burned a nearby tree with fire and manifested Yuan’s letter.
“As expected of the master. A barrier that blocks physical interference…!”
-Shaaaaa!
After slapping Abassael’s cheek once more with its tail, Viam pointed with its tail as if telling him to read the letter and disappeared in a blaze.
Abassael muttered while rubbing his cheek, which had turned red with a tail mark.
“…It seems like Biam is on edge because it’s been raining a lot lately.”
The recent environment wasn’t favorable for fire spirits.
After confirming the blackened mark, Abassael couldn’t hold back his laughter.
“Ahahaha! As expected of the master, cunning… and also cruel.”
TN: Poor Biam.