There was no reason to beat around the bush, nor did he intend to, so he went straight to the point.
Sinar blinked her characteristic green eyes. The wind blew, tousling her blonde hair, lifting and shaking it in the breeze.
Her hair, like fine strands of gold thread, floated in the air before softly settling down again.
People often said she had an otherworldly beauty, but now, looking at her, it was hard to believe such a beautiful face could exist in this world.
Even among Fairies, such beauty must be rare.
No matter how comfortable the journey, it wasn’t easy to keep clean, yet her skin was flawless.
Encrid’s skin was naturally clear as well, but in her case, it almost seemed to glow.
It even reflected sunlight.
If Krang drew people’s attention with speeches and Encrid did so with his swordplay, Sinar, if she wished, could easily captivate people with her beauty alone.
She looked at Encrid with eyes that seemed to be thinking for a moment before speaking.
Despite this, the three of them, including Audin, continued walking without stopping.
The sound of their footsteps, soft and steady, was accompanied by Sinar’s voice, which felt like an instrument playing music.
"My name is Sinar Kirhais. I am a Fairy Knight, born and raised in a family of Fairies. Yes, I wish to be part of your Order of Knights."
Sinar didn’t speak of how her life was limited, nor did she mention that she might eventually have to leave the Order due to her obligations.
She had learned something from watching Encrid—how not to give up and to pursue dreams.
And what was it that she had learned?
This man never assumes the future. Instead, he lives in the present, in the moment, fully embracing today.
That was what Sinar had learned, and so she chose to live that way.
She decided to enjoy today, the moment, and the present.
Right now, she didn’t want to leave Encrid’s side.
"I have no need to be the Deputy-Commander. My current position is enough for me."
There was no time for him to suggest she leave if she wanted. Sinar had already expressed all her desires.
There was no reason to refuse her entry into the Order, and Encrid felt the same.
The playful Fairy, Sinar, had once tried to save herself even as her body turned to dust.
When she was on the brink of death, unleashing her aura, Encrid would never forget the sight of her that day.
Recalling that moment, Encrid nodded, making a decision.
If there was something she desired, and if he could help her achieve it, he would repay her for all the help Sinar had given him from that moment until now.
With that resolve, something Sinar had said earlier tickled his ear.
She had mentioned being satisfied with her current position.
"But what exactly is your current position?"
Had he given her anything other than Deputy-Commander?
"The Captain's fiance, the mother of the children you will have, doesn't that suffice?"
Without a hint of a smile, the Fairy delivered her joke.
Beside them, Audin let out a small chuckle.
Encrid wanted to scold him as the Captain, demanding who dared to laugh, but he held back.
After all, he had chuckled himself.
"It’s good to see you smile."
A small smile appeared on the usually expressionless Fairy’s face. Just by raising the corners of her mouth, she could have killed a portion of the men on the continent.
Of course, they all would have died from lovesickness, a once-in-a-lifetime epidemic.
After Sinar, Encrid turned his question to Audin as well.
When asked what he wanted, Audin prayed briefly to the Father and then looked off into the distance before speaking.
"I wish to spread the teachings of the Holy War. I want to protect the unfortunate. I wish to bring happiness amidst misery. I want to take care of orphans. I want to meet those whom I must send to the Father’s side, following his teachings. And what about all of this? Wouldn’t all of it be possible if I stayed by your side, Brother Captain? That’s why I’m here. It’s the will of God. More than anything, I believe that I’m doing what I’m supposed to do right now."
The way Audin spoke made it seem like he was the best talker in the group, perhaps more so than anyone in the unit, aside from Krais and himself.
Come to think of it, Krais had also been accepted into the Order of Knights.
The official reason was that it would be easier to guard and protect him as part of the Order.
Besides, if he wasn’t part of the Order, his position would have become rather ambiguous.
"Pleasure! Salons! Cities! Ladies! Gold coins!"
Krais expressed his reason for staying in the Order in just five words. His dream was as clear and straightforward as it could get.
The Order typically only accepted those who proved themselves through combat, but then again, there was the odd-eyed horse.
It wasn’t even human, and yet it had been accepted.
Not to mention, they had also accepted a wizard.
So perhaps it was okay to bend common notions a bit.
"Alright, got it."
Encrid simply nodded.
Even though the inclusion of Krais made for an unusual Order, it didn’t really matter, as it wasn’t an organization created to impress anyone.
‘The Mad Knights.’
The name, at least, was spot-on.
Thinking this, Encrid continued walking.
The three of them diligently trekked across open fields and up mountain paths.
After their discussion of dreams, Audin talked quite a lot.
"When someone weary of life, someone consumed by misfortune, seeks the Lord, he will be their strength. Just like how you’ve pledged to guard others."
It sounded similar to Encrid’s vow to protect those behind him.
"Why are you following me?"
Then Encrid asked Audin.
Audin responded with an awkward smile.
Even if Audin had desires, there was no particular reason for him to come along.
Was he trying to escape the prison of delusion, like when he followed him to the Capital before?
For someone in such a position, he seemed unusually eager to join this time.
Even now, as Encrid asked, Audin’s face suggested he didn’t want to explain. That expression meant there was a clear reason for coming along.
But Encrid didn’t press further. If someone didn’t want to reveal their intentions, why push them?
After walking north for about two days, things started to get a little dull.
They had been reviewing, training, and sparring, but hadn’t encountered any monsters or beasts.
Even though this area wasn’t officially secured yet, it was strangely quiet, with nothing of interest in sight.
As for bandits, the entire kingdom had issued a kill-on-sight order, and given the fact that there was nowhere left to go and no food to eat, those who might have become bandits had likely migrated to the Border Guard, where at least they wouldn’t starve.
The rumor that ‘you won’t die of hunger in the Border Guard’ had spread throughout Naurillia.
It was the handiwork of Krais and the Gilpin Guild, which had evolved into a proper information network.
After all, word tends to spread easily when passed around.
That didn’t mean all criminal groups had disappeared, though.
There were still brotherhoods in various cities, doing all sorts of shady things together.
Some of them pulled off schemes similar to bandits, masking their actions with some high-minded cause. Others ran information guilds on the side.
No matter how pleasant life might be, there would always be those who engaged in shady dealings.
As long as people lived, crime could never be fully eradicated.
Encrid’s only concern was that they should never cross a certain line.
Crossing the line meant doing things like kidnapping people for research, dissecting them, experimenting with drugs, or tying children up in the forest as offerings to some deity.
It was fine to worship idols, but why resort to such madness?
There were many people who did unspeakable things, and if Encrid came across them, he would cut them all down.
In comparison, those who simply collected protection money were preferable. The crazy or fanatically driven types were the ones who truly deserved death.
In any case, perhaps out of boredom due to the lack of monsters, Audin began to reveal more of his thoughts.
"Do you know what a Saint is?"
"A symbol of holiness designated by the church."
"You’re quite cynical, Brother."
"Am I wrong?"
Sinar chimed in. She, too, knew of the rotten, decayed parts of the current church.
"A Saint is someone truly blessed with special divinity. Saints and Saintsess alike. If it’s a girl, she’s called a Saintess, and if it’s a boy, a Saint."
There were indeed a few Saints and Saintesses within the current church.
"I once knew a boy who was called a Saint."
It sounded like an interesting story.
Given that they still had several days’ journey ahead and no monsters in sight, it was a good time to hear it.
Audin quietly began to recount his tale from the past.
* * *
"My name is Phildin. What’s yours?"
It was autumn back then, too.
A boy sat beneath a tree, its leaves turned brown, shedding a thick, soft carpet.
Even from a distance, it was clear the boy was exhausted.
Audin had returned to the monastery after a long time.
It was a remote part of the monastery, a place where Audin had once prayed and pondered alone when he was younger.
And there, the boy was.
His dark brown hair almost looked black, and his eyes were a dull brown.
Yes, those eyes were remarkably dull.
They gave him a weary look, making him seem like an old man worn down by life.
So, the boy’s blunt manner of speaking didn’t seem strange at all.
Audin answered without hesitation.
"My name is Audin Plumray."
"Oh, are you from the monastery?"
"I used to stay here at the monastery."
"A martial monk?"
He was referring to those often called monks.
The monastery Audin had once belonged to trained martial monks, so the question was only natural.
Looking at Audin’s physique, it was a question that would naturally arise.
"Yes, I was."
"And not anymore?"
"I now serve as an inquisitor."
It was a short break, and Audin had come to ease his troubled mind.
"Inquisitor, huh? You catch heretics?"
"Yes, that’s right."
"And what about you, Brother Phildin? What do you do?"
"Me? I make medicine."
He wasn’t an alchemist. Anyone could tell that just by looking at him. He didn’t have the demeanor for it.
"I spend all day underground, making medicine. Feels like I’m dying that way."
Phildin, that boy, was a Saint of the Temple of Abundance.
Abundance represented the Mother of Earth.
When the God of the scales, who governed the sun and moon, split into two, the Light and Radiance, and the Darkness of the Underworld—the God of Abundance took the underworld into its embrace.
That was the teaching of the Holy War.
And the God of Abundance had always been the one responsible for caring for orphans, gathering the fallen fruits of the earth.
Additionally, the Temple of Abundance produced eight out of ten of the holy potions distributed throughout the continent.
The priests of the God of War couldn’t care less about making potions, claiming that their saliva alone could heal wounds, but the priests of Abundance were different.
They made and distributed countless potions.
As a side note, the Apostles of the God of War never actually taught people to heal wounds with spit.
Their doctrine emphasized rigorous training to make the body heal itself.
That’s how the regeneration technique was born.
"You don’t seem very happy."
"Would you be? It’s not fun."
As Phildin spoke, he raised his hand, summoning a glow of divine light. It was a truly remarkable sight.
To manifest Divine Power so easily and visibly with such a simple gesture.
"Hmm."
Audin was amazed and let out a soft sound of surprise.
At that moment, from somewhere nearby, voices called out for "Phildin, Phildin", as if searching for the boy.
"You should probably go back now."
Audin said.
"I don’t want to be a Saint."
The boy replied.
There was a discordant atmosphere, like the sound of a broken instrument playing between their words, but at the time, Audin didn’t think much of it.
He himself had once hated life at the monastery.
It had felt suffocating and stifling. He had been around twelve or thirteen years old at the time. For no reason at all, he had wanted to run away.
It wasn’t that he hated the teachings, the Holy War, or monastery life—he didn’t dislike any of it, but he just felt that way.
Was Phildin going through something similar?
And even if he wasn’t, what could Audin do about it? Nothing.
As an inquisitor and mere follower of the faith, there was nothing he could say or do.
At that time, Audin hadn’t yet learned to fully wield his Divine Power.
The boy, Phildin, wore finely crafted white clothes, his hair neatly kept, and though he looked weary, he was well-fed and cared for.
He might have looked a bit frail, and lifting a few stones to train might have helped, but that wasn’t something Audin could involve himself in.
"Wouldn’t it be better to just die?"
It was the boy’s youthful defiance. Audin thought that, or at least decided to think that.
He couldn’t imagine opposing the church at that time.
Soon, those searching for Phildin arrived, gently scolding the Saint for wandering off, warning him not to leave without permission.
Audin watched from a distance before turning away.
Their meeting was brief, but it might have been the beginning of Audin’s growing distrust toward the church.
Later, Audin heard news of the boy named Phildin.
"Saint Phildin is dead. They say he died while treating a plague."
A plague? Where?
He hadn’t heard anything about an outbreak.
Some small, rural town had reportedly been struck by a disease, and Saint Phildin had sacrificed himself to save the people.
Audin had been on his way back from apprehending a suspected heretic at the time.
In his efforts to discern right from wrong, he sought out the town that Phildin had supposedly saved.
No one in the town knew the name Phildin.
"A plague? Oh, some people got sick, but they recovered quickly."
That was all. There was no story of Phildin there.
Should he have investigated further?
He should have.
Does he regret it?
He does.
But at the time, a deep sense of dread had paralyzed him, preventing him from acting.
One thought kept plaguing him like a storm brewing in the darkness.
"Why did you pretend not to know? You knew. You knew I would die. That I would waste away, my Divine Power drained until I withered. You knew."
It was a nightmare he had relived hundreds of times.
In his dreams, Phildin would cry tears of blood, cursing Audin.
Now, in the present, Audin stared at the hallucination of Phildin that only he could see and spoke.
"I don’t know if that boy’s death was an accident or if there was something more to it, but the doubt that has grown into a monster inside me makes the appearance of a Saintess now seem far from coincidental."
Speaking through Audin’s words, Encrid replied.
"You’re saying it feels like a revelation from the Father?"
Audin, with a faint smile, responded. In his eyes, Phildin’s ghostly figure still lingered.
"Yes, that’s right."
Audin wanted to stay by Encrid’s side, but he had no intention of removing the chains that bound him.
"When you abandoned me? You think removing the chains will make things right?"
Phildin’s ghost scolded him.
Even if it wasn’t true, Audin wouldn’t remove the chains.
Even if this journey required his life, even if it would help only a little, he was willing.
While Encrid walked with a light heart, Audin was nothing but serious.
Right now, Audin was facing his own guilt, faults, and past mistakes.
No matter what the outcome, Audin would act according to his beliefs.
"Alright, let’s go."
Encrid could sense Audin’s determination.
So, what could he do to help?
Nothing. But if, by chance, there were those standing in their way—people like that, then it didn’t matter where they were from or who they were, Encrid would draw his sword.
There was no need to summon any strength of Will or mentally prepare for battle. It didn’t require resolve.
This was how Encrid had lived his life, and it was the way he would continue to live.
He was always this kind of person, and Audin knew that, which is why he had chosen to follow him.
If there were any problems, Encrid would protect the boy.
And in the midst of it all, perhaps there would be a reason for him to take action.
When he first came to the Border Guard, he never imagined he would venture out again.
And yet, he had already set out from the Capital twice.
Once to fight, and once to break free from the prison of delusion.
Audin walked, taking in the scent of autumn that surrounded him.
If this was to be his final excursion, he wanted to enjoy it as much as possible.
Thanks for the Chapter Bro!!! :DD
Thanks for the Chapter.
Is it updated regularly? Also what is release schedule
Creo que he leído el manhwa, talvez lo esté confundiendo.. 🤔