The Holy Nation is known for not wasting money.
“Blessings be upon your efforts.”
They would say, often using words instead of payments. It was a famous story.
Whether they were believers or not, these people didn’t spend their Krona.
They saved. If possible, they handled things internally.
If one were to rank the countries that the Builders’ Guild dislikes, the Holy Nation would likely be at the top.
And they were certainly the most disliked by the Continental Trade Guild.
Leona had once said something similar.
“I respect the priests, but I don’t work with the fanatics.”
Whether corrupted or not, most priests seemed to share this sentiment.
If the Holy Nation needed mercenaries, they would deploy their own Warrior Crusaders, use trained Inquisitors as guides, and even run their own trade caravans.
“Isn’t it incredible? All of this just to avoid spending Krona?”
That was Leona’s opinion.
Encrid agreed but thought it held an additional purpose.
‘They don’t want outsiders meddling in church matters.’
Besides, they probably disliked the idea of Krona flowing to outsiders.
So just how unusual was this? How much were they offering to get people involved in church affairs?
Typically, those who hunted people—the so-called bounty hunters—wouldn’t even move without an advance payment. So, they must have already received some amount of Krona.
That was a bit surprising.
That’s why Encrid asked.
More than the Krona, he was surprised by their bold approach.
The people from the Holy Nation would have spread the word as soon as they crossed the border into Naurillia.
Using an information guild to place bounties wouldn’t be difficult for them.
They would have had to pay the commission, but if they were too stingy to do that, they wouldn’t have taken on the mission in the first place.
In other words, from the moment they left the Holy Nation, they hadn’t held back in their pursuit of this saintess.
It was much easier to understand their intentions than to worry about some imaginary kidnapper.
‘Profit.’
Hiring hunters and spending Krona would yield a bigger reward if they captured the saintess.
A noble cause? Not at all.
The feeling and circumstances all pointed to a different story.
“Who are you?”
The three trackers didn’t seem to recognize Encrid and his companions.
All three wore light leather outfits, sturdy enough to double as armor in a pinch.
“Any trace of the girl you’re hunting? I guess not?”
Encrid commented, recognizing that the first group he encountered was a bust.
That meant he had no business with them.
“Who the hell are you? You must have heard rumors and tagged along, but this isn’t for amateurs.”
The woman glared fiercely, her eyes betraying anxiety. The three newcomers did not look ordinary.
Even Audin’s towering frame seemed unsettling, along with a Fairy, and a man whose looks alone were enough to steal attention.
‘And why was he so handsome?’
Despite her surprise and shock, she couldn’t ignore his appearance.
His black hair and blue eyes seemed to cast some kind of spell.
Still, she didn’t mutter anything like ‘handsome’ with unfocused eyes.
Just from her words, Encrid could tell that the Krona offered by the Holy Nation wasn’t a small amount.
Had he ever seen such extravagant involvement by the church before?
No.
He wasn’t particularly curious about the exact amount, so the answer sufficed.
“Audin.”
As Encrid spoke, he stepped toward the man on the right.
He didn’t approach casually. To the man, it would have seemed as if Encrid suddenly grew much larger.
Without even stomping, Encrid leaned forward, channeling his formidable Will, and his powerful legs drove him forward, making his face loom over the man’s.
The man’s expression shifted from wariness and anxiety to pure shock in an instant.
Encrid’s senses were now far beyond those of an average swordsman.
The man, with a face that looked as though he was sucking in air in shock, suddenly had his neck struck by the edge of Encrid’s hand.
Encrid stopped a step to the man’s right and swung his arm.
His left arm arced gently, whipping like a lash.
Thud!
The man fell sideways with a groan, and Encrid gently laid him on the ground as he collapsed.
Right next to him, Audin dashed toward the other two and subdued them just as easily.
One took a hammer-like fist to the top of his head.
Thud!
He didn’t die, his eyes rolled back, showing only whites, and he collapsed with a groan.
The other’s neck was lightly squeezed, cutting off his airflow.
“Grk, grrk.”
The man, lifted by his neck, kicked helplessly.
Dirt and dry leaves scattered around his kicking feet.
His toes reached Audin’s chest but could do no more.
Thud.
Audin calmly let him go, laying him unconscious on the ground.
There were no signs of monsters or beasts nearby, and they wouldn’t stay unconscious for long, so they would survive.
“Let’s move on.”
Encrid resumed following the next set of tracks. From here, it wasn’t hard.
They moved based on footprints, broken branches, scents, sounds, traces of dead monsters, and terrain that people would likely cross.
To anyone else, it would look like he was sprinting around like a madman.
At one point, he even came across a familiar face.
It was someone who had once offered him seventy percent of a bounty if he fought for him.
A hunter, a scoundrel, a scum.
That would be putting it kindly.
He thought the man was long dead, but here he was, still alive.
As for the seventy percent offer? Encrid knew it was an empty promise, so back then, he had led a monster to the man and fled.
This was their first meeting since.
The man wasn’t exactly a tracking expert but was the type who usually relied on brute strength.
His muscular arms and legs, along with his mace, were his signature traits.
Blood still dripped from the mace.
Beside them lay two dead women who seemed to be part of another tracking team.
“Greedy enough to kill them first for the Krona, I see?”
Encrid assessed the situation and spoke.
The bounty hunter with the mace didn’t recognize Encrid.
The two beside him didn’t either.
Even if there were rumors about the ‘Knight of Iron Wall’, how many would recognize his face on sight?
Audin’s massive frame was unusual, but few would immediately associate him with the bear-beast in the Border Guard.
He was just assumed to be some giant half-breed.
Sinar, looking at the traces left on the ground, commented.
“He ambushed them.”
He must have lured them in with a promise of collaboration, then struck them from behind with his mace, shattering their skulls.
“What do you want?”
Just as he had back then, the man exuded confidence.
And, to be fair, he had the skills to back it up.
At least, he had back then. Not anymore.
Encrid held no personal grudge against him, the past was the past. He looked toward tomorrow, not yesterday.
However, even among bounty hunters, who betrayed each other as a matter of course, this was a step too far.
“You’re a bit excessive.”
Without bothering to introduce himself, Encrid drew his sword.
As he advanced, he swung. Each motion flowed like a seamless line.
It was the relentless sword of Oara, the Knight who protected the city of Oara.
The sword’s graceful arc traced irregular patterns in the air, leaving a long, comet-like streak behind it.
That comet turned into light, descending directly onto his opponent’s head.
The mace didn’t even have time to block. It was the natural result.
Clang.
The steel helmet on his head was cleaved cleanly. The steel-splitting slash, something Encrid had once spent much time honing, now felt second nature.
The resistance he felt in his hand was markedly less than before.
The strength behind his draw, the angle, his intent to cut—all of these aligned perfectly.
Crack!
With the helmet, his head split open, and brain matter and blood spilled onto the ground.
The sword moved too quickly to be splattered with much blood.
The bounty hunter fell next to the two female hunters he had slain.
The dark soil drank up the blood, turning black.
As Encrid dispatched the mace-wielding hunter, the other two turned to flee.
“What?”
“Ah!”
The movements of the two were quick. In truth, it was more accurate to say they were always ready to run at a moment’s notice.
That’s the iron rule of hunters: if things go wrong, bolt. It’s part of the code.
But they were incredibly unlucky.
To have a Knight suddenly appear and bring judgment upon them here?
It was about as unlikely as a God descending to mete out punishment.
Of course, the odds of dying upon encountering a Knight were higher, but both events were rare enough to be comparable.
Encrid caught the two fleeing left and right within his sphere of perception. What followed was merely an execution of the future he foresaw through his insight.
Encrid spread his arms like wings, then drew them in, drawing two daggers and throwing them in one swift motion. The daggers whizzed through the air left and right with a sharp hiss.
Thud!
The forceful daggers pierced the back of one’s neck, pinning him to a tree, while the other dagger lodged into the skull of the second, becoming an ominous decoration.
The man hit by the dagger in the head staggered a few times, then collided with a tree in front of him with a thud, before sliding down, dead, with blood pooling on the ground once more.
“May the Gods await you.”
Audin, with a short prayer, bid them farewell.
Should he mention that the God in question was the God of war?
According to doctrine, the God of war welcomes the dead by beating them into shape as a first greeting.
If they knew that, this would hardly sound like a blessing.
Audin was likely sincerely mourning their deaths, but if asked, he’d probably reply with:
“If you do something to deserve a beating, then you should be beaten.”
And he would be right.
After dealing with one group, the party continued moving.
Encrid maintained his own standards for sparing or killing.
In Sinar’s view, Encrid had a certain line he wouldn’t cross. His criteria were clear.
He didn’t kill those who were just doing their job, but he mercilessly ended those who took things too far or acted inhumanely out of greed.
It wasn’t about passing judgment.
He simply acted according to his own will.
Watching him act in this way, Sinar felt she caught a glimpse of Encrid’s Will.
He acted without hesitation, following the direction of his own heart.
The basis for his right and wrong didn’t lie in the opinions of others, but within himself.
And to Sinar, that seemed to shine brightly.
They continued to encounter hunters along the way.
Some, not yet recognizing Encrid and his group, readily provided information.
“The tracks led into the forest, and if a child went in alone, it’s a death sentence. We were just hoping to find her remains. We moved carefully, avoiding the attention of monsters and beasts. Uh…”
He paused mid-sentence, swallowing hard.
After all, he had just seen a manticore, reportedly residing somewhere in the forest, sliced into six pieces beneath the slender figure of a Fairy.
Bones and muscles severed with a single slash. Just seeing it was enough to inspire respect.
More importantly, they could have been the ones to face that manticore.
“Oh, well, then, do you know the location of the Holy Order’s squad?”
“They didn’t enter the forest. We were supposed to signal them if we encountered anything.”
He shook an arrow with a glinting powder pouch attached to the end as he spoke.
Encrid noted the arrow and moved on.
If luck was on their side, they might find the child before the Holy Nation’s pursuers did.
‘But aren’t the traces a bit too scarce?’
If she were a skilled ranger, she could conceal her footprints.
But even so, this was excessive.
Is this right?
Encrid voiced his doubt.
“Sinar. This trail…”
There was no need for a lengthy explanation. The Fairy replied.
“Yes, I think it’s strange, too.”
Yes, it was strange. But it wasn’t as if another path was visible.
It was odd, but they said she went east, and there would be no other place to hide outside this forest.
Encrid decided to adjust his approach. He would proceed more aggressively than before.
Since monsters or beasts were no threat, he moved straight through any visible traces.
They worked their way around the forest in a half-circle, encountering and capturing a total of fifteen parties of pursuers, yet none of them found a single trace of a child fleeing alone.
‘Even if it were the incarnation of a hunter, this wouldn’t make sense.’
Encrid stopped, deep in thought.
“Hah.”
One of the key aspects of tracking is following a line rather than a point.
The best approach is to anticipate and predict the target’s mindset, then chart a course for where they might go.
A point, predicting a specific location, is difficult, but finding a line and following it is relatively easier.
Encrid recalled the question he had when leaving the city.
‘Is she a born hunter?’
A quick scan of the forest and the scattered traces indicated that there were indeed some remnants.
The pursuers, after all, were experienced in their line of work.
The reason they were here was because they had seen tracks leading into the forest.
A girl had entered the forest alone.
They must have thought she was dead and were merely hoping to recover her remains.
If not, perhaps they’d find some leftover bones, remnants of her body after she had become a meal for some beast or monster.
Even that wouldn’t be easy.
Among the monsters and beasts, there were plenty who could chew through bones.
Even the manticore sliced by Sinar was known to track people by scent and enjoy gnawing bones.
Of course, the beast had reacted because of the commotion their party had made.
They had encountered ghouls, spider-like monsters, and several other creatures in the forest.
Could even the most skilled hunter survive here alone? A child?
“It seems we’ve been tricked.”
Specifically, it wasn’t the pursuers who had been tricked, but the ones they were chasing who had led them astray.
In other words, the saintess had completely deceived them.
Encrid organized his thoughts and backtracked the movements of the fleeing saintess.
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.. 🤔