Chapter 214: Demarcation/Drawing a line
Chasing after the others who went ahead, I met them as they were descending using the lift.
“Wait for me, I’m coming too.”
“Oo! We forgot about Luciel-sama.”
“Luciel, you’re late.”
“Luciel-san, please hurry up.”
Dolan, Paula and Rician spoke respectively and while feeling that the three of them were slightly horrible, I quickly rode the lift.
When the lift descended, the Knight Corps were all gathered but they looked a little strange.
To me, it was an ordinary reaction to be dumbfounded after seeing the flying ship.
However, it was weird how they were poised with their weapons and their combat posture didn’t crumble, as if they had been having a mock battle.
“Shisho, Lionel, what’s the situation … eh? Where’s Garba-san?”
When I looked around as I asked that, I noticed that Garba-san had already reached Catherine-san who was surrounded near the center.
It looked like Catherine-san and the Valkyrie Paladin Corps were surrounded by the other Knight Corps.
“Garba-san jumped into that group without hesitation when he saw that Knight Caption who he had allowed to work as his spy.”
“I’m glad he didn’t get hurt.”
“The Knight Corp’s training is sub-par, they were puzzled by the unexpected event and couldn’t take action.”
“Well then, let’s go then. Lionel, could you store the flying ship?”
“Yes.”
Lionel immediately stored the flying ship in his magic bag upon my instructions.
After confirming that, I began walking towards the Knight Corps.
Seeing my figure, they all stood stock-still in unison, perhaps it was because they knew that I had reached the Sage job, or it was because I was accompanied by Lionel, Cathy and Kefin who have enough combat power to destroy the Knight Corps, as their movements were still frozen until now.
The Captains who gave the instructions probably didn’t expect me to arrive on a flying vehicle after all.
“Everyone from the Knight Corps, we meet again after a day. There may be some who don’t know me so I’ll introduce myself. The other day, I have job changed from former S-rank Healer to Sage, now, I am the Sage Luciel. This time, I came to the Holy Capital because of a request by my benefactor the wolf beastman Garba-san but have everyone been having mock battles since so early in the morning?”
Even though I say ‘since morning’, it was probably already about 10 o’clock.
Even though those words should have been heard by them all, none of them opened their mouths.
“Well, for now, I don’t know how many people amongst the Knight Corps believe in the rumors but realize that the rumors are mere rumors with your own body.”
With a snap of my fingers, I activated multiple Area High Heal on the Knight Corps including all of the Valkyrie Paladin Corps at once.
Actually, while I was speaking, I was slowly weaving the magic circle chant.
There may be some amongst the Knight Corps capable of Magical Power Perception but unless they are on par with Shisho or Lionel, they wouldn’t have noticed unless they were concentrating.
That’s why as an act, I instantaneously cast Area High Heal on six different locations at the same time.
With this, I should be able to definitively prove that the rumors that I can’t use Holy Attribute Magic were just rumors.
The knights were really surprised that I used Healing Magic as the surroundings became noisy.
If there were those who still showed a hostile posture against me after doing so, I would be incompatible with them so I decided to draw the line there.
“So, why have you all surrounded the Valkyrie Paladin Corps and Knight Captain Catherine?”
When I asked that question, silence returned as if the noise from before was just an illusion.
It looked like nobody wanted to touch that topic.
That’s why I approached the knights who had surrounded Catherine-san and the others.
When I approached, the knights stepped down and opened a path.
When the path was opened, I saw Lumina-san.
“Lumina-san, it’s a coincidence but I’ll be returning the favor I owe you the day before yesterday.”
“Luciel-kun … why?”
“It’s because Garba-san said that he wanted to rescue Catherine-san. Well, I also left something I had to do in this Church Headquarters after all … leaving that aside, what happened here?”
“This morning, the orders for the capture and execution of Catherine-sama under suspicion of being a spy came.”
The suspicion of being a spy is actually true but it’s meaningless to say that at the moment so I concealed it.
“Was it from the Executives Department as well?”
“Yes. The orders definitely came from the Executives Department. I was surprised when they sent the order regarding Luciel-kun just based on rumors but now it led to Catherine-sama so I felt that there was some kind of conspiracy going on.”
“When you went to protest to the Executives Department, they even sent the order to capture Lumina-san and everyone else?”
“That’s exactly what happened. Can you see through everything because you became a Sage?”
“No, I don’t have such an outrageous ability.”
While smiling to Lumina-san, I addressed the Knight Corps.
“Well then, everyone from the Knight Corps who are the walls of the Church Headquarters, now you all are being manipulated by some people inside the Executives Department. I understand that you all must obey the orders from above. However, next time, the next person sentenced as a criminal might very well be one of you.”
Looking at everyone’s faces, the majority of them were lost but a couple of them had begun to leak murderous intent.
However, maybe they felt that they couldn’t make a move now as Shisho and the others had spread out to protect me, they did not attack.
“You all joined the Knight Corps because you all wish to protect the Church’s order and the Saint Schull Allied Nations from various threats right? I believe that is the case. Then, I will now fish out the ones dominating the Executives Department with the help of everyone.”
The knights, as well as Lumina and the others, were stunned by my announcement.
Well, it’s an expected response given that I announced to strike the Executives Department which is an entity outside the jurisdiction of Pope-sama while standing inside the Church Headquarters.
The knights stayed still with hesitant expressions, none of them attacked us.
“Just to be sure everyone is clear, although I feel that it’s all right to just reform the whole department, I will entrust all the decisions to Pope-sama. Now then, since I’ve already voiced my intentions, those who are hostile against me please come at me. Everyone else please keep your weapons.”
“Luciel-kun, are you serious?”
Catherine-san who had been silent the whole time finally spoke.
“Yeah. Catherine-san, please lead me to where the Executive Department members are.” 『Gakiiin』
Just as I was asking Catherine-san about the location of the Executives Department, a shrill sound reverberated across the training ground.
A throwing dagger flew towards me from my blind spot and Shisho parried it away.
Moreover, the dagger was also carefully coated with a poison-like substance.
“As long as it is a person who intends to do harm the Executives Department, even if it is an S-rank Healer, there’s no way I can turn a blind eye, Luciel-kun.”
When I looked towards the direction where the dagger flew from, Bulltooth-san was there with a smile and had given that statement.
“Oo Bulltooth-san, it has been a long time. I didn’t think that you would come to find me on your own accord.”
If the situation was evolving just as expected, he might really be on the cusps of transforming into a demon.
I took note of the positioning of Shisho and the others and promptly started preparation for a fight.
“Hmph, so shameless. To make Catherine act as your spy, how utterly immoral.”
“No no. To those delusional people who twist and interpret the teachings of the church using the ideology of the Human Supremacists, I can return that statement word by word.”
Even though it wasn’t tit for tat, I returned with a provocation.
“Luciel-kun, Bulltooth has become so strong that even I can’t get a solid hit on him.”
Catherine-san informed me while hinting that although I won against him in the past, I might not be able to win this time.
This person had supposedly quit as the Priest Knight Captain due to injuries. In other words, he had a sudden power up.
“Hmph, Catherine. Not understanding our noble ideology but to hold good will towards beings like that wolf beastman, such an idiotic woman. However, S-rank Healer-sama, didn’t you reach your this greenhorn standing at roughly 20 years old because of that said ideology?”
It looked like he didn’t intend to conceal the fact that he belonged to the Human Supremacist party.
“Yeah. Since there were many who like to find fault with others and forgot to put in hard work, I could naturally grow higher. Furthermore, it was also because there were many respectable people around me.”
“You’re really straightforward with what you wish to say. However, I’ll be teaching you how the mouth is but the source of evil if it is not accompanied by results.”
I caught a glimpse of red light for an instant before multiple people from the Knight Corps assaulted us and the Valkyrie Paladin Corps.
… As expected, that red light appeared.
If that is really proof of demonization, I’ll give that a try.
Trusting that Shisho and the others would stop the attack of the knights, I performed my own role.
“Truly just like Bulltooth. Well then, in return for your wise saying, I’ll activate my newly created magic 【By the hand of holy healing, by the breath of Mother Earth, against the existences that have fallen to demonization, against those unholy existences, swallow everything with a wave of purification. Purification Wave】
Upon chanting my newly created magic, ripples of pale light spread out with me in the center.
That magic was invented when I was at Nelldal for the sake of escaping when I am surrounded by demons but actually I had not tested it at all.
Even so, I was convinced that it would somehow work, possibly because of the earnest hard work I put in when I was at Nelldal.
Purification Wave was just a convenient spell that cleans away any dirt on ordinary people it touches but to those existences such as demons and undead who rely on miasma as their source of power, it would be a ruthless poison.
I also considered Sanctuary Circle but my Holy Attribute Magic had powered up considerably so there was the possibility that they might disintegrate before I could get information out of them so I abandoned that idea this time.
The Purification Wave seemed to be effective on the ones attacking us including Bulltooth as their screams of pain echoed in the training ground.
Naturally, those attacking knights who were on the verge of demonization could no longer attack in that condition and were kicked away by Shisho and the others.
However, my attention was drawn away from the knights towards the Valkyrie Paladin Corp members Lucy and Elizabeth who were suffering from pain.
Author’s note:
Thank you for reading.
TL: No :O even the Valkyries?