Ch.44Demon Knight Bernhagen (2)

What are demons?

Centuries ago, a mage who experienced the era when demons blackened half the continent and ran rampant said this about demons:

“What kind of beings? They’re the kind you kill without asking questions. Ah, burning them to death is best. It’s cleaner that way.”

Kill without asking questions.

This was actually written at the very top of the knight’s code, imperial law, and the holy church’s doctrine. And for good reason. Demons were humanity’s greatest enemy.

“Couldn’t there be good demons too?”

“If there were, would they have the characters for ‘evil’ and ‘demon’ in their name?”

Arthur, the hero who swept away countless demons that had blackened the continent and ushered in the age of humans. Merlin, who burned countless demons to death at Arthur’s side, let out a hollow laugh.

“I’ve burned more than five digits worth of demons, and not a single one of them could be reasoned with. They’re just made that way from the beginning.”

Merlin said.

“They repay kindness with betrayal.”

It was advice, and a lesson from experience.

Najin nodded. He had no intention of doubting that demons were hateful beings to begin with. What mattered was how to deal with such demons.

The Fallen Knight, Bernhagen.

Before pursuing him, Najin intended to prepare thoroughly. When challenging an opponent stronger than himself, thorough preparation was necessary.

‘According to the information found in books…’

Books, and Merlin’s stories.

Combining them, Najin began writing down what he needed on paper. Holy water blessed by the Order, silver daggers, antidotes and items that would increase resistance to demonic energy…

Well, the list was complete.

Now he just needed to acquire these items.

“Well, well.”

Merlin’s voice echoed in Najin’s ear.

“You think those things would be available here? You’d need to go to the Order to get them. You can’t find such things just anywhere.”

“Hmm, I suppose that’s true?”

“Yes. And you know what…”

Merlin said indifferently.

“You probably don’t need these things anyway.”

“…What do you mean?”

“What’s the most troublesome thing when dealing with demons? It’s demonic energy.”

The evil energy emitted by demons or things related to them. It pollutes the surrounding air and mana, and even blackens the environment. Demonic energy is like a deadly poison to ordinary living beings.

This applies to ordinary people and warriors alike.

A warrior who has reached a high level might be able to completely resist demonic energy, but that’s only possible for those at the Sword Master level. Demonic energy continuously accumulates in the body, blackening both body and soul.

“At first, you don’t notice it.”

“But it keeps accumulating, and once it reaches a critical point, you reach a point of no return. Unless you receive regular baptism from the church, there’s no way to resist demonic energy. Even that isn’t perfect.”

That was why humans and demons couldn’t coexist, and why the Empire was so wary of demons. However, listening to Merlin’s explanation, Najin tilted his head in confusion.

“By that logic, wouldn’t I need these items even more?”

“Look at you. Have you forgotten what you possess?”

Merlin chuckled.

You have something on a completely different level from things like the Order’s blessing, holy water, or silver weapons.

“Excalibur bestows the blessing of purification and recovery upon its owner. A blessing so sensitive it reacts even to intoxication… how could it not respond to demonic energy?”

“No way,” Najin muttered.

Merlin nodded, confirming that the “no way” was indeed “no way.”

“You’re completely immune to demonic energy.”

“And as long as you possess Excalibur…”

You are like a natural enemy to demons.

Merlin muttered. Najin didn’t immediately understand what Merlin meant. Certainly, King Arthur in fairy tales did kill many demons, but… wasn’t that just because Arthur was exceptional?

At Najin’s internal monologue, Merlin could only smile bitterly.

It seemed this boy didn’t quite understand what “Excalibur” truly was.

2.

Just before dawn.

Najin began his pursuit.

The request form had a rough expected route drawn on it, but it was only approximate and not very helpful. It only vaguely indicated the direction.

But that was enough for Najin.

As he followed the traces, Najin suddenly felt his insides churning. His heart pounded heavily, and a sharp intuition moved his body automatically. As if responding to a hateful energy. When he turned his head and instinctively walked toward where his instincts led, he found traces of the Fallen Knight.

“Becoming Excalibur’s master means…”

While Najin was feeling uncomfortable about this fact, Merlin whispered in his ear.

“It’s like you becoming Excalibur’s scabbard.”

Becoming one with Excalibur.

Sharing its properties.

Merlin said this and exhaled deeply.

“Reacting sharply to evil things is also its influence. It’s still subtle, but… isn’t it easy to track someone who’s openly spreading such energy?”

Just trust your instincts as always.

Merlin said, and Najin slowly nodded. Taking a deep breath, Najin quickly moved toward where the traces continued.

Najin ran through the forest before dawn.

The blowing wind was chilly, and the air tickling his nose was mixed with the smell of blood. Najin frowned. A terrible stench. It was one he knew well.

Thud.

Najin’s pace slowed as he ran through the forest. Though the sun hadn’t risen yet and the forest was still dim, Najin’s eyes, accustomed to night vision, could clearly see the forest landscape.

Trees uprooted.

Branches broken and snapped.

Blood splattered everywhere.

Following these, one would inevitably see the result of the battle that took place here. Najin’s slowing steps eventually came to a halt. Amidst the vibrating smell of blood, Najin silently looked around.

A knight with his head blown apart.

A knight with arms and legs torn off.

A knight with a hole through his heart.

Knight, knight, and knight. The corpses of those who could be called powerful were strewn carelessly throughout the forest. Najin swung his sword to chase away the monsters feeding on the corpses.

“……”

In silence, Najin walked among the corpses.

Broken swords and pools of blood. Helmets that had lost their owners and dented armor. Walking past bodies that had met miserable deaths, he heard breathing.

Rough breathing.

Breathing that seemed about to extinguish at any moment.

Passing through blood-soaked pine trees, Najin soon arrived at the source of the breathing. There was a knight leaning against a tree, clutching his abdomen.

“Huff, huuu…”

It was clearly a fatal wound.

The knight’s breathing was rough, a pool of dark red blood had formed around him, and his complexion was deathly pale. Najin stopped in front of him.

As a shadow fell over his head, the knight slowly tried to lift his head. But even that seemed difficult as he coughed up bloody foam.

Najin silently bent his knee to meet the knight’s eye level. So the knight wouldn’t have to lift his head. Meeting his gaze, Najin spoke.

“Let me carry you. I’ll take you to the nearest church.”

“I appreciate the offer, but…”

The knight smiled bitterly.

“I must decline. I know my body well. I’m not in a state where treatment would save me.”

He briefly removed the hand pressing on his abdomen. A large hole and flesh rotted and collapsed from demonic energy. It was already too late for recovery.

“That damned Bernhagen. He was an old comrade, but he had no honor. He left me with a hole in my stomach, saying I should die painfully. How spiteful.”

The knight chuckled.

Though he pretended to be lighthearted, his pale complexion and cold sweat on his forehead made it sound anything but a joke.

“Huu…”

The knight caught his breath and glanced at Najin’s appearance.

He didn’t look like a knight. He looked more like a mercenary or adventurer, but judging by his good equipment, he seemed to be quite a famous adventurer in Cambria.

“Did you perhaps receive a request?”

Najin nodded. He took out the request from the Knights of Atanga from his pocket and showed it to the knight.

“I see, you received a request from Atanga. A man who knows honor. I highly respect your courage and spirit, but…”

Coughing up blood-mixed saliva, the knight continued.

“He’s not an opponent you can handle. Report that his level was misjudged. He has clearly contracted with at least a mid-level demon… and demonization is progressing.”

He warned that the information was incorrect.

“Make sure to keep your distance while pursuing and regularly send letters to the Knights of Atanga. That would be the best course of action.”

He told the pursuer how to act. As if that wasn’t enough, he barely raised his hand to point in the direction of the rising sun. His fingertips were trembling.

“He went that way.”

Take this.

Muttering, the knight handed something to Najin. Probably a means to contact Atanga. Najin silently accepted what the knight offered. Only then did the knight relax his shoulders and exhale.

As if he had completed his duty.

His expression was like someone who had put down a burden they had been carrying.

“Do you have anything else to say?”

The knight’s breathing was growing weaker.

Noticing this, Najin asked. At the question, the knight could only smile bitterly. You’re a perceptive young man. Muttering this, the knight barely opened his mouth.

“Gilbert, knight of House Trebache.”

He slowly lowered the hand that had been covering his abdomen. Gilbert, who had been enduring in pain to pass information to any pursuer who might come.

…The pain of flesh rotting from demonic energy is not something an ordinary person can endure. Even with a knight’s mental training, there are limits.

Since the possibility of survival was slim to none, it might have been better to cut his own throat with the dagger in his possession. But Gilbert struggled until the end.

To pass information to the pursuer who would follow.

To ensure that the deaths of his comrades who died here were not in vain, he endured until the very end.

“I’m sorry for my disloyalty, unable to bring good news to my lord, only to deliver bad news.”

Gilbert smiled.

“Give my regards to my lord. If possible, mention that I was a knight of high pride until the end. That might preserve my reputation a bit.”

A frivolous joke.

Gilbert chuckled. Finally, with a gurgling sound, dark red blood spurted from Gilbert’s mouth. After a brief convulsion, Gilbert’s body went limp.

Though he might not have always lived as a knight of high pride.

One who chose to die as a knight at the end met his death that way. Najin silently reached out and closed Gilbert’s open eyes.

“……”

Najin rose from his place.

He looked in the direction Gilbert had pointed. Dawn was breaking, signaling the end of twilight. Looking at the light filtering through the forest, Najin moved forward.

A knight who died as a knight.

Many live as knights, but few wish to remain knights until their final moment. It’s not easy for a person to be honorable even when cornered. Especially in an age where the weight of the name “knight” has become infinitely lighter.

Dissolute knights.

Knights who betray their lords and chase money.

Knights who are merely swordsmen intoxicated with their own power.

Knights without honor or pride.

Such knights are numerous in this age. It’s an age where most knights aim for certain things like power and money, rather than ambiguous things like honor and pride.

“In such an age…”

Najin thought, and Merlin said.

“Knights like him shine all the brighter.”

Those who wish to be knights despite gaining nothing. Those who wish to be knights at least in their final moments. Najin had seen such a person somewhere before.

“Go, Najin.”

“Stand at the highest place and proclaim.”

“That at your starting point, there was a knight named Ivan who chased stars.”

In the knight he had just seen.

Najin glimpsed the figure of his benefactor. Najin still didn’t fully understand things like honor and pride, but he could tell that they deserved respect.

Because he could understand that.

“Merlin.”

Najin said.

“The plan has changed.”

He gripped the sword at his waist tightly.

The original plan was to keep a distance and observe the Fallen Knight’s movements, then hold him back when the Knights of Atanga arrived.

He was too strong for Najin.

And there was no reason to risk his life.

He had only intended to use him as an opponent to gain combat experience. But his mind had changed. It had to change. He realized this wasn’t something to approach lightly.

“It seems I must capture him myself.”

Najin’s eyes were coldly settled.

This declaration wasn’t the ambition of a genius drunk on arrogance. It was a declaration tinged with determination, even a kind of obsession, that he would definitely do so.

“Because that’s the only way I might get a sense of what honor and pride are.”

Honor and pride. A knight who possessed them.

The boy admires knights. It’s because the first knight he saw planted a dream in the boy.

“I am Ivan.”

“Ivan, knight of Atanga.”

The boy does not forget the pride shown by the one-eyed knight. He does not forget the honor that the one-eyed knight desired until the end.

Because it was the first star the boy had ever seen.

Ivan’s eyes, proclaiming his pride, were stars that shone brighter than anything else. Najin wanted to understand that starlight. He needed to know why Ivan had risked his life for such seemingly empty values.

“I don’t know why.”

Najin exhaled deeply.

His intuition was shouting.

“But I feel like I’ll understand if I clash with that Fallen Knight with all my might.”

What kind of knight I want to become.

What honor and pride are.

Paradoxically, it felt like he could understand all of this if he faced someone who had abandoned it all.

“That’s quite impulsive.”

“Yes, it is.”

So, are you going to stop me?

Najin asked. At that question, Merlin could only burst into laughter.

“What nonsense!”

Merlin exclaimed.

“What are you waiting for? Why aren’t you running after him right now?”

“I knew you’d say that.”

Najin moved forward.

Following the traces, Najin began to run.

3.

The Fallen Knight, Bernhagen.

He turned around at the approaching presence. There was someone walking straight toward him without even trying to hide their presence. How foolish. Instead of hiding and ambushing, they openly revealed themselves?

Another knight?

Thinking this, Bernhagen turned his head. However, there was no knight there. Instead of shining armor engraved with a family crest, there was only a young man wearing what seemed to be clothing made from monster hide.

‘A mercenary?’

Passing near Cambria, they must have posted a request in the city. What a waste of effort. Bernhagen sighed and opened his mouth.

“Hey, you mercenary nobody, don’t interfere—”

“Name.”

The young man cut off Bernhagen’s words. With a clang, he drew his sword and pointed it at Bernhagen. Pointing the tip of his sword, he asked.

What is your name?

At this act, as if asking the opponent’s name before a duel, Bernhagen burst into hollow laughter.

“I am Bernhagen.”

The Fallen Knight revealed his name.

Then, the young man pointing the sword at him should also reveal his name. Soon, the young man’s mouth opened.

“Najin.”

What was pronounced through those lips was not a false identity, but his real name.

“I am the seed of Ivan, knight of Atanga.”

Sword energy rose from Najin’s sword.