Ch.91Chapter 91. The Seven Holy Knights (1)

Chapter 91. Seven Paladins (1)

As soon as I transferred my consciousness to Totem #3, I saw Lakye’s face, sleeping while tightly hugging the totem.

The location is… inside a cave. I can hear gentle breathing sounds.

Did she use a lot of energy? She’s sleeping even though the sun hasn’t set yet.

– …

I’ve never seen Lakye so defenseless before. Maybe I should take this opportunity to appreciate her sleeping face.

“Lord Malak?”

My appreciation of Lakye’s sweet slumber was brief. She opened her eyes immediately, as if sensing my arrival in the totem.

She’s quite quick, considering it hasn’t even been a few seconds since I transferred my consciousness.

– You must be tired.

“I couldn’t sleep because I was moving magic stones at dawn.”

Lakye answered while rubbing her face a few times. It’s a bit funny how she’s trying to maintain a solemn expression.

I briefly praised Lakye for moving the magic stones four times.

From what I heard before, Kanto moved three crates of magic stones with the warriors… so counting Lakye’s four times and my two times, we’ve collected nine in total.

Harry said we need to collect twelve to move the giant god.

Since I’ll be going to Matrba with Lakye to collect the magic stones there, we only need to visit two more regions.

This can be left to Kanto, who specializes in auto-hunting. He’s quite the AFK character, honestly.

“It’s been a while.”

Lakye offered a slightly delayed greeting.

– Yes. It’s been a week.

“Have you been busy?”

– I’ve been moving between various tribes.

Her expression seems to have become somewhat sulky.

“I didn’t expect you wouldn’t visit even once.”

– …

Uh… that was because I was too absorbed in the thrill of the totem golem. Sorry.

“I thought you would come when the dark clouds appeared.”

I didn’t visit because I thought Lakye would handle it well.

Anyway, she seems quite disappointed, so I should say something nice.

This is what you call managing affection levels.

Lakye is my strongest unit. I need to maintain and service her this way.

…Of course, I don’t think of her as just a unit.

– I was always thinking about you.

This is true. When I was ambushed by the centipede infectees, or when I was beaten up by the hippo demon, I thought about Lakye a lot.

There were many moments when I wished Lakye was there…

“…What kind of thoughts?”

Lakye’s expression softens a bit.

– That things would have gone better if you were by my side.

Right. What’s a totem golem anyway? It turns into a tin can against mid-level demons.

Lakye is the best, able to take down three mid-level demons with support. Yep.

“Is that so?”

The corners of Lakye’s mouth turned up slightly. She wants to smile broadly but is forcibly holding back.

Seeing this, it’s true that age doesn’t lie. She’s like a college freshman in Earth terms.

She can’t hide her emotions as skillfully as a seasoned adult like me.

After some small talk, I got to the main point.

– Besides the magic stones, there’s one more reason we need to go to Matrba.

I told her about the Black Coral tribe, the sea people, and the Roa Tuga.

– Asha, the priestess of the Black Coral tribe, has become Tuga’s avatar.

“Avatar… when a human accepts a god’s power, it usually doesn’t end well. That was a bold choice.”

Good. Now comes the important part.

– I’ve decided to defeat them.

Although she’s half-human, Lakye is still a barbarian who worships Roa. Going against Roa would be difficult for her too.

It’s natural for her to feel resistance. As I was thinking about how to persuade Lakye, I continued.

– Asha, she asked me to take her as my bride to help my manifestation. And…

“Bride?”

Lakye, who had been listening calmly until now, frowned and reacted intensely.

If she’s interrupting me, she must be very surprised.

Ah, I see.

Lakye is my passionate fan. She likes me enough to sleep while hugging my figurine, I mean, totem.

It’s only natural for a devoted fan to be angry at dating rumors.

Let me fuel this anger a bit more. I feel bad about manipulating her emotions, but given the urgent situation, I decided to push aside my guilt.

Sorry, Lakye!

– Yes. She said she wants to have children with me and rule the surface world with those children.

“Children? Ha, she doesn’t know her place. She’s just a human borrowing a god’s power.”

Lakye’s eyes burn quietly. She seems genuinely angry.

“Let’s go. While we’re getting the magic stones, I’ll kill that thing too.”

Good. The ‘anger provocation’ was successful.

– Are you sure? This means going against Roa.

I asked once more just to be sure. After all, Roa is special to barbarians.

“I don’t care whether the enemy is Roa or not.”

I expected her to say something like ‘It’s fine!’ or ‘Let’s give it a try!’, but her answer was completely different from what I anticipated.

“From the beginning, I don’t serve you because you’re Roa, Lord Malak.”

Lakye looked at me. More precisely, at Totem #3.

“I serve you because you are kind, Lord Malak.”

– …I see.

I didn’t expect to hear such an embarrassing, no, touching statement.

If it were really me standing there instead of the totem, I would probably be staring at the ground with a red-hot face by now.

I’m weak against such direct statements.

“I’m not lying.”

Lakye averted her gaze, seemingly embarrassed after saying it. But she didn’t take back her words, which is quite admirable.

“…”

– …

This prolonged silence isn’t good.

“Matrba is far away, so it would be difficult to bring the entire tribal alliance.”

Good job changing the subject, Lakye. I was also looking for something to say.

– That’s right. I think we should move just the two of us.

At first, I thought about luring Asha to fight the shadow demon. The problem is that to reach Tibera, we must pass through Symphonia.

We need to know what they might do. Unnecessarily involving them could cause great damage to the tribal alliance.

– We need to deal with them before they cause more trouble.

I’m not sure how strong Asha and the Black Coral tribe are. All I know is that they don’t feel as threatening as a high-level demon.

If we use the Totem of Chaos well, we might be able to defeat them.

If Hannah’s message reached Dina’s special forces, they should be moving toward Matrba too.

If all else fails, I plan to seek help from Dina’s special forces. It might be good to reveal my identity and seek cooperation from the paladins.

Originally, I planned to hide my identity until I gained enough power to defeat high-level demons. But the situation has changed.

I think I need to clearly reveal my identity and establish my position before trolls like Tuga cause more trouble.

I also have hope that the intelligent Princess Dina will be reasonable.

“It’s been a while since you and I moved together, Lord Malak.”

Lakye nodded with a satisfied expression.

Um… I didn’t tell her that we’ll meet Hannah. Of course, I didn’t mention Dina’s special forces either.

Well, let’s talk about it on the way. Lakye also knows that Hannah is in Matrba. She probably guessed it.

– I’ll stop by the tribal alliance briefly.

It’s time to assign auto-hunting to Kanto. I also needed to check if Harry was preparing well to control the giant god.

Leaving behind a slightly disappointed-looking Lakye, I transferred my consciousness to Totem #1.

“Ah, you’re here.”

Paya is cleaning Totem #1. Harry is nowhere to be seen.

– I have business with Mage Harry.

“Harry is at the training ground right now. He’s working hard to build his stamina.”

He’s diligently preparing to ride the giant god. Should I go watch while giving Kanto his quest?

I can’t miss a 70-year-old man’s training.

I asked her if she could carry Totem #2 for me.

The totem golem has many damaged parts and is stored in the warehouse, with only Totem #2 placed on the altar.

I plan to repair the totem golem after dealing with the shadow demon. It would be too much to ask Harry to repair it when he’s about to ride the giant god.

“Yes!”

Paya cheerfully answered and picked up Totem #2, leaving the altar. Her toddling walk is cute.

“Hahaha! Give me just three days! I, Kanto, will bring back plenty!”

I gave a quest to that playboy, I mean Kanto, who was playing with women in the square, and headed to the training ground.

I’m so busy, yet seeing him having fun makes me annoyed. Why are you the only one playing with women?!

“Ow, oww!”

I can see Harry getting thoroughly beaten by Dodo. He looked slightly chubby, probably because of the soft cloth armor he was wearing.

“This old man is such a whiner.”

Our milk-bottle youth Dodo is active as a training instructor. Surprisingly, he has good teaching qualities.

He showed promise when teaching Noah.

“You brat! Don’t you have parents…!”

Harry, who was slammed to the ground, shouted loudly. Veins popped on Dodo’s head at the sudden parental insult, but now is not the time to worry about that.

– Mage Harry.

I called Harry and told him that preparations to awaken the giant god were almost complete, so he should go to the underground laboratory and wait.

“Well, it is about time I should go. I need to check on the giant god too.”

Harry’s appearance, with his cloth armor covered in dirt and dust as he stroked his beard, was, well, unsightly.

– I’ll assign warriors to you. Depart today.

“As you command.”

Good. Now there’s just one more thing to resolve.

[Hannah.]

I sent a private message to Hannah.

[NotACatfish: What?]

[Don’t be surprised.]

[NotACatfish: Why are you suddenly so serious? Making me nervous]

[The Roa of the barbarians, Lord Malak, actually exists.]

It’s time to tell her the truth too. Well, a small part of the truth.