episode_0028

After buying a pig in Odellin City and safely escorting it to the starting village,

The holy knight, Liberonne, parted ways with his benefactor angel, Jack, and began his journey back to the sanctuary.

Did he ascend for an hour through the dawn mist?

Liberonne stopped his horse and looked back.

If he left now, it would be goodbye forever.

Once it was reported that there were no problems in the starting village, the sanctuary would no longer need to dispatch holy knights.

And Liberonne would be given a different mission, completely unrelated to the starting village.

Meanwhile, his benefactor angel, Jack, would struggle in the starting village to realize his own justice.

If only I could help with that.

If I could stand by my benefactor angel and be of strength to him.

The relationship between a holy knight and a benefactor angel is difficult to explain clearly.

It could be like parent and child, lovers, spouses, or friends.

It’s a category of relationship that cannot be understood within the concepts created by humans.

So Liberonne couldn’t bring himself to leave.

But he had to leave. As a holy knight, he must unquestionably obey the orders of the sanctuary.

After hesitating several times, Liberonne came up with a good idea.

What if instead of just going up, he purified the evil things in the area as he ascended?

For example, gangs of bandits threatening innocent travelers.

That way, he wouldn’t stray too far from his benefactor angel too soon, and it wouldn’t be blindly delaying his return to the sanctuary.

It’s a very good idea.

Due to Liberonne’s determination, the ruffians in the vicinity of the starting village had to face their comeuppance.

As Liberonne methodically carried out the purification, he coincidentally reunited with the village magistrate.

At that moment, the magistrate was driving the carriage alone, urgently heading somewhere.

* * * * *

In the morning, Mirella, who came down to the first floor, sensed a strange atmosphere.

The layout of the first-floor shops was not the same as yesterday.

The cooking table where Jack was sitting and doing research was completely disorganized, and the potion bottles on the shelf were all empty.

Jack never leaves the shop in such a state; he has a thorough personality when it comes to tidying up.

By the way, where did he go?

Mirella, who had been searching around the store, realized that she was looking at a completely empty warehouse.

Something must have happened overnight.

She ran to the town hall down the street.

“Administrator! Administrator!”

The door-banging Mirella couldn’t stand it and jumped through the window in that short time.

“Ah! Mirella…?!”

The administrator, who was pushing his overflowing heart into his breastplate, was startled.

“What’s wrong, this early…?”

“Jack has disappeared!”

“Eh…? Disappeared…?”

Mirella urgently explained the situation.

The administrator, who listened quietly, widened his eyes.

“Oh no, could it be… the Remagen mercenaries…?”

“The Remagen mercenaries?”

“Mr. Jack said… the Remagen mercenaries might target our village or potion shop… oh my….”

The administrator collapsed to the ground.

“I failed to prepare in time as an incompetent administrator… Jack was kidnapped….”

As the tears flowed down, the unfastened breastplate revealed the administrator’s overwhelming heart.

“Are you sure about the Remagen mercenaries?”

“If not, there’s no way Jack would have disappeared so easily….”

“Then get up quickly! This is not the time to cry like this! We need to find a solution quickly!”

Mirella grabbed the administrator’s shoulders with anger, trying to lift him up.

But the administrator, being much taller and heavier than Mirella, wasn’t easy to move.

In the end, Mirella resorted to slapping, pinching, and pulling the administrator’s chest with extraordinary measures.

Only then did the administrator, led like a milk cow, hurriedly put on his clothes.

“What do we do, what do we do, what do we do, what do we do, what do we do, what do we do, what do we do….”

“For now, I’ll gather the people. You, Mr. Administrator, do something. Report to the guards and ask for help!”

“The guards… help… that won’t work…. Odelyn City is too far, by the time the guards arrive, Jack will probably be executed….”

The administrator’s face turned pale, vividly depicting a despairing future where he couldn’t even get up.

“Hurry and get ready! I’ll gather the knights!”

After Mirael stormed out of the hall, the administrator was left alone and muttered incessantly.

“I can’t do it without Jack… I can’t do anything without Jack’s potion… I need Jack’s potion… Jack must be in our village…”

With a fierce look in his eyes, the administrator gnawed at his nails and soon grabbed a thick ledger from the shelf, tucking it into his side before rushing out of the hall.

He pulled a horse near the hall and connected it to the carriage, throwing the ledger into the baggage compartment and climbing onto the coachman’s seat.

“Let’s go!”

As he roughly grabbed the reins and set the carriage in motion, the startled horse’s sudden start almost caused the administrator to fall backward.

“Ugh, Jack… I’m going… Please wait a little…”

With every jolt of the carriage, the administrator’s chest heaved up and down as he nervously bit his lips.

“What’s that?!”

Mirael, accompanied by knights including Hostanthe, passed by the carriage like an arrow, looking pale and shouting.

“Administrator! Where are you going! Come back immediately! What are you trying to do alone!”

“I’m going to save him, please… Stay alive… Come back safely and make another potion for me…”

Beside the danger Jack was in, due to not having drunk the potion all night, the administrator was nearly out of his mind.

“Chase the carriage! We can’t leave the administrator alone to go to the mercenary camp!”

In response to Hostanthe’s command, young knights hurriedly began to chase after the carriage.

However, a running carriage is impossible for a person to catch.

The carriage carrying the administrator disappeared beyond the morning mist.

The galloping carriage coincidentally met with Reberone, who was wandering nearby, and having heard everything, Reberone immediately headed straight to the mercenary camp, the Viscount’s castle.

That was the event of this evening.

Reberone smashed through the castle gate and began to knock down all the mercenaries who rushed at him.

Even if they were the renowned Leumgen mercenaries, they were no match for the furious holy knight wielding his divine power, despite putting up a sacred defense.

The mercenaries, who were pushed back helplessly by the advancing Liberonne at a steady pace, retreated through the garden to the fortress with Adelheid.

* * * * *

Every time a flash flickered outside the window, screams could be heard.

A bloodied mercenary rushed in and reported to Adelheid, “It’s a holy knight!”

“A holy knight?!” Adelheid’s face drained of color.

“Surely not from the sect…?”

“Please, you must flee! We can’t stop them!”

Adelheid turned to me with a despairing look.

At this point, I realized that this so-called holy knight was none other than Liberonne.

So, Liberonne has come to rescue me again.

“You! You made that potion!”

Adelheid grabbed my collar fiercely.

“What potion are you talking about?”

“That potion! The potent potion used to massacre goblins!”

“Oh, yes… I did produce some, but the quantity is insufficient for all the mercenaries to consume…”

Adelheid shoved me aside and dashed out of the dining hall.

Well, maybe it’s time for me to make my exit as well.

The potion Adelheid will drink is a pig aphrodisiac.

I slowly prepared a reserve batch, intending to use it at the right moment to lure Adelheid into my scheme.

Who would have thought that moment would be now?

I grabbed my coat from the chair and pushed through the retreating mercenaries toward the dining hall.

“Liberonne!”

Liberonne, dragging a sword along the ground, stopped walking.

“Mastermind.”

“Liberonne, we meet again.”

“Are you injured?”

Liberonne dropped the sword and felt my face and shoulders with gauntleted hands.

His usually emotionless eyes seemed oddly gleeful.

“It’s okay. You came at just the right time.”

“I’m relieved. Truly relieved.”

After briefly holding my shoulder, Liberonne picked up the sword again.

“Now, Mastermind, please retreat. The village magistrate is coming from behind.”

“The magistrate is coming…?”

However, without answering my question, Liberonne walked back toward the mercenaries.

The terrified mercenaries closed the dining hall door and attempted a futile standoff.

Libero’s fortress shone brightly, and the restaurant door was smashed.

I hurriedly crossed the corridor and went outside.

“Jae, Mr. Jack…!”

The official who had been lingering in front of the carriage stumbled and fell over when he saw me and rushed towards me.

“Official? How did you come here alone?”

“I came by carriage… Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. But how did you…”

“Phew, thank goodness… I was afraid that if I came here and saw Mr. Jack’s head hanging on the city wall, if Mr. Jack had died, I would have died too… Mr. Jack’s life without a potion is meaningless…”

As the official muttered strange words to himself, he handed me a potion and looked into the carriage’s luggage compartment.

There was our village’s land ownership register.

Suddenly, I thought that the official had come here alone for hostage negotiations.

Was she trying to sell the entire village in exchange for me?

She’s even crazier than I thought.

* * * * *

“Ahh! Back off! Back off!”

When the restaurant door was smashed, the mercenaries screamed and continued to retreat.

“Where is the chief?”

“I don’t know! How am I supposed to know in this mess!”

“Chief! This is really the limit now!”

The mercenaries desperately searched for Adelheid.

At that moment, Adelheid emerged from the old kitchen where the potion user had been, her face flushed and unsteady.

“Chief!”

“I’m leaving…! Stop rushing me…!”