Saint Marigold

14.

“The winner is Lancel Dante!”

The first, second, and third rounds of the main competition.

Having witnessed Lancel Dante’s unstoppable momentum with their own eyes, the citizens of the Empire no longer doubted him.

Lancel Dante displayed overwhelming performance in every match. It was only natural that rumors spread about how betting on him would bring great fortune.

“Betting on Lancel Dante is like printing silver coins!”

It was around this time that the Pilgrimage began to feel the pressure on the streets of the Imperial Capital.

Those who had never been ignored by anyone before were now busy avoiding people. They had to be cautious of the nobles’ anger over their lost money.

Duke Meriril Dunn’s office was filled with constant shouting.

“You couldn’t even beat that one person and ruined everything? Are you even knights who serve God!”

—Get rid of Lancel Dante immediately!

The Pilgrimage knights, who initially followed these orders with enthusiasm, were now slowly beginning to realize something.

That it might be impossible to defeat him through normal means.

“Win at all costs. By any means necessary!”

The Pilgrimage knights actively put Duke Meriril Dunn’s words into action.

‘He means, don’t worry about the means, right?’

A dirty victory is better than an honorable defeat. That was the Pilgrimage knights’ common opinion.

They engaged in petty tactics such as tampering with the items Lancel Dante would use in the matches to make them flimsy, or deliberately blocking the carriage he was riding in to delay his arrival at the arena.

Of course, these things had no effect on him. Lancel, who had lived for hundreds of years and was used to such things, was indifferent to such minor annoyances.

Eventually, they even resorted to acts that posed a real threat to him.

In the Imperial Capital, there were plenty of people who would agree to shoot a crossbow bolt into a noble’s knee for enough money. Requests poured into the Thieves’ Guild to make sure Lancel Dante couldn’t hold a sword or walk for a while.

But this, too, yielded no results.

Lancel Dante always appeared in perfect condition, toyed with the Pilgrimage knights like children, and then went home.

“Today’s winner is once again Lancel Dante!”

==========

—Fame Event: The eightieth church has been built!

※Marigold’s Karma decreases by 1 point.

==========

The number of Saintess Statues erected in the Imperial Capital finally exceeded 80.

It was definitely a good thing, but Lancel noticed something strange.

‘The trend is too fast.’

If he really wanted to, building Saintess Statues wouldn’t be difficult.

But getting devotees to appear at each Saintess Statue and offer prayers every day was not an easy task.

The reason Lancel couldn’t lower Marigold’s Karma by even 50 points in the last playthrough over 10 years was because of that.

But now there were already 80, in just 2 years.

It was too fast no matter how he looked at it.

Too fast.

‘Why is it going so well?’

Lancel soon found the reason from Marigold herself.

“Target Lancel Dante!”

“Quick, catch that bastard!”

It was the day of the fifth preliminary match of the Knights’ Tournament.

Thanks to the incredibly creative people, the arena was designed to resemble the deck of a ship. The knights were engaged in a chaotic melee, fighting until only one person remained.

Even though they were fighting with swords that weren’t sharpened, getting hit properly could still cause bleeding and broken bones.

“Kkuaaaak!”

“My, my finger!”

As screams erupted from all directions, Lancel sensed something different than usual.

Among the knights constantly clashing, one knight in a silver helmet that concealed his face was quietly staring at Lancel.

“Lancel Dante. I have no personal grudge against you.”

A familiar voice.

“Nerph?”

He saw the guy’s surprised reaction.

“Where did you hear my name?”

“Well… there’s a way I know things.”

“……?”

He vaguely brushed it off with an awkward tone. He couldn’t exactly say, “From the last playthrough.”

‘Why is the guy who should be next to the First Princess here?’

Nerph, the silver knight.

He was one of the people who learned swordsmanship from the same master as Lancel. He was like a ‘Hyung’.

Of course, he was the only one who remembered that.

“I don’t think you’re the type to be at a place like this, so what brings you here?”

“……I received a request to remove you from the competition. Don’t resent me. It’s all for the sake of the Empire.”

“Honest, aren’t you?”

Lancel quietly stroked his chin.

There was no way the First Princess would have ordered something like this. Someone must have asked her to do it. The Imperial High Priest or the head of the Pilgrimage. There were so few suspicious candidates that he wondered if there was someone else entirely.

“Lancel Dante. I’ll try to break you without causing too much pain before sending you back.”

A gleaming blade was drawn from Nerph’s waist.

‘Shall I see your skills after a long time?’

The two men, who had been walking towards each other, vanished in an instant.

Kaga-gang!

Sparks flew along with an ear-splitting crash. The compressed air around the two blades clashing in mid-air created a shockwave.

Lancel felt a tingling sensation in his grip. This was a different level of power than the fakes he had met so far. That’s more like it. This is what a real knight should be like.

“As I’ve heard, you’re not entirely a fake, Lancel Dante.”

“You too.”

Nerph’s blade pierced towards Lancel like an awl.

As Lancel deflected the blade that seemed to twist like a snake, he wore a bitter smile.

‘Even the feeling of disgust when I see you is still the same.’

It was the Nerph he remembered. His sword and personality were completely incompatible with Lancel.

He was a man with a natural talent for cutting and stabbing people. Lancel wondered what he would have become if he hadn’t been a knight.

In the past, Lancel had always struggled against Nerph’s sword, but now.

“……!”

Lancel charged straight ahead.

He narrowly dodged the trajectory of Nerph’s blade.

He grabbed the guy by the collar and slammed him to the ground with all his might. The wood of the deck shattered, sending splinters flying.

“Ugh!”

Nerph, who had fallen from above, tried to get up in a hurry, but it was already too late. Lancel’s blade was pointed at his neck.

“You’re bleeding. What are you going to do about this?”

Lancel frowned and pointed to his chest. A long scar had been etched there as the tip of Nerph’s blade had grazed past.

Nerph, whose helmet had been knocked off, could only stare at him with a dumbfounded expression.

“Do you feel like you’re recovering a bit?”

“I think so.”

“How about now? How about now?”

“Hmm.”

Marigold, who had rushed over at the mention of Lancel being injured, had been trying to use Heal for 30 minutes now.

“Eugeugeugeug!”

Will it work?

While Marigold was straining with all her might to unleash her healing power, Baron Ibil Shen, who was in the driver’s seat, opened his mouth.

“No matter how I think about it, it’s amazing.”

“……?”

“I mean, Mary. I don’t think she’s an ordinary person. You have no idea how many people are gathering for her morning prayers these days.”

Was he saying she had become popular?

Lancel had never been diligent enough to follow Marigold’s morning prayers, so he only half-listened.

Baron Ibil Shen’s worship of Marigold had already been going on for months.

“People who are sick say that their bodies feel a little better just by listening to Mary’s prayers. I was skeptical at first, but as the rumors spread, I started to think it might be true? It wasn’t just me who felt that way.”

“……Sounds like some kind of cult.”

Lancel muttered to himself.

Marigold’s morning prayers were nothing special.

She would simply go to the Saintess Church in the center of the Imperial Capital, recite the prayers she knew, and then come back.

Everyone could even feel that the same phrases were repeated over and over again after listening to it a few times, as if there were a lack of variations.

But just that was enough to make people feel better?

If that were true, Marigold would be the Saintess who had descended upon this era.

Lancel dismissed it as Baron Ibil Shen’s common exaggeration.

“Recently, I twisted my ankle, and after watching Mary’s prayers, I felt a little better. Ah, it’s true.”

“If you say so.”

“You should go sometime when you have time. It’s really amazing.”

Lancel quietly watched Mary, who was doing her best to use ‘Heal’ in front of him.

‘There are 120 left to go.’

When he returned home, he noticed something while taking off his clothes and froze.

“What is this?”

Lancel stroked the wound he had received from Nerph.

His chest, which had been stinging, was now almost completely healed. It had only left a few bloodstains on the clothes he was wearing.

It wasn’t a deep wound, but it shouldn’t have disappeared in half a day.

Lancel took a dagger from his pocket and quickly found Marigold. He shook the girl who was sleeping on the bed to wake her up.

“Eueh?”

“Forget about ‘eueh’ and try using Heal.”

Lancel pointed to a small wound on his palm. It was a wound he had just made by cutting himself with the dagger. Marigold, who was half-asleep, reached out her arm in the direction Lancel was pointing.

“Eueueum……!”

She began to concentrate, narrowing her brows. Marigold thought that Heal was something that could be done by squeezing all her strength.

Of course, there was no change in the wound for a while.

But after about 3 minutes.

“……!”

The bleeding slowly stopped and the wound began to close. It was an incredibly slow speed, but the wound was definitely healing.

‘It’s Heal.’

Of course, the effect was insignificant.

It was very different from the ‘Heal’ in the game, where even a person on the verge of death would be fine after a flash of light.

But it was Heal.

It was definitely Heal.

Lancel witnessed the existence of White magic for the first time in 200 years.