CH 41

The next morning, Paladin stood in front of Enos' statue. Receiving the prayers of the commoners who came. When he was smiling and holding the hand of a young girl to explain God's mercy, the church door was suddenly kicked open.

A middle-aged man in ornate clothes stood there with a wretched appearance and a beard bearded into eight. Two mercenaries in leather armor stood behind him, long swords at their waists. He grinned and shouted “, "Paladin! You priest! You've blasphemed against Enos' mercy! You should be thrown into the abyss and tortured to death by those demons!"

Paladin's face was devoid of anger in the face of verbal abuse. Instead, he turned to the stunned civilians with a gentle face and said, "Please leave, I have something to say to this believer." Civilians who didn't want to get caught in trouble immediately heaved a relieved sigh and ran away without a trace.

This was obviously what the fat merchant wanted to see. After allowing the civilians to leave, the door was closed. Then, the guards stood beside him. With a grim smile on his face, he said, "Paladin, you disregarded the doctrine and purposefully killed the shopkeeper, Prad. Then you’re taking over the ironworks under his name! You are greedy for profit and have been deeply poisoned by the devil!"

He abruptly lowered his voice and continued, "Automatically, as long as you admit your mistake, transfer the deed of the ironworks to me for safekeeping, and sincerely kneel down to lick the soles of my shoes, I will not report it to the bishop of the diocese."

"Humph." Paladin grunted disdainfully. He looked at the merchant and said, "Smart people don't spew nonsense, you want this iron smelter?"

"That’s right! You do have some brain. I just want the iron smelter. When something happens in Nurba, you can ask me to help you out. Trust me, you'll think this is a good deal, given that I, a wealthy local businessman, will support and assist the priest." Surprised, the rich merchant nodded and stated his intention directly and openly. The normally kind and even shy priest’s behavior had changed drastically.

Surprisingly, he ignored the wealthy merchant and turned to the two mercenaries behind him, asking, "You are Kaleqi's men, what are his orders?" The two mercenaries looked at each other, but fell silent. Paladin immediately nodded in understanding, still ignoring the rich merchant who was a little angry at being ignored. He then muttered, "Kaleqi should be the one in charge of the smelters. Are you trying to test me?"

"Hey! I'm talking to you, a priest who lacks even the most basic manners!" The rich merchant became enraged and stepped forward, pointing at Paladin's nose and cursing him. But Paladin gave him a sidelong glance, waved his hand expressionlessly, and knocked him to the ground with a slap. His right foot immediately followed with a hard kick to the fat stomach.

"AHHH!"

The rich merchant let out a heartbreaking scream. The two mercenaries jumped in shock and were about to draw their swords. However, they were forced to stop when they saw Paladin’s darkened eyes. They felt as if they were being watched by a python coiling in the dry leaves. Staring at them, making the atmosphere feel suffocating and oppressing. As soon as they moved a little bit, the huge python would wrap itself around them and crush all of their bones.

"How dare you hit me? Paladin, so you don't want to be a priest anymore! I know the bishop of the diocese, you…."

Paladin didn’t let the angry rich merchant finish speaking. He grabbed his fat neck, lifting up the rich merchant who weighed more than two hundred pounds, and slammed him against the wall.

"You're a foolish and greedy lowlife with nothing but gold coins. Tell me, did you come here to get the ironworks for yourself or are you collaborating with those foolish colleagues who couldn’t even move?”

The rich merchant, who was already scared but still had some courage, turned his head to look at the mercenaries who stood frozen in place. He was about to scold them when Paladin’s grip grew stronger and it squeezed his neck even more. His face instantly became red.

"You haven't answered my question yet."

The rich merchant, whose neck was being squeezed more and more, realized that Paladin's eyes no longer had the devotion and gentleness that a servant of God should have. Instead, those eyes were unbridled, crazy, and full of madness.

At this point, the rich merchant was really terrified. There was a voice inside his head, telling him that if he didn't say anything, this monster clad in the priest's robe would really kill him!

"I'll say it, I'll say it! It's their words, Nari's, Chira's, and Dorren's. I'm just snooping! Don't kill me!" The rich merchant, fully panicked, told Paladin who his accomplices were.

Paladin only nodded in understanding. These were the merchants who took up the majority of Nurba's iron ore output. To put it another way, these few people represent all of Nurba's iron smelters.

Paladin had guessed so. He then removed his hand. The rich merchant immediately fell to the ground and started coughing. His neck was red like a rose. The rich merchant, who was relieved because he thought his opponent was actually scared to kill someone, was taken aback when he saw Paladin smiling and searching for the dagger he was wearing on his body. The rich merchant could guarantee that he only carried the dagger. He had no real intention of killing anyone. It was purely a gorgeous decoration the merchant had already worn for years, but had never been pulled out.

Just when the rich merchant was worried that Paladin was really thinking of killing him, Paladin laughed, raised the dagger, and stabbed his own left arm.

"Ahhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhh! That hurts!"

Paladin pulled out the dagger. Immediately, bright red blood flowed from the arm. His eyes were becoming increasingly crazier.

"You crazy man." The rich merchant and the two mercenaries looked at the scene in a daze. However, the obese rich merchant was the first to react and showed a look of fear.

Paladin raised his head, cold sweat began to form on his forehead. With a conspiratorial smile, he said, "Early in the morning, you disturbed a sacred church, drove away the believers, and tried to murder a priest of the Holy See! Hahahahaha, you foolish fellow, you messed with the wrong person!"

At that moment, the door that had been closed tightly was suddenly kicked open from outside. Kaleqi, together with a group of guards, walked in in a pretentious manner. Ignoring the curious people behind him, he yelled at the top of his lungs, "I heard that some people openly provoked the holy church! Huh? What's going on here?!"

Halfway through his line, Kaleqi saw the two mercenaries carefully pointing at Paladin who had a painful expression on his face and the rich merchant who was lying on the ground with a pale face. When he saw the blood rushing out of Paladin's arm, his originally rational head instantly went blank.

When Paladin saw the main character of the show approaching him, he screamed and collapsed to the ground. He covered his bleeding arm and started wailing. Kaleqii, who heard the scream, immediately came back to his senses. He quickly ran over and didn’t forget to look at the rich merchant. But, he then saw that the other party's eyes were blank, as if his feelings were dead.