CH 82

Chapter 82 Ten thousand leaves(2)

Translator: BaeBae Editor: BaeBae

Swallen got on top of the carriage and looked around. Far in the horizon towards the west, a red dust cloud could be seen.

Juan didn’t even turn his head. While he had been concentrating on controlling his mana, his senses had been dialled to high.

Thirty or so people. All were on horses and armed. Juan felt a familiar scent among them.

“They’re Paladins.”

Swallen looked towards Juan with a surprised face. They were still far in the distance, barely showing their silhouette.

Juan was curious to see how Swallen would handle the Paladins. There was a chance that Swallen could reveal Juan’s identity and aim to take the 10,000 gold leaves as her reward. He wondered what he’d do then.

Well, in all honesty, it didn’t matter.

When he’d killed the entire blue rose knights, he had made the decision to not bother hiding his identity nor his trace. And until now he’d made true to his own decision.

For more,

But then, Swallen put her hand on his dagger. Still wearing her smile, she shook her head.

The door opened, and the mercenaries one by one stepped out. Juan and Swallen walked out last.

The Paladin claiming himself to be Beltre, immediately looked at Juan.

Without moving an inch, Juan returned his stare. Beltre stretched out his arm to remove the scarf covering Juan’s head revealing his black hair.

Seeing the hair colour, the other Paladins approached closer with their swords drawn. Beltre held up his hand, signalling them to stay back.

Without saying much, he put the headscarf back on Juan’s head.

“I know right now’s a hard time for you people from outside the border. But do understand. We’re on edge due to the ruckus that one of your people made in the south. Have you by any chance seen a kid aged around 10? He has the same black coloured hair as you.”

“I have not.”

He wasn’t lying. But for some reason, Juan thought about telling him the truth but he was finding it too amusing how they were still looking for a kid.

“If you do, I’d like it if you’d report it to the nearest church or military base. The sooner this chase is over, the sooner your guys’ lives will be back to normal.”

When Beltre let go of Juan, the other Paladins shared a dissatisfied look with another. But as soon as Beltre turned his head, their heads all dropped down like a frog in front of a snake.

Inside a Paladin order, the commander’s authority was absolute.

“I’ll mention it to the other mercenaries as well. Nearby, we found traces of the traitorous Thorntree priesthood’s activity. Six corpses belonging to the traitors were found in which traces left were similar to that which was left by the demon of Tantil. If there’s anything suspicious, make sure to report without hesitation!”

Though none of the mercenaries in particular seemed to have any desire in their eyes, Beltre finished his one-sided words and turned his back. Then as if he remembered something, he whispered to Juan.

“I’ve noticed that those from outside the empire don’t know about the emperor’s ways. You’ll do well to be careful of every action you take. I’ll be remembering your face.”

Beltre gave his warning and signaled at his knights.

“Lets go.”

As Beltre and his Paladin order disappeared towards south, a sigh of relief escaped from everyone’s mouth. The mercenaries spouted several words at Paladins and the church while they got back into the carriage.

*****

Beltre was silently staring ahead as his horse galloped along. Knowing that Beltre wasn’t in the best mood, the other knights refrained from talking.

He wasn’t enjoying the red wasteland scenic view. The barren wilderness that stretched over the horizon brought up a distant memory. Empire’s eastern land. It was where Beltre had been born and raised.

Beltre, who was born after the beginning of eternal rule, the east was a violent and dreadful place.

Unable to witness the east’s beauty that once existed, he had lost his family in the flames that purged the land.

The barren soil spread and turned the grounds red, and Beltre at the time kept himself alive by eating discarded food in garbage cans.

“Beltre nim.”

Someone came up to him. His pupil that stood narrow like a snake, shined frighteningly underneath his visor. It was Marco, his Vice commander.

“Wouldn’t it have been better to take him just in case? It was obvious at first glance that he was anything but ordinary.”

“Leave it. The suspect that his highness has described is a black haired boy that’s aged around 13 years old. If he wasn’t ordinary just like you said, there’s no reason to go and waste our strength where it’s not needed.”

“But, that bastards a heretic that’s not been graced by our emperor.”

“Brother Marco.”

With irritated eyes, Beltre glared at his Vice commander of the Abhorrent knights.

“Keep in mind that the White Crow knights met their doom by not following our highness’s orders and using their strength on other efforts. And we’re currently cleaning after their mess. Are we to delay things even further by wasting our time on other efforts, just like them?”

“………My apologies for my careless thinking.”

Marco bitterly admitted. Beltre recalled the orders of Pope Helmut once again.

Don’t waste time on other things and focus only on hunting down the black haired boy.

The twelfth Paladin order was specialised in pursuit and assasination.

Beltre’s job was to move around the empire and execute secret orders that the Pope gave him.

Often, the order split up and operated in smaller teams working on different cases. A case rarely required the efforts of the entire order.

For most given orders, it was easily performed to a tee with the power of ‘snake’ that was bestowed to the knights of Abhorrent order.

And while this time, they were to carry out an important task, it didn’t change the fact that they were Paladin knights. Even if it was unrelated to their task in hand, naturally they felt a rising feeling of hate towards those deemed ‘enemies of the church’.

But Beltre was different. What fueled him was not faith, but his desire to survive and to be successful.

‘Black haired boy you say……’

From a noble’s newborn baby to an elderly that had but a few days to live, Beltre was not fussy about who his target was. However, this time it was a bit unusual.

From the ongoing rumours, it was hard to guess the identity of his target.

‘Black emperor, Tantil’s demon, Blue rose knight slaughterer, and even…….’

She grabbed the collar of the nearest mercenary that was sleeping and threw him out.

The mercenary screamed as he tumbled onto the red wasteland.

“Swa, Miss Swallen, what are you doing!”

Despite protests, Swallen grabbed her next target and threw him out as well.

The mercenary hit his head onto the ground and rolled to a stop, now unconscious.

The last mercenary threw himself out voluntarily after receiving a look from Swallen.

It looked as if none of them had been critically hurt as the carriage had been moving slowly.

“Coachman. You as well.”

“I’ll need an explanation for this, Miss Swallen!”

The coachman begrudgingly handed Swallen the reins.

The carriage suddenly picked up speed having seen its horseman change. But it was not enough to out pace the Paladins in pursuit.

Meanwhile, Beltre glanced at the fallen mercenaries on the side but skimmed past knowing better than to waste time on them.

But the vice commander Marco thought differently. Upon raising his finger to signal his knights, 5 of them moved out of the pack. Spears were shot through the chests of the mercenaries who were now just dazely getting up.

Swallen’s face grimaced at hearing the screams, but she bit her lips and refrained from looking back.