Chapter 86 – Recontract

People who arrived late backed away with fearful faces seeing the dead Apostle and me standing in front of him.

Seeing people trembling in fear, the young awakened one asked me.

“You don’t plan to kill them, right?”

“No reason to kill them.”

At my not-so-quiet words, the young awakened one waved to the people.

“Everyone heard that, right? It’s okay.”

Did he deliberately ask to reassure people?

I hadn’t noticed when he charged at me, but surprisingly he wasn’t bad at using his head.

“So what happens now? With the sanctuary ending and the Apostle dead, is just running away all that’s left?”

I shook my head at the young awakened one, Ihan’s words.

Honestly I had thought that too, but unfortunately we couldn’t do that now.

I sighed looking at the small jewel in my hand. As expected, nothing went according to plan.

While I was sighing like that, Yerim came down to the underground passage.

Yerim, who came down with Hoffman’s help, darkened seeing the Apostle collapsed on the ground.

“The Apostle is dead. Did you kill him, Sir Knight?”

“Yes. He tried to run away with the holy artifact.”

“And you stopped him. Before he would have faced legal judgment, but now he has no right to complain even in death.”

Actually I hadn’t killed him while stopping him, but the result was no different.

Zahina and Ihan who had watched the Apostle’s death had nothing to say either.

“He deserved to die, trying to kill everyone else just to save himself.”

Hoffman who came down with Yerim even welcomed the Apostle’s death.

Yerim who was looking at the Apostle’s corpse asked me.

“Still, Sir Knight could have subdued him without killing him, right? Yet you killed him, which means…”

Yerim looking at me had an expression suggesting there must be some other reason.

I handed the cross to Yerim with her complicated expression.

“Is this… the holy artifact?”

Yerim who received the cross in surprise looked at it with shocked eyes.

The wooden cross shining red with fresh blood on dried blood.

The holy artifact was still radiating intense holy power.

“It is the holy artifact. A holy artifact with its contract terminated. Try connecting to it again.”

“But the holy artifact didn’t accept me. Look, when I push in holy power like this… oh?”

Woooong.

At that moment, the holy artifact in Yerim’s hands accepted her holy power and emitted a bright light.

A light of holy power so bright it was blinding.

The sacred light that started from the holy artifact spread through the underground passage, and people touched by the holy power knelt one after another.

The holy artifact had accepted Yerim’s holy power.

In other words, Yerim had contracted with the holy artifact and become its new owner.

Finally, the holy artifact making a new contract meant the safe zone could be established again.

“Good heavens. It really seems I contracted? How did you know I would be able to contract?”

If only one person could contract with a holy artifact, there’s no way temples could have kept holy artifacts for so long.

Of course, I knew there were quite a few holy artifacts abandoned in temples because they couldn’t find contractors,

And quite a few holy artifacts whose contractors died never found new contractors.

From what I heard from a cleric I knew, even skilled clerics had less than a 10 percent chance of contracting with holy artifacts.

The probability would be even lower for making a new contract right after the contractor died.

Still, the odds were better than mobile game gacha.

That was worth taking a shot at.

If it didn’t work, we could just throw everything away and run.

Honestly I had hoped it wouldn’t work.

‘As expected, my bad luck is strong…’

But the chance to run away had vanished.

There was no need to explain all these circumstances to Yerim.

“First, establish the safe zone here temporarily.”

“Yes. I’ll do that. I think I know how. But what about the octopus? If I spread the safe zone again, it will try to destroy it.”

I sighed again at Yerim’s words.

“I’ll figure something out about that.”

It wasn’t something I wanted to do, but there was no other way.

“Yes! Then, I’ll spread the safe zone!”

Yerim looked at me with a bright face at my words.

She looked at me like looking at a knight protecting people in stories.

Sorry but that was a misunderstanding. I had to turn my head away from her gaze.

Seeing me turn away, Yerim seemed to think I was feeling awkward.

Smiling, Yerim sat down and began focusing on the holy artifact.

Woooong.

As she held the holy artifact in both hands in a praying posture, the veil of holy power created from the holy artifact gradually spread.

The safe zone had started being created again.

After confirming the safe zone being created and turning my head, I noticed Hoffman staring at me from the side.

When I looked at him, Hoffman put his mouth to my ear and whispered quietly.

“Don’t tell me you’re planning to fight the octopus monster?”

I smiled bitterly at Hoffman’s question.

“What fight, since it seems to like me I’m thinking of luring it.”

Hoffman asked again with a puzzled expression at my words.

“Wasn’t it the monster you’ve been avoiding all along? Did you suddenly have a change of heart?”

“Would you not believe me if I said it was to protect the people in the safe zone?”

Hoffman’s expression worsened at my words.

“Even elves wouldn’t believe that. They’re not your territory’s people, not your kingdom’s citizens, there’s no way you’d do that.”

He was right.

I wasn’t a hero, and I didn’t have chivalry like knights in stories, so there was no reason I’d risk my life to save strangers.

But at the same time it was an unpleasant thing to hear.

Did I appear that selfish to Hoffman?

Actually, I wasn’t without thoughts of needing to save the people in the safe zone.

Remembering my previous life and having received proper training as a knight, I had quite good humanity for a medieval knight.

I would help others if it didn’t harm me,

Plus, I traveled well with Zahina who was an elf, so this was clearly chivalry that could be exemplary to other knights.

Besides humanity, there were many reasons to protect the safe zone.

Though now married, my previous life’s lover was in the safe zone,

And to keep Yerim as a party member, the safe zone needed to be protected too.

Though there were many such reasons to protect the safe zone, my offering to lure the octopus monster was for a different reason.

I threw the jewel I was holding to Hoffman.

Reflexively catching the jewel, Hoffman’s eyes widened looking at it.

“Isn’t this a message stone! Don’t tell me the gate opened again?”

Hoffman who had unconsciously raised his voice quickly came to his senses and asked me in a lower voice.

I shook my head.

“No, only this came through. Seems they sent it as a test.”

At my words, Hoffman closed his eyes holding the jewel. He was reading the message magic contained in the jewel.

Seeing that, I recalled the message magic I had just heard.

[Coordinates confirmed. Fixed on current coordinates. Sending message stone for contact first. Will now begin work on opening the gate. It will take some time, so please clear the surroundings before the gate opens.]

The not-so-short content contained in the message stone had kicked me squarely in the back of the head.

The timing was really incredible.

The jewel, message stone had suddenly popped out of thin air while Zahina was digging the hole.

How surprised I was seeing the suddenly appearing message stone.

Like Hoffman, I thought the gate had opened and looked around everywhere.

Of course, besides the hole Zahina was making, there wasn’t even a mouse hole let alone a gate to be seen.

Only after calming my startled heart and checking the magic in the message stone did I understand what had happened.

Those damn mages.

I thought there was absolutely no way to contact before the gate opened, but it seems they could send message stones sufficiently even without a gate.

Actually, this probably wasn’t an easy thing either, and seemed like consideration for us,

But why now, here of all times and places.

Hoffman who checked the message magic also had a troubled expression.

“It’s welcome but… the timing is bad.”

“That’s how it always is with mages’ work.”

“True enough.”

Both Hoffman and I had experienced many times where mages caused problems on higher-ups’ orders and others had to clean up.

It seems we couldn’t avoid mages’ digging even after coming to another world.

“In the end, we need to protect this place until the gate is created.”

“Fortunately the safe zone is being created again, so we just need to protect the safe zone until the gate is created.”

“The Demon King’s army won’t be a problem if we just avoid the guns…”

Hoffman nodded at my words.

I raised my finger pointing upward.

“Just need to lure that octopus somewhere else.”

As the safe zone was created, the roaring started again. The octopus monster had started attacking again.

“So it comes to that after all.”

Hoffman shook his head as if it couldn’t be helped.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Hearing the octopus monster’s attacking sounds, we didn’t have much time.

I immediately gave orders.

“Hoffman, protect Yerim.”

We had just recreated the safe zone.

We couldn’t lose it again from the contractor dying.

“Understood.”

Hoffman nodded at my words.

I gave the same order to the young awakened one standing blankly beside.

“You protect her too.”

He asked me with an interested expression at my words.

“If I protect this lady, you’ll overlook what happened this time?”

“Sure.”

“Eh. Can’t be helped I guess. I’ll protect her well.”

Though looking regretful, he beat his chest as if saying not to worry.

Honestly not very reliable, but I needed to tie up the awakened one’s hands and feet.

Though he didn’t seem to have bad intentions, if given work he wouldn’t think of other things.

After entrusting Yerim to those two, I said to Zahina.

“Come with me. I need Zahina’s help.”

If fighting it, Zahina would likely be a burden, but this wasn’t fighting but luring it away.

The multi-talented Zahina was essential.

“Yes. I’ll follow.”

Zahina followed behind me without a word.

I checked Yerim one last time.

She was kneeling in the middle of the dark passage, holding the cross with bowed head.

She looked like a painting of praying to God.

Though I didn’t know which god was lending her power, I could only hope that god would protect her and the safe zone well.

“Let’s go.”

I shot upward through the vertical passage just created with Zahina.