Chapter 148 – Saint and Holy Knights (3)

The fight ended not long after.

The holy knights who received divine power through the 〈Maiden’s Dance〉 became red-eyed and quickly dealt with the Minotaurs.

And the woman fighting alone (later heard she was called the knight commander) hummed cheerfully and hacked apart the monsters’ leader as if in a good mood.

After the fight ended and the priest called the saint stopped the 〈Maiden’s Dance〉, the knight members sighed in relief and sat down on the floor.

Their appearance of blankly staring at the ground wasn’t from physical exhaustion but from mental collapse due to tremendous stress.

“For the holy knights’ patience to be this lacking, it seems like insufficient training. Looks like we’ll need to do training to receive divine power whenever there’s a gap.”

At Knight Commander Illiana’s words, the holy knights jumped up from their seats in surprise.

“No way!”

“We don’t need training!”

However, at their intense reaction, Priest Ban made a gloomy expression.

“Well, seems you’ve come to your senses.”

Illiana, who roughly swept her long brown hair back, looked behind where the priest was standing.

There stood people who appeared to be mercenaries.

“It seems you should introduce yourselves now. This place is a dungeon declared as our Holy Kingdom’s management area. If you’re mercenaries who came in hoping for fortune, we’d like you to leave immediately.”

At the knight commander’s words, the prince stepped forward.

“Long time no see, Holy Knight Illiana. Do you remember when I visited as a birthday congratulatory envoy for the Pope a few years ago and you escorted me? I’m Prince Adolf.”

When the prince’s old-fashioned introduction ended, the female knight changed her expression and raised her sword with both hands to her chest.

She greeted the prince’s introduction with the holy knight order’s etiquette.

Following her action, other knight members also showed respect to the prince in the same manner.

“Your formal introduction means… you didn’t come here as a mercenary?”

She had recognized the prince from the beginning. However, since the prince had been living as a mercenary, she treated him as one.

The prince was called a hero among rescued civilians and storytellers, but from the perspective of nobles and knights, he was just doing mercenary work.

If someone was good at worldly wisdom, they’d vaguely treat him as a prince, but Holy Knight Illiana was clear about drawing the line.

At the female knight’s words, the prince nodded.

“I’ve closed the mercenary business. I came because I have business with that saint over there.”

At the prince’s words, the saint pointed at himself with a bewildered expression. He had no business with the prince and had never met a foreign prince before.

“Is it something that requires a lot of time? We plan to advance immediately to where the demon king is. We can’t give you much time.”

“That’s fine. Since I’ve seen you’re safe first, the next conversation can happen outside the dungeon.”

At the prince’s words, Illiana nodded. Since she heard he entered such a dangerous dungeon, it was natural to check life and death first.

However, Illiana soon had a puzzling thought.

‘Not many people know we entered this place, though?’

When she was about to ask the prince about the thought she had, the prince was one step faster.

“I’ll explain the rest outside the dungeon. And we’d like to help with the demon king subjugation too.”

At the prince’s words, Illiana looked around at the prince’s party while temporarily burying her questions.

One knight in full plate armor and the recently famous female spirit mage.

And one young man wearing a peculiar uniform.

She didn’t see the mage and saint he supposedly traveled with as a mercenary before, but they definitely looked like people who could handle more than their share.

However, Illiana shook her head.

“We must eliminate the demon king. Without holy power, if you approach the demon king, you’ll be endangered by the influence of demonic energy. Our holy knight order could also be endangered, so I’ll refuse accompaniment.”

At Illiana’s refusal, the prince made an awkward expression.

Her words were definitely right. The reason why attack parties that assault demon kings always include priests or saints was because of the demon king’s demonic energy.

He himself was wearing equipment that resisted curses, so he’d be fine.

However, he didn’t know what would happen to the others.

Moreover, Illiana’s words that they might interfere with the holy knight order also had merit.

Without knowing the summoners’ abilities accurately, it wasn’t easy for the knight order and summoners to coordinate.

The prince was at a loss since he had no response.

When Sun-woo was thinking of sneaking along after the knight commander’s refusal, a helping hand reached out from elsewhere.

“It would be better to go together.”

Priest Ban, who had been blankly staring at Sun-woo, opened his mouth.

When everyone’s attention focused on him, the priest gave a supplementary explanation.

“I suddenly had that thought just now.”

However, his words weren’t helpful at all even from Sun-woo’s perspective.

Sun-woo and Alda made puzzled expressions at the priest’s words, but the others seemed to have noticed something.

“Sigh, it can’t be helped. Let’s go together.”

First, the knight commander, who had stepped forward to oppose, shook her head and agreed, and the other knight members also consented to his words.

“Phew, it almost got complicated but worked out well.”

At the prince’s soft muttering, Sun-woo asked with a puzzled expression.

“Surprisingly, it seems that man called saint has a high position. He seems to get along casually with the knight members, but everyone follows his words.”

However, the prince shook his head at Sun-woo’s words.

“That’s not it. Even though it’s called a Holy Kingdom, the rank system is more definite. The holy knight order only takes orders from the knight commander and the Pope, and priests and clerics are only in charge of faith and service.”

“What? Then why now?”

“That’s because a kind of oracle just came down.”

“Oracle?”

At Sun-woo’s question, Illiana, who had approached at some point, hurriedly interjected.

“It’s not an oracle. It’s just that our god Frig is the god of love and prophecy, so if divine power is deep, sometimes you get to know the direction that helps the god. Like just now.”

Seeing how urgently she stepped forward, that distinction was probably important within their group.

“Well, from the outside it’s all the same.”

The prince muttered softly at her words, but the knight commander pretended not to hear and continued only what she had to say.

“Even though we’re going together, please follow my instructions as much as possible. Otherwise, we can’t go together.”

She definitely established command authority before moving.

The prince nodded on behalf of the party at her words.

If a problem arose, he’d move freely starting with himself, but until then he intended to follow sufficiently.

The party also seemed to have the same thought and obediently listened to her words.

Illiana lamented inwardly at the people’s appearance of consenting without seriousness.

She didn’t expect more. She only hoped they wouldn’t cause trouble.

***

After the conversation ended and a brief rest, the party departed.

The knight order took the lead and Sun-woo’s party and Priest Ban followed behind.

Knight Commander Illiana first asked the prince to protect the saint, and the prince and party immediately accepted since it was exactly what they wanted, forming this formation.

Beyond the room where they defeated the Minotaurs, gloomy passages continued.

At the end of this passage was the mage’s laboratory where the demon king was hiding.

“But why did the Holy Kingdom suddenly decide to attack this demon king’s dungeon? It’s not time for the demon king to come out yet.”

Looking around at the increasingly gloomy surroundings, Daniel brought up the subject.

An unexpected person answered his words trying to change the darkening atmosphere.

“After the saint died, different races waged large-scale wars, and the mountain ranges where dragons live were exposed to demonic energy – with the world becoming chaotic, our church held a ritual to receive an oracle not long ago.”

The person who answered was Priest Ban walking with the party. He unreservedly revealed the church’s secret story.

“Fortunately, God gave an answer, and we came here following that answer.”

The pleasant baritone voice ended there.

Whether he was keeping secrets, he didn’t tell the oracle’s contents, but the party could infer the content to some degree.

This time Priest Ban looked at the prince and asked a question.

“By the way, what business did Your Highness have to see me?”

At his question, the prince answered calmly.

“Our party just needs to safely bring you out of here. That’s the reason we met you.”

At the prince’s words, Priest Ban smiled bitterly.

He thought the prince didn’t explain properly because he didn’t tell the oracle’s contents.

“Anyway, I’ll find out the reason when we exit the dungeon, right?”

At the saint’s words, the prince knew he misunderstood, but nodded.

Naturally, they’d have no choice but to find out when exiting the dungeon.

Meanwhile, while the prince and Priest Ban continued talking, Sun-woo was following behind in a leisurely mood.

Thanks to entrusting leadership of the party to the prince to deal with the holy knight order and priest, Sun-woo could look around comfortably.

Sun-woo took out his phone after a long time to check people’s ability values and confirmed dead monsters gradually recovering.

Unfortunately, among the abilities he checked one by one, there was nothing particularly worth learning.

Only Alda’s spirit magic and Priest Ban’s divine magic aroused his curiosity, but Alda’s spirit magic had a frightening price even for basic points, so he couldn’t even attempt it.

He couldn’t learn Priest Ban’s divine magic either, but the name itself was too awkward to learn.

**Ban White Priest**

〈Divine Foresight〉 – Impossible

〈Maiden’s Dance〉 – Impossible

〈God’s Warmth〉 – Impossible

〈Maiden’s Kiss〉 – Impossible

〈Purifying Spring〉 – Impossible

Though there were some seemingly normal names, since they were basically divine magic that maidens learn, Sun-woo felt fortunate that the skill descriptions weren’t visible.

While spending leisurely time like that, Sun-woo’s thoughts soon continued to this underground dungeon.

‘Clearly the mission was to bring the saint out of this dungeon. But why didn’t they take him before? And is this dungeon deep enough that Summoner can’t directly summon?’

From Sun-woo’s perspective, the lower underground floor was within distance to contact Summoner.

Sun-woo frowned while looking around.

In his eyes, the passage was gradually changing to a murky color.

That’s when it happened. Priest Ban raised his voice.

“Everyone be careful. The demonic energy is getting stronger.”

He stretched one hand forward and shouted loudly.

“God’s Warmth!”

A gentle energy spread from his hand, and the passage that was changing to a murky color soon returned to its original color.

“Don’t tell me, contamination?”

At that sight, Daniel frowned and drew his sword.

“Don’t tell me the demonic energy mentioned so far was the same as contamination? And purifying demonic energy is the same as purifying contamination?”

The story quickly came together in Sun-woo’s mind.

“Did Your Highness know about this?”

At Sun-woo’s words, the prince shook his head.

“Before becoming a summoner, I couldn’t see contamination, so no way I’d know… I just thought it felt similarly unpleasant, though.”

However, the party couldn’t talk anymore.

An unknown shadow appeared in the middle of the passage, blocking the knight order.

[I’ve been waiting. Followers of false gods. And you slaves of the system too.]

When the noble with a crow’s head opened his mouth, a murky voice was heard in everyone’s minds.

[I welcome you all to my night, the world of Murmur, god of the dead.]

When the crow man’s words ended, eerie sounds were heard from underground and the walls, and soon skeletons began appearing through the walls and ground.

The skeletons with old but proper equipment instantly surrounded the party.

The armor the skeletons wore was full plate armor like what the holy knight order wore and leather armor that mercenaries mainly wore.

No matter how you looked at it, they were definitely knights and mercenaries who visited this place in the past to kill the demon king.

And behind the party, the dead Minotaurs were running toward them dragging their ragged bodies.

“Damn, were you a necromancer!”

With the knight commander’s sharp voice, the party entered combat.