CHAPTER SEVEN.
The Holy Knight’s Wish

Thanks to Felton, who cleaned up after Seiden and Bellota spent the cursed night together and created a timely disturbance to allow the two to come down unnoticed by others, they were able to safely overcome all dangers and finally depart for the capital.

Now that they had safely passed the full moon and there was no longer a reason for them to move quickly, Seiden pushed forward with the plan even though there was no need to pass through the Feiren Mountains. This was because he needed to return to the capital as soon as possible to uncover the truth behind this strange incident.

Since Bellota had made up her mind, he too had to follow her will without wavering at anything. He also had to give his all to help Bellota, who had asked for his assistance. For these reasons, even as they pushed through the Feiren Mountains once again, despite it being filled with monsters, Seiden couldn’t shake the feeling that it was good they had gone to Selento. The hardships they experienced there had long since melted away without a trace.

However, upon returning to the capital, Seiden had to face an unexpected group waiting for them at the Grand Temple.

“You’ve finally arrived.”

Surprisingly, it was Geril who greeted them in a neat appearance. Moreover, beside him was…

“I’ve heard all about what happened in Selento. You’ve all worked hard.”

The Emperor was there with him. Due to the Emperor’s visit, the Pope and priests were also standing behind him, making the atmosphere quite unusual.

The stunned subjugation team all dismounted from their horses and gave formal greetings to the Emperor. Of course, it was Bellota who walked up to the Emperor first and calmly greeted him.

“Saintess Bellota Rosebeth greets Your Majesty.”

Seiden, who had been glaring daggers at Geril, who was smiling shamelessly as if nothing had happened, also had no choice but to dismount and approach the Emperor, bowing at the waist, due to Kabillon’s silent urging beside him.

“Holy Knight Commander Seiden Blackwood greets Your Imperial Majesty.”

As he greeted, Seiden’s coldly settled mind raced quickly. Geril, who had fled miserably, bringing even the Emperor to greet them, was certainly not a good sign. He must have surely plotted some damned scheme again.

“But what brings Your Majesty all the way here?”

Seiden blurted out the question that filled his mind without hesitation. Though Kabillon and Felton’s faces turned pale at his rude words, the Emperor answered Seiden without any sign of displeasure.

“There is something I need to know, so I’ve been waiting.”

Something he needs to know? Everyone tensely looked at the Emperor.

“Did you see the full moon that rose out of its cycle a few days ago?”

At those words, not only Seiden and Bellota, but even Felton’s breath momentarily stopped. The priests and holy knights had been worrying about this strange phenomenon all the way to the capital, so the room instantly fell silent. It seemed that the capital too had been in an uproar due to the sudden appearance of two full moons.

Manipulating the weather, which was the domain of the gods, was a method once favored by the demon race and required enormous magical power. It was highly likely that such an incident was caused by dark magic. Naturally, the anxiety of the imperial citizens, who were already troubled by the recent rampant behavior of monsters, had intensified.

However, there was something odd about the Emperor visiting the Grand Temple just to ask about the reason for the early full moon. And to ask not the Pope, but the Holy Knight Commander and the Saintess who had just returned from subjugation.

“Yes, we saw it.”

Seiden answered indifferently, with a face that seemed to ask what that had to do with anything. The Emperor looked at Seiden with narrowed eyes, then turned to Geril and suddenly gave an order.

“Search them.”

At the Emperor’s command, Geril, who had been leisurely gazing into space, immediately bowed his head.

“Yes. Search the subjugation team immediately.”

At that, the soldiers waiting behind Geril rushed to the subjugation team all at once and began searching their luggage and every part of their clothes. Faced with this absurd situation, the entire subjugation team froze, unable to even manage their expressions, and looked at each other. Instead of receiving rewards for their hard work for the empire, they were suddenly being treated like criminals and searched.

“Excuse me. I’ll be searching you.”

The soldiers approached Seiden, who was standing stiffly, and rummaged through his pockets, sword sheath, and everything else. But there was no way anything suspicious would be found on Seiden. The magic stone he had brought to contain monsters for Yebar had unexpectedly ended up in the hands of little Abel, whom they met in Selento.

Bellota was also searched. A female soldier approached and searched Bellota’s clothes, and Bellota raised her arms and complied without saying anything.

“Nothing suspicious was found.”

After completing all searches, Geril’s subordinate went to him and reported, making the atmosphere even more tense.

“Now can we know why we had to be searched?”

Seiden asked, looking at Geril with cold eyes. Geril let out a languid sigh and made a troubled face.

“If we were rude, I apologize. But it was unavoidable. We had to confirm whether the dark magic that brought forward the full moon was related to the subjugation team from Selento.”

At those words, not only Seiden, but also Bellota, Felton, the Holy Knight Order, and the priests’ faces were filled with deep bewilderment.

“What are you talking about?”

Seiden asked stiffly, now truly angry enough to be dumbfounded. It was bad enough that the one who had caused all that trouble and ran away had shamelessly appeared before Bellota again, but now to accuse a holy knight of the temple of dark magic?

The Emperor answered,

“We received a report from Duke Lylester. The corpse of the monster subjugated in Vergio disappeared without a trace.”

Seiden noticed that the Emperor was looking at him with quite suspicious eyes.

“It’s not uncommon for monster corpses to disappear without a trace. And since this was an unresearched deep-sea monster, we don’t know why it disappeared either.”

Seiden replied indifferently without batting an eye. Nevertheless, the Emperor’s faintly creased brow did not easily smooth out.

“Yes, that may be so. But why didn’t you share the method to defeat the deep-sea monster with Duke Lylester and his soldiers? Because of that, Duke Lylester lost half of his troops.”

Ah, only then did Seiden and Bellota realize Geril’s scheme. He was trying to turn this incident into a conflict between the Imperial Palace and the Grand Temple to cover up his own mistake.

Seiden swallowed his rising killing intent and answered slowly.

“There was no need to share that method. Only the Holy Knight Order set out to subjugate the monster. Duke Lylester had agreed to stay within the city walls.”

“That’s because the Holy Knight Commander gave the impression that you didn’t want to be interfered with. Your will was so strong that I didn’t say anything more and went to Rivierto, in the opposite direction of Torcana where the Holy Knight Order was heading. If I had intended to stay in the safe city all the way there, would I have gone to the orphanage in Rivierto that was attacked by monsters?”

Geril immediately rebutted, twisting his words subtly. Seiden coldly glared at Geril.

“Is that why you abandoned the Saintess and ran away?”

Geril’s face turned red. His wavering eyes glanced briefly towards Bellota. Realizing that Bellota was waiting for his answer with an expression he had never seen before, completely motionless, Geril burst out with an explanation.

“Abandoned? It’s because you didn’t share with me the method to kill that monster that we suffered such great losses! Do you even know how many of my troops died fighting that thing? How will you take responsibility for those innocent sacrifices? If I had known that method, I would have killed it myself before you arrived!”

“…You didn’t even go inside.”

Finally, Seiden’s eyes turned fierce. His voice was chillingly suppressed. Geril inwardly flinched but, trusting in the Emperor, did not back down.

“I was just about to break down the door and go inside when you came and stole the opportunity. Then you ran away with the unconscious Saintess without even cleaning up the scene.”

Felton let out an exasperated sigh at this outrageous distortion, but Geril didn’t even glance in his direction. He simply turned to look at the Emperor, having quickly regained his composure.

“And I immediately took care of that monster’s corpse. In case someone else might take it away.”

As Geril bowed his head deeply with a loyal expression, a satisfied look appeared on the Emperor’s face.

“Yes, thanks to the Duke, we obtained the deep-sea monster’s corpse. This will be an important research subject for the Empire.”

Seiden, whose patience had run out at that maddening combination, was about to step forward when Bellota moved urgently and gripped his hand tightly, stopping him without drawing attention. Taking advantage of Seiden’s momentary halt at the sudden contact, Bellota quickly stepped forward and spoke.

“Your Majesty. The method to kill the deep-sea monster in Selento was water. Unlike seawater, it had to be pure and clean water without salt, untouched by human feet, and only water reflecting the moon on its surface could affect the deep-sea monster and was the only way to inflict damage on the immortal monster.”