Chapter 107. Gathering Shining Flags in Norington (2)
-Establish a solid flag that will not break even in the approaching storm. Young Baron.
Regional Commander Antonio, who informed the young Blanc of Prince Aleid’s existence while praying for the Goddess' blessing.
He was now standing in front of Blanc with a smile.
“I told you to establish a flag, I don’t think I ever told you to go as far as breaking other flags entirely?”
Antonio smiled playfully, fidgeting with his Kaiser-style mustache, which was his symbol.
“Thank you for the advice back then. Lord Antonio.”
Although what he delivered was just a single sentence, Antonio must have thought a lot before delivering those words.
Because information about Norington and Prince Aleid at that time was treated as a secret within the Torch Knights.
“Well, thanks to that, my position within the Knights has solidified quite a bit.”
Having a personal acquaintance with Blanc Cadmus, the sixth knight of Aselheit, the Lord of Norington, and the Seeker of the Blue Star of the Goddess Religion, returned as a great benefit to Antonio.
“Nice to meet you.”
A man with a solemn impression wearing a blue formal uniform offered a greeting from beside Antonio.
It was blue, symbolizing the Goddess.
“It is an honor to meet you. Sir Trez.”
Paladin Trez, corresponding to the second position within the Paladin Order guarding the Goddess Religion.
His tightly closed lips and angular jaw seemed to speak of his personality.
“Sir Blanc Cadmus, the sixth knight of Aselheit.”
Trez’s thick voice echoed in Blanc’s office.
“I came personally after receiving a report that a new Evil was discovered.”
Behind Trez, Antonio, who had just taken out a pipe and lit it, crumpled his expression.
“Oh my…… You should give at least time to catch a breath,”
Despite Antonio’s grumbling, Trez only looked at Blanc without any movement at all.
Blanc felt a weight like an unmoving stone statue from Trez, despite him clearly being a living breathing human.
“Then let us move.”
Blanc decided to show the reason why he came here as Trez wished.
“It is in the underground here.”
***
Three people going down the creaking wooden stairs.
Since it was a temporarily made lord’s manor, the underground prison was also not great, but.
“You have arrived?”
“Huh…….”
Blanc filled the shabbiness of the facility with the excellence of manpower instead.
Because of Simon suddenly appearing without any presence in the darkness, Antonio ended up being greatly surprised.
Trez also twitched his eyebrows at Simon’s sudden appearance and looked at him.
“An excellent knight.”
Praise for Simon flowed from the mouth of Trez, who seemed like he wouldn’t say a single word of private conversation.
It was because Simon was perfectly assimilated into the darkness that much.
“One must entrust the most important task to the most trustworthy knight.”
As soon as Blanc finished speaking, Simon took the lead in front of the three and guided them.
KIIAAAA....
Along with a sound like snakes wriggling from beyond the darkness, bizarre ominousness spread out.
“Certainly Evil.”
Antonio felt the ominousness wrapping around his soul and was convinced that what was in the invisible darkness belonged to Evil, but.
Every time he pushed through the darkness of the underground prison, every time the ominousness he felt became stronger, he ended up tilting his head.
“Hmm…….”
A feeling different from ordinary Evil.
Something that is Evil but not Evil.
It was a subtle difference that only knights of the Paladin Order and Torch Knights standing on the front line against Evil could feel.
‘Oh my…….’
And Antonio, an executive of the Torch Knights, had felt something about this Evil before.
“It is here.”
Simon, who was pushing through the darkness in front of the torch, stopped abruptly.
Blanc brought the torch he was holding to the bars and said.
“These are the reason I had no choice but to report to the Religion and the Torch Knights.”
KREAAAAH-!
From the darkness not yet illuminated by the torch, a hand with raised black veins popped out.
At the appearance as if trying to snatch Blanc in front, Trez and Antonio brought their hands to their swords without realizing it.
It was such a ferocious and evil struggle.
“These were in Norington.”
As Blanc avoided the hand with black veins and brought the torch to the prison.
KIIAAAAH-!
KAAAAAH-!
Inside the prison, figures of people as if just escaped from hell were tangled.
“Mmm…….”
“Damn it.”
It was a bizarre spectacle that made even veterans Trez and Antonio flinch.
Blanc looked at the people struggling in the darkness and said.
“As a result of investigation, it turned out they were all Norington’s territory people.”
Blanc’s blue eyes were deepening.
Things struggling bizarrely and hanging onto specially made bars.
Every single one of them had black branches embedded that gave goosebumps just by looking.
“Are those correct to be the Evil we knew?”
Blanc’s blue eyes looked at Trez and Antonio.
“I learned about Evil from Sir Tarania, a Demon-breaking Knight of the Torch Knights. And in the knowledge she taught me, such things did not exist.”
The Liberation Front in the previous life had to pay countless sacrifices to find out the truth about Void.
Their sacrifices were something those who did not prepare in advance deservedly had to endure, but in this life, Blanc could know that humanity had already noticed the reality of Void.
If the information the Goddess Religion and Torch Knights had was passed intact to the Liberation Front, humanity would not have paid such a disastrous price.
“I think I have the qualification to know now.”
The Regressor who jumped over 30 years was convinced.
Someone in the previous life cut off the information about Void that should have been passed to the Liberation Front.
“Are those the new disaster Lord Aselheit mentioned?”
There are things gnawing at humanity’s potential in deep places he had not reached yet.
Therefore, Blanc decided to take a step forward into the truth about Void.
“As the Lord of Norington who suffered direct damage by the new disaster, I request you to share information about those.”
If Ulrich trapped in the past 190 years ago embedded stars in the night sky.
Blanc, the only Regressor of this era, had the obligation to light up that light.
“About the Void.”
Blanc returned to do so.
***
“……First, I express gratitude to Baron Blanc for safely keeping the new form of Evil for us.”
Three men gathered in Blanc’s office.
For thorough security, even those who could be called Blanc’s limbs were not allowed in this space now.
“Your eye is amazing. Baron Blanc. Certainly, the talent you possess seems extraordinary.”
Antonio lit his pipe and praised his judgment distinguishing Void and Evil in a roundabout way.
However, there was no conversation continuing among the three people after that.
Only the whitish smoke Antonio exhaled filled Blanc’s office.
“It might be contagious.”
Blanc broke that silence and said.
“As a result of investigation, it was Baron Kamora’s subordinates who dragged the territory people. I do not know what tricks they used, but hundreds of people fell in a short time.”
Blanc was unraveling things that could only be known after 30 years pass.
-Void spreads through gaze.
“As a result of experiencing directly, those cursed things seem to contact people’s souls through gaze.”
-It is transmitted through fear.
“Hmm…….”
At Blanc’s report which was like a monologue, Antonio ended up groaning.
Because stories identical to what was written in the top-secret security of the Religion and Torch Knights were coming from Blanc’s mouth.
“…….”
Blanc stopped speaking and just looked at the two men in front of his eyes.
Because it was their turn to answer from now on.
“……As Baron Blanc also knows, there is one common point between our Goddess Religion and Torch Knights.”
The one who broke that heavy silence was Trez, who seemed like he wouldn’t spit out a single word all day.
“……Is it because I cannot be informed since I am a person belonging to the secular world?”
At Blanc’s words, Trez nodded heavily.
The reason the Goddess Religion and Torch Knights could occupy such a solid position as now was because they did not invade the domain of royalty or nobles.
Concentrating their capabilities on blocking the common enemy of humanity called Evil was also one of the reasons.
In other words, they could occupy the current position because they built their own solid domain while not belonging to the secular world.
“……That is so.”
However, since Blanc was a noble standing at the center of the secular world, it was unreasonable for the Goddess Religion and Torch Knights to reveal everything to him.
“The backlash would be formidable.”
Antonio puffed his pipe and supported Trez’s words.
“Since the thing called Evil hides in the darkness of the world, to reveal it, one must ride the passage called secret.”
To get rid of the existence called Evil existing at the bottom of this world, there was no choice but to reveal various and ugly human desires and secrets hiding attached to them together.
“They would hate to reveal their shame.”
Secrets nobles possessed were the same.
Cases like the previous Neudorf mansion were that.
If the secret about Ciella spread outside? Or if there was a secular person who could access that secret?
The moment Ciella’s shame spread to the world, Neudorf would receive a huge blow.
Regardless of status, this was the reason why the Religion and Torch Knights could approach Evil.
Not belonging to the secular world, strictly keeping secrets.
Thus, those who can stand solely in the deepest and darkest place.
Blanc could not become such people.
“…….”
However, Blanc had no intention of stopping here.
Because all his purposes lay in blocking the Void.
All actions of trying to expand his influence even while reclaiming Norington, growing the territory, and confronting Count Lacie originated from the mission received in the Liberation Front.
“I cannot just pass over like this.”
At Blanc’s firm intention, Trez and Antonio only answered with silence.
“At least, I want you to share only about the Void with me.”
However, for the Goddess Religion and Torch Knights, they also could not just ignore Blanc’s demand.
Blanc Cadmus.
Being the Seeker of the Blue Star of the Goddess Religion and the cousin of the 17th Saintess Iselin Sanctus, he was currently a person closer to the Goddess' embrace than any other nobles.
And being a Demon-breaking Knight of the Torch Knights and the sixth knight of Aselheit, he was one of the torches the Torch Knights could proudly put forward.
The person named Blanc Cadmus was a person possessing a malformed form of power where the influence he could exert on the Religion and Torch Knights was greater than the influence on the secular world despite being a noble.
“If it is only about the Void…….”
When Trez was falling into agony crumpling his eyebrows mercilessly.
“Well. I will try raising words to Lord Ronbrando.”
Antonio comfortably pushed the burden to his superior.
In fact, even if Trez or Antonio were people in high positions in the two organizations, such a sensitive issue was a matter that had to go through the hands of the highest decision-maker.
“……Thank you.”
Blanc withdrew knowing he obtained the best result he could get at this spot.
Because approaching with too impatient a mind might ruin the work.
Seeing Blanc’s stiff face, Antonio laughed and patted his shoulder.
“Why make a face carrying all the worries of the world like that? If you do that already at a young age, wrinkles will form on your face.”
Antonio laughed affably and stood up.
“Actually, I brought something to give you.”
“Pardon?”
Instead of answering Blanc’s question, Antonio smiled playfully and said.
“On the way here, I saw only one Cadmus flag fluttering lonely on your lord’s manor.”
Antonio put the pipe into his bosom and said.
“By the way, that mint candy or whatever I ate last time was quite decent. Do you have more of that?”
Would one candy matter to a person who brought a gift.
Blanc quickly took out the mint candy box sealed in the deepest part of his drawer and brought it to Antonio.
“This is really good to eat after smoking.”
Antonio smiled, puffing up his cheeks fully.
“Then shall we go out?”
***
When twilight went over the mountain and darkness dyed the night sky.
One torch was burning on top of the Cadmus lord’s manor.
That torch was different from other torches.
It emitted a white flame, not red, and its brightness was incomparable to ordinary torches.
“It is a symbol of the Torch Knights and a torch bestowed upon a true knight.”
Ciella was holding Blanc’s arm tightly next to him looking at the burning torch.
Blanc’s knights, employees working at the Cadmus lord’s manor, and all territory people in Norington were looking at the whitely burning torch.
It was a torch burning brightly enough for everyone in Norington to look at.
“You know the background of the Torch Knights’ birth well, right? Lord Aselheit summoning glorious knights of the whole world was the beginning.”
Aselheit, the knight among knights and called the teacher of all knights.
Knights respecting Aselheit swore to gather under him again when Evil ran rampant again someday.
“When the beacon of the Continental Lighthouse rises, you just need to answer with that.”
The torch burning in front of Blanc’s eyes now was something only knights qualified to answer the glorious summons Aselheit performed could receive.
Something Tolome had but Neudorf did not.
Something Cadmus had but Lacie did not.
A glorious torch only a true knight could receive was burning at the highest place of Norington.
“Well. It would be better if that torch is not lit. Although we lit it once for the torch handover ceremony now.”
Blanc’s eyes looking at the torch were deepening.
The Continental Lighthouse promised to be lit when Evil crawling out from darkness threatened humanity again.
A torch answering that was burning next to the Black Wolf illuminating the darkness.