Chapter 118. Things Wriggling Underneath the Feet (4)
He jumped down in the moonlight, in the dark night.
When the one step of the Regressor who returned to save the world was short, he was in the place he should be, saw what he should see.
And accomplished what he should do.
Schumacher Tolome.
The strongest knight of the Tolome family and the person serving as the Vice-Commander of the Royal Knights.
That person was sitting in front of Blanc right now.
Looking at Blanc Cadmus, a Count of the Kingdom and his nephew.
“It is a formal matter. The fact that I, not an inspector, entered here is proof itself.”
A middle-aged man wearing white armor pulled a chair in front of Blanc and sat down.
A person with discipline flowing in even a single trivial movement.
“The matter became too big.”
Last night.
There was a giant Evil piercing through the night of Baltimere.
It hid in Baltimere’s shadow and cleverly gnawed at people’s souls, but those lighting torches and those following the Blue Star eventually succeeded in finding them.
“Please understand. Because we only heard a request to strengthen Baltimere’s security.”
Things called Evil permeated like shadows, existing where they should be and also where they shouldn't be.
Therefore, Demon-breaking Knights and Exorcist Priests always hid in the cloak of secrecy and paid much attention to concealing their targets.
Even if that target was the Royal Family possessing the greatest power in the secular world.
“I understand.”
Schumacher Tolome, the Vice-Commander of the Royal Knights and the strongest knight of Tolome.
He was currently interrogating Blanc, his nephew and the Lord of Norington.
It was an interrogation like a formality, but also a necessary procedure.
The Torch Knights and Goddess Order did not interfere in the secular world, and it was the rule that the Royal Family possessing the greatest power in the secular world also did not interfere with them, but last night’s event was an incident breaking that boundary.
“Please ask.”
It meant it was a matter where even those with noble intentions should have shown at least an attitude of self-restraint regarding this.
“You won't answer even if I ask anyway, will you?”
Schumacher continued speaking while throwing the bundle of papers he held onto the desk.
“I know well that is the rule of the Noble Ones.”
Although the families where they operated would have been identified through the holy light of the Grand Exorcism, all knights and priests here would not answer that those families were related to Evil.
Because that was the boundary and the rule.
“Just stay here for a while. Because there is also the Royal Family’s face.”
However, since it was a calamity that occurred in the Kingdom’s capital, the Royal Family also needed an opportunity to save face.
“I understand.”
Because they were Demon-breaking Knights and Exorcist Priests who knew that, they walked in here themselves without any resistance.
Schumacher’s gaze looking at Blanc was cold.
However, that coldness was not directed at the individual named Blanc, but created while looking at the incident that happened last night through him.
“This is the first time such a thing has happened since I joined the Royal Knights.”
As Schumacher said, it was the first time Evil was revealed so blatantly in the Kingdom’s capital.
Furthermore.
“Sitting in this seat, I come to hear this and that news.”
Apart from the incident that happened last night, there were dark rumors making Schumacher uncomfortable these days.
Schumacher, who became the Vice-Commander of the Royal Knights by Bartomyu’s will.
He was a person illuminating the family’s future by expanding Tolome’s influence through the central power of the Kingdom of Felix and finding out information a mere family could not obtain.
There were ominous information and rumors continuously coming to such a man.
Those dark rumors were coming little by little not only from the Three Kingdoms of humans but also from Brotswav, the Dwarf Tribal Union, and Elbhenin, the city of Elves.
“It makes me think that the dark era when black mages ran wild in the old days might be coming again.”
And through this incident, that premonition became close to conviction.
Schumacher, who could see far because he was in a high place, felt like he had discovered dark clouds approaching from the distance.
“What do you think?”
It was a single question, but many meanings were implied in that question.
Blanc was the Seeker of the Blue Star and a Demon-breaking Knight of the Torch Knights, but.
He was a noble of the Kingdom of Felix and also the nephew of Schumacher sitting in front.
Between conflicting positions and locations, Blanc had to judge wisely and keep treading on those borderlines.
“……More torches will be needed.”
“Good.”
Riding the line of the boundary, Blanc and Schumacher said what needed to be said and heard what needed to be heard.
“Understood.”
Schumacher stood up without lingering attachment as soon as he heard those words.
“I will send everyone back tomorrow morning, so stay at ease.”
Schumacher’s white armor disappeared out the door.
At that moment, Blanc could feel it.
That when Schumacher sat in front of him, he was Schumacher, the Knight of the Iron Wall boasted by the Royal Knights, but.
When he stood up and went out the door, he possessed the eyes of a lion.
***
A knight walking down a dim corridor.
Even in the flickering torchlight, he was walking forward without a bit of hesitation, but.
“Sir Schumacher.”
There was a person stopping him.
“What did Count Blanc say?”
A man leaning against the wall and looking at Schumacher with an arrogant posture.
He was Horst Ulbricht, the Commander of the Royal Knights and cousin of Frederick, the current King of the Kingdom of Felix.
A golden bloodline enjoying power under the protection of his father, a Duke of the Kingdom of Felix, and his cousin, the King.
“Following the right of the Torchbearer, he exercised the right to remain silent.”
“He is a Torchbearer, but isn't he also a Count of the Kingdom of Felix?”
Horst raised one corner of his mouth and approached Schumacher.
“He should have the duty to cooperate with the Royal Family as a noble.”
Blanc standing in the special position of Aselheit’s Knight.
Since Blanc had both the holy duty and the rank in the secular world, there were many rights allowed to him, but thinking conversely, it meant there were also many duties that could bind him.
Aselheit’s Knight moving on the line was a person who always had to be careful of the double-edged sword.
“Since it is true that they illuminated Baltimere’s darkness against Evil, pressuring them with a coercive attitude is not a good judgment.”
And Tolome was a family that volunteered to be a shield blocking one edge directed at Blanc.
“Really?”
Hearing Schumacher’s words, Horst put a smile on his lips and spoke to Schumacher.
“Since the arm bends inward, I understand.”
Simultaneously with those words, Horst erased the smile from his lips.
“So you understand me too, who has to say these words.”
Horst approached Schumacher and spoke quietly into his ear.
“Figures in the south are too noisy these days. My older brother thinks disapprovingly of it.”
Horst patted Schumacher’s shoulder and smiled again.
“Cadmus is a family that was abandoned once already. Would they not be able to do twice what they did once?”
Simultaneously with those words, Horst passed Schumacher and walked down the corridor.
“I hope you make the right decision. Wasn't Tolome always a family that fulfilled its duty to the Royal Family as a meritorious family?”
Horst’s words echoing in the dark corridor approached heavily to Schumacher.
“…….”
The Royal Family, Ulbricht, shook the leash they held.
And at the end of that leash sat a lion named Tolome.
Schumacher just looked down at his toes quietly without saying anything and listened to the footsteps gradually moving away.
Last night, the Noble Ones risked their lives and fulfilled their duty, but the owners of this land were only pouring their attention into power struggles.
‘More torches will be needed.’
“Darkness is approaching.”
The lion of Tolome of the current era shone his eyes.
“Those who should shine do not shine.”
Fellows who sell off even their vassals for profit.
Those busy thinking of putting a leash on the rising star rather than caring for the people exposed to Evil.
The glory of the great Wilhelm I did not exist in the current Ulbricht family.
Desires as dark as Evil were wriggling at the bottom of this Kingdom.
Schumacher quietly fiddled with the crest attached to his left chest.
A lion with a cold heart who knew how to push even his only son off a cliff.
His eyes were shining in the middle of the dark corridor.
***
Although there was regrettable sacrifice, the Noble Ones succeeded in revealing the night.
Deep in their bosoms, a sheet of paper was kept, and sealed in that paper were the Evil that ran wild last night.
From now on, they would strive to closely analyze the Evil they sealed and find their origin.
“I pray that the Goddesses’ blessings be full on the way to Moirai.”
Blanc offered prayers to the Goddesses for the comrades who revealed the night with him.
“Thank you. Count.”
They also bowed their heads and greeted Blanc.
Blanc, with respect for the Noble Ones opposing darkness.
Those illuminating darkness bowed to each other containing gratitude for the young noble who responded to their call despite having stepped into the secular world.
Last night, under the dark night sky, they became comrades-in-arms, and trust in Blanc, Aselheit’s 6th Knight, would rise even higher due to this incident.
Tarania and Fabiano also intended to go up to Moirai with them, but.
“You two, stay at my mansion for a moment before going.”
The two Demon-breaking Knights were briefly puzzled by Blanc’s sudden stopping, but knowing well that Blanc was not one to hold them without reason, decided to accept his proposal.
“I have something to show you.”
Blanc headed to the Cadmus mansion prepared in Baltimere leading the two Demon-breaking Knights.
Blanc closed his eyes quietly there and tried to remember the fleeting moment he saw.
That momentary instant when his sword containing the Goddesses’ holy energy created a gap in the world.
The woman standing at the end of the black rope.
The beautiful but eerie woman wearing a black veil.
Blanc began to recall the moon floating above her and the appearance of the huge Continental Lighthouse seen behind her shoulder in his memory.
“Sky and moon and stars and the Continental Lighthouse…….”
Blanc, who quietly repeated the monologue, began to draw straight lines on the map quietly using methods learned from the Liberation Front in his last life.
“Positions of the moon and stars.”
A line is drawn on the map.
“Angle of the shadow.”
Another line cutting across that line is drawn.
“Direction of the Continental Lighthouse.”
The two Demon-breaking Knights kept their mouths shut and just watched Blanc’s actions.
Blanc’s office was full of only the sound of scribbling lines.
His unstoppable hand movements were on the map, but his gaze was fixed on the woman wearing a black veil in his memory.
The reality pulled out from memory was being drawn on Blanc’s map.
“Found it.”
Thus, finally, Blanc’s fingertip stopped in the middle of the map.
There was a place where three lines gathered at one point where Blanc’s hand stopped.
“This place is…….”
Fabiano opened his eyes wide and looked at the place name written on the map.
A place where the Continental Lighthouse, the symbol of the Torch Knights, was visible, and deep within the Neyanpalgar Mountain Range said to have stood from the beginning of time.
Blanc’s finger was stopped there.
“Neyanpalgar Mountain Range, Black Forest.”
A woman who had scattered Evil under the land of Baltimere for a long time.
A woman who disappeared without anyone knowing, leaving not a single trace in the last life despite that.
The place where the woman stood between the gaps of the split world appeared on the map.
Confirming that location, Blanc thought perhaps this too was the guidance of fate.
“That woman was here.”
Blanc spoke quietly stroking the golden key in his bosom.
“One more reason to go has arisen.”