Chapter 81. Called the path the Saintess passed (1)
“I will contact them. They will send Paladins from Moirai to welcome the new Saintess.”
Bartomyu and Berger, who had gathered here again, nodded their heads saying it was only natural, but Blanc could not do so.
-Because the girls who were selected as the 17th Saintess used to pass away early for unknown reasons.
Blanc recalled the conversation he had with the Pope in Moirai.
Not only that, but also the fact that the 17th Saintess did not appear in his previous life.
Through his conversation with the Pope, and through the absence of the Saintess in his past life, Blanc realized that something unidentified was lurking around the Order.
That was why he had summoned Cardinal Julio under the false pretense of being the notary for the Norington recapture operation.
To avoid the public eye and the malice surrounding the Order.
“Cardinal Julio.”
“Yes?”
Blanc had an obligation to take responsibility for the girl named Iselin.
It was Blanc who exposed her to Jonas' evil scheme and caused her to be poisoned, and it was Blanc who brought the Moonlit Grass to save her.
And now.
It was also Blanc who made her grab his collar in panic due to the suddenly changed situation.
Blanc had shaken the fate of the girl named Iselin from its very roots.
“I must take responsibility for her until the end.”
The holy mission of Blanc, the Seeker of the Blue Star, was not yet over.
Not until he returned her to the safe and warm embrace of the Goddesses, away from unknown threats.
“…….”
Iselin looked up at her brother who said he would take responsibility and care for her safely until the end.
And she tightly grasped Blanc’s hand with her two small hands.
***
Early dawn.
Blanc finished preparations to leave Baltimere, leading the entire Cadmus Knights and 10 members of the Tolome Knights supported by Bartomyu.
Inside the carriage he was escorting rode Iselin, who would become the 17th Saintess, and her father, Weird Tolome.
“Arrive first and inform them.”
“Yes, Baron.”
Receiving Blanc’s order, a gray Werewolf ran ahead, cutting through the dark night.
‘It would be best to be fully prepared.’
Blanc, the Regressor.
Until now, all the series of movements and decisions he had made contained Blanc’s intentions, but this time, it was not his intention.
However, even if it was something that happened regardless of his will, Blanc was dealing with this situation more seriously than ever.
“The carriage is ready. Baron Blanc.”
A knight with a huge physique came to Blanc’s side and reported.
“Sir Bauer, it has been a long time.”
It was the knight Bauer, who had defended the rearguard with Hansen in Tiday’s dungeon.
If Noel and Aubert had been at the Tolome mansion, Bartomyu would have sent them, but unfortunately, the twin knights were away for a certain mission.
“What do you mean we suddenly have to escort Lady Iselin to Moirai?”
Bartomyu noticed an uneasy sign from Blanc, who wanted to maintain security to a strange degree.
The old Count gave up his knights as quickly as possible even though Blanc said nothing, and finished preparations to escort Iselin to Moirai with the highest level of security available within the family.
His preparations were so thorough that not only the escorting knights but even Weird, who was riding in the carriage with Iselin, did not know why he had to move.
“It is reassuring to have Sir Bauer with me. Can you clear the obstacles blocking our path at the very front?”
At Blanc’s question, Bauer grinned while lifting his war hammer.
“Baron, that is exactly the reason I am here!”
Blanc had seen Bauer’s strength with his own eyes and trusted it.
So he entrusted him with the optimal mission.
“Move out! We are heading to Moirai!”
Far away, the light of dawn was brightening.
***
“The world I created shall burn white according to the will of the Goddesses!”
A blue lightning bolt exploded from the tip of Blanc’s sword.
In the place where it stayed, only the pitch-black ashes left behind by evil things remained, but.
“There is no end.”
Blanc was wiping the sweat flowing down in the swaying carriage.
Blanc’s complexion was pale as he wiped his sweat.
This was already the fourth time today that Blanc had drawn out the white-burning world.
However, despite his struggle, the ominous wave flocking endlessly before Blanc’s eyes did not cease.
Furs of various colors were tangling together, trying to block the group’s path.
All the animals in the mountain were running wild and charging at the knights.
“We must not stop!”
Bauer was fiercely swinging his war hammer to clear the path, but every time he swung the hammer once, animals quickly filled the empty spot again.
It was a movement that could not be said to be of things moving according to instinct.
“You sons of bitches!”
Bauer burst out in anger, but it was unavoidable even for him.
The knights of Tolome and Cadmus were extraordinary individuals one by one, but the situation they were facing now was far beyond the realm of common sense.
Animals charging at the knights with bloodshot eyes.
Deer and wolves charged toward the same target, and birds flying in the sky and squirrels climbing trees bit at the knights from above and below.
The situation where things that should not be in the same place were charging toward a single target was abnormal to anyone’s eyes.
And the target they were charging at was.
“KYAAAAAK!”
SCREECH!
It was Iselin, who had been selected as the 17th Saintess.
“All knights to the carriage! You must never stop!”
Knights quickly protecting the carriage at Blanc’s instruction.
Animals were rushing around the group like a wave.
They were merely animals, but the ones charging without even fearing death, exalted by some evil trick, had a momentum that was not at all inferior compared to the corpses seen in Tiday’s dungeon before.
Moreover, even now, it was caught in Blanc’s vision that they were constantly flocking over the ridge.
It was obvious that if they stopped even a little, not even a corpse would remain due to the things fallen into the evil trick.
The knights formed a square formation around the carriage, using their bodies as shields for the youngest Tolome, to protect the young girl who had smiled at them.
‘A Warlock.’
Blanc could feel that what was threatening them now corresponded to Evil, but Tiday’s Brand heating up on Blanc’s shoulder gave him no help at all.
Realizing that this situation was caused by Evil, Blanc had first tried shouting a cry containing Evil just like in the forest of Bronberg.
Containing enough energy of Evil to make the knights next to him stagger.
However, it was of no use at all.
‘Evil has a habit of submitting to higher Evil.’
Tarania’s words were realized in reverse.
The Evils Blanc had encountered so far were all lower than Tiday’s Evil.
However, the things threatening the group here seemed to possess an entity higher than Tiday’s Evil.
Because even the squirrel twitching its nose on the tree did not budge at all upon hearing Blanc’s shout.
‘Where did it leak from!’
Blanc did his best for Iselin’s safety.
The four people gathered by the Seeker of the Blue Star agreed to cover Iselin with a veil called secrecy to protect her.
If it leaked, it would be about the route connecting Cardinal Julio and Moirai.
Blanc had departed in a hurry considering even that.
So that by the time Iselin’s existence became known to Moirai, the group would already have arrived in the vicinity.
So that no one would know, and even if they knew, they would be too fast to do anything.
However, all of Blanc’s such attempts had come to nothing.
“Do not stop!”
Iselin of the previous life died at an early age.
That was also the reason why Blanc could not grasp much about Iselin.
At first, he thought that she had a chronic disease or there must have been an unpredictable accident regarding her short life, but right now, at this moment, Blanc realized the reason why Iselin had no choice but to die early in the previous life.
“Clear the path!”
The unknown reason the Pope had mentioned revealed the tip of its evil reality in front of Blanc now.
Iselin Tolome, who had the qualities of a Saintess.
Candidates for the 17th Saintess who died for unknown reasons.
There was an evil hand of Evil targeting them.
‘I cannot hand over Iselin!’
She was a Saintess who did not exist for humanity in the previous life.
However, Iselin of this life was a child who had to become one of the lighthouses that would brighten the path of humanity.
“Baron! We cannot move!”
Simon reported to Blanc in a messy state.
The battlefield became silent in an instant as Simon’s words ended.
“……Come.”
The knights surrounded the carriage with their bodies.
Then they caught their breath, re-gripped their weapons, and prepared for the storm that would soon rage.
There were big and small things shining bloodshot eyes from all directions.
The stench they emitted stung the knights’ noses.
Blanc had to make a decision.
“Sir Bauer.”
“Yes, Baron.”
Blanc spoke calmly to the knight who had guarded his back.
“I am sorry.”
Bauer was a dull knight, but he could at least understand what Blanc was instructing now.
He grinned while lifting his war hammer as always and answered.
“Baron, that is exactly the reason I am here!”
Bauer accepted Blanc’s words as if it were only natural.
Then he gathered the knights who would share his will.
The honorable knights of Tolome.
They would clear the group’s path with their deaths.
Blanc threw open the carriage door.
“……Uuuu.”
Iselin, with a baby bird on her head, was trembling in fear and holding back tears.
Although she tried to compose herself despite her young age, it was a fear she could not handle with that alone.
Blanc picked Iselin up and wrapped her in his embrace.
“I will protect you no matter what happens.”
Weird, who was inside the carriage, nodded toward Blanc.
Weird was prepared for death for his daughter.
Like that, everyone was resolving to clear the path for the young Saintess, prepared for death.
Knights gathered around Blanc.
The knight standing at the very front among those knights was Bauer of the Tolome Knights.
He did not stop laughing heartily even in the moment facing death.
“Everyone-!”
The moment Blanc was about to spit out the next words.
Something was flying from the side of his vision.
A small glittering thing.
Blanc’s formidable dynamic visual acuity figured out the identity of the small thing flying in within a very short time.
‘A reagent bottle?’
That thing, familiar through Ciella, was a reagent bottle often used by alchemists.
That small reagent bottle struck the head of the squirrel sitting on the deer’s antlers.
CLANG-!
The reagent bottle shattered sharply as it was small but fast.
However, the result of it breaking easily surpassed Blanc’s expectation.
‘……!’
A massive explosion sound was heard, enough to make one wonder if their eardrums had burst.
Blanc hugged Iselin and rolled on the ground through an instinctive defense mechanism.
The shock was such that even the ground Blanc was rolling on shook mercilessly.
Not only Blanc but also the knights of Tolome and Cadmus lost their balance and tumbled due to the explosion that suddenly burst.
At least the knights were out of the range of the explosion so they could at least roll.
The animals that were in the direct range of the explosion were swept away by the irresistible massive explosion and disappeared without a trace.
The squirrel that was hit by the reagent bottle first evaporated completely, leaving not even a trace that it had existed in the world.
‘What on earth is this!’
Blanc took care of Iselin and at the same time turned his head to look in the direction the reagent bottle had flown from.
From behind, a man wearing the robe of the Alchemy School was riding a horse and running toward them.
In his hand was a throwing weapon that seemed to have just flung the reagent bottle far away.
“Who is it!”
Since they were being threatened by an unidentified enemy, Blanc asked sharply toward the approaching man.
That man lifted his hood and spoke with a smile toward Blanc.
His reddish-brown hair hidden inside the hood shone red receiving the sun.
“I finally see my proud brother-in-law whom rumors are rife about!”
A handsome man with a good-looking face said with a smile toward Blanc.
As soon as he finished speaking, he took out a reagent bottle from inside his robe and threw it to the opposite side.
KWA—ANG!
Soon, a massive roar that seemed to tear the eardrums was heard, and at the same time, carcasses of animals flew up in all directions.
“That one is a failure. Was the mixture wrong?”
The reddish-brown haired handsome man tilted his head and smiled at Blanc, saying this reagent would be a success.
While all the knights were momentarily dumbfounded looking at the man who suddenly appeared.
Blanc was recalling a person who had been active in the Liberation Front in his previous life.
Alchemy was a field more difficult to use in actual combat than other magic systems.
Alchemy, which had properties closer to an academic study rather than magic.
There was an alchemist who was evaluated as having brought such alchemy into the realm of actual combat and battle.
He was the son of Berger blessed by God, and a mage who went around erasing Void from the world at the forefront.
The Explosion Mage.
It was Franz Neudorf.
“I am Franz Neudorf! Your wife is my younger sister!”
When he threw open his robe, hundreds of reagent bottles were hanging inside.
“I’m going to use all of these today!”
The reddish-brown haired handsome man smiled brightly at Blanc.