I Became a Childhood Friend With the Villainous Saintess - Chapter 165



165 – Gamigin (7)

In the middle of the night, the drum rang loudly.

The birds that had finally fallen asleep were startled and ran away, and the insects that had been singing happily fell silent and held their breath.

All that remains is the noise of people moving busily.

The joints of the armor creaked and clanked.

A knight shouted in the midst of the chaos.

“Enemy force of about thirty! No cavalry in sight!”

“Kill the demons!”

“Rotten. You must be so unlucky that all the crazy guys are attacking you.”

Those who are first surprised are helpless.

Because boundaries can’t always be perfect.

Compared to this side, where they could attack at any time, the enemy only had to take advantage of the weakest opportunity.

The best thing is not to allow surprise attacks, but once you are surprised, it is also a knight’s ability to respond quickly.

In that respect, the Knights of the Spearhead were certainly worthy of claiming to be the best in the Empire.

The enemy warning sounded as soon as the attack began.

The knights who were resting jumped out like swords and responded with initial response, and even though it was an unexpected battle, they managed to put up a good fight.

For example, the knight in the lead was already cutting off the enemy’s life with his sword.

The knight was slightly off to the left.

“For Illencia!”

The black sword that struck like lightning did not stop even once.

A very large step forward, perhaps because delicate footwork is impossible.

In that one step, the enemy soldier ended up losing his life.

That’s the moment when the knight tries to find his next enemy.

Something passed him by, too fast for him to resist.

It was a fleeting moment, but the knight did not miss the object.

‘A spear?’

The spear that suddenly flew in hit the corpse of an enemy soldier, not a knight.

He flew far away with his body turned into a lump of meat.

Was someone trying to help?

He was about to take his own life anyway.

I thought it was a disappointing result for such a great javelin throw, but soon the knight had to open his eyes wide.

Bam! Bam!

This was because the corpse that had just flown away exploded, emitting a crimson flash.

A loud explosion that shook the whole area. The explosion, accompanied by intense flames, lit up the night sky.

Soon the battlefield was filled with the thick smell of coal.

The knight, startled, turned his head in the direction from which the spear had come flying earlier.

As expected, there was a very familiar figure in that spot – a knight in pitch-black armor holding a greatsword.

“Thanks to you, I survived, Captain.”

The article moved forward again.

* * *

The lingering smell of coal permeated the air endlessly.

A battlefield where a storm had passed. Someone moved another corpse with a thud.

Before long, several corpses had gathered in a corner, forming a small mountain.

To be honest, it was a bit difficult to describe it as a ‘corpse’.

It is difficult to tell what part of this place was, let alone the human form.

At this point, wouldn’t it be more accurate to just say it’s a pile of ashes?

It was so black that it seemed as if it would crumble to pieces if you hit it hard enough.

The knights frowned as if they were displeased just by looking at it, but they couldn’t show it any further.

It was because of the presence of a woman poking the corpse here and there.

Swordmaster of the Rangers. Hilia was cutting up a corpse with her dagger and examining it.

“How is it? Did something come out?”

“Umm… … No. It’s not easy to leave such a trace. It’s difficult.”

Hilia expressed her discomfort.

Yet her dagger twisted the blade and cut open a part of the corpse.

It was such a gruesome sight that I didn’t even want to see it. But there was no stopping the skilled hands.

A human corpse leaves behind more clues than you might think.

Generally, what weapon was used and the general skill level of the killer.

If we go a little further, we can get a rough idea of ​​the situation right before death, whether there are any companions, and even the extent of training.

Just as human life leaves traces on the body, death leaves traces on the corpse.

So, I learned how to examine a corpse, but I couldn’t compare to Hilia.

All the Rangers are experts in the pursuit. Among them, Hilia was raised as a Ranger from a young age and rose to the position of captain.

So I was hoping for something like that, but it didn’t seem like it would be easy.

Hilia looked closely at the corpse pieces.

She checked the other bodies a few more times, then sighed.

“It’s clean. To the point of being excessive.”

“Isn’t there anything you can find out?”

“Yes. It’s embarrassing. I don’t know how this could happen. It was such a powerful explosion, and there’s not a single clue left. It must have been the result of some force.”

Of course, the midnight raiders got nothing.

Although the surprise attack was allowed, the situation was never unfavorable, and the fighting did not last more than 20 minutes.

It was a natural result. The name Sword Master is by no means light.

Even Revan, who suffered a crushing defeat at my hands, was able to cut down even the most skilled knights with a single stroke of his sword.

Without exaggeration, with this level of power, you would need to bring the regular army of a decent kingdom to have a fight.

Of course, it was impossible to hide that number of troops within imperial territory without making a sound.

Guerrilla warfare tactics also do not work.

There is no way they could escape to us within the imperial territory.

So unless he was truly insane, his intention would not have been to kill any of us.

I went to the trouble of searching through the corpse to find out. It seemed like it wouldn’t be easy.

All the raiders who were supposed to get information had blown themselves up, and I didn’t have the confidence to dig up anything that Hilia couldn’t find out.

In that case, the one who has to make the decision is the highest noble, Grand Duke Illencia.

Sirien, who had been worrying, started asking questions actively.

“I would like to hear more details. Anyway, I will have to report this to the imperial family.”

“First of all, there’s no physical evidence to be seen. The explosion occurred in the body, centered around the heart, and you must have seen the results with your own eyes. I’ve searched through about five bodies so far, but I haven’t found anything unusual.”

“There’s nothing strange about finding magic.”

“If I had to find something strange, it would be that it’s too clean. This kind of thing… is not something a human being can do.”

Sirien turned her gaze to Hilia’s words.

Of course, the Sword Master who was watching the situation from nearby, Sir Norden and Isha also moved their gazes.

At the end of it all was Gamigin.

It was only natural that Gamigin was suspected.

Because if something strange happened on this journey, we couldn’t help but suspect Gamigin first.

The demons are untrustworthy.

The Demon King suddenly appeared, saying he wanted to talk, and it was even more unbelievable.

Isn’t this a very natural flow of thought?

“Why? Why are you looking at me like that again? I told you it’s not me. There’s nothing I can gain by doing this!”

“I don’t know if you know, but that’s one of the excuses criminals often use. They usually use it to hide the benefits they’ve gained.”

“… … .”

Well, I didn’t have any plans to do anything with Gamigin right away.

It was true that Gamigin had nothing to gain from this attack.

Since the attackers were all human, it was much more reasonable to assume that there were fanatical demon haters within the empire.

Sirien asked again, wanting to make sure.

“Does saying that humans can’t do it include demons?”

“Yes. So what I see is… … like the marks left when water passes over the soil. You can tell even if there is no remaining magic power. Even if you are born with a noble bloodline like the Grand Duke, this mark will definitely remain. It’s just hard to read.”

“Then what does clean mean? I don’t quite understand.”

If you think about it, there really isn’t no way to treat humans like suicide bombers.

The Golden Ball, an alchemist, can conjure human-shaped chimeras, while the zealots of the faith can sacrifice their own bodies just before they die, unleashing powerful divine blasts.

Or, it might be possible to use a magic tool, although it’s a bit of a hassle.

However, none of them fit this case.

What we were dealing with were real human beings, and the ‘martyrdom’ of faith has a different power than such a messy explosion.

If I had used magic tools, such a clean clean-up would not have been possible.

As expected, Hilia’s answer was also negative.

“No. It’s not a magic tool. After all, it was created by a human. So, what I meant by ‘humans can’t do it’ is a bit more direct.”

Hilia takes a moment to consider her words.

Her expression was one I knew well.

I know, because I’ve been in that situation many times, you’re probably choosing the expression in your head right now.

A situation where no matter what you say, it seems like no one will believe you.

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Or maybe you just have to bring up a topic that is extremely awkward to talk about.

And my hunch was absolutely right.

“I think it’s one of two things. One is something very inorganic. That is, something like a stone or a grain of sand on the side of the road. It’s an action by a ‘thing’ that has no reason or emotion.”

“The other one?”

“It’s too blasphemous to even dare to say it, but… … It must be God. Not divine power, but the power of God itself.”