Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 289



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Episode 289. The brazier whispers (1)

Of course, it was not Isaac’s intention that Atlan’s mother died.

From the beginning, Isaac had no interest in what happened to Orthea, and he didn’t even factor it into his calculations.

But I never expected that I would accomplish such feats as letting Sahul Khan escape, keeping Atlan alive, and making Tukhalin feel a subtle pang of conscience.

But other than that, Isaac’s intentions were correct.

“To some extent.”

“… … You deliberately dragged our troops deep into the territory?”

“It’s basically a repeat of what happened in Soeur, just on a bigger scale.”

Of course, the details are very different.

In Soerl, we eliminated the shamans and drastically lowered the morale of the orcs, and in Isacrea territory, we only dragged the enemies deep enough that they would have difficulty retreating before revealing our allies.

Isaac began to explain, since he had already opened his mouth, to Ethelred as well.

“The furnace of the world has already been here long ago. The Isacre territory was originally famous for its mines, and mines are like homes to the dwarves. They stayed there and waited for you to pass over their heads.”

Isaac said this and pointed east.

“I don’t know if you’re listening, but my promise to bring you the knowledge you want wasn’t a lie. I just couldn’t get it. You must have heard about the chaos that happened in Lichtheim. It happened during that process. But since I failed, I thought I should use it to provoke you.”

“… … You’re crazy.”

“It’s not often that you get a chance to provoke an angel. Of course, he came over right away. However, I didn’t expect him to come all the way to Khan. That’s why he got through faster than I thought… … I had to pretend to negotiate in front of you and keep talking nonsense.”

It was a close call, but if the Knights of Elril had been even half a day late, the village would have burned and the monastery would have collapsed. The damage to the village, already caught up in the battle, was not small, but the worst could easily have happened.

Atlan was silent for a while before opening his mouth.

“Why did you do that?”

“Why? Because this was the way to win?”

“You said that the World’s Brazier had arrived early. If we had only seen the World’s Brazier Cult siege in the mountains without having to fight, we would have either taken a detour to the south or given up on Isacrea territory. Even if the Manseongja were angry, he would not be the type to waste his followers on meaningless revenge.”

Isaac nodded at those words.

As Atlan said, it was much more advantageous to hold out on the mountaintop together rather than risking the danger and gamble, invoking the Olkan discipline, and putting the residents at risk.

However, Isaac decided to bring in the orcs and inflict great damage.

“Did you want to be a war hero?”

Isaac snickered at Atlan’s sarcastic tone. A few years ago, he might have done so. He was struggling to gain fame and social status. But not now. Isaac already had enough fame.

Isaac’s answer was simple.

“Wouldn’t that reduce the number of troops heading south even a little?”

“……what?”

“You expected that occupying this place would not be easy, and the Mansengja were waiting here. The peerless warrior Atlan was also watching. There must have been many troops preparing for battle here.”

“… … .”

“If I had defeated you without a fight, wouldn’t you have just headed south? Then the people in the south would have to face your crazy orc bandits. I couldn’t stand to see that happen.”

So Isaac decided to fight instead.

He may not be able to run there and help, but he will try to lure as many enemies as possible and force them to make sacrifices here.

It would have been best if he could have killed Khan, but he escaped. However, the loss of nearly 200,000 casualties and countless resources was a loss that would be difficult to erase. And above all, the trust of the angels he had lost would certainly make the Great Pillage itself difficult.

Atlan remained silent for a long time after hearing Isaac’s answer, then opened his mouth.

“You are a Knight of the Holy Grail.”

***

Isaac shrugged his shoulders as if he had no idea what the words meant. He turned his head to look at Ethelred.

Ethelred, who had been watching with admiration from the side, was startled and pulled up her cloak.

“What shall we do, Your Majesty Ethelred?”

“Yes, yes?”

“What should we do with this orc? Atlan is a peerless hero who is unlikely to appear again. He is strong now, but if he continues to grow, he could become someone like Tukhalin or Dera Heman. The power of life and death of that hero is in our hands.”

Ethelred looked at him as if he was asking him such an important question, but Isaac waited calmly for the answer. Ethelred hesitated and then opened his mouth.

“If he’s such a great warrior, he must have an angel protecting him, right?”

Isaac smiled.

“yes.”

“May I ask the angel to swear an oath? In exchange for releasing this warrior, he will cease his raid and retreat.”

It was an expected answer. The answer was already decided when I asked Ethelred, a believer of Elril.

They revere and respect a good warrior, unless he has done something particularly cowardly. Even if he has saved the king (Khan) and captured him, it is a great chivalric symbol. It doesn’t matter to them that the enemy may be a powerful being who can threaten them.

If it were Hesabel, he would have suggested sending her away after implanting a bug in her brain and making her addicted to drugs or something, but Isaac, a model Grail Knight (tentacles included), could not even imagine doing something so horrible.

But Atlan was impressed by Isaac’s good deeds.

“Olkhan ordered the Manseng and the Hwangcheon to launch a great plunder in order to gain knowledge from the secret library of Lichtheim. Do you really think that a ten million strong army would retreat just because their fingertips were injured?”

Isaac laughed at that.

“That’s why you have to go back even more.”

“……what?”

“I know that the number of ten million is an exaggeration. Even if it were true, it would include children, the elderly, and everyone else. If that number were to die, wouldn’t the Olkan discipline itself be destroyed?”

“… … .”

“Even if that’s not the case, now you have to deal with not only the Code of Light, but also Elril, the Hearth of the World, and most of all, the existence called ‘me’. Are you confident? At this point, shouldn’t you think of other methods besides the Great Plunder?”

Now that the Khan has been defeated and has withdrawn, the orcs will also have fundamental doubts about the Great Depredation itself.

Isaac wanted Atlan to be the leader of the ‘opposition’.

It was Atlan’s job to persuade the Mansengja and deal with the wrath of Sahul Khan, who had lost his wife. If the great plunder continued like this, it was clear that blood would be shed on both sides.

‘Even if neither of these works out and the great plunder continues… … if the group that follows Atlan can cause internal strife, then that is beneficial.’

Atlan looked troubled.

Like most paladins, Keshikin Atlan is also a devout follower of the Olkan Code. However, as a warrior, it is clear that he had doubts about this expedition itself. Above all, overcoming his complex about his mother and fighting Isaac were causing some changes in his mind.

“… … I would like to ask the opinion of all living beings.”

Just being able to change opinions to this extent was a sufficient achievement.

Atlan closed his eyes for a moment and whispered as if praying, but there was no sign of the Man-Saeng-Ja coming.

Perhaps Manseongja had abandoned his guardianship and left due to his continued failures as a warrior, but then Isaac could not help but doubt Manseongja’s judgment.

But instead of descending upon his injured and wounded agent and tormenting him, the Mansengzi appeared in a different form.

A hawk leapt onto Atlan’s body. The hawk preened its antennae and let out a squeaking sound, but somehow it sounded like language.

[I know your name is a false name.]

From the first words he spoke, Isaac thought to himself that Manseongja, who was known as a great angel, was narrow-minded and narrow-minded.

“Oh, yes. My real name is Isaac. Is that what you wanted?”

Mansengja was silent for a moment at Isaac’s answer. But she soon answered as if she was displeased.

[That is not your name either. Holy Grail Knight, you must find your name. If you do not, you will be defeated.]

“I would appreciate it if you could give me a little more context.”

Angels often spoke out of context, perhaps because they lived in Urbanus.

Isaac was annoyed by the phrasing. Was he saying he was losing now? From now on, it was more difficult to lose no matter how much the Olkan discipline came at him.

But the man who lived seemed unwilling to speak more kindly.

[A victory from us means nothing. In the end, everyone loses.]

She muttered lamentingly.

[Knowledge is not something that belongs to just one person. It is something that everyone must know. We must find a name for the nameless chaos. Otherwise, we all lose… … .]

Manseongja muttered like that and then closed his mouth. Yeochi ran to the grass as if her business was over. Isaac thought that Manseongja had dementia due to the shock of defeat, but after recovering, he confirmed that there was no hostile expression in the words she had uttered.

That’s because you just mutter like a senile prophet.

‘Isaac isn’t my name?’

If not Isaac, then what?

What we can guess is the name of this body now. When I first possessed this body, it was named Isaac, but I don’t know if that’s my real name.

[Nameless chaos watches you.]

But I couldn’t pay much attention to this mysterious prophecy.

Because there was a huge amount of work to be done in the Isacre territory where a huge number of troops had suddenly gathered.

***

The decision regarding Atlan was to treat him and then send him back.

Tukhalin accepted it in silence, and the knights of Elil had no objection to the idea presented by Ethelred. Only Atlan was reluctant to return to the Olkan discipline, which had now become the opposite of the original.

But he seemed to be chewing over the words left behind by Mansengja longer than Isaac.

“Isaac. Apart from the Great Depredation, I intend to find the answer to the question that the Mansengers have asked.”

“Hmm, the Black Empire territory might be easier to find clues about the Nameless Chaos since the Church of the Light’s Code hasn’t thoroughly searched it.”

“Yes. If we can find the answer without having to raid Lichtheim, we’ll have a justification to stop the Great Pillage. We can already make up for the winter to some extent with just the pillaging we’ve done.”

Although Isaac had somewhat ignored the Olkan Discipline, it had already plundered countless cities and small countries on its way to the Isacre territory. To gain more, it would have to go all the way to the Gertonian Empire, but everyone must have realized by now that it would not be easy.

“And maybe we will ‘win’ if we find the answer before you. Then the positions of winner and loser will be reversed. The Code of Light is lucky. If it weren’t for you, we would have already burned down Lichtheim.”

Atlan spoke confidently, but Isaac just looked at him in disbelief. It was unclear who he was confident in finding out first.

“Does the Gertonian Empire look that easy? Does Emperor Baltzemer look like a fool? That author is no less of a warrior than Sahul Khan. If he hadn’t been excommunicated and had not been so greedy, the Imperial Army would be walking around with spears in the heads of Orcs right now.”

Isaac’s words were somewhat sincere.

It was regrettable that the emperor was more wary of internal threats than of threats from the east. In the end, the arrogance that arose from there was what brought down the emperor.

“Oh, right. That… … That’s what I was wondering about anyway.”

Atlan asked with a serious expression.

“Is it true that the Emperor was excommunicated?”