Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 290



Only Krnovel

Episode 290. The Whisper of the Brazier (2)

Isaac looked dumbfounded.

“Is it true that the Emperor was excommunicated? What kind of nonsense are you talking about? Then do you think excommunication is some kind of prank or joke? You guys have been excommunicated too, right?”

“No, I definitely thought they were doing some weird tricks in the Code of Light. Something to break the Treaty of Licht and create a country ruled by angels again.”

“That’s what happened as a result. This place is now the Holy Empire of Gertonia.”

“It’s strange.”

“what?”

“I don’t know the details of the Treaty of Licht. I understand it to mean that it divided the power of the earth and the heavens. Because of that, the angels couldn’t rule the country directly, but it was broken when the emperor gave up his power voluntarily?”

“You know quite a bit? No, you don’t have to tell me how you know.”

Isaac expressed some sympathy for the priests who had been taken to the Olkan Discipline and tortured to tell the truth about the ‘excommunication of the Emperor’.

Atlan’s questions continued.

“Then, if we make the Emperor a Khan, wouldn’t the Treaty of Licht be nullified? Why is it necessary to excommunicate the Emperor?”

It would be more correct to call him a proxy or a pope rather than a khan, but Atlan seemed to have understood it in a similar way.

Isaac was about to refute her with a pitiful expression, but then he suddenly realized something strange.

The Treaty of Licht was broken because the Emperor gave up his power to the Angel.

At that point, the lighthouse keeper didn’t care if he made Waldzemer the Pope-Emperor. Since the Treaty of Licht had already been broken, it didn’t matter if he made Waldzemer the figurehead.

A Holy See Bishop is much more effective than an incompetent Pope.

‘Was it because Baltsemer’s ambitions were so great that they tried to exclude him in advance?’

If that was the case, Baltsemer should have been burned to death instead of excommunicated.

Because that’s a much safer way.

However, they excommunicated him, put him in prison, and even gave him a chance to escape. As a result, the Code of Light created a threat behind the scenes.

Make the emperor the pope, or kill him.

It is wise to choose one of the two.

‘But the reason for excommunicating him… does that mean that there was a need to keep Baltzemer alive?’

A disturbing suspicion crossed Isaac’s mind.

Perhaps the escape of the Baltzemer was the lighthouse keeper’s intention.

***

By the time Atlan returned, an early winter had come to the Gelliford Mountains.

There were still many orcs scattered throughout the mountains, but more of them chose the more efficient method of suicide rather than being captured or suffering from the cold.

Most of it will probably be cleared out before winter.

The orc remnants committed suicide one by one, but the bastards could not bear to kill the horses and just released them into the wild.

Although many of the horses returned to the barracks of the Olkan Discipline on their own, Isaac was able to capture quite a few quality steeds in the mountains. Thanks to this, the Isacrea Estate suddenly became the estate with the largest number of steeds in the Gertonian Empire.

Of course, having a lot of them wasn’t always a good thing. You had to be selective about what you fed the horses, and the amount they ate was enormous, and their uses were limited. Above all, since there was not enough food for people, you couldn’t feed them all.

Isaac, unable to claim compensation under the Olkan Discipline, looked at the gloomy prospect of bankruptcy before winter was over.

Something had to be done before that.

“Please sell it on top of our store.”

After hearing the news that the war was almost over, Caitlin, the head of the Isacre branch of the Golden Idol, returned quickly and made a triumphant proposal.

“The Golden Idol Top increases the size and quality of your mercenary force. A Man Sahar Mountain steed specialized in bombardment and marching is worth it. We will pay a good price for it!”

“Can merchants really increase the size of their mercenary force like that? Wouldn’t their hands be bigger than their torsos?”

“What’s the big deal if there aren’t many faiths that don’t hire mercenaries? The mercenaries are all members of the Golden Idol’s upper echelons. Those who sacrifice their lives for something that dazzles and sparkles are the true believers.”

In this time of upheaval, it seemed inevitable that the Golden Idols would change as well. There was a moment of dizziness as the solid background of Baltzemer disappeared, but even during that time, the Golden Idols continued to control the priests and knights by spending money without holding back.

If you can’t raise a paladin or priest yourself, you can create one with money.

It was truly a group that was the embodiment of plutocracy.

Some people even said, “In the days when the emperor and the sect were at odds, you had to give money to both sides, but now you only have to give money to the sect,” which was an ungrateful but truly golden idol merchant-like remark.

After much thought, Isaac decided to sell half of his horses.

Catelyn had her eye on more steeds, but Isaac had a use for the other half. That half alone would have earned him enough money to make the reward worth it.

***

After negotiating with Kathleen, Isaac climbed the dry mountain path.

As if preparing for the coming winter, the trees were withered and scattered their leaves. The Gelliford Mountains, which had hidden the traces of war beneath countless fallen leaves, were acting as if nothing had happened.

“The Holy Grail Knight has arrived.”

But there were still those who had not yet ended the war before their eyes.

Including Isaac himself.

Isaac entered the empty space in front of the entrance to the abandoned mine and greeted Tukhalin and Ethelred, who had arrived first.

“Thank you for coming to the meeting. I know the monastery would be a neat place, but I thought it might be uncomfortable for you two because your beliefs are different, so I brought you here.”

Tukhalin stroked his beard and smiled.

“I like this Grail Knight because he seems to know manners and consideration. The knights I’ve met before were like idiots. Now, I like this place because it feels like my villa.”

“I don’t mind the monastery. Sir Isaacrea, Elril has never denied the light. However, the scenery is beautiful, so I feel good.”

Tukhalin seemed to like the old abandoned mine, while Ethelred seemed to like the open, majestic view of the mountains.

Isaac decided that this was polite enough, so he skipped the formalities and got straight to business.

“I know you two have been busy with your own work. But I think you are probably thinking about your next plans now.”

Tuhalin had been leading a lycanthrope warrior force all day, hunting down the scattered remnants of the Orcs scattered throughout the Gelifard Mountains. Ethelred had been scouting the area around Soer, observing for any suspicious activity.

The Olkan Discipline had not yet fully receded and was still licking its wounds, but there was no sign of the Great Depredation resuming any time soon. All that could be done was to hope that Atlan would do its part before the beast went berserk again.

But the purpose of both Elil and the World’s Hearth was war.

Tukhalin smiled and smacked his lips.

“Yeah, that’s the next plan. Are we finally going on the offensive?”

“I don’t mind if… …I get a chance to show my military merits to Jim’s knights.”

At first, the two seemed to be in favor of war. Tukhalin came down from isolation to kill the orcs, and Ethelred came to carry out the great war of Elril.

But Isaac was the first to say something that would disappoint them.

“I’m sorry, but I think it’s unnecessary to fight the Olkan discipline here.”

***

After a brief silence, Tukhalin was the first to raise his voice.

“What are you saying, Grail Knight? I believed you would help us, so I helped you first. Is this how the Code of Light betrays its faith?”

“I have no intention of denying you grace, Tukhalin. But let me be clear. If you had charged directly at the Olkan Discipline on the plains and clashed with it, it would have been nothing more than a glorious conflagration.”

“This guy… … .”

“I provided you with food, supplies, safe drinking water, and maps. As a result, thanks to Elril and my help, you were able to break more orcs’ skulls. Wasn’t it?”

When going on an expedition, nothing is more important than the cooperation of local people.

I’ve been to Tukhalin before, but 360 years later, it’s not much different from my first time there. Even the Isaac Relics have changed a lot since two years ago.

It is true that the World’s Brazier helped greatly in preventing the Olkan Discipline. However, it is not that I am indebted to Isaac, as he also helped me greatly, as their purpose was aligned.

Isaac wanted to make that clear.

Just as Tukhalin was about to say something more, Ethelred opened her mouth.

“Sir Isacre is a man of integrity. Listen to what he has to say first, Tukhalin.”

When Tukhalin closed his mouth, Isaac looked at Ethelred with gratitude and continued speaking.

“That doesn’t mean I’ll ignore the warmth that the world’s furnaces give to their neighbors. I intend to make other places, not Soeur, my battlefield.”

Isaac unfolded the map he had brought.

It was a rough hand-drawn continent map. However, it was a map that marked all the important places, from the Kingdom of Elril to the Plains of Man Sahar, the Svanbar Archipelago, Lichtheim, and the Holy Land occupied by the Undead Cult. While Ethelred tilted her head in confusion at the map that she had never seen before, Tukhalin’s expression hardened somewhat at the sight of the Svanbar Archipelago, which was almost like an unknown land to the people of the empire, being drawn so accurately.

“It looks a little different from the maps I know. Is this a newly surveyed one?”

“This is probably the most accurate map in the world, Your Majesty.”

Because Isaac had hand-drawn the map from memory in the game.

Although it was drawn from memory, I tried to make it as similar as possible to the map provided in the game. It was impossible to scale it accurately, but it was the best level of technology at the time. It was especially accurate in important areas.

Isaac first pointed to the northeastern part of the Holy Empire of Gertonia, the Isacrea Territory, and the mountain range that stretched south. The sun was drawn on the west side of the mountain range, and orcs were drawn on the east side.

“The west is the territory occupied by the Code of Light, and the east is the territory occupied by the Orkan Rule. Many territories and small countries of the Holy Empire of Gertonia were trampled by them.”

Just as the Baekje Empire is not particularly friendly with each other, the Black Empire is not particularly friendly with each other either. The Olkan Discipline proved this fact by plundering even the countries that believed in the Red Grail and the Immortal Cult in this great raid. The Immortal Cult and the Red Grail did not fight each other too much because the Dawn Army was heading east, but it was clear that there was an invisible conflict between them.

Tukhalin muttered, laughing heartily.

“In the meantime, instead of protecting the believers, they are advancing the Dawn Army towards the Holy Land. Even the Light Code is not in their right mind. So?”

Isaac said, drawing a line with his finger over the eastern territory occupied by the orcs.

“So we do what the Light Code says we should do. We go south along this line.”

The smile began to disappear from Tukhalin’s lips.

“We kill, loot, and burn any orcs we encounter along the way.”

But Isaac’s hand, which was drawing vertically across the map, did not stop there. He continued to lower his hand, passing over various famous cities, historical sites, and sacred lands.

“Even if the orcs don’t come out, we keep going down.”

Ethelred could see that the areas that Isaac’s fingertips touched were not roughly drawn, but were places that were planned with his own supply, strategy, and rest in mind. But when he realized that, Isaac’s plan became even more shocking.

As Isaac’s hand finally crossed the sea, Tukhalin felt like shouting for him to stop.

But Isaac’s hand stopped at a spot that was precariously close to the edge of the map.

The place where the lighthouse keeper was burned at the stake, and where the immortal emperor Beshek brought the underworld down to earth.

The final goal of the Dawn Army.

“This place, the Holy Land, is my ultimate goal. I plan to reclaim the Holy Land before the Code of Light.”

“you…….”

“Tuchalin, Your Majesty Aethelred. Thank you for coming all the way across the sea to help me. Since you’ve come to help me, could you go a little further?”