Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 322



Only Krnovel

Episode 322. Your Price (7)

‘What are you talking about?’

‘No, really… … .’

Isaac showed his will, even with his resentment. It was true.

Leonora showed no signs of being tied up or tortured, and there was no string around her neck. Instead, she was talking to Hastel, trying to get answers.

On the contrary, Hastel seemed to be struggling but was accepting of the story.

‘Is it a trap?’

Isaac suspected a trap at first. After all, the two were in a relationship of employer and employee. Since it was something that could easily happen, Isaac decided to be cautious.

‘Can you snipe?’

The safest course of action during a hostage situation is negotiation, but the next best is sniping. However, Hesabel showed his will to deny it.

‘You could try sniping, but it wouldn’t work. Your mother has amazing blood control.’

Isaac thought so too. He just thought that with Hesabel’s enhanced abilities, it would somehow work out. But seeing that she was also in a difficult situation, it seems that a duke is a duke after all.

At that moment, Hastel’s gaze moved towards the window. Isaac quickly moved the rat backwards, but that appearance only aroused Hastel’s suspicion.

In a flash, a red thread suddenly flew in and tore the rat in half.

“what?”

Fortunately, Hastel didn’t seem to think that the rat was one of Isaac’s followers. Instead, she thought of something else.

“Hesabel? Hesabel! You’ve come!”

The Red Grail also has the ability to control other beasts. Unlike Isaac, it is closer to hypnotizing rather than instilling parasites. Hastel sharply expanded his senses as if he was certain that Hesabel was the one who sent him. A cloud of blood-red dust spread out from his entire body.

In an instant, the lighthouse was covered in red fog. Hesabel was also inside.

Hastel’s eyes rolled back.

“There it is!”

Kwaga-gak! The old lighthouse was smashed to pieces, and huge blood-red spears sprouted out. When a surprise attack fails, the most appropriate option is a safe retreat. However, Hesabel chose the exact opposite. She quickly jumped down through the hole in the lighthouse as if she had been waiting for it.

“Tsk.”

Isaac clicked his tongue and ran straight to the lighthouse. At this point, an efficient rescue operation was out of the question. He had to quickly move in and rescue the hostage while Hesabel tied up Hastel. Countless arrows rained down before Isaac’s eyes. It was an attack by the human hunters who had been on guard.

Pavavabak! Isaac dodged the arrows and struck some of them with Kachulain.

It was a shot that didn’t pose much of a threat, but that seemed to be the intention of the human hunters.

Isaac saw that their attacks were intended to deter rather than suppress.

‘Your family is fighting over there right now, and you’re only worrying about me?’

Perhaps it was because he perceived Isaac as a greater threat. However, Isaac was reminded of the long-standing tradition of the Walaika of unfilial piety, as he paid no attention to the atmosphere inside the tower and only watched Isaac.

Sherlock, who had been following behind, also asked in confusion when Isaac stopped.

“What, what is it? Why don’t the human hunters try to kill us?”

“Succession work.”

“yes?”

The human hunters seemed reluctant to fight Isaac. It means that they had not come with any religious beliefs or sense of mission, but were obeying Hastel’s stubbornness. Hastel could reduce them to a handful of blood in an instant, so they had no choice but to follow him obediently.

But what if Isaac’s squire, Hesabel, overthrows their patriarch?

There is no need for unnecessary fighting.

“The ducal title of the Gulmar family is being inherited.”

***

In fact, Isaac’s words were misleading.

After all, no one knows who will walk out in the end.

However, the moment Hastel saw Hesabel jump down from the tower without hesitation, he realized that she had already succeeded in the minimum condition for succession, ‘insider purchase’. Hastel was both angry and impressed by the fact that she had been away from the dukedom for so long and had managed to seduce the guards in just one day.

“How dare you!”

Boom! Kwaddeuk! Hastel tried to cut Hesabel into pieces by scattering her specialty, red thread, in all directions. It wouldn’t work well on opponents wearing thick armor, but the nobles of Walaika didn’t wear armor. Hesabel was no different.

“You dare plot treason? I picked you up from the gutter, and you don’t know gratitude!”

“Hye?! You were planning to raise her appropriately and then eat her, right? Just like my older sisters and brothers!”

Although the situation was urgent and breathless, Hesabel answered coldly.

The relationship between the head of the Red Grail Club and his successor is a strange one. The dancers, who value the flourishing of life as much as pleasure, always consider it an important doctrine to nurture a successor.

Therefore, nobles always bring in a talented child and raise him as their successor. They rarely make their own children their successors. This is because the relationship between the head of the household and the successor in the Walaika Kingdom is a little different from what is thought in other countries.

Vampires do not die unless they lose a lot of blood. This means that the heir cannot wait for the head of the family to grow old and die like in other kingdoms. If he does not take active action, he will remain the heir forever, or be eaten.

The head of the family is the one who took the position by eating the previous head of the family. Naturally, he knows that the successor is dissatisfied. Therefore, it is common for the successor to disappear when he is ‘well-ripened’. The longer the head of the family survives, the more frequently the successor changes.

And Hastel Gulmar is the longest-living vampire among the three dukes of the Red Grail Club.

“You still seem immature to stick your teeth into it, Hesabel!”

Hastel hurled a string of threads at her, wounding her skin. Although her wings provided some protection, wounds appeared all over Hesabel’s body and quickly healed. Hastel’s power was strong, having drunk the blood of the gods.

Hesabel also inherited some of that power, but only a small amount.

But she had the experience she gained with Isaac and the newfound strength.

Kagagagagak! Hesabel used her wings to block the threads that were trying to wrap around her. At the same time, feathers fluttered and shot out toward Hastel. It was difficult for the red threads to block all of the feathers.

A few of Hesabel’s feathers were stuck in Hastel’s shoulder and arm. Hesabel’s blood mixed in the feather tips attempted to coagulate Hastel’s blood and take control. However, all of those feathers melted away in an instant and disappeared into Hastel’s body.

A mocking smile appeared on Hastel’s face.

“Do you think you can defeat me with just a few drops of blood you received from me?”

Hesabel didn’t even respond. However, she dug into Hastel with her secret weapon. The blood spurted out from Hastel’s five fingers and flew like threads. Just before she was turned into a lump of minced meat, Hesabel pulled out the Splitting Ceremony.

“no?!”

Hastel’s eyes widened. The division ceremony instantly disintegrated and cut the red threads like cotton candy. The power of the red grail could not withstand the division ceremony.

At that moment, Hastel also took out a new weapon. She created it from the blood that spurted out as she scratched her palm, and it was the very sword that broke when she took it out to block the harvester’s scythe.

Bam! Amazingly, Hastel’s black division ceremony was stopped.

In fact, it was an expected result. The black sword that Hastel had created was simply a hastily made sword made by condensing the iron mixed in blood. However, it was actually suitable for dealing with the Splitting Ceremony. The Splitting Ceremony was not even as good as a kitchen knife except when dealing with miracles and angels.

“Did you think I was a fool who relied only on miracles?”

Hastel fiercely moved his sword and attacked Hesabel again. Like most of the old nobles of Walaika, Hastel also possessed the best swordsmanship in the Walaika kingdom. On the other hand, Hesabel was busy blocking the attack.

She felt anxious.

She thought that with her journey and the experiences she had gained, she might be able to defeat her godmother. However, Hastel was stronger than she had imagined. It was hard to imagine that she had been a shut-in for decades.

“If you confess your sins now, I’ll pretend it never happened!”

Hastel shot back sharply.

That’s a lie.

There are cases where a successor who fails to succeed runs away, but there are no cases where he is deliberately spared. Hastel had no intention of setting a precedent, and Hesabel did not believe it either.

But now, with those words, Hesabel realized that Hastel was also getting anxious.

Because the fight was going on too long.

In the first place, it is normal for ‘succession’ to end in an instant.

Under the strict guard of the SS, indifference, betrayal, and shock occur in an instant and then are silenced. The SS rarely intervenes directly in the process.

Since the upper hand is clear in most cases, it is unlikely that the successor will win unless it is ended by a surprise attack. After a short conversation, all that remains is the silence of the victor and his accomplices.

In other words, the fact that the fight is protracted means that the difference in power between the head of the household and the successor is not that great.

The fact that the royal blood that drank the blood of the gods was being defeated by someone who drank the blood of the deteriorated one was humiliating and shameful to the Red Grail Club. Hastel couldn’t help but feel anxious, as it was clear that the royal guard would be watching this battle.

The current situation could become a problem for the entire Gulmar clan in itself.

It is not good for the owner, Hastel, or the successor, Hesabel.

The two tacitly agreed to judge on a macro level and stopped fighting for a moment.

***

“Should we get the hostages out first?”

Hesabel gestured toward Leonora, who was crouching in the corner, and spoke. Despite the countless feathers, red threads, and blood being scattered, Leonora was unscathed. Hesabel had intended to protect Leonora, but it was unexpected that Hastel would do the same.

Hastel glared, revealing his teeth.

“Letting the hostage go? Who would do that?”

“The division ceremony that my mother was looking for and I, Hesabel, are both here. I also found the neck of the Holy Grail Knight, but it’s not that important, is it? I’m not interested in it.”

It was just as Hesabel said.

Hastel crawled out of his comfortable home only because of the division ceremony and his successor, Hesabel. His demand for Isaac’s head was just to pressure him, and it was meaningless. He never thought it would be possible.

Hastel was silent for a moment, then gestured to Leonora. Only then did Leonora dust herself off and rise, greeting them both politely.

“I hope that the two of you can resolve things amicably, and since this is fate, I hope that whoever stays will see you again before you leave.”

“… … .”

The relationship between the hostage-taker and the hostage is not an ordinary one. Hesabel and Hastel both felt a sense of alienation at the calm tone as if they had expected this to happen, but Leonora walked out of the tower as if nothing had happened.

And the fight between Hesabel and Hastel began again. But this time, it was not a rough and vulgar blood feud, but a fight of elegant trickery and intrigue that began on the tip of the tongue.

It was Hesabel who swung his sword first.

“You don’t understand why I have the division ritual in my hands, do you, Mother?”

“… … Did you try to seduce the Knight of the Holy Grail?”

Like other human hunters, Hastel also harbored such suspicions. Hesabel had succeeded in recovering the split ceremony, and furthermore, he might have seduced and brought under his wing the outstanding hero Isaac Isacrea.

The hero’s second in command, the king’s chancellor, the general’s chief of staff.

This is the ideal form of missionary work that the Red Grail Club pursues. If you understand it that way, Hesabel’s appearance would not be awkward.

But for Hastel, it’s a different story.

“Then you should have brought the division ceremony back to the family a long time ago. Doesn’t the fact that you kept it a secret and kept it around mean that you were plotting evil?”

Hesabel’s success is a threat to Hastel. If he had just quietly returned to the division ceremony, it would have been understandable, but since he had been building up his power by taking advantage of others, it would have been natural to think that he had ulterior motives. From the perspective of the head of the household, it was right to eliminate this powerful competitor and return to the division ceremony.

“If you have no other intention, return the division ceremony and return to Gulmar Castle. I will not ask you to take any other responsibility. And I will give you the territory.”

To Hastel, giving him the maximum amount of land meant that he could no longer be his successor, but that he could still act as a vassal. It was also the only way to coexist with a powerful rival.

But Hesabel chuckled at her words.

“Oh, Mother… … Since you’ve been staying in that small room all the time, has your field of vision become narrow?”

“what?”

“Why am I wandering around this faraway place, toiling under the scorching sun, just to aim for a peacock’s seat? Aiming for a tiny piece of land in that tiny country, oh, poor, pitiful mother.”

Hastel barely managed to hold back her anger. However, as she said, the Kingdom of Walaika is a small country. Even when considered as a whole, it is smaller than the Brandt Duke’s territory. Naturally, the Gulmar Duke’s territory is even smaller.

However, for Hesabel, who had spent a long time with Isaac and had seen the vast land, the powerful people, and the sea, that narrow piece of land was nothing more than a backwater that she had no desire for.

“I’m thinking of ultimate victory, Mother.”

Hesabel whispered, her eyes turning bloodshot.

“I plan to join hands with the Knights of the Holy Grail and make the ‘Crimson Tomb’ a success… … .”