The Paladin of the Holy Kingdom: Part 1

The pain of walking was probably enough to drive the soldiers to tears. However, she no longer had the time to hear them out. She had to reach her destination before Jaldabaoth arrived.

The soldiers also sensed the meaning in Remedios’s powerful gaze. None of them spoke up or protested; they simply agreed with each other.

“All right! Then let’s meet again later!”

Remedios broke into a sprint at the head of her troops. Her metal armor was lighter and easier to move in than it appeared, and given her physical abilities, she could reach her destination faster than anyone else. However, her sister, Calca and her adjutants often told her, “Don’t charge in by yourself all the time!” so Remedios throttled back the desire to sprint with all her might and quashed the desire to make up for lost time.

Soon, Remedios reached her destination, which was a corner of the city.

The streets spread out before them. The evacuation had been completed long ago, and so there was nobody there.

“Captain, if we follow this avenue and turn right, then turn right again, we’ll be at the plaza where we’ll be awaiting Jaldabaoth. Do you want us to scout ahead?”

“No, wait for Calca-sama and my sister — and the adventurers. After that, make your final checks and then hoist the banner high!”

Obeying Remedios’s orders, her subordinates tied a flag to a distant building. This was to inform the other units that the elite paladins led by Remedios had arrived.

Their operation would involve Calca and her personal guard, Queralt and the pick of the temples, high ranking adventurers, and a squad of Remedios’s elite paladins. The four units had split up and then headed to Jaldabaoth’s location.

There were roughly five hundred paladins in the order. Most of them were comparable to difficulty twenty monsters, and among them were great warriors capable of slaying a difficulty sixty monster one on one. All in all, there were twenty five of these ultra-elite warriors, who formed the core of Remedios’s forces.

Incidentally, the remaining three hundred-odd paladins were currently standing watch on the city walls against the advancing demihumans.

Originally, they should have formed up into a single group and moved out as one. However, Jaldabaoth possessed an area-attack ability that could bring down the wall, so they had chosen to split up in order to avoid being destroyed when their forces were concentrated. The reason why they had hung the flag in the distance was so that even if Jaldabaoth saw the flag and attacked it, it would not hamper the rest of the group.

“Can Jaldabaoth’s wall-breaking attack be used more than once, Isandro?”

There were two Vice-Captains in the Paladin Order.

One of them was an average swordsman, but excelled in other areas, and his name was Gustavo Montanjes. Right now, he was directing the paladins who were reinforcing the city walls, so he was not here.

There was another, who currently stood by Remedios’s side. The person to whom Remedios addressed her question was one of the Nine Colors as well, Isandro Sanchez, called “the Pink.”

“If he could use it multiple times, then I have no idea why he has not done so already. It might make more sense to consider that there might be some condition or some kind of delay until he can use it again.”

“Pretty much. I guess splitting up was being too paranoid.”

“No, it’s nothing of the sort. Perhaps he’s conserving his strength in order to bring forth some great power. We mustn’t be careless.”

“Yes yes, I know.”

Remedios broke off their conversation. She was not suited to thinking, after all.

Politics in particular made her head ache. She was completely baffled by the reason why the nobles frowned upon the fact that a woman had ascended to the throne of the Holy Queen.

They felt the same about Calca’s title, which was the combination of Holy King and Woman. They protested both the fact that they had a woman leading them and that a new term had to be coined for her.

On that note, it would be simpler to understand if it was just a matter of who was stronger or weaker.

“—Captain Custodio, the priest contingent and the adventurers have raised their flags.”

“How about Calca-sama?”

“Not yet.”

“Is that so… well, it’s about time to start casting longer-duration defensive spells. Once Calca-sama arrives, we’ll advance on Jaldabaoth first and act as bait to draw his attention. Keep your will strong and beware any special attacks the enemy has.”

“No movement from the plaza.”

They had confirmed that the advance force had been wiped out, and if their target had shifted location, the adventurers responsible for reconnaissance would have told them. If there was no news from them, that meant Jaldabaoth had not moved from the plaza where he had appeared.

“He’s looking down on us, that miserable little demon. Probably thinks that if he can kill us all here, he can conquer the country easily.”