The Paladin of the Holy Kingdom: Part 1

“Perhaps. If the Kingdom was his main priority, he would have shown his true form like he did in the Holy Kingdom, no? Or was it because he was startled by Momon-sama’s strength, and chose to protect his true identity rather than let his plan be ruined? I really don’t want to think that’s the case.”

Evileye’s words left the room in a gloomy silence, so profound that even the faint sounds of breathing seemed very loud. Who would speak first? In this tense atmosphere, Lakyus proved her bravery.

“Now then, let me say again — we’re in the same boat as you. We want to know more about Jaldabaoth. Frankly speaking, everything we’ve learned is basically analysis from our encounter with him. We have no inkling of Jaldabaoth’s aims, true identity, or abilities.”

“Maybe we could summon demons to learn about Jaldabaoth… But that will stain the soul… And even if we summon low ranking demons, it’s quite likely that they won’t know anything about high ranking demons. In that case, we’ll need to contact a summoning adept…”

“Unfortunately, we don’t know anyone who’s good at summoning demons.”

Evileye had been the first one to supplement Lakyus’s words, followed by one of the twins.

Surely nobody would, at least not under usual circumstances, Neia mused.

Diabolists were typically evil beings, and fortunately very few of them were powerful in their own right. That was because most of the time, they either destroyed themselves or they were slain by death squads.

Of course, there might be some experts in the field who had submersed themselves into the darkness, but they typically hid themselves and did not make friends.

“Still, just waiting there to die is very frustrating. The next time that monster comes to the Kingdom, I want to make him weep with my own two hands. In order to do that, I need to learn as much as I can about him.”

“Also, he was not leading any demihumans in the Kingdom. If he recruited the demihumans due to his failure in the Kingdom, then we’ll need to be even more wary of him.”

Those words were spoken by Gagaran, and then the other twin.

“Is that why you wanted to know what we knew?”

Everyone in Blue Rose nodded. Lakyus summed up for them.

“We'll pay a sum equal to the fees we'd receive for a similar request..”

“Captain. May I handle the upcoming negotiations?”

Remedios immediately agreed with Gustavo’s question.

“—In place of money, we would like some other form of payment.”

“What is it? While we would like to meet your wishes, we can’t do everything… However, if you want to make contact with powerful nobles, that could be arranged.”

“Is that so? Thank you very much. However, we were not thinking of that — could you come to our country and fight alongside us?”

The room was silent once more. It lasted several seconds — no, perhaps it was longer. The next sound they heard was that of Lakyus leaning on her chair.

“I am very sorry, but we cannot offer that form of payment.”

“...We’re gathering intelligence because we don’t want to die. Doing that would be counter to our purposes.”

Evileye shrugged, as if to say there was nothing that could be done about it.

“We won’t ask you to fight Jaldabaoth. All you need to do is wait in the rear and help with healing magic.”

“Bullshit, you don’t have the luxury of doing that.”

Gagaran’s words left them speechless.

She was correct. The northern half of the Holy Kingdom was now subjugated by Jaldabaoth’s beastmen, and all they could do was mount a feeble resistance. Many of the people had been incarcerated in camps, and the surviving paladins were hidden in caves as defeated soldiers.

“No, that’s not the case. We stopped the demihuman advance in the nick of time.”

They still held the south, where the Army and Jaldabaoth’s forces were staring each other down, so saying that they were at the edge of extinction might be accurate.

To Neia, who knew what was going on, Gustavo’s words sounded more like lies than the truth.

“Can you come, in that case?”

“I refuse.”

Remedios sat up to ask her question, and Evileye flatly rejected it. Given the way everyone in Blue Rose remained silent, she was most definitely not alone in her opinion. They must have all felt the same way.

“...Frankly speaking… we might have stopped them in the nick of time, but we’re also at the end of our rope. The Holy Kingdom is in ruins, but the southern troops are still intact. However, they alone won’t be enough to beat Jaldabaoth.”

Gustavo poured a glass of water for himself, drank from it, and then continued.

“The reason why we haven’t been completely conquered yet is because the navy has been pinning down Jaldabaoth’s army on the northern coastline and holding them off. If Jaldabaoth manages to figure out some way to deal with that and advances his troops to the south, they won’t be able to offer the slightest bit of resistance.”