The Paladin of the Holy Kingdom: Part 1

Neia felt nothing but awed respect for the Sorcerer King’s intelligence as he highlighted the finer points of their circumstances.

“Thank you very much, Your Majesty! I shall report this to the Captain right away!”

“Then I shall go too.”

“Eh? But surely you must be tired from the long journey. We have prepared a room for you, would it not be better to rest there for a while?”

“Have you forgotten? I am undead, you know? I do not need to rest.”

He was right. Neia had completely forgotten that.

The undead were beings who did not feel fatigue. That was why trying to flee an undead being of comparable speed was very difficult, according to her lessons. While that was common knowledge, Neia’s experiences with the Sorcerer King had completely shattered her perception of the undead. At times, she even found herself thinking that he was just a human magic caster in a skeletal mask.

“Thank you very much. Then, may I trouble you to come with me?”

“But of course. And there is no need to thank me. Since we are here to defeat Jaldabaoth, we ought to be helping each other out.”

While she knew that “we” in this case referred to the Holy Kingdom and the Sorcerer King, it could also be interpreted as talking about Neia and the Sorcerer King. That made Neia feel a little excited.

Eventually, someone knocked on the carriage door from the outside.

“Your Majesty, we have prepared a room for you.”

Neia opened the door.

When the paladin outside saw the bow Neia was holding, his eyes went wide in surprise.

This was the first time she had brought the bow she had received from the Sorcerer King outside the carriage. That was because the Sorcerer King had not left his carriage ever since he had lent her the bow. In the end, nobody else had seen it until now.

...You must be surprised, huh? Mm. I understand how you feel. This isn’t a weapon you’d let a squire carry...

While the paladin bathed her in his gaze, Neia turned to face the carriage and bowed.

Though she was simply looking at the ground, after sensing that the Sorcerer King had dismounted, Neia raised her head and asked the paladin:

“Sorry, but we need to speak with Captain Custodio, so can you lead us to her? His Majesty says he will be going as well.”

“Ah, ah, yes. Understood. Then, please follow me.”

The paladin — followed by the Sorcerer King, and then Neia — entered the cave.

The bluish-white illumination from the mushrooms that was creepy. In places where the mushrooms were particularly prolific, monstrous shadows danced on the walls in the spaces between the mushrooms. In addition, their bluish-white light made her look like a corpse, but mysteriously enough, she did not mind it now.

As they walked through the cave, they occasionally saw commoners and priests, as well paladins standing watch.

They should have heard all about him from the Captain and the others who had gone ahead of them but they still could not help gawking at the Sorcerer King.

It’s kind of rude, though...

The Sorcerer King would not get angry, right? He was a very kind ruler. However, the kinder people were, the more frightening they tended to be when they did get angry.

Should she tell them they were being very rude, in order to avoid such an event? However, she could not go and tell each and every one of them in person, and it was not a problem that could be resolved by words alone anyway. After all, to the citizens of the Holy Kingdom — to all of the living — the undead were fundamentally the enemy.

I’ll tell the Captain about this later… well, it’s good that they haven’t drawn their weapons.

Suddenly, Neia sensed that the Sorcerer King had produced a piece of paper, and that he was looking at the letters written on it. Although Neia was interested in what was written there, she could not see the letters owing to the way it was concealed within his hand.

Finally, they were brought to a room that was partitioned off by a hanging curtain, and the sounds of a noisy exchange of opinions came from inside.

“Captain Custodio. The Sorcerer King and Squire Baraja have arrived.”

The interior fell silent.

The paper in the Sorcerer King’s hand had vanished to places unknown.

“Let them in.”

After hearing the Captain’s voice, the paladin pulled away the curtain.

The paladins and the priests who rose to welcome the Sorcerer King — the ones who had not been part of the delegation — had a complex blend of emotions in their eyes. Even Neia could sense this. Naturally, the Sorcerer King must have felt it too. However, there was no way to tell how he had reacted to it just by looking at his back.