Circumstances of a Fallen Lord

Chapter 101

It wasn’t a particularly grand memory.

When banquets were held, Ruger went all out to decorate Luisen. It was one of Ruger’s great pleasures to see the envious gazes focused on the young lord as soon as he entered the banquet hall.

At the end of the banquet, the young lord would often get drunk and fall asleep. It was Ruger’s job to take care of the drunken young lord. Luisen tended to be quite difficult and wouldn’t cling to anyone else; he often ran to Ruger even if the attendant was taking care of some other business.

When Ruger held the sleeping young lord in his arms, he smelled sweet wine and experienced pleasant dizziness, as if he were drunk himself. The attendant loved it so much, he encouraged Luisen to drink excessively.

It was merely a trivial, everyday memory, but that was why these reminiscences aroused a such intense longing in Ruger’s mind. It was just last year…The daily life that had for so long felt so natural seemed so long ago.

But, Ruger didn’t let himself get too emotional.

“Now, come on! Move!” At the ninth worshiper’s urging, the twelfth worshiper manipulated the ghouls and divided the unconscious people into two categories.

People who were to be killed were shunted to the left; those that had to live were brought to the right. They had already decided in advance who was going to be killed or left alive.

They planned to plant fabricated memories in the brains of those that were saved so that the demon worshiper’s attack would be remembered as an internal conflict among the Eastern nobles.

Since the world did not yet know about the demon worshiper’s existence, the testimonials of the survivors should, alone, be enough to fabricate a supposed power conflict.

With the traces of the demon worshippers wiped away, Luisen would appear to not be kidnapped–instead, the young lord would appear as if he vanished in the midst of this struggle. Luisen’s disappearance will be fully attributed to the Eastern Great Lord and the aristocrats in his entourage.

After declaring war on the whole of the East, the Anies Duchy would send troops to find the young lord. Some might try to stop the retainers, but the Duchy was particularly attached to Luisen. Clearly, they would mobilize the entire southern region to find the young lord and seek revenge.

Despite rumors that the southern aristocrats held no great loyalty to Luisen, their representative Great Lord still went missing. With the pride of the South at stake, most of the southern aristocrats would participate in this war.

The nobles in the east wouldn’t stay still either, so it wouldn’t be long before the conflict spreads between the East and the South. Their pride on the line, either side wouldn’t stop until the other surrendered completely.

An unprecedented, horrible war would engulf the kingdom.

The demon worshippers desired the extreme chaos that would result from the war. Ruger’s lord planned to take that opportunity to devour the Anies duchy and the southern region in general.

It was a terrible, ambitious plot in which everyone in the world suffered, but someone got everything they coveted.

All of these plans originated from the mind of the lord that Ruger served. Even though Luisen joining the Eastern Great Lord’s party was unexpected, he had the malevolent wisdom to take advantage of that disadvantageous situation, turning the situation to his benefit. Ruger was afraid of that sinister wisdom.

‘Why is he so obsessed with Duke Anies…?’ Even Ruger had no idea. His master was not a man of many words. The demon worshippers seemed to know, but Ruger did not bother to ask as his pride was hurt.

‘Should I have asked? They said they’d keep the Duke alive, but…’

Could he believe that someone with such a vicious plan would keep his beloved lord alive?

However, what was the point of having doubts now? Everything was already progressing as planned. Even if something went awry, his father would just hatch another frightening plot and, eventually, his wishes would be fulfilled.

Ruger carefully adjusted his hold on Luisen.

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He noticed that the ninth worshiper was wandering around the Eastern Great Lord; Ruger couldn’t let that pass as he recalled the worshiper making a gruesome statement–the ninth worshiper wanted to taste noble blood.

“Don’t even touch the Eastern Great Lord. If the Great Lord dies, people will be suspicious.”

The older noble was too eminent a figure to kill at this time.

“I’m only going to bleed him a little.” The ninth worshiper did not even pretend to heed Ruger’s warning.

“Isn’t it common sense that something like that would be fatal to an elderly person? If I tell you to stop, then you should stop.” Ruger was annoyed. Since someone he already detested was about to disobey him so absurdly, his normally eloquent words were not so smooth.

The ninth admirer looked up at Ruger, “Are you ordering me around now?”

“I’m giving you a warning–judge the current situation.”

“Judge the situation? Did someone ask you to do something like that?” The ninth worshiper laughed sarcastically.  “You don’t have to take your own judgment into account–just your master’s orders. He stated you should follow what I say.”

“……” Ruger clenched his teeth. He was angered by the ninth worshiper’s actions, yes, but everything he said was true as well.

Last time they attacked Luisen’s group in the abandoned town, Ruger had saved Luisen from a goblin due to a momentary lapse in judgment. The ninth worshiper had told his father all about it. Because of that incident, Ruger was called to the capital where he was scolded by his father. He ordered Ruger to follow the ninth worshiper’s directions and said that he couldn’t trust Ruger to not be stupid.

“My orders are the same as your master’s orders.” The ninth worshiper glanced at Luisen, laying still in Ruger’s arms, and smiled… An insidious smile. “If I were to tell you to kill Duke Anies right now, you’d have to follow those instructions. Do you understand?”

Ruger’s face contorted severely; instinctively, his hands tensed. The ninth worshiper giggled at that reaction.

A strange tension flowed between them.

At that moment, something unexpected occurred: a small shockwave resounded through the air. One wave after another…

 What was this?

Senses tingling, the demon worshippers and Ruger looked around warily at their surroundings. A torch crowned with blue flames caught their eyes. The flickering fire lit up the shadowed banquet hall filled with the dark red fog. 1

The blue flames were filled with divine energy. It roared violently, feeding on the dark red fog that the demon worshippers had created.

One.

Two.

Three.

The flames quickly spread, surrounding the banquet hall. Morrison stood at the center, looking at the demon worshippers with disdainful eyes; his gaze was as cold as a sheet of ice. Blue flames lapped at his body.

The demon worshippers, in turn, were astonished. “An inquisitor! The lunatic follower of the fake God is here!”

The greatest weapon of any heretical religion or cult was secrecy–they were free to plot as they remained outside the church’s surveillance. No matter how special or strong their powers may be, they were no match for the full power of the church when it was determined to suppress them.

Inquisitors, who stood at the forefront of the church’s efforts to eradicate heresy, were enemies that should never be encountered.

“Run! Quick, avoid him! If you’re caught, it’s over!” the ninth worshipper cried out.

However, the demon worshippers were unable to exit the banquet hall; the blue flames surrounding the area created a boundary that trapped them inside. It was also impossible to draw or summon monsters from the outside–monsters did not dare cross over these sacred flames as well.

“Fuck…Damn it! This lunatic! Kill them all! Sacrifice everyone here and run away!” The ninth worshipper raised his dagger as he barked orders. He was about to start with the Eastern Great Lord who lay at his feet when a wine bottle flew at his head.

He instinctively hit the bottle away; it broke, and wine spilled onto his face.

“Argh!!!”

Luisen was the one who threw that bottle.

***

Actually, Luisen had been awake from the very beginning. Thanks to Morrison’s blessing, the demon worshiper’s magic did not affect the young lord. He was able to maintain consciousness.

Just before the red fog hit the castle–

Luisen, Carlton, and Morrison finally recognized that they were in the center of a trap created by the demon worshippers. Morrison said that the situation outside was quite grave, but Luisen’s party would be able to slip away in the confused chaos.

However, Luisen had a different opinion: he didn’t want to run away–rather, he wanted to win a decisive battle here, somehow.

The demon worshippers and Ruger were after Luisen, anyway. If they ran away now, their opponents would create a similar trap at another location and time. At that point, it was unclear whether or not the group would be able to notice the trickery in advance as they had now.

Moreover, the Eastern Great Lord, the nobles, and their knights and servants–countless people were left defenseless. Without Luisen, the demon worshippers were sure to do something evil; they wouldn’t leave these people be. Knowing that so many people would die, the young lord didn’t want to escape alone.

In the previous timeline, didn’t he learn that running away, alone, was never the right solution?

Of course, there was little the young lord could do immediately. The other Great Lord and his attending nobles were still in the banquet hall with the fake Viscount. Going there and revealing the truth wouldn’t be enough to sufficiently respond to the oncoming attack.

The Eastern Great Lord’s knights were outstanding, but their opponents were ghouls, the living dead, mobile corpses that won’t stop moving even if they were struck down. Adding the demon worshiper’s strange magic into the fray, the knights’ chance of victory was incredibly low.

‘The Saint always emphasized concentrating and making a decisive choice.’

Therefore, Luisen offered a suggestion.

TL: I feel like I cry every other chapter about how my baby has grown up T_T

I’m so proud.

Also, RIP, my hand still feels quite sore from time to time :/

1. Actually the word ‘푸른’ could mean either blue or green in Korean. I chose to use blue here since I personally like that color better. It’s interesting, there’s plenty of research into how many colors a culture can see depending on how many words a culture has for different colors. It’s worth checking out!