Circumstances of a Fallen Lord

Chapter 88

Three men walked out from the darkness, their armor clattering as they stepped forth–the three knights that had blocked the bridge during the day.

Who knows what had happened in the meantime–their faces were discolored in a bluish tint and their eyeballs were rotten and white. A few goblins accompanied them; like this, they looked like knights accompanied by servants.

“Are those people dead?”

“Yes. I can’t hear breathing sounds.”

“Have they become ghouls?”

The knights were alive when they crossed the bridge; Carlton didn’t kill them and had only dumped them headfirst into the stream. However, why were their corpses appearing in front of them?

Against the backdrop of the ruined village, the knights-turned-ghouls hobbled towards them. ghouls had low combat abilities; despite knowing that, they made such an eerie sight that the hairs on the back of Luisen’s neck stood straight. Furthermore, their uncharacteristically disciplined walk–their purposeful steps–were quite ominous.

Dark red smoke swirled around the ghouls; the smoke looked almost like strings attached to the corpses as they stretched out and over the stream. The strings ended at a standing man. When the group noticed his dark red robe, Luisen and Carlton simultaneously sensed that the man must be a demon worshiper.

“I am the ninth worshiper.” The man raised a finger and pointed at Luisen. “You must be the pilgrim who destroyed the sacred altar.”

Luisen recalled the giant centipede and the altar hidden in its underground den. He supposed that man was its creator.

“Tales of your name could be found wherever I went. Thanks to that, it was quite easy to follow you,” the worshiper continued.

“Coming to us in the middle of the night without making an appointment? You people really have no manners, do you?” Carlton grunted.

“Do you make appointments in order to punish sinners?”

“Sinners?”

“You’ve destroyed the sacred altar and completely ruined the memorial service I was preparing to please my god! He is angry, and you all will be cursed to death!” The worshiper shouted before stretching out his hand. The knight-turned-ghoul rushed forth with a chilling roar. He swung the two-handed sword–one that was clearly underused in the knight’s lifetime–quickly. As the blade split the air, a vibration was transmitted through the air onto the young lord’s and mercenary’s skin. What tremendous strength.

Carlton dodged as he pushed Luisen behind him; the mercenary then blocked the attack of another ghoul knight, flowing with the movements of his sword. The attack was powerful enough to make his wrist throb.

The three knights rushed at once, so Carlton was too busy preventing any attacks from hitting to even begin to counterattack. However, thanks to the fact that the corpses’ manipulator wasn’t a knight as well, the mercenary was able to withstand the attacks due to small loopholes and blind spots in their attacks.

However, he was slowly becoming distanced from Luisen.

‘Damn it. What is Morrison doing at a time like this?’ Carlton thought.

He had allowed the inquisitor to travel with them in order to make use of the inquisitor’s strength at times like this; however, Carlton couldn’t see even the tip of his nose at this moment. The inquisitor probably wouldn’t be sleeping peacefully when heretics were making an uproar like this.

Carlton rolled on the ground as he landed a strike on one knight

Clank–!

The attack was aimed properly at the waist, but an ordinary sword would fail to penetrate the hardness of plate armor. A living person would slow down from the pain of the impact, but ghouls do not feel pain. The ghoul knight simply stumbled momentarily.

Then, the corpse continued its attack without allowing time for the mercenary to return to the young lord’s side.

The manipulated ghoul was an incredibly annoying opponent. It was fast and destructive; as it was a corpse, it couldn’t be killed.

‘In that case, it would be better to target the person controlling them.’

Carlton glanced at Luisen; Luisen had learned something from all of the times they had run into monsters and was making efforts to protect himself. The young lord looked wary of his surroundings and had acquired a pot lid and wooden club that had fallen to the floor from their hooks on the wall of the inn. Carlton saw a single goblin was approaching the lord.

The mercenary quickly turned to Luisen; in exchange for his wandering attention, he received a fist in his abdomen. As Carlton stumbled with a groan, the worshiper giggled and laughed.

***

Meanwhile, Ruger approached the battle site. He discovered the ninth worshiper, the mercenary, and the pilgrim.

 Ruger sighed; a few hours ago, the ninth worshiper went off alone, saying he had to avenge his altar and the giant centipede. Due to the pilgrim’s growing reputation, the man couldn’t stand the thought of the pilgrim being right under their noses.

That’s what he said. They were already shorthanded on trying to catch Luisen and preparing to kill Carlton, but the other’s eyes were already turned towards his own private revenge. Pathetic. It was just an altar. The devil they served probably didn’t even exist anyway. And the man could just make another monster.

However, Ruger had no idea what sort of accidents and blunders the man would make if he went all by himself. Because Ruger needed to clean up after any accidents–because a lead for Luisen might appear–he had no choice but to accept the setback in his plans and chase after the worshiper.

‘Though, he’ll probably be alright even if I didn’t intervene.’

He couldn’t see well due to the darkness, the sole mercenary seemed to have difficulty dealing with the three monsters by himself. Ruger found the pilgrim with his eyes; even though the face wasn’t clearly visible, the pilgrim’s pass sparkled brightly and could be easily found. The pilgrim was struggling against a lone goblin, so the pilgrim didn’t notice Ruger’s presence.

‘I feel a bit uncomfortable about harming someone from the church, but…’

If he killed the pilgrim here, the ninth worshiper was sure to cooperate with him without any further grumbling. Pity that this was all a consequence of the pilgrim’s good deeds, but that sort of thing was inevitable after being entangled with these lunatics.

Ruger drew his sword and approached the unsuspecting pilgrim; the pilgrim had just finished pushing a goblin away and was catching his breath. His back was clearly exposed–with one stab, the attendant could kill the man before the other could notice his situation.

This was a simple task. However, the closer Ruger got to the pilgrim, the stranger he felt. The man’s back looked so familiar…Luisen’s image overlapped the man’s.

     It was a back he had always stared at from his place, one step behind, every day for the past few years. Ruger’s heart beat fast, “My duke?”

His painstaking patience in hunting the Pilgrim faltered, and his awkward voice called out a familiar name. His heart was filled with emotions–tension or anticipatory welcome? Ruger couldn’t tell.

Then, the pilgrim looked back, surprised. The short blond hair wavered with the movement, revealing Luisen’s delicate face. For a moment, Luger gasped; this moment felt strange although the two had seen each other every day for years.

That pilgrim who had a reputation for being so pious and merciful was…Luisen? The young lord had the ability to even pose as a pilgrim?

Even now, nothing made sense to Ruger, but, at the very least, Luisen was in front of him.

    His shock was mirrored in the young lord. Luisen had no idea that his erstwhile attendant would suddenly show up from behind him! Luisen instinctively raised the pot lid and wooden stick for defense. His actions were proper for someone that had just learned self-defense, but the young lord had overlooked the goblin’s cleverness.

The goblin, who had been pretending to be unconscious as if it had lost the battle, opened its mouth wide and reached for Luisen with its teeth. Dirty, jagged teeth tried to sink into the young lord’s neck.

Time–and the lord–seemed to flow slowly–as if time had slowed down before Ruger’s eyes. He was just too surprised, nor was there any time to think. The attendant’s body moved first; Ruger threw his sword forward. The blade that was originally drawn to kill Luisen passed by the lord and lodged into the goblin’s head.

"

"

‘Huh? What?’ Luisen realized belatedly that he was in danger and that Ruger had saved him. Then, anger rose to the top of his head. “What are you doing?”

Why save him after years of deceiving him, trying to kidnap him, and then showing up with monsters to kill him? The young lord had no idea what the man was up to and glared at Ruger.

“That’s…”

“Speak properly.”

“That’s because… I was ordered to bring my Duke in alive.”

Ruger’s liege wanted Luisen alive, so he had to prevent the monsters from killing the young lord. No other reason. He was faithful to his master’s orders–Ruger tried to convince himself. “If you follow me, you won’t get hurt. My duke.”

“Did you really think I’d believe that? I already know who you people are.”

“Then, that’s a relief.”

“What?”

“Then, you must have realized that you’d be in trouble if you solely trust a lowly mercenary like Carlton. These men are much eviler and stronger. Come with me. I’m the only one who can protect you properly.”

‘This bastard–does he even realize the nonsense he’s spouting? How are you going to protect me if you’re with those evil people?’ Luisen was so dumbfounded he was rendered speechless. Every word that came out of Ruger’s mouth made no sense; he didn’t know where to start with his rebuttal.

‘Was he always this insane?’ While the young lord was bewildered, Ruger had raised his sword. ‘Look at him–my eyes are spinning. He’s being contradictory again!’

As the panicked Luisen moved to dodge, he heard Carlton’s voice, “My duke, come backwards!”

Luisen fell to the ground behind him thoughtlessly, doing as he was told. Then, Morrison popped out from behind one of the buildings’ roofs.

‘Morrison! I was wondering where you were!’

Morrison threw a knuckle-clad fist at the attendant; Ruger blocked that attack with his sword. The resulting collision sounded so intense that it hurt Luisen’s ears.

In the brief confrontation between Luisen and Ruger, many changes had taken place. Carlton used a torch to burn down all the ghoul-knights and escaped their siege.

“Oh! Oh oh! Wait. Wait! Let’s run away!” The demon worshipper used the goblin that he had dragged here like a shield and, without even looking back, ran away. Ruger didn’t seem to care about that, though. The attendant observed the situation with cold eyes, as if he hadn’t expected his colleague to look after him.

A low-level monster like a goblin was no match for Carlton, and this group had an unexpected supporter named Morrison. Soon, the reality that he wouldn’t be able to take Luisen away as he desired solidified. The ninth worshiper fled, so there was no reason to be here any longer.

“…Let’s see each other again.” Ruger pushed Morrison away and swung his sword to widen the distance between them. A dark red mist rose from under his feet.

“Nngh,” Morrison backed away in horror. This dark and evil energy was like poison to a priest like him. Taking advantage of the gap created, Ruger soon disappeared into the darkness as well.

Croak–

The last goblin collapsed; only three people were left in this village. The night sky quickly calmed down as if nothing had happened, but the smell of monsters and the deep, metallic stench of blood still wafted in the air.

TL: Ruger go away–no one wants to see you. Least of all me and my PR.