* * *

Knowing that the identity of the knight candidate was Lumen Dominic, now only a natural approach remained. So instead of offending Lumen with the nonsense that didn’t work, Cadel, pretending not to be interested in him, decided to drag out the meeting under the guise of a coincidence on his part.

“There’s not much information about the temple as I thought. It was quiet for a rumor that came all the way to the Bills Village.”

Currently, Cadel and Van were on their way to the ‘Temple of Depollo’, the source of the rumor. The Temple of Depollo was a temple dedicated to Loden, one of the ‘Seven Knights’ who made a name for leading the sealing of the demon world, and his guardian deity, Depollo.

The seven great powers, including the Kingdom of Mainue, each enshrined a knight and a guardian deity. So, until they left the Kingdom of Mainue, they had no choice but to see Loden and Depollo in any temple.

Cadel answered, brooding over the game’s worldview.

“It’s the source of the rumor, so it’ll be quieter on the outside. They’re trying to make it appears as nothing but a nasty rumor about a holy temple. There are already many tourists, so they can’t lose their prestige.”

“Then it will be difficult for outsiders like us to intervene. If the rumors are true, the temple will hire a knight order who is sure to keep their mouth shut and get things done.”

“I suppose so.”

Nevertheless, there were two reasons why Cadel visited the temple of Depollo.

First, as long as Lumen Dominic stayed in Hermel City, he would go to the temple unconditionally. Lumen, who went there, would be involved in the case in some way. Lumen was the second son of a wealthy family, but now he was traveling in secret.

The longer the journey without family support, the more impoverished it was. Lumen needed money, and there was no job more suitable for his status and financial situation in Hermel City.

And second, rumors about the temple are not in vain.

He didn’t know the cause, but the believers kept disappearing, and the temple would hire a knight order with excellent skills to prevent this. Maybe they had already hired them and the knight order was moving toward the temple. Cadel had no intention of waiting for the process.

He needed to come before the knight order. It was planned to move ahead of them and steal the credit for solving the case. To do so, it was important to grasp the flow of the situation before anyone else.

There was a reason why Cadel was so sure of the truth of the rumor and designed the plan.

「Accepted the main quest ‘Woman of the Temple’!」

「Clear the quest to proceed with the story. A reward is given.」

「In case of failure, the reputation of the knight order falls by 10.」

A system window popped up as he approached the Temple of Depollo. It was a notification confirming that the incident that occurred in the temple was a task that he had to solve. He remembered the penalty of the new main quest.

‘In case of failure, the reputation of the knight order falls by 10? what the. The reputation is only 7 right now, so are you asking for a minus?’

What a minus in reputation. Isn’t that just notoriety?

‘But that’s how big the risk is. If we secretly investigate the temple and can’t pinpoint the main culprit…….’

In the worst case, they might be held accountable. A shadow fell over Cadel’s face.

He felt it in the first quest, but the penalty was too great for players at the beginning of the story. Threatening the lives of his subordinates, or ruining his reputation that didn’t even exist?

Van came close to Cadel, who was in a bad mood, and wrinkled his face.

“Commander, I can feel the presence nearby.”

The two immediately got off the road leading to the temple and hid in the bush next to it. If they went in openly, their face would be recognized, so it was better to spy on the temple, even if they might look suspicious until they got the job done neatly.

Cadel held his breath and crouched down. Van was facing him, rolling his eyes toward the bush.

But no matter how long they waited, no sound came out. Feeling frustrated, the moment Cadel slightly opened his mouth, Van raised his index finger to his lips and came right up to his nose.

‘W, what? You’re too close……?’

He could feel Van’s breathing. As Cadel, who reflexively pulled away, lost his balance and stumbled, Van immediately wrapped his arms around his waist, bringing the distance even closer. Cadel was almost feverish with embarrassment.

Am I overreacting?

Van whispered in his ear, almost confining him in his arms as if nothing had happened.

“They’re believers. Shall we follow them?”

Cadel nodded fiercely on Van’s shoulder. If he didn’t follow in their footsteps right away, he felt like he’d faint while enduring the posture that was beyond the level of intimacy.

The believers consisted of one woman and two men. They were moving through the forest road behind the temple, and Cadel and Van followed them as silently as possible.

“Can you hear what they’re talking about?”

Cadel, who hid behind a wooden post, asked. They were quite far from the believers and the night was getting deeper, so he couldn’t even see their faces properly. Van opened his eyes narrowly and focused all his senses on hearing. Then he began to hear, albeit faintly, the believers’ conversation.

“Sorry to bother you, brothers. If it was something else, I would have looked for it alone as soon as the day dawned…….”

“No. It’s nothing else, it’s your father’s keepsake. You won’t be able to sleep without it.”

“Haa. You lost it around here, so we’ll be able to find it soon.”

The three believers seemed to be searching the woods for something the woman had lost. The two male believers looked around, consoling the grouchy female believer, and for a while, no informative conversations took place.

It was when they were about to stop eavesdropping on the increasingly wide streets and try to move. The female believer spoke in an anxious, shrill voice.

“If it weren’t for you brothers, I wouldn’t have dared to look for it. I must have prayed anxiously instead.”

“The devil is testing our faith. You must never give in. At times like this, we should rely on Sir Lorden’s bravery and Lord Depollo’s mercy.”

“Of course! By the way…… Is it really a witch?”

……Witch?

The unexpected word caused wrinkles between Van’s brows. He lightly squeezed Cadel’s wrist, keeping his gaze fixed on the believers.

“Let’s keep up.”

“What do you hear?”

“I guess I’ll have to listen more to know.”

He took Cadel and found a wooden pole opposite and hid. Stealth was relatively easy thanks to the dark-colored robes and thick shadows. Since they were ordinary believers, the probability of noticing their presence was low.

“No matter how demonic it may be, I’ve never heard of a witch eating people……. Isn’t that terrible?”

“Shh! Stop it. Didn’t the priest tell you not to say anything? And if the rumors spread, the temple would be damaged. A demon who only picks out Depollo’s followers…….”

Although the conversation was not fully audible due to the ambiguous distance and mumbled tone, the words he heard were enough to guess the source of the rumor. Van put together keywords and passed them on to Cadel.

“Looks like the believers are dead, not missing, Commander. A demon ate them.”

“Demon?”

“It seems that it’s a demon who is only targeting believers. That is…… Maybe it’s a witch.”

Cadel’s expression hardened slightly.

‘A witch who appears in 「Hero of Knights」……. I remember a few of them, but not all of them are good memories.’

All the witches he dealt with were difficult, so he remembered that he had a hard time clearing them every time. Due to their unpredictable personalities and their inexorable magic skills.

‘If it’s really a witch, I should recruit Lumen Dominic as soon as possible.’

Van’s skills were undoubtedly excellent, but the problem was himself. Witches were demons, most of the demons were proficient in magic, and witches were close to the highest point among them.

However, Cadel had not yet fully mastered magic and had poor application skills. In such a state, he was in a position to deal with a magician far superior to him, so he needed someone other than himself to fill his powers.

“For now, let’s step back today. It’s from the mouths of the believers, so it must be clear that there is a problem with the temple. And when it’s dawn, we’ll start collecting information―”

It was when Cadel, who finished his judgment, decided to retreat.

“Kkyaaah!”

Screams were heard from the direction where the believers were. When they turned their heads reflexively, what they saw was.

“S, sa, save me!”

A jet-black flame wrapped around the three believers. They were slowly sinking in the high flames surrounding them, engulfed in darkness darker than shadows.

Cadel’s running toward them was almost an act of instinct. Concentrating his mana in his palms, instead of the flames surrounding the followers, he fired [Fire Balls] toward the floor next to them.

Boom!

With a brief detonation, the soil gushed and splashed on it as if extinguishing the flame. With a thick cloud of dust, no more screams were heard.

“Are you alrig…….”

Cadel broke through the dust and reached the place where the believers were. As he tried to check their conditions, he hardened his expression at once.

‘What’s going on here?’

Nothing.

“Commander! If you suddenly jump out like that…….”

The believers who had been engulfed in flames and screaming not long ago had evaporated without a trace.

Van, who followed him, also stopped talking when he noticed the empty space in front of him. In front of them, only a charred circular mark remained. He couldn’t see the figures of the believers who were trapped inside and screaming.

Was it a kind of magic? Or did the whole body ignite in that short period of time, leaving not even bone powder?

Because of the explosion he caused to put out the flames, he couldn’t watch the moment when the believers disappeared. Cadel bit his lip gently. He rubbed the only trace of soot with the toe of his shoe as if he were stepping on it.

‘How deep are the marks? Waves after waves of black things keep coming out.’

At this depth, it could no longer be considered soot. As the flame rose from the ground, it could be seen as a trap of some sort. Cadel was very knowledgeable about this kind of trap because he had seen these terrible things many times.

“Did everything burn out?”

With a rather serious expression on his face, Van looked around for traces. Cadel shook his head quietly.

“This is a summoning trap.”

“A summoning trap?”

“It’s a disgusting summoning magic that nibbles half of the opponent’s blood pain, no, physical strength as soon as it’s activated. By now, the summoned believers would have no energy to escape.”

“Who the hell would do that magic…….”

Witch. Only demons, especially witches, could use such vicious, annoying, and disgusting summoning magic as a joke.

‘The color of the flame was black. Is she a dark attribute witch? A dark witch who appears in the early story…….’

There was a figure he could guess. Even considering the distortion of old memories, the witch was ranked among the top five annoyances among Cadel’s enemies.

It was the early stages of nurturing. A time when the knights and the equipment they possessed were insignificant. The witch also had a lot of nerve-wracking skills that were too much to face at such a time.

While Cadel frowned as he recalled the pain of the past, Van, contemplating the trap triggerer’s identity, flashed his eyes. His eyes, which sank instantly, stared out over the bushes to his left.

“Who.”

Like a sensitive animal, the shining golden eyes gazed into the deep darkness beyond the bush. Van’s hand was already on the hilt of the greatsword, and Cadel, who hadn’t noticed the presence, quickly condensed his mana.

And soon, with the sound of footsteps piercing the silence, a young man wearing a robe hood appeared from beyond the bush.

“I didn’t expect you’d notice me.”

Cadel’s eyes widened when he heard the man’s voice.

“You…….”

“I never thought I’d see you here again.”

Lumen Dominic!

He lowered his hood, staring at Cadel. Since he had already shown his face once, he seemed to have decided that there was no need to cover it further.

Cadel had to work hard not to smile insidiously at Lumen, who appeared in a timely manner. As naturally as possible, he made a nonchalant expression as if the existence of Lumen Dominic was nothing.

“What have you been doing to jump out of here?”

“That’s what I should ask you.”

“We were taking a walk near the temple when we happened to hear a scream and came running.”

Cadel rubbed the marks on the floor with the soles of his shoes. Lumen stared at the marks he was trying to erase and shrugged.

“I think the excuse that you were taking a walk around the temple at this time is kind of funny.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t have to elaborate excuses for someone I don’t know. I hope you understand.”

A strange light flashed over Lumen’s blue eyes. He glanced over at Cadel with interest, then caught a glimpse of Van snarling viciously from behind as if he were going to cut himself to death at any moment.

Lumen thought he was a step behind. He came here to determine the authenticity of the temple after hearing rumors about the temple, but he didn’t know there would be a preceding visitor. Lumen pondered something for a while and fiddled with the sword sheath hidden under his robe, then slowly opened his mouth.

“I’m called Luman. I’m a wanderer who barely survives by handling occasional requests.”

“……Luman. That’s a pretty dull name.”

“I think so, too.”

What did he mean Luman? Lumen seemed to have no intention of revealing his real name, whether Cadel knew Lumen’s identity or not. He guess Lumen was trying to be as clueless as possible.

Good.

Cadel decided to let it go. He was thinking of recruiting Lumen unconditionally, and in order to approach Lumen, he might be better off pretending not to know his identity and being friendly. For that reason, Cadel reached out to Lumen, pushing the snorting Van as if he were told to listen.

“My name is Cadel. I’m the commander of the Scarlet Scales Mercenaries.”

“What a nice name.”

“I know that.”

With a faint laugh, Lumen grabbed Cadel’s hand. Between the short handshake, the two gazes full of ulterior motives crossed.