The Villain Carries the Holy Sword – Chapter 135

Chapter 135: Dawn Like a Thief (4)

“H, Hey, old man. You can talk?”

The tavern grows colder.

The drunkard who had just poured the white-haired old man on the head stumbles over his words.

How many years has it been since he first came here? How many times has he harassed the old cleaner?

Yet the mute old man has never uttered a single word.

Swish.

He looks back.

His face is obscured by his bushy white hair, but his icy blue eyes gleam menacingly through the strands.

“Thank you for your hospitality.”

“W, What?”

“Thanks to you, no one suspected me.”

Snap━.

The old man snaps his fingers.

And that was all.

Thud, thud, thud–!

But what happens next is far from ordinary.

Golden flames erupt from the soles of the drunkard’s and his two friends’ feet.

“━━━!”

Everyone tried to let out a scream as they grabbed their throats.

But it’s impossible.

In an instant, they are engulfed in flames, leaving behind only three piles of black ash.

Swish━.

The old man, who has just incinerated three men in one breath, calmly picks up his empty glass.

“I understand.”

Three customers have just burned to death right before his eyes.

The bartender doesn’t seem to care, as if he had expected it, and simply refills the old man’s empty apple juice glass.

“I see you’ve been caught by Fiorelli.”

This time, he doesn’t drink it in one gulp. Instead, he holds the cold glass in his hand and swirls it slowly, speaking in a low voice.

Thud━.

The member of the Doctrine Protection Force Protection Force and the Commons’ undercover agent drops to his knees.

“I will atone for my life. Our flames will renew the world!”

“Instead of running away to your death, live and work for me. We can always use another pair of hands for the new world.”

“Thank you!”

The agent tries to raise his head.

But.

Thud.

The old man nonchalantly stomps on the back of the agent’s head. The agent instantly freezes, unable to move.

“Five minutes from now.”

“……?”

“That’s when the ‘Knights of Autumn’ dispatched by that woman, Fiorelli, will arrive here. They can see the tails that you left.”

“……!”

Snap━.

He snaps his fingers again.

This time, it’s the old man’s feet and the agent’s head that catch fire.

But unlike the drunkards who were burned to death, an invisible barrier burns around him.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen such an old-fashioned spell. Has not even the magical revolution of the hanged the way they cast spells?”

The old man’s question is met with a nod from the bartender.

“It has changed. However, I understand that some of the older clergy still use the old spell system from before the revolution.”

“How stubborn. It’s fine, It makes things easier for us too.

Only after the golden flames die down does the old man lift his foot. The agent beneath him, who had been trembling in fear, cautiously gets up.

“Thank you!”

“We are comrades fighting for the same ideals. You don’t have to be so formal.”

He doesn’t usually talk much, but when he does, the old man’s words are surprisingly eloquent.

He clinks his apple juice glass against the half-drunk michelangelo glass of the agent, then drains it in one gulp.

“The witch Chloe. I haven’t heard that name in a long time.”

“I doubt she’s someone you could forget.”

The bartender’s playful remark draws a smirk from the old man, Golden Dawn, one of the Apostles of the Commons.

“You make it sound like she was my first love.”

“As far as I know, she was the first and last mission you failed as an Apostle.”

“In that case, she must have been my first love.”

He pushes his empty juice glass forward and rises from his seat.

2 minutes and 30 seconds remaining.

“I hear that the situation in Airian is not good lately. I hear there’s been some infighting.”

All three of them have heard that the Holy See’s pursuit team is on its way. But only the members of the Doctrine Protection Force seem to be bothered by that fact.

The bartender and Golden Dawn don’t even acknowledge his words.

“I never thought an island known for its gentle, peace-loving nobles would have infighting. How sacred.”

“I hear it’s because there are two princesses.”

“Hmph. Power. We’ll just send the 〈 Caballeros Liberación〉, and they’ll sort things out. Just watch.”

“I’ll pass on the message.”

“Do we have enough witches in reserve?”

The old man’s question is met with a shake of the head from the bartender. He turns around, leans against the table, and counts the bottles of liquor in the cupboard.

“We’re running low. There aren’t many real witches out there, excluding the cheap knockoffs.”

“That’s why we’re trying to get our hands on the ‘Numbered Witches’.”

1 minute.

“There’s an unconfirmed rumor that one of the two princesses is a witch.”

The old man raises an eyebrow at the bartender’s words.

“It’s a shame that Glumiêm, who would have been a great sacrifice when we need it, is gone…… How fortunate.”

“What should we do?”

“Don’t we have any of our sisters or Daybreakers there?”

He naturally turns to the ‘Twelve Sisters of Dawn’ and ‘Daybreakers’, who act as the hands and feet of the Commons.

“Diez (10), the sister who was dispatched there, was killed, and another Daybreaker died after leaving only a short signal.”

“Oh? The one who died before was Siete(7). That makes two sisters dead.”

30 seconds.

Thud━.

Golden Dawn grabs the member of the member of the Doctrine Protection Force by the scruff of the neck. Then, he places his hand on the tavern’s rickety old door and speaks.

“This place has become too hot for comfort. I’ll go.”

Creak.

It’s just an ordinary wooden door that opens left and right. But the moment the old man touches it, it swings open ominously, erasing their figures in an instant.

The bartender looks out at the narrow, desolate alleyway beyond the door.

Whoosh━!

Thick dust blows in.

It’s a common occurrence, since it’s near the Henerali-fe training grounds. But today, the dust is different.

“……Heretic.”

Three figures, clad in black from head to toe and wearing black veils over their faces, enter the tavern.

One of them dips his finger into the dust scattered on the floor and examines it.

“Traces of people.”

“Hmph. Just you?”

They ask the bartender, who is nonchalantly wiping down a glass. He gestures to the three empty seats at the bar.

“If you’re customers, please take a seat.”

“We have received a report that a suspected heretic has come to this place. Where is he hiding?”

They must have tracked him down using the old-fashioned tracking spell that was used on the member of the Doctrine Protection Force.

The bartender shakes his head in response to their question.

“I haven’t hidden anyone.”

“Then?”

“You’re just late. You missed him.”

Smash━!

He broke a glass cup on the spot. He then picked up one of the glass shards, which was sharp enough to be terrifying, and held it to his own neck.

“Stop!”

Those who had come to root out the heretic at the behest of Cardinal Fiorelli cry out in alarm and try to stop him.

Fsssh━.

But the bartender ignores them and plunges the glass shard into his own throat.

“With our flames, we shall renew the world.”

As if he feels no pain.

As if he is taking his first step into the gates of heaven.

He continues to cut his throat with the glass, and in an instant, the tavern is transformed into a sea of blood.

Thud.

The bartender collapses.

The three pursuers gather around him. He continues to mutter, blood bubbling in his breath.

“And so the dawn that greets us…… shall be golden…….”

The bartender dies, his throat deeply gashed. The woman, who seemed to be the oldest among the black-clad pursuers, covered her mouth with her hand.

“How can he die so easily?”

“That’s a heretic for you.”

Their leader, who is standing at the front, says firmly. He gives the order to split up and search the back alley tavern, using hand signals, and then the black-clad leader of the Holy See turns his head.

Two glasses on the bar.

One is a whiskey glass and the other is a juice glass.

Judging by the fresh lip mark on the whiskey glass, they must have been here until just before they barged in.

“No trace of them.”

He picks up the juice glass.

There are no fingerprints or lip marks, which would normally be there if someone had touched it. And after examining the bartender’s body, there is nothing to identify them.

“Nothing.”

The other two, who have searched every nook and cranny of the tavern, come back and report.

“It’s just an ordinary tavern.”

“Ordinary, huh.”

━They’ll get away anyway. We’ll never catch the Commons this way. But make a judgment call.

He looks west.

Beyond the vast Kreuz Empire, which spans the central-western part of the continent, there is an island on the outskirts, a place where ordinary people of the continent would never have any reason to go.

Airian.

━The Saintess needs help, both against the witches and the heretics. I can’t send you there on a whim, so decide whether or not to go and see them.

The black-clad man looks down at the body of the bartender, who has escaped this place so easily by death.

“Cardinal Fiorelli said that we should follow the Saintess and defeat them.”

“And what did Master Paladin say?”

“He said that if what we see is ‘light’, we should follow it, and if what we hear is ‘darkness’, we chase after it.”

“That’s cryptic.”

The man smiles wryly.

“Master Paladin loves to say such nonsensical things as he gets older.”

“I think I should go. Even if we can’t catch them, isn’t Cardinal Mauro the only one assisting the Saintess on Airian Island right now?”

At the woman’s words, the tall man who had been silent until now nods.

“If the Saintess returns, Cardinal Mauro’s Inquisition will naturally gain more power.”

“Sigh, we always tell ourselves to follow the will of the light, not the power, but you guys sound like politicians.”

The leader sighs.

But he’s not entirely wrong.

Unlike the Inquisition, which is always trying to expand its power, the ‘Knights of Autumn’ are primarily tasked with protecting the Holy See.

As a result, there was a need for a different approach, as they would always lose out in the internal competition.

“Yes. The situation in the Empire is also unstable, so we must go.”

“That’s right. We can’t let them take away our holy sword, ‘Summer’, because of their ambition to become emperor.”

And so, the Apostle of the Commons, Golden Dawn, and the three Paladins also began to move towards Airian.

The changing world is slowly beginning to revolve around Airian.

🔹🔹🔹

“What’s with this atmosphere?”

Cain asks, bewildered.

Hybolt, who had been sitting as stiff as a new recruit, asks with a cheerful expression.

“You’re here. Where’s Edmund?”

“He said that he would kill me from the Saintess’s side and left.”

“…….”

Hybolt, who had wanted to change the atmosphere, rubs his forehead. Everwyn, who is sitting across from him, does the same.

She blinks her big, doe-like eyes in disbelief.

“…… no, I don’t know where that human got his age from. Like this human.”

And then there’s Oleciren.

She was sitting between her middle-aged father and her mother, who had returned as a young girl, saying nothing, just rolling her black eyes.

“Why don’t you just die? You said that if the World Tree dies, you’ll die too.”

Oleciren and Hybolt’s eyes widen at Cain’s question.

Everwyn answers nonchalantly.

“Just like the saying that even if the top dies, the middle will still survive, I guess I won’t die right away.”

“Then I’ll kill you right now━.”

Cain says, casually putting his hand on Agweska. The two people are startled and jump up from their seats.

“That’s okay!”

“There’s no need for that!”

Cain smirks.

“When Everwyn came back, this oldman was so stiff, but now he’s all over the place. It’s nice to see.”

“That…… is.”

Hybolt slumps down in his seat.

Before Cain came.

He was being pointed out by Everwyn for the blunders he had made after Everwyn had died. He was so ashamed that he wanted to die.

“But she’s my mother…….”

Oleciren retorts coolly.

How she had envied Olivia’s mother all those years.

She was glad that her mother had come back alive, even if she was like this. However, she was a little tired of all the nagging that she had never had before.

Creak━.

Cain sits down in an empty chair and opens his mouth.

“I thought only my house was a mess, but It’s the same here too.”

Oleciren hesitated before opening her mouth at Cain’s attitude as if he were a counselor who had brought the parents of a student.

“My mother, who has come back to life, is younger than me. What should I do?”

Cain’s mind briefly flashes with the thought that she might as well cut her throat.

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