The Former Holy Knight. Having Lost My Job and Childhood Friend, I Decided to Start a Dark Guild - Chapter 95

(Glenn Deeth, Glenn Deeth, that name sounds familiar…)

The Holy Knight in front of me had introduced himself with a name I seemed to have heard somewhere before. It was vague, but I think I might have heard it at the royal capital’s garrison.

Well, regardless, given the current situation, it’s highly likely that this Glenn Deeth was the one who stole the leather bag from me. It would be reasonable to think that he knew who I was and approached me on purpose.

I declined Glenn Deeth’s offer to show me around the town, thanked him once more, and started walking alone. After confirming that my drink hadn’t been tampered with, I drank an antidote and gradually felt my heavy body start to ease.

As expected, Glenn Deeth was following me. However, his tailing skills were not very good. He wasn’t using any secret holy arts, so his presence was too strong. I thought perhaps he was letting me know he was there on purpose, so I activated a secret holy art and quickened my pace.

(I used to play a lot of tag with Leon when we were younger, so contrary to appearances, I’m actually quite good at it.)

I passed through the bustling bazaar and entered the adventurers’ district. Glenn Deeth definitely knows this town better than I do, so the geographical advantage was on his side.

Just how skilled is he? As I walked through the town, I lost him in just a few minutes. Even from a distance, I could clearly see him looking around confusedly for me in the crowd at the bazaar.

(What exactly was his objective…)

I jumped onto a roof and looked down at Glenn Deeth as he aimlessly walked through the town. Given that he was supposedly one of the Bernard Holy Knights involved in capturing knights, he seemed to lack the capabilities.

Perhaps he had another objective, but I didn’t have time to keep playing around. For the time being, I stopped following Glenn Deeth and went back to gathering information on my original mission.

The next day, I infiltrated the Bernard Holy Knights’ garrison. By activating both secret and illusionary holy arts, my presence would hardly be detected even as I walked through the garrison.

I began by putting several knights into a semi-hypnotic state with holy arts and questioned them. From lower to higher ranks, I spoke with various knights, but none were aware that knights from the royal capital had been detained. They all believed the operations in the frontier were still ongoing.

One troubling fact was the absence of the upper echelons of the Bernard Holy Knights, including the commander, Cisia. They seemed to be on a special mission, and the knights left at the garrison seemed puzzled by their absence.

Next, I boldly went to the commander’s office. As expected, the door to the office was sealed with a powerful holy art.

(For the sake of rescuing the subordinate knights. I’m sorry, Commander Cisia.)

Despite feeling a guilty conscience, I broke the seal on the room with a stronger holy art and entered the empty commander’s office.

The interior was much like any other commander’s office I’d seen, with a desk, chairs, bookshelves, and a long couch. I activated a detection holy art and began searching for confidential documents that should be stored here. Soon, I found a hidden safe in one corner of the bookshelf.

The safe was sealed with a holy art that prevented others from opening it, and it was a rather tricky one. When I managed to break the seal, I felt a strong intent and drew my sword.

Three guardian soldiers, created by holy arts by Commander Cisia, appeared in front of me. It seems the seal was designed to physically attack anyone trying to break it.

I countered the simultaneous slashes from the three guardians with my twin swords while chanting holy words.

The guardians kept swinging their swords relentlessly. The holy art protecting the safe was unusually strong. While parrying their strikes, I activated the “Dissipation” holy art.

Soon, the three guardians were engulfed in a vortex of light, literally dissipating. While this holy art, which can reduce a person to pieces in an instant, isn’t commonly used due to its severity, it was quite handy in this situation.

After sheathing my sword, I opened the now unsealed safe and spread the bundle of documents I found on the desk.

The confidential documents were similar to those I had seen in the royal capital—scandals involving a cardinal and a baroness, and reports of a heretic inquisitor impregnating a frontier girl. Various scandals occurred in the capital, and it seemed the same was true here.

Among other things, there were harsh records of heresy inquisitions, but no document seemed directly connected to my current mission. However, I felt a nagging sense of missing something important. As I reread the documents from the beginning, I stopped when I saw a familiar name.

“Glenn Deeth…”

A Holy Knight who conducted investigations into certain corrupt bribes had the same peculiar name as the knight I met yesterday. And this document was indeed the cause of my uneasy feeling. It was likely encrypted.

As I suspected, when I activated a decryption holy art, the text automatically rearranged itself. The newly formed document wasn’t official but looked more like a collection of miscellaneous notes by Commander Cisia.

And as I began reading, I was soon at a loss for words. The contents were unbelievably astonishing.

I had to accept that Glenn Deeth, whom I had met yesterday, was the mastermind behind the recent uprising of the Sun’s People. However, his origins were problematic.

(You’re kidding, he has blood from King Valderion…)

Moreover, his mother was Noela Seiren, the former chief of the Sun’s People—meaning he was Sia Seiren’s mother. It was hard to believe.

The more I read, the clearer it became that this wasn’t just fiction; it was what Commander Cisia had actually seen and heard. I could feel Commander Cisia’s anguish as a fellow commander.

After it was revealed that Glenn Deeth was connected to the Sun’s People, Count Bernard did not give up on Glenn’s succession to the throne, instructing Commander Cisia to cover it up.

Meanwhile, Commander Cisia managed to facilitate a meeting between Sia Seiren and Glenn. He wrote about it:

“Though it was a difficult position for me, I thought that by advancing the marriage between Glenn and Sia Seiren as Glenn wished, we could alleviate the conflict that had arisen. My thoughts differed from Count Bernard, but it was time to act for the sake of the people.”

“However, Sia Seiren did not agree to the terms. She said, ‘I am destined to unite with a new king born in the western city known as Don Michino…'”

Then, the royal capital’s Holy Knight corps dispatched here, as I had been informed, managed to efficiently capture the rebelling Sun’s People after some trouble.

But then something I hadn’t anticipated occurred. Commander Cisia’s handwriting trembled as he wrote:

“Since Glenn’s royal skills manifested, I found myself unable to disobey his commands. His King’s Aura significantly affected my loyalty cultivated in the Holy Knights, and under the King’s Aura, I led the corps from the royal capital into a valley where the Sun’s People awaited and had them captured.”

“Furthermore, under Glenn’s King’s Aura, I dispatched twenty-three elites to the Nymeria Mausoleum. Even knowing it had turned into a dungeon, I allowed Glenn to lift the magical seal placed by the saint and the king. And precious lives were lost.”

The last entry in the document stated:

“Last night, I received a King’s Aura command from Glenn to kill Don Michino, who interferes with his marriage to Sia Seiren.”