Taming the Evil Saintess

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“What’s this, some kind of jungle law or what?”

At first, I found the foliage fascinating, but seeing it all day long, it quickly became tiresome.

I let out a long yawn and tossed another log onto the campfire.

It’s been a week since I started crossing the Great Forest. I had already passed the capital, Elvendell, and was now just a stone’s throw away from my original destination, Nua Diel. I estimated I would arrive in about three days.

My daily routine was simple. During the day, I kept walking, and when the sun began to set, I lit a campfire. I would catch fish from a nearby stream or gather berries to fill my stomach, and by the time the moon was high in the sky, I climbed up a tree to sleep.

After doing this for about a week, I had gotten used to this lifestyle and didn’t feel any significant inconvenience.

Instead, there was an unsettling feeling.

“Dark Elf. Dark Mage.”

Archmage Eldarian had said just that.

He had no reason to lie to me. Given Owen’s influence, there was no need to doubt the truth.

However, no matter how I thought about it, there was no reason for a Dark Mage to unleash monsters in Lauren Village.

There was no need for such effort in a backwater town like Lauren, not when there were other key locations or large cities.

“Variables, huh?”

I had my suspicions.

This world seemed to follow the settings of a game, but there were subtle discrepancies everywhere. Ophelia’s personality was one such case, and Owen’s mouth was another.

A slight twist could lead to the butterfly effect that killed the Hero.

Thinking that way wasn’t too strange.

If not that…

“No, it can’t be that.”

I shook my head, as the worst-case scenario flashed through my mind.

Regardless of what it was, it wasn’t a good situation.

To say the worst had come to pass wouldn’t be strange at all.

The fact that the one who was supposed to receive the Hero’s Divine Mark had disappeared meant we couldn’t defeat the Demon King.

The Demon King is immortal and a being of cycles. To bring down such a Demon King, the Hero’s Divine Mark granted by God was necessary.

With the protagonist Hero dead, could it cling to another person?

I had no idea. I had never considered such a scenario.

“…Who would’ve thought it would come to this?”

Anyway, it wouldn’t hurt to find out who was behind Lauren Village and deal with them.

With that determination, I stood up.

The present anxiety may have been lifted, but another problem remained.

“What should I do with those guys?”

I cast a sidelong glance into the dark depths of the forest.

Followers.

I had noticed them a few days ago.

They seemed to think they weren’t discovered, but my eyes couldn’t be fooled.

Beyond the Northern Barrier, there were constant waves of demons trying to raid mercenary groups. Having rolled around in such places for four years, my instincts had become finely tuned.

For the past few days, the stalkers had been following me, observing my every move.

They didn’t seem malicious. If they were, they would have ambushed me while I was sleeping.

There were exactly fourteen of them.

They could climb trees and were skilled at hiding their presence.

In other words, they were likely Elf Rangers.

They must have felt considerable suspicion about a lone human crossing through the Great Forest.

In the actual game, wandering in the Great Forest for extended periods was how you recruited Elf companions. The Rangers who followed would come out to speak, and that was when the recruitment proposal would be made.

“Hmmm.”

If I went to Nua Diel while being followed, multiple headaches would arise.

I should settle things now to avoid complications later.

And while I was at it, I’d teach those irritating guys a lesson.

Having made up my mind, I splashed the ashes in my leather pouch onto the campfire.

*

“He stopped.”

Wuzmund murmured quietly.

Immediately, his subordinates relayed the meaning to their colleagues through hand signals, and they moved to different trees, maintaining surveillance.

Experienced movements.

Wuzmund’s Ranger unit was a veteran group that had maintained order in the Great Forest for over half a century.

The very fact that such a veteran team was on mission was a testament to the significance of keeping an eye on that man.

“Elliot. Why has the High Knight of the Saint come all the way to the Great Forest?”

Wuzmund pondered internally.

It was a question that had come to his mind multiple times.

The Cathedral Knight, who should have been in the Cathedral, was causing a disturbance in the Great Forest. This was utterly incomprehensible.

There were plenty of priests who traveled the continent under the guise of pilgrimage. However, they too wouldn’t dare enter the Great Forest.

The reasons were numerous.

The Great Forest, unlike ordinary regions of the continent, was harsh and dangerous. Many forest beasts reside there, and sometimes even monsters would pop up.

If an ordinary human entered the Great Forest alone, they would be found cold and dead within days.

But what about that knight?

He wandered through the Great Forest as if it were nothing, dissecting any beasts he encountered for food. He seemed well-versed in herbalism, knowing which plants were edible and which weren’t.

He seemed more like a seasoned hunter than a Knight of the Saint. If he were of another race, I’d almost admire him.

Moreover, Elliot was heading towards the territory of the Dark Elves.

Dark Elves.

They are not an accepting race like Wuzmund’s High Elves. They reject even their own kind, let alone humans. It would be a miracle if one escaped unharmed.

Under normal circumstances, one would think it was a suicide mission. But to have a Cathedral Knight of the Saint lose his life at the hands of Dark Elves? That would be very problematic.

Given the already deteriorating relations due to the Continental Alliance, risking provoking an incident was sheer folly.

“Should I capture him?”

That was one reason Wuzmund’s scouts were watching Elliot.

He intended to detain him before he crossed over into Nua Diel.

He had been watching him closely in case Elliot changed his mind and decided to head back south, but he seemed set on his course.

At this point, peaceful resolutions were impossible.

“Should I make my move soon?”

Wuzmund decided and signaled his subordinates.

Having worked together for decades, his subordinates understood his signals and readied arrows smeared with paralysis poison.

A mere graze would put him to sleep for days. They could move him outside the Great Forest then. His life wouldn’t be in danger. Elliot wouldn’t even know what hit him before he lost consciousness.

Wuzmund raised his hand.

He was just about to signal to shoot the arrows.

Suddenly, the campfire blazed brightly before snuffing out.

Darkness enveloped the area in an instant.

Elliot snuffed out the campfire.

“…”

Wuzmund raised his hand in a hurry. At the same time, he regretted it. He intended to signal to his subordinates; however, at that moment, the dark clouds obscured the moon.

A sourceless forest is endlessly dark. In such a pitch-black state, Wuzmund’s signal would be impossible to convey.

“Tch.”

As he clicked his tongue, the darkness before Wuzmund suddenly lit up.

Was he reigniting the campfire? For a moment, that thought crossed his mind. But Wuzmund realized his judgment was wrong.

What was burning was a sword.

Elliot drew a silver sword, and golden flames surged ferociously from its blade.

“That… the Sword Energy…”

An incorporeal energy that only those who’ve reached a high level of swordsmanship could use.

Only those proficient in mana manipulation could channel mana into the blade.

I had heard that the Cathedral Knight of the Saint was on par with the Empire’s strongest force, the Swordmaster. It wouldn’t be strange for him to employ Sword Energy. But the Sword Energy that Elliot produced was blindingly powerful.

There are very few who could create such immense Sword Energy, even within the Great Forest.

“Detected! Subdue him!”

He realized he’d been noticed.

Since when? Could it be from the very beginning?

No, such inquiries were irrelevant now.

“Ugh!”

Wuzmund grimaced and nocked an arrow to his bowstring.

No matter how much Sword Energy he wrapped around his sword, he was still unarmored and vulnerable. If he could just poison him with the paralysis toxin, he could manage it.

With that thought in mind, he released the arrow.

However, Elliot merely shifted his upper body slightly and dodged it.

The arrows that rained continuously were—

[Slash!]

With a light sound, they were severed.

In the dead of night, the trained Ranger’s volley of arrows was effortlessly batted away by that one sword.

Wuzmund internally acknowledged that he had misjudged this Knight named Elliot.

That Knight was as strong as any Elf chieftain.

Suddenly, Elliot leaped into action. Enhanced by mana, he soared in an instant to the tree where Wuzmund’s ranger unit was stationed.

His subordinates gasped and pulled daggers from their belts to throw, while arrows rained down, but Elliot’s golden Sword Energy swallowed them all.

At the same time he landed on a branch, Elliot swung his sword several times, and with anguished screams, several Rangers fell from the trees. He didn’t kill them. He struck with the flat of the blade. However, imbued with Sword Energy, that sword bore strength beyond that of a mere cudgel.

“Stop it, human! We mean you no harm!”

“Shut it. Were those arrows released in jest? I trust not a single word from those Ear Demons.”

Elliot’s words made Wuzmund blink in surprise.

Is it appropriate for a Cathedral Knight to speak like that?

Moreover, “Ear Demon”?

That was a derogatory term to the Elves.

But before Wuzmund could express his fury, Elliot changed his position mid-air and leaped again.

“What?!”

Suspended in mid-air. Among the martial artists from the East, there was a technique utilizing such balance. Yet, Elliot’s technique was slightly different. He formed physical force in mid-air through mana, using it as a stepping stone to leap again. Regardless, the fact remained that his mana manipulation was almost divine.

“Ugh!”

Before he knew it, Elliot’s body was right next to him. Wuzmund gritted his teeth and drew three swords from his side.

Elf Rangers train extensively, not only in archery but are also versed in swordsmanship; they were forces capable of engaging in close combat.

However, this time, he had drawn the short straw.

[Clank!]

The clash of swords. Even that alone sent shudders through his hands.

However, instead of bracing for a power struggle, Elliot twisted the hilt of his sword, riding up Wuzmund’s blade to aim for his neck. [Clang!] The chilling sound evoked the image of a guillotine’s blade.

Feeling the presence of imminent death, Wuzmund leaned back, but that wasn’t Elliot’s target.

[Thud.]

Elliot’s knee struck between his legs.

A hit that any male would classify as a critical blow.

Wuzmund lost his dinner from last night just then.