Flowers of Worship - Chapter 24

༺❀༻

“You are notorious for slaughtering so many races.”

“Is it different from my point of view? A massacre, I don’t even know if they were alive in the first place.”

People would think that when a human and a monster meet, they will strike a sword immediately, but that was only when they are low-level monsters. When encountering a higher-level monster, it usually starts with this kind of argument.

“You’re ruthless in front of a dragon, Cili,” Lichtatline said in a dignified manner. There was a lot of debate among wizards about what kind of monster the Lichtatline was, but in reality, it looks like it was mixed with dragon blood. Maybe a harp? What about the other half? I’m not a wizard, so I don’t know. But when I looked at him like this, I thought that he must be a giant monster.

I looked at the figure of Lichtatline in detail and responded bluntly.

“It’s ruder to pretend to be friendly. What’s the relationship between you and me, Cilli?”

“… What shall I call you?”

“Duke of Hastred.” While answering casually, I checked and reconfirmed the appearance of Lichtatline in my head. Obviously, when I returned to Yenson, the wizards would have been chasing me with parchment for days and days, asking me to describe him.

“Human beings. After all, everyone clings to such vain honor.”

“Better than you pretending to be a dragon. At least I’m a real duke.”

A fire blazed in Lichtatline’s eyes. Oh my, it must have been a mine I shouldn’t have stepped on.

“Draw your sword, you despicable holy knight.”

“You can not tell me to put out my sword or not; therefore I can only decide whether to go at it or not…Ugh!”

A great wind blew. Covering my face with my hand, I looked up at Lichtatline. He was flapping his wings in anger. He stretched out his right-wing as if it was about to spitfire. Although the energy of the earth that was floating on his fingertips was the strongest in terms of magical power,, I summoned the holy sword in the form of water which Lichtatline strongly felt.

“Even if it’s a holy sword or anything else, it’s just a magic sword in the end!”

“You are just a monster. We ought to know each other well.”

As soon as I smirked, he rushed at me. Even if it fell to the side, it was too bulky, and the wind it drove was so strong that it rolled sideways. Many times our confrontation was repeated. The bastard flapped his wings and swung his claws. His teeth were menacing, and a direct hit from him would probably send me to the underworld. However.

“Why would a monster doesn’t have any magic?”

You can communicate with humans, but why can’t you use a magic attack? At my ridicule, he got angry and threw his body from side to side. Then the wind blew. Although he couldn’t use magic, his body itself can produce mana.

“My lord! Do not provoke it!” Leon felt threatened, so he rolled over next to me and spoke softly. Everyone looked at me as if they were feeling the same way. But I also couldn’t stand it because it was funny. The king of northern monsters, who claimed to be a dragon and gathered demons, couldn’t actually use his magic. If you can’t use magic, what kind of dragon is that?

“Dragon seems to have gotten so ridiculous these days… .”

“I will kill you!” Lichtatline shouted and burst into laughter. I also sometimes think that I have a weird personality, but I genuinely laughed.

“Aren’t you trying to do that from a while ago?”

It’s not that you left me on the hook; you just couldn’t kill me. At my words, the bastard rushed at me with all his might. It was as fast as a cannonball flying. Dodging with a short delay, I kicked the ground and jumped high into the sky. It was so large that even with a substantial jump, I could barely jump over its head. I used all his magical power to jump up to the top of the man the size of a fortress, then grabbed the holy sword with all my might and fell vertically. The blade of the Holy Sword split the Lichtatline horizontally from head to toe.

“Aaaaaaarggh… !”

A bizarre sound, but more like a roar than a scream, shook the whole world. “My lord!” Familiar voices called out to me because my body was completely absorbed into the body of Lichtatline.

Lichtatline’s body was cut in half, quaking on both sides, and fell while I was the only one standing there. The knights rushed to me as they saw me standing with the purple blood of Lichtatline, there were strange bodily fluids and internal organs covered me. Some of them were shocked by my appearance, and others sat down in terror, but none of the senior knights came. The first person to arrive was Chris.

“My lord, are you alright?! Wasn’t there any poison in the blood?!”

“Cloth! Bring the cloth!” Leon exclaimed. Some of the giant monster’s blood had melted everything like hydrochloric acid, so everyone was contemplating. I raised my hand and checked the status of the gauntlet. Fortunately, it did not seem to have such an effect on the blood of Lichtatline.

“Okay, it’s okay.” Chris rolled his eyes at my words.

“It may not corrode, but it may be toxic!”

“Then wiping with a cloth isn’t going to solve the problem. Be careful when taking off your armor. It’s not going to happen when you guys are all drenched in blood, so back away.”

Everyone flinched at my cold tone. I pulled out a dagger from my waist and began to cut off Lichtatline’s neck. Anyway, I need this loot for the king. What else could be more suitable as a loot than the neck of the northern monster king?

I cut both of his necks in half and threw them in front of him. Leon looked back at the lower knights.

“Sew it well.”

The king will surely use Lichtatline’s neck for propaganda, so we had to sew it up and take it with us. Although the wizards would cast spells to prevent them from rotting, some of them seemed to need them and return to the capital quickly. Although he could not use magic at all, the body of Lichtatline itself had strong mana. Even if he died, the magic of the wizards would not be perfect.

“I’m going to sleep today and start running tomorrow.”

At my words, Chris and Sophia nodded at the same time. Leon will have enough left to bring back the Knights, Sophia and Chris will be with the leading members and me to move. While returning to the castle, Sophia, Chris, and the lower ranks knights under them were busy because we will be leaving early tomorrow morning. I soaked in the bathtub while the junior knights and their servants, the knight cadets, were packing up while Chris was busy checking everyone out. Then, Sophia came to me.

“My lord.” As soon as Sophia saw me, she bowed down nobly. Alas. I moaned exaggeratedly. The fact that Sophie, who came from a commoner and built up a wall with aristocratic manners, had to greet me with noble ways meant that I had something to do as a nobleman;  in general, it was not a very good thing.

“You haven’t spoken yet, my lord.”

“I don’t know what it is, but I think it’s a story I hate.”

“… I’m still talking… .”

“Do it now. What is it?” At my command, Sophia pouted. It was a deliberate act of cutesy. That meant that the request I had to make now was so big and heavy that I had to show her cutesy.

“Oh my God, Sophie. What do you want me to ask you?”

I looked up at her with my wet legs in the bathtub, and my shoulders dipped in the water. It wasn’t that serious.

“Now we are going to Yenson, lord.”

“Right.”

“Hey, remember Paul?”

“If it’s your eldest son, Paul, of course, I know.”

“Paul just happened to be there! He’s in Yenson.”

Sophia clapped her hands. It was a plan. I was dumbfounded and looked at her, then she laughed.

“Did you tell Paul to come to Yenson? The road from your estate to Yenson is not good, so why?”

In my head, I drew a map of the road from Sophie’s estate to Yenson. The road was very rough. Grosslan was a place where there was a lot of regional difference among countries, and the capital, Yenson, was beautiful enough to be called ‘the city of flowers and fairies’; but unlike the bustling big cities, the condition of the small towns was terrible, and the further away from the capital, the more beautiful it was. The condition also worsened. State order was not adequately involved, so the villagers held trials in villages. As a result, each village had different laws. Different religions, customs, and slightly different words led to wars between villages from time to time. Consequently, it was common to see the bodies of people who had been hanged, scenes of execution, or scenes of being burned at the mouth of the village. It was not a good view for children to watch. Sophie was one of those parents who tried not to show that, especially to their children, so she didn’t want to bring Paul to Yenson.

“Paul, what do you mean? Master, he is my child, but he is good.”

“Huh?”

“He’s a good boy…he is really nice. But, it’s kind of like he has no talent for swords.”

Uhm. I smiled subtly and narrowed my brow.

Few children have had as many teachers as Sophia’s eldest son, Paul Hiyen. All the knights of Hastred were eager to teach Paul a sword. Unfortunately, even I and Paul have talked about swords for about two days.

Sophia has three sons, but in fact, Paul was the most precious and familiar to us. So, the knights had a lot of interest and affection for Paul. Many children from noble families in the knights were fed up and tried teaching Paul because his mother, Sophia, had difficulty carrying on with the baron title Chris, Leon, and many other knights stuck together and meddled in Paul’s education, and in the end, Sophia got tired of it; thus, it allowed Paul to his maximum freedom and grew up quite comfortably. Now he is a thirteen-year-old boy who can’t even handle a sword and doesn’t know how to read.