Simon didn’t know when he woke up, but the sky looked dim and cloudy, his body sitting on a small stone bench outside the castle... but what worried him was... "What the hell happened..." He grumbled and wiped his face.
A sticky squelch sounded, and sothing warm spread across his face that slled sour like old at and rust...
’Is this blood... what happened?’
His chest burned with pain, but his hands were no different.
A loud thud ca to him as he stood up, his knee buckling. The mont he saw what surrounded him, his lips trembled, almost falling back. He slipped on the thick puddle of blood... three bodies, torn apart and covered in bloody marks as if killed by soone who enjoys torturing his targets.
"W-What... that hell!?"
"Oh? Is that not Simon? I didn’t expect to see you...Hmm?" The voice halted, eyes examining the area, as the corners of his lips lifted, forming a malevolent smile. "Knight Simon, where did all this blood co from?"
Kneeling on a stone bench, shaking with shock and covered in blood, the Knight could barely speak.
"Your Grace..."
He’d never felt this fear before, not when he fought in the dungeons with the group, or when they faced the orcs and demons in the north. Yet now, facing the man who gave him the chance to beco a knight, Alan Grigor, or at least whatever was wearing his skin, the atmosphere was dark, eerie and horrifying.
"Oh my. Did you have an accident?"
"No... I didn’t do it..." He raised his hands and showed them to the man. "I wouldn’t hurt innocent people, even those against !"
However, things didn’t look good.
The evil entity stepped closer, and each step Alan made caused the pool of blood to spread apart, as if creating space for him. "Well, what should I do, Knight Simon?"
The man stopped, his hand on Simon’s shoulder, grasping him, nails piercing his skin like daggers. He raised his hand and revealed a twisted grin that no human could ever show, an abomination.
"I can help you, but to do so..." There was a slight pause as he leaned closer and tapped his shoulder. "You have to help ."
Alan placed a purple gemstone in Simon’s palm. Before he swirled his hand, the simple motion caused the blood and corpses to twist, break and crush them into tiny compressed balls of blood and flesh. The next mont, he snapped his fingers and everything vanished.
"Well, I will give you ti to think it over."
The monster turned away and left the scene with the sa calm swagger.
’Fuck you...’
There was no way that Simon would help him; he knew this was phisto’s trap.
However, the situation was dire.
This wasn’t Grigor; he didn’t rember when he passed out. If that monster could make this happen again, Simon needed to figure out why or what happened.
Suddenly, the situation before he collapsed ca back to him.
’That’s not important, what happened to the Princess!? Did Ygrenne manage to help!?’
A mont after Alan vanished, a pair of maids approached, chatting together with a faint laugh.
"This could have been a disaster..."
Simon said to himself.
He couldn’t do anything in this state, not in the middle of the castle with hundreds of guards and people watching. He needed to regroup with the others and speak with the Princess.
What made him feel calm was that there wasn’t any panic or sense of dread in the maids’ faces.
’These two are the ones who bring our als!’
With that, he stepped forward, a fake grin on his lips as he rubbed the back of his head. "Hey, beautiful ladies, do you know how the princess is doing?" He leaned close to the blushing maids, although they weren’t pretty, they were above average, and Simon was quite handso and a knight!
"Sir knight, wouldn’t you know it better?"
The more active woman flashed a flirtatious glance at him, anwhile, Simon winked at her. "Can you keep a secret? I took an extra break, haha."
The second, quieter maid giggled at him and told him the Princess had fallen ill after passing out, but was asleep.
After eating, she seed to have significantly recovered.
With that information, Simon thanked them and walked away as quickly as possible. He waved back, "When you serve our als, bring a portion for yourself."
"Kya~"
"Sir knight!"
"It’s Simon."
He could feel the chill of his first wife’s frozen stare, but this was Simon; he enjoyed fun, flirting, and even the god of death couldn’t stop him.
’Princess Vinea is fine, they didn’t seem to be lying, or hiding anything deeper from their tone. It seems that sohow, that old bastard and Ygrenne managed to help her.’
"I should rush back and tell them everything..." His fingers stroked the strange purple crystal before holding it tightly. He learned from Ryuji that hiding things only led to problems down the road.
***
anwhile, in the Princess’s chamber, Paul, with dark rings under his eyes and only two small runes left on his belt, sat shaving wood carvings to create more. "Where did that idiot go?"
He asked, but the other person in the room did not reply.
Ygrenne was still wearing her short chainmail dress but had a black cloak pulled over it and now wore so shorts, these were Vinea’s training shorts, but despite her insistence that she couldn’t wear the Princess’s things, after saving her life, the demon knight couldn’t resist, and lost to Vinea’s enthusiasm.
"Phew... to think that these were useful."
A set of clothes... five pairs of sensual and alluring lingerie styles for won.
’If I didn’t rember Lady Lumina’s words... about her thread being divine... and filled with the power of a forr goddess...’
Paul rubbed his face, looking at the sleeping Princess. Her left eye remained black with a silver slit pupil, and yet, when Ygrenne brought the divine clothing and a net used to capture fish, Ygrenne imdiately put them on her and the result...
"Well, for now, it seems we are out of the danger zone, her eye is gradually recovering, and she seed excited."
He rubbed his beard and nodded, "Good job, but I need to speak with you and Simon, we can’t afford for this to happen again, so those clothes must be kept on hand." He said as the door creaked open behind him, and the idiot stepped inside.
All eyes turned to him when his boots hit the loose floorboard, but the shouting and anger didn’t co.
"Simon, are you alright?" Ygrenne asked, her concern reaching the man’s chest as he smiled.
"I don’t know... haha, I don’t."
Paul focused on the younger male’s hands; he saw sothing that made him feel sick. "Why are you carrying an object corrupted with unholy mana?" Then he sighed, noticing how pale and exhausted Simon looked. "Ygrenne told about what happened, you blacked out in the hallway... what happened after?"
He looked shocked. Simon’s eyes darted between the two, but he could only huff and drop his shoulders.
Simon explained what he rembered, the dark sensation, and how Grigor had acted towards him, the blood and corpses now gone.
"...It was... Alan Grigor... I don’t know how, or why, but sothing tells , my intuition..."
"Really?" Paul only asked this because he had known Simon for years. His intuition rarely missed. When eting Ryuji, he instantly insisted on the kid joining. He saved the group’s life countless tis before eting him. "I believe you, Simon."
"Eh!? Why, how so easily?" Knight Ygrenne looked shocked at Paul, her mouth and eyes opened wide as if betrayed.
"It’s fine. Simon is reliable when it counts."
"Old bastard... thank you." He sighed in relief. "I need to sleep."
"WE ALL DO!"
The only one who got so decent rest was the sleeping princess on the other side of the room, hidden behind a curtain.
***
It took hours for Vinea to awaken, but once she did, Paul explained what happened before Simon passed out.
However, she sat in a daze at the edge of her bed, not responding.
"Princess?"
’I’m forgetting sothing...’ She covered her face, although she went berserk. Vinea could rember most of what happened, but when Ygreen covered her in a fishing net and pants, there was a deep pain... and then she dreamt of Asmodeus.
But the dream was hazy, and she felt frustrated that she couldn’t rember the details.
"Is this because of my eye? It has been hurting, aching and pulsing... I am not injured..."
She thought, but the mont Paul spoke again, "Your eye, it’s like the others, and although it’s recovered, it still has a little black left inside. We are not sure what it ans, or the cause, but many of the townsfolk have been murdered due to this outbreak."
Ygrenne then added. "Because of this, unrest towards demons has increased... soone is spreading anti-demon propaganda..."
Vinea’s mouth opened, then she closed it tightly, pressing her lips together.
"Is their target to bla Asmodeus?"
Suddenly, they all ca to the sa conclusion, and voices echoed in tandem.
"We have to avoid him coming here!"
User Comments
0 comments from readers