Betrayal Knight’s Joyful Faith - Chapter 397



Only Noblemtl

The 397th episode of The Merry God of Betrayal

“Can you open this?”

The rider approached briskly and shook the door.

Clank.

But the only thing that filled the dark space was the dull, metallic sound of something being firmly locked inside. The rider clicked his tongue and stepped back.

“I guess I have no choice but to break this?”

“When you break something, do it as gently as possible.”

Arendt intervened again from the sidelines.

“What? Why?”

“Look carefully over there. It’s not just an iron gate.”

To the rider who asked curiously, Arendt simply nodded and pointed to the large door. The rider frowned and checked the door again.

It was dark so I couldn’t see it clearly, but the surface was decorated with quite ornate carvings.

“If you break that recklessly, you’ll be stripped to the bone by Count Stadler and Llewelyn.”

“… … .”

The rider swallowed dryly at Arendt’s kind advice.

What the two people encountered was a gigantic relic that had never been discovered before.

If the two of them had returned to their studies, they might have tried to eat the rider, claiming that he had destroyed an important legacy.

“It’s too dark right now to examine it in detail. I can’t even tell what it looks like.”

Arendt, who was tracing the curves engraved on the door with her hand, glanced at the rider again.

“So, do your best. Cheer up.”

“Oh, really! If you’re going to say that, then you should do it!”

“No. I said that before. I was raised well, so I can’t do that.”

There was a scuffle between the nervous rider and Arendt.

And as always, the rider who had not found the principal had no choice but to draw his sword and stand in front of the door.

Rider, who was more nervous than usual and had his sword raised, succeeded in breaking only the lock between the worn-out door frames with a single clean blow.

Clank!

The rider let out a deep sigh of relief as the lock was heard coming loose from beyond the door.

“after…….”

“Hey, this works.”

As he was barely able to relax his shoulders, a voice mumbling absentmindedly right next to him grated on the rider’s nerves.

“Do it, you idiot!”

“I didn’t know it would turn out real. I was just going to throw it between Llewelyn and the Count and watch it if it got scratched.”

“I’m going crazy. What should I do with this kid?”

Whether the rider burst his suit or not, Arendt strode ahead and pushed open the door with both hands.

Squeak.

The entrance slowly began to open with an eerie sound.

“Hey… … .”

A short exclamation escaped Arendt’s lips.

The rider who had been busy being angry until just now also naturally shut his mouth.

The large door opened completely, and a fairly wide space welcomed the two people.

Even though it was difficult to see even an inch ahead, it was not difficult to see that the scale was quite large.

“Wow, that’s amazing. If it’s this big, wouldn’t it be about the size of a small reception room in the palace?”

While the rider was sticking out his tongue, Arendt walked towards the wall.

The walls were decorated with bricks engraved with patterns I had never seen before. I could also see statues lining the walls, but I couldn’t make out exactly what they were because I could only vaguely see them in the darkness.

“I know it’s a temple… … . But what god is it? Doesn’t it seem a bit different from the usual Luce-nim temples?”

Likewise, the rider who was looking around said.

“Yes. This brick decoration seems similar to what I saw when I went to the Elf Kingdom. The arrangement of the statues is similar to that of the Luce Temple. It seems like an exquisite mix.”

Arendt simply replied, tapped the statue standing next to her with her hand, and then turned around.

At that moment, I suddenly felt eyes on me from somewhere.

“… … !”

Arendt flinched and reflexively turned her head away.

But there was still only a statue there, shrouded in darkness, whose face could not even be properly identified.

As I stared at it for a moment, I suddenly felt a sense of discomfort.

“… … .”

Arendt squeezed and released the hand that had just touched the statue.

As before, it felt a bit unnatural.

It felt cool, but at the same time it felt painful and a little stiff.

‘I just… … .’

Even in the midst of all this, the feel of the statue I had just touched remained vivid.

‘Did you touch that?’

It was something I could do unconsciously, like getting up and touching the statue next to me.

However, Arendt could not easily be sure whether it was truly her own ‘unconsciousness’ or the result of another will.

When I thought about it that way, I felt like my stomach was turning.

‘I was already feeling dirty enough just getting here.’

From the moment I first set foot in the underground hallway, I’ve been constantly being followed by unpleasant stares.

He was an actor, so he could ignore things like stares.

But this type of intervention wasn’t always pleasant.

In addition to the huge presence watching over you, there is also the sense of incongruity that you sometimes feel…

“… … .”

I was out of breath.

As if the darkness on all sides was constantly strangling me.

“Hey. Why are you standing there?”

At that moment, the rider’s voice suddenly came and woke Arendt from her thoughts.

“Is there anything there?”

“… … No. Not really.”

After a brief pause, Arendt responded as usual and then looked again at the statue she had just touched.

A vague silhouette appeared in her eyes, which had become more accustomed to the darkness than before. Arendt hesitated for a moment, then reached out and touched the statue’s face with her fingertips.

“What are you doing?”

“Just shut up. You never know what you might find out.”

Her round cheeks seemed to express her youthful impression. At first glance, she seemed similar to the small angel sculptures in the Luce temple.

I could feel the small nose, the round eyes, and the feel of the hair. But that alone wasn’t enough to properly figure out anything.

Arendt naturally brought her hand to the side of the statue’s face.

The moment her fingertips finally reached her ears, Arendt stopped.

“… … Nereis?”

“what?”

The rider asked in bewilderment at the word that came out of his mouth out of the blue.

“Nereis? I’ve heard of it somewhere.”

“The god of the sea worshipped in the second kingdom of the elves.”

Arendt responded briefly, furrowed her brow and took a step back.

The ears of this statue were expressed as pointed and long, like those of an elf.

As far as Arendt knew, the only such being was the Nereids, a sea god worshipped separately by the Misty Forest tribe.

I once visited the Temple of Nereids in the second elven kingdom ruled by the Misty Forest race.

While researching materials with Arthur, Arendt felt a strange hand on the spot.

‘And now… … .’

The statue that he had accidentally touched and taken interest in happened to be that of Nereid.

This didn’t feel like a simple coincidence.

Frowning, Arendt withdrew her hand and tapped the statue on the forehead.

“Don’t be so cocky. If you have any business, come to me directly. I’m busy.”

The rider’s eyes widened at the unexpected words.

“What are you talking about? Are you talking to me?”

“How could that be? Don’t delay and move quickly.”

Arendt responded bluntly and turned around without any hesitation.

For now, finding Salem was the priority.

As the two crossed the space lined with statues, they discovered another door on the opposite side.

Likewise, it was an iron gate decorated with carvings whose shape was not clearly recognizable.

Arendt, who was one step ahead, shook the door twice.

Then, the iron door that had been tightly shut for a long time began to open with a creaking, heavy sound.

* * *

Thud, thud.

The sound of two people’s footsteps was engraved in the darkness. Even as he walked slowly following Iris, Salem could not relax at all.

‘If it were now… … .’

Salem unconsciously gripped the hilt of his sword.

The very person who was the saint of the Chernion Church was turning her back on him, letting her guard down.

It didn’t seem like it would be difficult to stab her to death, as she looked so thin and weak.

If we could kill her here and now, the war might end much sooner.

But while I was watching Salem’s expression, I was concerned about the two spirits who wanted to go to Iris.

‘Why?’

The spirits rarely side with the evil ones. So far, the only ones Luna and Ray have shown affection for, aside from Salem, are Rios and Lexion.

So Salem couldn’t understand why the two spirits were so attracted to Iris, who was an evil being herself.

‘furthermore…….’

Salem swallowed dryly.

Perhaps because of her words that she could see anything in the dark, the darkness around her felt particularly eerie.

The moment I threatened Iris, I felt like I was going to be swallowed up in darkness.

A cold sweat began to form on the hand holding the sword.

‘But isn’t it worth a try?’

If we kill her, we might be able to save countless people suffering from war.

If Iris had hidden powers, he might have been in danger himself, but it was still a gamble worth trying at least once.

‘If Sir Arendt is nearby, as that person said, she might come running right away.’

Even if it meant losing her own life, Arendt could still finish him off if she could only inflict a fatal wound.

‘Because Arendt is strong.’

Salem, determined, gripped his sword tightly.

At that moment, a gentle voice was suddenly heard from the front.

“Is that it?”

“yes yes?”

Salem answered absentmindedly without realizing it. Before he could realize his mistake, Iris continued.

“It is said that temples in very ancient times had many more functions than those of today.”

“… … .”

Unable to grasp the meaning of her sudden words, Salem just looked at her back with anxious eyes.

“No one remembers it now, it’s just buried underground, lonely… … but people have always been coming and going.”

It was as if he was telling a story to a child.

“Of course, they offered sacrifices to the gods and prayed to them, but they also consulted with priests to divine good and bad fortune for trivial matters and to choose a good day for major and minor events.”

“… … .”

“It was a place that treated the sick and injured, provided food and shelter for homeless people, and protected abandoned children and the elderly. That was the kind of place it was.”

After hesitating for a while, Salem eventually put down the sword.

“What on earth are you trying to say?”

“That’s just what happened. Now, no one remembers it.”

Iris muttered as if sighing.

“Those were really good times.”

Salem, who had been listening quietly, hesitated and asked.

“… … Aren’t you talking about before the Great War?”

“But? Is there something bothering you, kid?”

Salem hesitated for a moment at Iris’s relaxed voice, then opened his mouth again.

“You speak as if you saw it yourself, now.”

“Is there any reason why that shouldn’t be the case?”

Iris asked hummingly. Salem started rambling at the unexpected answer.

“No, but… … . You don’t look that old. You don’t seem to be an elf or any other race… … .”

I couldn’t be sure, but Iris’s appearance was most similar to a human’s. If I thought about it that way, no matter how much I guessed about her age, she probably wasn’t older than Captain Lyos.

If that’s the case, then Iris’s number of years lived would actually be shorter than Salem’s.

“Of course. I’m not that old. But on the other hand, I can’t say I’m as young as I look.”

Iris readily agreed with that statement, but Salem ended up becoming even more confused.

“What does that mean?”

“Well, what does that mean?”

Iris laughed as if she found it amusing. Before Salem could notice, she had stopped walking and was looking back at him.

The silver pupils hidden under the eyelids were revealed, forming a beautiful curve.

“The world is not that simple, little one.”

“… … .”

Salem, who had been lost in thought for a moment, realized that her back was turned to a large iron door.

Iris looked away from him and looked ahead again.

Squeak. Squeak.

The old iron gate began to slowly move backwards, as if giving Iris a way forward.

Salem clenched his fists nervously.

And after a while.

An unexpected person I encountered head-on… … .

“uh?”

Salem let out a dumb sound without realizing it.