Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 414



Only Noblemtl

Episode 414. Holy Land Lua (1)

Isaac wasn’t the only one who felt the winds of change.

Even if they were not angels who looked down on providence, the heroes who led the era had already realized that this dawn army was different. Not only were the angels whipping desperately, but there were already rumors that two angels had fallen in the Immortal Church alone.

People were murmuring with anticipation that this might be the first time since the Third Dawn that the Holy Land would be reclaimed.

The ‘millennial kingdom’ that had been mentioned in prophecy was right before our eyes.

And that fact came as a complicated fact to Atlan, the Khan of the Olkan Discipline.

“Wow, Khan! This city is a treasure trove!”

An orc warrior appeared, his entire body covered in jewels, cheering.

Atlan smiled bitterly and gestured. The White Tiger Leader led his men again and ran off to search the mansion again.

This was a scene unfolding throughout Ushak, the capital of the now ruined Urdantu Empire.

The undead citizens had no time to gather their wealth as they hurriedly headed to the Holy Land of Lua under the orders of the Immortal Emperor. They didn’t really care about the items since they would die if they were lost anyway.

The Dawn Army was advancing so quickly that they had no time to loot. No matter how greedy the priests were, they had no time to look at the treasures as whip marks were being carved on their backs in real time. At best, they could only set fire to the treasure and leave.

Naturally, all the gold and silver treasures left in Ushak belonged to the Khan’s army that followed the Dawn Army.

It is already well known that undead who have not eaten for hundreds of years fill their boredom by ‘collecting’.

Thanks to this, the wealth gathered in the capital city of Usak was beyond imagination.

It was an expedition heading south without much thought, but thanks to it, Atlan was able to make sweeter profits than expected. The discontent among his subordinates, which was starting to surface, was also able to be put to rest in an instant.

“They say that even the undead of the Undead Church wear gold necklaces, and it’s true.”

The captive priest, Yuri Otter, looked at the passing group of orcs and said:

Atlan thought that was a bit odd.

“The undead have no need to beg, so why are there beggars?”

“… … It must be a metaphor. It must be something the priests made up to make the ignorant join the Dawn Army. If you don’t have faith, you need to have greed to attract them to the Dawn Army.”

But even if there were no beggars, gold and silver treasures really existed.

Although the Khan’s army was carefully gathering the gold and silver treasures, it seemed difficult to take them all because so many places had collapsed or melted down. However, the treasures collected so far were more than enough to make up for the losses from the great plunder.

Glass Otter looked at Atlan.

“You don’t look particularly happy, pagan king.”

“It’s Khan. Surely, there has never been a Khan who has obtained such gold and silver treasures in one go.”

Atlan turned his head and looked back at the ruined landscape of the capital city, Ushak.

“But what bothers me is that this is my ally’s treasure, and my most powerful enemy and ally has rushed to throw away this treasure as if it were nothing of any importance. It’s like picking up clams while a tidal wave is coming.”

“Yes. A tsunami is coming. A very big tsunami.”

Yuri Otter smiled broadly. Her empty eyes also became sunken.

Atlan asked her outright, knowing what she was implying.

“What will happen when the millennial kingdom comes?”

***

What will the world be like after the advent of the Millennium Kingdom?

It was a question that many people had. Even among the Orcs, there were many who were curious.

Atlan wondered if this fanatic priestess had the answer.

Yuri Otter looked at him with her glassy eyes sparkling.

“That is, the perfect world promised by the Law of Light will descend upon this earth. All history, suffering, and adversity are merely processes for the coming of the Millennium Kingdom. When that happens, the small impurities will be filtered out, and only true believers will be able to… … .”

“No, no. I know that the Millennium Kingdom will descend. So what exactly is the Millennium Kingdom? The Heaven of the Light Code. Like the Red Grail, where you can eat your fill, or like Ellir, where you can fight forever, isn’t there something like that?”

Yuri Otter thought that being able to express heaven so vulgarly was a talent. Although Atlan was a Keshik, a knight of the Orkhan Code, he, like most Orcs, had little knowledge of the humanities.

“You said it would be perfect? ​​What does that mean?”

“Perfection means… …complete and nothing can change.”

“You’ve been repeating the same thing for a while now. Do the priests of the Code of Light lack vocabulary? So what is it?”

Yuri Otter was furious at having her vocabulary pointed out by none other than Atlan, but she too had difficulty speaking. However, she soon came up with a clever answer.

Yuri proudly rolled back her eyelids, revealing her large glass eyes.

“Hereinin always shines the light of heaven, pagan. Perfection is like the sun. Do you think the sun needs to be warmer or brighter? When it becomes complete in itself, everyone no longer feels lack or pain. That is the millennium.”

“Hoh, that looks… … boring.”

“That won’t happen. There won’t be any lack of heart either.”

But Atlan tilted his head and touched his chin.

“Is that so? I think fun comes from taboo and lack. If the gods had permitted everything from the beginning, I think the world would have been pretty boring. But by sinning, we have the opportunity to help each other. Humans can be forgiven, and God has the opportunity to be generous and forgive.”

Originally, humans wanted to be redeemed to some extent. God gained faith and power by forgiving such humans, so the existence of ‘sin’ is not bad.

That’s why other faiths have such a long list of doctrines and taboos, Atlan thought.

But to Yuri, it sounded like a bold statement.

“There is no room for discussion with beasts who find pleasure in breaking doctrines!”

“That’s not what I meant… … I think that’s what the Code of Light really wants. There are many crazy ones among the Undead of the Undead Order. They don’t have any needs, so they repeat the same actions over and over again, and they don’t even realize that they’re crazy. That’s why the Undead Emperor intentionally gives them ‘desires.’ Isn’t the Millennium Kingdom supposed to mean such a boring world?”

“Are you asking me about doctrine? That’s strange. Isn’t there no doctrine in the Olkan discipline?”

“What do you mean? There is a doctrine in the Olkan Discipline. It is only one sentence, ‘Do not be bound.’ However, we are social beings, so there are laws that we must follow. So, does following the law go against the doctrine of the Olkan Discipline? I don’t think so.”

Yuri thought that Atlan was not as stupid as he seemed. His logic and suspicions were valid. But even so, in the end, the two could not understand each other.

It’s because the culture we lived in was so different to begin with.

Atlan could not understand the state of ‘all states being perfect’, and Yuri could not understand Atlan’s heart that ‘wants to be free even if it suffers from lack’. So Atlan came up with a tragic metaphor that ‘any orc can sympathize with’.

“If Olkan had openly allowed communication with horses, there wouldn’t be as many Keshiks as there are now. Sometimes, it’s exciting when it’s a secret or forbidden relationship.”

“Communicating with words?”

“Oh, don’t you know? That’s… … .”

Atlan stared at Yuri’s face, which had turned red as he tried to explain, and closed his mouth.

Yuri is a priest. Even though he is a pagan, he knows how Keshik is born. Atlan felt a bit embarrassed, but he was glad that he didn’t have to explain.

Yuri glared at Atlan with a fierce expression.

“So… … is that why you’re dragging me around like this? To have fun breaking taboos?”

“What do you mean, that?”

“Don’t pretend not to know! You should already know that my uncle was martyred.”

The reason Khan’s army kept the fanatic priest who kept making annoying noises was to collect the ransom. However, in a situation where only the timing was needed, the Dawn Army suddenly began to advance. And they received intelligence that Yuri’s uncle, Cardinal Rohen Otter, had been burned to charcoal.

“There is no one to pay my ransom now. Perhaps the angels are not interested in me since the millennium is just around the corner. But that doesn’t matter. My soul will be saved at the gates of heaven.”

“Hmm, really?”

“Yeah! I never understood why these orcs kept dragging me around when I couldn’t even pay the ransom. But now I understand. Seeing how they were having fun breaking taboos, I guess they were just trying to have fun making fun of the heretics?!”

At her words, Atlan frowned.

“What are you talking about, that is… … No matter how horny we may be, there is no reason for us to rape humans when we have a horse.”

Yuri’s thoughts stopped as she wondered what on earth she had heard.

Words did not mesh with words, and common sense and reason clashed like broken clockwork.

In the end, the only word she could utter in her still thoughts was a stupid groan.

“Huh?”

“If it’s a ransom, I just thought it was okay because I’ve plundered so many treasures. But I can’t just release the priest I’ve been dragging around with me all this time, so I just kept him. You’ll be held for a while and then released when the war is over. That’s all.”

Atlan sighed and continued.

“And I’m a crossbreed between a horse and an orc, so I can’t have children. So I don’t have much of a libido either.”

Yuri opened her mouth without saying anything.

“Are you confident that your appearance will be attractive to other races as well? Hmm, I don’t know much about human aesthetic standards, but by Orc standards, you’re quite… … .”

Atlan couldn’t continue speaking because Yuri shouted something and then turned around and strode away.

Atlan smiled bitterly, but did not stop her or ask where she was going. He didn’t care if she escaped from Khan’s army. No, he thought it would be better to run away.

‘You think talking to that fanatic is fun? I guess I’m going crazy too. Is this a taboo?’

Atlan turned his gaze south to clear his mind of the glass.

Leaving behind all their gold and silver treasures, everyone left for the holy land of Lua.

Gods, angels, heroes.

Atlan heard the fact as if it was saying, ‘The Holy Land of Lua is hiding the true treasure.’

A lukewarm wind blew from the south where the holy land of Lua was located.

***

Under the great dome of the Holy Land Lua.

The Immortal Emperor had covered the Holy Land of Lua with thick magical walls, but he did not block it completely. Uncontrollable fanatics would periodically arise, and passages were needed to maintain and update the defenses.

Leonora entered the Holy Land of Lua through one of the many passages. The undead who guided her seemed to have no concern that the secret passage might be discovered.

‘Perhaps there is a special safety device installed that prevents the living from opening it.’

But just in case, Leonora watched the road carefully.

[Please note.]

The groom warned her before opening the door. As soon as she opened the heavy stone door, Leonora groaned briefly at the heavy divine power that surged through her body.

The air, the dust, the darkness seemed to be watching and scrutinizing every part of her body. A miracle that was basically hostile to all living things was writhing beneath the dome of the Holy Land, Lua.

But when Leonora muttered something while holding the sacred object around her neck, the oppression that had been weighing her down disappeared in an instant. Leonora looked around with a pale face. It was dark because of the dome covering the sky, but even from the silhouette that could be seen at a glance, she could tell that it was the Holy Land, Lua.

[His Majesty the Immortal Emperor is inside here.]

The coachman led Leonora somewhere in the darkness. Leonora followed him with a stern expression. Sherlock looked as if he was going to die, but he couldn’t give up on the work he had been paid to do.

As Leonora walked through the darkness, she occasionally saw strange silhouettes.

They were skeletons of such bizarre shapes that it was impossible to believe they were human. And the painful sound of scratching and knocking could be heard continuously here and there on the walls.

Knowing the situation outside the walls, she felt that the Immortal Emperor was unexpectedly unable to control the situation.

Then suddenly, Leonora spotted a vision beyond the alleyway the coachman had been guiding her through. Sherlock seemed to be the same and stopped.

Leonora immediately lowered her head.

“Your Majesty the Immortal Emperor.”

The reason she went to the Holy Land, Lua, despite all the dangers and burdens.

The man who had amassed countless gold and silver treasures, the master of the underground, the man at the end, was sitting in the middle of the alley.