Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 452

The hand that slowly lowered the bow trembled.The prince’s face, usually full of confidence, was pale with tension and fear.

“I succeeded… right?”

Llewellyn asked in a frightened voice.

He was so nervous that cold sweat was forming on his forehead.

“It didn’t go astray, did it? It was a success, right?”

The building where Jiklin was located could be seen in the distance.

Just seconds ago, an arrow had left Llewellyn’s bow, pierced the window, and disappeared from sight.

Salem nodded with a serious face, as if to reassure him.

“Yes. Thank you for your hard work, Your Highness.”

“…Whew.”

Only then did a suppressed sigh escape Llewellyn’s lips.

“Haaah…”

.

The bow fell limply to the floor.

Llewellyn looked down at his hands in disbelief.

His hands were shaking and turning pale due to excessive nervousness.

“That fucking bastard…”

A weak, snickering laugh flowed out along with his curses.

“The price I’m paying for being friends with him seems too steep. It’s getting harder and harder to bear as the days go by.”

“I agree.”

Salem also nodded with a bitter smile.

He was pretending not to notice, but he was just as nervous as Llewellyn.

Even after deciding to carry out the operation, the two were not sure of its success.

Even with Llewellyn’s Until Dragonborn artifact and Salem’s spirits, accurately hitting a single target from a distance was no easy task.

Besides, if they missed even one opportunity, everything would go down the drain.

“Still, you managed it somehow. Like always.”

At Salem’s words, Llewellyn nodded with a weary smile.

Luna and Ray, having completed their mission, were leisurely returning, flapping their wings under the blue sky.

The spirits seemed pleased, and Salem burst into laughter despite his pale face.

“…Cough, cough.”

Arendt coughed a few more times and then staggered to his feet.

“I’m going to die, damn…”

Sunlight streaming through the broken window stung his eyes, and the wind filtered through the shattered glass, gently shaking the torn curtains.

The homunculus, suddenly bereft of its master, seemed unable to grasp the situation and simply blinked its countless eyes blankly.

Arendt saw Jiklin lying on the floor with his back to the window.

“You’re dead, huh… The saintess probably already knows. I don’t really need to pass the message along.”

As if she didn’t understand what was happening, Jiklin lay dead with her eyes wide open.

Crimson blood continuously gushed out from her forehead where the steel arrow was embedded.

“Well, you have to be moderate. If you’re a supporting actor and you act too showy on stage, this is what happens.”

In the golden eyes that looked down at her indifferently, the embarrassment, desperation, and pain that had been displayed just a moment ago were completely washed away.

Instead, all that was left was a chilling indifference.

“Ha…”

But he too could not stand for long.

He felt like he was going to lose consciousness at any moment because of the overwhelming fatigue.

Arendt collapsed onto the sofa where Jiklin had been leaning against.

His vision was spinning.

‘Still…….’

As he rubbed his face with his bloody hands, a hollow laugh escaped.

“Ha ha ha.”

Arendt just laid down on his side.

He felt hot blood gushing from his throat, and at the same time, he felt a chill that made him shiver.

The homunculus surrounding him was still alive, only momentarily confused by the loss of its master.

If it were to attack again, he would be helpless.

But right now, nothing like that came into mind.

“Serves you right, you crazy bastard…”

A curse escaped from lips that were smiling faintly.

Everything around him felt overly realistic.

‘It’s not like the stage goes according to a good scenario.’

This was a battlefield where you never knew who would die, when, or how.

This time it was truly a reckless fight.

Moreover, he acted unilaterally without saying a word about the operation.

Yet no one doubted him.

Even though everyone was nervously asking him what on earth he was up to, everyone believed in him and willingly risked their lives.

“…I’m going crazy.”

Arendt covered his face with his hands.

Neither Arendt nor Lee Soo-hyun were great enough to receive that level of trust.

But the evidence was Jiklin who had fallen there and lost her life.

No one treated him as just an actor or a stage prop.

Just like how he no longer saw them as puppets on a stage.

“…”

His whole body ached.

The things he had left behind, the things he had gained here, and the things he had tried to throw away all jumbled together in his head, until they became a boulder that weighed heavily on his eyelids.

Arendt lay there for a long time, catching his breath, motionless as if he was dead.

‘Acting…’

Even in his dazed state, Arendt continued to think.

The confident, braggart Jiklin died in an unsightly manner before leaving the stage. Considering that she commanded all sorts of monsters, her death was quite shabby… and it was the kind of ending befitting a comedic villain.

If even one person hadn’t been there, this kind of outcome wouldn’t have been possible.

Because it was a result that everyone had worked hard to achieve.

Including himself.

‘This won’t work.’

In front of Ludwin, he boasted about life being a play and all, but life was not something that could be done as one wished.

The law seemed to apply equally to the old stage he had turned his back on, as well as to this bloody world.

A sigh-like soliloquy flowed out from between his chapped lips.

“If this goes on, I won’t have anywhere left to escape to…”

How long has it been like this?

The noise of the battle outside gradually died down. Soon, he could hear the sound of footsteps rushing toward him.

Judging by the way they were running hurriedly, it must be Arthur and Richt.

Arendt burst out laughing at the sound.

‘But.’

Running away wasn’t exactly Arendt-like.

The army, having lost its commander, was quickly destroyed.

Thanks to the reckless charging of Laius and the Third Knights, more than half of the enemies had already been killed.

As soon as Jiklin died, the enemies fell into chaos, and it was easy to deal with the remnants who were wandering around without even knowing what to do.

But the Allied forces also did not understand what was happening.

However, the apprentice knight who knew the whole story had fallen asleep from exhaustion and was carried back by Richt, so it was impossible to immediately catch him and question him.

After dealing with the homunculus and collecting the body, they were even more shocked when they discovered the arrow that had killed Jiklin.

“Isn’t this what Prince Llewellyn uses?”

As Glenn muttered incredulously, Rider nodded.

“It seems like he was plotting something with Arendt…”

“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen the prince once. And the same goes for Lord Salem.”

Glenn frowned and covered Jiklin’s body with the cloth he had brought earlier.

“This seems suspicious.”

“Let’s interrogate them together with the captain later.”

Rider chuckled with a face covered in wounds.

After the soldiers carried the body out on a stretcher, the knights and Prince Ludwin also returned to the barracks.

The people who welcomed them back with their tired bodies were Llewellyn and Salem, who had awkward smiles on their faces.

“Hehe. You’ve worked hard, Brother.”

As soon as he saw Llewellyn, holding a bow in one hand and smiling awkwardly, Ludwin smacked his forehead with a loud sound.

An interrogation session was held under the guise of a meeting, with most of the key personnel, excluding those with serious injuries, gathered.

“No, well… well, he said that since it was a matter for the Everan Kingdom, I should handle it myself.”

Llewellyn, who had been targeted, scratched his cheek with a feigned look of embarrassment.

“To borrow Arendt’s words, it was all a play.”

“A play…?”

When Ludwin asked doubtfully, Llewellyn nodded.

“Yes. From the very beginning, Arendt’s claim that he would kill Jiklin was a lie.”

Everyone believed without a doubt that Arendt would personally take down Jiklin. Even Jiklin was convinced of this.

“As you pointed out at the beginning, Jiklin can teleport. Plus, she’s always guarded by her spirit.”

In fact, it was nearly impossible to approach and kill her directly.

“So, he came up with this plan. Captain Laius would move to recapture the castle, while Arendt would lead a separate force to deal with Jiklin. That would distract her.”

“Because Jiklin also wanted to kill Arendt.”

Salem, who had been silent next to him, quietly intervened.

“Sir Arendt called us aside and spoke to us. He told us to use the spirits to tell him where Jiklin was, then hide and wait where we could target her with arrows.”

Finding a suitable location also required the help of the spirits.

Llewellyn continued.

“If Salem’s spirits are hovering nearby, Jiklin will surely know that Arendt is after her.”

From there on, it was a play to trap Jiklin.

There’s no way the greedy Jiklin would run away so easily, which is what Sir Arendt said. We did prepare for the unlikely event that Jiklin escaped first.”

Salem added hastily to those who were looking at Llewellyn with faces full of betrayal.

“So, at first it was Luna, and when Arendt got closer, it was Ray who alternated checking. We needed to have a backup plan in case the enemy managed to slip away first.”

Arendt charged into the enemy lines with a terrifying momentum, like a hunting dog that had found its target.

Jiklin, too, willingly accepted his challenge, confident that she could escape at any time.

Since Jiklin was unable to fight directly, the only strategy she could employ was a war of attrition using the ghouls. It was quite predictable that she would try to solve the problem by using sheer numbers.

“Arendt, who had broken through the enemies and reached Jiklin, created a brief opening for me to fire my arrow. The spirits watching nearby gave Lord Salem a signal at just the right moment.”

The Hero of the Holy Sword and the apprentice knight, known as the arch-enemies of the Chernion Cult, were running amok. In such a situation, no one would pay attention to the secret movements of these two people.

In fact, Ludwin was also completely unaware of Llewellyn and Salem’s whereabouts.

“If I use the artifact to fire, the spirits will guide the arrow and aim it precisely at Jiklin. That was the plan. With the spirits involved, at least the risk of missing is reduced.”

Since Jiklin was initially preoccupied with Arendt, she probably didn’t even consider the youngest prince.

“And why did you keep it a secret from everyone…?”

Llewellyn swallowed hard and continued speaking hesitantly.

“Since both you and the knights are so clumsy with your acting, that if you’re too conscious of the plan and move carelessly, you might get caught before you even take a single step.”

Though he dressed it up in polite language, it was likely an even more disrespectful and condescending statement.

Ludwin, who had been listening in a daze, moved his lips.

“No, what is this…”

It was incredibly risky. It was a plan that could only be accomplished if they could break through the monsters’ encirclement and reach Jiklin.

If Jiklin had noticed the operation in advance and fled, or if Laius’ forces had been pushed back even a little in the battle, they would have been in an awkward situation.

There would only be one chance, so it was entirely possible that Llewellyn would make a mistake.

But Arendt risked it all, even risking his life, to act as bait.

Even though no proper countermeasures were explained, the Imperial Knights who simply believed in Arendt and ran wild were also beyond common sense.

‘No.’

In fact, the most absurd thing was that it all worked out so well.

Moreover, it was astonishing that his younger brother, who had earned the merit of killing the enemy leader, was watching him closely as if he had done something wrong.

“…Hah.”

Sighs were heard here and there, as if others were feeling the same way.

Ludwin pressed his temples to calm his surging headache.

Rather than trying to understand it with his head, he thought it would be better for his mental health to just accept the results right in front of him.