Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 450

“Hey.”Gasping for breath, Arthur managed to speak.

“At this point, wouldn’t it be okay to start telling us?”

Where his gaze landed, Arendt was crouching on the remains of a ghoul’s corpse, forcing himself to catch his breath.

The fact that even Arendt, rarely lost his composure, was in such a state meant that his physical strength had truly reached its limit.

“Tell you what?”

Arthur became upset when Arendt gave a short reply.

“What are I talking about, you ask? If we’ve come this far, shouldn’t you tell us what your plan is?”

“I’m leaving. And it’s the seniors who followed me, right? I never asked you guys to come along.”

“What a shameless brat.”

Leaving Arthur’s curse behind him, Arendt staggered to his feet.

“This is really hard on me… These stubborn bastards. If you’re going to die anyway, you might as well just die nicely.”

Enemy fragments were scattered around them.

It was a mess of shards of ice, rotten flesh, and black clumps of blood that glistened in the sunlight.

Among them, there were some who stubbornly continued to move even when their shapes were unrecognizable.

On their way here, they’ve dealt with countless ghouls and priests, as well as a homunculus.

As they fought, rushing forward without thinking, the elf warriors were now completely out of sight.

‘I wonder if they’re fighting fiercely behind us.’

Arendt roughly wiped the blood flowing from the corner of his mouth.

Judging by the brief pause in the attack, it seemed the other side was putting up a good fight as well.

While he was lost in thought for a moment, Richt, who was standing nearby and catching his breath, suddenly asked him.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m not okay.”

As soon as he brought up the familiar answer, Arthur snapped at him harshly.

“Of course you’re not okay, you piece of shit. Do you have any idea what you look like right now?”

“I must be handsome. I can tell without even looking.”

Arthur and Richt looked genuinely disgusted at the nonsense he replied with.

Ignoring their gazes, Arendt checked the tips of his fingers that held his sword.

Because blood and frost were stuck together, it was hard to see his condition clearly. But it was easy to tell that it wasn’t normal.

He felt his senses dulling and his body temperature starting to drop from his fingertips.

It was the price of overusing the Frosty Touch.

In addition, the wounds he had sustained while fighting the homunculus earlier had not yet healed.

The other two were also in tatters.

There were serious injuries all over their bodies, and judging by their tired faces, they seemed to be almost completely exhausted.

‘Is this body reaching its limit?’

As if assessing someone else’s situation, Arendt clenched and unclenched his fists absentmindedly several times.

The three people raised their heads in surprise at the ground’s sudden shaking.

“Keeeeek! Keeeeek!”

A terrible scream, which sounded like it was imitating human voices, and the sound of weapons clashing with each other resonated in succession.

Richt said in confusion, checking the direction from which the sound was coming.

“Is that… a homunculus?”

The cry was quite different from that of other homunculi. Arendt nodded roughly.

“Probably.”

Judging by how the aftermath of the battle reached this far, it was clear the opponent wasn’t an easy one.

‘Captain Laius must be dealing with it.’

Arendt raised his head and checked the distance to their destination. It wasn’t long now.

It seemed like Luna had visited again while they were fighting frantically, and one of its tail feathers was still there next to the one Ray had left behind the first time.

Arendt roughly wiped away the blood running down his chin and spoke.

“Let’s move.”

His legs were shaking, but Arendt somehow managed to keep his balance while staggering.

Arthur, seeing that sight, asked suspiciously.

“Can you fight any longer?”

“Of course.”

Arendt replied curtly. It wasn’t particularly convincing, but Richt and Arthur remained silent.

They had barely taken a few steps before they stopped.

“You can’t go any further.”

A voice that had become quite familiar by now caught the three’s attention.

The sharp sound of swords clashing ripped through the air. Richt’s face twisted in confusion at the sudden, overwhelming pressure.

“Huh…!”

But Rita’s expression remained unchanged, and she slid her sword to the side and stepped back lightly. Then, with a light, almost dance-like movement, she kicked the ground and launched another attack.

It was an incredible speed.

Richt shouted as he blocked Rita’s barrage of attacks.

“I’ll stop her!”

At those words, Arthur and Arendt immediately turned and tried to leave. But even that proved unsuccessful.

The ghouls that had been hiding in the shadows all around began to be summoned one by one.

“Krrrrrrr…”

In an instant, ghouls filled the area, surrounding the two. Arthur stepped back, giving a crooked smile.

“Oh, damn it. It was so quiet.”

Rita, who had expected the three to come this way, had laid a trap in advance and waited.

Rita shook off Richt and turned straight towards Arendt. But Richt quickly moved forward and blocked her path again.

“Your opponent is me.”

“This is a message from Lady Jin.”

When Richt growled coldly, Rita responded stiffly.

“If you hand over Arendt von Eckhart, we will immediately withdraw all our troops and withdraw from this castle.”

“I refuse.”

Richt, responding without a moment’s hesitation, charged toward Rita again. Rita, without a single change in expression, began to confront him.

Meanwhile, ghouls were also swarming towards Arthur and Arendt.

Arthur glanced at Arendt as he took up a battle stance and spoke.

“You go first.”

“Huh?”

Arendt frowned slightly. Arthur glared at the ghouls and continued speaking quickly.

“Go ahead. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but isn’t your goal to reach Jiklin by any means necessary?”

“…Well, that’s true.”

Arendt nodded without denying it.

“To be exact, my main purpose is to get to that bastard myself.”

“I thought so.”

Arthur clicked his tongue and spoke, holding his sword firmly.

“If I open the way, can you get through?”

“Obviously.”

Honestly, all three of them were just acting recklessly.

Even when her limbs were intact, Rita was a formidable foe, and the ghouls surrounding them were too numerous to even count.

In a situation where there was no room for optimism, Arthur frowned.

‘With numbers like this…’

It could have been used to further tie down the elf warriors’ feet or block Laius’ path.

The fact that she left them behind to ambush the three meant that Jiklin was also serious about killing Arendt.

Moreover, even if they managed to get through all of this, there was no way of knowing what lay ahead.

But Arthur decided to put aside all the complicated calculations for a moment.

“Take good care of your neck.”

Arthur responded annoyedly to Arendt’s short remark.

“That’s what I was going to say, you bastard.”

With a simple answer, Arendt kicked off the ground and leaped forward.

“Kueeeeek!”

The ghouls immediately bared their teeth at him, but Arendt charged forward without hesitation.

Arthur stopped all the ghouls rushing at Arendt.

“Go!”

With a short shout as a signal, Arendt leaped forward and landed in the middle of the encirclement. The ghouls hesitated at the sudden attack, and Arthur and Arendt simultaneously took action.

Arthur, having raised his magic power to the fullest, cut down the ghouls blocking his way all at once.

Arendt left the rest entirely to Arthur, and activated the Frosty Touch.

A silver storm raged, and the ghouls that were poised to tear Arendt apart at any moment were frozen white.

Arthur, who had dealt with the enemies in front of him despite his injuries, followed Arendt into the encirclement.

“Keeeeeek!”

“Don’t bother me, you ugly things!”

No matter how much he cut down, the enemies kept coming in endlessly.

If he thought he killed it, it would regenerate and attack again.

Occasionally, strange entities would merge together to form an even more bizarre form and attack.

Soon Arendt’s figure was hidden among the ghouls. The source of thɪs content is novelhall.com

Around that time, Arthur realized something was wrong.

‘…What?’

The ghouls, who at first glance appeared to be trying to kill Arendt, seemed more focused on blocking Arthur than pursuing him.

Richt, who was dealing with Rita, also realized that something was unnatural.

“No way, you bastard…”

Rita and Richt’s swords clashed, making a sharp metallic sound.

Their eyes met.

“Do not disturb Lady Jin.”

The cold voice sounded eerie.

There was no way Rita, who was loyal to Jiklin, would have left her alone without any protection.

Moreover, it seemed that she was more focused on stopping Richt than on chasing Arendt.

That meant…

“I saw two spirits coming and going near the window.”

As Richt’s face contorted, Rita continued speaking indifferently.

“They must have been trying to tell you where Lady Jin was. The spirits left traces on the window, so I was certain you’d come here.”

“…”

Arthur and Richt were unaware that Luna and Ray had been mobilized.

“Then I think it won’t be difficult to fulfill Lady Jin and Lord Chernion’s wishes.”

Arendt would head to where Jiklin was.

He was already seriously injured and exhausted.

With the enemies swarming in, Arthur and Richt wouldn’t be able to escape this place easily. And with Laius tied down by the homunculus, the others would also be preoccupied with dealing with their own enemies.

“Sir Arendt von Eckhart will, in the end, lay down his life before Lady Jin.”

Rita added.

Surely, where Jiklin was, there was a powerful enemy lurking, one that Arendt would find difficult to handle.

And there was no one who could help Arendt right now.

“It will certainly be a fitting end for Sir Arendt.”

“…”

A deep murderous intent towards Rita began to appear in Richt’s eyes.

He gripped the sword so tightly that his already wounded palm burst open and blood began to ooze out.

But instead of acting rashly, Richt restrained himself from jumping out at any moment.

It was the same for Arthur.

Even though he must have heard Rita and Richt’s conversation, Arthur just remained silent and stayed in place.

“Is that a fitting end for that guy?”

Richt answered coldly.

Pushing Rita away, Richt took a big step forward.

“There’s no way that could happen. The only thing that suits him is the arrogance of looking down on others.”

Neither of them knew what Arendt was up to, but they were still certain of it.

That damned bastard would rather cut his own bones than risk the lives of his allies who accompanied him here.

‘Furthermore…’

A bitter smile crossed Richt’s lips.

“Your master will never fulfill her wish.”

There was no way that a guy who seemed to have about five thousand snakes in his stomach would have not anticipated a trap of that magnitude.