Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 208

“Wait a minute, wait a minute! No way!”At the sound of footsteps on the grass, the children who had been gathered in twos and threes jumped up from their seats in surprise.

They quickly turned around and saw an elf man peeking out from between the grass and into the open space.

“As expected, you guys were here.”

The young elf who had discovered the children pulled himself completely out of the grass with a stern expression on his face.

“How many days has this been going on? If you keep running away, you’ll get in trouble?”

“I was wrong, teacher!”

“Can you all go quickly to the training center?”

When he spoke sternly again, the children ran away.

Still leaning against the tree, Arendt nodded his head in greeting.

“It’s my first time meeting you.”

“Did the children bother you? I apologize, Lord Arendt. My name is Cheltan.”

The elf, who introduced himself as Cheltan with a friendly smile, bowed his head slightly.

Arendt looked at him with indifferent eyes.

He was a man who looked to be about the same age as Richt, and he seemed like a pretty nice guy.

His light blond hair proved that he was of the fog race blood.

“You must have had quite a hard time with the children for the past few days. I apologize. It seems that they were fascinated, as almost no outsiders come here except for Lord Llewellyn.”

“The kids are so energetic. It’s not easy to play with them.”

Arendt clicked his tongue, sat up, and faced Cheltan.

Cheltan suggested with a bitter smile.

“Sir Arendt, would you like to go to the training hall and have some tea? I heard you’ll be returning tomorrow morning. I would like to repay you for taking care of the children all this time.”

“I’m sorry, but I have a good sense for things, and I’m not feeling too great about this. Is it okay if I decline?”

After saying those blunt words, a brief silence fell on the empty lot where the children had left.

The clear air unique to the forest had a slight moisture and chill to it.

A cool breeze, carrying the scent of fresh grass, gently shook the leaves.

“…”

The kind smile on Cheltan’s face quickly turned into a blank expression.

The playful attitude he had when dealing with the children had completely disappeared.

Cheltan, who had been staring blankly at Arendt, blurted out coldly.

“I see that you seem to care quite a bit about the children, don’t you?”

“…You’re not planning on threatening me with those brats, are you?”

“It was unfortunate, but necessary. There’s only so much I can do.”

A cold reply came back.

Arendt’s brow furrowed slightly as he faced him.

“That means you’ve already done something.”

Cheltan said nothing.

The apprentice knight clicked his tongue and scratched the back of his head.

“This is a bit difficult.”

That night, Arendt did not return to his lodgings.

A deep silence flowed.

Knock, knock, knock.

The silence was occasionally broken by the sound of Arthur nervously shaking his legs.

Sitting around the sofa in the living room, their gaze fell on a pair of worn-out half-gloves on the table.

The first one to break the silence was Zakar.

“It may be strange to ask this now, but… is he usually like this?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

Arthur and Richt answered without a moment’s hesitation.

Zakar sighed and looked up into the air.

Sylvian had been pressing her forehead as if she had a headache that had been building up for some time.

Arendt suddenly disappeared.

And the Frosty Touch that he never took off his body was found among Laius’ belongings.

Llewellyn broke the silence after a long time.

“Did anyone see Arendt today? Was he wearing gloves?”

“I saw him briefly this morning and he was wearing them, but… they were probably fake.”

The person who gave the answer was Richt.

Perhaps he had asked his elf attendant to prepare something similar for him in advance.

So Arendt’s disappearance was clearly an intentional act.

Laius, who had been silent, opened his mouth.

“First, we need to look back and see what we missed.”

“What we missed?”

When Sylvian asked curiously, the captain answered plainly.

“When did his schemes begin?”

“…”

Sylvian and Zakar looked like they didn’t understand.

But Arthur and Richt crumpled their faces in unison, and Llewellyn hit his forehead with a loud sound.

The elves became even more confused by their violent reaction.

Laius opened his mouth calmly.

“Think about it one by one. First, from the moment we arrived in the kingdom.”

“…Looking back, he was pretty well behaved right after he arrived here,” Arthur muttered.

Zakar spoke in disbelief.

“Well behaved…?”

“I can totally understand why you would react that way, but it was surprising.”

Richt answered calmly.

“There were always moments when he would show his temper. For example, when Lord Zakar came out to the harbor with his warriors to meet us.”

“…”

“If he had wanted to, he could have caused a scene in the conference room that day, but he was pretending to be polite.”

Arthur added to Zakar, who was at a loss for words.

At the time, Arendt was keeping quiet, pretending to be a ‘courteous apprentice knight’, so none of the elves paid any attention to Arendt.

It was the same after that.

When communicating with the elves, it was mostly Laius who took the lead.

Llewellyn furrowed his brows and muttered seriously.

“Come to think of it, it was the same at the banquet. He drank all the alcohol.”

“Ha, but didn’t you tell him to mind his behaviour in front of the Grand Elder? No matter how I look at it, it doesn’t seem like he was very well behaved.”

Sylvian stammered and offered a rebuttal.

This was the story that Arendt told last night, giving various instructions.

Laius shook his head.

“Arendt was quite drunk at that time. I don’t know if he was pretending to be drunk or if he was actually drunk… In any case, the Grand Elder probably thought he was drunk.”

In fact, Altair misunderstood that Arendt had relayed Laius’ message.

After that, Elder Altair began to worry endlessly, fixated on one word: .

Richt, who was listening to the captain’s story, suddenly realized something and muttered.

“At that time, we had already decided to find the spy within the Second Kingdom.”

“… that’s what we decided. And the next day, that bastard started a fight with Sir Zakar.”

Llewellyn frowned slightly as he recalled the memory.

As a result of the quarrel, Zakar joined the knights’ side.

It was a coincidence that Zakar and Arendt met.

But was that really just a coincidence?

“You know, did Arendt intend to exclude the Grand Elder from the beginning?”

“Probably not. The outcome would have been different depending on how the Elder reacted during the meeting with the Captain.”

Richt lightly denied it.

If so, then they could assume that Arendt’s purpose until then was focused solely on finding the spy.

Suddenly, Laius blurted out.

“The Frosty Touch.”

“…Ah.”

Arthur and Richt also realized something and sighed at those few words.

Laius’ cool blue eyes turned back to the artifact on the table.

“…Now that I think about it, that guy doesn’t use artifacts when sparring.”

Arthur muttered, looking into the air.

Since it was an item with strong lethal power, there was no point in using it in sparring, and there was also a high possibility that the opponent would get hurt.

It was because it was too conspicuous.

Arendt had been quietly waiting for a while.

But starting with his fight with Zakar, he used his Frosty Touch here and there as if it were nothing, in a foreign land where you don’t know who’s your enemy and who’s your friend.

When Richt heard that, he groaned.

“…You could say that fighting the instructor was a coincidence. However, it must have been intentional from the moment he started harassing Sir Sakhalin.”

At some point, Arendt began to act independently.

Most of the work at the forefront was left to Laius and the knights.

So he spent his time sparring with the elves, or playing pranks and making a scene with the kids.

Considering all that, there was only one possible answer.

Llewellyn said with a blank expression.

“Even before he declared that he would exclude the Grand Elder… that crazy bastard was deliberately setting things up to catch the guy?”

“But I don’t think he wanted to look suspicious, so he pretended to be quiet and avoided the elders’ gaze.”

Arthur nodded and answered.

Laius and the knights moved around and verified that there were no spies among the elders.

That was why Arendt gave instructions to his seniors and went about stirring things up among the residents, knowingly or unknowingly.

Then, finally, Grand Elder Altair revealed his true intentions to Laius.

It must have been at that moment that Arendt’s course of action was decided.

Llewellyn dropped his hand and muttered in a dazed manner.

“That crazy bastard…”

Everyone had no choice but to agree with the vicious curses that came out naturally.

But Laius remained calm.

“Captain Sylvian.”

Sylvian suddenly came to her senses and answered.

“Yes, go ahead.”

“I request a search immediately. Inform all warriors and elders that the apprentice knight is missing. Of course, inform the Grand Elder as well.”

“Yes?”

Laius added, emphasizing: “You must also add that he was kidnapped by a spy hiding among the elves.”

Sylvian nodded her head in bewilderment.

“Of course I will do that even if you didn’t tell me to.”

“Make as much noise as possible. I need to see the Grand Elder right away.”

But what came out next was something that Laius would never normally say.

“It’s not just the spy who is responsible for the situation now. The human apprentice knight who visited as an envoy was also harmed.”

Not only Sylvian, but everyone else also had blank expressions on their faces at the quickly-followed explanation.

“This is clearly an incident that could cause major diplomatic problems. You can never say that it was not caused by the Grand Elder’s complacent response.”

“Ah…!”

Only then did a scream-like sigh escape Llewellyn’s mouth.

Laius looked around at them and firmly added.

“I will hold the Grand Elder responsible for all of this.”

His bright blue eyes held a burning intensity.

The others were unable to voice their disagreement because of the subtle anger in his cold tone and kept their mouths shut.

This was exactly the drastic measure that Arendt had mentioned, the kind that would make the Grand Elder apologize and beg for forgiveness for his mistakes.