Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 189

An indescribable, very awkward silence hung in the air.Richt and Arthur, who were so tense that they looked like they would go into battle at any moment, almost dropped their swords.

Laius, who was confronting Sylvian, also failed to control his expression and ended up rubbing his forehead with his hand.

Llewellyn, who had been standing back as if he had nothing to do with it, sighed at the situation that was going roughly as expected.

He didn’t know about anything else, but no one in the world could silence Arendt.

“Sylvian, I’m sorry…”

All he could do was mumble an apology that Sylvian couldn’t hear, as she was dealing with the first rascal she had ever seen in her long elf life.

Sylvian, who had been staring blankly, suddenly came to her senses and asked stammeringly.

“Wait a minute, what did you just say…”

“I was just teasing you, without even going so far as to mock you. Should I say that again?”

Arendt, with his hands in his pockets, looked straight at Sylvian and spoke clearly.

“Why would we mock you as if you’re some great person? Are you worth it?”

“What?”

“I thought you had given up since there was no reaction from your side, but you were still sneaking glances. It was quite amusing to see you get all riled up over just a little teasing.”

Arendt flashed a crooked smile, his laughter blatant.

“Ah, just so you know, what I just said was indeed a mockery.”

“…”

The elves’ faces instantly became horribly distorted.

But the situation was the same for the knights as well.

Finally, Laius clenched his teeth and gave a quiet warning.

“…Shut up, please.”

“Why would I? When did they follow us around like a puppy smelling food? Judging from their heavily armed appearances, I think they were planning to attack us if we didn’t hand over the spirit stones…”

Arendt’s gaze swept over Sylvian’s bow and arrows, and the sword and dagger hanging from her waist.

“Isn’t it a bit funny when you don’t even have the skills?”

“You say I don’t have the skills?”

Sylvian, who had been listening quietly, took a step forward with an ominous look.

Arendt was not the type to back down.

“If you feel wronged, try having a match with Captain Laius right now. If you win, I’ll acknowledge it.”

“…”

Laius sheathed his sword and began to rub his face.

“So what? You don’t seriously think that someone as important as the Captain of the Royal Guard would get all proud just for defeating an apprentice knight, do you? I couldn’t care less either way.”

Sylvian was speechless at the absurdity.

Arendt took advantage of the gap and murmured.

“So what if we did meet that traitor? What difference would it make? I almost died because of that bastard, so shouldn’t we test the waters a bit? To be frank, how do we know if you’re a real warrior dispatched by the Elven Kingdom or if you’re in league with that bastard?”

Arendt, who had spoken up to that point, nodded to Llewellyn.

“You didn’t think things would be okay just because he’s here, did you? We’re not stupid.”

“Hey, hey…!”

Llewellyn waved his hand in horror, telling him to stop, but Arendt ignored him and strode forward.

As the distance between Arendt and Sylvian narrowed, the elf warriors tensed again.

The knights standing behind also placed their hands on their sword hilts and warned the elven warriors not to move.

Arendt looked straight at Sylvian and added coldly.

“If you’re going to start a fight, you should think about apologizing first. What kind of etiquette is it to hold your head up high and argue?”

“…”

Sylvian said nothing.

Green eyes, resembling a forest shrouded in fog, met golden eyes, like amber submerged in ice water, in midair.

After a while, Sylvian opened her mouth.

“You have a very foul mouth, but you are right. From your perspective, it can only be perceived that way.”

It was a voice that had become even more calm and composed.

“But I won’t apologize. I believe merely overlooking that rude remark is enough of an apology. What do you think, Captain Laius? I’d like to speak with you.”

Sylvian’s gaze turned to Laius again.

Laius let out a short sigh and nodded to Arthur and Richt.

As the two men sheathed their swords and relaxed their stances, Laius pushed Arendt aside and stepped forward again.

“That’s exactly what I wanted, Captain Sylvian. Arendt, you stop it too.”

Instead of answering, Arendt shrugged and stepped back.

‘She doesn’t seem like the type of idiot who would get upset if provoked.’

Regardless of the opinion of the entire elf race, at least Sylvian seemed to believe that they had indeed made a mistake.

Then, it seemed like she was not someone with whom words were completely ineffective.

After a while, they moved to an empty lot outside the castle.

It was an overly modest conference room for a meeting attended by representatives from each country.

Sylvian and Laius sat down facing each other, and she picked up a piece of wood that was on the ground.

Behind them, elf warriors and knights stood neatly in a line, engaging in a silent battle of wills.

Arendt took a step back and looked at Sylvian.

The blonde hair, bathed in clear moonlight, took on a dreamy color that matched the words ‘fog forest.’

But Arendt was lost in thought before he could even begin to marvel at it.

‘…It’s the first time I’m hearing that name.’

Sylvian was a character who did not appear in “The Blue Knight of the Holy Sword”.

Besides, the captain of the Fog Forest Royal Guard was someone else, as far as he remembered.

‘Had she been replaced?’

So in the original, Sylvian would have stepped down from her position as captain of the royal guard and sent other warriors to war in order to continue the mission of tracking down Jin.

That was the only possibility he could think of right now.

During the war, Laius became quite friendly with an elf warrior who went to war in place of Sylvian.

The one who showed the spirit stone to Laius was the elf warrior, the one who served as the captain of the Fog Forest Guard in the novel.

‘What was the line like back then…’

Just as he was about to recall his memories, Sylvian’s voice brought him back to reality.

“First, I have a question. Why are you, Lord Llewellyn, accompanying the humans of the Holy Empire?”

“Haha… as you know, my hobby is wandering around. And that brat who provoked Sylvian earlier is my friend.”

“…”

Sylvian looked at Arendt with great surprise, but also with skepticism.

Arendt, who received that gaze in its entirety, responded arrogantly.

“For your information, he was the one who begged me to be his friend.”

“He may have a bad temper, but he’s not a bad guy. Just ignore him.”

“Yes…”

As Llewellyn added hastily, Sylvian nodded with a look of great doubt on her face.

Laius changed the subject.

“Captain Sylvian, you mentioned the word traitor earlier. I would like to ask what the circumstances are. I wanted to contact you first, but the borders were closed, so we were planning to visit you in person.”

“Have you met that guy by any chance? We need to confirm that first.”

“It wasn’t me, but my subordinates fought her. She left the spirit stones behind when she fled and abandoned her base.”

Laius answered her urgent question calmly.

“According to our researchers, the spirit stones seem to have been used for undesirable purposes. What happened within the Elven Kingdom?”

“Haa… as you might have guessed, the traitor escaped with the spirit stones. That’s why we sealed the border, and my men and I were dispatched to track her down.”

Then, a pleasant, yet terribly annoying, voice suddenly interjected.

“Don’t say such obvious things. Who wouldn’t know that and ask?”

“…”

“You need to explain everything clearly. Why did that kid suddenly run away with the spirit stones, how many did she lose, things like that. Only then will we be able to decide whether to believe it or not, right?”

“Only then will you make the decision! Isn’t that too rude to the captain!”

Finally, the elf warrior, unable to bear it any longer, cried out.

But Arendt just tilted his head without changing his expression.

“Why, did I say something wrong? I told you before. Who knows if that guy and you are in the same group? You’re not the ones in control right now.”

“Haa… back off, Sakhalin.”

Sylvian let out a short sigh and pushed her subordinate back.

The elf warrior called Sakhalin stepped back with a disgruntled expression on his face.

Sylvian looked at Arendt with sunken eyes.

“I understand what the apprentice knight is trying to say. Captain Laius, do you agree with him?”

“I apologize on his behalf for his harsh language, but I don’t feel like he was wrong.”

Laius answered calmly.

“I want to know the situation in the Elven Kingdom. Only then can I judge whether we are allies on the same ship or enemies.”

“…”

Sylvian’s expression clouded strangely at the word enemy.

“…What are you curious about? No, that’s the wrong question. How much do you know?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t answer that right now. I’d like to hear Captain Sylvian’s explanation first.”

Laius responded politely, but firmly.

Sylvian let out a short sigh at the determined look on his face that showed no intention of taking back his words.

But that lasted only for a moment.

She relaxed her shoulders, seeming resigned.

“I understand. However, it is difficult for me to explain everything from beginning to end. I am merely following orders, and anything beyond that is outside my jurisdiction, so please understand that.”

“Of course.”

Laius nodded calmly.

Sylvian looked at Laius with complicated eyes, feeling as if he had been trying to get this situation all along.

No.

The one who created this situation was not the captain, but the apprentice knight who kept saying mean things behind his back.

Sylvian sighed again to calm herself down and opened her mouth again.

“The traitor was a child who had a dangerous curiosity since she was very young. The adults tried to stop her, but the more they tried, the more she evaded surveillance and went astray.”

That dangerous curiosity must have something to do with the creation of strange monsters.

As Laius nodded, indicating that he was listening, Sylvian continued.

“If you had met her in person, you would have known that she is not yet an adult. I was relieved that she was living quietly in the village for a while, but she stabbed a retired elder with a sword and ran away with the spirit stones.”

Llewellyn interjected without realizing it.

“Elder?”

“Yes. Fortunately, the elder’s life is not in danger, but the two guards guarding the vault and the three warriors pursuing him were killed. This is an unprecedented situation.”

Although she tried to keep her tone as calm as possible, an inevitable wave of agitation could be heard in Sylvian’s voice.

“They were not warriors who would be easily defeated by a mere child, but the condition of their corpses was… grotesque. They looked as if they had been bitten by an animal.”

“Ah…”

The knights couldn’t help but think back to all the beasts they had encountered in Dragon’s Lair.

Sylvian’s hands, which had been placed neatly on her knees, began to tremble slightly.

“There are eight lost spirit stones in total. That guy… killed her own kind and ran away with all the spirit stones stored in the village.”