Chapter 65: Gift from the Holy Knight
Dardanelle didn't even seem to care about that; he just crouched down and carefully checked the corpse, even reaching out to pinch it's wrist.
"He died less than 2 days ago." Dardanelle stood up and frowned, "Look at his wound…what kind of thing can cut a Level Four knight in half?
"Along with this!" Duwei frowned and pointed at the thing next to the corpse.
It was a long sword which obviously was the weapon of the knight. But this sword was also cut into two pieces!
"Perhaps, he was battling with another, and his enemy cut him in half. Could it be like this?" Duwei frowned.
"Possibly…" Dardanelle looked at Duwei, "He was buried by the other. Look, this snow pit was his graveyard. If it was a magic monster, it wouldn't bury his corpse, it would just eat his body. Only humans do that."
Duwei thought for a while and looked at Dardanelle, "Dardanelle, which warrior level are you at?"
"My warrior title is level three. Although my warrior level is not high, I am quite confident in my archery skill." Dardanelle answered.
"I know." Duwei said, "Friend, then you should be experienced, have a look at this broken sword…it's incision is so neat. It's not that strange that the warrior's sword was split by a strong magic monster. But the incision is so neat. Obviously, this was cut by a sharp weapon! I don't think that it was done by a magic monster…obviously, this warrior was not killed by a magic monster, but a human!
Dardanelle listened to what Duwei said, then he immediately became more serious and looked at the incision on the sword carefully.
Then, he looked up, "Right, you are right, I was too careless. In this place, I was just focused on the magic monsters."
"Going back to that question...Dardanelle. You are a level three warrior. What kind of person can cut a Level Four warrior and his weapon in half in one swing?"
Dardaneel looked serious,
"Level Four warriors have mastered the breathing skill. A warrior who masters the breathing skill is very strong. If cut in one swing…" Dardanelle thought carefully, and looked at the sword at the same time…suddenly, he blinked!
"Look! Harry! Look at the chest of the Warrior's Corset …look here!"
Dardanelle seemed to have discovered something. He lifted the corpse, then pointed at the little mark on the chest of the warrior's corset, "Look, here, see it?"
Duwei looked at it, "Oh, there should be something hanging on there before, seems like a badge…but it was taken away."
"Right." Dardanelle agreed, "This is the place where the warrior always wears his badge. But, see, he already has one on his chest. This is the Level Four Warrior badge awarded by the Knight Organization…in the continent, which kind of warrior would wear two badges?"
They looked at each other and shouted practically at the same time, "The Holy knight from the Bright Pantheon!"
The Religious power in the Roland Continent was very strong, especially the Bright Pantheon, its power even threatened the rule of the royalty in the empire. The Pantheon had their own tax, and also some military power. This military power was the Holy Knights from the Bright Pantheon.
The Bright Pantheon always trained an amount of people since they were young until they grew up, and they would differentiate them by their talents. The people talented at Martial arts would be sent to have martial art training. After adulthood, baptism, and examination, the one who mastered the Martial Arts with the most devout faith would be selected and would join the Holy Knights of the Bright Pantheon. Their duties were to use their lives to protect the honor and the dignity of the Pantheon, and to contribute their whole lives to the Pantheon and to their God.
There was only one Holy Knight from the Bright Pantheon throughout the whole continent with two Knight Badges on their chest. One was the Knight level badge awarded by the Knight Association, another one was the honour badge of Holy Knights, because it was the feature and the identity of the Holy Knight.
Also, when the Holy Knight died in a battle, his company would take off the Holy Knight Badge and bring it back to the Pantheon. There was a place called "Tampler" to commemorate the sacrifice of the Knight.
Dardanelle blinked, he quickly rolled up the sleeves of the dead knight. His clothes was very stiff because of the cold weather, so it was hard to roll them up. But when the sleeves were rolled up to the elbow, Dardanelle sighed, "My judgment is correct, look at this scar, it was burned by the holy oil. This is the baptism for the Holy Knight in the Bright Pantheon. Every arm of the Holy Knight would have this scar made by the Holy Oil."
Duwei approached it, he saw the marks on the arm of the corpse. That mark was very unique, like a dancing flame.
Dardanelle explained with annotation, "When the young Holy Knight is undergoing the baptism, there is usually hot holy oil in the pot next to them, then, the pope of the Pantheon hosts the ceremony with a special iron sword. At the point of this sword, there is a seal…Sword and the seal represent the mission of the Holy Knight, which is to protect the dignity of the God in the world by using 'Force and Power'. In the ceremony, the Pope will put the sword with the seal into the boiling Holy oil, then burns the mark on the arm of the Knight who is undergoing the Baptism! This mark is the glory of the Holy Knight and also their honor…But, if they do something that betrays their God, that's a kind of rebellion and revolt against their religion. The Holy Knight who offended will have to be punished by the Pantheon…Even before execution, the Pantheon will remove the mark on the arm by scratching it off with a knife! This means that even if you die, your soul still cannot get the forgiveness from god!"
Actually, Duwei knew what Dardanelle was saying. He bowed his head, "Hm, so, although generally, the Holy Knights have two badges, but it feels like they have three badges. The third badge is the scar on their arms."
"So you already knew that, Harry." Dardanelle sighed.
They silently buried the dead knight again, and the expressions of the two looked dignified!
The one murdered was not only a Holy Knight! But also a Level Four knight with great martial art skill!
It was not a simple thing!
The status of the Holy Knight in the Empire was unique. They were responsible for protecting the God's authority in the world, they were a special group. They learnt painstakingly from childhood. Powerful, deeply religious, also… one had to say, most of them were of noble character.
The most important thing was…..no one dared to murder a Holy Knight!
Even if the Holy Knight breached the law, or rebelled against their religion, only the Pantheon could make the judgment and punish them.
And not to mention the sinner…even a normal Holy Knight, if he murdered one of them, that means someone wanted to challenge the authority of the Bright Pantheon! Challenge the authority of the agent of the god in the world!
This meant being the enemy of the entire Bright Pantheon!
Becoming the enemy of the Bright Pantheon...even the Emperor or the Magician Union would not dare to do so!
Those who dared to be the enemy of the Holy Knights, who dared to even kill the knights, were all the most notorious and powerful, evil guys.
For example, more than a decade ago, there was a powerful and notorious magician. He had killed many thousands of people because of his Undead Magic research, even made a small town turn into a ghost town overnight. This offended the Pantheon and they sent out the Holy Knights. Paying a heavy price to kill the magician.
There were many similar events that happened in the history and those were all resolved by the Holy Knights.
But only those! Apart from that, the Holy Knight never did any meaningless things!
They won't even come to the Frozen Forest for hunting the magic monsters!
Holy Knights were not mercenaries.
In this deadly place, if there was Holy Knight, the only explanation was that they were having a task! They were going to kill some strong evil person! They were going to use their sword to protect the honor of the Pantheon!
"I think, our journey will not be very safe at all." Duwei and Dardanelle looked at each other with their complicated eyes.
After resting, they buried the dead Holy Knight and continued their journey.
Then, one day later, they found a grave again!
There were three in total! The Holy Knights were buried in these three graves! This time, Dardanelle felt a shock after looking at one of the corpses!
"Elder brother…. elder brother Mr. Feite! This is Mr. Feite!!"[EN: Should be Mr. Fitter]
By looking at the man lying on the snow with silver armor…under such a terrible weather, he didn't wear a corset, but a metallic armor. Normal people would think that he was crazy! Metallic things under this freezing weather, it's easy for people to die in the coldness. Leather corset would be much more useful!
But this dead man was wearing a metallic armor…if he was not crazy, then he might be very strong, he was strong enough to adapt to this cold weather!
He looked clean, with his face without any blood. It was different from the last time Duwei and Dardanelle found a corpse. Obviously, the people who buried him were giving him extra prestige. Even when the corpse was buried, someone shaved his beard and even the hair was neat and tidy.
He was just silently lying in the snow pit, his hands on his chest. There was a long shiny silver sword in his hand and was lying on his chest. He looked handsome. The man looked very handsome, although he was frozen black and blue, but Duwei could still imagined how he looked like when he was still alive.
"Elder brother Mr. Feite…the Senior Holy Knight of the Pantheon." Dardanelle was surprised at the very beginning, then looked serious, "He was also a ...Level Eight Knight! Harry, do you know, the knights with Level Eight or higher are called Great Knights! Murdering a Great Knight…it's already out of my imagination. Who has this kind of power, and even dares to be the enemy of the Pantheon?!"
Dardanelle stood up and bowed in front of corpse of the Knight 'Feite' sincerely, "Elder Brother Mr. Feite, never thought that I could see you here...Last time when I saw you, I was still next to Marquise. Thank you for the day you kicked the guy who cursed our mistress out.
Dardanelle's eyes showed his sadness.
Duwei still remembered when he had just met Dardanelle, he told him this name…when Marquise Lister was travelling outside that time, she met an evil magician, and that it was lucky that there was a Holy Knight next to her that protected her. That Holy Knight was the dead elder brother Feite. Elder brother Feite was representing the Pantheon to meet Marquise Lister for appreciating her huge donation.
Duwei looked further away…it was entirely silent except for the sound of the wind.
The lake was covered in ice, there was not even a ghost of shadow on the snow.
"Can kill a Level Eight Holy Knight, also there were quite a number of his comrades ...." Dardanelle whispered, "The one who has this power must be one of the strongest people in this continent! How come there is such a powerful guy in the Roland Empire and he even dared to challenge the Pantheon?!"
Duwei thought a lot and didn't respond to what Dardanelle said. But he quickly thought of something. He suddenly crouched down, and moved the corpse of elder brother Feite, then made an effort to dig him up!
"Harry! What are you doing?" Dardanelle didn't like it, "Please don't disturb elder brother Mr. Feite!"
"Dardanelle, don't you know that...when the Holy Knights bury their companions, they will also bury them with their relics!" Duwei replied and kept digging at the same time, "I heard that the devout Holy Knights had the habit of writing a diary because they needed to pray everyday. When they are outside, they cannot pray in the Pantheon, so they will choose to write their words in a diary."
Soon, after digging a hole underneath the corpse, Duwei sighed and dug up a cloth bag from the bottom. When he opened it, there was a small silver pendant, which was a small statue of the Bright Goddess, a dagger, and a small book!
"Look, this is the diary of elder brother Knight Feite." Dawei looked at Dardanelle, "I think the answer is inside this book."
Dardanelle couldn't keep silent and frowned, "I don't think this is a good idea. Elder Brother Mr. Feite would not like someone touching his things…Harry, put it back."
Duwei didn't listen to him, he opened the diary. After a while, Duwei shouted, "Look!"
...…..
EN – Ge Feite was changed to elder brother Feite for better flow.
Chapter 66: The Strongest Knight on the Continent
"Look…in the diary, he mentioned Marquise Lister."
Duwei's sentence immediately made Dardanelle want to read his big brother Feite's diary. This loyal Knight from the Lister Family was also very concerned about any news about his mistress.
He came and stood beside Duwei, and together they read the diary left behind by the dead Holy Knight.
"– 6 January. Today, I met Marquise Lister; she was an elegant and charming lady. I give my thanks to that noble lady, her contribution showed her deep faith in the god, bless her. Today, I punished a man who tried to do something disrespectful to this lady. It's hard to believe that there is such a despicable magician; I will report this to the Magician Union. Marquise Lister is a devout follower, she should be protected by the Pantheon; even a magician should not insult such a devout follower. It is not acceptable to any of the Knights that such an elegant and pretty lady be disrespected by others."
Duwei was able to immediately determine that the diary entry was talking about how Ge Feite met Marquise Lister and how coincidentally he helped her kick that evil magician away.
But obviously, Ge Feite didn't know Marquise was cursed by magic as he left quickly.
"–11 January. Blessed Day. Praise the God Almighty. Praise the Goddess for giving out the light for the whole world.
Today, I received an urgent call from the Pantheon and have to go to the North to join the other Knights of the Pantheon. This task was commanded by the White Pope with approval from the Pantheon. I know that there must be some evildoers who offended the Pantheon. It is because we, the Holy Knights, are given our sacred mission only when we have to punish these people. This time, it seems it is not easy to handle. The Bishop has sent three Level Eight Knights and I was appointed as the leader of this task force. God, I am loyal to you even when there are very strong enemies, Ge Feite is willing to use his life to protect the glory of the Pantheon. The Sword of the Holy Knight will kill all evil without hesitation!"
Duwei sighed. From the words, you could see that he was an extremely faithful Holy Knight.
"–14 January. Punishment Day. I am willing to use my blood to destroy the darkness and bring brightness to this world.
The searching team was formed. I went to the Frozen Forest with 10 knights. At this moment, I still don't know who our target is. The commander of this task force is the Presiding Judge Mr. Murray! I know that this task should be very great and influential as the commander is a Presiding Judge and there are three Level Eight Knights and a total of 40 Holy Knights involved in this task. The Presiding Judge is very serious, he told me that this is an order from the Pope. The enemy we face is an evil guy, he is a traitor of the Pantheon. He is the former Priest of the Pantheon who betrayed his faith. The Pope is angry about it and gave out his order: a trial is needless, kill on the spot.
Anyway, when I read the name on the order from the Pope, I couldn't believe my eyes…God, please forgive me, I do not dare to have any suspicion about the meaning of the Pope. I believe that the Pope is the representative of the God…but the content of this order made me unable to fall asleep.
Hussein, by the pride of the Holy Knights! One of the strongest Holy Knight, why did you betray your faith!"
Duwei and Dardanelle looked at each other.
"Who…is Hussein?" Duwei looked at Dardanelle, "I am not familiar with the Holy Knights."
Dardanelle swallowed very hard, he seemed very shocked, "Mr. Hussein…He betrayed the Pantheon! Oh My God, this is bad!"
"Bad?" Duwei didn't understand.
Dardanelle closed his eyes and shook his head, then took a deep breath and sighed, "You…Harry, you really haven't heard of Hussein before?"
Duwei shook his head. After he came to this world, he was always withdrawn. After being in disgrace, he almost spent all his time in books and learning. He didn't care of the outside world.
This Hussein was that famous?
"Among the Knights of the continent, the Holy Knights of the Bright Pantheon are accredited as being the best quality of knights because their faith is the most pious. And, some of them are ascetics who trained themselves hard since childhood. Now, amongst the Holy Knights of the Bright Pantheon, there are three 'Strongest Knights' and they are the current leaders of the knights. Hussein is one of those three." Dardanelle whispered, "Someone said that Hussein is the idol and the aim of all the young knights on the continent."
"Why?"
"In the past one-hundred years, he was the only one that could become a Level Eight Knight before 25 and got the honor of being a "Great Knight"; he is a genius! You also know that only Level Eight or above can be honored as a Great Knight and Hussein had this honor before 25. In these hundred years, he is the first one! Then, just after 30, he became one of the three Knight Leaders. Except for Hussein, the other two are already 40 something. Also, the other two Knight leaders are Mr. Luke and Mr. Kale. Luke is a Level Nine Knight, but when he reached Level Nine from Level Eight, he was already 40. Kale also reached Level Nine when he was 40. Dardanelle whispered, "The next step of a Level Nine Knight will be the level of Saint Knight. But in these hundred years, there has never been a Saint Knight on the continent…. The three Knight Leaders of the Holy Knight are only Level Nine."
"So, this Hussein is also a Level Nine Knight?" Duwei asked.
"Yes." Dardanelle looked weirder, "As I said, he got to Level Eight when he was 25. So, guess how old was he when he got to Level Nine?"
"30?" Duwei guessed, "But didn't you say that he became a Leader when he was 30?"
"No." Dardanelle shook his head with a wry smile, "Much earlier! He got to Level Nine very early, and since he was too young, the Pantheon didn't allow such a young man to lead the Holy Knights. So, he became the leader when he was 30, and when he got to Level Nine, he was…" Dardanelle took a deep breath, he lowered his voice with respect:
"26!"
Duwei frowned, "That means, after he got to Level Eight, he gained an entire level within a year?"
"More than that." Dardanelle's answer shocked Duwei, "There was a rumor saying that the strength of Hussein is much stronger than Level Nine. But since there has been no Saint Knights on the continent for a hundred years, and Level Nine is already the strongest, Hussein has been recognized as the strongest Level Nine Knight! Some people even think that he is the number one Knight throughout the continent! Even the inner circle of the Holy Knights admits that the strength of Hussein is much stronger than the other two leaders. Also, he was just 26! 26!"
Duwei was impressed.
A 26-year old number one Knight in the continent?!
"In these years, although Hussein didn't really breakthrough to the Saint Knight Level, everybody thinks that he could be a Saint Knight; the first Saint Knight on the continent in the past hundred years! The Inner Circle of the Pantheon is proud of him, since there has been no Saint Knights for many years. If there is even one Holy Knight that reaches the level of a Saint Knight, it would be good for the reputation and the prestige of the Holy Knights. So, the Pantheon was willing to promote Hussein when he was 30. Before that, in the past, every knight who became the leader of the Holy Knights at 30 all became a Saint Knight!"
The two of them could already guess that something big must have happened if the Holy Knights were sent out. But they just didn't expect it to be so shocking!
The number one recognized Knight on the continent, one of the three leaders of the Holy Knights, betrayed the Pantheon and was ordered to be killed by the Holy Knights of the Pantheon!
This seemed to be a secret that no one knew about, otherwise, this would have been the most shocking news on the continent!
Duwei and Dardanelle looked at each other and could feel how shocked each other was, of course, they were also filled with questions.
Hussein, a genius praised by the crowd. Became the leader of the Holy Knights when he was 30! He had the highest regard from the Pantheon, had the respect of others, was talented, and was also recognized as a future Saint Knight…He had a bright future!
Why did such a person betray the Pantheon suddenly? Why did he become a traitor that the Pantheon would want to kill immediately?
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