Sacred Peak, Generosus (1)
The Landea Mountains separated the border between the millennium kingdom of Kaldris and the fairy kingdom of Allendia.
An elegant temple, surrounded by dozens of buildings, stood in a magnificent mountain range basin.
It was the headquarters of the Church of Darkness, the Scotaskia, serving Kybriel.
* * *
The center hall of Scotaskia had a subtle dark color due to the walls being finished with graphite. It was named the Hall of Stars.
A group of priests gathered there to hold an emergency meeting.
A chubby middle-aged woman in her 50s sitting at the table asked as if she couldn’t believe the news.
“Leon Hart is missing?”
It was Sermen, the Saintess of Darkness.
For some reason, people thought of a beautiful girl or an elegant beauty whenever they heard the word ‘Saintess.’ However, even a saintess wasn’t exempted from old age.
An older man with a stern expression, Pope Castalo II, nodded solemnly.
“Yes, Saintess.”
Sermen sighed.
“It’s hard to believe. How could that happen…?”
Leon Hart wasn’t just the eldest son of a local lord.
He was the third person to be blessed by the Goddesses and was the Templar Head of the Church of Darkness. He was a powerful man among those who had enough power and influence on the world in Latna.
He apparently went down to his hometown for a short vacation and was killed there.
“Did he happen to be killed by the incidents during the night?”
One of the high-priests answered the saintess’s question.
“I don’t think so.”
As soon as she heard the news, she immediately sent people for an investigation.
Thanks to that, she was able to grasp the whole story roughly.
“According to Baron Frelsis’s testimony, a group of Hunters came to the mansion and attacked Leon Hart.”
The reckless men fought a fierce battle that destroyed the mansion, but Leon Hart was defeated and got kidnapped in the end.
“Their identity is not yet known, but…”
The High Priest continued.
“It’s the work of Aliens.”
There was a reason to judge so.
Most of Baron Frelsis’s knights and soldiers watched Leon Hart’s final appearance.
They said he was bitten by a big Wyvern’s mouth and disappeared to the other side of the sky.
“They said it was a black wyvern with a silver mane.”
Although most of a Wyvern’s scales were black, it was uncommon for them to have a silver mane.
The other believers gathered in the place and murmured.
“If it’s a silver-maned wyvern…”
“Isn’t that the same monster who murdered the third prince of the Xrad kingdom?”
It wasn’t as notorious as they made it out to be, considering it only killed the third prince of a small country.
However, the dark believers there all knew about the evil silver-maned Wyvern.
That demonic Wyvern’s notoriety didn’t just stem from the murder of the prince.
“I’m sure you’re right!”
“It’s the same monster who massacred the Inquisitor in Onfros City!
Of course, when Effir was briefly subordinated to Alejandro, the Templars they killed were members of the Darkness Church.
It was a complete coincidence, but from the Church’s perspective, it looked as if the Wyvern did it all.
Convinced, Sermen nodded.
“I see.”
They reached a conclusion.
The powerful Alien dealing with the silver-maned Wyvern knocked down Leon Hart and kidnapped him!
It was a surprisingly penetrating conclusion, even though their reasoning was nowhere near correct.
They thought they weren’t wrong, however.
The believers exchanged opinions and agonized.
“As expected, the night’s tragedy was done by the Aliens.”
“What the hell are they after?”
“What are they gonna do with Leon Hart?”
Castalo II mumbled as he smoothed his beard.
“It’s a serious situation indeed.”
The Pope, the saintess, and the Templar Head were the three pillars that supported the Church.
It wasn’t usually a big deal that one of them was missing.
However, multiple unfortunate instances related to the Church of Darkness had overlapped. It threw them into disarray.
“Find him with all your might!”
The Pope’s shoulders trembled in anger as he gave out an order.
“In the name of Kybriel, punish those wicked heretics!”
* * *
“… I’m sure they are running wild.”
Kibie sighed.
“I’m sorry, Castalo and Sermen.”
She looked inside the wagon and continued.
“But we’ve achieved our goal…”
At the corner of the wagon, a young man was sleeping while tied by all kinds of control harnesses and thick chains.
It was Leon Hart, the third blessed individual.
Han-bin’s group, who had kidnapped Leon Hart as planned, immediately escaped from the Frelsis estate.
Along the way, they stopped by a nearby city and prepared all kinds of restraints to tie up Leon Hart.
The problem was that Leon Hart was a very high-ranking Spiritualist of level 112.
No one would dare arrest him with simple Magic Tools.
And there was no way to get better Magic Tools in the countryside, however.
Artis gave them a solution.
‘If quality doesn’t work, we’ll just have to go with quantity!’
Dozens of restraints were purchased and coiled around his entire body.
Thanks to that, they wasted a lot of money, but they overcame such a powerful opponent, so they at least got their money’s worth.
That was the third day.
At first, Leon Hart made all kinds of fuss, shouting lines like ‘Untie this chain right now, you dirty heretics!’, ‘Ah, Kybriel!’ and ‘Forgive your servant.’
It was as if he had given up half-heartedly.
“Of course, he couldn’t have given up…”
Ryu Han-bin murmured as he watched him still sleeping quietly.
“He’ll be looking for a chance to escape.”
Effir, who had just replaced Artis at the horseman’s seat, asked Han-bin.
“How are you feeling?”
Han-bin shrugged his bandaged shoulders.
“I’ve healed enough to move.”
His injuries were so severe they prevented him from standing, but he had become relatively stable after three days.
It was thanks to his generous consumption of healing potions.
Ryu Han-bin’s extreme resilience was also helpful.
“But if a Spiritist had healed me, I would have gotten better a lot faster.”
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