Episode 373 [But no matter how much you hurry, it will take 10 days.]
“Does it only take 10 days? If you are exaggerating, don’t disappoint…”
[Yes? What are you saying now, saintess…]
“Oh no, Your Majesty. I wasted my words again. Thank you so much for your help.”
[…You seem to be under a lot of stress.]
“…No shame.”
Illya barely finished communicating and took off her Judge Sententia due to a headache that was getting worse.
“Ugh!”
At that moment, Ilya’s head was spinning and he stumbled, holding his head. I barely regained my balance, but I couldn’t catch Sententia, which rolled out of my hands.
widely.
Degurrr.
After holding her head and catching her breath, Ilya opened her eyes after a moment and looked at the holy object rolling on the floor.
The sacred relic of the 9 Great Gods. The Pope’s Praetorian Cententia, one of the nine holy relics.
The holy relic, which means wisdom in ancient language, just felt disgusting. Although Ilya felt fortunate that no one accompanied her because it was a secret communication, she did not readily think of picking up the magistrate.
Ilya, who was looking at the holy relic with blurry eyes, soon fell to her knees and sobbed.
“Why are you doing this? Why on earth…”
Two hands cupping his face.
After receiving the sententia, it was difficult to even pray as habitually as before. The moment I put my hands together for prayer, it felt like my mind was buried in blue light and disappeared.
The blue light of Amunda, which always provided only coziness, recently felt scary.
Moreover, the prophecy heard was also terrible.
– Red Eyes$%@ Kill%%… Enemy of God.
This is the divine saying I heard the most after using Sententia and increasing my sensitivity.
It wasn’t a perfect sentence, but there seemed to be no room for other interpretations.
In other words, it meant killing King Logan, the benefactor who helped him and the Holy Kingdom and saved them from danger.
That prophecy and her own strange reaction shook her faith to its core.
At first, I thought it would be okay to not use the judicial officer, but with the sense of crisis escalating these days, the representative of Seongguk could not give up the symbol. Above all, even when I thought that I would no longer use it, the judge was always on my head.
Just like when we communicated a while ago.
Now the holy relic felt like an abomination.
“Why are you doing this to me? Hehehe.”
Even with her strong faith, it was difficult to overcome the fear that she was being encroached upon. What’s more, the result is that it leads to an abnormal act of suspicion and murder of the benefactor.
Even now, didn’t he disturb his benefactor by saying strange things during the communication?
Yet, I had a strong urge to refuse his help. And it was an offer of ridiculously enormous help.
“No! If you are really my God, you can’t do that! There must be something wrong… They… Yes, they must have done something to me.”
Ilya screamed in anger and then muttered as if she was brainwashing herself.
Suddenly, Tracy’s face came to mind.
Those who use demonic magic to control people’s minds.
But if Tracy had been able to control her own mind, there was no way she would be here right now.
Even as she was so terrified, the glimmer of reason that remained kept pushing the truth in front of her that she wanted to ignore.
– My God wants my benefactor dead. To the point where he doesn’t even care about the safety of the Seongguk.
She trembled at the horrifying truth and eventually put her hands together again, as was her habit.
You shouldn’t do it. You shouldn’t do it.
The resolutions I made over and over again could not overcome the thoughts of what might have happened.
No, at the bottom of her psychology, there remained an unwillingness to admit that the foundation of her faith that she had believed in all her life was collapsing. Because it has always been her strong faith that has protected her from the fear of the unknown.
‘okay. This time it will be different.’
The religious madness overwhelmed my faint sense of reason.
“To my Lord, who is infinitely kind and all-embracing…”
The prayer continued like this.
At the end of the prayer that lasted for a long time, Ilya put the magistrate he had thrown away on his head again with an expressionless face.
And he mumbled something that he didn’t even know.
“Not much… left. Jibr… Rick.”
Her blue eyes were a much darker blue than usual, and her pupils seemed vertically slit like a reptile.
Then after a while.
“no!!”
Ilya’s face was filled with fear as he let out a scream and threw the judge away.
The arms wrapped around me were constantly trembling, and tears flowed endlessly over my pale cheeks.
A scene where the spirit of the person who became the representative of the Holy Kingdom is collapsing.
Fortunately, no one was there to witness it.
* * * The start of the predicted war was, as everyone expected, the Empire’s first move.
As many as five of the seven western corps surrounded Noviense to the north, east, west, and south. The sheer number of the mighty army alone made the viewer sick.
“How many people is that?”
“I can’t even count them.”
“Damn. Is this really the end?…”
Moreover, that number simply wasn’t the end.
The original strength of the imperial corps was known to be close to 50,000 troops per corps. And according to the standards known to the public, there were about a thousand knights among them, and the rest would have been elite soldiers.
“Isn’t that the armor of the knights in the front row? Does the empire provide soldiers with armor like that and even horses?”
“That can’t be possible? It shouldn’t be like that…”
“What the hell!!”
Those who knew anything about the Empire’s troops felt even more fear when they saw the leading troops.
They wear silver armor with the golden dragon emblem shining brightly on their bodies and ride on sturdy war horses. article.
To the general public, there seemed to be over 3,000 battle experts who were no different from superhumans.
5 legions. The number of soldiers besieging Chengdu alone numbered 15,000.
Even if all the Templars spread across the continent gathered together, the number would be more than half that.
“Why are there so many articles!”
Even Harmon had no choice but to grit his teeth at the sight that went beyond common sense.
“Knights were sent not only from the Western Legion of the Empire, but also from other places. Otherwise…” “
…There were rumors that the Imperial Central Army was also moving, but based on time, it seems they belong to the Legion.”
“Then that ratio makes sense?”
“Isn’t this just bravado?”
The anxiety that filled Adjutant Line Harper’s words was denying the sight he could see and pursuing a slim hope.
The problem was that Harmon also wanted to expect the same.
‘I hope so.’
If they were all knights, it meant that the empire could have more than 50,000 knights.
But his premonition told him that what he saw before his eyes was not a bluff.
“shit.”
I got goosebumps.
Previously, there were many predictions that the small kingdom could be easily conquered with just one imperial corps. In the empire, there were eight such legions in the east and seven in the west.
It deserved to be called the world’s most powerful country, both in name and reality. Even if we exclude the central army, of which there is no information about its organization, except for the Knights of the Guard, which is said to be directly managed by the imperial family.
‘I can’t believe there are over 50,000 knights… But if that’s true.’
You can form an army with only knights.
Of course, let alone its power, it couldn’t have been so due to the efficiency of the organization, but just imagining that scene gave me goosebumps all over my body.
“What about the Knights Templar who were summoned to the capital?”
“A few days ago, there were more than 8,000 people. Considering the power tied up within the empire, this is actually the maximum power.”
Contrary to public opinion, the war did not only occur in Novienne. The road to Noviense was blocked throughout the imperial territory, and temple troops were in conflict with the empire here and there.
‘Did you say King Logan? If it weren’t for his warning, it would have been difficult.’
It was truly a godsend that we issued a gathering order right away when we first heard that.
“What about Sir Stefan?”
“Luckily, you arrived yesterday. All three vice-captains are ready and ready.”
Harmon’s mind began to get busy.
Three superhumans who use the Holy Aura of the 8,000 Holy Knights of the Holy Legion, which is close to 100,000 strong, and myself. In addition, there is a powerful holy law barrier that will cover Noviense in the event of war.
It is no exaggeration to say that all possible power was gathered.
However, considering the 250,000-strong army, 15,000 knights, sword spirit, and ‘at least’ five superhumans, it was overwhelming.
In the end, there was only one choice for him.
“…Hold on as long as you can. Give that order to the entire army.”
“Is that all?”
“If we endure, there will be change. The saint prophesied so.”
“oh!”
Ryne Harper’s face brightened at those words.
The residents of Chengdu faced one stormy disaster after another. To maintain their morale, Harman announced that Saint Ilia had received a divine prophecy and had overcome the crisis.
Although it was a lie, the saint said that her prophecy became clearer after receiving ordination, so it did not occur to her that she was committing a sin.
And now the effect was clearly visible.
– Hang in there! If you do that, you win!
– The saint prophesied!
– Wow!
No, it wasn’t just that it had an effect, the repercussions were so great that it was overwhelming.
Looking at that, Harman thought of Illya wearing Sententia.
The new Pope boasted of amplified divine power to the point where one might wonder if he was truly an apostle from legend.
‘The saint really needs to receive divine advice this time.’
Biting his lip, Harman turned away from his adjutant’s hopeful look and turned his attention to the enemy outside the east gate.
An enemy that still seemed distant, but was now recognized as a nemesis, was there.
Tris Hornsby, the continent’s greatest sword, who had devastated part of the central temple in a short fierce battle and impressed the residents of the capital with its presence.
“I feel reassured.”
The leader of the imperial army surrounding Chengdu smiled as he felt the power of his troops.
“Just by changing the criteria for selecting soldiers, we have reached this level in 10 years. In another 10 years, we will be able to conquer the world with only half of the empire’s troops. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes Master.”
Isn’t that also the merit of my lord Baros?
Jerome had no choice but to swallow the sound that came up naturally. This was because in the current empire, talking about Prince Baros was almost a taboo.
Moreover, it was something he could not say, especially since he had lost the rank of nobility related to it. His current status was only that of a guard knight for the sword spirit, the enemy of the Holy Kingdom’s subjugation army.
However, the short answer seemed to only please the teacher.
“You can see the tired look of the author of the Divine Sword over there. Jerome and you. You haven’t forgotten what I said, right?”
“yes.”
“Yes sir!”
Along with Jerome’s answer, the four knights lined up on his left and right responded simultaneously as if they were one body.
‘It’s like a doll. Creepy bastards.’
But I couldn’t show it like that.
They were the secret imperial weapon that the emperor declared could kill the snake that swallowed the truth of the Cassel Magic Tower, in addition to the power of sword spirit and cold wind.
For now, just.
“If I take away the power of the divine sword…”
“We will finish it off.”
“…I’ll take care of your back.”
It was the best he could do to answer or express himself differently so that people wouldn’t be mistaken as being one of them.
“good night. The vice-captains of the Knights Templar will be handled by the corps commanders of each army. The only thing we need to pay attention to is the Noviens holy law barrier…”
In the direction of the sword spirit’s gaze, a mage with a slight resemblance to Jerome but with a sharper look smiled.
“Please leave that to me and the magic corps.”
“Yes, Galen. I believe it.”
Nodding, Tris drove the horse and advanced to the front of the legion.
– You ruthless bunch who ignored His Majesty’s undeserved grace…
“Egon, step back.”
“Ah, Excellency.”
The walls of Noviens. Egon Miller, the commander of the Western 1st Corps, who was shouting with all his might, stopped his tirade at one word from Tris and immediately stepped back.
And from that spot, the sword spirit pulled out his beloved sword.
“This is His Majesty’s command!”
Egon’s long declaration of war. A short word that seemed to encapsulate:
“The entire army. Occupy the capital!”
With that cry, the war began.
