Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 133

He was dumbfounded.The warehouse, wide open and empty, seemed to be mocking him.

His mind went blank and he couldn’t think of anything.

‘What is this… what was happening?’

As Scott was frozen in place and unable to move, one of the agents who had rushed over showed him a tattered piece of paper.

“Captain, there’s something like this in the warehouse…”

“…”

Scott took the note as if he was possessed and read its contents.

His blood boiled in his mouth when he saw the crooked handwriting.

His hands automatically gained strength and the paper was crumpled. His whole body began to tremble with humiliation.

“This… this fucking bastard!”

The voice that started out as a growl eventually burst out into a scream.

The sound resonated through the blue sky, but of course there was no answer.

He should have noticed it from the beginning.

When he woke up, the child who had asked to stay with him for one night was nowhere to be found.

The drawers where he kept his money and valuables were completely emptied, not a single penny left behind, and the weapons and swords that he had neatly displayed were also gone.

Scott, who had a strong feeling that something was wrong, remembered telling the bastard the location of the warehouse yesterday and rushed there without even changing his clothes.

And so… Scott found himself in an empty warehouse.

“What were all those guys standing guard doing!”

“I think they were taken by surprise and lost consciousness. They still haven’t come to their senses.”

“Shit!”

It was ridiculous.

One person knocked out a few security guards and then moved all that stuff away without a trace, without anyone noticing?

“That’s ridiculous…”

Even if it were possible to subdue the security forces, moving all the objects would be physically impossible without using magic.

It was obvious that it was the work of a group of people.

At that moment, a man came running noisily from the square.

“Captain! Ouch, we’re in big trouble!”

“What now?”

“That, towards the castle gate… the Imperial Knights… …!”

Scott’s face turned blank as he gasped for breath and barely managed to spit out the words.

“Knights? How many? Are there any pursuers?”

“No, it doesn’t seem like a pursuit party… there are only three of them.”

But the answer given by the hesitant subordinate was unexpected.

“Three people? An advance team?”

“For now, we are blocking the entrance by making excuses…”

Stalling wouldn’t give them much time.

The security forces had neither the authority nor the power to stop the Imperial Knights. Furthermore, they had now lost all weapons to fight back.

Now Scott was barely in his right mind, but there wasn’t much time to think about it.

A loud shout erupted from the other side of the street.

“Get out of the way! We are the Imperial Knights!”

“What?”

There was no time to react. From the other side of the road, knights on horseback were already visible, galloping towards them.

“What the hell? Stop standing there like a fool and say something!”

“Yes? But what should I say…”

The subordinate who was suddenly struck by the sparks responded in confusion.

If they got caught like this, they wouldn’t be able to avoid extreme punishment.

His anxiety and fear were at their peak, but he couldn’t escape.

The knights who had approached in an instant stopped their horses and landed lightly on the ground.

The spirit felt from their standing posture was extraordinary, as if they were truly the Imperial Knights.

Just as he was about to tense up without realizing it, the youngest knight stepped forward.

“Are you the police chief?”

Gulp.

His mouth turned dry.

The young knight’s sharp gaze seemed as if it would stab him to death at any moment.

“Yes, yes. This is Chief Scott. It’s my pleasure to meet you, Sir…”

“Okay, since you’re busy, just tell me what’s going on. Have any suspicious people visited this city?”

The young knight cut off Scott, who was just moving his lips in confusion, and asked coldly.

Scott’s eyes widened at the unexpected story.

“Yes? Are you talking about a suspicious person?”

Didn’t they come after receiving a tip that he had accepted the Chernion doctrine?

“Didn’t a young man come into town last night? We’re tracking him.”

If it was a young man, it must have been the young man who had declared himself a follower of Chernion.

As Scott gaped in bewilderment, Arthur, the knight, clicked his tongue.

“You’ve lost your cool. Could it be that you’ve already been hit?”

“What, what are you talking about?”

“You must be aware that a warning against evil cults has been issued recently.”

He couldn’t say he didn’t know, so he nodded.

Arthur let out a short sigh, perhaps judging that normal communication would be difficult, and began to explain step by step.

“Recently, a new type of fraud group that pretends to be a religious group and extorts money has become prevalent.”

“…Fraud… What are you talking about?”

“Three people work together as a group, one of whom incites people by saying that he will preach the word of God while mentioning the name of the evil god, and makes them buy things indiscriminately.”

Two words that sounded unusually clear rang in his ears, and a cold sweat ran down his spine.

“No, wait. That can’t be…”

“Then, he says that he would have one of his colleagues join him and baptize them, and after assessing the situation, he would give the order to the guy who had arrived first to withdraw once he judged that things had progressed sufficiently.”

“…”

“The person is completely covered up, so you can’t tell what they look like or even their gender. After that person visits, the guy who was acting as the decoy leaves the village. And the last one to show up is the young man I just mentioned.”

Scott was already staring blankly into space with a pale face as if his soul had already left him. So fortunately or unfortunately, he didn’t see Arthur, who had been speaking well, suddenly lose control of his expression and frown.

“A man with golden eyes, a particularly handsome face, and slightly long hair who still looks young. He steals money, valuables, and all the things you buy and runs away… Ha, have you seen him?”

In fact, Arthur was suffering from severe pangs of conscience right now. Scott was dumbfounded, his mouth hanging open as if it would fall off at any moment.

The young man, of course, was Arendt, and a few hours ago, at dawn, Arthur had helped the handsome fellow smuggle everything out of the warehouse.

There was no great skill or trickery involved.

They just went in, hid their presence, and stole the items secretly.

The police were no match for them. It was difficult to move all the items without being detected, but it wasn’t an impossible task.

The amount of stuff was so much that their backs almost gave out, but they were the Imperial Knights after all.

‘That was the only problem.’

But he’s a knight, so was this really okay?

Ever since he snuck out of the city, carrying a bundle of grain and weapons, he had been overcome by an intense sense of self-loathing. Being helplessly entangled with Arendt had become a familiar pattern, but how could it feel so new every time?

Even though the person in front of him was a fool preparing for rebellion, he couldn’t help but feel guilty.

While Arthur was going through a violent emotional upheaval, the agent who was also frozen next to the police captain licked his lips.

“Now, wait a minute. It’s a scam, but…”

Arthur came to his senses suddenly at the sound of a confused voice.

“It seems like he’s already been here. He said he showed off his skills as a miracle of God. Is that right?”

“…”

Everyone kept their mouths shut, wondering if there was something to be said.

Arthur clicked his tongue.

“If you know how to manipulate magic to some extent, you can easily cover up something like that with a trick. Judging from the way it looks, it looks like it’s already all been taken out.”

“…”

“Come to think of it, was this the place where the report of the statue being destroyed came in?”

But Arthur faithfully fulfilled his role.

He was full of existential questions about why he had to do this, but still, he had no other choice.

There were only two reasons.

There was really no other way than the one Arendt suggested, and the people who had come together were two people who were completely undependable at a time like this.

Unaware of the truth, the terrified chief and his men just looked at each other with pale faces.

“Did you see that kid and those two people? Report in detail what happened here.”

Arthur, who had calmed his breathing, let out a subtle murderous aura.

“In addition, whether you were scammed or not, what you did is not something that can be overlooked. So, you should know that this is your last chance. You know what? Maybe I can let it go.”

It was literal. Now, they could be the victim of a fraud, not a traitor.

‘Damn it…’

When did it start to go wrong?

Whether they were real frauds or just people trying to preach the name of a new god, the result was the same.

Right now, it wasn’t any god that held the power over their life and death.

The knights in front of them had swords hanging from their waists.

If a god could not save him from the icy sword, then he had no need for light or darkness.

When the police chief finally gave up and lowered his head, Richt and Laius, who had been standing behind him like sacks of barley, let out a sigh of relief.

Arthur, who was giving the two people a disapproving look, blurted out his last line.

“Gather the people and call out the guys who came in contact with the ones who came first. I have a story to tell.”

Outside the city gates was an abandoned warehouse, which was the hideout that formed the basis for this operation.

“See? I told you it was possible, didn’t I?”

When they returned to the hideout, their conscience in tatters, they saw Arendt half-lying on a sack of grain that had been made into a sofa, munching on cookies.

Even after seeing that sight, they couldn’t bring themselves to say anything.

If they just looked at the results, it was perfect, and everything went according to the scenario he created.

After summoning the city’s leading figures to the square, Laius himself came forward and revealed that he was the knight captain, and then he started a fire… That is, he revealed the truth about the incident that Arendt had created.

Buying supplies under the pretext of rising up and then embezzling them all was money laundering, and what they showed as a miracle of God was nothing more than crude magic.

People who were initially skeptical began to listen to the thorough explanation and the attitude of the knights who treated them as victims of fraud rather than attempted rebels.

It was a situation where all the materials that had been collected with great effort were completely lost.

Moreover, if they were even a little uncooperative, the capital city temple would immediately storm in and accuse them of blasphemy, but if they helped with the investigation of the Imperial Knights, this matter would go unanswered… They had no choice but to nod as the exquisite carrot and whip were waved before their eyes.

The ghoul and the unidentified disciple with the Breath of Mnemosyne were reduced to mere swindlers thanks to Arendt’s glib tongue and tactics.

Looking at the context, the Knights Templar were the ones who were the thieves and scammers.

In fact, the knights could not complain about this point either.

Richt groaned.

“As you said… Since the artifact’s faith has been broken, I don’t think we need to worry about the future.”

The moment their faith broke, a cracking sound was heard and a faint magical power left the brainwashed people’s bodies.

The victims didn’t notice it, but the knights could clearly feel it.

Arendt’s hypothesis that the Breath of Mnemosyne was based on faith turned out to be correct.

Arendt glanced at the seniors and the captain, each sighing deeply with their hands on their foreheads in deep despair, then clicked his tongue and got up.

“Anyway, that’s what happened, Scott. It’s not easy to trust someone you just met.”

The person who received those words was the chief of police who had accompanied the knights here.

Scott, who saw Arendt using the items he had collected with great care as a pillow, seemed to have no more room to escape.

The handsome face that was hard to forget once you saw it was definitely that of the young man who had smiled innocently last night.

But his actions, his speech, and even his atmosphere showed no trace of last night.

Arendt burst into laughter and tapped the police chief on the shoulder.

“You were wondering what my name was? My name is Arendt von Eckhart. Have you heard of it?”

“Ugh…”

Unable to withstand the continuous shock, Scott eventually fainted and fell backwards.