Chapter 38 – Diego

Brant appeared from the Ain River, and fell to the ground.

“Ah.”

His frozen left arm still had not recovered, so it turned blue.

Brant pulled out the arrows stuck in his shoulders and thighs, and looked at them still.

He was taught that if he uses the power of the demon, he should exterminate everything around him. Otherwise, a holy knight will go after him.

Even though there was a holy knight on the other side, he was confident of destroying the evidence by killing everyone.

He was able to kill everyone with his power so far. But Ed was different. When he heard that Akalan’s team was annihilated by Ed and that he killed Prince

Cliff and guard Etrian, he was able to guess the opponent’s skills.

Still, he thought his team would be stronger than him, but he couldn’t overpower Ed even with the power of the demon. No, rather, he had to run away.

And he used too much of the demon’s power. The muscles of his whole body trembled and blue blood vessels began to swell above his skin. Brant crouched down and endured the pain.

Brant had been struggling with pain for a long time due to the rebound using the power of the demon, but raised his trembling body to calm down. First, he had to go back to Akalan.

If he doesn’t go back, his daughter will be in danger.

Even after Akalan’s attack, Nefthael steadily sent beasts at night. But now, the beasts only appeared almost once in a few hours.

They had to stay awake at night because they didn’t want the ship to sink, but now Ed had more time to spend with Arin.

Arin would kneel and pray with her eyes closed.

When Ed spots another beast and woke Arin up, she threw a hammer and broke the beasts head and knelt down to pray again.

“Is there a reason why you keep praying?”

Arin smiled at Ed’s question while posing.

“All sacred power comes from Astron, and I can only use the sacred power that I’m allowed to use.”

Arin said, putting her hands together in a praying posture.

“But the more I prayed, the more I felt the sacred power was staying with me.”

When the sacred power stays in the body, the holy knight improves all abilities. In other words, Arin is improving little by little just praying.

As expected, a holt knight was a fraud character.

Perhaps even if Ed didn’t intervene, she would have met Thane. Thane wanted to meet her.

Ed was also curious about how she improved while working with Thane.

“I’ll continue praying.”

Arin closes her eyes and prayed. A subtle blue light emanated from her body. The appearance itself is mysterious, reminding Ed of a saint rather than a holy knight.

Indeed, Thane once said that she has the sacred power comparable to that of Master Paladine.

So when it comes to sacred power, she would be comparable to that of a saint.

Ed thought she looked like a saint because she had such sacred power in her body.

Ed lay next to her and looked up at the sky. An unimaginable number of stars were pouring from Earth. He’s not interested in constellations, so he doesn’t know if the stars he sees here are the same as the stars on Earth, but it was beautiful to see the stars in the cool river breeze.

Ed looked at the sky for a while and got up from his seat. Then, he pulled out two arrows in both hands and fired them at the same time.

It was a practice to see if his ability to control for two seconds were possible while using multiple arrows.

He shoots two arrows at the same time and adjusts those two arrows at the same time. His mana consumption has doubled, but this allowed him to use a different tactic than before.

Ed made the arrow come back in two seconds. As the two arrows were arrows flying in different trajectories, his head was pounding.

It felt like drawing a circle with his right hand and a triangle with your left hand.

Ed tried to go one step further than yesterday, adjusting so that his mana would not run out. And the merchant ship continued to flow along the Ain River.

Kalim City.

It is one of the five castles protecting the capital of the Kingdom of Travia and was the place where the entire floodgate was installed to block the wide Ain River.

Those guarding the floodgate blocked and inspected passing ships, and soldiers guarding the floodgate also climbed onto the ship on which Ed was on.

They saw a blue-colored carriage and their jaws dropped. In particular, thanks to the injection of more sacred power, the wagon was emitting a brilliant light.

In addition, since the person on the boat was a holy knight, they were able to pass through the floodgate without any restraint.

As Thane passed through the floodgate with a cane, he sighed as he looked at the city of Kalim.

“I tried to find something unique, but I couldn’t.”

“I’ll have to go and look for it myself.”

Arin looked back at the party and said.

“I’ll stop by the church and report about Akalan first.”

“Okay. I’ll find out a little more about Kalim. The “Sleepless Night” is the best location to meet back up, so see you there later.”

Thane’s eyes turned to Ed.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll look around.”

Since he met Thane, he received information and could identify his opponent easily.

And since he met Arin, he had no worries about money. But when did you rely on them to find a demon?

Ed was thinking of getting information through the lower-class citizens of Kalim city.

Thane, who arrived at the dock of Kalim City and got off the wagon, said he wanted to see the castle.

Thane went to Castle, and after Arin went to church, Ed was left alone.

He was wearing a shadow cloak, so even if he was between people, people did not recognize him if he stood still.

Ed began to read the atmosphere as he passed by the market with his hood on.

It was along the Ain River, so the fish market was big in Kalim.

As he passed by the noisy fish market, Ed could hear the sighs of people.

Due to the king’s order to gather soldiers, the king of Kalim seemed to be forcibly recruiting soldiers.

They were forcing fishermen to hold spears and send them to the battlefield.

There was a woman crying, saying that her child was about to be dragged, and a woman who heard that her husband was about to be dragged.

Ed, who was walking on the path of the fish market, stepped toward the disturbance occurring in the alley. Three boys were knocking on one boy.

When Ed took off his hood and showed up, the boys kicking the one boy looked back at Ed.

The boys spat on the floor and left, perhaps because they saw him wearing an ice arrow barrel even though he was wearing a shadow cape.

“Today’s your lucky day!”

“You fucking thief.”

Ed approached the crouching boy. The boy rolled around, leaned his back against the wall, and wiped the blood flowing around his mouth.

Ed looked down at the boy and saw the bread that the boy was holding tightly.

Ed asked the boy.

“Did you get hit because of that?”

The boy looked up at Ed and got up from his seat and shook his body.

Come to think of it, he had a skin color that was hard to see in the kingdom of Travia.

When he saw the boy with brown skin walking up, he couldn’t help but laugh. He was beaten like that, but his steps were completely fine.

Ed guessed that he avoided getting hit in his vital area.

His ability to use his body seemed better than the three boys because they wouldn’t know how to avoid getting hit in the vital area.

Ed followed the boy.

For some reason, walking along with the eye-catching boy, the boy passed through the fish market and entered a slum.

As Ed continued to walk along with the boy, people’s reactions were cold.

Some boys, as well as adults, were trying to throw stones but stopped when they saw Ed’s eyes.

Following the boy like that, the boy shook off the dust on his body in front of the shabby house, cleaned it up as much as possible, and went inside.

Ed heard a small cough inside.

“Mom, I’m back”.

“Okay, son. Did you find some work today?”

“I helped move the flour in the bakery, and the owner paid me with bread.”

“You must’ve worked hard.”

“I’ll boil it in water soon”.

“Will you?”

Ed, who was watching the boy make a fire and pour water into a pot on it and boil the bread, turned around and headed back to the fish market.

Since the kingdom of Travia is the kingdom with the greatest power on the continent, the royal people do not starve because they are diligent.

But the reason why that boy is living so difficult is probably because he is mixed-race.

Ed went to the fish market, bought plenty of meat and bread, and headed back to the boy’s house.

In the meantime, the boy who was feeding his mother boiled bread was seen through the broken window.

Ed’s eyes turned to his mother as he looked at the boy who was blowing and feeding his mother bread porridge.

Although she looked haggard, his mother was definitely Travian. The problem was that her eyes were purple.

She couldn’t eat anymore and laid back down.

The boy looked at his mother, came to the kitchen, put what his mother had left in the pot, and went to his mother’s side to massage her arms and legs.

While coughing, his mother’s expression became a little comfortable and she fell asleep.

It was only after confirming that his mother was asleep that the boy came out.

And in front of Ed, he asked.

“Mister, why are you looking around?”

He looked about 10 years old.

Unlike when he treated his mother, the boy was looking at Ed with eyes full of hatred.

Ed looked at the boy and said.

“I’m going to ask you something.”

“What are you talking about? I’m busy right now.”

As the boy tried to turn around as if there was nothing more to hear, Ed took out the things he was holding inside the cape.

The boy’s eyes grew bigger when he saw a basket full of bread and meat. However, the boy took a step back and was rather wary of Ed.

“My mom said there is nobody in this world who is kind without a reason.”

“Your mother taught you well.”

Ed put down the basket, stepped back, and stood against the wall.

When Ed stepped down, the boy alternated between the basket and Ed, looking embarrassed.

The boy seemed to be agonizing for a moment, but soon gave in to temptation and looked at Ed.

“What do you want to ask?”

“What’s your name?”

“Diego.”

“Your father must be from the kingdom of Persan.”

Diego snorted lightly.

“You can tell just by looking at my skin color.”

Ed asked Diego what he wanted to ask since earlier because Diego seemed to be somewhat relaxed.

“Since when did your mother get sick?”

“My mother? It’s been about a month.”

“Did you take her to see the priest?”

Diego frowned.

“How can I take her to church in that condition? And there is no way that the priest will come to this kind of place.”

Ed was not interested in Diego’s reaction.

“There must be a lot of people around you who are sick besides your mother.”

Diego tilted his head at Ed’s words.

“No. I haven’t seen anyone who’s sick except my mom.”

“Really?”

Ed thought a demon was involved, but why is she the only one who got sick?

Ed looked back at Diego and asked.

“Where is your father?”

Diego looked upset.

“He disappeared a month ago. He disappeared because my mom got sick. Sigh.”