Chapter 17: Order of Knights
"There have been mysterious cases of the folks 'round here being murdered left and right recently, there's some ominous mana residue left on some corpses alongside some other much more sinister thing."
The Knight Captain explained to his men, they have been tasked to take up this task due to the possibility of an evil cult being involved in the series of murders.
"Praise the Lady…" the Knight Captain muttered under his breath as he moved his hand in the shape of the 13 stars belonging to the Goddess, Celestalia.
A Junior Knight rushed into the meeting room in a hurry, "Captain! Captain! We have received an urgent report!"
The Knight Captain turned his head towards the exhausted Junior Knight, his gaze alarmed as he parted his lips in puzzlement.
"What may the news be?"
Looking up amidst his struggles for breath, he blurted out a single word.
"Death! Uh, death!"
"Calm yourself." He tossed over a glass bottle filled with gray liquid.
Catching the bottle the Junior Knight didn't waste anymore time and instantly chugged down the whole thing.
Now rejuvenated, he quickly explained, "We found a similar residual presence to the sinister thing that was found alongside the ominous mana from the murder scene. There were two places, the first one was some newbie adventurer's area in the nearby forest of that city and the second one was on the low-rank monster's carcass originating from the same city."
One of the Knights expressed his idea.
"So that means, the culprit was someone that regularly hung around the newbie area and was likely a newbie adventurer's themselves."
"Precisely, at least that's what the Intelligence Division thinks so too."
"It's good that we have a lead for at least one of 'em."
"What if they're both the leftovers of the same person?"
"Possible, and probably the most likely, if we are right and the culprit was really just some amateur then it's plausible to assume that both of the residue originated from them."
Then, the Knight Captain smashed down his long sword's scabbard onto the wooden floor to gather the Knights attention.
"Attention please, the Captain is speaking."
The Knight Order second-in-command spoke with stern expression.
"It was two people."
The Knight Captain calmly said.
"Two people?"
"Yes, other than the mana and that sinister thing, there were also some faint traces of sword clashes, none of the victims has any background with a sword and only the ominous mana seemed to be directly within the body."
"So that means…"
"This 'sinister' thing is likely the one trying to protect the victims but failed."
"Still though, despite how their supposed 'kind' and 'noble' intentions appear to be, who knows if that thing wouldn't cause havoc themselves?"
"…antagonizing such beings would likely lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, no?"
"It might be, or it might be not, we just need to follow the teachings of the Goddess, protect the innocent, advocate for the good and vanquish the evils."
"Right…" the Knight Captain's voice turned dejected as he let out a long sigh.
"Praise the Lady…"
He calmly uttered, his tone slightly hesitant.
I wonder if trying to capture them is really a good choice?
He stayed silent for a while before saying, "Today's meeting ends here."
"Understood, Captain."
They moved their hands in accordance with the religious ritual to form the 13 stars based on the Goddess.
"Praise the Lady…" they spoke in unison.
After everyone had left, the Knight Captain unmasked himself.
He leaned back against the backrest of his chair, his right hand massaging his nose bridge.
"My faith is wavering…"
Somewhere in the hidden depths of the city, a starved boy was eating a stolen bread, his eyes devoid of light but something about him was wrong, very wrong.
"Slow down, you will choke, I don't want you to die such a pathetic death."
A horrible, stomach-churning voice echoed within the boy's mind.
He did not respond until he finished eating.
Hungry…
Lightless black flowed out of his right arm, the horrific blackness shifted uncontrollably before turning into a comprehensible form of a monochromatic reflection of a snake. The snake's hoarse voice questioned.
"Hey, little man, why don't you kill them and take their stuff? We have the power to do that."
The child quietly replied, "I don't like being the bad guy."
The snake let out a sigh, he understood the child's stance, he wouldn't be able to change his view so he decided to just let it be. The snake spoke, calm and composed yet ignorant of the child's losing consciousness.
"You need sustenance, I don't have enough power to let you become immortal as of yet."
It noticed the child's fading consciousness and decided to return back to rejuvenate some of the spent energy used to manifest its serpentine form.
After the blackness returned into the child's body, the boy reawakened from the sudden collapse with a little more energy.
"I'm hungry…"
The boy's gaze landed on his hand, filled with barely any copper coins, his gaze drifted to the outside of the alleyway, he wanted to buy some food but it wouldn't be enough yet his body moved at the smell of a delicious meal.
His body involuntarily moved to the main streets and the sunlight illuminated his body, his nose picked up the smell of food again as he walked towards it.
His sight landed on the figure of multiple men clad in shining armor eating from a stall.
"Food…"
He muttered under his breath, his gaze filled with desire as he intently stared at the food eaten by the Knights.
The Knight Captain calmly scanned through his surroundings, his eyes landed on a small figure adorned in a black ragged cloak over a clothes resembling nothing more than rags, his hair overgrown and deep inside his eyes outside of desire held in a great deal of despair and loneliness.
"Make two more please." He spoke with the stall owner, he waited for a while. Soon, his awaited two meat skewers arrived.
He stood up, walked towards the boy, meat skewers in hand, he crouched down and handed one of the skewers to the boy. With a gentle and friendly tone he said.
"Eat it."
The boy was hesitant, seeing that the Knight Captain just ruffled his hair to show that he meant no harm.
"Don't worry, it's free of charge."
"Yes…" the boy quietly responded.
"Slow down, you're going to choke if you're going any faster."
The boy's response was a slow nod, and after he finished the meat skewer he bowed down in gratitude.
"Um, thank you for the meal! Uh…"
"Just call me sir, boy. Anyway, take care."
"Thank you, Sir!" The boy exclaimed as he disappeared into the crowd.
"It's lucky that we've met a kind person."
The boy agreed, "Yes."
"Don't get your hopes up though, we're still together and the path you will walk through is not something pleasant."
The blackness's warning echoed within the boy's mind, the light dimmed for a moment before the flame was lit again, "That's okay, kind people will always exist so even if I suffered, I know that the kindness that I didn't receive will probably be received by another more deserving person."
"…I have no comment."
The silence returned, the boy had become fuller than ever before, he searched for a good place to lay down for a while, to finally rest after days of not sleeping.
The Knight Captain returned to his seat and ate his own skewer.
"Why did you give it to him? That boy is not going to last long anyway, it's better to leave him alone so that he will perish faster and without a sound, leaving no dent in this city."
The Knight Captain's left-hand man questioned carelessly. Obviously starting to be drunk out of his mind.
"It's just charity, we're knights, we're capable, we can afford to do this, and I do not want to spread and nourish the resentment that has been building up in this world."
"You felt bad? What you did just gave him false hope! Nobody is coming to save him! He might be one of the victims of that stupid murderer that we're searching for any day now!"
"It's better to live with hope, that's what the teachings of the Lady are, we should follow the path of the stars and be the symbol of hope that shine brighter than ever to make sure the darkness is kept in check."
"And what? That kid is going to die anyway! It could be tomorrow or even tonight! You didn't fix anything, it's not part of our job as a Knight, don't make it harder for us ordinary folk."
"You're drunk, please stop talking."
"Why would I listen to you!? Idiot-"
Enraged, the Knight Captain slammed his hand into the wooden table, leaving a large crack across the table, "I'm going for a walk."
"Yeah, right! Run away!"
Soon, the Knight Captain left them. Left alone the Knights began to reprimand the drunk left-hand man from overstepping his boundaries.
"Damien, why the fuck did you say that? And the fact that it was to the Captain, do you have a death wish? We know you're a 'new' guy but that's still a braindead thing to do."
"What? Worst case scenario is that I'm finally fired, it's not like I want to work under spineless folk like him."
"Idiot, he has already reached A rank, for all we know he could wipe out a city and nobody would bat an eye because that's just how it is, the fact that we can even work or even interact on equal ground with him is already nothing short of a blessing."
"He's… an A rank? I thought it was a rumour, so I wasn't met with a demotion?"
"Fool, if you think being transferred into an Order of Knights with a 0% degree of failure is a demotion, I hope you are infertile because we don't need any more idiots like yourself!"
"Oh, fuck…"
"Yeah, better learn how to ask for forgiveness from those easterners! I remember he was fond of them."
To be continued…