"Stop!"
Just as Remedios was about to utter her answer, filled with blood and tears, a shout rang in Lock's ears, followed by hurried footsteps.
A large number of Holy Kingdom soldiers poured into the training ground, and the Commander of the fortress outpost stood in the midst of the soldiers, looking shocked, at the fallen Paladin Order members and the Paladin Captain Remedios impaled on the ground.
Not only did the Commander appear here, but Orland and Pavel, who were on duty, also came to the training ground after being notified by their subordinates. At this moment, neither of them knew what had happened.
"Hey, hey! What's going on!?"
Orland was stunned by the scene, then frowned and asked solemnly, "Sir Kote, can you tell me what happened?"
Although he had gotten along quite well with Lock and the others these past few days, the current situation was beyond the influence of that meager acquaintance. After all, he was a soldier of the Holy Kingdom.
Not only was the Paladin Captain Remedios severely injured, but a Vice Captain had also died, and many soldiers lay on the ground. It seemed a major battle was imminent.
Pavel, beside him, had already drawn his bowstring like the other soldiers, an enchanted arrow aimed at Lock.
"It's nothing major, just a little joke with your Paladin Captain Remedios," Lock said to Orland with a smile, his attitude amiable, and all the condensed Qi-swords in the field dissipated.
"Is that so? But it doesn't seem as simple as you say; there's a death here."
"Just a mere death, no need to make a fuss," Lock said indifferently, then pulled out a short staff from somewhere and pointed it at the lifeless Gustavo.
Sacred light shone upon his still-warm corpse, and a moment later, Gustavo's colorless eyes gradually brightened, and he slowly began to move under everyone's astonished gazes.
Resurrection item?
Orland looked at the staff in Lock's hand and immediately thought of this term.
It was not surprising that powerful Magic Casters could use resurrection magic; rumors said the Captain of the Adamantite-ranked Adventurers in the Re-Estize Kingdom was capable of using resurrection magic.
But Orland had never seen an item that could store resurrection magic before.
"I… was resurrected?" Gustavo looked at his palms, the feeling of death still seemingly lingering around him, and he immediately realized what had happened to him.
"How does it feel to take a trip to the gates of hell?"
A voice sounded in his ear, and Gustavo immediately turned his head. What met his eyes was Lock's smiling face.
"It's you!?" Gustavo immediately picked up his weapon from the ground with caution, enduring the discomfort throughout his body, and pointed his longsword at Lock.
"I advise you to calm down. If I wanted to kill you, even if you were resurrected a hundred times, you wouldn't be my opponent," Lock said with a light chuckle, then replaced the resurrection short staff in his hand with a healing short staff. "Come, lend a hand and take care of your colleagues and your Captain. If they don't get treatment soon, they might die."
After saying this, without waiting for Gustavo's reaction, he directly pointed the healing short staff at Isadro nearby. Under the holy light, Isadro's severe injuries immediately recovered as before.
"Isadro, are you alright?"
"I'm fine now," Isadro supported the somewhat unsteady Gustavo, then looked at Lock.
Although he didn't know why the other party had suddenly stopped and even healed his injuries, things were clearly moving in a good direction.
Lock urged his Bicorn to Remedios's side, also using healing magic to restore her injuries.
"You bastard! How dare you…"
Remedios, standing up, was filled with anger, looking at Lock with eyes as fierce as a wounded tiger, her hands clenched tightly into fists, as if she was about to strike at any moment.
But the next second, a sharp, cold sensation immediately traveled from her neck to her brain, stopping the curses on her lips.
Lock held his longsword against her neck and said lightly, "Little girl, that was a lesson I gave you just now: show respect to those stronger than yourself. Because you never know when your life might be lost. Perhaps in the Holy Kingdom, the honor of being the Paladin Captain Remedios makes you so conceited that you lose your way, but in this world, there are countless people stronger than you."
Remedios bit her lip and said nothing, a struggling expression on her face.
Today was the first failure of her life, and it left a deep impression.
"Unwilling? Humiliated?" Lock glanced at her, his tone also growing colder. "Then remember this humiliation well. The weak have no right to look up to the strong. Your so-called Holy Kingdom laws, your cherished justice, are like thin paper before me, easily torn."
"If you cannot become stronger, one day, you will still only be able to watch helplessly as your family and friends fall before you."
His words were like a sharp knife, piercing Remedios's heart, making it begin to bleed.
Remedios had not been without seeing comrades sacrifice themselves, but that was on the battlefield, facing the vast numbers of Demi-human Tribes, where casualties were inevitable.
"Let's go." Lock returned the longsword in his hand to its sheath, turned back, and said to Azar and the others, not looking at Remedios again, as if she didn't exist, and slowly rode past her on his Bicorn.
Azar and the others immediately followed his footsteps.
The surrounding Holy Kingdom soldiers watched them tensely, but did not stop them; instead, at the Commander's signal, they made way for a passage.
"Captain…"
Gustavo and Isadro came before Remedios, looking at the silent female Paladin, and for a moment, didn't know what to say.
Remedios's eyes were fixed on the departing Lock, as if to engrave that figure in her memory forever.
The perceptive Lock did not look back, only a slight curve on his lips.
Among the Holy Kingdom's combat forces, Remedios should be the strongest, and her talent was also very good; it was just that her personality was not very likable.
Lock felt that it was because her life had been too smooth, without experiencing the harsh realities of society.
Her leadership ability could be described as a complete mess; her becoming the Paladin Captain Remedios was entirely due to her excellent martial prowess, her close friendship with the Holy Queen, and her being the High Priestess's younger sister.
Almost all of the Paladin Order's affairs were handled by the two Vice Captains, which, unknowingly, fueled her willful and thoughtless arrogance.
Today was the child's corrective surgery. If she still couldn't change…
A cold light flashed in Lock's eyes. As an important combat unit of the Holy Kingdom, the Paladin Order needed a qualified leader; otherwise, it would be too much of a waste.
After this commotion, the matter of the Paladin Order leading Lock and the others to Hoban, which was originally scheduled for the next day, was delayed.
As for the exact time, it would probably have to wait until the Paladin Captain Remedios recovered.
The central area of the Abelion Hills.
Goatmen, Orcs, Snake-people… numerous demi-human races were all gathered here. If it were in the past, they would probably immediately start fighting the moment they saw each other.
But now, they were distinctly separated by race, distributed around a large tent.
Passing demihumans would look at the two figures guarding the tent entrance with awe: Death Knights, tall undead warriors wielding swords and shields!
Inside the tent, Demiurge, who had swept through the major races of the Abelion Hills within a few days, militarily unified the Demi-human Tribes and assembled a combined Demi-human army, was bowing to the Undead King seated on the throne.
"Lord Ainz, it is this subordinate's oversight for not preparing a welcome ceremony for you in advance. Please forgive him!"
"Don't worry too much, Demiurge, I just came to take a look." Ainz raised his hand, signaling Demiurge to rise.
He was here because he had been quite bored lately and had heard that Demiurge had conquered the Demi-human Tribes. He came with the idea of seeing what differences existed between the demi-humans of this world and those of Yggdrasil.
It was entirely a spur-of-the-moment decision, and it would be unreasonable to blame Demiurge for not having a reception.
"I heard you plan to lead the Demi-human Tribes to attack the nearby Holy Kingdom?"
Demiurge nodded and said, "Yes, Lord Ainz."
"Why?"
"Lord Ainz, this is all to test for the existence of player organizations in this world. After the battle in the Re-Estize Kingdom, I thoroughly investigated Lock Kote Albert's background and confirmed the fact that he is a native of this world. But as you said, he possesses special armaments from Yggdrasil, so perhaps behind him, there is a player who wants to control the kingdom through this puppet," Demiurge analyzed. "Therefore, this subordinate boldly speculates that in other countries, there might also be a player secretly dominating. This attack on the Holy Kingdom is to verify this point."
"If there are no players in this country, then we can completely bring it under our control. Perhaps the entry condition for that mysterious player organization is to gain control of a country. In this way, someone will naturally come to negotiate with us, allowing Nazarick to enter that alliance officially. Even if this hypothesis is unsuccessful, dominating a country will be of great benefit for the Great Tomb to establish itself in this world."
After hearing Demiurge's explanation, Ainz's heart immediately stirred.
Regardless of whether Demiurge's conjecture was correct or not, if he ruled the Holy Kingdom, his activity map would at least be much larger, no longer confined to the Great Tomb of Nazarick, Carne Village, and the Lizardmen Tribe!
He had already given up the idea of going out to play by himself, because the NPCs would definitely not agree.
"Demiurge, during this operation, absolutely do not expose any information about Nazarick. It's best if you don't even show yourself; just let the demi-humans attack. If an unexpected situation arises, withdraw immediately."
"Understood! Lord Ainz!"