A Failed Knight Who Went to the Academy To Get Married

033 The Mace for Extermination

Maria, the Inquisitor of the Yumano Holy Kingdom, had never lost once.

Not only was she skilled enough to become the Chief Inquisitor at a young age,

but her thorough preparedness and a personality that doubted everything also played a part.

That’s why she’s still alive despite the dozens of assassination attempts.

And this time was no different.

She could easily annihilate those four by herself.

Yet, they had deliberately used the precious Soulstone to capture one.

Originally, they intended to capture the most troublesome Train,

But Prince Shiran was deemed valuable enough.

“Shiran! Please, come to your senses!”

Train shook Prince Shiran’s shoulders as he was half out of his mind.

Without any guard up, even though Maria was standing right there.

That must be the reaction of someone who has seen death for the first time.

Honestly, it was disappointing.

He was supposed to be the new hero of the Kingdom of Altoria.

‘Maybe I should check just in case?’

The Observant Eye magic that allows one to peek into the opponent’s body and mana.

It requires quite a bit of concentration, so it’s not something to use recklessly in battle,

But now was the chance, as the other two were also wary of Maria.

Maria concentrated her mana into her eyes and looked at Train, then gasped in surprise.

‘What, what is that!’

Such pitiful magical power.

Hands possibly injured, unable to grasp properly.

Even on the back, there seemed to be quite a painful burn.

‘He’s completely weak!’

It was laughably absurd.

The two people beside him looked several times stronger by comparison.

Of course, they were but a drop in the ocean compared to Maria.

‘I thought I’d finally get to fight a worthy opponent.’

…At least, let’s show mercy and swiftly end this poor creature’s life.

Maria, resigning to the situation, pulled out a dagger from her bosom.

She was about to throw it at Traine, who was still wailing when-

Suddenly, Traine’s figure vanished from sight.

“What- Agh!”

The same high-speed body slam as before.

With no preparatory movements, she had let her guard down.

Maria quickly picked herself up after a tumble on the floor.

Then, Train looked at her menacingly, suddenly holding the soul stone in his hand.

“Explain what this is.”

His expression was endlessly cold and detached.

The way he had been wailing like a little girl just moments ago must have been an act.

“…Impressive.”

Maria glared at Train for a moment,

then suddenly, her face lit up with great joy as she said,

“Alright. As a reward for the hit you gave me, I’ll tell you.”

“……”

“This contains the prince’s soul.”

“So, Siran isn’t dead yet?”

“If you feed it to an empty body within 24 hours, it will come back to life.”

“If you lie, you die.”

“I swear on the name of Lord Yumano, I am not lying. Besides…”

Maria brandished her mace once more,

With a look of sheer delight, she charged at Train.

“After all, if I kill all of you, that’s the end of it!”

“Seiment! Catch this!”

Train hurled the soul stone with all his might and summoned a violet sword.

He tried to block Maria’s sword with it,

But for some reason, Train’s sword shattered into pieces.

“Argh!”

As Train fell backward, glaring up,

Maria swung her mace back and forth teasingly.

“This has been treated with anti-magic. You can’t counter it with a magic sword, can you?”

“Isn’t that a bit too underhanded?”

“Well, who would have thought you’d charge in with a magic sword?”

“Damn, without it, I have no means to fight…”

Train scowled deeply, still sprawled on the ground, fuming.

But Maria was no fool.

She could clearly see he was stalling for time.

Sure enough, behind him, an elf was taking a soulstone to the prince,

“Do you think I’ll just stand by?”

She hurled her mace straight at Seimint.

“You can’t do that!”

Train threw himself in the way, deflecting the mace.

But the impact sent him rolling away,

And in that moment, Maria charged at the elf with all her might.

“I said you can’t!”

Train, still in his fallen posture, shot towards Maria like a bullet.

Maria stopped in her tracks, dodged, and clicked her tongue.

That was the problem.

It seemed to be a spell from the magic tome he was carrying,

Coming out of nowhere, making it nearly impossible to counter.

“Shall I tear up that annoying book first?”

At that moment, when Train stopped, she lunged at him.

She tried to snatch the book he was holding defenselessly-

“Don’t touch it!”

Hwaran screamed, soaring into the air like a sparrow.

Even the suspicious Maria hadn’t expected this.

So, momentarily flustered, she stepped back, and Hwaran fluttered in the air, shouting.

“Only my master can touch my body! And Yuril-nim too!”

Then Train snapped at the book.

“Hey! Stop flying! You’re just wasting my magic!”

“Wasting? Do you know who you have to thank for saving your life right now?!”

Maria, somewhat incredulous, tried to rush at Train again.

But then she spotted something in the distant sky and clicked her tongue.

“We’ve wasted too much time.”

A pterosaur was flying towards them, carrying a few people.

Certainly, it must be reinforcements sent from the Kingdom of Altoria.

Though their joining doesn’t seem like it will lead to our defeat,

The original plan to quietly abduct only the elves has already come to an end.

Thus, Maria resigned herself and sheathed her mace.

“It’s my defeat. Well, it wasn’t a bad fight.”

To that, Train clutched his grimoire again and retorted,

“Then you’ll retreat without a fuss?”

“Of course. But I’ll keep the prince’s life a bit longer.”

Maria raised her hand.

Then, as if by its own will, the soulstone flew back into the palm of her hand.

“Who says!”

Train lunged at her again with a high-speed movement spell.

But she simply caught Train and threw him far away,

Then turned back to the inquisitors who were now slowly waking up.

“Useless sisters, I’ll return alone, so please finish this yourselves.”

Upon those words, the interrogators did not hesitate to plunge daggers into their own hearts.

“What, what have you done!”

Though Traine tried to rush in again,

Maria, clutching the soulstone roughly in her hand, said,

“If you come any closer, I’ll break it.”

“Damn it!”

“Then, I’ll see you again later.”

Maria tapped the ground with the tip of her foot, summoning a teleportation magic circle, and said,

“Your fight was quite entertaining.”

Traine glared at Maria with a furious expression.

But then, for some reason, his face turned to shock, and he looked behind her.

From noble mtl dot come

“It’s this way! Hurry up!”

Startled, Maria spun around.

…There was no one there.

Realizing too late that she had been tricked, Maria turned back around, annoyance written all over her face.

“Seriously, you— Ahh!”

Traine rammed into her with a high-speed movement spell.

Thanks to that, Maria was flung out of the teleportation circle, losing grip of the soul stone,

And while Traine seized the soul stone—

The magic circle was activated.

In the end, Traine disappeared somewhere in place of Maria.

***

Three women jumped off the late-arriving Ikryong.

“Brother!”

As Princess Shia ran towards Prince Siran,

Colonel Tanjet murmured with his head bowed next to them.

“I’m sorry, my strength was insufficient…”

Meanwhile, Cat was taken aback as she looked at the numerous corpses of Yumano followers on one side.

“Wow, what are these… No, on closer inspection, they’re all dolls, aren’t they?”

Yuril asked Seymint, keeping a wary eye on Maria.

“Explain what happened.”

Seiment hesitated for a moment before replying briefly.

“Mr. Train has been transported to the Yumano Kingdom along with Prince Siran’s soulstone.”

“…What?”

Maria, lying sprawled on the floor, flailed and shouted.

“Seriously! This is why I said we needed two magic circles!”

Princess Shia, releasing Siran, approached Maria with her gun aimed.

“Where did Mr. Train go?”

“He must have flown to the 37th Cathedral of our Yumano Kingdom.”

“And how do you propose to prove that?”

Maria glared at Princess Shia and retorted.

“If I didn’t want to teach you, I would have kept it a secret rather than lie.”

“Do you not realize the situation you’re in?”

“No, I’m well aware of it.”

Maria rose to her feet with a brazen expression.

“If Trainee doesn’t join within 24 hours, Prince Siran will die, won’t he?”

Indeed, the situation was dire.

Even by airship, it would take nearly three days to reach the Kingdom of Yumano.

Realistically, joining within the time limit was an impossible tale.

Sia bit her lip and then threatened Maria.

“If either of them dies, I’ll kill you too.”

“No, you’re the ones I’m going to kill right here.”

A terrible murderous intent erupted from Maria, causing everyone to quickly guard against her.

“…I’d like to say that, but I have my own circumstances, so let’s cooperate.”

Maria quickly retracted her murderous aura and slumped her shoulders.

“I need to get back quickly to feed my Pochi, you see.”

Then Sia looked at Maria suspiciously and asked.

“Is there a way to get there within a day?”

“No, there isn’t. The teleportation circle has been used up too. That’s why I’m saying let’s cooperate.”

“We don’t have a means of flight that can get us there that quickly either.”

At that moment, Kat stepped forward and said,

“If we ride my Pterosaur, we can get there in two days.”

“But that’s still late.”

“Well, if my master had any brains, he’d be heading this way too, so we could meet up halfway.”

***

The moment Train was forcibly teleported by the magic circle.

Quickly donning the perception-inhibiting blindfold was a stroke of genius.

After all, he was immediately surrounded by a multitude of Yumano followers.

“…Who are you?”

“Huh? Oh, I’m one of Lady Maria’s subordinates!”

“A subordinate? But you’re not one of our sisters, are you?”

“Well, Lady Maria said she needed local help in Altoria, so she bought me with money.”

At those words, the followers eyed Train suspiciously for a moment,

then sighed and began to mutter to themselves.

“Lady Maria always does as she pleases, doesn’t she?”

“We’ll have to handle the security expenses again.”

“They don’t even properly explain what the mission is.”

“Still, as the chief interrogator, there must be a reason.”

Train sighed briefly.

Fortunately, it seemed that the congregation here were not interrogators,

and thanks to that Maria’s bizarre personality, it appeared they had saved their lives.

“Then where is Lady Maria?”

“She said she still has some business to attend to and will stay a bit longer.”

“And the reason you returned alone?”

“Well, Lady Maria had a separate task for me.”

“Oh, you mean feeding the porch cat.”

The priest, who somehow seemed kind, said with a smile.

“Come, follow me. I’ll show you the way.”

Reluctantly, Train followed the priest in silence.

After exiting the building that looked like a church and walking along the path for a while,

I arrived at a shabby house placed at the very corner of the village.

“This is Sister Maria’s house. And that’s Pochi.”

“Ah, yes, Pochi, quite adorable, isn’t he?”

Calling him cute wasn’t a lie.

He resembled a Jindo dog, covered in sleek white fur.

The only issue was his size, comparable to an elephant.

“Be careful, he sometimes eats people.”