The Death Knight Became an Escort Knight for the Saintess

16. Living with death

16.

If it were possible to cut a part of the northern sky around 5:00 a.M. And observe its appearance, the residents of the central region of the Central Continent and the inhabitants of the north would react differently to each other. The former will see the gloomy colored patch and claim that it is ‘Night’, while the latter, conversely, will claim that it is ‘Morning’.

Although subjective standards are always included when morning and night are distinguished, it refers to the ambiguity of the distinction, not the ambiguity of the actual definition of morning and night. As such, it was not because they were ignorant of any real justice that the inhabitants of the north looked at this dark patch of sky and called it morning, but it was entirely due to the geographical character of the north.

If you go west from the north, the vast plain that starts from the famous Jurno Plain stretches out all the way, and it was hard to find anything like a huge obstacle in the field of vision, just like the name of the plain. Conversely, if you turn your gaze to the east, your field of vision is lined with high and rugged mountain ranges, so much so that you may think that the open space is an obstacle.

The vast plains in the west were entirely covered with shadows, to the extent that one might wonder if the mountain ranges were a space prepared to cast down heavy shadows. And that scene even gave rise to the illusion that they might not be the shadows of the eastern mountains, but the shadows of the time of night.

However, the common sense that the sun always rises in the east has torn that illusion to pieces.

In that sense, Saint Celia, originally a resident of the central region, barely held back her exclamation at the appearance of the sunrise that seemed to break through the darkness in an instant. Before she knew it, what she thought was twilight had turned into a brilliant sun. However, the appearance of Runea Jinneman, the leader of the Knights of Manseol, surrounded by the sunlight, was more splendid.

“Good morning Miss Gemini, Lord Hooch. We all meet in a place like this.”

Zerpied did not dare to say that this meeting was not a coincidence, but because she had been waiting for her to come first. She was because the saintess was taking over his role. If we were to focus only on the part of ‘talking’, she was definitely doing it instead. In terms of content, I didn’t know.

“Miss Lunea! What a coincidence! To meet everyone in a place like this!”

Zerfied instead quickly bowed quietly to the familiar shapes beside him. Faydo and Zittenliffe also bowed their heads and responded to the greeting. The Death Knight, who had doubts for a moment about the bruises on the neck of the elf rubbing his sleepy eyes, guessed that there were many insects looking for a warm building like the saint said.

Cilia was now greeting the welcome guards next to her. As she watched Celia still, she heard the voice of her Runea flying at him.

“From the way you look, it looks like you’re leaving. It’s kind of vulgar, that you leave immediately after issuing the entry permit.”

“Originally, the purpose was to stop by to buy necessary items and take a break. By the way, the original knight commander is in charge of inspecting the entry permit?”

At the euphemism, Runea let out a little laugh. The members were already training, and only they were immersed in this situation. He didn’t come on the horse, as if it were as coincidental as possible, but he already knew that he was still being watched. Actually, it was a coincidence that those cute elves and trolls were placed around here today.

Lunea held out her hand to Zerfied. She said in an apologetic tone as she gave him the pass.

“I apologize if I was offended. We’re in trouble too if a strong person like you, who has passed through the western plains, goes wild. Please understand my grievances as I am in charge of a city.”

Since he will be leaving soon anyway, Zer Pied nodded his head. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand her role as the leader of the knights and ruler of the city. Death Knight could easily guess that she could turn into a dangerous person at times if she tried to recruit and failed.

“So, where are you going? It’s just morning, so the gates are all closed. Let’s give the guards a word in advance.”

Certainly, he was like a ruler of a city. She was going to make sure she was safe until the end, knowing her whereabouts on her own, not at all awkward. After thinking for a while, Zer Pied simply mentioned the destination of him and her saintess.

“North.”

“North? No, wait there…. But… If you have the ability to cross the western plains, the north is enough….”

Bewildered by the unexpected answer, Runea frowned for a moment before coming to a conclusion.

“Okay. Let’s talk in advance to the northern gate.”

Zer Pied bowed her head at her depth towards Runea. Runea returned her greeting by raising her rapier high. After blinking her eyes a few times, the Death Knight realized that it was her knightly quest.

Not a weapon that attacks oneself, but a weapon for sharing honor. It was to the point where I had the urge to say hello in the same way if I hadn’t accepted Partizan as a shadow for the field trip I hadn’t seen in a long time. It was thanks to a small movement pulling him that he took his eyes off the field trip.

Looking back, the saintess was holding the hem of his clothes.

“Knight… ? We… Gotta go… ?”

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The saintess was slightly biting her lip. Zer Pied recognized that he had left her saintess alone for longer than expected. Nodding her head, the Death Knight moved forward.

Cilia waved her hand at the two elves and the troll woman as if her arms were about to fall off. Their shape had changed slightly before they knew it. But it was far enough to hear the voice. The voices of trolls and elves saying thank you echoed in the air.

The saintess, who had been watching the scene quietly, turned her head slowly.

As soon as I came out of the northern gate, the sunlight shot more intensely into the air. Perhaps it is also because they are currently riding on a headless horse.

The morning sunlight slid down the golden hair of the saintess. The saintess smiled slightly. Perhaps because of the sunlight that brightly colored her saintess’ cheeks, the moment she entered Zerpie, she wondered if that smile was also part of the sunlight.

“It was good.”

“What?”

“Coming to another city…. Talking to someone in another city…. It was something I never thought of when I was living as a saint in the capital…. Something is strange. It’s only when you reach this point that you try to do what you’ve always dreamed of.”

Esilia’s words made her depressed. Zerfied could see that it was not sunlight that colored Ecilia’s cheeks brightly, but tears soaked in sunlight. The Death Knight slowly turned into an armored type and wrapped her cloak around her saintess body. Ecilia closed her eyes. A clear, cold sadness fell on the frozen ground at the place where her saintess had passed. Above that, the galloping sound of her horse covered her sorrow.

-Caw! Caw!

It was after the death knight and the saint had moved about 200 cubits away from Diervan that the shrieking sound was heard on the plain where only the galloping of horses continued. Death Knight slowed down her horse and stared at the place where the sound came from. It was to the right, or east, from their point of view, and in that direction they could see the moving darkness between the gaps in the shadows of the mountains.

Soon, a few dark ones spread their wings and flew up.

-Caw!

Several Saik-O hovered in the air for a moment before landing again. The saintess did not know why the crow with two pairs of wings acted like that, but the Death Knight was familiar with it.

That they are eating corpses.

The saintess had to hold back her screams when she saw her sparkling eyes being swallowed between the beaks of Saik-O. However, a fragment of her scream fell from the gap she was unable to block. The darkness that heard the screams stirred.

-Caw! Caw! Caw! Caw! Caw!

A group of corpses. Groups of corpses were piled up like graves everywhere. In the end, the saintess couldn’t hold back her screams. Her screams spilled out of her clogged mouth like cries. It was the result of brutal violence. A corpse without a head, a corpse without an arm, a corpse without internal organs, or a corpse with only a neck or arms. Various corpses were strewn about, and the Sykes were devouring them and feasting.

It wasn’t just Saik-Odeul who had a party. Sharp eyes flashed through the cracks where Saik-Os spread their wings.

“Kiruk?!”

For a moment, the dark green eyes moved so quickly that one wondered if vegetation had sprouted on the frozen ground, and soon returned to the corpse that ate the saint and the death knight.

GoblinGoblin. Thousands of cunning creatures can be found all over the continent. With that number, it was a number that could have lived well in a small mountain, but unfortunately, this was the western plains where griffins and ogres haunted, and those little creatures that were pushed out of the competition for food had to be content with being given the role of scavengers. .

“You must be a bird.”

The Death Knight’s low voice crashed onto the frozen ground. The saintess repeated the words in her weak voice.

“Joe… page… ?”

“Dying corpses continue to appear, and the ground is frozen, making it difficult to bury. But if you put on makeup, it’s a way to call in things like griffins and ogres rather than smoke or burning smells. Firewood has to be used continuously. That’s why I let the birds eat it…. Although this place seems to be a mix of a marketplace and a corpse site.”

The goblins behind Saik Odeul are definitely not the ones responsible for the funeral. The burial is usually done by dismembering the corpse in a certain fashion to make it easier for birds to scatter the deceased over a wider area. However, the corpses the goblins were eating were irregularly torn. It was difficult to see it as an object of encouragement.

It was clear that it had been attacked by other creatures. Whether it’s a griffin or something, what other creatures ate and left behind. Judging from the condition of the corpse, Zerfied guessed that less than a day had passed. It negated that the dangerous creatures were staying around here. The conclusion that he had to move quickly flashed through the Death Knight’s head.

“I need to increase my movement speed.”

“Yes… ? Why… ?”

Death Knight spoke frankly.

“The corpse the goblins are eating is less than a day old. The person who made that corpse might be around here.”

“It’s a day… ? Isn’t that when the festival is going on…? ?”

“Esilia, someone has to protect the city.”

The saintess felt her disgust with herself welling up. While she herself, drunk on her drink, ran through the dark night streets on the back of her escort knight, her guards, whose names she did not know, were being swallowed up by someone’s dark throat. Even so, she herself was intoxicated with the new city and the new scenery, and she was just busy soaking in her comfort.

She remembered her anonymous child being carried on a stretcher on her first day in her city.

What was I thinking at the time? I just thought it was sad. Because dying is inevitable. I just wanted the ending to be comfortable. But what was I doing while these people were in their teeth and throat? Just eating and flirting… ! Am I still a saint? I am… I thought I wanted to live, I didn’t even try to throw away the saintess….

… How can the citizens of Diervan have such fun…. Drinking even when people are dying….

She heard Zer Pied’s sudden words, and Escelia realized that she was muttering the words that had been in her head before she knew it.

“… Esilia, do you think the citizens of Diervan don’t know this? Do you think they were drunk on food and alcohol to avoid this reality? It seems like an unnecessary illusion. They’ve been living here longer than you. They will not be unaware of this fact that you do not know.

What if they are sad? Of course you cannot say that they are not sad. But what if you’re sad? What if you are sad for days and days? Do you think these dead will come back? Have these men given their lives to protect this city, and at the end of it all they have obtained are words of lamentation?

Ecilia, I’m not saying this… If the words to be heard about the final achievements of these people are lamentation rather than praise, it would be insulting indeed.”

The saintess could vaguely feel it. Miss Runea, who was full of spirit despite the loss of her husband, Krasim. Faye and Gitten Reef, who were kind to her… The streets of Dierbahn are full of life. The citizens of Diervan, no, Diervan was proving it. It was proving in itself that the lives they gave were absolutely not in vain.

But the saintess couldn’t understand. No, she couldn’t stand it. She dared to put her name on the saintess, and she could not live uprightly like those citizens of Di Ervan, she just ran away. Ecilia said she just couldn’t understand and she laughed at herself as she tried to run away.

“… You said that to live is to kill someone… We all end up living with someone’s death like this… Not just by eating, but by someone’s sacrifice… Kill someone… Like that… You live… But if it’s like this… Why am I still alive… ? Even just yesterday… In order for me to live, I chose to leave someone unknown in my wounds….

While I was soaked in the warmth, those people drenched themselves in blood on the frozen soil….

If this means living… What am I… How… ! If this is the case, why am I a saint? Am I only capable of hurting and killing someone from now on…? ? What should I do next… ? Now… now… I am….”

Tears flowed from her eyes. Zerfied quietly expressed his affirmation.

“That’s right, in the end we live with someone’s death. But Ecilia. Are you afraid of leaving someone scarred?

Are you afraid of living through someone’s death? If so, you can also offer yourself. Your life, your life. If you are really afraid of it, save it until the end and give it to someone else.

So, Ecilia. Live for it Live the life you choose until the very end.”

Her saintess leaned her body in her cold, aching hope in front of her own. At the same time, the hard hooves of her headless horse trample the darkness. The thick shadow of Rephaim Forest, seen far away, stretched out its branches and embraced the saintess and the Death Knight. The clear, cold sadness that flowed down her saintess’ cheeks was hidden in the dark.