How to Live as a Knight After the Ending

Chapter 186: Unbelievers (1)

When I broke through the door, a foul stench wafted over me.

The smell of blood and violence, of anguish stained with sorrow. And beyond that, the nauseating odor of long-decaying corpses rotting.

It was dark, with light barely entering. It was so dim that the place abandoned by Osian felt relatively bright.

In that darkness, a bewildered gaze was directed towards Osian.

The number was exactly the same as the human traffickers who had dragged the children in.

Osian’s eyes pierced through the dark interior.

Children beaten with clubs, bruised and bleeding everywhere.

The human trafficking gang inflicting violence on those children.

Among them, one had pulled a girl aside, grabbed her by the hair, and lifted her into the air.

A child, whose cheek was swollen from being slapped, was crying and looking back at Osian.

“You all.”

Osian’s voice rang low like a tiger’s roar spreading subsonic waves.

“Have no right to live.”

“What are you…?”

The guy who was about to play with the girl couldn’t even finish his sentence.

Osian had swiftly approached and kicked him directly in the solar plexus.

Boom!

When his flying body hit the wall, red blood splattered in all directions like a watermelon bursting.

It was a gruesome scene, as if someone had been hit by a truck.

Ironically, those who had been frozen by Osian’s voice could now move, shocked by the scene before them.

“What the, what is this!”

When the door was first broken, they didn’t know what was happening. They had never even considered the possibility of being attacked in a hidden location in the church’s basement.

Of course, they knew the church disapproved of their actions.

But since they were doing the dirty work for them, the church tolerated their transgressions despite their disapproval.

While it was possible that someone might intervene out of frustration, they had been doing this well so far and wouldn’t suddenly change now.

At least the church people involved in this knew about it and overlooked it.

Therefore, it could only be seen as an act by an outsider. In fact, that was correct. A young man in a black coat had entered, not wearing the vestments symbolizing a paladin or priest.

The problem was that he had crushed one of their colleagues into a lump of meat with a single kick.

The human traffickers scattered and tried to grab their weapons but they didn’t have proper weapons.

The only things allowed when entering here were clubs used to beat children into submission.

The human traffickers thought it was better to at least grab those clubs.

Of course, those clubs, which had been used to instill fear in children, were like straw in front of someone with the superhuman strength to send people flying with a kick.

But grasping at straws was human nature.

The human trafficker glared at Osian and shouted loudly.

“Who the hell are you!”

This was meant to inflate his size and raise the opponent’s wariness, and simultaneously serve as a distress signal to the paladins or priests beyond the wide-open door.

‘Go away. Please go.’

‘If the paladins arrive here, this bastard is finished.’

The fact that Osian came here without any signal meant he came secretly.

Causing a commotion here would not be pleasant for Osian himself.

Part of their thinking was actually correct. Osian had intended to secretly infiltrate this place.

This was the headquarters of the Petra Church. Moreover, the priests and knights here were unnaturally strong in divine power compared to other clergy.

But that was before seeing this scene.

Shouldn’t be discovered? Yes, rationally, Osian shouldn’t have intervened here.

As a fixer, he should have thought only of his commission, even when seeing a dirty and despicable scene.

He should avoid unnecessary conflicts and choose the safest path.

That was the ‘normal’ thing to do.

But Osian was a knight before being a fixer and a knight never tolerates anything dishonorable.

“If I had more time, I would have methodically pointed out your crimes and slowly delivered punishment. But I’m busy now, so I’ll end this as quickly as possible. That might be your last stroke of fortune.”

“What the hell!”

Seeing that Osian wasn’t going to run, the human traffickers rushed towards him.

This was now their only remaining option.

Osian clenched his fist while looking at the traffickers.

“Not even worth drawing a sword for.”

Osian extended his fist.

The face of the first approaching guy immediately collapsed. Lightly dodging the club swung from the side, he casually kicked the guy’s shin.

Crack!

The gangster’s leg bent in a physically impossible direction.

After stepping on the fallen man’s head, Osian grabbed the nearby guy’s collar.

“Wh, what?”

The guy grabbed by the collar couldn’t resist. Osian’s physical strength was far beyond what could be overcome like this.

Boom!

The guy’s body was slammed into the ground, leaving cracks in the floor where he landed.

Osian methodically dealt with the human traffickers one by one.

The last remaining guy’s hand went limp, dropping his club.

He knelt and begged Osian.

“P-Please spare me! If you spare me, I’ll live honestly!”

Instead of listening to that plea, Osian asked another question.

“You’ve brought other children here before. Correct?”

“Yes, ye-yes?”

The human trafficker rolled his eyes and then immediately nodded.

“So what happens to children without talent?”

“Th-that is…”

Osian didn’t ask again. Instead, he grabbed the guy’s arm and broke it with full force.

“Aaaargh! My, my arm!”

“Next will be the other arm. Answer before my patience runs out. Where are those children?”

“Over, over there.”

The trafficker pointed with his remaining arm towards the inner space, the direction from which the foul stench had been coming.

Osian grabbed the trafficker’s collar and forcibly dragged him.

When complete darkness settled after leaving behind choking sounds, Osian drew his sword and summoned starlight.

The brilliant starlight filling the wide interior space caused both the children and the captured human trafficker to open their eyes wide.

Regardless, Osian cast the starlight towards the source of the stench, and afterward had to close his eyes for a moment.

For an instant, he wished this was just a dream.

But opening his eyes again made him realize that what he saw was not an illusion or a dream.

It was the children’s corpses.

Children without talent, not even selected, but discarded.

Children who never returned from where they were kidnapped were now cold corpses.

The number was smaller than he expected, but Osian didn’t think these children were the total number of victims.

“Where are the children from before?”

Knowing the guy would hesitate anyway, Osian brought his starlight sword close to the man’s body.

Terrified by the flickering white flames’ heat, the human trafficker shouted with all his might.

“C-Corpses are processed periodically! Either sent to a disposal site or pushed into the river!”

“How many?”

“What?”

“How many did you send?”

“That is…”

The human trafficker couldn’t answer. He probably didn’t know the answer.

How many children died? Of course, he didn’t know. He had stopped counting at some point.

Even if the number was small, he wouldn’t have remembered. These were children with no one to look for them. Those discarded as useless even in a place like this.

Why should he care about such children?

Osian didn’t miss the meaning in that gaze.

“I see.”

“Wait a mo-!”

“That’s how it was.”

Osian swung his holy sword.

The headless torso fell limply to the side.

Osian looked at the children’s corpses. Some were rapidly decaying, likely due to the humid weather.

He returned to the kidnapped children. Their condition was far from good, having been beaten during their kidnapping and transport.

“I was too late.”

The starlight in his heart wavered.

Osian started to say a few more words to the children but stopped.

Instead, he walked towards the direction of the compartment beyond the broken door.

“Wait here.”

He didn’t forget to leave a warning to the children.

When Osian went outside, a group of people were waiting to greet him.

“Who are you? How did you even get in here?”

The knights of the Petra Church had gathered after hearing the commotion.

All of the knights were armed.

White coats with iron reinforcements symbolizing the Petra Church’s knights.

A huge white shield in their left hand, as large as their own bodies and a shotgun imbued with holy magic in their right hand.

The knights’ gazes fixed on the door Osian had come from.

And their eyes narrowed when they saw Osian’s appearance.

No matter how they looked, Osian was different from the traffickers who delivered children.

Moreover, the moment they looked at him, the atmosphere had chillingly settled.

“These vermin have finally been caught.”

There were 5 knights total.

They weren’t the entire military force in this basement, but they couldn’t be considered weak by any means.

Because they were knights who had stayed in the 29th district and acquired far more powerful divine power than before.

“So. You were accomplices too.”

Osian’s cold voice was directed at the knights.

The knights felt their skin crawl. For an instant, they saw a massive predator’s illusion behind Osian’s back.

But these were knights who never neglected their training.

Unlike the human traffickers frozen in fear, they raised their body’s tension and prepared for battle.

“Everyone stay alert. He came here alone, and judging by his dignified bearing and attitude, he’s definitely no ordinary guy.”

The oldest knight’s words made the others swallow and nod.

They were feeling the subtle anger and killing intent emanating from Osian.

Even without wanting to show it, the arms holding shields and guns were trembling.

Despite becoming stronger with more divine power than before, this was their reaction.

It was a kind of instinct they couldn’t shed as humans.

The instinct that they might die, unable to withstand the anger of someone stronger than themselves.

“You will die here today.”

Osian overlaid white flames on the drawn sword.

The knights, who had sensed the ominousness stimulating their senses, reacted quickly.

“Everyone, get ready!”

Before the knights could even take their stance, Osian moved.

-Boom.

The moment Osian’s leg struck the ground, the surface rumbled loudly and his body shot forward like a bullet.

So fast and powerful that it would be impossible to respond, but the knights were different.

The oldest knight stepped forward, raising his shield.

Golden divine power flickered over the pure white shield. Divine power recently grown stronger was imbued over a shield tempered for a long time with holy water and sacred magic.

Osian’s starlight sword collided with this shield.

Boom!

With a terrifying flash, the knight holding the shield was pushed back dramatically.

The junior knights widened their eyes at this sight.

For knights, a robust physique is more than essential – it’s a basic requirement.

When a heavily armed knight uses [divine strength] through divine power, they can block an approaching car.

Moreover, the one who stepped forward was a mid-career knight who had trained for a long time and whose divine power had recently increased several times over.

Exaggerating just a little, if they wanted, they could block a truck.

Such a senior knight was pushed back with just one sword strike by Osian.

Not just pushed back. His two legs were dragged back, and even the shield imbued with divine power had deep marks where the sword had pierced and split it.

‘H-How can a human have such strength?’

‘And what is that white sword? Such incredible power.’

While the other knights were perplexed, the senior knight coughed out blood-like words:

“What are you doing! Shoot!”

Though his condition wasn’t good, he had successfully blocked Osian’s charge.

The knights aimed their pre-loaded shotguns and pulled the triggers.

Slug rounds imbued with divine power scattered towards Osian.