How to Live as a Knight After the Ending

Chapter 188: Unbelievers (3)

Senior paladin Werner had to bite his lips tightly from the chills running down his spine.

A burning pain ran across his lips, and he felt his dazed mind return to its original state.

‘What kind of sorcery is this?’

Werner stared with trembling pupils at Osian, and his frozen colleagues.

The paladin’s robust physique, with a trench coat and defensive gear etched with holy magic to defend against external attacks.

A bluish frost covered them, rendering them immobile.

‘Are they dead? No. Not yet.’

Werner saw the eyeballs of the paladins trapped in the ice moving.

Unable to move due to the power of the cold, they were still alive.

Perhaps thanks to their divine power and holy artifacts.

But he couldn’t be relieved. From his perspective, it seemed more like they had merely postponed death rather than preserved their lives.

One of Osian’s twin blades slowly approached the neck of the nearest paladin.

“Remove those dirty hands!”

Werner reflexively shouted like that. Even he thought he had never shouted so intensely before, but Osian didn’t even sneer.

“Do you know how precious my colleagues’ lives are, yet you did this?”

-Scrape.

The moonlight blade beheaded one of the paladins.

The cut surface froze completely white, and no blood flowed.

The paladin’s body, which had endured the cold with divine power, completely froze and scattered like countless ice crystals.

“You bastard!”

Werner, enraged by the death of his comrade-in-arms, tried to charge at Osian.

Precisely, he was about to do so until Osian’s blade touched another paladin.

Werner had no choice but to stop charging. Osian was openly showing that he would kill his colleagues if he made a move.

“You’re quick-witted.”

“…What do you want?”

“Where are the children you took separately? What exactly are you planning to do with those children?”

“Are you curious about that now?”

“Yes. I need to know exactly what you did so I can tell everyone else.”

Werner tightened his grip on his shield. It was clearly a mocking statement, but he could do nothing.

“You’d do well to answer. I’m not patient. Besides, there’s no need for three hostages.”

Osian said this and then beheaded another paladin.

The freezing gaze of the dying paladin remained fixed on Werner until the very end.

Now only two remain.

“You, you damn bastard!”

Werner, filled with rage, glared and let out a fierce cry. If he applied even a little force, the capillaries around his eyes would burst and he would shed bloody tears.

“Now only two are left. What do you plan to do?”

“You, you…!”

Werner bit his lips tightly. Red blood trickled between his torn lips.

In the end, it was Werner who first raised the white flag.

“We were researching methods to increase divine power in this city. Because we were exiled here as mediocre individuals, we had to choose a way to become stronger.”

“Was kidnapping children that method?”

“Children are still young. Therefore, they are pure, and their prayers inherently possess holy power.”

This is not mere superstition.

Even when the sacred choir sings to expel evil, they have young girls and boys sing, because there is such strong religious power in the pure strength of children.

“We select these children, and those with talent will become priests or paladins after us. Even those without exceptional talent can be sent as members of the ‘sacred choir’. And those who cannot even do that…”

Werner could not continue his sentence.

What would happen to those children – Osian already knew well.

“Sacred choir…”

Though Werner did not explain further, Osian understood the situation sufficiently.

Divine power summoned through children. By taking it for themselves, they gained even greater strength.

“Was that the reason you’ve been steadily taking children from orphanages?”

“…Yes.”

“You confirmed you could become stronger through these children, and used that power to expand church operations and live comfortably. Yet you’re still obtaining children, and even collaborating with criminals to kidnap innocent children? Why?”

“That is…”

As Werner hesitated, Osian snorted from within his helmet.

“I can guess even if you don’t say it. You weren’t satisfied after gaining divine power and money. You wanted to become even stronger and more magnificent. That’s why you didn’t stop.”

Osian precisely hit the mark.

If they could strengthen their divine power by gathering more children, what would happen if they continued gathering?

If they became stronger than the highest priests or paladins from their home country who had cast them aside?

With this power, they could take revenge on those who had scorned and ignored them.

Beyond that, they could receive the recognition they had never received before.

Instead of becoming obsolete by stopping midway, they would claim all honor and glory at the forefront.

Osian, who had seen through Werner’s inner thoughts, asked in a whispering tone:

“Do you see honor and glory at the end of this path?”

“…”

“Look at what you’ve done. Look at this dark, dirty underground facility where light doesn’t even enter. With this scene as the primary culprit, how can you have such thoughts? If nothing else, you paladins should not do this.”

Clang!

At that moment, a paladin trapped in ice burst out.

This was unexpected for both Osian and Werner.

The paladin’s rough arm wrapped around Osian from behind.

“Aaaaah!”

Sizzle.

Frost covered his skin where it touched the full moon’s clothing.

The paladin tried to hold onto Osian, squeezing out all remaining divine power to counter the cold.

“How foolish.”

-Thud!

Osian grabbed one of his twin blades in reverse and deeply stabbed the side of the paladin holding him.

The cold moonlight seeping into the wound began freezing the paladin from the inside.

His organs froze, and steam escaped even his breath. But the paladin did not loosen his grip on Osian.

“Lord Werner! Now!”

“Sir Raoul!”

“Do not listen to the infidel’s words! I am willing to do anything! Please make a decision!”

Werner, shining with resolute determination, pulled out the shotgun hanging at his waist.

He could not let go of the opportunity created by his colleague’s sacrifice but Osian moved one step faster.

At the same moment Werner aimed his gun at Osian, another moonlight blade thrown beforehand rotated like a boomerang and precisely pierced the gun barrel.

Sizzle.

Werner pulled the trigger, but the gunpowder did not ignite.

“Ah, ah.”

The paladin realized that the opportunity he created by sacrificing his life had ultimately failed, and his face was dyed with despair.

His arms went limp, and Osian slowly grabbed the freezing paladin’s face.

“Do you think you’ve become something? That you sacrificed yourself for something noble? Far from it. You’re garbage who killed children and sucked their blood, and you’ll meet a futile end without doing anything, just like that garbage.”

-Crunch.

As Osian applied force with his hand, the completely frozen paladin’s head shattered like glass.

Now only one hostage remains.

Osian discarded the frozen gun and stared at Werner with blazing eyes.

“Your eyes are so hot. Didn’t you do worse things?”

“Shut up, you evil one! I will never compromise with you!”

“Seems you’ve forgotten there’s still one hostage left.”

“Hostage? We never fear that!”

He seemed to have his head fully heated from the previous events.

However, while saying this, Werner was anxiously worried that Osian might kill the last hostage.

At that moment, applause sounded from behind.

Clap, clap, clap.

“Very good, Sir Werner. You could be called the model of paladins.”

-Bang!

Simultaneously, the sound of a gunshot rang out.

Osian quickly rotated his body, ready to slice the approaching bullet.

But the bullet was not aimed at Osian. More precisely, it was aimed at the frozen paladin beside him.

-Boom!

The paladin’s body shattered and disappeared upon being hit by the bullet.

Osian narrowed his eyes at this sight.

The newly appeared person was a paladin who looked to be in his late thirties.

Like other paladins, he wore a white trench coat but did not carry a shield.

Instead, more than five guns were mounted on shoulder holsters behind his back.

The rifle he used to shoot the hostage was different from the shotguns other paladins used, designed to precisely target from a distance.

“Yes. The paladins of the Petra Order never compromise with heretics. And we do not fear death just because we are taken hostage.”

“Ah, Lord Alpheos.”

Werner’s voice trembled as he looked at the newly revealed paladin.

“Wh-why.”

“Sir Werner. What are you saying now? I merely showed mercy to our colleague captured by the infidel, so they would no longer feel pain.”

“That, that is…”

“Sir Werner.”

Alpheos’ face grew cold.

“Do you want to go back to how things were before?”

“…No.”

“Good. That’s how it should be.”