The Paladin of the Sacred Kingdom Part I Page 12

  Or maybe it was a cage to keep its prey from getting away. Neia’s own thoughts sent a chill up her spine.

  The King of Darkness… An undead ruler. He might actually be terrifying…

  When she heard he had summoned weird giant goats, she had imagined adorable barn animals, so maybe she had been underestimating him.

  That made her anxious.

  Just as undead were the enemies of paladins, might not paladins be the enemies of undead? In that case, their fates were…

  Still, in order to get help from Sir Momon, who was supposedly Jaldabaoth’s equal in combat, they needed to ask for his cooperation. Neia wiped the sweat off the palms of her hands.

  “…It looks like the fog has cleared. Let’s go, everyone.”

  This undead king could reign over something that bizarre.

  Neia braced herself.

  The King of Darkness may be undead, but he allows humans to live… I wonder what he’s like. But I’m sure a squire like me won’t get to meet him anyway…

  3

  In the distance, they could see the outermost rampart of the famous triple-walled city, E-Rantel, the capital of the Nation of Darkness—and its splendid gate.

  But what caught Neia’s attention wasn’t either of those things. What her eyes latched onto were the giant statues on either side of the gate.

  It was an undead holding a strange staff—it looked like snakes twisting together. Perhaps they depicted the king, Ainz Ooal Gown.

  Neia was still quite a ways away, but she could make out the details. She felt that even if she walked right up to it, she wouldn’t be able to find any sloppiness in the workmanship.

  There were people-shaped creatures laboring around the statues.

  Huh? Wait. Aren’t they kind of big? I mean, that’s the height of the wall. I get that the statues are big, but… Who are those workers?

  The other members of the party seemed to wonder the same thing, and the paladins were discussing the hulking workers among themselves.

  “…Surely they’re not human.”

  “Couldn’t be. Maybe giants? Although they don’t look like hill giants to me…”

  “Giants? Will we be all right? I’ve heard that some are friendly, but…”

  Neia was only a squire, so she had never seen a giant before, but she had learned about them in her lectures on monster knowledge.

  Giants were essentially a bigger version of humans, but not only were they stronger, they had racial abilities, too. Using those abilities, they were able to tolerate harsher environments than humans, so they were often found in those areas and didn’t have much relationship with the plain dwellers.

  Some races knew more magic than humans, and some had more advanced cultures.

  Some races were evil, and some were good. One of the Thirteen Heroes was a giant, and there was a sea giant who showed up in Roebel now and then on business.

  That said, typical giants were violent and dangerous.

  And the race of dangerous giants that often showed up in the human world were hill dwellers. One well-known subspecies of giant was the trolls.

  So why were there giants in this undead city?

  “…Maybe there were always giants in this region? And he conquered them?”

  “You’re saying the King of Darkness controls giants? I haven’t heard anything like that!”

  It was only natural for the paladin to yelp in surprise at such a suggestion.

  They had gathered a large amount of information in preparation for their trip to the Nation of Darkness. Of course, there were a heap of unknowns, so it was hard to say whether they had succeeded, but they definitely put in a lot of effort. But first there was the ghost ship and now giants? The mystery only deepened.

  Neia wondered if maybe the King of Darkness was an undead giant, but if that were a noticeable characteristic of his, it should have been in the information they had gathered.

  Then Gustav called out to her from behind. “Squire Baraja. It’s about time to change formation. Head to the rear.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  During their travels, Neia led the way, but once they were near the city, her position switched to the rear. Remedios and Gustav took the lead.

  “Commander Custodio, should we send someone ahead to announce us?”

  Usually it would be alarming if a party of knights in full plate armor showed up outside a city. For that reason, when they entered cities and villages in Re-Estize, they had sent a single paladin ahead of time to say they were coming, and only then would the party approach with Roebel’s flag displayed. That was proper etiquette.

  Remedios agreed and sent a paladin up ahead.

  The knight went to the gate of the Nation of Darkness and then came back.

  “Commander, I let the guard know. They welcome us.”

  “Okay, got it. Then let’s go! Flag up! Chests out! Don’t do anything that would shame the Sacred Kingdom’s Paladin Order!”

  With that shout to start them off, the party had their horses slowly approach the city.

  Soon they were able to clearly see the gate and the giants working around it.

  The giants were stabilizing the statues and doing maintenance work, cleaning up the carvings to make them even more beautiful.

  The giants had pale-blueish skin and white beards and hair. They wore primitive clothing made from some sort of beast skins along with sophisticated mail shirts.

  “What kind of giants are they?”

  Neia’s superior hearing meant she could listen in on the conversation at the head of the group.

  “I imagine they’re probably the frost variety.”

  “Hmm.” She heard Remedios’s vague reply. “Are they strong? What kind of powers do they have?”

  “…Seriously? Give me a break… Frost giants live in frigid regions and have perfect resistance to chill. But they’re weak against fire.”

  “I see. So we should attack with fire if we have to fight them.”

  “Well, yes. Mythril-rank adventurers should be able to beat them with minimal hassle. But some of them are trained like us and have warrior abilities. So you have to be careful.”

  That’s what giants were like.

  Warrior training, caster training, thief training. Humans weren’t the only ones polishing their skills. Superior races tended not to train in that way, but some did put in the effort to acquire skills, thus becoming extremely challenging adversaries.

  Neia’s father always said, A beast you can tell by looking. Powerful enemies you can’t gauge by sight alone are the toughest.

  “Hmm, I’ve never fought a giant. Well, ogres are a different story, but…”

  “You’ll offend them if you lump them in with ogres. According to the sea giant, it’s like thinking humans and monkeys are basically the same—although I heard that secondhand from a bard, so I don’t know how true it is.”

  “Hrm. So Roebel wasn’t able to hire the sea giant, but the Nation of Darkness has hired frost giants? Which type of giant is stronger?”

  “Mm, I don’t know details like that…”

  The commander was probably hoping that the sea giant was superior, but what was important in this case was how the frost giants were treated by the Nation of Darkness.

  Were they here on friendly terms? Or had they been forced into submission? Or was it a mutually beneficial exchange of goods, services, and money?

  Just looking at the silently laboring giants, it was impossible to tell.

  But wow, giants sure look like fantastic workers. The Sacred Kingdom cooperates with subhumans, too, but if we could expand the races we work with, I’m sure we could accomplish all sorts of things. Of course, it’s probably impossible for us…

  Roebel had a long-standing cooperative relationship with mermen, but they were an exception. The Sacred Kingdom had also gone to war with subhumans, so they would probably never be widely accepted in human society.

  Did the Nation of Darkness only accept giants? Or d
id they welcome all different kinds of races? If they encountered subhumans like the ones attacking Roebel, would Neia be able to suppress her hostile instincts?

  I mean, I’ll have to, but…

  For instance, what if snakemen showed up? What if snakemen, from lands Roebel had no contact with, were living in harmony with humans in the Nation of Darkness? Raising one’s sword against a snakeman just because there happened to be some in a hostile force attacking her homeland was surely a dangerous line of thinking. It would probably be impossible to simply say, Don’t give in to antagonistic feelings, but in this case, they had to abide by the rules.

  Neia looked with some concern at Remedios up ahead.

  Would their leader be able to do that?

  Neia shook her head internally. It’s disrespectful of me to worry about Remedios like that. She’s working to save the Sacred Kingdom as the head of the delegation. Surely she can suppress an emotional response. For someone like me to doubt her is awfully rude.

  “Is it fine for us to keep going like this? Should we head for a different gate?”

  The gate was open, but they wondered if the giants would pay enough attention as they worked to not step on them.

  “Straight in is fine. They would laugh at us and our country if we switched gates because we were scared of some giants.”

  “…Understood. Then we’ll follow your lead, Commander.”

  The party continued on toward the gate.

  Thankfully, the giants took one look at the humans and paused their work so the smaller beings could pass safely. Neia got the impression that rather than fondness for humans, the giants had some feeling about them as visitors to the Nation of Darkness.

  Usually a group would be stopped at the gate, but since they had sent someone ahead, they were led into the magically illuminated city by a human who seemed to be a guard.

  The war-trained horses snorted uneasily in the unnatural light.

  “Welcome to the Nation of Darkness’s city, E-Rantel. Is this your first time here?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “I see. Then, if you’ll excuse me asking, could you please come off your horses?”

  Are they going to inspect our luggage? wondered Neia. For them to inspect the bags of a group visiting as messengers from another country seemed a bit lacking in courtesy, but it was probably the right move.

  Having dismounted from their horses without complaint, the group followed the guard who guided them with a “This way,” to a door off the side of the gate. Common sense told Neia it must have been an observation tower used as barracks for soldiers and a defense base.

  “Please go in here for now. Our country is quite different from the kingdom or the Theocracy, etc., so we have first-time visitors receive a lecture here.”

  “A lecture?”

  “Yes, to avoid any unnecessary trouble. You won’t be permitted to enter the city until the lecture is over. What would you like to do?”

  There was no way they would come this far and then not enter. It went without saying that Remedios answered, “We’ll listen.”

  “Very well. May I hold on to your weapons for you?”

  They probably couldn’t refuse this, either. But as could be expected, Remedios disapproved of the idea.

  The sword she carried was one of the Sacred Kingdom’s holy treasures. When she explained that she wore it even before the holy king and that she couldn’t possibly hand it over unless they were meeting the ruler of the country, the soldier nodded.

  “I see. Well, I suppose that can’t be helped. Then you may all proceed as you are. I wanted to take them for your own protection. Please promise me that you won’t draw your weapons in this room. If you can’t promise me that, it would be better for you to leave this place.”

  “Got it. Since you trust us to wear our swords without incident, we promise not to draw them.”

  Remedios put a fist to her chest—where the crest of the Sacred Kingdom was emblazoned—to make the vow. It meant that she swore on her honor as a paladin and her loyalty to the Sacred Kingdom.

  “Thank you. First the defender of this area will come to meet you.”

  In Roebel, Remedios’s vow would have drawn gasps of awe, but in a foreign country, it was passed right over. The soldier knocked on the door without even commenting on it.

  The door slowly opened and what emerged was—

  “Eegh!” Neia inadvertently emitted what could have been interpreted as a gasp or a shriek.

  What slowly emerged was a being that could be described as thick in the vertical, horizontal, and every other direction.

  Sharp spikes jutted from black full plate armor that sported a pattern like blood vessels running across its surface. Its helmet had horns like a demon and an open face that left the rotting features of a person visible. In its vacant eye sockets, its hatred for living things and anticipation of slaughter burned red.

  The temperature plunged, and it felt like darkness was closing in on them.

  “Please do not draw your weapons!” The soldier’s shout made everyone’s shoulders jump. “Nothing will happen even if you leave your blades where they are! But if you draw them, you’ll be killed in a single blow! And you’ll be doomed to suffer ever after! Please don’t make me watch that happen again!”

  The pain in his voice was clearly from experience. He must have seen it happen before.

  The undead gazed unhurriedly upon Neia and the others. The creature almost seemed to be waiting for them to draw their weapons.

  “…What’s this undead?” Remedios’s voice trembled slightly.

  “One of the city’s many guards.”

  “…This thing’s a…?” Remedios cried out of shock, fear, unease, or maybe something else. Neia felt the same way. It was unimaginable to them that there could be a country where more than one undead that seemed this strong existed.

  “E-excuse me, but is this undead under the control of the—er, His Majesty the King of Darkness?” Neia asked without thinking, and the soldier nodded.

  “Yes, that’s right. He also seems to be controlling even more powerful undead than this.”

  “They’re not dangerous?”

  The soldier answered Gustav’s question immediately as well. He seemed like he was terribly eager to talk.

  “Yes, as long as no one causes any problems in the city, no one will be killed.”

  Undead loathed the living. If the King of Darkness controlled them so well he could keep them from harming humans, he had to be an amazingly powerful being. It hit Neia just how immense his power really was.

  “I…see. So could you take us to this room, then?”

  “Very well. Please follow me.”

  The black-armored undead shifted slowly out of the way of the door, and the soldier walked right past. Meanwhile Neia and the others looked around to see which of them would go first.

  Supposedly the King of Darkness had the thing under control, but it wasn’t as if there were any visible restraints. It was twice as frightening as passing by an untethered carnivore that supposedly had a full stomach.

  Remedios tried to lead the way, but Gustav stopped her. Then he looked at Neia.

  So I’m the canary?

  If the question was which life wouldn’t matter if lost, he wasn’t wrong. She would have liked to think the weak were to be protected, but apparently squires didn’t count.

  Neia steeled her resolve, squeezed her eyes shut, and walked forward.

  After a few steps, she slowly opened her eyes. She hadn’t been cut down yet, so she sped up and hurried out of the undead’s range.

  Seeing that Neia had passed safely, the paladins followed. Eventually, the entire party made it to the lecture room without being attacked.

  The soldier opened the door, and inside were several long tables and quite a large number of simple chairs.

  “Have a seat here and wait just a moment, please.”

  “Okay. Thank you for showing us in.” When Remedios gesture
d with her jaw, Gustav took a small pouch from his breast pocket and tried to hand it to the soldier. It was a tip.

  “Oh, please don’t!” He practically shrieked a forceful refusal.

  The soldier raised both hands over his head so as not to even touch the pouch.

  The reaction was a bit shocking to all present, including Neia. She couldn’t figure out why he responded so intensely.

  “I receive a salary from the King of Darkness, so I don’t require gratuities, thank you.”

  “B-but you assisted us so kindly…and besides, it’s not very much…”

  “Still, I’m all right. Now then, I’ll be waiting outside until the lecture is over.”

  The soldier made a swift exit. His sensitive reaction made everyone left behind exchange puzzled glances.

  “Is it really okay not to tip?”

  “If he said he doesn’t want it, then there’s not much we can do about it, is there?”

  It was utterly natural to pay a tip. It was fine not to, but people of a certain status usually did. Of course, it came with the ulterior motive of hoping they could be moved through the inspection process quickly, but it wasn’t as if they had asked for anything explicitly. It was more just that their rank and station made a tip appropriate.

  If his refusal was on the directive of the King of Darkness, what was its purpose?

  “He didn’t say where to sit in particular, huh? Everyone take whatever seat you like.”

  Following their commander’s instructions, everyone sat down, and finally a little while later, the door opened.

  Neia turned around to look, and her eyes widened.

  It was a member of the race that was human from the chest up and snake below—a naga.

  There were multiple types of nagas, such as the sea nagas that popped up sometimes along the Sacred Kingdom’s coast, but she didn’t know which variety this was. Regardless, no nagas were friendly with humans, yet she didn’t feel frightened or surprised.

  It was thanks to that black-armored undead. It was much easier to keep her head around a naga than that thing.