41: Paladin's Mission

The midday sun gradually ascended to the zenith, its light penetrating the ice crystals among the tree branches, refracting brilliant, colorful halos onto the snow.

We dragged the man in chainmail back into the fog-shrouded dog kennel.

The two individuals we had treated earlier still hadn't woken up.

The dog kennel was small; with three people lying inside, it became quite cramped, especially since the third person was robustly built.

I had Black Little Leopard and the male dog lie on him to warm him, and I began to further remove the ice from his leg.

This was a handsome, robust young man, appearing to be just over twenty years old.

He had brown hair, and his brow was tightly furrowed beneath a full forehead.

A prominent nose cast a deep shadow on his pale cheeks, and his lips were devoid of color, tinged with bluish-purple.

There were many “peculiar” scars on his body.

I used a wooden spoon to pry open his teeth and poured a few mouthfuls of hot soup down.

Looking at the small dog kennel, I mused that building another small hut wouldn't be too much trouble.

In the afternoon, I took out the leftover wood from the last Wizard's Hut upgrade from my system space and, along with the professor, began hammering away with Mage Hand in the northern mist.

In about an hour, a quite spacious wooden hut was built.

Afterward, we used stretchers to drag them one by one and arrange them side by side.

On the pre-stacked firewood inside the hut, I chanted a spell, casting the Create Bonfire magic.

As the firelight flared, a deep, hoarse male bass voice sounded from behind me: “Child, did you save me?” He spoke in the common language.

“Thou hast awakened, good! I found thee by the river this morn.” I responded, half a year of learning ancient common language made my accent quite archaic.

“Tha… Thank you, child. By Tom, how can I repay you?” the man said gratefully.

“Who art thou? And whence comest thou?” I asked.

“My name is Randall, Randall Barkman. I am from Elturgard, and I am a Holy Knight of Tom,” the tall man replied.

“A Holy Knight?” I thought, “That’s high-tier combat power,” and instinctively took a step back.

“Fear not, child, by Tom, I will not harm you.” The man named Randall said somewhat awkwardly, “I swore to uphold justice and loyalty, but… but I failed to fulfill my Lord’s entrustment, and I am no longer a Holy Knight.”

As he spoke, he began to weep.

“Why?” I pressed.

“Because… because those two deceivers caused the death of Young Master Bach, whom I was guarding. I swear… I swear I will find them and kill them… Hmm… Ah!”

Randall saw my gaze shift to his side, and he noticed the two other people lying next to him.

Randall cried out emotionally.

“Is it them?” Randall flipped over to a kneeling position and violently pulled back the wolf hide covering one of the men.

“It’s you! It’s you!” Randall’s face turned beet red as he crawled forward two steps and extended his thick hand to grip the man’s neck.

“Stop!” I shouted loudly, “Stop at once!”

Randall, however, seemed to have completely ignored my shouts; his face was red, filled with extreme anger, and the veins on his head pulsed.

He ruthlessly gripped the other person’s neck, intent on killing him.

The young man whose neck was being squeezed suddenly woke up, his legs kicking frantically in the air, his face and neck turning beet red from lack of air.

He looked at Randall in terror but was powerless to break free.

I retreated two steps and began chanting a spell to cast Thunderclap; accompanied by the thunderous roar, I shouted again: “Stop! His life, I saved; your life, I also saved! All your lives belong to me!”

Randall finally stopped his hand.

He stood up unsteadily, his pale lips trembling, seemingly saying something, but I couldn’t hear it clearly at all.

The young man whose neck had just been squeezed coughed violently.

The other young man next to him was also woken by the commotion.

After opening his eyes, he looked at Randall in horror, hugging the person next to him, constantly backing away.

I cast Thunderclap again, and after the crackling sound, I said: “All of you, be quiet! Tell me, what happened!” I pointed at the robust strongman.

Everyone quieted down, and Randall glared at the two men, then began to tell me his story.

Randall Barkman was from a minor noble family in Elturgard and also a Holy Knight of Tom.

Six months ago, he accepted a mission assigned by the church: his teacher led the team, taking him and three Holy Knights to escort the High Priest’s grandson, a young man with exceptional magical talent, to Candlekeep for study.

However, halfway there, they encountered an attack by evil demons, who claimed they wanted to rob them of the books they carried.

Those were the credentials to enter Candlekeep, invaluable and precious books.

They fought valiantly, and ultimately Randall escaped with the young man; his teacher and the other three died on the spot to cover their escape.

Randall and the young man endured a perilous journey, fleeing to Goresberte.

This place was not too far from Candlekeep; he sold his horses and originally intended to hire more people to escort the young man to Candlekeep with him.

Unexpectedly, he encountered these deceivers.

Randall spent all his gold coins, hiring three mercenaries who claimed to be veterans.

In reality, one of the three was indeed a true veteran, while these two were just there to make up the numbers.

The first few days after they left Goresberte were peaceful on the road.

But Randall slowly began to notice something was off with these two.

One day, as they were arguing, several mutated animated thorn vines suddenly shot out from deep within the dense forest by the roadside, dragging Randall, the young man, and the veteran into the woods.

The other two, because Randall had angrily sent them far away at the time, managed to escape unscathed.

“If they were true warriors, we wouldn’t have lingered on the road arguing. If they were true warriors, in such a situation, experienced warriors could easily rescue us by simply lighting torches!” Randall became more and more agitated as he spoke.

“But these two cowards! No matter how much I shouted, telling them to light torches to drive away the thorns…” Randall gnashed his teeth, glaring at the two, tightly clenching his fists, “You just ran away without looking back!”

“It… it was you who told… told us to go.” One of them stammered.

“Ugh… Ahhh…” Randall roared in anger, “At that time, your mission wasn’t completed, and you took my money! You were like two terrified rats, abandoning your companions! Abandoning your employer! Abandoning the mission objective that you should have protected even at the cost of your lives! You ran away without looking back.”

“We… we…” Shame crept onto the faces of the two, and they were speechless.

“When I struggled out of the thorn bushes, it was too late. Wuwu…” Randall started crying again, “When I crawled back to the luggage, lit a torch, and rescued Young Master Bach and that warrior, they had already stopped breathing! If it weren’t for you two…”

“So, I swear! By my honor, I swear to Tom!” Randall’s tear-filled eyes were bloodshot, and he roared in a voice that sounded torn, “No matter if I have to chase you to the ends of the earth, Tom be my witness! I will kill you two and send you to hell with my money!”

With that, Randall once again raised his fist, like a sandbag, and swung it forward.