<h4>Chapter 201: Holy Blood Order (1)</h4>
“Finding the location of dwarves isn’t actually that big of a problem,” Cami said in a calm voice as she watched the dwarven children gathered together, eating their meal. “Do you happen to know of the existence of the earth god, Horn?”
“<i>Oh,</i> the god that the dwarves supposedly worship?”
"So you do know. Most people wouldn’t... But then again, you’re not an ordinary yer. Anyway, this will be easy to exin since you’re already aware. Even if it''s just a game, you worship a god too, so you know what a god needs most."
"Followers."
Cami nodded at Kai’s answer. "Right. Followers. Without those who believe in them, a god would eventually be forgotten. In that sense, Horn is a blessed god."
"Because he has followers who resolutely believe in him?"
"Yes. The dwarf tribe as a whole reveres Horn. Of course, not all walk the path of priesthood, but asionally, there are dwarves who don’t want to take up a hammer. Their path is the path of the priesthood."
"Dwarf priests, <i>huh</i>. Are there any among those children?"
"Fortunately for us." Cami pointed to a girl crouched in a small corner between the buildings. "But you know, finding their location doesn’t mean the problem is solved."
"You said there were elite members of the Church of Muldine... and from other intel, there’s also an army of monsters."
"Even monsters...? That’s news to me. But in my opinion, they shouldn’t pose much of a threat to you."
"Of course."
Kai shed a confident smile, but Cami shook her head.
"The one you truly need to be cautious of is the man of darkness."
"The man of darkness?"
n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om
"The dwarves built the new Ingart on Snowy Mountains over two hundred years ago. Do you really think Sineras, the Death Dragon, suddenly discovered Ingart by itself after all that time?"
"Was it a helper from the Church of Muldine?"
"That I can’t be sure of. But the important thing is that the manmanded Sineras without difficulty, and Sineras didn’t defy his orders."
"Are you certain about that?"
"I saw it clearly with my own eyes, so yes."
The Death Dragon Sineras was a powerful entity within the world of <i>MID Online</i>.
<i>It was merely a hatchling, though, which just makes it weakerpared to adult dragons.</i>
A Death Dragon was a powerful entity, with few NPCs able to match its strength. However, there was someone who couldmand such a creature without issue.
"What was their name? If he was an enemy, his name should have appeared above his head."
At Kai’s question, Cami shook her head with a confused expression. "Yes, that would be normal... but there wasn’t. Even as he cast binding spells on the dwarves, only a question mark appeared above his head."
"A question mark...?" Kai furrowed his brow, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu.
<i>If there’s an overwhelming difference in level or stats, a question mark can appear.</i>
Kai himself had experienced this only once while ying the game.
<i>The Dark Wizard Zirukan.</i>
In a way, Zirukan was someone who had changed his life. Regardless of how it happened, it was thanks to him that Kai could change sses to Sric Cleric.
<i>However, Zirukan has no connection to the Church of Muldine.</i>
They were both shady and wicked. However, Zirukan was part of the Demon King’s army, working toward the Demon King’s resurrection, while the Church of Muldine was a cult that worshiped an evil god.
<i>Could there be a chance they would join forces?</i>
Kai left open the possibility of that slim chance.
<i>The Church of Muldine is so cunning that it would even encourage dragons if it could bring chaos to the world.</i>
Thus, Kai wondered if a Demon King would be any different. The Demon King’s army was one of the forces that could bring the most chaos to this world of the NPCs.
"The possibility isn’t entirely out of the question.”
There came a moment for each person when something called intuition arrived. Even with a trivial, seemingly meaningless clue, they could deduce something close to the truth. Kai thought this was one of those moments now.
<i>Unfortunately, my ominous hunches often turn out to be urate.</i>
If his ominous assumption was correct, then there was really no way out.
<i>My affinity with the Church of Muldine is, no, do they even have anything that could be called affinity toward me?</i>
As if proving that a basement was beneath the floor, his rtionship with the Church of Muldine had already plunged past zero into the negative.
<i>An enemy’s enemy might be a friend, but if it’s an ally''s enemy...</i>
It was needless to say they would also see them as an enemy!
"<i>Ugh</i>."
While Kai massaged his throbbing temple, Cami, who had been staring at him intently, slowly asked, "But since you captured Sineras, you must have gotten some material items, right?"
"I did."
"C-can you show me just once? I’ll only look, I promise!"
"Looking is fine."
As he showed her the loot Sineras had coughed up, Cami gasped with excitement and cheered repeatedly. "<i>Ahh, ahhh!</i> Look at these scales! What would it feel like if I hammered this with a mallet...? <i>Oh!</i> And what about this bone? It makes a solid, full sound whenever I tap on it. I-is this heaven?!"
"If you consider the location, it''s closer to hell." After replying in a nonchnt tone, Kai nced at her and seemed to realize something. "<i>Oh, </ie to think of it..."
The dwarves of Ingart had been safeguarding thest holy item of the apostles, the Holy Sword Prius, but Ingart had recently fallen.
<i>Then where is Prius now?</i>
To make matters worse, if the relic had fallen into the hands of the Church of Muldine...
Kai quickly stood up and approached the dwarf children.
<i>These kids probably wouldn’t know about Prius...</i>
The oldest-looking girl was the one Cami had pointed out earlier.
Kai approached her.
"Hello."
The girl silently looked up at Kai, then lowered her head again.
"<i>Ahem</i>. First of all, I offer my sincere condolences for the tragedy that fell upon Ingart. But don’t worry too much. I’ll save all the adults of the dwarf tribe, including your parents."
"Liar."
"I’m not lying. I’m much stronger than I look."
"My mom and dad told me not to deal with men full of bluff."
"I-I’m not bluffing..."
The girl was surprisingly mature.
After a moment of thought, Kai wore a resolute expression and made a gesture with his hand.
"<i>Tada</i>. This is a cake from a world-famous bakery in the capital. It even has preservation magic, so it’s as soft and sweet as if freshly baked."
<i>Ding!</i>
<strong>[Helik is watching this situation with very interested eyes.]</strong>
"Anyway, don’t you want to eat this cake?"
Kai felt like he heard some sort of notification but ignored it and waved the cake enticingly.
"I''m not a child. No, thanks."
This bait was significantly insufficient to tempt the calm little girl!
"<i>Hmm</i>."
ncing over, Kai saw Cami still drooling over Sineras'' bones, scales, and leather.
Then he said in a quiet voice, "So, I heard you’re a priestess of the dwarf tribe?"
"By the looks of your attire, you seem like a priest too, ahjusshi.[1]"
"Ahjusshi..." Hurt by the unexpected remark, Kai quickly regained hisposure and continued, "Yes, <i>oppa</i> is also a priest. I, <i>oppa,</i> am a priest. I said it twice because it’s important. However, I’m a bit more special."
"Are you the kind who believes they''re the only special one in the world?"
Kai wondered who on earth had made a child, who should be innocent, turn out this way. For a moment, he thought he would like to meet her parents, but then shook his head.
"No, I’m not delusional. I’m actually an Apostle."
At this, the girl paused and slowly turned her head toward him. “Apostle...?”
“Yes, I am indeed an Apostle.”
When Kai nodded with a serious expression, the girl asked in a trembling voice, “What is that?”
This was a setback. Then again, even if she was a priestess, she wasn’t the only one in her tribe. It was possible she didn’t know about the Apostles, being so young.
<i>Oof. Then the whereabouts of Prius are...</i>
He would have to sessfully rescue the adult dwarves to find out.
Kai let out a small sigh, letting go of his expectations, and said in a more rxed voice, “If you don’t know, that’s fine. Come to think of it, we haven’t introduced ourselves yet. My name is Kai.”
“Sydney.”
“<i>Oh</i>, that’s a pretty name.”
“Do you say things like that to any woman?”
“Wouldn’t it be polite to ask if there <i>are</i> any women around first? Besides, you’re a child, not a woman.”
Looking at Kai’s lonesome expression with pity, Sydney then murmured as she hugged her knees, “Ahjusshi, do you have a lot of friends?”
“Why do you ask about friends?”
“Apparently, the bad guys who attacked our kingdom have a lot of friends. It would be impossible for you to deal with them by yourself.”
“While I may not have many friends... don’t worry too much.”
Kai gave a soft smile at Sydney’s concern, then turned his head to look at the children with gloomy expressions.
<i>All those kids over there are at the age where they should be running around and ying...</i>
Perhaps because of the situation, the children didn’t smile easily other than when Cami returned.
<i>It’s the duty of adults to bring smiles back to children’s faces.</i>
And right now, he was the only adult who could do that.
Having made up his mind, Kai rose to his feet without hesitation.
Sydney nced up slightly and asked, “Ahjusshi, where are you going?”
“To have a good fight with some bad guys.”
“But you said you didn’t have friends.”
“<i>Haha</i>, wouldn’t things work out somehow?”
As Kai ruffled Sydney’s hair and began to leave, Shimizu, who had been quietly following him, said,
—Kai, always remember where your roots began, wherever and whenever.
“My roots?” Kai tilted his head and asked back, “Are you referring to the main church of the Church of Sris? But that ce was controlled by the Church of Muldine until recently. It’s a bit hard to trust...”
—Shouldn’t it be even more trustworthy now precisely because of that past?
“What does that mean?”
—The Srian Church’s main church has beenpletely reformed under the current High Priest Albert.
“I suppose that’s true...”
It had been some time since the Srian Church had been turned upside down.
<i>Come to think of it, I wonder if it’splete by now.</i>
High Priest Albert had created a new military group, the Holy Blood Order, solely for Kai. He didn’t know how capable they were, but right now, he was in a situation where he would take any help he could get, even from a cat.
Of course, if he went to Beoruk, the king of Rashion, he would likely receive support from the Ironblood Knights, however...
<i>If I receive something, I also need to give something in return.</i>
If he saved the dwarves, he intended to ept them as new residents of Libertia. If that happened, Beoruk probably wouldn’t feel very good about that because he would have provided support, but nothing would be left for him.
<i>But if it’s the Srian Church, I could easily smooth over any issues through my status.</i>
Besides, he felt uneasy about continually exposing the mermaids and elves to danger.
<i>If it’s the Holy Blood Order, it would probably include members from the Pray guild, meaning a high proportion of yers. Their skills would be reliable, wouldn’t they?</i>
Taking Shimizu’s advice into ount, Kai confidently nodded.
Watching him, she gave a soft smile.
—Have you made your decision?
"Yes. Let’s go check it out."
Regardless of whether it was possible or not, facing the army of monsters, the elite forces of the Church of Muldine, and the mysterious man of darkness all alone would be excessive arrogance.
<i>If I could take them down without worrying about anything, I would even resort to guerri warfare to fight them...</i>
But they were holding hundreds of dwarves as hostages. From Kai''s perspective, this meant he needed to protect their safety whilepletely eliminating the enemies! In short, what Kai needed right now were reliablerades on the battlefield—or perhaps, subordinates.
“Shadow Shift.”
Kai instantly vanished on the spot.
1. <i>Ah</i><i>jussi</i> is usually used to address an older man, usually middle-aged. ?