<h4>Volume 1 Chapter 14: The Forsaken Land’s New Lord</h4>


    Trantor: The Light


    Edits by Lord Immortal


    At the southernmost part of the Coristel Continent, there was a strip ofnd that acted as and bridge between the Coristel Continent and the Priestley Continent. Priestley Continent was where the beastmen had settled. As both continents were connected, the casualties caused by conflicts between beastmen and humans were equal in scale with those of the wars fought between humans and demons.


    While humans and demons would only fightrge scale battles every few decades, skirmishes between humans and beastmen forces would happen constantly. The fires of war led to an exodus from surrounding regions into one of the five great human empires, the Gabriel Empire(Swordsmen Empire). The Empire of Swordsmen, however, denied asylum to the fleeing refugees which led arge number of jobless and desperate people into a life of banditry.


    There was an abandoned town near the north of thend bridge. The town of Nelson had once been a bustling ce but all the residents abandoned it due to the constant raids by the beastmen. It was effectively a ghost town now.


    Currently, on the mud trails outside the town, a party of knights was travelling. There were only a few dozen of them but each member was a female. Their armor and shield were crafted out of a dark-hued metal and none of them carried ance typical of a knight. They were currently escorting a caravan ofrge horse-drawn carriages filled with resources. The leading carriage hoisted the g of the Church of Light. It looked out of ce and was ced very casually as if it was done just for the sake of it.


    During their travels, there had been many suspicious figures who had followed these knights. It was rather hard not to attract attention with such arge convoy of resources in a region torn by war, especially a convoy that was guarded by female knights. Many bandit gangs had set their eyes on this lucrative target, wanting to take both fortune and the women. None of them realized their errors until it was toote.


    Be sat in the leading carriage with the lolis: Angel, Mia, and Noesha. Eleanor, with her knights, led the front while Dolores rode with the rearguard. Rnd acted as the coachwoman with Annie as herpanion.


    “I didn’t expect this town to bepletely free.”


    Be studied the map of the continent in her hands, feeling rather happy. A bar of gold was equal to a hundred gold coins and was worth more in border towns such as this one. Since it was more convenient to carry than coins, its price was raised by gold dealers to one hundred and twenty gold coins per bar. That cardinal had given her twenty gold bars. This was enough money for her to buy a decently sized house in the capital of any of the five great empires and still have leftovers for a year of standard living expenses.


    The Church sure has money. While that cardinal didn’t seem like a very good person, he sure was open-handed. It would be so nice if I could encounter him again. Be was reminiscing when the carriage suddenly came to a stop. There seemed to be amotion outside.


    “What happened? Who are those people?”


    Be opened the curtains and poked her head out through the carriage’s window. She saw arge group of armed men blocking the path ahead of the convoy.


    “This is a robbery! Abandon your carriages and get lost!”


    The head of these bandits, Joseph, had hesitated for a while when he looked at the Church’s g on the carriage before finally deciding to throw caution to the wind. They were attempting to rob a convoy that flew the g of the Church, so they would avoid killing as much as possible, or the Church might hound them if they crossed their bottom line.


    “Don’t you know that we are the Church’s knights? You dare to try and rob the Church!? Scram!”


    Rnd’s intentions were to save the lives of these bandits but it was useless. Not one of them paid attention to what she said and paid dearly for their foolishness. Only two of Be’s knights stepped out to meet the charging bandits


    “Lady Be... can we...”


    “To be merciful to one’s enemy is to be cruel to oneself.”


    After watching the two knights massacre the bandits, Be returned to the carriage. The quality of these bandits didn’t even require Eleanor to take action. Very few people had the capability to be some of Be’s ‘materials’.


    Joseph’s gang didn’t hold out for very long before they werepletely obliterated, and the convoy continued on. From the carriage’s windows, Be would often see beggars on the sides of the road. She did not pay any attention to them as even though the convoy hadrge amounts of food and water, they did not have enough to feed every beggar. There was also a chance for the situation to go south.


    Moreover, there were some gangs who would ambush caravans by pretending to be beggars. Be did not want to take unnecessary risks; they were not the peacekeepers with blue helmets from Earth. Her eyes returned to the map on the table. She had bought the town of Nelson from Duke Viktor who owned thend prior, though she didn’t pay a single penny for it.


    The duke’s wrinkled face had immediately lit up when he learned that Be wanted to purchase the abandoned town. It was as if he wanted to get rid of the hot potato in his hands. He also gaverge swathes of the destends around the town itself. She wanted to give him several gold bars in payment, but he refused after seeing her missionary certificate. He offered the town as a gift to the Church and wouldn’t ept any money even if Be had beaten him to death.


    Be picked up the certificate lying beside the map and studied it. The words on it were the same as the one that Stanley had given her, the only difference being a tiny red mark at the bottom left corner that looked like the thumbnail of a magic formation.


    “Sister, this is a ritual array for summoning demons from other worlds. It’s just a beginner level array; however, there are much moreplex ones out there.”


    After learning the meaning behind the symbol, Be was more puzzled. Why would a certificate from the Church of Light have something like this on it? Be decided that she would ponder about thister since the current priority was to settle in the new town.


    Be didn’t think about looking for revenge against Lisha. She did not want to get involved with any more reincarnators after she faked her death at An rk Strip. Therefore, she chose a ce far away from Octavian Empire (Knights Empire) to expand and develop.


    Count Harold was not implicated by the disappearance of Eleanor and Sidney. Most likely, he had made some sort of ‘deal’ with the Church for sanctuary. It seemed that the Church’s authority was greater than what Be previously thought.


    ___


    After exterminating over a dozen bandit gangs, there weren’t any more bandits left who dared to look for trouble. Maybe the news about the incident had spread through the region and deterred any other bandit gang from setting their eyes on it.


    “Hmph, these bandits won’t be around for much longer.”


    Be’s convoy entered the deserted town of Nelson and headed straight for the church in the center of the town. Be nned to continue hoisting the g of the Church and decided to set up her new base here.


    “You girls can put that box over there. Alright, you’re all dismissed for now.”


    Be directed her knights to carry arge box into the center of the church then followed the instructions that Mystica had given her to undo the box’s magical seal.


    The box turned into dust soon after the seal was broken. Arge and dark thing that looked like a massively erged human’s brain was left behind. It looked alive with the flow of blood visible on the giant organ.


    This was something called【Devil’s Wisdom】, also known to some as ‘Demon Brain’. It was one of the more important things that Mystica had given to Be. The【Devil’s Wisdom】was a living thing and had its own intellect. Its main purpose was to grant greater wisdom to higher tier monsters. It could alsomand all the monsters within a veryrge radius. It was one of the must-haves for running a dark realm.


    After the【Demon’s Wisdom】appeared, it immediately gave off a weird aura that encased the church within a blink of an eye. Be and the others weren’t affected by it at all. This aura did not cause any harm to females; most likely because its previous owner, Mystica, was also a female.


    “Eleanor, bring in the box that holds the【Demon’s Heart】as well. I want to rebuild my dark kingdom here!”


    “Understood, Lady Be.”


    Be nned to rebuild her dark kingdom in this region. She would first revive all the Cadre level monsters who had sacrificed themselves for her in An rk Strip. This time, she had learned the true way to create monsters from Mystica; it was about time she put it into practice.


    Outside the church, Rnd and Annie had mixed feelings as they looked at the happenings inside the church. They were currently the only humans left in Be’s party as Eleanor and her knight corp had already epted a demon-god’s power and could no longer be considered human. They were currently witnessing the rise of a new dark kingdom and had some veryplicated feelings about this as they were still human.


    ___


    A month after Be arrived, an army of over a thousand mounted soldiers approached the outskirts of Nelson Town. Although they rode warhorses, their armor was lighter than the heavy te armour of knights. This wasn’t a mercenary guild since they flew the g of Gabriel Empire(Swordsmen).


    “Ivy, something feels off about this town, I can’t put my finger on it but I think we should remain cautious.”


    “Susan, didn’t Duke Viktor say that someone from your Church had built a church here then why are you so nervous?”


    “Those who built the church here are from the Salo faction; they don’t get along well with the n faction that I am part of.”


    “I don’t get what’s with the Church. You guys represent one faith but are split into three factions. Oh well, let’s continue.”


    Elena Ivy was a daughter of the head of the Ignaz Family, one of the Gabriel Empire’s(Swordsmen) three great families. Ivy hade to this dangerous region in order to hunt monsters. Her good friend, the Church of Light’s third Holy Maiden, Antonia Susan, apanied her.


    In Coristel Continent, the supply of magic cores found in monsters could never keep up with the demand. The magic cores of lower level monsters were already selling like hot cakes, not to mention higher level monsters whose cores were sold at an astronomical price and one might not even be able to buy it with gold.


    In this region that connected the two continents, there was a massive monster-infested forest. As it was unnamed, people just called it the ‘Unnamed Forest’. There were tales of terrifyingly powerful monsters that were hidden in this forest. Although no one was able to confirm whether these terrifying beasts actually existed, the mercenaries who lived to tell the tale brought news that there were already high tiered monsters merely on the outskirts. It was hard to tell what kinds of existences might be deeper within as either none who dared to venture far in had returned alive or they didn’t wish to talk about their experiences.


    “Susan, are you really not going to visit your colleague? You are part of the same Church, after all. It might be rude to not greet them.”


    “It’s fine Ivy; the Salo faction always liked performing all sorts of mysterious rituals. If we run into them in the middle of some weird ritual then...”


    Ivy and Susan bypassed Nelson Town, heading towards the Unnamed Forest. They found it rather strange to have not run into a single bandit, not even a scout. This region had been notorious for banditry, but now they were nowhere to be seen. Had they all turned a new leaf in their lives?


    As the region was fraught with dangers, ordinary mercenary groups wouldn’t takemissions for this region. This ce was directly connected to thend of the beastmen and wars between them and humans weremon. There was a possibility that they could be ambushed by beastmen armies at any time, makingmissions in this region that much pricier. As for higher ranking mercenary groups, theirmission price was too high and Ivy didn’t want to spend any unnecessary money. Instead, she used her family’s power to obtain a regiment of guards to assist them.


    On the forest’s path, Ivy and Susan finally saw living people. There was a small wooden shack on the side of the road. Outside the shack were three little girls huddled around a table ying a card game that they didn’t recognize. The little girls all wore gothic lolita dresses that were beautifully designed. It was their first time seeing such clothes.


    “The Church’s cross? The three of them are members of the Church!” Even from a distance, Susan could see the dark silver crosses that hung around the necks of the three lolis. Although the color of the crosses was a bit different, they were definitely the ones that the Church’s sisters had to wear. One thing that threw Susan off somewhat was that the girls did not wear the garb of a sister which should have been customary.


    Near the three little girls were ten mountless female knights in ck armor standing at attention. On each of their arms was a strip of cloth with an insignia representing their identities.


    “The insignia of the Salo faction? These are the Salo faction’s people!” Susan saw the insignia on the arms of the ck knights and hesitated. Her faction had never seen eye to eye with the Salo faction. While they might be able to control their temper in big cities due to therge number of onlookers, there was no telling what might happen in a secluded ce like this.


    “Susan, look at the pile on their table... am I dreaming!?”


    Tracing Ivy’s shocked gaze, Susan also looked at the table and froze. The tabletop was filled with magic cores of multiple colors, evidently belonging to monsters of all elements. Many of them also had the gleam that only the high tiered monsters had. Each of the lolis had a pile of magic cores in front of her. Even more shocking were the numerousrge bup bags casually strewn at the feet of the lolis. As their mouths were not closed, they could see the magic cores within.


    The army that Ivy had brought was stupefied as well. Even the dumbest of them knew the value of all these magic cores. If it wasn’t for Ivy and Susan, many of them would’ve already charged at them to snatch as many as they could before fleeing. There were only three sisters and ten female knights guarding them; they wouldn’t have cared whether they were robbing the Church or not. If they could escape the Church’s hunting, they would be able to live the rest of their lives infort.


    Ivy and Susan exchanged looks. The two of them gestured for the guards to stay where they were and walked towards the wooden shack.


    “Halt, Hu... outsider! This is not somewhere you should be.”


    A female knight in ck armor intercepted them, barely managing to swallow the words ‘human’.


    “I am the Church’s third Holy Maiden, Antonia Susan. Can you let me see those sisters over there?”


    While speaking, Susan took out and showed the cross that was the proof of her identity as a holy maiden of the Church of Light to the female knight that blocked their way. Even though the Salo faction didn’t get along with her n faction, she still had a cavalry of thousands at hermand.


    Susan couldn’t determine the cultivation of the ten female knights. However, since they guarded such a fortune in a ce notorious for bandits, even without their mounts, they were probably at least at the level of a holy knight.


    “You two can. As for the others, especially the males, they’re not allowed or...”


    Susan and Ivy didn’t understand why males couldn’t go while females could. The cavalry that acted as bodyguards for the two were fuming. They felt their dignity being tread upon by her words. They would definitely let the knight have a piece of their mind if they had received the order to do so from Susan or Ivy.


    “Airne! This round is my definitely my win.”{1}


    “You’re too naive Angel, bomb!”{2}


    “I’m sorry Mia, but I win this round, rocket!”{3}


    “...”


    “I’ll get you in the next round! I want to raise the stakes by threefold!”


    As Mia was talking, Noesha took the small pile of magic cores at the center of the table and ced them in the pile beside her. Afterwards, she ced another small pile at the center. When Noesha turned around, she saw the petrified Ivy and Susan.


    “Do you sisters want to y Landlord as well? You two don’t seem to have any chips with you; I can lend you some if you want?”


    — TL —


    {1} 2 or more three-of-a-kinds in a row, 444555 etc.


    {2} 4 of a kind


    {3} big and small jokers, the highest hand in Landlord