I Became a Mythical Hunter After Killing the Golden Goblin - Chapter 107
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 107. Darkness Cast Over the Holy Kingdom (2)
My immediate objective was to infiltrate the Underground Prison without drawing attention. Cardinal Batroy possessed the power to grant me entry easily enough, but such an approach would be far too conspicuous.
It would appear as though I were acting under his direct command, nothing more. I needed to find another way.
I observed the guards stationed at the Underground Prison with careful eyes. Their vigilance was absolute. This was undoubtedly the most heavily fortified location in the entire Holy Kingdom.
Breaching that barrier silently with my own strength alone seemed impossible.
“What should I do?”
I had boasted that I would find a method and slip inside on my own. Yet from the very start, I faced an impasse. After deliberating for some time, a particular face surfaced in my mind, and I changed direction, moving elsewhere.
After traveling for a while, I arrived at the barracks of a Knight Order. The moment I knocked on the door, it swung open with the sound of someone scrambling from within.
“Who is it… wait? Who are you? Aren’t you Shin Ju-ha the Player!”
“That’s right. Is your leader here?”
“Your leader…? Ah! You mean Knight Commander Barclay. He should be arriving soon. The midday training is nearly finished. Please, come inside and wait.”
I stepped into the interior of the Knight Order’s barracks. A vast space revealed itself, adorned with statues of the deity they revered scattered throughout.
“Please, have some tea while you wait.”
I accepted the tea offered by the Junior Knight with a smile, and the moment the liquid touched my lips—
〚A lethal toxin has infiltrated your body!〛
〚You have ingested one drop of Pralisilbe’s deadly venom [Epic-SS-]!〛
My eyes widened as I turned my gaze toward the Junior Knight, who continued smiling innocuously.
What? What is this? Did I just drink poisoned tea? When was the poison added?
I set the cup back down on the table. Heat surged through my body. Yet I felt no alarm.
Whoosh!
The flames erupting from my form incinerated such pathetic toxins entirely.
Solar Divine Art
Solar Heart Method
Solar Sacred Domain
“My, my! You survived. You truly are no ordinary person.”
“You…? What are you?”
The Junior Knight continued smiling vacuously at my words. That expression, now verging on the grotesque, sent a chill down my spine as I drew my blade.
The gleaming edge of the Myriad Fates Demon Sword pointed directly at the Junior Knight. Yet he remained seated naturally, maintaining that identical smile.
“You destroyed the chess piece I so carefully constructed. I had planned to use it to sow chaos when the festival began. And you even slew one of our Demon Palace’s own. That fool’s Demon companion was obliterated as well, was it not? I found it rather vexing. Our grand scheme draws near, and yet such irritating obstacles arise.”
A Junior Knight. And yet not a Junior Knight. Yes, like a puppet, he merely repeated words that someone else was speaking through him.
I pondered for a moment, then let out a soft chuckle before speaking.
“Where are you right now, Cardinal?”
For the first time, the grotesquely serene and affable smile vanished from the Junior Knight’s face. As if such emotions had never existed from the beginning.
In its place came anger and irritation.
“You know far too much.”
“What is this? A puppet? What exactly are you trying to accomplish here?”
“You need not know. Simply die. And become the criminal who murdered a knight, cast out and hunted.”
Bulge! Bulge! Fwoooosh!
As if on cue, the Junior Knight’s body swelled grotesquely, and the moment the training-weary Knight Order opened the door, he detonated.
Boom!
Countless fragments of flesh scattered in all directions. The knights entering through the door and I both gasped at the sight before us.
“Insane bastard.”
I looked down at my body, drenched in blood, and frowned. Things had taken a strange turn.
“What the hell! What did you do over there!”
“Don’t move! Stay still and put your hands up!”
“If you take even one step, we’ll consider you a heretic and execute you on the spot!”
“Junior Knight! Junior Knight! What did they do to you!”
They rushed toward me, roughly knocked me down, and tried to pin my head under their feet and bind me, but they froze when they saw my face.
“Shin Ju-ha Player? How are you here? And what is this?”
I let out an exasperated sigh and gestured with my chin toward the cup sitting on the desk.
“Poison. They tried to kill me. And then they self-destructed. It was blood sorcery used by Ma-in.”
At my words, the knights’ eyes swept across the surroundings before settling on the cup.
“I’ll verify it. We have antidote potions, so there shouldn’t be a problem. If needed, we can also ask the higher-ups.”
Without hesitation, he drank the tea from the cup, and surprisingly, nothing happened.
“Ha… I’ve been properly caught.”
I realized it then. This Holy Kingdom was nothing more than that demon bastard’s front yard. And I was a rat trapped in poison.
“What should we do? Should we arrest them…?”
The knights turned their gaze to their leader, and he nodded with a grave expression.
As the knights rushed toward me, I exerted my power. There was no time to waste on this nonsense.
“I apologize. I don’t have time for this right now. I need to resolve this damned situation.”
In an instant, The Sun’s Sanctuary unfolded, and I knocked out each of the knights one by one.
“This makes it much harder to claim innocence. We all saw the Junior Knight burst on their own. A scene this bizarre would certainly be attributed to Ma-in’s doing, and we could testify to that. It will be difficult to be released before the Festival of Lights, but afterward, you should be able to receive a not guilty verdict with proper defense.”
“I’m sorry, Knight Commander Barclay. But the Festival of Lights is real. That demon bastard seems to be planning something during the festival. You heard it too. Who the demon is.”
“The Cardinals couldn’t possibly… Why would they?”
I didn’t want to hear anymore. I moved forward to strike his neck, but I stopped.
“Wait. If I get arrested now, I’ll be imprisoned in the Underground Prison, right?”
At my question, Knight Commander Barclay tilted his head before nodding.
“Given that it’s within the Holy Kingdom and you’re accused of killing a knight, you’ll be confined to the most secure location there.”
This… this might actually work. I reached out my hands to him.
“Put me in the Underground Prison. I need to know what Ma-in is planning down there. I’m sorry, but help me just this once. I’m asking as repayment for saving your life.”
Knight Commander Barclay hesitated, then looked back and forth between the statue on the wall and the flesh scattered across the entire 1st Floor. Finally, he squeezed his eyes shut and nodded.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
As chains were fastened around my hands, feet, and neck, I felt the discomfort, but I nodded at him as if to say it was fine, and he roughly began dragging me away.
Toward the Underground Prison. Not long after, when we arrived before those heavily guarded gates, two guards thrust their spears at us and shouted.
“Halt! Who goes there!”
“Identify yourself!”
“I am Barclay, Commander of the Heinix Knight Order. Here is my pass.”
After a brief identity check, the guard lowered his spear.
“What about the bastard next to you?”
At those words, Knight Commander Barclay glared at me as if I were a mortal enemy, his face twisted with rage.
“This cursed heretic bastard stormed into our Knight Orders and brutally murdered our comrades!! Before he receives a proper trial, I intend to throw him in prison first! Let him suffer and regret every wretched thing he’s done!”
At those words, the two guards’ eyes blazed with fury as they glared at me. It was the righteous anger of fellow knights.
“Understood. Then hand him over to us. We’ll lock him away properly.”
“Yes, and you’ll have plenty to do cleaning up the incident, won’t you?”
“No! Please. Let me do it. Just give me ten minutes. Please. Just ten. I want to see this cursed bastard suffer! The face of that Junior Knight, laughing at us just moments ago—it’s still vivid in my mind!”
His words put them in quite a predicament, but seeing such genuine rage, they couldn’t refuse. If that emotion, that resentment, that fury were fake, he wouldn’t be serving as a knight here.
He’d have debuted as an actor by now.
“Tsk. Exactly ten minutes. Here’s the key. Lock him up and come back. As you know, only the 1st Floor is permitted. You absolutely cannot go below the 2nd Floor. Even if you wanted to throw this bastard into hell itself, that’s off-limits. Understood?”
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of borrowing anyone else’s hands. I’ll simply make sure he waits for the day he dies in agony.”
Tap, tap. The guard patted Knight Commander Barclay on the shoulder and opened the prison door, allowing us to enter.
Creak! Bang!
The moment the door closed behind us, I straightened from my hunched posture and shattered the fake chains binding my hands.
“Thank you. I’m indebted to you.”
“…That’s all I could do for you. I still don’t fully understand.”
“If you need someone to blame, blame me while you wait. I swear I’ll find the true culprit and make them kneel before you. That will repay this overwhelming debt.”
Whoosh!
Holy flames blazed in my eyes as I turned and moved forward.
‘Not the 1st Floor.’
As the guards said, the 1st Floor held only common criminals guilty of serious crimes. It made no sense that something orchestrated this with such pawns.
I pressed onward. Until I could see the stairs leading to the 2nd Floor.
***
Meanwhile, at that very moment. The Main Gate of the Holy Kingdom. A group of people arrived in grand fashion.
“Halt. Who are you?”
“Greetings. We have brought the two final candidates selected from Earth for this generation’s Saint competition.”
At those words, the guard quickly snapped to attention and saluted. With admiration and respect gleaming in his eyes, he glanced at the two carriages carrying the Saint candidates and opened the gate.
“Thank you. May the blessing of the sacred be with you.”
“May the blessing of the sacred be with you.”
After the two Saint candidates’ carriages entered, the final carriage appeared. The guards made no move to stop it this time.
And for good reason—the emblem painted on that carriage was one only a single person could use: this generation’s Saint.
The Saint inside the carriage passed them with a cold, piercing gaze, and the Main Gate closed firmly shut once more.
As if to say that no prey could escape from this vast cage.
And unlike the candidates’ carriages, the Saint’s carriage headed directly to a certain Cardinal’s office.
“It’s been a long time, Cardinal Aoira.”
“Indeed it has, Saint Isabella.”
The two greeted each other with genuine, unguarded smiles, heralding the beginning of this grand festival.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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