I’m a Holy Knight, but I Contracted with an Evil God - Chapter 12

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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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Episode 12.
The ripple left by the first theoretical lesson was far greater than anticipated.
The raw insight Leon displayed had carved subtle fractures among the Candidates.
It went beyond mere resentment toward the parachute—it posed a fundamental question about which held more practical value: orthodox textbook knowledge or battlefield intuition.
Bertschello and a few others still dismissed Leon as “the sophistry of a baseless upstart,” but Ilbar and others had begun to regard him as an opponent who could no longer be ignored.
They sensed instinctively that Leon’s answers contained something absent from any manual yet strangely, undeniably persuasive.
And several days later.
The time for the second practical training had arrived.
At dusk, as the sun began to set.
Eight Candidates, Leon among them, assembled at the forest entrance east of the Order Fortress.
They were met not by the Old Professor who had conducted the theoretical lesson, but by a middle-aged Instructor whose weathered face bore the unmistakable marks of a man who had rolled through battlefields.
Leon studied the Instructor’s face.
His eyes held both a kind of anticipation and a sharp, testing edge.
After his duel with Ilbar and the Old Professor’s lecture, Leon was no longer a parachute to be dismissed at the whims of his peers.
After his Regression, Leon had made himself a vow.
And every hardship he faced now was merely one step in honoring that vow.
Securing the highest score in this training would mean far more than gaining a competitive advantage—it would officially establish his capabilities.
“Today’s training is Night Navigation and Infiltration.”
The Instructor distributed a Map, a Compass, and a single Signal Flare to each Candidate, then spoke.
“Once the sun sets, you’ll each enter the forest, reach the target location marked on your map, and retrieve the Proof Token waiting there. Scores will be awarded in order of return—whoever brings the token back first receives the highest marks. One rule: no interference or obstruction of any kind. This is a competition, not a battlefield where you must kill one another.”
The Instructor’s gaze swept across the Candidates in turn.
His eyes lingered slightly longer on Leon before moving on.
“The forest contains several devices designed to test your senses. If you rely only on instinct, you’ll lose your way. Use everything you’ve learned thus far. Any questions?”
No one spoke.
All eyes were fixed on the red dot on the map—the target location.
“Good. We begin at sunset.”
As the last rays of sunlight vanished beyond the western mountains, the Instructor’s quiet signal fell.
While everyone hesitated and studied their maps, it was a boy wearing thin-rimmed glasses who stepped forward first.
“The most efficient route is along the northeast ridge. The initial slope is steep, but once you reach the top, you’ll have clear sight lines and the shortest distance.”
The boy quickly calculated the optimal path by cross-referencing his map with his compass.
His voice carried the confidence of one who would allow not a single degree of error.
Ilbar nodded at Kyle’s analysis, adding his own assessment.
“Good judgment, Kyle. It’s the textbook route, which means we can handle any complications that arise. I think it’s safer if we all move together.”
Kyle’s analysis combined with Ilbar’s safety-conscious decision.
With the two of them in agreement, the other Candidates followed without hesitation.
It was theoretically perfect, correct, and orthodox.
Once the decision was made, seven Candidates vanished into the darkness with orderly steps.
But one. Leon alone remained behind, not following the other seven.
【You’re not going after them? It seems like a rational choice.】
“Rational, yes. The sort of perfect, rational judgment you’d find in a textbook.”
Leon watched the silhouettes of the other Candidates disappear into the darkness, his tone cold with contempt.
“It’s also the kind of judgment people make when they lack real experience.”
【You’re saying it differs from the textbook?】
“It does. This is a test. The examiner always sets traps along the path most people will choose.”
Leon answered Ecridze in that manner, glanced briefly at his map, then lifted his head to observe the actual forest.
Cold, dry air seeping through his nostrils; the smell of withered leaves.
Night wind sharp as a blade grazing his cheek; and in the distance, the strange cry of winter migratory birds.
Leon read the living landscape rather than performing calculations on paper.
“The others will agonize over how to efficiently break through the examiner’s traps. But I’m not walking into a trap at all.”
With that, Leon folded his map and tucked it away.
Instead of heading northeast like the others, he turned without hesitation toward the true north—where the thickets were sparser and the path rougher-looking.
* * *
“Damn it. A Sensory Distortion Device. The range is far wider than expected.”
Less than ten minutes after entering the forest, Kyle clicked his tongue.
The needle of the compass in his hand was spinning wildly.
A textbook distortion response.
“Just as I feared—the main route presents high difficulty from the start. Beyond simple directional confusion, the very flow of energy is subtly warped. Map-based calculations are becoming meaningless.”
Kyle muttered rapidly as he analyzed the situation.
By temperament, Kyle pursued perfection, and variables beyond his prediction bred only frustration.
Though Kyle had calculated his path not by map but by the topological coordinates held in his mind, the device was destabilizing even those.
But Kyle did not give up.
“There has to be a pattern. If we can find it, we can overcome this.”
“Don’t panic. That device the Instructor mentioned—I think this is it. Everyone maintain your bearing using your eyes and basic Night Navigation!”
Ilbar called out with composure, rallying the formation.
His voice carried a power that quieted the chaos.
The other Candidates followed Ilbar’s instruction, orienting themselves by the North Star and calculating their stride length as they pressed forward, but navigating the mountain at night with their senses scrambled consumed far more stamina than expected.
The moment they barely passed through the sensory distortion zone, a thick fog greeted them instead.
“…… Illusion Magic?”
Someone let out a low moan.
In the fog so dense that they couldn’t see even an arm’s length ahead, the shapes of trees wavered grotesquely.
They thought they were walking straight, but when they regained their senses, they were circling in place.
The Candidates chanted the prayers they’d learned to dispel illusions and drew upon their Sacred Power to block sensory distortion, but the fog refused to lift.
Kyle spoke through clenched teeth, his face rigid.
“Too many variables.”
His perfect plan was falling apart catastrophically from the start.
At the rear of the formation, Bertschello and several others vented their frustration.
“Why didn’t you see this trap coming? This is your specialty!”
“Damn it, Kyle, can’t you do better?”
Their shouts were laced with anxiety and regret.
All the Candidates, including Kyle, were losing their usual composure as the situation unfolded beyond their expectations.
* * *
At the same moment, Leon moved serenely through the quiet forest.
Leon had no need for a Compass.
Instead of relying on a Compass, he gauged the cardinal directions by the moss clinging to bark and determined his position by the constellations in the night sky.
Above all, the Mountain Range surrounding the Order Fortress was nothing more than his front yard.
It was a place where he had spent more than half his life before the Regression.
Whatever tricks the Instructor had set up, they could not be truly dangerous—not when aimed at Candidates.
To Leon, for whom the terrain was familiar, such obstacles were hardly obstacles at all.
【Primitive, isn’t it?】
“That’s precisely why it works.”
Leon ignored Ecridze’s jab lightly as he walked.
And he stepped silently over fallen leaves that were crisp and frozen with frost.
Instead of raising a Torch, he relied on moonlight to find his way, and he followed the tracks left by animals without missing a single trace.
Leon moved along a path that existed rather than one that had been made.
“Strange.”
【What is?】
“It’s too quiet.”
The surroundings were far too silent.
It was natural that insects weren’t chirping as winter approached, but aside from the sound of wind rustling branches, he couldn’t hear even a small creature rustling about.
An artificial stillness.
At the same time, it was a stillness that was not unfamiliar to Leon.
‘…… Normally an ambush comes next.’
Leon scanned his surroundings.
And his gaze fell on the path directly ahead—the one that appeared widest and most level.
Leon crouched low and examined the ground by moonlight.
【It’s not that one.】
“Hmm?”
【A bit more to the left.】
At Ecridze’s interjection, Leon’s gaze shifted slightly leftward.
Only then could he spot it.
Between the roughly scattered fallen leaves, a thread of Magical Power gleaming with the faintest light.
A Resonance Barrier concealed with such cunning that no ordinary trainee could ever have detected it.
The moment one stepped on that line, everything in the surrounding area would either freeze solid or detonate.
Now he understood why beasts wouldn’t venture anywhere near this place.
【Ingenious. One wrong step and your ankle would be flying.】
“…… It probably doesn’t have quite that much power.”
【Are you certain?】
“Really?”
【Yes. Really and truly.】
Ecridze spoke with conviction in response to Leon’s dubious question.
The ability to perceive traps rooted in magical power belongs to the realm of senses that harness Sacred Power.
There would be no reason for Ecridze to lie, so his words were likely truth.
Through Ecridze, Leon had gained a force befitting his Sacred Mark, but having obtained such power so abruptly, his mastery of the senses required to wield it remained inevitably crude.
“It seems your side has the edge when it comes to detecting magical power.”
【You’re stating the obvious.】
“Fine. Then you handle the detection.”
【How did this conversation go in that direction?】
“Dividing the work will get us back faster.”
【Tsk, you cunning thing.】
Leon was fully aware that this passage existed to test someone.
Traps are invariably placed on the path that seems most comfortable and safe.
But as the magical barrier moments ago had proven, simply choosing a path that appeared difficult was insufficient grounds for sound judgment.
‘If this were a basic trap, we would have already passed it.’
It was a training trap designed for Candidates, not a live scenario.
The Candidates’ training level was too shallow for anything more complex.
Then what of that most rugged and forbidding rock ridge ahead?
“Ecridze, what about that ridge?”
【The rocky one? Hmm, it looks fine. At least it’s cleaner than the path where your ankle nearly got severed just now.】
“Good.”
With confirmation complete, Leon pressed his body against the rocky ridge without hesitation.
After a few steps, he paused and looked back the way he had come.
In the distance, faint lights moved confusedly through the mist and Sensory Distortion Device.
They were the Torches of other Candidates, burning away their strength as they wrestled with the traps.
“They haven’t even escaped the entrance yet.”
【The traps seem concentrated in that area.】
“Looks like it. They’re probably held up for at least ten, maybe fifteen minutes or more.”
Leon replied with a satisfied smile playing at his lips.
Had he triggered nothing from the start, it would be one matter, but once caught, escaping a trap would demand considerable time.
The Instructor and the Candidates differed in capability by that degree.
Leon halted for a moment and drew in the forest air deeply.
In the darkness where all noise was shut out, Leon finally felt he had recovered the full sensation of the battlefield he remembered.
Mere knowledge cannot surpass experience.
Especially not in matters of survival.
Leon had already grasped that the true nature of the Instructor’s test was not to measure knowledge, but to examine insight into unforeseen situations and judgment born of experience.
Victory in this trial was now merely a matter of time.
Leon’s figure crossing through the darkness was unmistakably anomalous.
Yet his stride was more resolute than anyone else’s could have been.
The first glimpse of Leon, who had pierced through to the essence of the trial itself—and beyond it, the very essence of the battlefield—gleamed with cold clarity in the thick darkness.
Continued in the next episode ▶
A Holy Knight in Contract with an Evil God
Author
Ram Datch
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Inquiries
[email protected]
Publication Date
March 27, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227066
※ This e-book is protected by copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and distribution are prohibited, and violators may face criminal and civil liability.
※ Pentagram awaits your precious manuscripts.

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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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