I’m a Holy Knight, but I Contracted with an Evil God - Chapter 35

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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 35.
“Can you read the Eastern script?”
After pocketing the Fragment of Eclerize and examining the Arcane Circle, Tristan approached once he finished confirming the Contaminated Creature’s corpse.
His question carried a note of genuine admiration.
As if to say, ‘You know that too?’
It seemed his assessment of Leon had risen considerably after what had just transpired.
“No.”
“Ah, damn. I thought—”
At that, Tristan let out an exaggerated groan of disappointment and settled beside the Arcane Circle.
Though it seemed half-jest, performed for show.
What actually troubled Leon was something else entirely.
“Is your wound alright?”
“My wound?”
“You seem to be moving with difficulty.”
As Leon said this, he glanced toward the imbalance in Tristan’s weight distribution.
Uncanny bastard.
Tristan gave a bitter laugh and shook his head.
“It’s not bad enough to stop me moving.”
“But you do need a healer, don’t you?”
“Not urgent.”
This was the judgment of an elite knight—no novice, but one whose experience ran deep.
He wouldn’t be foolish enough to misread his own body’s condition.
Accepting Tristan’s blunt answer without further question, Leon changed the subject.
Toward the characters Tristan was scrutinizing within the Arcane Circle.
“Can you interpret them?”
“Not all of it—only some. They’re archaic, not modern script, which makes it harder. I can read the characters, but I don’t understand what some of it means.”
Tristan’s expression had grown quite serious as he nodded slowly.
Rather than press for details, Leon turned to Eclerize with a silent question.
‘You can’t read it?’
【How should I know human script? What folly.】
‘Yet you act as though you know everything.’
【And you yourself know it not, do you? At least I have lived longer than that grumbler.】
‘Regression—yes, of course. But the Eastern Region is different.’
Before his return, Leon’s primary theater of operations had been the Western Region.
Most of the Western Region, including Elderit, had been laid waste by corruption, so naturally Leon’s duties had been concentrated there.
Thanks to Leon preventing Elderit’s tragedy, the Western Region had remained untouched thus far; yet regardless of Tristan’s admiration, Leon found the Eastern Region’s customs genuinely unfamiliar.
【Yet you seemed quite fond of the Desert’s spirits.】
‘…That’s different.’
【Ah, so that’s different too, is it?】
Leaving Eclerize’s mockery behind, Leon’s gaze shifted back to Tristan.
Tristan was still working through the characters of the Arcane Circle.
Though it seemed the task was nearly complete.
“…This is difficult.”
“Are you finished?”
“With the interpretation, yes. But I don’t understand what any of it actually means.”
“What does it say?”
At Leon’s question, Tristan’s brow furrowed deeply.
And with a reluctant expression, he read aloud the characters from the Arcane Circle.
“Seal the flesh wrought from crimson clay within a golden crucible. Draw forth the water from the darkest depths and boil it together; then shall the corrupted bone and sinew crumble to ash, and at last true form shall quicken. Those who endure the agony shall walk ever beside light that never dims throughout eternity.”
“…Is it a Sacred Rune?”
“I’m not sure. It reads like metaphor, yet also like something more.”
“When you first saw it, you said it was ‘Soul Binding.’ Is this the incantation for that?”
“No, it’s different. I understand the arcane principle well enough, but this isn’t what Soul Binding should be.”
“Then…”
Leon, too, found himself caught in thought, much like Tristan.
It resembled a metaphor of some kind, but without the broader context, grasping its true meaning proved difficult.
‘…Or does he really not know?’
Tristan may have been ignorant, but Leon knew certain things.
For instance, that a Fragment of Eclerize had been used in the creation of this Mutant Contaminated Creature.
And if he reinterpreted the text based on that knowledge…
‘This looks like notes on experimenting with your Fragment, doesn’t it?’
【Hmm, yes, it certainly reads that way.】
‘What exactly does it look like?’
【I can’t make out every precise detail, but it’s clear they were trying to create something using pieces of me. And the instructions—they read almost like a recipe.】
‘A recipe, you say.’
Leon felt a peculiar dissonance hearing Eclerize refer to human materials as ingredients in a recipe. He swept his gaze across the surroundings once more, methodically this time.
He needed to find something concrete—evidence that could ground his theory.
Material he could present to Tristan without a single leap of logic.
“Tristan.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you remember the Sacred Runes carved into the Chain that bound it?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.”
The memory appeared to be an unpleasant one; Tristan’s face darkened noticeably as he answered.
“Why do you ask?”
“I’ve already told you what happened in Silvaren Forest.”
“Yes… you did.”
“You also know that the Mutant I fought there was still clutching the bodies of Cepian and Ilbar. You’ve seen the report on the Silvaren Forest incident.”
The mention of Cepian’s name made Tristan’s gaze turn sharper, more feral.
There was an edge to him now that suggested violence if Leon’s next words rang hollow.
Leon chose each word with deliberate care.
“I believe Sacred Power was used in the Mutant’s creation, though I can’t yet say how.”
“What’s your basis?”
“The Mutant in Silvaren Forest regenerated its wounds on its own until its core was completely destroyed. This despite the fact that its base nature was that of a predator.”
“It could simply have had unusually strong regeneration. You wouldn’t know, but there are Mutants like that in the field—they exist.”
Tristan’s objection carried weight, Leon had to admit.
Though the premise of ‘you wouldn’t know’ was off the mark.
Leon offered a wry smile before continuing. “I was taught that natural Mutants require a certain foundational baseline. They can’t simply manifest from entirely different categories. And impossible results, I believe, point to artificial interference.”
“The Order hasn’t reached any conclusion yet on whether Mutant genesis involves artificial intervention or not.”
“True—not at the point we departed. But I suspect the Order will ultimately reach the same conclusion I have.”
“How can you be so certain? Everything you’ve said so far is nothing but contextual speculation. Circumstantial.”
“But if it happens not once, but twice—that stops being coincidence.”
As Leon spoke, his gaze shifted back toward the fractured Chain.
Tristan’s eyes followed his, and the older man’s expression made clear he understood Leon’s meaning perfectly.
“You’re saying this one was made the same way?”
“Yes.”
“Your reasoning is just a hypothesis.”
“It is. But I believe it’s a workable one. It would warrant resetting our investigative direction.”
Tristan fell silent, arms folded across his chest.
He seemed to be searching for a counterargument, yet his amber eyes had already conceded to Leon’s hypothesis.
The Sacred Runes inscribed on the Chain that had bound the Contaminated Creature.
The durability and regenerative capacity far beyond what an ordinary one would possess.
The hypothesis that it was an artificial construct was horrifying—but it was also, given what they knew, the most compelling explanation available.
“…Fine. Say you’re right.”
Tristan exhaled sharply and ran a hand through his hair, disheveling it.
“Then where would this artificial intervention have taken place? Certainly not here.”
“It couldn’t have been. If someone truly did this, they would have needed far more than just an Arcane Circle like this.”
“Right. So there’s a workshop somewhere, then…”
Tristan’s gaze turned razor-sharp as he scanned the surroundings.
For all his scrutiny, the area remained only sheer cliffs of the Red Corridor and desolate rubble.
No workshop—and indeed, not even the Carriage that both of them had chased into this place was visible.
“And where in the Nine Hells has that cursed Carriage vanished to? There’s nowhere here large enough to hide something that size—I’d wager there’s not even a mouse’s hole.”
Leon’s response was measured. “The Carriage likely unloaded its cargo and moved on. What matters isn’t the Carriage itself, but what they brought and where it went.”
As Tristan’s complaints resumed, Leon closed his eyes instead of elaborating further.
With sight cut off, his other senses sharpened considerably.
And among those heightened senses, something odd began to scratch at him—an unsettling discord.
‘Do you feel it?’
【Of course. There’s a foul stench assaulting my nostrils.】
As Leon focused his perception further, the wrongness beneath where they stood grew more pronounced.
With direction fixed, he opened his eyes and looked down—toward the Arcane Circle beneath their feet.

No, more precisely, toward something hidden beneath the Arcane Circle.
“Tristan.”
“What now.”
“You mentioned water from the darkest depths, didn’t you?”
As he spoke, Leon pointed to the center of the Arcane Circle, where the ground had sunk inward.
It was also the spot where Leon had hidden the Fragment of Eclerize while Tristan examined the Contaminated Creature’s corpse.
“This Arcane Circle—doesn’t it look rather like an entrance?”
“An entrance?”
Tristan’s expression grew puzzled as he leaned forward to examine the center Leon indicated.
Indeed, unless one looked carefully, a subtle crack running through the middle of the Arcane Circle would go unnoticed entirely.
Leon drew a dagger from his belt and without hesitation slashed his own left palm.
“What are you doing!”
Tristan cried out in alarm, but Leon let the flowing droplets fall into the center of the Arcane Circle.
Only then did he offer an explanation.
“Sacred Power dwells in blood as well. Since Corruption Sources would be difficult to handle directly, whoever set this trap likely used Sacred Power to activate it.”
The reasoning sounded plausible enough, but in truth, the blood Leon had let fall into the Arcane Circle’s center carried a faint trace of Eclerize’s essence mixed within it.
If they used fragments of Eclerize, wouldn’t something as potent as Eclerize’s full power work even better? That was the impulse behind what he’d done.
And his guess proved precisely correct.
Rumble-rumble-rumble……
With a sound like thunder, the crack at the circle’s center began to widen.
Within moments, the entrance had opened wide enough for two people to walk side by side with their shoulders nearly touching.
“What the hell.”
Tristan’s eyes darted between the gaping black entrance and Leon’s blood-smeared hand.
His amber eyes narrowed, mixing astonishment with suspicion.
“Where did you hear that Sacred Power dwells in blood?”
There was an edge of interrogation in his stare.
Not hostility, exactly—but doubt threaded through it.
“It’s true enough, but the idea that power can dwell in blood isn’t something you’d come up with if you’d only studied Arseliel’s teachings by the book. That’s closer to local thinking than Church doctrine.”
“…I developed a habit of browsing the archives.”
“Ah, so you found it there?”
“Let’s say I did.”
At such a brazen answer, Tristan’s eyes narrowed even further, but he soon gave a hollow laugh and nodded.
It was a thin excuse, but since the result was good, he’d let it slide well enough.
“Fine. Let’s go with that.”
Within the revealed entrance, dark stone steps descended into shadow, deep enough that their far end vanished from sight.
From that depth rose a coppery warmth and the stench of rotting water.
“It’s certainly deep enough to harbor a workshop or something of the sort.”
Leon spoke casually as he staunched his wound.
Tristan looked between Leon’s injury and the stairs, then let out an incredulous laugh.
“What are you, really? Some kind of fortune teller?”
“Logical deduction based on evidence.”
“It was logical, I’ll grant you that……”
Shaking his head in disbelief, Tristan drew his Twin Swords without hesitation.
His eyes grew serious once more.
“All right, fine. Thanks to you, we’ll save ourselves some trouble. If you’re right, their workshop should be waiting down there.”
“Presumably.”
“Let’s go.”
With that, Tristan took his first step down the staircase.
Leon adjusted his grip on his own blade and followed.
To be continued ▶
A Holy Knight in Contract with an Evil God
Author
Ram Dat
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 electronic book is protected by copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and copying are prohibited. Violation of this prohibition may result in criminal and civil liability.
※ Pentagram is waiting for the precious manuscript of the author.

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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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