I’m a Holy Knight, but I Contracted with an Evil God - Chapter 43

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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 43.
His eyes had opened, yet every muscle in his body screamed with pain.
If anything, the agony only intensified as consciousness returned, as though his muscles themselves were crying out in protest.
His lungs felt strangled by rope, each breath a sharp sensation like fragments of glass embedding themselves in his chest.
His vision swam as if submerged underwater, and thousands of buzzing wasps seemed trapped in his ears, their relentless drone filling his skull.
In that confusion, the first thing Leon noticed was a foreign sensation digging into his left palm.
…….
Leon instinctively clenched his fist.
At the same moment, from the center of his left palm where the Stigma lay, a sharp jolt shot through him, and he felt something hard—no larger than his thumbnail.
‘I was holding this when I passed out?’
The Fragment remained gripped in Leon’s hand, exactly as it had been when he lost consciousness.
Even if all the power it contained had been absorbed completely through his Stigma, the shell of the Fragment alone would still be necessary to restore Ecrijae’s blade.
So in that sense, things had worked out well.
Then, Ecrijae’s voice—lower and heavier than usual—pierced his mind.
【You overdid it.】
The tone carried both disdain and something like regret.
The moment that complex mixture of emotions reached him, Leon felt irritation flare up—and simultaneously, a rhythmic vibration transmitted through the floor beneath him, rippling through his entire body.
As the jolting motion continued, his body swayed gently, and the grinding sound of wheels crushing gravel cut through the buzzing in his ears.
Only then did Leon realize he wasn’t lying on a bed, but on a moving carriage.
The moment his consciousness grasped reality’s sensations, a familiar voice reached his ears—not from within his mind this time, but from beside him.
“Leon? Leon! Are you… are you awake?”
Efrisio, perhaps.
Leon thought this as he struggled to peel open his reluctant eyelids.
Worry was thick in the voice calling his name.
He tried to move his lips to answer, but they barely cooperated.
“No, don’t… don’t push yourself. Your fever’s still high……”
In the end, Leon merely nodded his head slightly, keeping his stubborn eyelids and lips closed.
Whether Efrisio had truly understood the gesture was questionable, but Leon’s vision was still spinning, his stomach churning, and he had no strength left to hold on.
He felt as though he might slip back into unconsciousness at any moment, the weight of it pressing down on him.
Still, responding to external stimuli was entirely different from conversing with Ecrijae in his mind.
In fact, with Efrisio at his side like this, now was precisely the right moment for such a conversation.
To anyone watching, he appeared to be a gravely ill patient who had lost consciousness; what thoughts or words passed through his mind made no difference.
So Leon, eyes still closed, lashed out sharply at Ecrijae in his thoughts.
‘Explain what’s happening.’
【Surely I told you from the beginning that you must accept the Side Effects.】
‘You could have at least warned me about the expected results.’
【There was no time for such explanations, and even if there had been, would your choice have changed?】
The riposte struck true, and Leon found himself without words.
He wanted to protest, wanted it desperately—but Ecrijae was right.
Even if this suffering had been foreseen, his choice would not have changed.
Yet Leon still struggled to suppress the rage boiling within him.
‘Then why is this happening?’
【It is my Fragment. Not mere scraps, but genuine power—and you consumed all of it in a single moment. Your worthless body had no choice but to overload.】
‘The power I absorbed was too much?’
【Yes. And your body is now adapting to that power. Once this ordeal passes, your body will become far more useful.】
Adaptation.
If Ecrijae spoke truth, it was a Side Effect worth enduring.
‘I’ll need to lie here for days. How long do you think this will take?’
【If we’re fortunate, three days. If luck abandons us, a week.】
‘A week? Absolutely not. If it’s a week, I’ll arrive at the Order’s Stronghold in this condition!’
【There is a way, however.】
Ecrijae added calmly, sensing Leon’s panic.
【The method is the same as before. The foreign power is clumped around your left hand where the Stigma lies, is it not? Circulate it from that center, and let your body adapt.】
‘That’s easier said than done…!’
Even as Leon groaned his frustration, he began to circulate the power according to Ecrijae’s guidance.
Indeed, the Fragment’s power absorbed through the Stigma had remained clotted and stagnant around the mark all the while Leon had been unconscious.
Leon took a deep breath and carefully began to circulate that power.
“…Gack!”
“Leon! Leon!”
Just as first impressions suggested, the power contained in the intact Fragment was both formidable and venomous.
But he had to see it through.
Before reaching the Order’s Stronghold, he would master this power completely, make it wholly his own.
* * *
How many times had he lost and regained consciousness?
Each time awareness surfaced, Leon was seized by a ferocious fever.
The oppressive, dusty heat of the red desert that had weighed on his lungs churned in his veins with the power embedded in the Fragment, roiling without end.
It felt as though an endless war were raging inside his own body—a sensation that persisted without mercy.
Only when he finally managed to suppress and digest that vast power, to sit upright once more, did Leon become aware of the strange transformation taking place within him.
“…….”
After a full week of suffering under a bone-scorching, relentless fever, his body appeared withered at first glance, but its interior told an entirely different story.
The Fragment of Ecrijae that he’d devoured through the Stigma collided violently with Leon’s existing power, forcing itself to coil and integrate.
As the nearly empty vessel of the Stigma and the veins throughout his entire body finally managed to chew and swallow that raw chaos, in the wake of the tremendous force that had swept through him, a refined and tranquil energy now flowed with deceptive serenity.
Having endured those agonizing days, within the young boy’s body there now dwelt a power immeasurably deeper and heavier than before—a power of an entirely different order.
Though he was now exhausted in the aftermath of his ordeal, drained of all vigor, the quality and caliber of the power now consolidated within him had unmistakably changed.
“A-are you all right?”
At Efrisio’s trembling question from beside him, Leon responded not with words but with a slow nod.
For days he had managed nothing but groans, so much so that opening his parched, cracked lips felt like an ordeal in itself.
Efrisio examined Leon’s complexion and handed him the medicinal tea he had brewed, and Leon accepted the cup and wet his throat.
“…….”
Beyond the swaying carriage window stretched an endless expanse of pristine snow and dark coniferous forest.
Gone were the hellish blood-red ditches and foul reek of the Eastern Region.
In place of the bloodstained earth lay the fresh white landscape of snow-capped peaks.
This stark contrast in color awakened in Leon the realization that he had finally returned—to the Arsera Mountain Range, to the Order’s Stronghold.
As he drew in the cold, still air deeply, the organs that had been burning finally seemed to cool.
Leon wetted his parched throat with more of the medicinal tea, then forced out words through his damaged voice.
“What happened… after that?”
His voice was hoarse and fractured, yet the meaning came through clearly.
At the question, Efrisio’s complexion darkened at once.
The boy gnawed at his lower lip anxiously, then opened his mouth carefully, mindful of any listeners outside the carriage.
“Yes… after you collapsed, m-many things… happened…….”
“I see. It seems so.”
“After you… fell, ab-about a w-week has passed…….”
Efrisio stammered far more than usual as he gathered his words.
Like someone deeply nervous, or someone aware of something unspoken.
And Leon thought he understood where Efrisio’s attention was truly directed.
The moment Leon had sat upright, he felt a sharp, watchful presence from outside the carriage.
‘……It doesn’t seem to be Tristan.’
Then it must be Sion.
Only another Elite Knight of Leon’s standing could possibly sense movements within a moving carriage with such keenness—not Tristan.
Tristan’s senses were relatively dull in such matters, and by temperament, had he noticed Leon stirring, he would have yanked the carriage door open at once rather than lingering at a distance to observe.
Leon lowered his eyes and gave his attention to Efrisio’s continuing words.
“P-people in Orden are being c-collected, and those in s-serious condition are being s-selected and brought to the Order…….”
“Those in serious condition?”
“W-wounds have been mostly h-healed, but there are p-people who still have Contamination r-remaining…….”
“I see.”
Leon nodded and waited for Efrisio to continue.
Until the boy finally spoke again, after hesitating for some time.
“And… that is… L-Lord Arcadius…….”
The moment Efrisio had said that much, Leon raised his hand to stop him from going further.
And almost simultaneously, the carriage door swung open.
“What’s this, kid. You’re finally awake?”
The face that appeared in the open doorway belonged to Tristan.
He looked more composed than when they’d wandered through the Eastern Region together, though weariness from the long journey still clung heavily to him.
“You all right?”
Though the question was clearly directed at Leon, Tristan’s gaze turned toward Efrisio.
It was the manner of a physician checking a patient’s condition with his assistant.
Efrisio nodded, still visibly tense.
“H-he’s much better now. His f-fever has come down…….”
“Good to hear. I was afraid he’d just kick the bucket.”
Rough-edged as the words were, beneath them lay worry and relief for a comrade who had been gravely ill for so long.
Reading the sincerity in his eyes, Leon bit back a smile threatening to break free and opened his mouth.
“I apologize for the trouble.”
“If you know, then get up quickly. Efrisio can’t leave the carriage because of you.”
The irritable rebuke wasn’t entirely unwelcome.
But the words that followed, spoken in a lowered voice, left Leon no choice but to tense.
“Sion’s been looking to press you on it, so prepare your excuses.”
Tristan gave a brief glance over his shoulder and turned his body to block the view.
Though Tristan was deliberately obscuring his line of sight, Leon could feel through his characteristic sharp senses Sion’s piercing gaze fixed on the carriage where he was convalescing.
At the same time, he could easily discern what Sion was prepared to interrogate him about.
【This has become troublesome.】
‘I saw it coming… but this really is going to be annoying.’
If he went back and lived it again, he would make the same choice.
Though it was certainly reckless, Leon had undoubtedly made the best decision possible.
Though unintended, the Side Effect had at least bought him some time.
‘……I’ll have to keep playing sick until we reach the Order’s Stronghold.’
【Wait. Didn’t you tell that grumbler earlier you’d be up soon?】
‘While I’m playing the patient, Sion won’t push the issue. I’ll have to use that time to think of a way to handle this.’
It was true that after days of doing nothing but circulating his inner power and sleeping, his strength had been drained.
And it was also true that the fever coming and going during those days had made him look like a genuine patient.
【Certainly it seemed like you’d be interrogated the moment you came to your senses.】
‘There’s all the trust built up until now. Plus, with not one but two senior Elite Knights around, they probably figured a dying man wouldn’t get far anyway.’
【So you’re a caught fish, then?】
‘That’s probably what they think.’
Of course, Leon had no intention of being led along so docilely.
While Leon ceaselessly devised countermeasures, the carriage rolled steadily onward.
And two days after Leon had fully regained consciousness.
The carriage arrived at Karth, a town under the Order’s jurisdiction located at the foot of the Arsera Mountain Range.
To be continued ▶
A Holy Knight in Contract with an Evil God
Author
Lam Dat
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Contact
[email protected]
Publication Date
March 27, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227066
※ This e-book is protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and copying are prohibited, and violation of these terms may result in criminal and civil liability.
※ Pentagram welcomes precious manuscripts from authors.

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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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