I’m a Holy Knight, but I Contracted with an Evil God - Chapter 53

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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 53.
Corbin’s gaze fixed on the center of the stage, and all warmth drained from his eyes.
The smile he habitually wore had already vanished.
“Do you know what that is?”
“Know it? That’s Adbenae’s Tears—a Sacred Relic the Church lost years ago.”
“That’s Adbenae’s Tears?”
Adbenae’s Tears.
One of the Sacred Relics held by the Church of Light, it had once gleamed with golden radiance when it measured Leon’s Sacred Power at his initiation.
It was the kind of object deemed profane even to appraise.
“How could it be here…?”
As Corbin murmured those words, his jaw tightened visibly.
Despite his usual flippant demeanor, Corbin appeared to be quite the devout believer.
His genuine indignation at the Church’s lost Sacred Relic reduced to a common black-market auction lot was evident in every line of his face.
Leon’s indignation was real as well, though his reasons differed.
‘So that’s how Adbenae’s Tears disappeared.’
【What’s its purpose?】
‘Simply put, it’s an amplifier. It can turn even an ordinary healing Priest into someone like Efrissio.’
Before the regression, when Corruption swept across the Western Region, if Adbenae’s Tears had remained in hand, the death toll might have been halved.
The Corruption spread erratically from every corner until it engulfed the entire Western Region in an instant, and there were never enough healing Priests to neutralize or treat the affliction.
Had Adbenae’s Tears stayed safe in the Church’s possession, many more lives could have been saved.
But.
【Still, the stench is overwhelming.】
‘It’s corrupted.’
No one else in the room—not even Corbin—could sense it, but Leon could feel it clearly.
The Sacred Relic, which should have been luminous and pure, gave off a rank, filthy odor.
Corbin, unaware of this truth, muttered under his breath.
“I’ll have to bid for it.”
Though its condition won’t be intact.
Leon swallowed the rest of his words.
“I’ll have no choice but to join the auction. The problem is…”
Corbin glanced again toward the ornately masked woman seated across the way.
The one Leon had deduced to be Princess Lisabeta.
“The highest-ranking guest here seems quite interested in Adbenae’s Tears.”
“At that level, she doesn’t even seem to be trying to hide her identity.”
Corbin nodded in agreement.
The Princess appeared deeply interested in the newly presented item.
Though she lounged against her chair with an air of disinterest, her blue eyes beneath the mask gleamed with fascination.
“A legendary Sacred Relic of Arseliel, Adbenae’s Tears! A genuine article procured with great difficulty, possessing rarity enough in itself!”
As the two exchanged words, the auction commenced.
The auctioneer’s cry was the sort that would make the devout of Arseliel gnash their teeth, yet neither Leon nor Corbin stepped forward.
Their presence in this Auction House was meant to remain secret.
“Given the nature of the item, we’ll begin at a reasonable price. The opening bid is three hundred thousand!”
Considering the previous lot had closed at three hundred thousand Gold, Adbenae’s Tears was priced quite high from the start.
It was a figure entirely justified when one considered the Sacred Relic’s efficacy.
With the auctioneer’s proclamation, the hall grew fervent.
“Four hundred! We have four hundred thousand!”
The price, which had been climbing by tens of thousands, shot past five hundred thousand the moment the Princess joined the bidding.
Just as Corbin had analyzed, the Princess bid without hesitation, making no attempt to conceal her identity.
Leon, observing the situation, leaned close to Corbin and whispered.
“Would it be ideal if she spent her money and acquired nothing?”
“Hm? That would be nice, but is that even possible?”
“It will be. Only—no matter what happens, don’t stop me.”
Corbin looked at him with an expression that made clear he had no idea what madness Leon was about to attempt.
Leon smiled at Corbin and then raised his voice toward the auction floor.
“Seven hundred thousand.”
The noise in the hall evaporated in an instant.
The moment Leon entered the bidding, the Princess—confident in her victory—turned her head sharply in his direction.
The mask obscured her precise expression, but her blue eyes blazed with unmistakable displeasure.
That gaze was unmistakably the look of someone regarding a trespasser daring to lay hands on what was hers.
Leon sensed Corbin’s alarm beside him but met that blazing stare directly.
Sparks flew in the tension between them.
【Do you have the funds? I doubt your adoptive father gave you that much.】
‘No. I don’t. But the Princess does.’
【You’re planning to write a bad check? What if the Princess won’t be drawn in?】
‘She will. That woman can’t stand to lose.’
Though Leon had encountered her only a handful of times before the return, and each had been brief, there was one thing he knew for certain about the Princess.
Her possessive nature was formidable—once she set her sights on something as hers, she would never let it slip away.
In this situation, with the auction already half-decided, if competition arose, she would spare no expense to claim it.
And creating that pressure was precisely Leon’s goal.
‘Even if the Princess withdraws her bid, it doesn’t matter. Then I’ll raise hell with Corbin and slip away with Adbenae’s Tears.’
【Then again, you’d prefer the latter, wouldn’t you?】
‘Not really. It’s tedious. I’d rather the Princess fall for the mind game.’
Leon replied thus, his gaze fixed on the direction where the Princess sat.
In the instant their eyes locked again beyond their masks, Leon’s mouth curved into an oblique smile.
It was a transparent provocation.
“Seven hundred fifty thousand! We have seven hundred fifty thousand!”
As expected, the Princess did not shy from Leon’s challenge.
The moment she raised her paddle to increase the bid, Leon called out the next sum.
“Eight hundred thousand.”
“Eight hundred! We have eight hundred thousand!”
“Eight hundred fifty.”
“Nine hundred.”
“Two million.”
The air in the hall froze at the steeply ascending figure.
Two million.
Two million gold.
A year’s operating funds for a modest fiefdom were being scattered into the void over a bottle no larger than a palm.
“He’s, he’s mad…!”
Corbin seized Leon’s sleeve with a face gone pale, but Leon remained unmoved.
All the while, he kept his gaze fixed on the ornate mask that still bore down on him unflinching.
He could see the Princess’s lips tremble faintly beneath the mask’s exposed portions.
Leon deliberately twisted his mouth in a sneer.
‘Go higher. You have more, don’t you?’
As if uttering those very words, his mockery shattered the last thread of the Princess’s reason.
“Two million fifty thousand.”
“Two million one hundred.”
“…Two million one hundred twenty!”
As she cried out, her fan opened and concealed her masked face.
Steel rang through her voice, and eyes burning ice-blue refused to release Leon from their grip.
“Two million one hundred twenty! Do we have any further bids?”
The auctioneer regarded Leon with tense eyes.
He was not alone.
Every eye in the hall turned toward Leon.
“……”
Leon paused for a moment, then stepped back with a gesture of great regret, waving both hands into the air.
Victory belonged to the Princess.
Even if it was a hollow one.
“Two million one hundred twenty thousand gold! Hammer down! Adbenae’s Tears is sold for two million one hundred twenty thousand gold!”
The auctioneer’s voice trembled as he announced the close.
All eyes in the hall turned toward the ornately masked woman who had claimed the prize.
Beneath her half-mask, the Princess wore a triumphant smile.
Yet Leon did not miss the faint tremor in her hand as it gripped the fan.
‘Yes, even for a Princess, two million one hundred twenty thousand is a painful sum.’
Leon returned her gaze with a smile equally triumphant.
In that smile, untouched by shadow, the Princess realized something had gone terribly wrong.
Crash!
With an eardrum-splitting explosion, the iron gates of the auction house tore apart in ruin.
Through the chaos of the entrance poured shadows in jet-black cloaks, like a waterfall cascading down.
Black cloaks bearing the emblem of silver oak leaves and silver swords.
“Banisser?”
The Auction House erupted in chaos as a broad-shouldered man burst through the doors.
The moment Leon saw his face, he recognized him instantly.
Wolfram Hagen—the vice-commander of the Banisser Enforcement Knights he’d encountered at the Imperial Banquet days ago.
The shadows at his back were dressed identically, and with Wolfram leading from the front, it was almost certain they were all members of the Banisser Enforcement Knights.
“What are the Banisser Enforcement Knights doing here?”
With that muttered curse, Leon’s and Corbin’s eyes met.
No complex calculation was needed.
If Banisser had descended without warning, it was almost certainly related to a Heresy Purge.
Getting caught here would only complicate matters.
Reaching the same conclusion simultaneously, Leon and Corbin bolted toward the center of the stage—where the back exit connected—rather than the main entrance.
But the situation proved far less cooperative.
“Wait—!”
In the confusion, just as Leon reached for Adbenae’s Tears, he caught sight of someone else snatching it away and fleeing—by mere inches.
The silhouette looked like it belonged to the princess’s entourage, and though he meant to give chase immediately, the panicked nobles scattering in all directions and the Banisser knights indiscriminately swinging their blades barred his path.
……
In that urgent moment, a flicker of silence passed, and Corbin’s expression turned to ice.
The easy smile he’d worn was already shed like a discarded skin.
Corbin thrust Leon’s sword back into his hands and drew from his coat a dagger that gleamed with a cold light.
“Secure the item.”
The item could only mean Adbenae’s Tears.
Before Leon could even respond, Corbin crouched low and charged toward the Banisser knight blocking their way.
The auction lights shattered in the tumult, and the interior sank into an abyss where nothing could be seen even an arm’s length ahead.
Though screams and the reek of blood obscured his vision, Leon possessed something no one else did—a compass all his own.
【The stench trembles with resonance.】
Through Adbenae’s Tears becoming corrupted, that foul trace paradoxically became a beacon clearer than any lamp in the darkness.
Leon sharpened his senses to a razor’s edge.
Piercing through the wall of screams and chaotic noise, he began to sprint in pursuit of the direction Adbenae’s Tears had vanished.
To be continued ▶
A Holy Knight in Contract with an Evil God
Author
Lam Dat
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Publishing House
Grae Publishing
Contact Email
[email protected]
Publication Date
March 27, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227066
※ This e-book is protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution is prohibited, and violation may result in 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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