I’m a Holy Knight, but I Contracted with an Evil God - Chapter 60

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 60.
In the tavern’s stifling heat, Leon ordered Jepi, a local spirit that carried the acrid smell of coal.
As two rough-hewn cups of liquor appeared on the table, the eyes of the two miners sitting across from him gleamed.
“I heard the mine collapsed. Do accidents like that happen often in Banka?”
The miners drained their cups in one gulp at Leon’s question, then answered with satisfied expressions.
“Mines can collapse any time without warning, but lately it seems to happen more often than usual.”
“It’s as if a curse has settled on us—accidents happen just when we’ve forgotten the last one.”
“Exactly. We’re already short-handed during our busiest season, and every accident that happens cuts our workforce down further. Those of us left behind are worked to the bone.”
“Even after an accident, you continue working?”
“The coal oil produced in Banka is the most valuable fuel in this region. Everything around here is barren rock, so timber supply is scarce and the winters are brutal. Because of that, even a small drop in production brings demands flooding in from all sides.”
“Wouldn’t it be simpler to recruit more workers if you’re understaffed?”
“The work is so grueling that nobody applies unless they’re experienced miners. And with accidents happening so frequently, we keep losing people—it’s a vicious cycle.”
Leon actively exploited his youthful appearance, feigning the widest-eyed curiosity of an innocent boy.
The miners, loosened by drink from a harmless-looking young knight, spilled information freely.
“I heard that a Holy Knight from Arseriel passed through here. Is that true?”
“Yes, indeed! Before this recent collapse, there was another major cave-in not long before that. They say a knight from Arseriel helped with the recovery effort. Apparently he was just passing through?”
“We miners pride ourselves on our strength, but that knight was on another level entirely. His frame was so massive that it took four grown men to move a boulder he could lift single-handedly, no problem. He wasn’t just any strong man.”
Overwhelming build. Monstrous strength.
The miners’ description could only refer to Bregar.
Leon hid the cold glint that flickered across his eyes and pressed further.
“When did that knight pass through?”
“About a month ago, I think?”
“It’s been more than a month. But less than two, I’d say?”
One to two months.
It was a long gap that didn’t fit with the trail Leon had followed using Baskes’ Monocle.
Where had those missing months in between gone?
‘He must have needed to cover his tracks.’
Doubt began to wedge itself deeper into Leon’s mind.
A knight who had stayed five days in Phnebeln and helped with disaster recovery here in Banka, yet had not attended the official banquet.
Even if Bregar’s name wasn’t on the official invitation list, he would certainly know that it was better to honor an imperial summons whenever possible.
The more Leon pieced together, the more inconsistencies accumulated.
“And then the mine collapsed again after that?”
“Don’t even speak of it. The truth is, it collapsed once more right after that too, so the mine has caved in twice since that knight’s visit.”
“Twice, you say?”
Leon’s brow deepened with suspicion.
If the mine had collapsed twice after Bregar left, then it meant two collapses had occurred within a span of less than two months.
At this point, shouldn’t they just seal it off for good?
The structural integrity was highly questionable.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, one of the miners, his face flushed crimson from drink, spoke up.
“Because of all that, there’s talk of sealing the mine permanently. Not just temporarily—they want to nail it shut completely. There’s no one left to work it, and it’s too dangerous.”
“When did the most recent accident occur?”
“Two days ago. They say there are people buried underneath, and they haven’t been able to recover them yet. That’s why the mine is under temporary closure now.”
“Are there any survivors trapped down there?”
“No, none. It’s not completely sealed, but the problem is people are buried and dead under the rubble.”
With that, the two miners launched into an endless tirade of grievances about the mine accidents.
【Thinking of going down there?】
‘I have to. I need to find out why Bregar ever went into that mine. Besides, Baskes’ Monocle is pointing in that direction anyway.’
* * *
As night deepened, Leon left the tavern and purchased Sky-Piercing Boots—a Banka specialty—from a general store.
The Sky-Piercing Boots were mountaineering boots with steel cleats densely studded into the sole, an essential item for anyone heading to the mine situated halfway up the mountainside.
Especially since Leon’s destination was not the main entrance to the mine, but rather a hidden side path.
【You’re always sneaking around like a cat burglar at night. What’s gotten into you?】
“I can’t help it. If I’m caught as a foreign stranger wandering in and out of the village’s closed mine, things will get complicated.”
Muttering so, Leon climbed the steep rock face and positioned himself on a crevice of the cliff wall where the collapsed entrance came into view.
What appeared on the surface was a hopeless ruin blocked by massive piles of stone, but Leon withdrew Baskes’ Monocle from his pocket.
As Leon channeled his power into it, Baskes’ Monocle began tracing a blue trajectory through the monochrome stone.
Based on Leon’s criteria—what constituted “the correct path to enter the mine.”
“The path… something feels off about it.”
The rockfall scattered across the entrance appeared at first glance to be chaotic rubble, but the “correct path” revealed by Baskes’ Monocle was deliberate.
As if an open passage had been cunningly concealed.
“Bregar left, and they say the mine collapsed again after that. I was ready to move the rocks by force, but the rockfall looks deliberately arranged, doesn’t it?”
The rocks, layered with cunning precision, appeared at first glance to block the passage, yet their gaps clearly formed a way through.
Even without looking through Baskes’ Monocle, a patient inspection over time would have revealed the path plainly enough.
【It looks as though the goal is to make people believe there’s no way through at all.】
“That’s what I think too.”
Leon descended toward the front entrance, unable to shake his deepening suspicion.
If the entrance wasn’t actually blocked, there’d be no need to slip through a side passage.
Following the path guided by Baskes’ Monocle into the interior, the cold blade-wind of the outside air was cut off, replaced by a sudden rush of subterranean atmosphere.
Coal dust seeped deep into the lungs—there was no hiding the vibrant stench that came with it.
“…So someone died down here, and the smell is absolutely vile.”
【At least it’s quiet.】
Was it the depth of the mine, or the narrow entrance?
The interior of the mine reeked with such a stench that even Leon, accustomed to corpses, found it nearly impossible to suppress his nausea.
The damp underground air mingled with the reek of decomposition, clinging viscously to his skin and deepening the revulsion born from that foul odor.
Leon suppressed the urge to retch and sharpened his senses, sweeping the mine’s interior.
“Though there is one unwanted thing.”
Screeeech!
With a shriek, a Polluted Being burst from the darkness.
Though it lacked proper form, the speed at which it lunged resembled that of some ferocious beast.
Leon reflexively drew his sword, and the blade clashed against the creature’s body, a sharp metallic ring echoing through the mine.
Clang!
Crash!
Was it the environment?
Though the Polluted Being clearly originated from a human corpse, each time Leon’s blade struck its body, it produced the dull thud of stone being hammered, reverberating through the mine.
What must have been already broken legs bent at grotesque angles with each blow from Leon’s sword, scraping across the mine floor.
The body, crushed beneath a massive rockfall, was unrecognizable in form, with ragged wounds gaping between the ruptures.
Crystals jutted from the gaps between wounds—those that had once gleamed a blood-red hue were now dulled to gray ash by the stone dust.
It was clearly a Polluted Being born from a crushed corpse.
For Leon, who wielded a greatsword, the narrow mine was decidedly poor terrain.
The ceiling was too low and the corridor too narrow to swing the blade freely.
Ultimately, Leon clicked his tongue and stretched out his left hand toward the creature, seizing it by the nape of the neck.
“Gack! Screech!”
The Polluted Being thrashed, but its mangled limbs and deformed body could not overcome the grip strength of a boy trained for years.
Leon swallowed his disgust and focused his will on the Holy Mark.
And.
Slash!
The Holy Mark responded, drawing out every last trace of Chaos dwelling within the Polluted Being.
Though the amount was negligibly small, the lifeless flesh crumbled and vanished.
Yet because it was Chaos born from an ordinary Polluted Being rather than a Fragment, what remained in his consciousness was unbearably repugnant.
Leon suppressed his revulsion and sheathed his sword.
“…Ugh, I really can’t get used to this.”
【Why not try to adapt?】
“I don’t want to.”
Leon flatly rejected Ecrizei’s suggestion and examined the clothes left behind by the Polluted Being.
Though the body had crumbled away, the garments that remained made clear that the Polluted Being had been one of the missing persons trapped in the mine.
“No Fragment.”
【Isn’t it too ordinary a Polluted Being to bear a Fragment?】
“That’s fair.”
Had it been a Polluted Being directly infused with a Fragment, it would have become something twisted—a Mutant.
Like the Mutants in Silvaren Forest that Yiselen, Ilbar, and Knight Cepian had killed.
As the thought reached him, Leon’s displeasure deepened further.
“There ought to be something else…”
Murmuring thus, Leon refocused his will on Baskes’ Monocle.
After a moment’s silence, a new path began to form above the colorless stones in the vision granted by Baskes’ Monocle.
The trajectory drawn by Baskes’ Monocle traced the mine’s veins like a pulse, extending deep into the darkness-shrouded heart of the passage.
“It extends quite far down.”
【Are you certain? If accidents have been frequent recently, it wouldn’t be strange if it collapsed again today.】
“I don’t think it’s likely to collapse further.”
The state of the mine, conveyed through his heightened senses, was strangely, unnervingly stable.
It was difficult to comprehend that rockfalls had occurred in succession just days before.
“A corpse turned into a Polluted Being—that’s one thing. But I have a feeling there’s another Contamination Source deeper in.”
Leon followed the trajectory guided by Baskes’ Monocle, stepping into the darkness ahead.
The path extended quite far down, and at every turn, boulders the size of houses blocked his way forward.
Without the “true path” that Baskes’ Monocle revealed, he would have found it nearly impossible to enter at all.
How long had he been walking?
At some point, a reek of blood—something that should never exist in these depths—began to permeate the air.
According to the miners’ accounts, the accident in the mine had occurred anywhere from several days to several months ago, making it impossible for such a raw, potent stench of blood to linger.
Suppressing his ominous foreboding, Leon squeezed through the gap between the final boulder and stepped forward—only to find himself unable to close his mouth at the sight before him.
“…Madness.”
The atrocity Leon had witnessed in that living hell of the eastern gorge was being replayed before his very eyes.
Continued in the next chapter ▶
A Holy Knight Who Made a Contract With an Evil God
Author
Lam Dat
Publishers
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Gerae Publishing
Inquiries
[email protected]
Publication Date
March 27, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227066
※ This e-book is protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and duplication are prohibited. Violations may result in criminal and civil penalties.
※ Pentagram is waiting for your precious manuscript.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————