The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 56

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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 56. Traces of the Witch
The moment the Witch’s Foot was discovered, commotion erupted from deeper within the cave.
– Such vile Demonic Energy…
– Part of a formidable mage!
“For the aura to be so thick it can be felt even here—you’ve certainly been pursuing a wretched creature.”
Mayer spoke with a furrowed brow, but neither Munno nor Chloe bothered to reply.
‘Ugh. I’m not thrilled about this.’
No matter how fierce the battle had been with this enemy, seeing a severed piece of human flesh was hardly a pleasant sight.
Yet Mayer’s face flushed with fervor as he nodded eagerly.
“If a part of the body has been left behind, we can certainly track her. The divine prophecy remains unerring!”
…Who said anything?
It felt awkward to respond to the zealot’s solitary fervor.
Fortunately, Mayer didn’t bother checking their reactions and simply hurled himself down into the depths of the cave.
Tap.
Whoosh.
It was a reckless act—diving from a dizzying height while wearing Heavy Armor—but neither he nor any observer thought it dangerous.
And in fact.
Boom!
With the weight of the crash came a deafening roar from below, but moments later, Mayer sprang upward from a man-shaped crater in the ground as if propelled by a spring.
Then, kneeling before the severed foot,
– By the power of the great Mother of Earth, I beseech thee…!
His sonorous voice rose in prayer, and a brilliant shaft of light blazed forth so bright it seemed capable of searing the eyes.
“Ugh!?”
Munno squinted in pain from the sudden, unannounced flash.
Soon after, Mayer’s booming voice echoed up from below again.
– The divine guide our path!
– Wahhhhh!
What?
Squinting downward, Munno saw Mayer holding the severed foot, racing along a “path of light” that stretched from it to the ground below.
Crack, crack, crack!
Mayer and the Heresy Inquisitors bounded upward, slamming the earth beneath them.
Barely forty-two men in number, they transformed into a wave of silver and crossed the cliff’s edge in a heartbeat.
Without a word to Munno or Chloe, they simply raced onward along that path of light.
“Hell! Let’s go!”
Whoosh.
Munno rushed after them in a panic.
Strangely, he felt a warm gaze from beside him.
Chloe, who had caught up without notice, was staring at him with a serene expression even as she ran like the wind.
“What—what is it?! Now of all times?!”
He yelped in surprise.
What came back was a question he couldn’t understand.
“What did you see?”
“Huh?”
What was she talking about?
“Why did you squint just now?”
“What are you saying?! Obviously because the light suddenly flared up!”
He gave an answer that seemed perfectly natural.
At those words, Chloe’s brown eyes widened noticeably.
“You can see Holy Power too?”
“What?!”
What was this about now?
Though bewildered, Chloe mercifully didn’t press further.
“…This is more interesting than I thought.”
Whoosh.
She chuckled softly and spoke those words as she passed him, then began overtaking the Heresy Inquisitors ahead.
‘Can’t most people normally see Holy Power? What was that about?’
No—this wasn’t the time for such thoughts.
Munno swallowed the questions rising in his mind and poured more strength into his legs as he kept pace with the holy knights.
Thump. Bang!
Though he couldn’t overtake them as effortlessly as Chloe had, his body had grown stronger once more, and without the aid of Metal Chains, he found he could keep up with them.
“Oh, brother! Listen to what I’m saying!”
There was something deeply unsettling about the narrow-eyed holy knight waving one hand while proudly holding a severed witch’s foot in the other.
But his horse was clearly the sturdiest of the bunch.
“I’m begging you!”
He tried to mount as gently as possible, settling onto the saddle with care.
He hadn’t accounted for his own weight.
Thud.
“Neigh! Whinny!?”
The horse stumbled for a moment, then whipped its head around to glare at him with eyes like burning coals.
“I’m sorry…….”
An apology tumbled out unbidden, and the horse—as if it understood human speech—snorted and turned its gaze forward once more.
And then.
“Heh. Hang in there just a little longer, Stella!”
A flash of light.
A pristine white radiance poured from Mayer’s palm in the shape of wings, flowing into the horse.
“Hiiiigh!”
Empowered by that force, the horse reared up and bolted forward as if ready to fly.
“Is this… the Blessing of Holy Power……?”
Whoooosh.
Clinging to the middle-aged man’s waist amid the howling wind, the words had tumbled out almost carelessly.
Mayer seemed to have caught his voice anyway.
“Hmm? How did you know I used Blessing?”
“What? Ah…… It was just a feeling…….”
Something felt off, so he hedged his answer.
“I see. Brother, you might well be favored by God. Have you ever considered joining the Holy Temple?”
A chilling proposal came in response.
A vocation to a man who was not just an atheist, but a religion-hater.
No, before that.
‘So I really can’t see Holy Power…….’
Now that he understood why Chloe had looked so startled earlier, he found himself newly curious whether this too was connected to the Demon Devourer’s ability.
And.
‘I need to watch my tongue.’
With that thought, Munno resolved to simply keep quiet and hold on to Mayer’s back.
His eyes fixed on the trail of light that stretched from the witch’s foot down to the ground.
* * *
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.
The charge of the fanatics—or rather, the Heresy Inquisitors—was certainly terrifying.
But they had spent more than half a day excavating the cave, and then rode hard for a full day without rest.
Even for superhuman warriors, exhaustion was inescapable.
Naturally, even the holy knights who had been ceaselessly invoking the Will of God fell silent as time wore on.
The sun set and the moon rose; the moon set and the sun rose again until noon arrived.
“There! Everyone, prepare the Sacred Formation!”
The moment Mayer’s voice rang out in a roar.
“By the Will of God!”
“Let us punish evil!”
The company’s charge surged forward with renewed vigor.
Yet one person alone reacted differently.
“Wait! Lord Mayer!”
Whinny!
Chloe’s horse shot forward at speed, blocking the path of the entire procession and forcibly dampening the mounting fervor.
“What…… why……?”
Mayer brought his horse to a reluctant halt, his expression showing clear displeasure.
Snort.
“Sorry, girl…….”
Chloe’s horse, which had not received the Blessing of Holy Power, had foam at the corners of its mouth.
And her own face had flushed deeply as she stroked the animal.
“Lord Mayer, surely you weren’t planning to charge in headlong like that!?”
“Well, of course I was…….”
“Do you know what place that is!?”
Where Chloe was pointing, a fairly large city came into view, ringed by castle walls far lower than those of a typical fortress.
“The Will of God cannot be stopped anywhere!”
“That’s Ruble, a trade city governed directly by His Grace’s appointed administrator! You can’t just smash it to pieces like that!”
“Wherever demons exist, that place must be purified completely. That is the law of the Holy Temple!”
What?
Only after hearing Mayer’s roar did Munno grasp his intention, and he leaped from his horse with a startled expression to stand beside Chloe.
“She’s not a demon! Just a high-level mage, that’s all! Don’t twist the law to suit your purpose!!”
Perhaps the word “law” struck home.
Mayer, who had shown no sign of backing down, glared at Chloe before letting out a long, heavy sigh.
“I didn’t know you were so well-versed in scripture, Sir Chloe.”
Wait, you didn’t… do that on purpose, did you?
“I had no idea you’d come at this so recklessly, Sir Mayer!”
In that instant, Munno’s opinion of the narrow-eyed holy knight plummeted.
“But… there is an enemy of God in that place.”
“Then why charge in blindly?! Are you trying to kill everyone in your way, just like the previous commander? You’re the same as him!?”
…Like the previous commander?
Chloe’s face flushed as she hurled her words at him.
Whatever circumstances lay beneath her words, Munno couldn’t fathom them.
Mayer’s expression had hardened, and he showed no sign of yielding.
“I intended only to deal with those who interfered.”
“You think the city’s forces will just sit idle when the Knights charge in like that?”
“We are not merely a knighthood, but servants of God’s sacred—”
“This isn’t the Holy Kingdom, Sir Mayer!”
“Ugh…”
Perhaps Chloe’s shout had reached him.
Mayer finally frowned and stepped back.
“Very well. But you understand that while you’re dawdling, God’s enemy could flee?”
“I know. And identifying that enemy—this friend here will do it.”
Chloe gave Munno’s back a gentle push.
Eh?
“Sir Chloe, if that witch deliberately hides herself—”
Flustered, Munno leaned close and whispered urgently to her.
She glanced toward Sir Mayer as though to say there was nothing to worry about.
“She’ll be hunting for that.”
“Ah… yes, that’s right.”
Munno nodded once he recognized the foot in Mayer’s hand—or more precisely, the trail of light extending from that foot down to the ground.
“Just deal with the others. Can you do it?”
“Yes. That much, at least—”
“Good. Then we’re settled.”
And with that, the matter was decided.
“Are you certain this will work?”
“Whether by divine law or human statute, if anything goes wrong, all responsibility falls on me—Chloe Rommel. Sir Mayer!”
A bold, ringing cry.
The bearing of a single female knight was so formidable that even Munno could see it bearing down upon the fanatics’ resolve.
“… Very well. Holy Knights, follow Sir Munno’s lead and eliminate the witch’s servants!”
“Yes!”
But then—
“You can manage it, right?”
“How so?”
“Just point out anyone who radiates Demonic Energy. They’ll handle the rest.”
“Ugh…”
Feeling as though he’d been handed a death warrant, Munno reluctantly took the lead of the group with a displeased expression.
“Vice-Commander of the Trian Knights, Chloe Rommel!”
“Confirmed!”
A hologram bearing a gray rose insignia bloomed from Chloe’s Credential Badge.
With that, forty-two knights—or rather, forty-four including Munno and Chloe—were able to pass through the North Gate of the trade city Ruble.
“I’ll lead a straight charge toward where the witch is. Please point out all the demons you see along the way, brother.”
Munno couldn’t answer readily to Mayer’s whisper near his ear.
Because—
‘Damn it, how many are there?’
— Northern Trian Mountain beast hides for just…!
– Southern fruits here! Cheaper rates before you head to Trian……!
– Ah…… ahem, goods from ‘that nation’, come see!
A market bustling with trade, as befitted a merchant city.
The party drew every eye within that seething crowd of humanity.
But Munno’s discomfort wasn’t merely from the deluge of stares.
The problem was that roughly three to five out of every hundred people directing their gaze at him carried Demonic Energy.
And there were far more of them converging where the thread of light extending from the ankle Mayer held pointed toward.
Many of them, moreover, wore the uniforms of the city guard.
As though a collective of mages held dominion over this entire city.
And if that were true.
‘If I killed everyone carrying Demonic Energy along this path…….’
It would be a massacre beyond reckoning.
The vision came unbidden — countless souls scattering through chaos, their screams piercing the air.
“Brother?”
At the prod in Mayer’s voice, Munno felt cold sweat slip down his spine.

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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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