‘… Are you here?’
At the end of his gaze, two paladins in pure white armor appeared in front of the white wall and the gate in the middle.
Holy Kingdom Elia.
The smallest country on the continent. The largest temple on the continent.
The place is called the smallest country because only one fortress is the whole of the country, and the largest temple because the whole fortress is one temple.
Vera, who had been riding for a whole week and barely arrived here, suddenly felt a sense of admiration at the white fortress he could see at the end of his field of vision.
It was because I never dreamed that I would find this fortress on my own.
If it hadn’t been for a saint, it would have been a place I wouldn’t have been able to see if it wasn’t for the relationship that I only reached at the end of my life.
The reason I didn’t come here in my previous life… . At that time, it was because there was so much to lose when returning to the Seongguk.
Clergy in the Holy Kingdom are not allowed to engage in personal economic activities. It was the reason that they should not defile their faith by being blinded by wealth.
You can’t even get a title. The reason was that those who represent the will of God should not be blinded by the lust for power.
The only thing that can be obtained by becoming a paladin here is the end of honor.
So, Vera hid his stigma all his life.
What Vera wanted for the rest of his life was wealth and power.
That is, it was a luxury and a pleasure.
As he continued his thoughts, a shrill laugh escaped Vera’s mouth.
‘I’m here because of you.’
A saint who could be called a great monster came to mind.
Four years from now, I will go to meet the saint on the day the stigmata falls on her.
To keep my oath, to follow the light that shone on me at the end of my life.
What is needed for that.
‘… status.’
A procession to meet the saint. I needed a position enough to lead it.
That is, a position sufficient to lead the Paladins is required.
There was no worry about whether we could get there in four years.
He already had everything necessary to become a citizen of Elia and become a paladin.
The stigma of the oath that came upon me.
This was enough.
If you show this, you can go to the place where there is a succession at once.
There you can be recognized as an apostle.
The power of the oath is power with a powerful aspect, so if you show this stigma and ascend to the top of the apostle, the status of a paladin will come along with it.
Vera continued his thoughts and walked slowly toward Elia’s gate.
‘wait.’
I go to see you in 4 years.
I will not let you die as miserably as before.
I’m not going to make you live in the palace like that.
I will put you in the most splendid place, and live next to you, what can only be called life.
The moment when the distance between Vera, who continued to think, and the paladins guarding the gates, was reduced to about five steps.
thud-.
Two paladins hit the floor with a halberd at the same time.
“Stop, what are you here for?”
Vera looked at the two paladins, who had hardened faces.
Twin Paladins with identical looks, brown hair, brown eyes, and a stout body with an angled chin.
Vera was also known by name. They were the ones who made a name for themselves in their previous lives.
From https://noblemtl.com
One of the apostles who received the stigma like himself, who can be said to be the pillar of the Holy Kingdom.
‘Crek, Marek.’
Apostle of the guardian god Peyron, twin paladins Krek and Marek.
The gatekeeper of the Holy Kingdom who became an apostle by sharing one stigma.
A human Mercury weapon that was able to block the forces of the Demon King invading the Holy Kingdom with just two people at a time in a previous life when the Demon King arrived and swept the continent.
Vera, who had a strange feeling of meeting people he had only heard of through rumors at the time, then raised his right arm and rolled up his sleeve.
It’s because I didn’t want to talk for a long time.
Vera uttered a word as he looked at the twins with their mouths wide open at the stigma on his arm.
“I have a stigma on me.”
That one word was enough.
*
Located at the southernmost tip of the continent, it is a closed country where even non-priests cannot enter.
A deformed country where all the priests in the state feed on all the food and equipment for life in general, and the priests have been dispatched to obtain them.
A country that would have been destroyed in less than a year had it not been for the gathering of those who were endowed with the power of the gods.
Holy country Elia was such a country.
So, even Vera, who had been to all the countries of the continent in his previous life, entered the castle with a small expectation because this was the first time he entered the Holy Land… .
‘… It’s the perfect neighborhood for getting mentally ill.’
That hope was shattered upon arrival.
Vera made a tired look on the broad boulevard beyond the gates.
White here, white there. All buildings were white in Seongguk.
From https://noblemtl.com
Of course, it wasn’t as white as it was because there were trees and plants like flowers, but the white buildings that stand out nonetheless create a sense of repulsion inside.
As I was walking, I frowned and frowned.
“It’s Crack.”
Those words came out of nowhere.
These words were uttered by the twins on the right as they were walking down the main street.
Vera turned to Krek at the sound of the words, and Krek continued with a small nod.
“I have received the stigma of guardianship. Apostolic training is underway.”
Words that are cut off somewhere.
To him, of course, in Vera’s head.
‘Are you tall?’
thought came to mind.
It wasn’t just because of Tuo talking.
His eyes wide open, his nostrils twitching, or his unaware that the cloak was caught in the halberd he was holding, he looked so stupid that it hurts to say two things.
Vera looked at him for a while and didn’t feel the need to point out him, so he ignored Craig’s behavior by simply accepting a greeting.
“… This is Vera.”
“I met you. Nice to meet you.”
“I am Marek.”
It was from the other side. The sight of Marek who spoke and looked at himself with a blank slate, Vera was able to finish his judgment quickly.
‘It’s a pair of twins.’
They didn’t say anything all the time, so when I asked if it was a reticent race, it just seemed like they had a bad brain.
“I am also practicing apostles.”
“… Yes.”
There were no further words to follow.
The twins did just that, and led Vera to the great temple at the end of the boulevard and returned to the direction of the gate.
From https://noblemtl.com
One of them, Craig, did not know that the cloak was hanging on the Halberd until the moment he returned.
They were short and bold people.
‘… Buy something like that?’
Does the god of protection like to be tall?
Vera, who had raised questions about the criteria for stigmatization, immediately recalled the god of the oath that had stigmatized him, and then the blasphemous idea that the gods might be all assholes.
Vera, who was looking at the inside of the Great Hall alone, took a deep breath at the thought that came to mind, and then turned to the mural that filled one wall of the Great Hall.
A mural depicting the seals of the nine sitting on a huge altar.
‘… Nine gods.’
It was the mural they were painted on.
Nine gods, led by the main god. Transcendentals who create and maintain the continent.
In the center, there was a figure surrounded by light, and next to him was a man with a mace and a man with a shield.
From https://noblemtl.com
One had a fruit in his hand, and another was holding a large book.
As he moved his gaze like that, he saw Inyeong, whose face was not revealed, with his entire body covered in robes, unlike other gods.
Vera could at once realize who he was.
‘Lushan.’
Lushan, the god of oaths.
By the standards of Vera, who had been stigmatized on himself, there was a mortal figure among the sick ones.
As he looked at him, Vera felt a question resurfacing that had always lain in the corner of his mind.
What was Lushan thinking about when he inflicted stigma on himself? Why did I inflict stigma on this evil species that only I know?
I’ve been questioning it all my life, but I’ve never been able to figure it out.
‘… no.’
A question I hadn’t even tried to figure out.
Vera felt it come back and stared blankly at the mural.
“The oath has no face.”
A voice came.
Vera shifted his gaze to the voice he heard and trembled when he saw a weak-looking man who looked like a scholar at first glance.
‘… I didn’t feel any sign.’
There were no footsteps. There was no disturbance due to breathing. It didn’t even exist.
It was still the same when I found him.
It was an odd feeling.
Even though there is an opponent in front of him, he does not feel any presence from the opponent.
‘Who is it?’
Red eyes with water-colored hair. pure white robe.
He appears to be a high-ranking priest from the fact that he is in the Great Temple, but Vera’s head was a person without information.
As Vera sharpened his senses with the rising vigilance, the man continued with a grin.
“Do you know why?”
It was a question related to the previous sentence.
Vera looked at the man who had appeared for a moment, then clenched and opened his fists to release tension, then licked his lips.
“… I do not know.”
“Because promises have no form. Therefore, the oath that represents that promise has no face.”
With that said, the man approached Vera and greeted him with a small cross over his chest.
“Nice to meet you. This is Trevo, who is in charge of the custodian of the Great Hall.”
“… This is Vera.”
“I heard from the twins. Could you show me the stigma?”
Words full of laughter. Vera nodded and rolled up his sleeves to reveal the scars, and Trevor, who had been smiling the whole time, began to behave strangely.
There was no foreshadowing.
Exactly, immediately after the stigma was revealed, not even a momentary moment passed, and her expression turned upside down in an instant.
Red pupils flickered at the tip of his gaze. expression frowned. shoulders shook.
“Ahhh… .”
The moment when Vera took a step backwards, startled by Trevor’s sudden action.
Loud-.
Trevor fell to his knees and began to weep.
“Aaaah… !!!”
Vera was startled and trembled at the sight of Trevor who suddenly fell to his knees and cried aloud.
‘It’s crazy.’
Such thoughts filled my mind.
It was natural. It would be natural for a person with a normal mind to think that way.
How can a person who weeps without warning be seen as a normal person?
“Your hand has come upon this land, and your grace has come… .”
The appearance of crying as she draws her name over and over again.
Then Vera involuntarily raised the question, ‘Is it the right decision to come here?’
The twin apostles met at the castle gate. A maniac priest he met in the Great Hall of Fame.
They were all screwed up people. They were harmful people.
Vera, who felt a sense of rejection deep within him, immediately remembered that it was these humans that made the saint such a strange woman.
‘… justified.’
The saint was truly a noble and benevolent woman, but from that aspect, she was not a very different race from the people I saw here.
A screw is missing somewhere, and a human who doesn’t know what he’s thinking.
The saint I was with the other day was such a person.
Vera once again reflected on the thoughts he had on coming here.
A pure white city, perfect for mental illness.
She said she was blind, so she couldn’t see him, but in a town like this, she was close to psychopaths, so she could have become such a monster.
I want to go back right now. My former self was right. thoughts such as
However, even while he was thinking like that, he was able to put up with him.
‘If a saint joins with these guys like this… .’
The saint will be like these bastards.
It was because of that thought.
Vera’s fists clenched.
‘… Can not be done.’
It was never going to happen.
The MC is becoming the Yandere in the novel