Chapter 65 “Gift from the Holy Knight”
Dadaneier didn’t seem to care about that; he just crouched down and carefully checked the knight’s corpse. Surprising enough, he even reached out to pinch the body’s wrist.
“He died less than 2 days ago.” Dadaneier stood up and frowned, “Look at his wound…what kind of thing can cut a Fourth level knight in half?
“Along with this!” Du Wei frowned and pointed at the thing next to the corpse.
It was a long sword which obviously was the weapon of the knight. But this sword was also cut into two pieces!
“Perhaps, he was battling with another, and his enemy cut him in half. Could it be like this?” Du Wei frowned.
“Possibly…” Dadaneier looked at Du Wei,“ He was buried by the others. Look, this snow pit was his graveyard. If it was a magic monster, it wouldn’t bother burying his corpse and simply eat his body up.”
Du Wei thought for a while and looked at Dadaneier: “Dadaneier, what level are you at?”
Dadaneier replies, “My warrior ranking is only at the third level. Although my level ranking isn’t high, but I am quite confident in my archery skills.”
“I understand.” Du Wei said, “My friend, you should be experienced enough, so have a look at this broken sword… Its incision is so precise. It’s not that strange for the warrior’s sword to be split apart by a powerful beast, but the incision is simply too precise for a mere beast to pull off. From my speculation, this is obviously done by some sharp weapon! If that’s the case, then this knight is not killed by some magical beast, but a human!
After carefully listening to what Du Wei said, Dadaneier’s face turned serious with grief as he looked at the broken sword on the ground.
Then raising his head, he faced Du Wei, “That’s right, you are correct, I was too careless. I was too narrow sighted due to the magical beasts living in this place.”
“Going back to that question……Dadaneier. You are a level three warrior. What kind of person can cut a Fourth level warrior in half with a single swing?”
With a dignified face, Dadaneier replied:
“Level Four warriors would have mastered the breathing technique. A warrior who masters the breathing technique is very strong. If cut in one swing…” Dadaneier thought carefully, and looked at the sword at the same time…suddenly, he blinked!
“Look! Harry! Look at the chest of the Warrior’s Corset …look here!”
Dadaneier seemed to have discovered something. He lifted the corpse, then pointed at the little mark on the chest of the warrior’s corset, “Look, here, see it?”
Du Wei looked at it, “Oh, there should be something hanging from there before, seems like a badge…but it was taken away.”
“Right.” Dadaneier agreed, “This is the place where the warrior always wears his badge, but see, he already has one on his chest. This is the Level Four Warrior badge awarded by the Knight Organization… On the continent, what kind of warrior would wear two badges?”
They looked at each other and shouted practically at the same time, “The Holy knight from the Temple of Light!”
The Religious influence on the Roland Continent is very strong, especially from the Temple of Light. To put it into perspective, their influence can even threaten the rule of the royalty family of the empire. Not only are they able to collect their own taxes, they also hold their own private military army called the Holy Knights Platoon.
The Temple of Light always trained their members from a young age and will differentiate them by their talents once they grow up. Those talented in martial arts would be sent away for further training, while those less talented would be pushed off to do other things. Once they reach adulthood, only those showing utmost devotion would be selected to be entered into the Holy Knight Platoon. Their duties are always to protect the honor and dignity of the Temple. And under no circumstances are they allowed to break this oath, if they do….
Across the whole continent, only the Holy Knights from the temple would wear two badges on their chest: One from the knight association representing their ranking as a knight, the other representing their status as a Holy Knight from the temple.
Also, when the Holy Knight dies in a battle, his companies would take off the Holy Knights Badge and bring it back to the Temple for worship in a place called the “Sanctuary.”
Dadaneier blinked, he quickly rolled up the sleeves of the dead knight. Due to the cold weather, the clothes were really stiff, therefore, making it very difficult to roll it up. But when the sleeves were rolled up to the elbow, Dadaneier sighed: “My speculation is correct, look at this scar. It was burned by the holy oil. This is a mark from the baptism ritual for the Holy Knights Platoon. Every arm of a Holy Knight would have this scar made by the Holy Oil.”
Du Wei approached to have a closer look at the burn mark on the corpse. That mark was very unique, like a dancing flame.
Dadaneier explained with annotation, “When the young Holy Knight is undergoing their baptism, there is usually a pot of hot holy oil next to them. Then the pope of the temple would use a specially crafted iron sword during this ceremony and burn the mark from the sword onto the arm! Although it is painful for the bearer to receive such a burn, but this mark is the glory and honor of the Holy Knights… However, if they do something that betrays their following and belief, their mark would be scratched out after their death! Because of the vow they took up during their baptism, their soul would forever be cursed even in the afterlife!”
Actually, Du Wei knew what Dadaneier was saying. He bowed his head, “Hmm, so, although generally, the Holy Knights have two badges, but it feels like they have three badges. The third badge is the scar on their arms.”
“So you already knew that.” Dadaneier sighed.
Reburying the corpse, both of them didn’t say anything more because the situation was turning for the worse.
The one murdered here is not only a Holy Knight, but also a fourth level knight with great martial skills!
To be able to kill such a foe is no simple task!
The status of the Holy Knight in the Empire was unique. They are a special group responsible for protecting the God’s authority in this world. After achieving great strength through painstaking effort, their belief in god is deep and unshakable…. If anything, most of them are of noble character that would be the role model of any person.
But the most important thing was….. No one dares to murder a Holy Knight!
Even if the Holy Knight breached the law, or rebelled against their religion, only the Temple could hand down the judgment and punish them.
And not to mention the sinners… Even if the one murdered is a normal Holy Knight, the temple would not let it be because it would be the same as challenging the authority of the temple itself!
In simple terms, if one were to murder a single holy knight, they would make an enemy of every member within the Temple of Light!
Becoming the enemy of the Temple of Light…. Even the Emperor or the Magician Union would not dare to do so!
Anyone capable and daring enough to kill a holy knight would forever be branded as an evil and vile being on the continent!
For example, more than a decade ago, there was a powerful and notorious magician. He had killed thousands of people because of his Undead Magic research and went as far as to sacrifice an entire town for his research. Once the temple got wind of this, they took it as a insult to their control and sent out the holy knights in full force to subjugate this person. After paying a hefty price in lives, the temple was finally able to kill this evil Mage.
In history, there were many similar events that happened in the same way, and they were all resolved by the Holy Knights.
But it was only that! Apart from events like that, the Holy Knights would never do any other meaningless things!
So the fact that a Holy Knight is in the frozen forest hunting a magical beast is completely out of place!
Holy Knights are not mercenaries.
If there is Holy Knight In this deadly place, the only explanation is that they were on a mission! Without doubt, they were going to kill some kind of evil individual!
“I think our journey will not be safe at all.” Du Wei and Dadaneier looked at each other with complicated eyes.
After resting for a while, they continued their journey.
After a day’s worth of travel, the two stumbled upon another grave!
This time around, there were three in total! Just like before, all three graves contained the bodies of a dead holy knight. As Dadaneier looked at one of the bodies, he lets out a cry of surprise!
“Elder brother…. elder brother Mr. Gefeite! This is Mr. Gefeite!!”
By looking at the man lying on the snow with silver armor…under such a terrible weather, he didn’t wear a corset, but a metallic armor. Normal people would think that he was crazy! Metallic things under this freezing weather, it’s easy for people to die in the coldness. Leather corset would be much more useful!
But this dead man was wearing a metallic armor…if he was not crazy, then he might be very strong, he was strong enough to adapt to this cold weather!
He looked clean without any blood on his face, clearly different from the corpses they had found last time. From all of this, it was obvious the people who buried him were giving the knight extra prestige by cleaning him up before burial. Even when the corpse was buried, someone shaved his beard and even tied his hair in a neat fashion.
He was just silently lying in the snow pit, his hands on his chest. There was a long shiny silver sword in his hand and was lying on his chest. He looked handsome. The man looked very handsome, although he was frozen black and blue, but Du Wei could still imagined how he looked like when he was still alive.
“Elder brother Mr. Gefeite…the Senior Holy Knight of the Temple of Light.” Dadaneier was surprised at the very beginning, then looked serious, “He was also a ……Level Eight Knight! Harry, do you know that knights of the eighth level and higher are considered Great Knights….. This is already out of my expectation. Who in the world would have this kind of power, and be so blatant to make the temple their enemy?!”
Dadaneier stood up and sincerely bowed in front of the corpse called ‘Gefeite’, “Elder Brother Mr. Gefeite, never in my mind would I have thought that I could see you here……Last time when I saw you, I was still next to the Marquise. Thank you for that day in saving our mistress.”
Dadaneier ’s eyes showed a clear sign of sadness.
Du Wei still remembers what Dadaneier had said to him when they first met.… When Marquise Lister was travelling, she incidentally came upon a evil Mage. Luckily, the holy knight called Gefeite managed to chase away this person and save the Marquise.
Du Wei looked further away…it was entirely silent except for the sound of the wind.
The lake was covered completely in ice and not even the shadow of a ghost could be seen.
“To be able to kill an eighth level knight and his companions….” Dadaneier whispered, “The one who has this power must be one of the strongest people on this continent! Why is such a powerful person making an enemy out of the temple?”
Du Wei thought a lot and didn’t respond to what Dadaneier had said. After a moment, an idea quickly surfaced in his mind. Suddenly crouching down, he moved the corpse aside and began digging through the snow!
“Harry, what are you doing?!” Dadaneier didn’t like it, “Please don’t disturb Mr. Gefeite!”
“Dadaneier , don’t you know that…… When the Holy Knights bury their companions, they will also bury them with their belongings!” Du Wei kept digging at the same time during his answer, “I heard that the devoted Holy Knights had the habit of writing a diary because they needed to pray every day. When they are outside, they cannot pray in the Temple, so they will choose to write their words in a diary.”
Soon, after digging a hole underneath the corpse, Du Wei lets out a sigh of relief. From under the cover of snow, he pulled out a bag from the bottom. When he opened it, there was a small silver pendant, which was a small statue of the Bright Goddess, and a dagger mixed with a small book inside the bag!
“Look, this is the diary of Knight Gefeite.” Du Wei looked at Dadaneier, “I think the answer is inside this book.”
Dadaneier couldn’t keep his silence as he frowned, “I don’t think this is a good idea. Mr. Gefeite would not like someone touching his things… Harry, put it back.”
Du Wei didn’t listen to him and opened the diary anyways. After a while of reading through the pages, Du Wei shouted, “Look!”
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