Chapter 172: Who Stole My Bones? (3)

No sooner had Louis finished speaking than the Duke raised his massive spear. He glared at Louis and growled, ”…I don’t know who you think you are, but for those words… you’ll have to answer.”

“Answering isn’t particularly difficult. Anyway, you’re challenging me to a fight, right?”

”…”

The Duke’s face flushed red and blue. He desperately wanted to swing his spear right then and there, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it so easily. Numerically, the Order had the advantage, and each of them could effortlessly handle a dozen or more of his soldiers. Moreover, there was Pablo, the monster who refused to grow old. If he were to confront the Order directly, the slaughter of his domain’s soldiers would be as obvious as seeing smoke from a fire.

How can the great warrior just stand by and watch?!

He couldn’t understand why the great warrior, who had been conversing with him earlier, was simply standing by while this brat talked such nonsense.

Despite the fierce glare leveled at him, Louis continued unabated.

“Oh! There is something I’d like to ask before we engage.”

”…What is it?”

“Why are you going to such lengths to oppose us?”

“As I’ve already said…”

“No, no. The bit about His Majesty the King conferring this domain upon you, and how you have a duty to maintain peace here? Sure, I’ll grant you that. It must be quite a headache having hundreds of armed men stirring up trouble across your lands.”

”…”

“But to refuse our request for cooperation so unceremoniously, especially after we’ve explained our situation…”

”…”

“It leaves us with no choice but to conclude that the marquis has authorized these rogues to steal our sacred relic.”

”…?!”

“I hear that your secluded training also yielded no results this time around?”

Although Louis stopped there, the duke knew exactly what he meant.

A moment later, a thunderous roar burst from the duke’s lips. “You ungrateful wretch!”

His bellow echoed throughout the hall so loudly that those standing near him clapped their hands over their ears. His face turning beet red, the duke continued to scream, saliva flying with each expletive. “How dare… How dare you speak to me like that! So what if I’ve struck a setback on the path ahead? Did you ever think I was one to rely on short cuts?”

“So what’s stopping someone without a conscience from doing anything and everything?”

“You imbecile! Don’t insult me further! I’ve never been so weak as to rely on some inanimate object for power!”

As the duke’s voice reverberated with a fury intense enough to cause the air itself to tremble, Louis’s eyes flickered.

Louis fidgeted slightly with his ears as he spoke, “If you can’t do this, then why shout like that?”

The sight of Louis amused Pablo, though it frustrated him at the same time.

…He hasn’t lost his knack for cutting people down with his words.

If Louis were still young, his antics would’ve been charming, but now fully grown, they were intolerably annoying.

As Pablo marveled at Louis’s antics:

“What? But…” Before Pablo could finish his question, Louis had already scampered away and was now hiding behind him.

Pablo blinked rapidly at the sudden development. The next thing he knew, he was face-to-face with the furious count, and his shoulders sagged like a deflating balloon.

Oh boy…

What should he do? If the dragon said jump, he’d jump, wouldn’t he? Sighing heavily, he set about tidying up the situation.

“Don’t be so quick to take offense.”

“God Warrior!”

“Honestly, how can we not think this way? As I’ve explained, we’re in a desperate situation. If you clear the path for us, we’ll search quietly and leave without causing any harm to your domain.”

”…”

“If you still refuse to cooperate… we must consider the goodwill between our Order and the Kingdom of Kanburk to be at an end as of today.”

The Duke gritted his teeth at Pablo’s veiled threat, his eyes betraying the complexity of his thoughts. He had to maintain a friendly alliance with the Order, yet there were compelling reasons why he couldn’t allow their warriors into his domain. After a moment of internal conflict, the Duke clenched his jaw and acquiesced.

”…Very well. We will cooperate.”

“We appreciate it.”

“Just a moment!” The Duke hastily interrupted Pablo. “We cannot allow all of you here. Only a few will be permitted to enter. Our soldiers will assist in the search.”

Having found a compromise, Pablo nodded. But the Duke wasn’t finished yet.

“And for that one…!” His gaze turned to Louis.

The Duke’s eyes glared fiercely at Louis as he declared, “We won’t allow him even one step into our domain.”

Louis shuddered at the Duke’s blood-curdling tone. “Couldn’t you just leave me alone, old man? Your grudge is so…”

Before Louis had finished his mumbled complaint, the Duke’s murderous aura grew even more potent. However, with Pablo stationed ahead and blocking his path, it was impossible for the Duke to make a swift move.

Meanwhile, Pablo subtly signaled Louis with his eyes.

In response, Louis sent him a message:

Pablo nodded once. “Very well.”

With that, Pablo organized a tracking party and led the way into the domain. The Marquis Family’s troops followed, spreading out across the land.

Despite the hustle and bustle, the marquis remained in his seat, merely shifting his glower towards Louis—as if daring him to make a move.

How petty, Louis thought to himself.

The marquis sat frozen, as if watching over Louis’s every action. Yet Louis couldn’t suppress a chuckle at the sight—remaining unfazed even under the duke’s fierce stare.

Even if I can’t get in, surely letting someone else take a peek will suffice.

He sent a message to the small figure wriggling near his chest:

“Yes, sir!”

Louis was certain. That old Duke was up to something.

Is he really trying to block the Order just because the domain’s folk are restless?

It was a laughably weak excuse.

“Understood! On it!”

With a quick salute, Fin vanished into thin air.

Sensing that Finn’s presence had vanished, Louis turned his back on the Duke who was still glaring at him. The corners of his mouth were slightly raised.

Having dismissed the Duke from his mind, Louis now watched the twins and the Flame siblings making a snowman off to the side.

”…They’re so…”

The four children, oblivious to their surroundings, were engrossed in building their snowman.

“How old are they again…?”

It was probably the twins who started it. The Flame siblings, having never made a snowman before, must have eagerly joined in.

“Sigh… I hope those kids don’t end up like the twins…”

Their already problematic personalities might only get worse if they imitated the twins.

Louis clicked his tongue as he watched the twins rolling huge snowballs. Then he shouted:

“Hey, let’s join in!”

With that brief call, Louis hurried over to the group of four. Naturally, the Duke followed behind him with a bewildered expression.

Hours may have slipped away like grains of sand.

Louis and the children had built ten snowmen, while in one corner, they’d kindled a cozy campfire to roast meat.

Thomp-thomp.

A contingent of soldiers approached the scene, their boots treading the snow.

“Great Warrior Pablo…”

“Yes, how…”

Louis watched them wordlessly, as if observing the play of shadows at dusk.

Their conversation seemed to go on in an eternity, until the Duke finally turned away, his face a mask of cold fury.

Then, Louis turned to Pablo, who had come closer to him.

“You didn’t find them?”

”…How do you know that?”

Louis didn’t answer his question. Instead, he posed another:

“Well, what’s your plan now?”

“Well, I plan to combine forces with Duke Persellus’s troops for further search operations. The rest of the Order’s warriors will be sent nearby to continue the pursuit.”

“Very well. Let’s do that…and regroup later.”

“Pardon?” Pablo furrowed his brow, clearly perplexed.

Why is Louis being so… calm about this?

Given the opportunity to storm the Duke’s territory and rip everything apart, Pablo couldn’t understand why Louis would willingly withdraw.

“What are you waiting for? Let’s move out.”

“Yes…I’m coming.”

At Louis’s urgency, Pablo shook off his bewilderment and followed suit.

Meanwhile, hundreds of religious warriors scattered in all directions once more, their mission: track down those who had plundered the divine relic.

And so, Louis and a handful of others began retracing their steps from a few hours ago.

Whoosh.

As they left Persellus Domain, the snowflakes that had been falling sparsely earlier had thickened considerably.

Crunch, crunch.

The group from the Order entered the valley leading back to their headquarters. In the silence that enveloped them, Pablo couldn’t hold back his question any longer.

“Count Louis.”

“What is it?”

“That… How did you know for sure we wouldn’t find anything at Persellus Domain?”

“You don’t say something like that aloud, do you? You just get a sense, don’t you?”

“Is that how you knew?”

“Well… I roughly expected we wouldn’t find anything from the beginning.”

Louis’s nonchalant response as he quietly chewed on some jerky left Pablo wondering how to process what he’d just heard.

Louis turned to Pablo with a sly grin. “Don’t you find it strange?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know, what the old man said. About not taking shortcuts and refusing to rely on the power of non-human entities.”

“So what…?”

“It’s like he’s referring to something corporeal when he talks about the ‘power of the gods’.”

”…?!” Pablo’s eyes widened in realization.

He’s right…

If the Duke had truly stolen the gods’ power as claimed, he must have seen that it resembled a medicinal herb shaped like bones.

Pablo’s gaze darkened slightly as he asked, “What if it was all an act?”

“Well, I don’t think that old man is capable of putting on such a convincing performance.”

Pablo unconsciously nodded his head.

“Then…are you saying he didn’t steal it?”

“I don’t know.”

“What?”

“I’m sure the old codger is hiding something, though.”

“What could it be?”

“How should I know, you dipshit?”

Louis didn’t know everything about the world, after all. Of course, things might be different if Fin had come back with some new information.

As Louis smirked to himself, the twins and Flame Siblings, who had been listening to their conversation from the side, rushed up to them and chimed in.

“If that old man is hiding something, shouldn’t we dig it out?”

“Can we really go back like this? What if they cooked up something while we were gone?”

“We should go back there and see what they’re trying to hide!”

“Hey, if we do that, we might start a war.”

The conversation had moved from Tania to Kendrick, then Khan, and now Kani.

As they each contributed their thoughts, Louis responded.

“No, going back right now is the right decision.”

“But why?” Tania asked, her voice brimming with eagerness to learn.

Louis answered warmly, “We’ve found traces of the bastards who took the sacred relics and vanished. But when we got there, there was nothing. Right?”

“That’s right.”

“So what can we think about this situation?”

“Hmm… How did those thieves escape?” Kendrick mused.

Louis wagged his finger back and forth.

“No, you’re heading down the wrong path.”

“Well then…?”

“Instead of wondering how they vanished, ask yourself why they left any trails at all.”

“…What are you trying to say?”

“Their tracks leading toward the Persellus domain might be genuine. After all, the pursuit team wouldn’t have followed them if they suspected it was a false trail.”

“That makes sense.”

“These rogues shook off the Church’s pursuit and even managed to disappear from the Persellus domain, surrounded by several hundred men. Why would such creatures deliberately leave traces behind?” Kendrick answered Louis with a grim expression on his face.

“You mean… they want someone to chase after them?”

“The direction is correct, but your answer is a bit lacking in detail. I’ll give you 50 points. Does anyone else have a different opinion?”

The twins answered simultaneously.

“To call someone here?”

“To draw someone in?”

Louis laughed. “Correct. That’s one hundred points for the twins.”

The twins grinned at their perfect score.

Pablo, on the other hand, asked with a serious expression.

“So…do you mean those bastards left traces to lead us away from the sect?”

Louis clicked his tongue. “Tsk. How do you lead with that head of yours?”

“Pardon?”

“Think about it, you mane-covered imbecile. Who would move if they heard information about the brats who stole the holy relic?”

Pablo fell silent.

“The one who desperately wants to get the sacred relic back and is the most impatient in the sect…”

“You can’t be suggesting Louis!”

Crack.

“Gah!”

“You bastard… This brain of yours isn’t there to add weight to your skull. Listen to me until the end.”

“Yes…”

“You wanted to recover your God, but you were also impatient. Yet despite that, you don’t show up outside the order often. Who could it be?”

As Louis continued speaking, Pablo’s expression hardened more and more.

“You can’t possibly mean… the snow horse?”

“Yes,” Louis nodded.

“But why me…?”

“Well, what do you think? My intentions are hardly benevolent, are they?”

“…”

“If you’re really curious about my motives…”

At these words, Louis wore a faint smile.

Stop. Stop!

Louis gradually slowed his pace. As he did, those following him naturally decreased their speed as well.

Once Louis had completely halted, he looked straight ahead and said:

“Ask them.”

Whoosh!

The snowflakes, which had been steadily growing thicker, now swirled into a fierce blizzard. No sooner had Louis finished speaking than figures rose from the ground all around them, as if the earth itself had erupted.