The double life of a count’s bastard

Chapter 28

“What are these things?!

Rosita was sure she would have helpers, but when she saw them, she felt more panic than threat.

There were only four of them.

Yes, numbers aren’t everything.

However, the composition of the group was puzzling.

Two knights, a deacon, and a priest.

What puzzled Rosita even more was the relationship between Rousseau and these helpers.

“Just as I suspected,” she thought to herself, “except for the armor, he’s a total douchebag. They caught him off guard, didn’t they? I could see it coming. I knew it. What, you’re hiding a third of your strength? Whatever, a gaping mouth is a good word, a good word.”

The young knight wiped his mouth with an expression of worldly patheticness, and Rousseau, too, was fuming.

“The Earl of Slater has a knight like that?

Rosita stared at the young knight in disbelief, then clicked her tongue.

“I see, it’s the herbs and rice.

It was obvious that the knight was a follower of the madman, or at least of Count Slater.

The words he had just heard were proof of that.

Thinking so, Rosita was not the least bit bothered by the young knight.

His behavior as a knight was abysmal and unqualified, and to top it off, he was too young.

Younger knights, unless they were in their mid-thirties, were by no means intimidating, with very few exceptions.

Mercenaries and warriors who are willing to fight anything are far more threatening than knights in their youth.

Knights are a people whose true strength comes when they build their foundation and gain experience.

Unless a knight is a stroke of genius and makes a name for himself on the continent early on, most young knights are no better equipped to handle a real crisis than the average mercenary.

“A pearl necklace on a pig’s neck, a knight is supposed to wield his sword with his strength, not the strength of a partridge, tsk tsk tsk!”

Is that why you stand with your sword like a staff?

Rosita stared at the old knight as he reprimanded Rousseau with a tone of patheticness.

He’s quite old.

No, too old. She wondered if she had ever seen so many knights before.

A knight with experience and years under his belt is intimidating, but the old knight in front of him is too old to be old.

How he was still in active service at his age was beyond her, but Rosita remained wary.

“Who in the Earldom of Slater had an old knight like that?

An outsider couldn’t know all the knights of the Earl of Slater.

There were so many of them.

As such, the only knights of the Earldom of Slater that Rosita could remember were those who were currently active.

Knights who had been restricted from the outside world for well over a decade, such as Lord Coach, could not exist in Rosita’s memory.

Even a great sixth-ranked knight would be lost if he wasn’t active enough to be talked about.

And since Lord Cotch was effectively a retired knight even within the Earldom of Slater, his presence was bound to fade even further.

Crucially.

‘I don’t know who he is, but…… can’t be too bothered with such a rascal, can he?

Lord Coach’s shabby attire convinced Rosita that he was an old knight who was not highly regarded, even by the Earl of Slater.

Worse, he’s an assistant to a wretch.

“Tsk.”

Rosita realized she was overreacting and being too vigilant.

“Master Russo, are you all right?”

Jason, the butler in charge, asks if she’s okay, but stands safely, not moving toward Russo.

“Don’t you have any eyes? Does this look okay to you, and why are you the butler? You’re the butler after what you did?!”

Rousseau snapped, but Jason, as usual, didn’t move an inch, only shaking his head in apology with his face and words.

“You said that all of Count Slater’s butlers are highly trained in combat, didn’t you?

The rumors about the butlers of Count Slater are quite famous.

The nature of the Slater estate meant that the Slaters were always in battle and war, and the butlers who served them had a heavy duty and responsibility to protect their masters in the closest quarters.

They are better than most assassins, wielding daggers and rote memorization rather than traditional swordsmanship, and are always stealthy enough to operate in secret.

They have changed the perception of butlers across the continent and their profession forever.

Even Mr. Sandler, the butler to Count Slater, the butler to Count Slater, whom she had met today, hid enough danger in his eyes to send shivers down Rosita’s spine.

“But that guy…….

‘He seems a bit lacking.

Even though she knows her master is an asshole, she doesn’t step forward, even though she knows this is a dangerous moment.

It’s just like him and his butler.

As usual, the young knight, the old knight, and the old knight seemed to be in the least dangerous.

Rosita’s gaze fell on the last of these figures.

“You were so bold to go out on your own, and now you’re backed into a corner but don’t worry, I’m here. I’m here, and I’ll make sure you can breathe somehow, as long as you don’t lose your head!”

A priest of Nevatera.

When Rosita’s gaze locked on Merlin, hatred and anger burned in her eyes.

“Shut up, you dirty, smelly, Nevateran bitch!”

“Why don’t you just say it’s the pheromones of love?”

“……lunatic.”

Rosita truly thought Merlin was a madman.

At least it wasn’t coming from the mouth of a priest in the service of Nevatera.

“Can’t you come up with something a little more novel? I’ve heard it so often that it’s lost its luster. I’m surprised, by the way, to see a lurking priest of Sahr’tan leading the pack. Was that a bold move, or were…… we just that easy?”

Merlin’s eyes exploded with hostility.

Sahr’tan, the Evil God.

Classified as “Absolute Evil” by the three major religions, the followers of the Evil God Sahr’tan were servants of the devil who had completely lost their humanity.

The priests, in particular, are the worst of the evils, living under layers of pharyngeal masks.

Rousseau’s words, the sacrifice of children’s hearts and blood.

It’s human sacrifice.

Merlin’s enmity toward the priests could not be greater, as they were the ones directly leading such inhumane human sacrifices.

‘Don’t worry, it’s something you’re bound to like if you follow the goddess Nevatera.

Rousseau said that following the goddess Nevatera is something you’re bound to like, but he was wrong.

It’s not something you have to like, it’s something you have to do.

A priest of Sahr’tan was an evil that any priest of the Three Orders would have to kill on sight.

As such, Merlin was not pleased with the current situation.

‘A priest of Sahr’tan never travels sloppily! You look like an ordinary…….

No, it wasn’t normal now.

Every single member of the Rosetta’s upper echelon had flesh dripping from their eyes.

They are Satan’s servants.

Not only were they unarmed, but they were also poisonous to the point of death, making them too much for the mere five of them to handle.

Furthermore.

Merlin can’t fight.

He was second to none when it came to healing and recuperating behind the scenes, but he didn’t know how to fight with a sword himself.

As a result, the four of them – Russo, Hans, Ser Coetzee, and Jason – must face more than fifty men, including Sahrtan’s servants, knights, and mercenaries.

‘If I had told you beforehand, I would have brought the knights of the temple! No, if you expected this, you should have brought a generous amount of knights of the family! Russo, what the hell was that bastard thinking…… ha!

Merlin’s eyes were filled with darkness, but even if he were to die here and now, he couldn’t back down.

Did he read Merlin’s mind?

Or did he recognize it through his years of hiding his identity as a priest of Satan?

Rosita smirked as if she sensed that this was the end of Rousseau’s helpers.

“You were so stupid as to believe in this crap?”

Rosita looked at Russo and smiled wryly.

“Honestly, it does seem a bit silly, doesn’t it? I didn’t think it would be this bad either.”

A bratty child knight, an old knight with a mouth, a butler who stood back when he should have been using his body as a shield, and a priest who had never been in a fight.

Rousseau would have laughed at the absurdity of such a combination, even if he were Rosita.

I was embarrassed.

I wonder if his face and ears turned red with embarrassment.

“But if you underestimate me, you’ll get a big nose, because…….”

Rousseau pulled the spellbook out of his arm without even disarming Excalion.

It was another feature of Excalaeon that allowed the wearer to see through the armor at will.

“I’ll make it so.”

Check!

A scroll of magic ripped open.

As the scroll tore apart, a mana storm was generated, and then a dome formed around Rousseau, enveloping a hundred meters around him.

“……Airdome??”

The air dome spell completely sealed off the space itself, absorbing sound, internal and external shocks, and even preventing the escape of those trapped inside.

It was also a sixth-class spell, meaning that it would be impossible for anyone other than a skilled mage of at least sixth class to break it for any length of time.

“Are we going to end up in here? I should be more grateful…….”

“Don’t thank me yet.”

Russo smirked as he cut off Rosita’s words and tore out another spellbook.

Wham!

This time, a wind armor was created that wrapped around Rousseau, Hans, Merlin, Jason, Sir Corey, and the children Rosita had captured.

It was class 5 wind armor.

Rosita furrowed her brow as Russo tore up spellbook after spellbook.

“Don’t worry. This is the last one!”

Chaaaah!

At the same time as the last scroll in Rousseau’s hand was torn apart, a thick bolt of lightning struck the body of the knight standing closest to her.

“Lightning!!!”

Someone shouted, but.

“No, it’s not the chain.”

Rousseau smirked, and true to his word, the bolt of lightning instantly enveloped the knight’s body, splitting into two trunks as it moved to find another target.

It connected and split, and in no time at all, it had struck everyone on top of Rosita.

Of course, Russo and the children, who were wearing wind armor, were unharmed.

“……, you think you can deal with us with your magic!”

It was a fifth-class Chain Lightning, but it was true that its destructive power had been greatly reduced due to its many divisions.

It was only slightly more powerful than lower-class lightning magic.

Rousseau had already considered that, so he raised his sword without wavering in the slightest.

“I’m the one who’s disappointed that it’s over so easily. The real fun begins now!”

Rousseau moved toward the knight, who was the first to be struck by the chain lightning and was trembling all over and swung his sword.

The knight gritted his teeth and raised his sword, trying to defend even with his trembling body.

Boo!

The damage of the first Chain Lightning was too much for Rousseau’s full-powered sword to block.

His collarbone cracked and blood sprayed out.

Rosita screamed in agony at the sight of the knight collapsing in a heap from the magical damage.

“Kill him! Kill the bastard!”

Sahr’tan’s servants, struck by Chain Lightning, its effect weakened by repeated splitting, moved with their weapons.

But.

Chin-chin-chin-chin.

“……!!”

In the blink of an eye, the heads of five of Sahrtan’s servants were sliced clean off, leaving them sprawled across the floor.

The man who had taken their lives had done it so quickly, so succinctly, that none of them had even realized it.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re up to, but…….”

He paused, looking at Rousseau, his eyebrows furrowed in a white, frosty furrow before he spoke again.

“In any case, I cannot stand idly by while the evil that has tainted the Slater estate is dealt with, so do not expect to live here, vile servants of evil.”

The old, haggard-looking knight, Lord Coach’s eyes glowed more intensely than ever before.

Not only that, but the rusted and worn sword he held like a cane was, at this moment, sending out a chilling foreboding that was more powerful than any other sword in the world.

The momentum of a sixth-ranked knight.

The seemingly insignificant momentum of the old knight, the one who had postponed his retirement too long, had suddenly begun to suffocate every inch of the air dome.

“…….”

It was only then that Rosita realized with certainty just how dangerous the Noh Knights were.

“But there are only five of them! We have the upper hand!

As skilled as the Noh Knights may seem, they can only do so much on their own.

Faced with absolute numerical superiority, Rosita, still hopeful, nervously called out to her surroundings.

“Kill them all!”