All-Master Player Of The Academy [EN]: Chapter 86

43. Homecoming – 2

Euri, a priest of the Sun Cult, was running.

His heart felt like it was about to explode, and every muscle in his body was screaming, but he couldn’t stop his feet.

“Ah… Aaaah… Sun… Haa… O Sun… Please, look… Cough! Haa… Haa… Look upon us…”

-Pshew!!

The fired bolt grazed his leg.

He almost fell, but he barely managed to keep his balance and ran on.

“Hahaha!!”

The mercenaries on horseback who saw this laughed without restraint.

It was hilarious to see the priest, who usually acted so high and mighty, running away covered in sweat and dirt.

“Enough playing around, catch him.”

One of their employers growled, and the mercenary shrugged.

He wanted to torment him a little more, but what could he do?

The opponent was an expert-level master.

There was no need to unnecessarily provoke him.

“Aye, aye. Yo, give me a crossbow.”

The comrade running next to him threw him a loaded crossbow.

The mercenary caught it and aimed it at Euri’s head.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger.

-Swish!!

A sharp, thread-like light swept past his neck.

-Pshshshsh!!

A fountain of blood erupted, and the mercenary’s head fell off.

Those who were taken aback by the sudden situation raised their heads.

A boy who hadn’t been there until just now was standing on the path where the fleeing priest had been.

“W-What is it?!”

-Swish!! Swish!!

As the boy swung his sword once more from a distance, the neck of another mercenary who was about to fire a crossbow fell.

The faces of those who saw it turned pale.

“What…”

An incomprehensible situation had occurred.

The bewildered mercenaries looked at their employer.

They hadn’t said anything about there being someone like that.

The assassins of the Blue Moon, the employers, were about to step forward at the mercenaries’ urging gaze.

The boy swung his sword as it was.

-Kwaaaang!!

Dozens of bundles of sword energy swept past them.

Ian, who had taken down the enemies with a single solar flare, walked heavily.

The two assassins of the Blue Moon, confirmed by Kirke, were so badly injured that they couldn’t use their arms and one leg.

“You’re the Blue Moon, right?”

“Kuh, kuh-huh…”

“I don’t know… what you’re doing… but you won’t be able to get anything out of us… Cough! …”

“Sure, you won’t.”

Ian, looking at them, flashed his eyes.

“What are you guys doing? And why are you attacking the priests?”

“Kuh-uk! Keok! Ugh…”

“Aaaargh…!! W-We are… B-Blue Moon’s operatives… Killedee Mountain’s s-secret site… Saw… those… Keoeok… Eliminate…”

“Secret site? What kind of place is it?”

“Information… Selecting assassination targets… Ugh… The moon’s existence again… Keueueueuk… Eoeok… Ugh.”

Was it because of the pain of having his soul squeezed?

Despite the training he had received in preparation for torture, the assassins spewed out information.

To roughly summarize, the priest, who was wide-eyed in the back, had entered the branch in Killedee Mountain.

And he had seen something he shouldn’t have.

That was why they were chasing him.

“Where is your leader located?”

“Kaaaaaak! Aaaargh! Aak!!”

“W-We don’t even know… V-Vice leader! The vice leader knows… Keoeok!!”

He couldn’t ask any more questions.

As they lost consciousness as their souls were crushed, Ian swung his sword.

-Swish!! Swish!!

Ian, who had blown off the heads of the two assassins, turned his head.

The priest, who had been threatened with his life until just now, sat down and stared blankly at him.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes? Ah. Yes… Yeees…”

The boy who had suddenly appeared swung his sword a few times and annihilated those terrifying pursuers.

A situation that would only appear in novels that people who didn’t know how to read would sometimes read while learning to read had occurred.

While he was bewildered by the rather unfamiliar situation, Ian greeted him.

“I am Ian Brandon from Fredon Academy.”

“B-Brandon? S-Surely, even the saint is tracking me down?”

What was he talking about?

As Ian wondered, the middle-aged priest swallowed hard.

“Please don’t do this. I-I’m just… a priest of the Sun Cult. Please. Please…”

“I think you’re misunderstanding something. What is your name?”

“Euri… My name is Euri.”

“I see. I use the Brandon surname, but I’m not coming from the Brandon estate.”

“Is that… so?”

“Yes. And I’m on pretty good terms with the Sun Cult, so I’ll protect you, priest.”

“Myaa~ Myamya~.”

Mya Ne jumped up and approached.

Only after seeing Mya Ne did Euri let out a sigh of relief and relax a little.

“Thank you… Thank you…”

“How about getting treatment first?”

Ian said, looking at his wounded body, and he examined his body.

Covered in sweat and dust.

And because he had run so hard that he had exhausted all his stamina, he had no energy to use his holy power.

-Grumble.

“It would be better to eat something first.”

Ian took out bread, jerky, and water from his bag.

Euri, who received it, ate it ravenously as if he was hiding his eyes.

He hadn’t even been able to drink water properly because he was being chased, and his face turned red when he had eaten all the food Ian had given him.

“S-Sorry. It was too hard…”

“It’s okay. Now, let’s get some treatment.”

“Yeees…”

He immediately began to pray.

At the same time, a fairly strong holy power rippled, and the wounds all over his body were healed.

Ian, who had absorbed the energy of the sun contained within, asked immediately after the prayer was over.

“You were surprised to hear the Brandon surname, right? What happened?”

“Ah… That’s… I am a pilgrim. I travel the continent, healing the sick and spreading the teachings of the sun.”

He had entered the Brandon estate while on his pilgrimage.

The place was poor and undeveloped, and there was no temple of the Sun Cult.

In addition, the estate residents were always suffering from illness, injury, and starvation.

He felt sorry for them and was healing the estate residents when it happened.

“Someone who was gathering herbs in Killedee Mountain returned with serious injuries. I requested a subjugation from the Brandon baronial family because I heard that they were attacked by bandits and their son who went with them was captured, but…”

They did not send out soldiers.

Rather, they just took away the herbalist he had treated without saying a word.

At that time, the herbalist cried and pleaded.

He was fine, but please save his son.

Even though he was not a believer in the Sun Cult, he could not ignore his earnestness as a clergyman.

“That’s why we…”

He went up the mountain with the holy knight who had accompanied him on his pilgrimage as a guard.

In order to somehow defeat or drive away the weak bandits.

But he never knew that it would bring about these results.

“Ah… I was… scared.”

Euri covered his face with both hands.

He was trembling and completely terrified.

“Such… such a monster…”

“Monster?”

“It was a huge monster. The p-people there were feeding monsters to that monster and raising it. Ah… On the orders of the one who wielded the cyan light sword… Even p-people…”

‘It must be the Moonlight Sword. There was even a leader. Is there something important there?’

“So what happened?”

“We saw it and immediately left the place to inform the Sun Cult, but… Ah. We ran into those who were with that monster, and Sir Flat…”

Euri trailed off, unable to speak.

“Did he die?”

“I don’t know. Sir Flat somehow got me to escape… and the person I met after that also tried to send me away… Ah.”

“Who is that again?”

“He is the leader of the Sword Flower Troupe. I ran away while he was stopping those unscrupulous people, but…”

After coming down from the mountain, he was chased by them.

Ian, looking at him completely dejected, got up from his seat.

“When did that happen?”

“Three days ago. I hope the two of them are safe…”

‘Kirke. What is the leader’s condition?’

It seems he wasn’t killed or captured.

As Kirke told him his location in detail, Ian got up from his seat.

“First, Priest, please go to the main branch of the Sun Cult. I will escort you to the gate.”

As he said calmly, Euri let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. And when you return, please tell them that I am intervening in this matter.”

“Of course! And I will request support right away!”

Ian took him straight to the gate.

Whether the men he had killed earlier were all of the pursuers, there was nothing particularly dangerous around the gate.

“Let’s go to Light City.”

“Yes. But how will you pay the fee?”

At the magician’s words, Euri just fiddled with his priest’s robe.

He had lost all his luggage while running away in a hurry.

Instead of him, who was embarrassed, Ian took out a voucher.

“S-Saint!”

“It’s an urgent matter. The reward can be holy objects.”

“I will definitely repay you with good holy objects!”

Euri repeatedly bowed and promised before leaving.

As he entered the gate, Ian turned his body.

“No. Set it to the leader.”

One schedule had been added, but there was no big problem.

Rather, it seemed like he would finish one task easily.

Ian ran quickly along the path guided by Kirke.

Halfway up Killedee Mountain, which belonged to the Brandon estate.

The leader, hiding in a small cave there, frowned behind his mask.

‘Damn it.’

He was able to find them just a few days after hearing information from Ian that there was a Blue Moon branch here.

And he realized.

The information Ian gave him was half right and half wrong.

It was true that the Blue Moon gathered here, but it was not just a branch.

‘I can’t believe there’s a monster like that.’

When he went down to the artificial cave, avoiding the Blue Moon assassins, he saw it.

A monster.

There was a monster in the deepest part that he couldn’t describe.

“Cough!”

The fallen holy knight spat out blood.

The leader, looking down at him, bit his lip.

‘Should I abandon him?’

There was no reason why the leader of the Sword Flower Troupe couldn’t break through the Blue Moon assassins and mercenary rabble.

The reason he was hiding like this was only one.

It was because of this holy knight.

“Damn it. That’s why I didn’t want to get involved with other guys…”

The Sword Flower Troupe only thinks about swords.

In the process, there is no need for friends or family.

That’s why he always fought alone, but the only place that reached out to the Sword Flower Troupe without any conditions was the Sun Cult.

Because of that, he felt like he owed a debt to the Sun Cult.

That bothered him, so he saved the holy knight who was about to become food for the monster and escaped from the cave.

But the siege and pursuit were considerable, and he was stuck here.

In the end, the result of getting involved with other people was this.

“Find him!!”

“He must be nearby!!”

As he heard the sound from outside, the holy knight said weakly.

“Leave me… and go…”

“Shut up because it’s noisy.”

“…If you could deliver this… to Sister Janes…”

“You deliver it. And know that the Sword Flower Troupe will no longer have ties with the Sun Cult.”

The leader felt people gathering around him.

It must be the enemies who found the traces and were flocking to him.

‘Damn it…’

Now there is a limit to hiding.

He looked at the holy knight and said coldly.

“You pretend to be dead like this.”

There is no more food or medicine to last.

To save this holy knight, he had to be prepared to be discovered by them and fight while moving.

The leader adjusted his mask and grabbed his sword.

And when he was about to go outside.

“Uaaaaaagh!!”

“Wh-What… Keoeok!”

A terrible scream is heard.

As he did, the presences he felt gradually disappeared.

What was going on?

‘Did support come?!’

The priest he had met before came to mind.

Did he return safely and call for support from the Sun Cult?

The leader, thinking so, went out to take a look and was startled.

“…Why are you here?”

The leader asked the boy, Ian, who had eliminated dozens of mercenaries, and he replied indifferently.

“I was wondering what you were doing since you still couldn’t handle one here, so I came to see.”

At those words, the leader thought that he must cut ties with the Sun Cult once this was over.