Chapter 65 – Kidnapping

As the soldiers of the royal road scattered, the small disturbance gradually grew farther away. Ed and Arin entered the mansion while driving the horse leisurely.

There was nothing urgent, and the horseshoes on the boulevard of the royal road sounded calm. And most of all, Arin didn’t say anything, but it was okay since she wasn’t upset anymore.

While riding the horses, Ed’s senses caught a fuss first.

“Huh?”

The place where the disturbance was heard was the direction they were headed for. It was at Pendragon’s mansion.

“I think there’s a problem at the mansion.”

When Ed kicked the horse in the side first, Arin also hardened her face and followed. Ed, who ran first, could see a body hanging at the door and an injured soldier.

In Pendragon’s house, even the ordinary soldiers are elite soldiers. Ed thought it was probably due to the influence of Pendragon, but the elite soldier was seriously injured and collapsed.

Arin was surprised and got off the horse and started a recovery spell on the soldier.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. The king’s soldiers rushed in all of a sudden. I stabbed them with a spear, but it was like they didn’t feel any pain.”

Ed spoke quickly at the words.

“Just do first aid and follow me.”

“Okay.”

He is not the problem right now. Ed’s horse ran into the mansion.

He let his guard down. He never knew someone would attack Pendragon’s mansion.

However, it was 16 years ago that Pendragon was an active demon hunter, and since then, he usually goes on beast hunts. So, there are people who do not know how scary and dangerous he is.

There are still people that second guess Pendragon’s reputation.

If there were Pendragon or Cecilia here, intruders would not be able to enter the property, but they weren’t here today.

The attack took place while they were not at the mansion.

An owl was watching this place earlier. Ed thought this could be related to the dead witchcraft woman. He accelerated his speech. Diego was in danger if this was really related to the witchcraft woman.

Bodies were also scattered around Pendragon’s mansion.

Ed, who had seen what would happen to those who were cursed, passed through the bodies on the ground and went inside.

There were a lot of elite soldiers who died.

Even if they survived, they won’t go back to normal.

Ed got off the horse and went inside. The bodies of elite soldiers were piled up like mountains in front of the living room. Their limbs are cut off or their head is cut off and piled up.

Behind it, Dex was breathing heavily.

“Haaaa. Are there more?”

Ed shouted and asked as Dex stood up with a sword.

“What happened to Diego?”

Dex finally looked up at Ed.

“Ed? I couldn’t check on him because I was trying to protect the old man.”
“Shit.”

Ed saw Thane bleeding on his head behind Dex. Maybe he got hit on the head by something. Dex also has quite a few wounds here and there, perhaps because he tried to protect the wounded Thane.

Once Ed confirmed neither of them was in an emergency situation, he headed straight to the room where Diego was resting. And when he arrived there, he could see a wall on one side of the half-collapsed corridor and a door shattered. When e entered the door, Sophia was lying down.

“Sophia!”

Ed helped her and looked at the condition. He was worried that she was already weak, but Sophia came to her senses little by little.

She shouted as soon as she came to her senses.

“Diego! Diego!”

Sophia shouted frantically, found Ed, and asked quickly.

“What about Diego? What happened to Diego?”

Sophia couldn’t pull herself together and was just screaming. Ed clenched her shoulder and looked straight into her eyes.

“Snap out of it and tell me in detail about what happened. How did Diego get kidnapped?”

Sophia came to her senses from the pain delivered to her shoulder. And when Ed’s eyes met, she took a deep breath and spoke quickly.

“There was a commotion outside and I looked out the window, and the soldiers were fighting. Then I heard a fight from downstairs, so I locked the door and stood in front of Diego, and the door exploded.”

Even in Ed’s view, the door was blown in.

“Then what?”

“A woman with red eyes came inside. And Juan appeared and fought her. I thought the situation was solved, but Juan disappeared in that one attack and the woman came back. I swung the chair next to me, but it went flying to the wall at one glance.”

Ed sighed at her words and looked around. Diego was not in a state to summon Juan. Perhaps Juan forced himself out because there was a crisis, but that alone could not stop the witchcraft woman.

Why did the witchcraft woman who uses the demon’s power take Diego?

Diego has a talent for dealing with both demons’ power and spirit command.

Whether it was to use Diego as a disciple or as a sacrifice, Diego had to be saved first.

“Let’s go down first.”

There are more than a hundred cursed people.

This kidnapper was on a completely different level from the witchcraft woman Ed met before.

Above all, she was bold. She came here alone. Although Pendragon was not in the mansion.

Ed, who took Sophia down, saw the mountains of bodies scattered in the living room and guided her.

No matter how much relic-class equipment Dex had, you could tell how great he was by the fight he had.

So Ed took Sophia to Dex’s side. Sophia was surprised to see Thane. She approached him, tore her skirt, and wrapped his wound.

At that time, Arin jumped inside. There were many people with injuries on the way, but she came right away after seeing that it was such an emergency.

Arin placed a recovery spell on Thane’s forehead and looked at Dex.

“What about you, Dex?”

Dex said, struggling with the words.

“I’m okay. I was supposed to protect Diego, but I’m sorry I couldn’t.”

“No. This is my fault. I didn’t know the kidnapper would come here this fearlessly.”

Dex turned his shoulders around and said.

“You’re going to go save him, right?”

As Ed nodded, Dex pulled himself together and said.

“Let’s go. It’s better to have Arin here than me.”

Of course, having Arin is good in many ways. First of all, she can recover the injured people here.

However, a holy knight is a hundred times better than a champion when dealing with a witchcraft woman that has the power of a demon. Even if Dex and Arin’s skills were on the same level, it was a matter of character.

Ed put his hand on Dex’s shoulder and said.

“Dex. The opponent is a witchcraft woman. A holy knight is better. I need Arin to some with me.

Dex lightly made a tsk- sound at the words. Ed said, looking directly into Dex’s eyes.

“There are many chances to fight in the future. Don’t risk yourself this enemy. We need someone to protect this place.”

Dex raised his hand and grabbed Ed’s shoulder and growled.

“Ahhh, but I want to beat the shit out of the bastard. I won’t go this time, but I won’t give in next time.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

Ed patted Dex on his shoulder and looked at Arin. She first aids Thane’s wounds and Sophia’s wounds with recovery spells and approached Dex.

Dex grabbed her wrist and said.

“Don’t waste your sacred power for nothing, go and catch the witchcraft woman.”

Arin looked at him quietly and nodded. Dex was exhausted and wounded, but there were no dangerous wounds.

Ed first came out of the house with Arin. If Diego had been kidnapped and on the move, he would not have gone very far. If they rode a horse out, Ed and Arin would have met the kidnapper on their way to the mansion.

The kidnapper would have run away in a different route.

Ed saw the fallen soldier and asked.

“Did you call the royal palace?”

“Yes, I did.”

Pendragon will move soon. However, now that Diego has been kidnapped, the situation is urgent.

There was a being that approached quickly when Ed was expanding his senses. He confirmed that someone was approaching, and lowered his arrow.

It was a green translucent rat.

When Arin saw it, Ed hurriedly stopped her because she lifted her hammer.

“It’s a spirit rat that Diego summoned.”

Arin looked at the rat quietly and said.

“Then Diego must be safe.”

“Not yet. I don’t know if he’s sharing his senses with it, but he managed to send a spirit rat without getting caught by the witchcraft woman.”

The spirit of the rat, who was rubbing his beard with his front feet, immediately turned and ran when his eyes met. Ed had to follow the fast-moving rat’s spirit without time to ride his horse.

It was hard to chase because it was running in the opposite direction.

Ed had nothing to worry about because he had high agility. And Arin was following without any problems. Considering that her weapons and armor themselves are heavier than Ed’s, the fact that this speed is okay means that Arin’s skills have grown more.

As they chased the rat, the rat rushed to the wall. Then it went through the wall.

Ed ran and clasped his hands together.

“Arin!”

Arin realized what Ed was trying to do and accelerated her running speed.

Then she stepped on Ed’s hands and took a leap using the force he raised.

She jumped over the wall at once. Ed sent her up and ran straight behind, jumped on the wall, and soared up. When he crossed the wall, Arin was already running after the rat.

Ed caught up with her at once.

Arin spoke to Ed when he caught up.

“Did the witchcraft woman cross this wall with Diego?”

For Ed, this wall was not difficult to cross. But this height was difficult for anyone else except Ed. Did the witchcraft woman really take Diego over this wall?

In other words, her physical ability itself is not normal.

She’s the kind of opponent that Ed has never met before.

“She won’t be easy.”

Arin nodded heavily at the words. Witches have all kinds of mysteries.

However, Ed has never heard of such a mysterious witch with such excellent physical ability.

Ed knew she would not be an easy opponent.

Ed strengthened his impression while expanding his senses.

“She found out.”

“About us?”

“Yes.”

When they crossed the next wall after chasing the rat, Ed could see the soldiers running. They looked like soldiers of a noble family.

“Can you lift the curse?”

“I can, but it takes time.”

“Then we’ll tie them up and go.”

Ed said so and fired an arrow. Even though he didn’t inject much mana, all the feet of those who were running turned frozen.

“Argh!”

The short time was enough to pass by them.

Ed, who was running past them, smiled.

“We caught up with them”.

Ed could see the back of a woman climbing the wall with Diego on her side. When Ed’s arrow flew in, the woman’s cape flapped and it missed her.

It was not an ordinary cape, but this attack was to tie her feet and save Diego.

The arrow twisted because it was thrown with an angle, and was stuck in the arm she was holding Diego.

Arin’s hammer was already flying right in front of her nose when the woman was trying to hold Diego with her other arm.

When the woman turned over and avoided Arin’s hammer, Ed ran with all his might and caught Diego falling. Diego looked at Ed with a pale complexion and smiled.

“Brother, did I do a good job?”

Ed swiped Diego’s hair and said,

“You did a great job.”

Ed stepped back hugging Diego. Arin came up and grabbed the hammer that returned and took the lead with her shield out. Ed said, putting Diego behind him.

“We’ll get this over with. Just wait for me here.”