Chapter 5: The Paladin’s Intervention

A group of masked figures, clad in black, had surrounded them, brandishing at least ten crossbows.

The hunter girl gasped in alarm, swiftly aiming her bow at one of the attackers. Yet, the sheer disparity in numbers was overwhelmingly clear.

“Don’t be so agitated.”

The opposing leader waved a dismissive hand.

“Leave the Cockatrice’s corpse and depart at once. I shall spare your lives.”

“Who are these people?” Leon inquired.

“Bounty bandits who specialize in stealing others’ hunting spoils,” Naya whispered in response. “I can’t believe we’d encounter them so brazenly, even in the outskirts of town!”

“Oh? So you’re eyeing this rooster? Don’t even dream of it.”

“Indeed!” Naya deliberately raised her voice, sounding remarkably confident. “Leon just slew the Cockatrice in a solo fight. I advise you not to foolishly challenge us; it’s hard to say who would truly win if we fought.”

“What does that matter? There are over a dozen of us! One of you is petrified, and another is poisoned. Among your remaining three, there’s an unarmed priest. What can you possibly do?”

“Not three people, but four!”

***

Suddenly, another voice emerged from not far away.

Everyone instinctively turned their gaze in that direction, where an energetic girl with yellow hair tied in a single ponytail stood high upon a rock.

She wore gleaming silver-white armor and carried a shield nearly half her height on her back.

A female knight? Her armor was dazzling beyond measure.

“I was merely passing by, yet I stumble upon such scum,” the girl declared scornfully, her arms crossed. An air of undeniable arrogance permeated her words.

The bounty bandits exchanged bewildered glances. “Who are you?”

The girl smiled, tilting her head with haughty pride. “Ael, the Paladin of the Aio Sect! Executing justice in Aio’s name!”

“Ha! I’ve seen plenty of self-proclaimed ‘justice’ types like you! In the end, they all—”

The bandit’s words were cut short—they could proceed no further. A shimmering silver hand materialized from thin air, grasping all ten bounty bandits together!

It then slammed them violently to the ground, instantly annihilating the entire group.

“Eh? What was that!?” Even Naya, a fellow priest of the Aio Sect, was utterly startled.

“What was that just now?” the thief girl exclaimed in shock. “Magic?”

That was impossible. Everyone knew magic had been lost a decade ago during the great catastrophe.

“That was Aio’s divine miracle,” Ael explained, lightly leaping down from the rock.

She disregarded the unconscious bounty bandits, walking directly to Naya and embracing her intimately. “How wonderful it is to meet a priest of Aio out here; it feels just like seeing family.”

Naya’s face was pressed against Ael’s protruding breastplate, still entirely bewildered by the situation. “You said you are? Aio’s Paladin?”

“Yes, I am a Paladin recently trained by the Sect using the remaining fragments of the Scripture of Light! I spread divine miracles in Aio’s name!”

“What did you say? The Sect found the Scripture?”

Hearing this news, Naya, as a priest, could hardly believe her ears. Legend had it that the Scripture, which recorded Aio’s very essence, was seized by mages. She couldn’t believe it had been recovered a century later.

Ael addressed everyone present, “It’s only fragments, of course, but—you all just witnessed Aio’s power, didn’t you? Aio truly exists; they are the one true God!”

“It… seems… to be… true…” the thief girl murmured indistinctly, as if still reeling from the sudden divine miracle. After all, having seen it with their own eyes, no one could possibly argue.

With the destruction of the magical empire and the demise of magic ten years ago, the churches, once suppressed by mages, finally experienced a resurgence.

Various sects, both large and small, worshipping different gods, sprang up like mushrooms.

The most prominent among them were the Angelic Church, which worshipped Mercury, and the rising Aio Sect, which gained prominence due to the active role of its priests.

(Rumor had it that the Second Prince supported them, investing heavily in training priests.)

Naturally, all churches, without exception, claimed that the mages’ catastrophe was a punishment from their respective gods.

“I… have a younger sister, she’s thirteen this year. Can she become an Aio priest?” the hunter girl asked.

“Of course she can. Just bring her to Dawn City and find Father Mans when the time comes,” Ael replied.

It seemed they had been so engrossed in conversation that they’d forgotten someone. Naya now crouched before the petrified warrior boy, swiftly using a healing spell to purify the curse on him.

Purifying a curse took a certain amount of time, making it utterly impractical during combat.

“It’s getting late, and I have a mission to attend to, so I’ll be taking my leave.” Ael waved goodbye to them. “We’ll meet again if fate wills it.”

Just like that, the figure of the energetic young woman gradually faded from sight. Judging by her direction, it seemed she was also heading towards Howling Mountain Town.