Chapter 37

‘I can win, I can win!’

The heavenly aria resounded, and Nikolai’s heart was filled with a hymn of victory and hope.

The ‘Angels of the Battlefield’ with six wings and flaming swords charged forward. The Church Knights’ strike, enhanced by the White Tower’s vaunted hymn magic. As if descending from the heavens to storm the earth, the sudden assault made Dale urgently extend his arm.

“Shadow Bullet.”

Following the fluttering shadow cloak, a hail of bullets made of darkness rained down. Yet the angels easily dodged the attack mid-air and flew toward Dale once more. They were fast.

‘My angels, as expected!’

Even if the eldest son of the Saxon family was the empire’s greatest genius, he was ultimately just a novice 3rd Circle Expert.

Moreover, no matter how dreadful the Book of the Black Goat may be, a mere third-circle novice could never possibly unlock its full potential.

“Praise be…!”

A celestial aria resonated deep within the chest, enveloping the entire hellish expanse in light.

“Alleluia!”

“…Reward.”

And as if answering Cardinal Nikolai’s aria.

“Shut up…”

The silent darkness finally spoke.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!”

To Dale’s eyes, the girl with the horns of a black goat screamed.

“■■■■──!”

But to Nikolai and his angels, it must have appeared as nothing more than a repulsive creature spewing out a hideous scream.

A monstrosity from another realm, composed of a swarm of countless tentacles.

Swoosh!

Countless bundles of tentacles erupted from beneath the girl’s skirt. Aiming at the angels of the battlefield, who effortlessly dodged even Dale’s Shadow Bullet.

“……!”

The burning swords held by the angels swung, unleashing a whirlwind of sacred flames. The holy fire that incinerates the enemies of the goddess.

No sooner did it seem the tentacles were being severed helplessly before it than black blood gushed forth from the severed ends.

Right before the angels’ eyes.

Blood as black as pitch, stained murky and dark. No, it wasn’t even blood. A liquid as black and viscous as coal tar splattered over the angels’ bodies like a torrent.

“……?!”

Suddenly.

The angels’ flapping wings froze completely. It wasn’t a fall.

After the silence, the angels turned in midair. Toward Cardinal Nikolai, whom they were sworn to protect.

“Praise… praise…”

“Praise, praise, praise, praise…….”

Along with a clearly madness-twisted muttering. The moment he saw that sight, Nikolai’s blood ran cold.

The goddess’s knights, who should have been reborn as invincible warriors through the heavenly aria…

The angel’s wings were grotesquely swollen, writhing like hundreds of earthworms. Black blood poured from its features like tar, and it shed tears of pitch-black liquid—a sight of utter horror.

“Ah, ahhh…”

Cardinal Nikolai’s hope shattered into nothingness. They were no longer angels serving the heavenly goddess.

Angels of darkness stood there.

Black, dark tears of blood streamed down, their entire bodies grotesquely swollen with worm-like veins bulging as if about to burst. Now twisted into something hideous that could scarcely be called ‘wings’.

Swoosh!

The tentacles plunged down once more, straight toward those very angels.

Squish!

They shattered limbs, tore through wings, ripped open armor, crushed skulls, and the tentacles burrowed deep into the brain, taking root. It was as if an evil god was toying with its own creations… Nikolai’s angels, the Church Knights that the Sistina Goddess Cult boasted of, were being mercilessly ravaged.

All a mere sixth-circle white mage could do before this spectacle was tremble in fear.

“About what happens in Hell.”

Leaving the angels being mercilessly ravaged by the tentacles behind, the ‘Black Prince’, who had been silent, spoke.

“The parties to the contract shall not be liable in any way.”

The distance between Dale and Nikolai began to close.

“Ah, ahhhhh…”

Forgetting even that this was merely an eleven-year-old child. Cardinal Nikolai trembled violently in sheer terror, as if about to faint.

The prodigy of the Duke’s house, the son of the Black Duke. The empire’s greatest genius.

No.

Describing the ‘Black Prince’ required far more than such trivial epithets.

He was the devil’s spawn.

‘The enemy of the goddess…’

The seed of evil conceived by the shadow of the sister goddesses.

“Do you wish to live?”

Dale asked. With the horrific mass of tentacles, or the girl with goat horns, beside him.

“P-please….”

Cardinal Nikolai desperately begged for his life.

“It’s not as if I couldn’t spare your life.”

Dale continued.

“What can you offer me in return?”

“W-what….”

A terrified Nikolai stammered back. After asking, he began spilling out whatever came to mind. His position, his wealth, the power of the church he led, and furthermore, everything he possessed as a White Mage of the 6th Circle and a Cardinal of Bishop rank. He desperately spewed it out, again and again.

“I like it.”

“Wh-what pleases you?”

Nikolai asked back, terrified.

“Everything you have.”

Dale answered.

“No, no way…!”

Nikolai’s expression froze as he grasped the meaning of those words. Immediately, despair washed over him like a sinking heart. For there was only one thing Dale’s words could mean.

“Looks like we’ll have to rewrite the contract.”

Absolute obedience through Geas (the bond of a binding oath).

At this point, there was no room left for Nikolai to turn back. Even if it meant selling his soul to the devil, there was no exception.

“Playing with you was so much fun!”

The girl smiled happily. Her expression was tinged with regret, as if she’d just finished a fun outing.

“I really like your world, Oppa.”

Countless tentacles wriggled beneath the hem of her dress. In the void horizon filled with cold and darkness, in Dale’s world.

“So I’ll wait here for you.”

Dale smiled quietly. Ignoring the agony in his heart, drained of magic, as if it might wither away at any moment.

The Grimoire is literally a vessel containing thoughts, and it is never in the form of a book itself. Therefore, The Book of the Black Goat was now fused into one within Dale’s world. By taking root in his heart in the form of tentacles.

“Aren’t you afraid of me, brother?”

On the frozen plain, the girl asked Dale.

“No, I’m not.”

“Oh, I see.”

Hearing this, the girl smiled as if relieved.

“We can play like this again, right?”

After smiling, she asked again, looking worried.

“We’ll see each other again.”

Dale nodded, and the girl smiled innocently.

“Yeah, that’s a relief!”

Seeing her overwhelm Cardinal Nikolai, a White Mage of the 6th Circle, he could sense it instinctively. Her existence was far too dangerous to be casually unleashed. And Dale, strictly speaking, still couldn’t control the Book of the Black Goat.

It was the vessel containing the deep-rooted darkness of House Saxon and the ideology of ‘Immortal Frederick’.

Even for the empire’s greatest genius, it was a forbidden realm beyond bearing, even the name ‘son of the Black Count’.

‘Besides, it’s not a power to be flaunted recklessly.’

Not a reckless force to wield indiscriminately, but a trump card to be held as a last resort.

In a sense, this was like imprisoning her in the abyss of thought. The girl surely knew this truth too.

“I promise.”

But this is by no means the end between us.

“Soon, you’ll be able to play with me to your heart’s content again.”

“Yeah, I’ll be waiting!”

The girl smiled, and Dale nodded. Leaving her alone in a world of emptiness, filled with bitter cold and solitude.

After the commotion in hell subsided… the eldest son of the Saxon family received a grand ‘absolution’ in the name of Cardinal Nikolai.

Furthermore, as a symbolic bridge of goodwill between the House of Saxony and the Church, he was granted ceremonial honors bordering on unprecedented generosity from the Church.

On the journey back to the duchy, Dale and his knights were no longer pilgrims hiding their true identities.

For that reason, no one dared to stand in the way of the ‘Black Prince’ and the swords of House Sachsen he commanded.

Several months later.

A jet-black light coiled along the blade’s edge. Based on the heart technique inherited by the Northern Night Crow Knights, it drew the aura processed within the heavy sword’s massive blade outwards,

Drawing forth aura forged within the body and wrapping it around the blade as sword energy. Knights who reach such a realm are called ‘Aura Knights’.

Jet-black aura blade. Re-gripping the black sword, symbol of House Saxon, the sword maiden ‘Charlotte’ raised her head.

“It’s done.”

At that commanding sight, Charlotte’s teacher, Sir Helmut Blackbear, was so astonished he was lost for words. The Saxon knights watching her alongside him were no exception.

The ‘possessor of extraordinary talent,’ who grew by leaps and bounds each day, was not the only one in this world.

‘An aura blade of such mastery at that age!’

And.

“Charlotte of Orhart.”

Dale, the eldest son of the Saxon family and the only one maintaining composure amidst it all, spoke.

“Dale of Saxon asks you this.”

Kneeling, toward Charlotte who had thrust the Black Sword of House Saxon downward.

“For the honor of your lord and house, for your own honor, and for the things you must protect…”

Tapping Charlotte’s shoulder lightly with the knight’s sword in his own hand.

“Will you uphold the knight’s oath and wield your sword?”

“I swear it.”

Charlotte bowed her head.

“Will you wield your sword without being swayed by personal desire, to protect the weak and punish the wicked?”

“I swear.”

“…May the true nobility of a knight accompany your sword.”

Dale said.

“In the name of Saxony, I hereby knight Sir Charlotte at this place.”

Charlotte’s knighting ceremony.

Though it was a modest ceremony, attended only by a few Knights of the Night Raven. Considering Charlotte’s standing, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Dale and the Duke of Saxony had given her the highest honor possible.

That was why Charlotte smiled quietly.

With overwhelming emotion, she felt she had finally become a sword capable of protecting ‘her lord’.

After the ceremony, in the central courtyard of Saxony Castle.

“Are you sure that will work?”

At Dale’s question, his knight Charlotte nodded.

“I like the swords of the House of Saxony.”

The doctrine pursued by the swords of the Northern Knights. Dale hesitated, considering their compatibility, but Charlotte’s resolve was unwavering.

“Because it’s the sword that made me who I am today.”

Thus, by her own will, she accepted the Night Raven Knight’s sword and began wielding the Saxon House’s ‘Greatsword’ instead of a rapier. As the hand-picked disciple of Helmut Blackbear, the continent’s Seven Swordsman and master of the Broad Sword.

Completing the Saxon House’s black sword, the jet-black aura blade, at an unbelievable speed was just a bonus.

“I never imagined I could become a knight this way.”

Charlotte smiled as if surprised.

“Thanks, Dale.”

A shy, girlish smile.

“It’s all thanks to you.”

Seeing her like that, he thought. It was actually Dale himself who had been underestimating Charlotte’s talent.

“…Beyond the Demon King’s Realm, intelligence indicates a large-scale orc warlord faction is gathering.”

With his resolve set, Dale spoke.

“I hear the ‘Orc Warlord’ is personally leading the forces.”

“……!”

“Father will personally muster the Duchy’s forces and summon the northern lords. I, too, will join that battle.”

Dale continued.

“In that battle, I hope you’ll stay by my side.”

“…….”

“As my knight, no matter what.”

Charlotte gasped at the utterly unexpected words. Even though she was a knight who had reached the realm of an ‘Oru Knight,’ she was still only an 11-year-old girl.

“Yeah, I understand.”

But Charlotte nodded without flinching.

A knight’s sword is wielded solely for their lord, and her lord was the one who desired her blade.