The Count was in great danger. Rumors that they had thought were meaningless gossip were being proven true one by one. Now, people’s trust in these rumors was incomparable to the time when they had just started to spread, and among the rumors surrounding the existence of a Bellid temple, the most critical rumor to the Count by far was the rumor that he was a Bellid follower himself.

When people had first heard these rumors, they had thought they were too ridiculous to be taken seriously and dismissed them instantly. Now, after many new findings, they were at a point where they couldn’t simply ignore these rumors anymore. In several Bellid temples at the estate, evidence showed that Count Steelwall had a close connection to the place; the decree with the Steelwall stamp that Danny brought was one such piece of evidence. However, even this could be said to have been fabricated to frame the Count, and what truly cornered the Count was another matter.

“How did the investigation on the knights go?” the Count asked with a slightly indignant and tired voice. As expected, the Count was enraged by the situation. As a person overseeing a border state and enforcing his kingdom’s safety, he placed the utmost importance on his estate’s military might. The knights were central to this military might, but they were currently the ones who suspected the Count the most.

Whenever a Bellid temple was found, the Count sent a team of knights to the location. A majority of the temples were completely empty, so there was no reason for them to be injured. Yet, whenever these knights were dispatched, some died or came back with injuries. The cause of this was their fellow knights. These knights caused havoc whenever evidence that revealed a connection between the Bellids and Count Steelwall was found. Thus, many knights died, not expecting their companion knights to swing their swords at them. Although a Steelwall knight had died to a comrade rather than an enemy, it wasn’t as big of a problem as the fact that some of these knights had attacked the Karuwiman holy knights.

After rumors involving the Bellids were spread, the Karuwimans had been keeping a close eye on the situation. They had sent their own holy knights to investigate the temples and met Steelwall knights in these searches. In most cases, the Steelwall knights and holy knights collaborated to search the Bellid temples.

The enemy of their enemies were an ally. Furthermore, since there were many faithful Karuwiman believers among the knights, there was no reason for them to deter the holy knights from joining them. Above all, the holy knights were experts regarding the Bellids. Yet, in these investigations, there were instances of the Steelwall knights suddenly trying to ambush the holy knights. Of course, the holy knights and their fellow Steelwall knights tried to catch these ambushers every time this happened. However, the ambushers all died with their eyes rolled back. It was suicide. Even if something like this happened once, it would warrant suspicions against the Count. But cases like this happened several times and resulted in the death of a few holy knights. Naturally, suspicions against the Steelwalls deepened.

The Steelwall Estate flipped over from these incidents and the Count immediately ordered an investigation of all his knights. Normally, the knights would have complained that even the Count couldn’t trust them, but this time, they kept their mouths closed and obediently followed through with the search.

“We found a total of 57 Bellid believers.”

“…What?” the Count asked in disbelief. Due to the recent incidents, he had expected to find some suspicious people, but he hadn’t expected such a large number of them to pop out. Trell continued his report calmly even as the Count looked shell-shocked.

“We also found evidence of Bellids in the ambushers’ houses. It’s highly likely those guys were also Bellid believers.”

Bam! The Count stamped his feet hard. His feet dug into the ground and caused the mansion to vibrate. Trell wanted to restrain the Count, worried that the building might crumble, but knowing his words could inflame the Count’s rage even more, he kept his mouth shut.

“What have you been doing while these damn guys were crawling all over into our estate!” The Count’s loud voice rang across the room. Trell wanted to press his hands against his ears to block the voice, but he couldn’t do so in front of his lord. Fortunately, the Count didn’t shout any longer, but his fiery eyes indicated that his anger hadn’t quelled yet.

“Search other people in this estate thoroughly too! The vassals, servants, soldiers—all of them! Search anyone related to our family!”

“Yes! I will ask for the Karuwimans’ help in this matter!”

Like that, the Count began to act against the gigantic chaos blanketing his estate. Yet, he and Trell didn’t know that this chaos was just the beginning.

* * *

Baaaaaang! Another Bellid temple crumbled. Clouds of dust began to rise out of the ground and the Bellids’ dirty fish-head statue disappeared inside it. Since the temple was deep inside a forest this time, and there were no coverings in the surroundings unlike the time at the cave, the clouds of dust didn’t collect around the site. Instead, the dust quickly flew away in the air.

“Snoc. Lift the remains and see if there’s anything there.”

“Yes, sir!” At Zich’s command, Snoc used his powers.

Sssssssh! The temple’s remains rose to the air and scattered. People looked at these hovering remains intently, and Snoc broke down some bigger lumps at Zich’s command. Yet, nothing caught their eyes.

“That’s enough.”

Temple remains fell to the ground again.

“It doesn’t seem like there’s anything here.”

“I also think that seems to be the case,” Danny said while rubbing his eyes. He had looked piercingly at these remains to see if there was any evidence that could go against the Count. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be anything, but of course, it didn’t mean that the situation became better simply because nothing came up now.

Danny complained, “How in the world are there so many Bellid temples here?”

“Seeing the number of temples, those cockroach bastards must have laid their eggs in the Steelwall Estate. Wouldn’t that explain the situation?”

“Yes, it can’t be helped since they’re cockroaches.” Danny chuckled as he found Zich’s words refreshing. However, his laughter didn’t last long, and he let out a deep sigh. “We’re in a dilemma because of those cockroach bastards. The estates around us are clearly trying to put a distance between us, and the royals seem to be heavily criticizing Count Steelwall.”

“Well, since cockroaches are popping out with every investigation, it means that the house owner hasn’t been properly managing his property. It’s understandable that he’s getting criticized.”

“Uhm.” Danny couldn’t agree with Zich who was insulting the Count with great enthusiasm; Count Steelwall was still his lord whom he swore loyalty to. Moreover, he knew how much the Count was suffering right now. 

“Were there villages nearby?”

“There is a village nearby, but they don’t seem to be related to the Bellids.” Like Danny said, the people they found near the temples were unrelated to the Bellids.

“You’ll still have to question them.”

“Yes, that’s true.” However, it didn’t seem as if it’d produce any meaningful results. After destroying the Bellid temple, they were going down when—

“Someone’s coming up,” Zich said while looking down the mountain.

Danny wasn’t surprised this time and looked towards the area that Zich was staring at. “Are they the Karuwiman holy knights?”

“There’s a high possibility that they are, since it seems like they’re extremely skilled.”

Like Zich said, the people who climbed up the mountain while moving through the bushes were Karuwiman holy knights. They saw Zich and his companions and narrowed their eyes because they noticed that they were Steelwall knights.

Danny clicked his tongue. The holy knights hadn’t shown such a harsh reaction before. Since they were in the Steelwall Estate, it was unbelievable that the holy knights would narrow their eyes and frown while looking at the Steelwall knights. However, Danny couldn’t complain because their reaction was only natural considering the estate’s current state. The Steelwall knights swallowed their humiliation. On the other hand, Zich’s mind was completely focused on another matter.

‘That bastard.’ A familiar face stood in front of the Karuwiman holy knights. “We meet again.” Zich took a step forward and put his hand out.

The other person also recognized Zich. He grabbed Zich’s hand and greeted him back. “I had no idea that I’d meet Mr. Zich here.”

“It’s the same for me, Mr. Zenard.”

The person in front of him was no other than Glen Zenard. Both of them were continuing their acts. They acted like they didn’t want to see each other but were somewhat close. Their acting was so perfect that the surrounding knights and holy knights couldn't see what their relationship was like from a glance. Even though they were both acting, Lyla shook her head as if she was looking at something horrific.

“Mr. Zich, did you also come here to check on the Bellid temple?”

“Yes. It seems as if you and the holy knights are also here for the same reason.”

“Of course. As a Karuwiman Honorary Knight, I can’t just stand by idly when it comes to the Bellids.”

“That’s a very noble thought. However, we destroyed all the temples here already.”

“Is that so? As expected of you, Mr. Zich. Would it be all right for us to check one more time? It’s necessary to check thoroughly for such an important matter like this.”

Danny’s eyebrow twitched. The other knight’s expressions weren’t great either. Even though Glen spoke politely, he was directly telling them that he didn’t trust them.

However, Zich calmly nodded. “Of course. You can take as much time as you want to check. It’s not difficult to find the location, since fragments from the temples have changed into dust and are scattered around where the temple used to be.”

Zich called out to his other companions to go down the mountain, but a holy knight blocked their path. Zich asked, “What is it?”

“Excuse me, but have you found anything inside the temple?”

Zich smirked. On the other hand, the Steelwall knights’ expressions worsened because they knew what the holy knight was really asking. He was asking if Zich found evidence of the close relationship between the Steelwalls and Bellid as found in the other Bellid temples. If they took it one step further, the holy knight was asking if he was perhaps hiding evidence of the connection between the Steelwalls and Bellid. How could he say such a degrading comment in front of the Steelwall knights at the Steelwall Estate? The holy knight wouldn’t easily withdraw either, since no one hated the Bellids more than them.

“We found nothing of that sort.”

“Are you sure?”

Zich showed his honorary knight brooch to the holy knight, and the holy knight was shocked. Zich asked, “Perhaps, do you still think I’m lying to you about the Bellids?”

“P-please forgive my impudence!” The holy knight apologized with a completely different attitude from before.

“If you’re suspicious of me, please go and ask Mr. Zenard. We know each other.”

“Not at all, sir! This is enough for me to trust you!”

“Then, we’ll go on our way.” Zich and his companions passed the holy knights and moved down the mountain.

Danny moved next to Zich and said, “Pweh! Thanks to you, young master, we were able to get through that peacefully. If you weren’t here, a fight might have broken out.” His eyes were full of gratitude and trust. It was the same for the other knights. Greig was also still being dragged around by Zich, and he looked at Zich’s back with fresh eyes.

“Since I received this status from the Karuwimans, I should use it when I can.” 

While conversing with Danny like this, Zich thought about Glen. ‘That bastard came all the way here. Perhaps, was Steelwall Estate’s collapse related to him as well?’

If this was true, there was only one way for Zich to respond. ‘I’m going to stop him.’