Chapter 542: Divine Ascension (3) [Bonus Image]

Chapter 542: Divine Ascension (3) [Bonus Image]

Although this was Eugene Lionheart’s first time knighting someone, there was nothing grand about the occasion or the setting. In a place like this, there naturally wasn’t any raised dais, and the only witnesses present were two living souls, one deceased soul, one familiar, and a dragon.

Of course, if you looked at it from another perspective, it was a completely different story. One of those living souls was the undisputed greatest wizard of this era and a formerly pending Goddess of Magic who had recently reached full divine status, and the other living soul was a Saint. The remaining deceased soul was that of a genuine Archangel.

But what about the familiar?

‘I suppose it’s enough that she’s cute,’ Eugene thought with a silent snort.

In the first place, Eugene didn’t consider Mer to be just a familiar.

As for Raimira, it was also enough for a dragon to just be a dragon. After all, in the current era, there weren’t any knights who could be said to have been knighted with the blessings of a dragon.

“Ahem,” Eugene suddenly cleared his throat.

He could have somehow made a dais to stand on if he really felt that it was necessary, but Eugene thought that something like that wasn’t strictly needed because Eguene was fully capable of flying through the air on his own.

Floating up into the air, Eugene stood slightly taller than Molon, whose shoulders were thrown back and his legs locked straight in an imposing stance.

“Molon Ruhr,” Eugene began the ceremony by solemnly calling out the name of the one being knighted.

The Brave Molon Ruhr, the Courageous First King who had founded the nation of Ruhr, calmly looked up at Eugene.

“I... ahem... so anyway...,” Eugene faltered, unsure how exactly he was supposed to continue.

They had both agreed that Eugene would appoint Molon as his Holy Knight, but how was he meant to do this?

For a few moments, Eugene couldn’t help but lose himself in frantic thought. His sudden panic was because he had never actually knighted anyone before in his entire life. In the case of Laman, whom Eugene had long ago dragged back with him from the desert, Eugene had simply thrown him into the mansion’s service without first knighting Laman.

After a few more moments of trying to figure it all out by himself, Eugene turned to Molon and asked, “Hey, how am I supposed to knight you?”

Molon, who had been waiting there with a serious and solemn look, shifted back into his usual foolish expression as he blinked in confusion and said, “Why are you asking me that?”

“At the very least, you’ve been a king, so you must have dubbed a lot of people before, right?” Eugene argued.

“That is true, Hamel.” Molon nodded slowly. “I’m reminded of when I first raised a village in this harsh snowfield. That village became Hamelon, the capital city of Ruhr. As you must know, the name of this country’s capital, Hamelon, was chosen in your honor.”

Eugene listened to this silently.

“At first, Hamelon wasn’t a large city like it is now. Besides me, there were the warriors who followed me and their families, as well as refugees who had lost their homelands because of Helmuth.... At that time, we were sorely lacking in supplies, so we constructed the houses using bricks made out of compacted snow,” Molon fondly recalled.

Eugene wasn’t sure what Molon was getting at.

“That’s how we raised the first village in this snowfield, and I declared it the start of my kingdom. The kingdom that was eventually named after me — the Kingdom of Ruhr. At that time, in the middle of the snowfield, I granted the title of knight to my hundreds of warriors...,” Molon trailed off in reminiscence.

Why had this bastard started boasting all of a sudden? Eugene’s brow furrowed in confusion.

To Eugene, who was starting to lose his patience, Molon’s words sounded like nothing but bragging, as if he was saying, ‘Oh, look at me, I’ve knighted hundreds of knights.’

Also, why had he started talking about the founding of Ruhr all of a sudden?

“Stop with the bullshit, and just tell me how you’re supposed to knight someone,” Eugene demanded with a growl.

Molon shrugged, “You can just do whatever you want.”

Eugene frowned as he said, “I didn’t listen to your bullshit just to hear such a simple answer.”

“The accolade[1] ceremony is performed differently for every knightly order,” Molon finally explained. “The accolade ceremony for holy orders involves being beaten to a pulp, getting slapped in the face, then spending the whole night reciting prayers while holding your sword. If that’s what you really want, Hamel, I don’t mind it if you feel like spending a few days punching me.”

“Why would I do something like that when it will only end up hurting my fists more than your face?” Eugene complained.

Molon changed the subject, “I’m actually curious about something else, Hamel. As I said before, I named the capital of Ruhr Hamelon in your honor, but now that you’ve been reincarnated like this and the whole world knows about your reincarnations, is there any need to commemorate your death like that? Doesn’t this mean Hamelon no longer needs to be named Hamelon?”

“Hey! Even if I’ve already been reincarnated, that doesn’t make it so that my death as Hamel never happened. So what do you mean that there’s no need to commemorate it?” Eugene fired back as he raised Levantein into the air.

Fwoosh!

The blade of transparent crystal burst into flames. Startled by the roaring flames, Molon took a backward step.

“Why did you just set your blade on fire?” he asked with concern.

“I’m going to tap you once on each shoulder with this blade,” Eugene informed him.

“Are you really going to make branding your knight’s flesh with scars of holy flame part of your accolade ceremony?” Molon asked in wary concern.

“It just looks like it’s burning fiercely, but it isn’t that hot,” Eugene reassured him.

Although he didn’t believe that Eugene would lie to him, Molon’s eyes couldn’t help but waver in concern. After all, it hadn’t been that long since he had seen this sword of flames, Levantein, unleash its terrible might by slicing straight through Gavid’s body.

However, this was none other than the Brave Molon. So he just took a short breath and kept his back straight as he stood in front of Eugene.

“Molon Ruhr,” Eugene said solemnly, lowering his voice.

Engulfed in flames, Levantein slowly parted the air around it as it softly landed on Molon’s right shoulder.

“You are my first Holy Knight,” Eugene declared.

The moment he said this, the color of the flames changed. The dark and vicious blood-red color transformed into a radiant white light.

Eugene continued, “I dub thee the most trusted and valued of my knights and the Greatest Warrior.”

Moving once more, Levantein gently touched Molon’s left shoulder.

Fwooooosh!

The flames erupted from the blade and washed over Molon’s body. But it was just like Eugene had said. Even though the flames had now engulfed his entire body, Molon didn’t feel even the slightest trace of heat.

Molon unconsciously took a deep breath. The swirling flames flowed into Molon along with the air that he breathed in.

“Anise, Kristina,” Eugene sighed. “It seems you both went through a lot of suffering and hardships while I was gone. It’s a blessing that we were able to safely reunite like this.”

Anise faltered, “Oh... um....”

I am already dead, so what’s the meaning of you saying at this point that you ‘would hate it if I died’? If it were the usual Anise, that is what she would have said to poke fun at Eugene.

However, right now, she wasn’t capable of doing something like that. Eugene’s embrace had robbed Anise of any freedom of thought.

[Sister, Sister!] Kristina shouted.

Anise ignored Kristina’s loud screams echoing inside her head. Meanwhile, Anise was also desperately trying to keep control of their shared body. Kristina’s strength had grown a lot, but she still couldn’t easily seize control of her body from Anise.

[You devil! You villain!] Kristina shouted accusingly.

How dare Kristina call the holy spirit of someone who had died as a Saint and transformed into an Archangel, a devil? However, Anise decided to generously forgive her shameful behavior.

“Y-yes.... It... it really is a blessing, Hamel, that I... that I’m alive like this...,” Anise slowly said as she leaned her face against Eugene’s chest, showing a soft expression that she had never once revealed during all of the time that she had been alive three hundred years ago.

“Ahem, ahem, ahem!”

Unlike Molon, who was watching this scene with a fond smile, Sienna was glaring at the two with flames in her eyes as she loudly and repeatedly cleared her throat.

“So then, what happened after that?” Sienna prompted Anise. “After the tourists were released, you had to run away from Noir!”

“Really now, how can you be so tactless with your words?” Molon chided her.

Sienna was taken aback, “I... what’s wrong with what I said....”

Eugene frowned, “Apologize, Sienna. Your words just now were far too harsh. Anise is a priest, after all. It’s only natural that she wouldn’t be able to fight a Demon King on her own like we can.”

“I... I truly am so pitiful and weak. Th-that’s why I need the Hero’s... Hamel’s protection...,” Anise said in a breathy sob.

She actually dared to call herself pitiful! Sienna’s shoulders trembled in rage. How could a battle priest who, three hundred years ago, had reveled in swinging a mace and smashing in the skulls of high-ranking demonfolk and who even now could turn most demonfolk into splatters of flesh and blood be described as pitiful!

However, when one thought about it calmly, it was a self-evident fact that the combat power of a Saint would be inferior to that of an Archwizard and a Hero.

“I... you...,” Sienna’s lips parted as she tried to apologize for what she had just said and correct herself, but she found herself struggling to actually finish the sentence.

Anise didn’t wait for Sienna’s apology and resumed speaking first, “The lockdown of Giabella City was lifted, but there was a problem with what happened next.”

Anise had yet to leave Eugene’s embrace, and she even proceeded to wrap both arms around his back as she continued to lean her face against his chest.

“You... you crazy bitch! What do you think you’re doing!” Sienna shouted in anger.

“The tourists who had left the city and returned to their hometowns began heading back to Giabella City all on their own. Each of their countries tried to restrict them from traveling back, but that didn’t work so well. If any of them were forcibly captured and placed in confinement, they would start to commit acts of self-harm, such as slamming their heads against a wall or strangling themselves with their own hands,” Anise softly whispered, paying no heed to Sienna’s insult.

Even as she continued to speak, Anise was still desperately trying to keep control of their body so that Kristina couldn’t take over....

“The other priests and I felt that it had to be some sort of black magic spell designed to manipulate their thoughts, or perhaps some sort of evil hypnosis laid on them by the Queen of Sluts, so we tried to purify them, but... it was impossible to do so. The tourists weren’t being afflicted by any black magic spell or hypnosis,” Anise revealed disappointedly.

“Then what was it?” Eugene urged her.

“It was their own memories,” Anise sighed as her hands ran down Eugene’s back. “Those intense and pleasant memories from the two months that they had spent in that slut’s city made them voluntarily decide to head back to Giabella City. If we wanted to suppress that urge, we would either have to erase those memories or erase the emotions associated with them.”

“In other words, you didn’t have any practical methods of dealing with them,” Eugene surmised.

“That’s right,” Anise reluctantly admitted. “Because there are limits to what we could do to control their urges and restrict their attempts to harm themselves, in the end, most tourists were allowed to return to Giabella City.”

Still, the city didn’t feel as extremely off-putting as it had been the first time. The gates of Giabella City had been left wide open. Anyone was allowed to enter, and all those who entered were free to leave as they pleased.

But this didn't do anything to improve the situation. The various kingdoms had taken action to ban their citizens from traveling to Giabella City, but the tourists who had entered Giabella City before that ban was put into place weren’t willing to leave.

“Most of the attractions and casinos in Giabella City were still operating, but...,” Anise hesitated. “Hamel, everything had changed from the last time we were there. At that time, Giabella City was known as the city without a night. At all hours of day and night, the city was filled with the noise of people partying. However, at that moment, things were completely different. At that time, the tourists who visited Giabella City weren't interested in any entertainment. They only went to the city to dream.”

Through their dreams, they could lose themselves in their fantasies. Meanwhile, Noir Giabella was floating in the air, standing above these millions of blindly dreaming tourists.

“That slut has gone crazy,” Anise cursed.

She was already crazy to begin with, but never before to this extent.

“I know,” Eugene said with a wry smile as he let go of Anise. “Because of that, I need to kill her before she gets any crazier.”

Turning away from Anise, whose eyes were practically dripping with tears of disappointment, Eugene looked around at the others.

“For now, we should head back to the Lionheart estate,” Eugene suggested.

“...Alright,” Anise responded once she had regained control of her emotions.

Instead of replying to Eugene, Sienna repeatedly cleared her throat, “Ahem, ahem, ahem...!”

“Molon,” Eugene said as his gaze finally came to a rest on Molon. “When I reach Babel, I will summon you, my first Holy Knight and my one and only Greatest Warrior.”

“Of course, that’s just how it should be,” Molon said with a grin and a nod. “As I familiarize myself with the Light that you’ve granted me, I will look forward to that day.”

It would be a year from now at the very most.

Compared to the hundreds of hellish years that Molon had spent on this mountain, a year was an extremely short amount of time.

“On that day,” Molon smiled and extended his fist towards Eugene, “Together with you, Hamel, we will defeat the Demon King of Incarceration.”

Eugene also grinned as he extended his fist to Molon.

Bam.

Their fists lightly knocked against each other.

1. Also known as the dubbing, where the liege places his or her sword on the soon-to-be knight’s shoulder. ☜