A blessing is a seed of power, given to a chosen few.

Each one starts out weak at the start, but if nurtured and trained by the user, then a blessing had the capacity to become unimaginably powerful asset.

That is what truly separated the weak knights from heroes, the amount of effort they put in into developing the blessings, though there are those who rose to the level of heroes without having one, but they were rather rare.

Many assume Knight of Light is so strong due to only having Solaris’s blessing, but those who knew better knew this not to be the case.

Certainly the blessing gave him access to power, but he was the one who trained himself so hard to reach the point where he is now.

But many fail to recognize this fact due to their inability to admit their own lacking in effort.

After all, reaching the level of a hero was no easy endeavor.

‘Still, I what the hell is he doing….As soon as he came back, he went off to another mission.’

While she was on the frontlines, Knight of Wind received message that the Knight of Light had finally returned after being absent for a couple of months, but instead of taking care of the demon problems as she had hoped, he apparently chose to address the undead infestation that seemed to have coincidentally occurred roughly at the same time as Knight of Light came back.

‘How does an undead infestation happen right after he comes back? Is a fortune playing a cruel joke upon us?’

As Knight of Wind walked towards the Holy City, she sensed that something was clearly wrong.

So many sounds of people panicking, and as she entered the territory of the Holy City, she immediately knew what was amiss.

The barrier.

It has vanished.

Due to her lack of sight, she relied on her blessing to ‘see’ everything surrounding her.

This allowed her to sense magical structures to a certain degree.

In the past, she could clearly sense the power emanating from the barrier but now, there was not a trace of it left.

“Barrier is gone…What the heck is going on?!”

As she walked the streets, she overheard a familiar voice.

Due to her blessing, her sense of hearing was greatly enhanced, allowing her to pick up even the tiniest of whispers.

“So this ointment should make my groin go back to normal right?”

“It should be able to help you heal if you apply it regularly, dear customer.”

“I already tried so many things, but none of them seem to work, it is so frustrating!”

The man sighed and proceeded to pay the merchant for the ointment.

“I hope this works.”

“Belius, is that you?”

“Yusa senpai? Long time no see!”

“It sure has been long time, Belius. If you don’t mind, there are some things I wish to ask of you”

“I was afraid you were going to say that” Cereb Belius, Knight of Mind looked a little depressed at the moment, like a student about to be scolded by his senior.

* * *

“What do you mean the Demon Lord escaped?!!”

“Psssht, please keep it down, senpai. This information is not for public ears”

“Are you covering this incident up?”

“Yes, in order to prevent further panic, we were ordered by the royal family to keep quiet on the matter and pretend that the captured Demon Lord was killed.”

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“I see, so the king wants to keep things under covers, but how exactly did this happen?”

As Belius went further and further into his tale, Yusa Nirai couldn’t help but frown.

“So the Demon Lord had outside aid to escape, huh? How many? An army? Were they demons? Did this happen before or after the barrier disappeared? ”

“It happened before the barrier was destroyed, and it was not an army, I am ashamed to admit, but it was at the hands of a single individual.”

“A single individual? Are you certain of this?”

“Yes, in fact, the one who confronted him was none other than me.”

“Did you kill him?”

“No. He managed to get away.”

“What?” she sensed Belius lower his head.

“Tell me everything you know about him.”

Yusa was being a little scary, but since she was his senior, Belius felt obligated to answer her questions.

He ended up telling her all about the Laughing Devil who called himself the Dark Lord.

“So in other words, you got defeated by a Demon Lord level demon who came here to free his comrade, and now both of them are on the loose? Is that what you are telling me?!”

Belius nodded.

Yusa grabbed Belius by the collar.

“Belius, what the hell were you doing all the time I was outside the Holy City?! You let a fiend escape from you! And you call yourself a hero?”

“The fault is mine entirely.”

“That does not make it any better!”

“I am sincerely sorry.”

“Sigh, before I completely lose my patience and will not want to hear any more, tell me, did anything else occur?”

“Well….”

Belius told her about the disappearance of Holy Maidens and how they did not come back after being summoned by the King.

He also told her about the deaths of many noblemen, whose mutilated bodies are discovered within their homes each passing day.

And then there was a matter with many knight squads seemingly vanishing into thin air within their barracks, with only bloody stains remaining.

“And then there was a matter with the murder of high mage and count’s son, which we suspect had to do with demons as well.”

“Does anyone of you fools take your jobs seriously? This level of incompetence…I am speechless.”

Knight of Wind was furious, the every air around her emanated with killing intent. Belius was worried that she might even kill him on the spot, and considering how strong she was, that was a definite possibility.

“The most likely scenario is that the demons somehow managed to bypass the barrier and killed the Holy Maidens.” Yusa theorized.

“That could have been the case, but according to their personal Blessed Stones, they are still alive.”

In order to keep track of important individuals, Blessed Stones are created by imbuing an ordinary stone with the mana of an individual.

After that, the stone will always glow with a light corresponding to the individual. These stones can also be used to track down the individuals by using the stones to navigate.

If the individual dies, the stone will shatter.

Royal family had the Blessed Stones of Five Holy Maidens, still intact, which is why they were sure the Holy Maidens were still alive.

“They are not dead then, but it is their duty to reinforce the barrier, what could have happened to prevent them from doing so?”

“I do not know, senpai, I honestly don’t know.”

“Is that so? It seems like everything is going downhill”

“I am afraid so. King and the Holy Order are trying their best to keep this information from reaching the public ears, lest create a massive amount of distrust towards the safety offered by the knights. Some bits of information have inevitably leaked out, but with the return of Knight of Light, the public opinion of the knights was stabilized to a certain extent.”

Knight of Light, his presence alone could inspire hope in the hearts of many.

“Hmm, but to think he went to deal with the undead instead of the demons…”

“According to what I heard, he went after the undead due to them being within the Holy City and demons being outside of it, considering he set out before the barrier was destroyed, he must have thought the Holy City would be safe from demons for the time being.”

“Still, having one less hero dealing with demons is frustrating.”

“True enough, senpai. And now that the barrier is no more, nothing is keeping demons from just waltzing into our homes.”

“That is what I am afraid of, Belius.”

Though she was a strong hero, arguably one of the more powerful ones, even mightier than Cereb Belius, she could not deal with demons directly.

Belius heard rumors of what happened to her in the past and once he secretly used his blessing to see into her memories.

Unlike others who thought it was weird that someone of the level of a hero could not fight with demons directly, Belius knew full well that it was impossible for Yusa to fight demons without her summons.

Her mind is filled with nightmares, plagued by countless demons, constantly.

As much as she hated demons, she could not bring herself to face one.

And now that the demons have an essentially a free pass into the Holy City, her fears were only magnified.

She could not deal with demons if they invade the Holy City, which is why she wanted Knight of Light to confront them instead.

“Say, Belius, do you think the demons are going to attack the Holy City?”

“I cannot dismiss that possibility.”

“Is that so…” her hand was visibly shaking.

Before meeting Dark Lord, Belius thought that Yusa’s mind was the most damaged mind he had ever seen.

He wished he could be of help, but as someone who was weaker than her, there wasn’t much he could do.

“By the way, what’s the ointment for?” Yusa suddenly changed the topic as to avoid falling further into depression.

“Well…after the fiend struck me…my loins have not been the same….” Belius answered while making sure to not look in Yusa’s direction, even though he knew she couldn’t see his miserable expression, he still could not bring himself to face his senior.

“It seems you have been in a lot of pain due to this.”

“Please refrain from saying any more, I already have enough frustration as it is!”

Getting punched in his nether regions had rendered Knight of Mind unable to have pleasure with women, which used to be his favorite pastime.

All the more reason he developed a personal vendetta against the man who called himself the Dark Lord.