## Chapter 813 – Winter in the Capital

ㅡSwish!

The moment I entered, all eyes were on me.

“…”
“…”
“…”

Silence descended.

Seriously, it’s a bit much to have everyone staring like this, as if I’m some kind of spectacle. Anyway, it was a fairly large room. A rectangular conference room with a long table. The table was cluttered with cups, maps, and what looked like chess pieces.

In any case, men and women who looked imposing were sitting around the table in full armor, staring at me.

It seemed like all the commanding officers of the kingdom’s knight order dispatched here were gathered. Since the Master Knight had brought an entire regiment, these must be them.

Their armor confirmed it.

And there were also three paladins from the Brass Saintess Order, clad in brass-colored Holy Angel armor. I vaguely recognized their faces. I must have seen them a few times in passing. They seemed to recognize me too, their expressions brightening. I gave them a brief nod.

The Master Knight told me to come in, so he’ll introduce me later. I can greet them properly then.

I shifted my gaze forward.

“…”

Sitting at the head of the table was a red-haired man who looked to be in his late twenties. He was quite tall and had a considerable build. About my size?

Anyway, someone who looks that young is sitting in the seat of honor? There are a lot of people in the room, so I can’t be sure, but that man must be the Master Knight.

ㅡStrong.

“Oh, that’s him for sure. The paladin from the martial arts tournament.”
“Hoo… he looks quite young up close, doesn’t he?”
“The martial arts tournament is only open to those under 30, so of course he’s young.”
“Ah, is that so?”
“That’s the paladin who toyed with Harun.”
“He exudes an extraordinary aura.”
“A talent, a talent.”

The brief silence broke, and the knights who were sitting began to speak, as if they recognized me. It seemed the knight order had attended the martial arts tournament in full force. Well, the Grand Arena was big enough to hold tens of thousands of people, so they probably all watched the finals.

There were seventeen people in total sitting down.

Including the three paladins, the rest were all kingdom knights. One Master Knight, one General (regiment commander level), and three Chieftains (battalion commander level), making five. That leaves eight, so the remaining nine must be Elders (company commander level)?

That would add up.

ㅡClap.

Just then, the Master Knight sitting at the head of the table clapped his hands. The commotion subsided, and attention returned to him.

He looked at me and opened his mouth.

“Indeed. Just as youthful as I saw him in the finals. I’ve already heard you arrived. I’m very grateful that you came. Ah, I am Kelbain Rendbাইter. You probably know me as the Master Knight of the kingdom’s knight order?”

I knew it.

I immediately bowed and greeted him.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Kim Kat, a paladin directly under the Saintess of the Brass Saintess Order. It is an honor to meet the renowned Master Knight.”
“What honor is there in that? Elder, can you get him a seat?”
“Yes, sir!!! I’ll get one right away!!!!”

The man closest to me, apparently an Elder Knight, jumped up and answered loudly before heading towards the chairs in the back. He looked to be in his mid-thirties, and his military discipline was impeccable.

Well, it’s only natural, considering a division commander with two stars is ordering around a captain.

“We can’t have a paladin standing. Wait a moment. We need to have a long talk while sitting.”
“Thank you for your consideration.”
“Hahaha, no need for thanks. It’s my duty since I called you here. Besides, you’re the skilled one who so easily crushed Harun.”

The Elder Knight brought a chair right away, and the people sitting down shifted slightly to make room for me.

“Please sit here.”
“Thank you, Elder Knight.”

I greeted him before taking a seat.

As I sat down, I looked around. Judging by the seating arrangement, the people sitting next to the Master Knight were the regiment commander and battalion commanders. And it seemed that five out of the seventeen people were women.

“Then, to get to the point, may I ask why you came?”

The Master Knight asked as I sat down.

“I came to find out what’s going on. I was also inside the Ice Labyrinth, killing monsters.”
“I see, that makes sense. Well then, since the paladin just arrived, let’s summarize the situation and explain it again.”

This guy seems pretty friendly.

“Who should I have explain… Yarna.”

After looking around for a moment, he pointed to a blonde woman.

“Please give a brief explanation of the situation.”
“Understood.”

She stood up from her seat.

“I am Knight Chieftain Yarna. I will begin the explanation of the situation.”

It feels a bit awkward since everyone seems to have stopped the meeting just to listen to me… but I need to hear the explanation properly.

That’s how I can decide how to play this.

The existence of the Spirit King is ambiguous. The keywords “Spirit King” and “Spirit Realm” are not common knowledge. Even Risha said there were no official records.

It’s almost a legend or a folktale.

In that situation, if I suddenly say I caught the Spirit King, they’ll just think I’m crazy. High-level spirits are already ridiculously strong, so a Spirit King? It’s too difficult to explain.

“Currently, we have advanced to the front yard of the Ice Palace, but we encountered an unexpected situation, suffered heavy losses, and retreated.”
“It was truly terrible.”
“Who knew such a being existed…!”
“We should have brought more defense mages.”

The conference room became noisy the moment the word “retreat” was mentioned.

“Ahem, everyone. Yarna is still explaining. Please be quiet. Are you all children? Why are you so eager to talk all of a sudden?”

Kelbain immediately calmed them down.

“…Sorry.”
“Understood.”
“Yes.”

This isn’t as tense as I thought?
Is it because Kelbain has a good personality?

“Ahem, I’ll continue. Our advance was very smooth until then. The Naiads, Ice Knights, and Ice Beasts attacked in force, but dealing with them wasn’t too difficult. It was just troublesome because there were so many. We were also able to hunt large monsters without much difficulty by focusing our firepower and manpower.”

I agree.

“However, when we arrived in front of the palace, we were confronted by very powerful beings. The high-level spirit Arquina. But surprisingly, there were not one, but two of them.”
“…”

Two of them.

So Arquina and the Spirit King came down to the palace front yard and crushed the knights. Well, those two are capable of that. They’re very difficult opponents.

The knights must have noticed the existence of the Spirit King by now.

So how should I play this? Should I just say I caught it? If I use Karin’s name, it might be believable.

“There was also another high-level spirit specialized in close combat. We named it ‘Elthron’ for identification. The knight order officially named it.”
“What? What do you mean?”

Hey.

What?

“Yes, sir. There were two high-level spirits.”

Wait a minute.

“The paladin looks surprised. Yes, there were two high-level spirits. According to the records, high-level spirits are proud and travel alone, but the old records are not to be trusted.”

Kelbain added.

Did they just call the Spirit King a high-level spirit? Did that bastard not reveal his name when fighting the knights and just fought?

Ah.

Then they might not know.

The knights think it’s a high-level spirit. A high-level spirit Elthron who came with Arquina. That’s a reasonable assumption.

“…Arquina and Elthron led the Ice Knights in a combined attack, and we began to suffer losses. The combination of the two was very strong, and we have lost seven War Knights and two Ace Knights from the kingdom’s knight order alone.”

Yarna stated the damage situation calmly.

The conference room suddenly became somber.

“We suffered those losses even though we immediately retreated. Other forces besides the knight order also suffered heavy losses. But thanks to the paladins, we were able to rescue the wounded.”

Her voice also became a little quieter.

“…”
“…”
“…”

The three paladins sitting in their seats also crossed their arms and lowered their heads, looking mournful.

“We haven’t even been able to recover the bodies of the fallen. And above all…”
“I fought them directly, but I couldn’t overcome their combined attack and was pushed back.”
“M-Master Knight?”
“It’s alright.”

Kelbain said in a calm tone.

“It’s a very shameful thing. I admit it. I was pushed back. I couldn’t withstand the combined attack of Elthron and Arquina.”
“…”

Yeah… we almost got pushed back too, so I guess the Master Knight is no exception. But he’s admitting the truth, so maybe he has a magnanimous personality.

“…Yes. That’s right. The Master Knight was pushed back. That was a major factor in the decision to retreat. Arquina was firing ice magic indiscriminately, and Elthron was charging with the Ice Knights, so the formation collapsed in an instant. That concludes the explanation of the situation.”

Yarna sat down.

“…”

Silence fell again.

The subjugation itself was going smoothly. It was just that the two high-level spirits came and messed things up at the end. So that’s why they’re having this meeting now.

Should they request support to minimize troop losses? Or should they break through again since the Master Knight brought an entire regiment himself? Maybe that’s the kind of discussion they’ve been having.

“…As you’ve just heard, we’re in a situation where every hand counts.”

The Master Knight spoke again.

“It would be great if someone with the paladin’s skills could help. Hmm. I keep feeling it, but you really have great skills. You’re probably the most outstanding of the kingdom’s young people. You crushed Harun, after all.”

He was staring at me.

“No, objectively speaking, you’re not much worse than this friend sitting next to me.”

A brown-haired man was sitting next to him.
That must be the Knight General.

Does that mean they see me as being just below the regiment commander in skill? I haven’t fought them, so I don’t know how skilled they are.

“Paladin. I’d like to ask you to join us.”
“Join you, you say.”

And he suddenly asked me that.

He wants me to join them? Does that mean they’re planning to charge in again? I don’t know if it’ll be okay just by borrowing my strength.

“Their forces have been almost completely annihilated. All that’s left are a few Ice Knights and those two high-level spirits. I’m planning to gather skilled people and deal with them directly. If the paladin joins us, we can deal with them more easily.”

Well, that’s true.

But, sir.

The high-level spirits and everything else are already dead.

We killed them all.

“…”
“…”
“…”

Serious gazes began to focus on me.

Ah, damn it. What should I do?

How should I play this?
Should I just pretend I don’t know and go along with them?

No, I can’t do that for various reasons.

Having made up my mind, I opened my mouth.

“Elthron… that ice lump with the sculpted muscles was indeed a high-level spirit. He was certainly strong.”
“What?”

The moment I opened my mouth, they widened their eyes and looked at each other.

“Y-you saw it? Paladin?”

One of the knights sitting in front asked me that, and attention was focused on me again.

“Yes. I saw it.”

I stood up from my seat and answered.

“And I caught and killed it.”