Chapter 126
Exion sighed. Letting her insults about him flow past his ears, he swept back his red hair.
He found the arrogant, demure type more suited to his temperament than the noble, perfect lady who was single-mindedly devoted to her fiancé.
In any case, it was indeed a strange phenomenon. It was common for the dead to rise up like swarming insects in humid summer when the ground thawed, but it was too early.
And they usually didn’t step on the land of the living. Just as the dead instilled fear in the living, the dead also found the vitality of the living repulsive.
They were sentient beings who knew how to gauge the strength of their opponents and especially feared those with divine power.
‘But now, they’re attacking humans.’
Exion thought, his nerves on edge again towards the presence in the forest, despite his feigned nonchalant expression.
He pressed his eyebrows, recalling Ragnar’s face on the dawn he received the order to march. The strict Lord’s serious expression, which he rarely showed him, naturally made Exion tense.
What was happening?
“It’s because there’s no prey.”
Daphne said, as if reading Exion’s thoughts. Exion turned his gaze to Daphne.
“What?”
“They came down because there’s no prey.”
“What kind of prey?”
“Fairies.”
Exion furrowed his brow. Daphne seemed completely oblivious to the ears of the escort knights surrounding them. Exion asked again,
“Why now?”
“Why? Fairies are extinct, aren’t they?”
“……”
“It’s already been ten years since the Fairy Forest burned down. The dead have been sufficiently starved. So, they came down. To find prey.”
Exion fell silent. All talk about fairies outside the temple was taboo.
Fairies were the prey of the dead. Just as a butterfly caught in a spiderweb is eaten by the spider, winged fairies were eaten by the dead without any resistance. The dead do not perish even if they don’t eat, but hunger makes them savage.
“It’s disrupting the ecosystem. If there were as many fairies as before, the dead wouldn’t even dare to covet the world of the living.”
“…That sounds quite dangerous for Del Rose’s fiancée to say.”
“You’re more timid than you look. If the temple forbids something, do you just say ‘yes, yes’ and obey? You’re quite obedient. Aren’t you ashamed of that red hair of yours?”
“I don’t care about that kind of stuff.”
Exion replied, cutting off Daphne’s rambling.
Respect and etiquette for a lady be damned, Daphne’s wild behavior actually made Exion comfortable. He relaxed his shoulders.
“Fairies, the dead, temple taboos—I don’t care about any of that.”
“Hmm.”
“If I judge them as enemies, I eliminate them. If it brings money and glory to my unit, I fight. That’s all. Anyway, the higher-ups in the temple have no intention of accepting someone like me.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a dirty, red-haired bastard.”
Exion replied nonchalantly, turning his gaze to the distance.
He felt no belonging to Impellias. Just as the temple ostracized him. The only place he felt a sense of belonging was to his own battalion.
Therefore, he was indifferent to any of the temple’s rules. Rather than upholding taboos, he didn’t even feel the need to challenge them. Their interference was merely annoying, and anyway, whether it was the dead or fairies, it had nothing to do with his life.
“Then you should just climb up. Make them have no choice but to accept you.”
Daphne’s words caught Exion’s attention.
“Like Ragnar did.”
“……”
“The war to reclaim the Holy Land of Mando from the infidels of Salman is still not over. Long ago, Ragnar won the war against Salman and reclaimed Impellias’s Holy Land, but…”
“…Are you telling the Rosenburg Knights to jump into the battlefield between the state religion and the infidels? Are you crazy?”
“If things continue like this, Mando will lose.”
It was a remark shocking enough to make even Exion startle and look around.
The carriage wheels rattled. Hoofbeats pounded the ground. Daphne’s voice, like a chirping bird, fortunately seemed not to reach the ears of those escorting the carriage.
Exion clenched his teeth.
“You have no fear. Who are you trying to make a traitor?”
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