Chapter 234
Episode 75: Lani Salome (3)
If they weren’t human, then what were they?
Monsters, beasts, or something else entirely. Whatever they were, the heavy footsteps carried a strong sense of hostility, and Murakan glared at the firmly shut door.
“Kid, keep an eye on the religious fanatic.”
Murakan said this without lowering the cup of liquor he held.
“Got it. Whatever they are, handle it quietly.”
“Alright.”
Thud, thud!
The footsteps stopped right outside Lani’s door.
Bang!
Murakan was the first to fling the door open, attempting a sly grin. But the moment he saw them, his expression hardened instantly.
The creatures before him walked upright and had two arms and two legs, but they were neither human nor monster.
If anything, they resembled weak, unfortunate humans more than anything else. In fact, before becoming a candidate rider, Jin had once encountered these beings at the Colon ruins.
“Biological golems…!?”
Suddenly, Murakan’s mind flashed back to the faces of the soldiers he had put to sleep with sleeping pills. Two ordinary men standing guard, their faces utterly unremarkable.
They were people who shouldn’t have had to go through this.
The first time they encountered biological golems in Colon, it was the same. The mercenaries they had knocked out suddenly transformed into biological golems and attacked Jin.
Back then, the mercenaries-turned-golems had begged for death.
“Please, kill us.”
“Damn it, these crazy bastards!”
Jin gritted his teeth just as the razor-sharp claws of the biological golems lunged at Murakan’s face.
Thanks to the progress made over the years since Colon, the strike was swift and fierce.
If it had been Murakan before regaining his strength, he might have suffered only minor scratches. But now, the attack was as slow as drifting clouds.
Swish!
Murakan raised his hand like a blade and swung lightly, severing all four arms at once.
Before the severed limbs even hit the floor, Murakan reached out again.
Crack!
His hands, stained black with spiritual energy, targeted the golems’ dantian—their vital core. Murakan immediately identified their “hearts” were located there.
“Tch, no mercy for you.”
With a light clench of his fist, the golems’ hearts burst, and they couldn’t even scream.
As their hearts shattered, their bloated bodies rapidly shrank. Only their blackened skin remained, leaving no trace that they had once been human.
The three of them stared silently at the sight for a few seconds.
Unsurprisingly, the one most shaken was Lani. She retched briefly, then struggled to steady her trembling body as she recalled her identity.
The adopted daughter of the Holy King, a paladin of the Doctrine’s Dawn, a loyal subject, and daughter of Ayula.
Lani pulled a holy scripture from her bosom and knelt beside the bodies.
“Ayula, merciful one, these poor brothers of mine have come to you seeking peace. Please watch over their souls, comfort their unjust and meaningless deaths…”
A pale yellow light radiated from her, enveloping the corpses.
Crackle…
The light soon transformed into the sacred flames of Ayula, reducing the bodies to ash. Suppressing her nausea, Lani finished her brief eulogy, her face now sober and clear of the liquor’s haze.
The shattered fragments of the hearts Murakan had destroyed remained scattered on the floor.
“Hah, biological golems… I can’t believe what I’m seeing. How could something like this exist in the Holy Kingdom? Did we somehow end up in the wrong country?”
Murakan picked up a shard and examined it. Jin studied it closely as well. Within the fragment, a faint blue aura pulsed.
A chilling sense of déjà vu crept over them, but it wasn’t the time to dwell on it.
“Lani Salome. We should move somewhere safe for now. They’ll send more soon.”
Lani blinked, then nodded.
“…Understood. Follow me.”
They left the empty corridor and followed Lani, staying within the Eastern Temple.
“If they find out I’m missing, there’ll be nowhere to hide in the Holy Kingdom. This place is probably the safest.”
Lani began climbing the massive statue of Ayula that adorned the central wall on the first floor.
“No one would suspect that I, of all people, dared to climb over Ayula’s body. Almost no one knows about this secret passage.”
Since childhood, she had been skilled at hiding and concealing things. After becoming the Holy King’s adopted daughter, she had naturally honed this ability to escape cruel bullying and oppressive gazes.
Creak!
Lani turned the giant statue’s neck with all her strength.
Ayula’s head slid aside, revealing a hollow space inside. She slipped in and turned the head back into place, plunging into darkness.
Inside the statue was a double underground passage leading to the Eastern Temple’s drainage system.
After a few minutes of walking, they reached the drainage tunnel. Lani staggered, clutching the wall.
“Hah, haa, ha…”
She was crushed by the feeling that her lifelong faith was being utterly denied.
Her father, Holy King Miklan, had been kidnapped by Ziphl, and Vankela had become so corrupt it could no longer be called the Holy Kingdom.
“The Holy Kingdom… is finished.”
Jin met her gaze without replying.
‘She’s on the verge of a mental collapse.’
He understood why she was breaking down.
But there was no way to comfort someone who had lost their only family, their country, and their faith.
Instead, Jin offered practical help.
“Make a choice, Lani Salome. If you’re too exhausted and broken to even think of revenge, I can send you somewhere to live out your days in peace. A place where you won’t be asked anything, where your safety is guaranteed, and you won’t have to work a day in your life. You can leave with us right now.”
He locked eyes with her.
“But if that’s not the case, then pull yourself together and tell me something meaningful—how many enemies there are, how long they’ve controlled the Holy Kingdom, if there’s anyone trustworthy left inside, anything.”
“…It’s true I helped you in Santel. But I can’t use that as leverage to ask you to save my father and fight Ziphl with me.”
“Why not?”
Lani hesitated.
“You want me to risk my life for you and the Holy Kingdom? Really, you, a Runcandel?”
“Yes, I am Runcandel. So Ziphl is naturally my enemy. Helping you is partly to repay a debt, but also a strategic move to bring the Holy Kingdom under Runcandel control. Letting Ziphl dominate the Holy Kingdom would ultimately harm me and my family.”
“Uh, kid… that’s true, but isn’t that a bit cold? The religious fanatic must be going through a lot right now…”
“So you act strategically too. I’m proposing a deal. As the heir of Runcandel and the heir of the Holy King.”
Silence fell.
Murakan, understanding Jin’s intent, looked at Lani with a serious gaze.
As the stench of the drainage water became familiar, Lani spoke again.
“…Please forgive my earlier weakness, Jin Runcandel. Very well, I will follow your lead. I agree to a deal with Runcandel.”
In that brief moment, countless changes had stirred within her.
This Runcandel candidate, who looked much younger than her, surely didn’t love the Holy Kingdom as much as she did.
But she was ashamed to realize Jin cared more deeply about the kingdom’s welfare and interests than she did.
“Good. I’ll decide whether to rescue the Holy King or drive Ziphl out of the kingdom. What you gain is the support of me and Murakan. Especially this guy—he’s much stronger than when you first met him, so feel free to put him to work.”
Jin breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
If Lani had given up and wanted to leave, he would have had to figure out how to start from scratch.
Driving Ziphl out of the Holy Kingdom would save their benefactor and give Jin a chance to make a proper name for himself back home.
“…First, let me explain the current situation as I understand it.”
Ziphl had been recruiting key figures and organizations within the Holy Kingdom for years.
The first group to fall under Ziphl’s control was the Doctrine’s Dawn, the paladin order Lani belonged to.
“That’s why my father sent me there. He said there was no one else trustworthy, so I should blend in and watch. Until recently, even he wasn’t sure.”
“Then the Holy King must have been certain after you reported the Santel incident.”
“Exactly. Ziphl kidnapped my father right after I finished my report. At first, they even tried to fool me with a fake. Someone who mimicked my father’s speech and mannerisms perfectly.”
But there was one fact only a few of the Holy King’s closest aides knew.
The Holy King couldn’t move his left index finger.
Lani had noticed the king’s divine power weakening, and during a meal, she saw the imposter using his left index finger normally.
When she confronted Ziphl about it, they cut off the Holy King’s left index finger and sent it to her room—through a paladin her own age she trusted.
That was the moment Lani fell into despair.
“Disgusting, perverted bastards.”
“Did you happen to keep the finger?”
Jin asked, and Lani shook her head.
“It was burned to ashes the moment I checked.”
“The Seal of Fire. That’s a spell only someone connected to Shinu can use. It must be Keliak Ziphl—or Kadun’s doing.”
In other words, their opponent was Ziphl. More specifically, the lord Keliak.
Even though Murakan had regained his strength, fighting the entire Ziphl faction was obviously impossible.
But if it wasn’t a physical battle, but a battle of public opinion, the situation was different. Though the King’s finger was gone, Jin still held a fragment of the bio-golem’s heart.
“A bio-golem, and shape-shifting magic. That’s what will trip you up.”
When Jin revealed the heart fragment, Lani caught on immediately.
“You’re planning to use that as proof that Ziphl turned the royal soldiers into bio-golems?”
“Exactly.”
“I’m the only witness.”
“No, I’ve interfered with Ziphl’s bio-golem experiments before. There’s also a top-tier journalist ready to cover the story.”
“…What did you say?”
“But that alone won’t be enough. We need several solid pieces of evidence to unmask Ziphl, and we have to release them all at once. Who else even knows the real king can’t use his left index finger?”