Stray

Chapter 106: The Fake Knight

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It was just a question, Nemo thought. It shouldn’t be difficult.

He had escaped many things previously.
After embarking on this journey, he became accustomed to forcing himself to take the lead before retreating.
He still remembered the simple and casual life he once had, but that was more than half a year ago.
The memories of Roadside Town had shown him what it meant to be separated from the world.

He felt melancholy thinking about the life of counting copper coins to calculate his tight budget as he would bargain with the bakery before dark.

“You’re asking the right person,” Jesse didn’t hesitate to answer.
He scooted over in Nemo’s direction and sat next to him.
“Although Adri is in front of me… Well, this isn’t very good, but I’m not a man who will deny my past.
My dear Nemo, you may have forgotten, but we did have a sweet time in the past together— Wait— Wait, don’t do that.”

Nemo moved his gaze away from the statue of Ulysses, raised his finger solemnly, and cut it across his neck showing a raw threat towards Jesse.

“Well, I do know who you are,” Jesse sighed reluctantly.
“If you can ask this, then I believe you also have some understanding of your situation now.”

Nemo expression didn’t change as he nodded lightly.

“Do you know?” The smile on the blond young man’s face faded a bit.
He raised his head and stared at the darkly painted dome on the Church of Silence.
“People often say, ‘it’s a good thing to keep hope’, even if it’s unrealistic and stupid.
You’ve always liked this idea, and I hope you’ll keep it.”

“You don’t want to tell me,” Nemo concluded in a low voice as he clutched the corners of his robe tightly.
The person sitting next to him knew the answer, which made him anxious.

“Because it’ll be a lot less fun.” Jesse shrugged.
“Besides, you won’t torture me for the answer to this question.
Don’t be disappointed.
I can answer your other question.”

Nemo turned his head; his silver-gray eyes stared through the gap in the mask a the blond young man’s fluttering lips.

“Why do I insist on joining? Why did I approach such a danger… Hmmm.” Jesse’s smile was mixed with a little malice.
“What I said just now isn’t a joke.
We did have a ‘sweet’ past— A wonderful deal that’s still in effect.”

“…But you can rest assured,” Jesse pushed back strands of his blond hair behind his ear.
“I’m not here for you.”

Nemo took a deep breath and tried to gauge Jesse Dylan’s strength again, but even when he realize that he was “an ominous monster”, he still didn’t get any results.
The other party sitting next to him had a strong heartbeat and a normal human body temperature.
That was it.

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He had a vague idea— crazy in fact— but it didn’t hold water.
Nemo hesitate for a few seconds, concentrated all his strength, and carve a magic array on the biscuit tin.
He opened his mouth, intending to the ask another question when the door of the nave suddenly opened, and a neat line of Knights of Silence slid silently into the church.

At the same time, a relatively powerful demonic aura was approaching.
If his judgement was right, Hagen Ingram was heading in the direction of the nave, and it wasn’t a good idea to use this makeshift disguise while she was around.

“I’ll retreat first.” Nemo stood up and didn’t look at Jesse again.

“Contact?” Jesse raised his eyebrows.

Nemo solemnly stuffed the biscuit tin into the arms of the blond young man and patted it.
“Cover its’ aura,” he warned earnestly.

Jesse looked speechless for a moment before he opened the cover of the tin biscuit and glanced in, then let out a laugh.

“I see,” he said.
“The location of the sacrifice?”

“Engraved on the lid of the tin.”

“…Take your time.” Jesse also stood up.
“My sweetheart and I will go and see those poor sacrifices.”

Nemo chose a different route and quickly left the nave.
He hastily walked to his and Virgil’s room.
His brain was buzzing, and God knew how much he wanted to spare a few days to shrink into a corner and sort out all the information that made his stomach churned, but he didn’t have time now.
The rapid passage of time was dragging him like a wheel.
He hadn’t even digested Jesse Dylan’s astounding speech and abnormal performance, so he rather faced the exorcist instead.

As if there were countless small needles poking his nerves, Nemo clung to the staff tightly wrapped in his robe.
He found a dark indoor pillar and leaned against it, trying to control his breathing.

His test was undetected, and the feedback appeared earlier than he thought.

He did his best to add a highly concealed seal on the biscuit tin.
It was extremely sensitive to magic.
If he found that the other party failed to open it successfully the first time, he could directly remove it from a long distance.
It was a harmless little test.
Jesse Dylan had opened it easily, and the seal broke without leaving a trace behind, failing to bring even a moment of stagnation to the blond young man’s movements.

Nemo pressed his had on his left chest.
He could feel his heart pulsating violently under his ribs.
The brilliance of the setting sun leaked in through the narrow windows, leaving a blood-red light mark on the stone tiles.

This proved his conjecture— Jesse Dylan’s strength was comparable to “him now”.

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Nemo looked at his hands.
This discovery didn’t make the current situation much simpler, but if there was a trace that his guess could be right…

Then everything may be more complicated than he thought before.

Nemo buried his face into his hands and smiled bitterly between his fingers.
He had never imagined that one day, he would have such ridiculous and dangerous expectations.
Whether it was him or Dylan, it was better to be an unknown superior demon from the Abyss.

That would be great.

Nemo stared at the sunlight for a while, until the light gradually faded.
Seeing that the wheel of time was about to roll on his neck, Nemo finally decided to put everything behind him and complete his current task.
First, he had to make up a sufficiently credible lie about the entire afternoon…

The clinking sound of armor was heard not far away causing Nemo to quickly recover.
He forgot to look around when he was distracted, and a Knight of Silence was already too close.
In desperation, he could only try his best to eliminate his aura and hide himself behind the pillar.

Wrong. Nemo suddenly recovered. Why would a Knight of Silence make such a loud sound when moving?

Nemo looked suspiciously into the dim corridor and saw a Knight of Silence walking… awkwardly.
The effect was a little funny.
Either the knight himself suffered from severe arthritis, or the horribly distorted armor was rusty.
The other party moved forward slowly.
For a moment, it was completely silent and cavalier.
After a while, he relaxed again and moved casually, making the armor clink again. 

As if perceiving his sight, the knight suddenly stopped moving.
The helmet turned directly in Nemo’s direction. Shit. Nemo decided to give up hiding his aura and move to knock the opponent out and lock him up in a utility room.
He licked his lips nervously and the array in his right hand was ready to go at any moment.

The Knight of Silence stretched out his hands, but instead of drawing his sword, he took off his helmet…

“Come out, Nemo,” Oliver’s voice was filled with joy.
“I see you.”

Nemo almost lost control that the array in his right hand almost exploded.
He thought he might be going crazy.
Not to mention Jesse, even Oliver could see through his disguise.

“…Your ponytail is exposed,” Oliver added thoughtfully.

Nemo chuckled.
He shook his head and strode out from behind the pillar and rushed towards Oliver, trying to give him a strong hug but the long thorns of the Knight of Silence armor dispelled his thoughts.
Nemo stopped in front of Oliver and opened his arms a little embarrassedly and began to think about how to put them down without making it awkward.

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Oliver clung to his helmet with one hand and his emerald eyes were full of warm smiles.
The dark and creepy knight uniform didn’t match his gentle face at all, creating a stark contrast.
He quickly reacted to Nemo’s stiffness and raised his brows towards the long thorns on his armor.
He then stretched out his other arm and gently lifted the weird mask on Nemo’s face.

Oliver took in a breath, leaned forward slightly, and tentatively kissed Nemo’s lips.

“I’m looking for you,” he said.

“Oh, it’s been a long time since I saw you.” Nemo smiled back at Oliver.
Those heavy thoughts no longer seemed to seem to be as piercing as before.
Oliver Ramon would always be there when he needed it the most and could easily bring him back to the state of mind when he was in Roadside Town.
“Why are you here… No, how did you get in? Those two rows of corpses have already let three groups of people pass them.
Are they really useful?”

“Oh, this… It’s a long story.” Oliver scratched his head.
“I have more important things to tell you.”

In fact, it was closer to “confusing” than “a long story”, Oliver thought helplessly.

Half an hour ago.

“I can only bring you here,” Parish, the Knight of Judgement, said solemnly.
He carefully held a delicate silver candlestick in one hand and clenched the reins of the white horse in the other.
Rather than candles, they were five dazzling white balls of light on it.
“We are even now, miss.
For Zenni’s sake, don’t mention that bowl of soup anymore.”

Three people, a horse, and a goat; five living creatures were squeezed together into a ball covered by a transparent cover with ripples.

“They installed that kind of thing,” Ann curled her lips at the stone steps in the distance.
Even though it wasn’t close, it was enough to see the corpses hanging from both sides of the stone steps clearly.
“Now things are troublesome.”

“…Wait.
You want to go in?” Parish raised his voice.
“I can say very affirmatively, unless you’re a demon worshipper or a demon warlock, this kind of thing—” he glanced at the fuller goat.
“Impossible.”

“Besides, you don’t have any demonic aura,” he added.
“Forget it.”

“What about sneaking in with that?” Oliver stretched out his hand and pointed to the Knight of Silence patrolling not far away.

“…No one has tried it, but…”

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Before Parish finished speaking, Oliver already made his move.
A soft light cable lashed out, directly covering the sole patrol knight, and dragged him into their protective cover.
The Knight of Silence who was dragged in immediately fainted.
Although the light cable didn’t damage his armor, the flesh inside the armor made a subtle hissing sound.

Parish took a deep breath.
He wasn’t wrong.

Oliver awkwardly stripped off the knight’s armor and carefully put it on himself.

“Are you thinking straight?” Ann frowned.
“There’s no demonic aura on this armor, Oliver.
It may not work like this.”

“If it doesn’t, we’ll run away,” Oliver said.
“Didn’t we see another team on their way just now? We walked a bit faster than them, so I’ll try to catch up.
At least I have enough confidence I can escape.”

“Then I’ll stay here and support,” Ann said glancing at Parish unabashedly.
“But to be honest, I really don’t think it’s feasible.
Did you memorize the protection array? Remember to make a few rounds before you come back.”

However, her warning wasn’t needed.

Oliver followed the tail end of the Knights of Silence team and carefully stepped on the stone steps.

“The smell of the Abyss.” The bodies shook gently.
“Qualified.
Qualified.”

The author has something to say：

Oliver is here!

……It was said that only one person was dispatched and now they officially invested 5/6.
Tumbleweed is very cost-effective, Mr.
Virgil.

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Nemo’s test was successful, and Jesse’s about to say goodbye to his beloved melon field…

Nemo: …Come on, hurt each other!