The Knight Commander of the Second Male Lead [Novel] Chapter 72

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 72

Chapter Title: Suspecting the Temple

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Jin crept closer to the sofa, glancing at Adrian before shoving Nina's legs aside and taking a seat. Nina then boldly draped her own legs over his lap.

In short, the princess undoubtedly wanted to bolster her imperial authority, but that wasn't something she could achieve on her own.

"She must be getting support from somewhere, which is why she's testing the Duke like this..."

Muttering to herself, Nina crossed her arms.

'And so blatantly, too.'

"The temple, right?"

At Jin's words, Nina's eyes widened, and she bolted upright.

"What? That makes sense! Has our Jin grown up?"

Jin made a face like he absolutely hated the idea.

"I've always been like this."

"Of course you have."

"Wow, you're really brushing me off."

Ignoring Jin's grumbling, Nina turned to Adrian.

Her expression was like that of a student seeking corrections on her work, so Adrian smiled.

"So, what do you think, Young Master?"

"I think the temple's the most likely suspect too. But the questions remain: why the temple? And for what reason?"

"Come to think of it, Count Hasha mentioned that too. Even with Belak showing up in the capital, it wasn't the Lily Knight Order that responded first, but the temple knights."

Nina let out a sigh.

"This is exactly the kind of thing where the final boss turns out to be in the temple."

"What's a final boss?"

Nina rolled her eyes at Jin's question and explained.

"You know, the leader of the evil organization pulling the strings from behind the scenes?"

"...What the hell is that?"

"The heretics, Belak's movements, the temple's actions, even the princess. It feels like one person is orchestrating it all."

"Isn't that a bit of a leap?"

"No, when a bunch of problems crop up all at once, there's often a single root cause. It's just branching out in many directions."

Nina spoke with such overconfident certainty that Jin looked skeptical. After pondering for a moment, he waved his hand dismissively.

"Anyway, that's not my department. Final boss or whatever, dealing with the crises right in front of us one by one is more important."

"Couldn't agree more."

Nina grinned, and Jin gave her an odd look as he said,

"So why'd you drag me into this meeting?"

"Huh?"

Nina blinked in confusion, so Jin alternated his gaze between Adrian and Nina.

"You two usually handle these talks on your own. I don't really like complicated stuff anyway... You didn't have to include me... Not that I'm ungrateful or anything."

Jin stumbled awkwardly through his words to Adrian, who then glanced at Nina. She flashed a toothy grin.

"You don't like it?"

"No, it's not that I hate it."

"But Jin, back in that green hall, you didn't want to just let those soldiers die."

At Nina's words, Jin flinched as if pricked, then sneaked a glance at Adrian before replying to her.

"It's not like I hated it or anything..."

"We held back because if the Ebony Knight Order stepped in on Lily Knight Order turf, it would've been a problem. If Belak's being controlled, we needed to figure out what the enemy wants first anyway."

Nina counted off on her fingers as she explained.

"And lastly, we didn't want to show our hand."

"I get that much."

The tension drained from Jin's shoulders. He looked at the two of them and said,

"I know what you two are up to. Nina said it back then—we'll stick it out to the end on this floor. So I'm not sulking or anything. I'm more adult than you guys, after all."

Nina laughed and added,

"I know. But you have your own priorities too, Jin."

He might look like a rough mercenary who lives and dies by money, but Nina knew that wasn't the real Jin, and so did Adrian.

He had a strong sense of justice and couldn't ignore the weak.

That's why they didn't want to force him to compromise his beliefs for the ducal family or put him in a moral dilemma.

And above all...

"I can't always be by your side, Young Master. Not every moment. Even today, the princess showed up out of nowhere and left us alone. In times like that, you have to make your own calls."

"No matter what decision the Vice-Captain makes, I trust him. But saying we trust each other without sharing information is just foolish."

Adrian continued, making Jin's face flush red. Embarrassed, he muttered,

"Argh, fine, I get it. So stop with the cringey stuff."

"Exactly. And listen, it seems like what the heretics want is the power of the corrupted spirits. That puts me at high risk of being targeted, right? To break the barrier in the Violet Forest, they'd have to kill me."

At her words, both men's gazes snapped to Nina. She shrugged.

"I'll do my best not to die, but it could happen, so—uwaaaah?!"

Jin grabbed her suddenly and shook her, drawing a weird yelp from Nina. Frowning, he said,

"So how should we punish this one now, Your Grace?"

"I'd like to make sure she never says something like that again."

Adrian's tone was sharp, so Jin shook her even harder. Nina flailed along with the motion.

"Wait, Jin, I'm dizzy..."

"Don't you dare utter the word 'die' again. Got it? You're absolutely not dying. You'll see me drop first, you idiot."

"Yes, my mistake. Jin, seriously, dizzy..."

Only then did Jin release her. Nina flopped back onto the sofa. Her long hair spilled down over the edge.

"Ugh, it's dragging."

Jin scooped up her hair and tossed it back onto the sofa.

Nina couldn't help but laugh.

"Jin treats me like a kid."

"What else would you be?"

Jin replied nonchalantly as he stood up.

"I understand the situation. May I be excused?"

"Permission granted."

Adrian spoke, and Jin crossed his arms in salute before withdrawing. Nina and Adrian both knew he'd head straight to the training grounds for personal practice.

Stimulated like that, of course he'd jump right into training. It was so Jin.

Adrian asked Nina,

"Do you really think the temple's behind it all? Not the heretics?"

"In stories, the ones we thought were the good guys on our side often turn out to be the real villains."

Nina sat up straight on the sofa as she spoke. Her serious expression made Adrian narrow his eyes.

"What are you thinking?"

In response to his question, Nina slowly opened her mouth.

"It might be a stretch, but isn't it true that heretics have infiltrated the temple?"

"It is."

"And Jack's boss said there are monsters inside the temple."

"Yes."

"What if someone very high up in the temple is a heretic?"

At Nina's words, Adrian swept a hand over his forehead and crossed his arms.

Nina watched him, thinking to herself,

'In fact, the heretics' leader is the High Priest.'

The heretics' cult leader, who served the corrupted spirit lord Nodolu, was the same person as the High Priest who served the gods. It sounded too much like a novel, but it was true.

Essentially, it wasn't true worship of the corrupted spirit lord—he was just using it.

In any case, the High Priest was diligently pursuing his own mission(?) of world destruction.

Because of that, in the story Nina knew, Adrian got completely blindsided: the Violet Forest's barrier was breached, the city's barriers failed, and Belak rampaged everywhere, plunging them into crisis.

Maintaining the city's barriers was the temple's job, so breaking or disabling them was a simple matter for them.

That was also why the heretics could bring Belak into the city now.

The temple, which guarded the barriers, was on their side.

It was straightforward once you knew the reason, but figuring it out was the hard part.

The gods created the world and made spirits to maintain its harmony. Humans, as the gods' creations, lived happily with the spirits' aid.

The gods created the Great Spirit to rule over all spirits, appointed it as their proxy, and departed beyond the Glass Sea.

The gods' will and thoughts were one with the Great Spirit.

The Great Spirit placed three spirit lords under its command.

One of them, the corrupted spirit lord Nodolu, thought,

'Wouldn't I be more suited to the Great Spirit's position?'

He attacked to seize the Great Spirit's throne but was defeated by another spirit lord, Wiaki.

Fearing the corrupted spirit lord might harm humans, the Great Spirit created a grand barrier enveloping the human realm.

However, humans fell for the corrupted spirit lord's seductive promises of power and shattered the grand barrier, allowing it entry into the world.

As a last resort, the Great Spirit completely severed the spirit realm from the human realm. From then on, living humans could no longer see or hear spirits, and Belak appeared in the world.

Based on this lore, the temple believed that when the gods one day returned, the corrupted spirit lord would vanish, and the world would regain its new harmony.