The Ruined Death Knight

Hearing what the black-haired boy said, Danzel was in disbelieve for a second.

`Cooperation, he says. More like blackmailing me...´ Danzel thought with anger.

If one were to hear closely, the sound of grinding teeth could be heard from Danzel.

"What form of cooperation do you exactly mean?" Danzel said as he stared at the boy.

"Cough~Cough, We-Agh!" Black liquid came out of Kayn´s mouth making him unable to answer from the pain he was experiencing.

Seeing the boy unable to answer, he moved in front of him with his sword raised up high.

"..."

"Agh...!" 

Danzel who was silently standing ready to swing at him seemed in Kayn's perspective like a humongous dark statue blocking the sun with the blade that seemed like it was cutting the sun itself in half.

A hint of dread flared through Kayn´s eyes through all the pain as he could already imagine that blade splitting his head in half.

He felt like he was in front of an executioner if not death himself.

He knew from the beginning that the plan was reckless.

But desperation forced him to do it.

He tried to speak up to the dark knight in front of him, but his body didn´t listen.

After what felt like centuries had passed, Danzel bought down his sword...

And sheathed it back to this scarab.

"Dammit..." Grumbling to himself, he gave a last look at the black-haired kid before walking to the door.

"Hmph!" Throwing a kick at the stone wall blocking the door, the wall imminently grumbled.

*Baahm!

With dust rising up to the air, the dark green glow around his body faded.

"Take that guy inside, it isn´t suitable for him to stay like that outside." Danzel said loud enough for the other brats to hear.

The boys were astonished by Danzel´s strength, but after they heard what he said they came back to their senses and came running towards Kayn.

Kayn who saw that bitted his leaps and yelled out.

"Not everyone! Cough! No-Argh- someone stays behind!" Saying that Kayn fell to the ground while curling his body together.

The children who were about to rush at him frozen in confusion before realizing what he meant.

The dark knight who was standing at the door was watching them like a hunter seeing his prey.

`If everyone goes to Kayn wouldn´t he...´

Upon that thought coming into their mind, a sudden weakness came to their legs.

Anna and Marcus who saw the reaction of others turned to each other and nodded.

"Everyone stay outside while we two of us go and help Kayn!"

Running towards Kayn, Anna who had something similar to a backpack pulled out some bad condition bandages and a bottle of some liquid.

"How serious is it, Anna!?" Marcus said beside her.

Looking at Kayn pressing his legs with his hands and black tears from his eyes, she had a grim expression.

"...Realy bad." Anna said.

"Crap..."

Caring Kayn inside the church with exhausted breaths, they looked around them to see where the dark knight had gone.

With their eyes landing on a broken statue, they saw him staring at them eerily.

"Stay here, if you were to follow me don´t expect me sparing you." Danzel said with his finger pointing at them before going down the trap door.

Walking down the stairs, he summoned a stone wall behind him that blocked the entrance.

"I only have so much mana left now..."

Walking to the stone table that he made yesterday, he sat to the ground while bringing out the paper that he bought together with the [Mana Pen].

However, instead of imminently writing down with the [Mana Pen] he ignited his finger with his dark green mana and started to gently draw a rune similar to how he would do when he carved a rune to equipment.

*Kcch!

"Ugh...this is harder than expected." throwing the ripped paper to the side, he took another one of the huge pile and started drawing the runes once again.

Compared to the hard cold metal that he was used to working with, the paper was definitely a challenge for Danzel.

Not only was the material itself hard to work with, but his strength itself didn´t make it any easier for him to draw the rune.

Just the slight increase of his strength could reap the paper apart and make all his efforts pointless.

Which was for Danzel pretty frustrating.

His being on rush wasn´t all that well either and could possibly have an effect on the overall rating of the rune.

And when he was done with the rune, it did have a negative effect.

"Tch, it came out as a [Bad] rating..." Danzel cursed under his helm as he looked at the piece of paper in disdain.

"As long as it works it doesn´t matter, I can make better ones some other time. Those would serve as a good test subject." Danzel said as he picked up his [Mana Pen] and written down on those two papers.

"Now it needs my mana and..." Pushing his thumb on top of the rune, dark green mana was injected into the rune itself.

Doing that, the letter litten up with a weak dark green light for a good two seconds before the light faded away.

"It should be finished." Danzel nodded as the information in his head matched what he has just done.

Although the letter should have even glowed for much longer in his memories, he just shrugged it off as the quality of the rune being itself bad.

Literally.

Unbeknownst to how many times have passed, he picked two pieces of paper and made his way towards the church's hall after of course crashing the stone wall he made previously.

"Let´s see how well they will work."

***

Now in the church hall...

"Ugh...what happend?" Waking up, Kayn looked above him only to see the all-familiar ceiling that he was used to.

"The church?" 

Trying to stand up, a sudden pain rushed through both of his legs.

"Ugh...I forgot about this." Kayn fell to the ground again as he touched his face that was burning.

"Damn side effects..." 

Suddenly, a bottle was pushed in front of his face from the side.

"Here, drink this." 

Seeing the person who said that, Kayn put a smile on his face.

"Thanks, Anna" Accepting the bottle, he took a sip before exclaiming out of satisfaction.

"Bahhh~that saved me" Kayn returned the bottle to Anna.

Marcus who was to the side said with his rye browns frowned.

"I told you that it was too risky, Kayn. That guy is bad news."

"Marcus-" Anna tried to say but was quickly interrupted by Kayn.

"It's fine Anna, he is right. We shouldn't have dealt with him..." Shaking his head though he said dejectedly.

"But we can't abandon this place yet. It was the only solution." 

"But..."

"Anyways, where is he now? Did he leave?" Kayn said in an attempt to change the subject.

"No, he hasn't left. He went down to the stairs for the underfloor and told us to stay here. That was three hours ago" Anna said casually.

Unbeknownst to her, she just dropped a huge bomb at Kayn.

"W-What!? Three hours? Are you telling me that I slept for three hours? Where are the others?"

In response, she just shrugged her shoulders.

"The others are still outside waiting and you sleeping so long is to show how bad your body condition was."

Gripping him by his hand, she looks straight into his eyes.

"Kayn, take better care of your body. The others need you. None can replace you who is their leader."

Upon hearing that Kayn showed a bitter smile on his face.

"Yeah, I know..."

After both removing their hands from each other, a tall figure showed up behind the statue.

'He is here' Kayn gulped as the image of him still remained fresh to his mind.

Moving down the stages, Danzel moved to them before stopping three meters away from them in silence.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

An awkward silence befell the whole room.

"What is-"

Before Marcus could break the awkward silence, Danzel threw a rolled-up piece of paper at Kayn.

Starting Danzel in confusion, he asked.

"What are does..?"

"You said you wanted to have a cooperation with me right?"

Many in response nodded in confirmation.

"Then you will have to sign those two contracts, as they have what I will accept or not."

"Even with you blackmailing me, don't think that I will become your slave. Depending on what you guys want, I might as well consider killing you guys right here."

Gulping their saliva down their throat.

Kayn and the two beside him came together and read the piece of paper.

The first one tilted contract had some basic rules which made sense to them.

They were like, can't force him to kill, steal, serve, and so on.

Basically what Danzel wouldn't do.

All they had to exchange was that they couldn't say or hint out that he was the one that killed the hammerhead gang.

The other paper though was the one that confused them.

All there was to read was.

'You acknowledging that you won against the contractor in battle'

"Ehm...What does this one exactly mean?" Kayn asked in doubt.

"As I told you, you just have to sign to reach the negotiation level of your so-called cooperation."

After a short hesitation, he decided.

"How do I sign?"

"You just need to place a few drops of your own blood in that area." Danzel said with a deep voice.

"Blood?" Kayn asked in confusion, but he only received silence as a reply.

Doing what the man in front of him said.

He bought out a dagger and let a few drops of blood fall on both papers.

When he did exactly that.

Something unexpected happend....