CHAPTER 1016: CHAPTER 209: WANTED

Like all heroes ending in failure, the scarred Knight Vino did not receive a proper welcome upon his return.

He stood among the crowd, surrounded by faces filled with vitality, longing, and expectations, who disembarked with their luggage, arriving at the human home of their dreams.

The weary Knight Vino seemed out of place among them.

Tightening the burlap hood against the chilling wind and snow that made the crowd shiver, Knight Vino walked across the frost-hardened pier, heading out of the harbor.

Suspicious figures lingering not far away noticed him and quietly left.

The knight, who had lost his companions and armor, wandered down the street like a walking corpse, ignoring everything around him.

Prosperity was only maintained near the harbor when ships docked. On the snow-covered streets, there were few pedestrians, only merchants who would eagerly approach to sell their goods when they saw crowds disembarking.

Vena Ice-Free Port grew colder by the day. Citizens believed the temperature would improve after the winter mist surge. But now, the temperature was nearing the coldest seasons of previous years—and there was still more than a month until the terrifying cold wave of the new year arrived.

Every day, someone froze to death, and the thick smoke billowing from chimneys formed another layer of dark clouds enveloping Vena Ice-Free Port, but the thin wooden houses couldn’t keep out the severe cold.

If it worsened further, frozen bodies would be seen everywhere on the streets.

Thank heaven, even in such cold, the sea outside Vena Ice-Free Port hadn’t frozen. Moment after moment, fishing boats returned to unload, and strangers came out of admiration, soon to be new citizens.

Some citizens gathered in the wood sheds at the harbor front, praying by the stove with the priest.

Winter’s punishment was from the gods, and only by faithfully believing in the gods, would they be accepted. They recited.

A little girl with a basket approached the shed, trying to sell her goods but was turned away by the priest.

"Child, all I can give you is a blessing."

Leaving the warmth of the stove and returning to the icy streets, she saw the solitary figure in a strange linen cloak moving forward.

He looked odd, but what could be more terrifying than hunger and cold?

"Sir, do you need an ancient symbol amulet? It can protect you from strange invasions."

Knight Vino stopped, lowered his head, and looked at the little girl’s frostbitten blue hands struggling to hold up a basket filled with wooden pieces carved with ancient symbols.

"These ancient symbols are wrong."

Knight Vino continued forward.

The little girl hurriedly followed behind, rummaging through the basket: "What about this one? And these... Sir, these were made by my mother herself..."

Knight Vino stopped again, "Do you need money badly?"

"Yes... We’re almost out of firewood at home, and the fire in the fireplace went out last night, waking my mom and me from the cold..."

Knight Vino silently took out the remaining two hundred shillings from his pocket and tossed them all into the girl’s basket.

"You don’t need to give so much..."

The little girl hesitated as Knight Vino already continued on, disappearing into the hazy snow and wind.

Near the harbor’s church, Knight Vino stepped into the hall. Homeless poor gathered among the pews, and the nuns were distributing hot water and blankets.

Knight Vino showed a fist emblem that once symbolized honor to a nun and was taken to an internal room of the church, waiting for Judiciary personnel to arrive.

Against expectations, the wait was long with footsteps echoing in the corridor. After a gentle knock, a nun entered with hot coffee, placed it down, and left.

She didn’t close the door, and just as Knight Vino prepared to close it, a figure appeared outside wearing a magnificent gold-edged ecclesiastical robe, adorned with decorated ribbons, and crowned with a precious gemstone tiara.

Knight Vino, trembling, knelt on one knee, placed his hand on his chest, and saluted: "Bishop Ussa. Judiciary Guard, Steam Knight Vino reporting."

"Glad to see you back, Knight Vino. For human glory."

"For human glory."

"You failed."

Bishop Ussa spoke softly, the aged, gentle voice devoid of blame, only filled with compassion for the world, making people want to cry out their grievances.

"... When we went to the old sewers, His Excellency Lulian was being hunted by something strange. Scholar Lanna died because of me, Captain Hogte and Attendant Knight were killed by the strange."

Knight Vino’s voice choked up, taking out badges that still carried warmth or once belonged to companions: a head-shaped silhouette badge, a book-shaped badge, and the blank badge left in the depths of the old sewers.

The wise blue eyes gently gazed at the kneeling believer: "The gods are watching you, He knows all your heroic deeds, and their heroic spirits will return to the embrace of the Lord... And the original evil ones shall be punished by the Lord."

"Evil ones? Bishop, I don’t understand..." Knight Vino lifted his head.

"This is the instruction from His Holiness, child," Bishop Ussa murmured. "If the evil ones lie dormant, doing good for the great evil they are to manipulate, are they not still evil?"

Knight Vino fell into a struggle.

Bishop Ussa continued, "On hearing of your return, the Judiciary has already handed the pursuit of the corrupted Exorcist to the press."

Knight Vino snapped from his thoughts and looked up in shock, the coins jingling in his pocket bringing memories of not long ago, but seeming so far away—a recollection of Luli’s wicked believers escorting him out of the old sewers without harming any existence, even giving him a thousand shillings as his fare home.

"Bishop Ussa, this is wrong!" Having seen much outside, Knight Vino couldn’t help but defend Lu Li: "We shouldn’t be hostile towards Mr. Luli, he and his believers wouldn’t harm us humans! He is right just like us, we shouldn’t consume ourselves like this..."

Bishop Ussa’s eyes lowered with age, and he seemed disappointed, saying nothing more as he turned and left the room.

A faint voice was audible.

"Our Steam Knight has been corrupted... needs purification."

...

"We all know what His Excellency Lulian did in the old sewers. What better proof for a stance than that?"

In the mayor’s office, Mayor Matteus shouted at the priest in disarray.

"I only convey the Pope’s orders," the calm priest replied.

"So you have no stance, only so-called ’purity’? Ha..." Matteus with sharp sarcasm, witnessed the priest leaving the office.

Bang.

After the assistant Valendo shut the door, he couldn’t help grabbing a book next to him and slammed it heavily onto the carpet, making a dull thud.

"Damn fundamentalism!!!"

Valendo silently picked up the scattered book from the floor, reorganized, and returned it to the desk.

"Mayor, there’s nothing we can do."

After leaving the Judiciary’s dungeon, Matteus still remained the mayor of Vena Ice-Free Port—the mayor whose every action was monitored by the Judiciary.

Mayor Matteus calmed his emotions and anger: "But we can’t do nothing... Valendo, summon the merchants and tell His Excellency Luli what’s happening here."