The Desert Zaharam, located in the southeastern part of the Empire, was one of the territories incorporated into the Empire during its bloody past under Charlot’s reign with his policy of expansion.

  Charlot was the father of the current Emperor and a former Emperor of Blood and Iron, who consolidated the powerful imperial power with extensive purges and territorial expansion.

  Charlot made great contributions and was accredited with making the Empire the world’s most powerful nation, but was also criticized for spilling innocent blood through the continuous purges and fighting.

  Charlot’s most celebrated achievement was the conquest of the Zaharam Desert. Ironically, Zaharam was a barren land where crops could hardly grow. Nevertheless, the reason why the integration of Zaharam was praised so heavily was only for religious reasons.

  During ancient times, Zaharam was known as an abundant land where the World Water was located. This was passed down, and the temple, the main religion of the Empire, considered it a sacred place. In fact, in the days when the temple was avoiding the empire, the temple continued to declare a holy war. It then went on to invade a country that had been based in Zaharam.

  However, the temple’s paladins continued to be defeated by the desert’s harsh environment. In addition, the desert warrior’s guerrilla warfare weakened the temple’s power, leading to its downfall during the reign of Demon King Kanglim.

  During that bloody era, Charlot succeeded in completing the task when the temple in its prime had failed. This led to the temple owing a huge debt and allowed him to show off the Empire’s power. This resulted in the Empire acquiring the Zaharam Desert.

  There was a group of camels crossing such historically and religiously important lands.

  "Ah~ It’s hot!"

  In a camel pulled carriage modified to be open for airflow, a woman was drooped over.

  "Miss Saintess! No matter how hot it is, you can’t be drooped over like that! You have to think about the eyes around you.” A servant nagged the woman and tried to get her up somehow.

  Yet, the servant did not dare touch her body. This was because she was the only saintess in the Empire, Saintess Hillis.

  Hillis was now on her way to the Holy Land at the center of Zaharam for a pilgrimage.

  Already feeling like she was dying from the heat, she smiled gracefully at the nagging servant and spoke quietly, "Be still and shut your mouth before I crack a walnut in it."

  "But, but Saintess-" The servant closed her mouth as Hilis took a walnut out of her pocket.

  Seeing the servant who was about to cry, Hillis sat up and spoke, "There’s only sand around, so who’s going to see me?”


  "But the paladins that are escorting Miss Saintess……”


  Hilis whispered while patting the servant’s shoulder whose voice was trailing off, "That’s bullshit."

  Then she laid back in her seat, crossed her legs, and asked loudly. "Hey! Is there a person who’s going to go talking about me?"

  The paladins guarding the surrounding area laughed and replied.

  "Hahaha! There can’t be a person like that!"

  "That’s right! Who would talk about Miss Saintess’ behavior?"

  At the last paladin, Hillis raised one hand high and unfolded her middle finger.

  "You brat, what do you mean ‘behavior’? What about my ‘behavior’? Would you like to die?"

  One of the paladins smiled back and spoke.

  "Hahaha, it would be an honor to die by Miss Saintess’s hand."

  "That’s right!"

  "And wouldn’t we be labeled a liar even if we did go talk about it?"

  Hillis sat back and laughed at the paladins looking for favor from Hillis.

  "That’s right. That’s freaking right!"

  Hilis took off her heels and threw them to the knight who wanted her favor. The paladin caught the heels as if he was used to doing so.

  It would be different if mana were imbued into it, but her body was even weaker than a normal person since she always traveled by carriage. Shoes thrown by such a Saintess couldn’t threaten a trained paladin.

  "Aigoo! This is a reward in our field of work!"

  Hillis sighed and grabbed her forehead when the paladin who got the shoes smiled livelily and gave a thumbs up.

  "It’s because I have these perverted bastards around that a spring day doesn’t arrive in my life.”


  At 18 years old, thinking of having to spend her flowering years with these rowdy paladins gave her goosebumps and made her stick her tongue out at them.

  "Ahahaha! If someone dares to approach Miss Saintess, then they will have to deal with us!"

  "That’s correct!"

  "Ahahaha!"

  Hillis glared harshly at the paladins who were laughing and said, "I prefer handsome men, unlike you guys! It’s even better if it were a guy who could joke around with me."

  Once finished, Hillis laid back down. "How much longer until we reach Oasis Village?"

  The servant clumsily took out the map and looked. "Yes! It seems we won’t arrive until the evening at the earliest."

  "Really? Ah! If I knew it would be this hot, I’d have brought a magician!"

  Among the holy magic that Hillis could use, there was, unfortunately, no magic related to ice or temperature.

  * * *

  Arriving at the village of Oasis just before nightfall, Lancelot and his party visited the farthest inn in the village. Even if they immediately hired a guide in the village, a guide could not move at night unless they were Crows.

  "The desert night is cool. I suppose it’ll be cold once it’s completely night?” Leisha asked.

  "I believe so,” Mac agreed with Leisha. Leisha simply warmed the surroundings with magic.

  "Excuse me," Lancelot said as he opened the inn door and entered. The temperature inside the inn was higher than outside due to the lingering daytime heat.

  In the middle of the inn, stones heated with sunlight during the day seemed to emit heat throughout the night.

  "Oh, it’s magic," Leisha said curiously as she approached the stone in the middle. The stone had magic used to continuously accumulate heat, which was then combined with magic to preserve the heat.

  The magic on the stone was a crude magic that could be used with little learning of magic. Still, Leisha, who didn’t think she could see magic in a place like this, was pleased.

  "Excuse me, do you have a room for two and a room for one?" Lancelot went to the inn counter and enquired about the rooms.

  Unfortunately, the innkeeper shook his head with a perplexed look. "Oh no, what should I do? A guest has paid for all the rooms."

  "Excuse me? But, then where are you saying we should sleep?" Lancelot asked.

  The Oasis Village, which Lancelot and his party visited, was small, so this was the only inn.

  At night, the temperature outside the inn would drop as low as below zero due to the desert’s climate, so trying to sleep outside would be difficult.

  From the inn owner’s point of view, merchants and pilgrims crossing the desert had no choice but to pass through here as it was an oasis village. However, perhaps because of the location, there were hardly any guests.

  Therefore, the innkeeper took care of the guests as much as possible while charging a high price, but somehow, the visitors this time asked to rent the whole inn. From the perspective of the innkeeper who earned their living from the occasional guest, rather than thinking of other guests that would likely not even come, he decided to sign the contract to rent out the whole inn. Therefore, he could no longer accept any more guests.

  “That, I am sorry."

  When the innkeeper sincerely apologized, Lancelot asked with a sigh. "Then can we at least use the stable?”


  It was better to have a windscreen than to stay outside all night.

  "That’s, the stable is full of camels that the other guests arrived with……”


  As the innkeeper scratched his head and trailed off, Lancelot frowned. As he thought about negotiating with the guests who had rented the inn, a man came down from upstairs.

  The man was dressed in comfortable attire but wore a sword around his waist. The man was one of the paladins who came to escort the Saintess.

  "What’s going on?" He asked.

  It appeared that he decided to come down when he heard a conversation from the first floor, which was supposed to be quiet.

  "Aigo! Guest sir! What’s happening is……"

  When he heard the innkeeper explain the whole story, the man sighed, "I’m sorry. I would have given you a room if we were alone, but today, an important person is staying at this inn.”


  The man spoke while keeping his gaze on Mac’s sword. "We can’t have a foreigner in the same building where the important guest is staying, especially an armed foreigner. I’m really sorry, but could you sirs concede on this?”


  Lancelot was in a quandary when the man bowed his head for him. At the same time, it put him in a bad mood. He didn’t know the importance of the person who was staying at this inn, but his group was also comprised of very important people.

  No matter how courteous the person was, at their words that were akin to a royal decree, Lancelot was about to get enraged before Mac stopped him.

  The reason why Mac joined the group was for an escort, so he could not let Lancelot be the aggressor in a situation where weapons might clash.

  "Gosh. I don’t know how important this person is, but it doesn’t seem proper to kick people out without even considering their circumstances." Mac said.

  When Mac looked at the man seriously, the man took a step back from the unknown momentum. The man felt ashamed to have taken a step back when there was no threat. At the same time, he felt nervous seeing Mac block his way. Not everyone could have an aura capable of naturally oppressing others.

  The man considered Mac’s age.

  Mid-20s, no, considering that beards make you look older, late teens.

  "Who are you, sirs?” The man asked, boosting his morale.

  Mac laughed as he felt energy radiating from the man. If he contained and shot his fighting spirit, it would be an aura, and if he sought to kill, then it would become a killing aura.

  The world outside of the village seemed so fragile as if it could be crushed like tofu. So Mac felt a little joy at the fact that it contained strong people.

  Although he was only as strong as a 10-year-old child in the village, at least he wouldn’t die if he accidentally lost control of his strength.

  "What’s going on!?”


  Surprised by the sudden release of fighting spirit, the man’s colleagues flocked to the first floor of the inn, all wearing swords.

  The men on the first floor of the not-so-wide inn were wondering what was happening. For now, they surrounded those who confronted their colleague according to their basic procedures, but they could not feel the tension present before a usual fight.

  However, the man who released his fighting spirit and caused all his colleagues at the inn to jump downstairs in surprise was sweating nervously.

  "Huhuhu, this will be fun,” Mac said.

  Mac looked at the people around him and measured the distance of his sword’s reach. How many people could he kill in one go?

  Mac compared himself and his opponent’s strength out of habit.

  At that moment, the paladins who surrounded Mac felt that the situation had been reversed. It was them who were clearly surrounding him, but they felt the hairs rise on the back of their necks like sheep in front of a wolf.

  With the senses they honed through endless training and actual fights, their current fear was as if they were in a life and death situation.

  The paladins surrounding Mac rallied their spirits. Raising their spirits wasn’t through will but something that occurred unconsciously but instead formed through experience.

  Under pressure from all sides, Leisha and Lancelot were nervous and put their hands over their weapons. Despite being Crows, Leisha and Lancelot had not lived a life closely related to fighting.

  Mac, on the other hand, felt light nostalgia from the wave of pressure and relaxed as if he had gotten into a nice warm bath. His body had been tense ever since leaving the village because he was nervous about accidentally injuring people or destroying things. Unknowingly stressed, he was finally able to relax his mind after a long time.

  Yet, Mac’s relaxation didn’t last long.