I Will Be the Greatest Knight
Chapter 210: Not Giving Up

Chapter 210: Not Giving Up

In the same way they found the mages in the first place, Irene’s eyebrows lowered, and she instantly felt bad for the circumstances they were unfairly going to be subjected to if they couldn’t find shelter for the winter.

She heard Felix step forward, and she assumed he was going to say something insulting to the priest. However, Irene looked over her shoulder and gave him a warning expression.

He thought she meant he needed to stop and get himself together, but it turned out she merely wanted to do it herself.

"I see that the sentiment that we are all children of God hasn’t reached this place yet," she sharply stated to the priest. "Forgive me for thinking this was that sort of place, father."

Her frustration had been growing. She would let it out little by little when she wasn’t able to face a monster.

"Wait a minute–!"

Before the man could say more, she quickly turned away and began briskly walking out of the church, undoubtedly with the two other apprentices on her heels. She could hear as much by the way all of their gear sounded whenever they moved.

"I have searched and searched for a reason that people are meant to hate mages if they are followers of the church," she explained as she kept walking forward. "I can’t find a single reason in the religious texts. No one can ever give me a solid answer. All I have ever run into was that the south says it’s so, so it must be."

She heavily implied the King, but even she still wasn’t going to say something that could get her in trouble since he was the one who could grant knighthood, or grant someone the ability to knight others.

Leif and Felix weren’t entirely sure where Irene was trying to go. At one point, they even considered that they might stock up on more supplies there with the money that Gunnar had given them.

However, she kept moving forward until she was at the edge of town and at the stables. There was no doubt she was ready to leave and keep searching.

Since she didn’t seem to be in the mood to be questioned, the others just as easily got their horses from the stablehand, who was more awake now and surprised to see them taking their horses already.

Irene climbed onto Sorrel after they were on the brick road that would soon lead to a dirt one.

When she squeezed her knees and requested the horse go forward, instead of following the road they had arrived on, she cut to the left, which would send them east.

The trail from that point wasn’t a trail at all. They were carving their own path.

Seldom did people want to go to the east.

Not only was Nickron at the very top of the eastern region, southeast of that was the monster country, Polona, where it was said dragons were last spotted and only the bravest could enter and survive. Even further south than that, there was a place called Idona where rejected mages lived.

She had read about it before, and it was her last-ditch effort in finding the mages.

At least since the elevation would drop quite a bit as they went east, that meant that the days would get warmer if they were to travel far enough.

The grasslands outside of the township became more sparsely covered with forests, and the eastern mountains that covered the entirety of eastern Hydrogia became closer and closer. While those traveling from Hydrogia to Idona or Polona had to go through the mountains, Chemois had a passageway where the eastern mountains didn’t quite reach the northern mountains, so they had a small expanse that was much easier to travel through.

For a couple more hours, they rode until they found what could hardly be described as a village.

Rather than organized houses in some sort of protective pattern, there were random dwellings scattered throughout this area. Living in such a way meant that the people who lived there had to be extremely self-sufficient.

However, as they got closer to the randomly scattered houses, the apprentices realized a similarity between all of them.

"Abandoned," Felix was the first to realize as he rode past.

Leif, who was further south, found another house.

"This one as well," the middle apprentice said.

Irene squeezed Sorrel’s sides with her knees and requested he move faster as she moved towards one of the larger homes they had come across.

"Then this one must be as well," she called to the others before she could reach it.

Since there was a more expansive porch attached to this home, Irene decided that she would get off of Sorrel to explore further.

As she moved closer, she started to smell wood burning, and her eyes widened while her feet quickened in their path forward. She was eventually in a full-on run until she got to the porch.

There were only a few steps to climb before she made it to the level that was even with the door.

Irene looked towards the others who were interested in what she was doing. It seemed they had smelled the fire as well because they were rushing forward too.

She nodded at them before turning and knocking a couple of times at the door.

For a moment, there was nothing, but a few moments later, there was shuffling inside the house. She thought that the people were running away from the door, so she knocked again.

This time, someone came to the door.

As it swung open, she didn’t see anyone standing there, but instead a paralyzing feeling came over her, and she realized she couldn’t move her arms, legs, body, or even her head. Her eyes were frozen in one spot.

The worst part was not being able to breathe, but she decided not to panic. It would only be a few moments.

If only the mages hadn’t kept her from being able to tell the others that they had succeeded in their search...