A hand tugged at the hem of the coarse cloth clothes as Tangs stooped, standing outside the door, anxiously waiting for the house owner to respond to his plea.
Although only a few seconds had passed since he knocked, Tangs already felt as if he was about to suffocate.
The door opened in the next moment. Tangs shivered all over, feeling as if all his strength had been drained, his mind went blank, leaving only the instinct to stand rooted in place.
“Is there something you need?” Naimes looked at him, a typical villager from a small place, carrying a strong scent of sheep wool and mutton, most likely a shepherd working for the landlord.
His words were like a spring breeze entering Tangs’s body, injecting vitality into him.
“Ah.” Hearing the words of the holy knight, Tangs trembled again, then snapped back to reality, hurriedly stammering, “Holy Knight, I am Tangs the shepherd. The sheep are missing…”
He spilled out everything he knew in one breath: “There are claw marks on the sheepfold, with a big hole torn open. I found one sheep missing. The village guard also heard roaring last night. Lord Op suspects it’s a demon, so he asked me to find you. He said he will punish me!”
“Holy Knight, please catch that demon quickly and save me!”
“I see, then lead the way.” Naimes smiled and said, “Don’t be nervous. Since it’s the work of a demon, the lost sheep isn’t your fault. I will plead for you.”
Beiqi Village wasn’t very large, with only about a hundred households.
Most villagers worked for Mr. Op.
The sheep Tangs raised were technically Mr. Op’s property. In this case, the missing sheep meant Tangs was negligent. He could easily lose his job, be punished, and then be forced to become a reserve village guard.
With Naimes’s reassurance, Tangs finally felt much more at ease.
Naimes found Naier’s knight sword inside the house, put it on, then set off with Tangs.
“Lord Naier truly is as warm and comforting as the holy light…” Tangs thought, “Why did those people spread such bad rumors about Lord Naier before? They were really terrible!”
Feeling indignant, Tangs led the way. Soon they reached the sheepfold at the edge of the village and saw Village Chief Op. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on novelFirｅ.net
Chief Op was a middle-aged man wearing a robe ill-suited for the village’s rough stone roads. His slightly chubby face was drenched in sweat.
“Mr. Naier, you look well today.” Op looked at Naimes, whose appearance hadn’t changed but whose aura was completely transformed. He wiped the sweat from his face with a handkerchief, changed expression, and didn’t rush to discuss the sheepfold incident but instead exchanged pleasantries with Naimes.
“It’s just that the Oath God watches over me. I’ve come to understand some things,” Naimes said naturally with a faint smile.
“Ah, glory to the Oath God’s radiance forever.” Op couldn’t help but chant the god’s glory. Then his gaze landed on Tangs, who was standing with his head lowered nearby.
“Don’t blame the young man too harshly. The god teaches us to strictly discipline ourselves but to forgive others,” Naimes said, noticing Op’s gaze and offering comfort.
“…Then let it be as Mr. Naier says. Let this lowly man go without guilt,” Op said, somewhat stunned for a moment before continuing casually. He didn’t care about such a lowly person.
What he didn’t know was that after saying this, a piece of information flashed through Naimes’s mind.
[Oath updated]
[Identity 2: Holy Knight Naier]
[Main Oath: Forgiveness — You forgive the faults of others and pardon their crimes.]
[Oath Feedback: Each time you forgive someone, you gain part of their life boost.]
At this moment, a faint power also subtly transferred from Tangs to Naimes, making Naimes’s vitality grow even stronger.
This boost was not theft but as long as Tangs existed, it could continue to provide this blessing.
After briefly dealing with Tangs’s issue, Naimes and Op moved to a corner of the sheepfold.
Here, the sheepfold fence had already been cut open, with a neat break in the wood, showing that the attacker had great strength and a sharp weapon.
On the grass outside the fence, a splash of blood stood out clearly, and many drag marks were visible nearby.
Any discerning person could easily tell that a “demon” had broken through the fence, caught a sheep, and dragged it away.
The damaged fence was in a rather secluded spot. Without Tangs’s exact knowledge of the sheep count and the village guard’s faintly heard howls last night that prompted Op to inspect the sheepfold, this hole might have been hard to discover.
Op then asked, “Mr. Naier, was this the work of a demon?”
“Hmm, there’s a clear demon scent. It’s probably a small demon that came by accident,” Naimes gave a professional judgment. “No one understands demons better than me. This is no big problem.”
No one was more professional than him regarding demons.
The Hell Abyss was a lower dimension. In the lower dimension, demons had physical bodies, but once they entered the material plane, their physical forms became intangible and immaterial because demons did not possess actual matter.
So to stay long in the material plane, demons needed to consume matter in various ways to anchor themselves.
Naimes’s previous demon statue was one such anchor, using the public’s mental image of demons to maintain existence.
This small demon lacked that technique, so it most likely had invaded and seized the body of a beast.
However, due to the conflict between the demon’s essence and the beast’s body, it needed to consume many other animals to ease the conflict.
Only a demon with a confused mind who accidentally obtained the chance to come to the material plane would do such a sloppy job.
But small demons were the most numerous group among demons, which is why the negative stereotype of demons being mindless is so persistent.
“Then this matter is left to me?” Naimes asked Op.
“Since it’s a small demon, I believe Mr. Naier can handle it,” Op nodded and then said, “Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Naier. After solving the demon problem, I will donate enough offerings to the church.”
What Op didn’t realize was that as soon as he spoke, a simple oral contract was formed.
Naimes’s demon identity oath required sufficient contract vows to continually strengthen the artifacts he created.
Watching Op leave afterward, a smile appeared at the corner of Naimes’s mouth.
All of this seemed like the mess caused by an ignorant little demon, and the scene carried the demon’s scent.
But as he said, no one knew demons better than him.
The demon aura here was pure but not cruel enough. A real demon wouldn’t just steal one sheep.
Even a small demon would have killed the entire sheepfold and left no survivors like Tangs outside.
This demon incident was definitely not an accident.